To Release the Prisoner

Text: Romans 4: 14-15

¹⁴ If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

Over the past few weeks we have been involved in a series of sermons where we are looking at the different aspects of what Howard Thurman called the work of Christmas. Mr. Thurman, an African-American theologian, first wrote the words to his poem, “The Mood of Christmas” in 1946, as part of a letter. We have been focusing the last few weeks on what Howard Thurman identifies as specifics which could be considered the work of Christmas, and I find this to be so interesting because I think it clearly identifies the mission of the church and offers us a real opportunity to define our future.

Let’s take one more look at the poem and this list of opportunities that Thurman calls us to:

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.”

We have hopefully expanded our thoughts around these first few items on this list. We looked at what it means to be lost and be neighbor to the lost; we have also explored the idea of being broken and when we move toward healing of the broken how important realignment is. Last week we talked a little bit about feeding the hungry, both in a physical sense and particularly the spiritually hungry. We focused on how important it is that what we offer as spiritual food is accessible and relevant to a 21^st century demographic.

Today, I want us to continue down this list and expand our understanding of what it might mean to release the prisoner. At first glance I think most of us would understand that we are not talking about a literal release of people who have been incarcerated for committing a crime of some sort. Actually, our criminal justice system certainly could use some attention, and I think we do incarcerate far too many individuals, but that is an entirely different topic for another time. I believe this idea of releasing the prisoner involves something very different than what you may have thought of in the past.

As we begin to unpack this idea of releasing the prisoner, I want to revisit the scripture that I read a few minutes ago, because it provides a couple of clues about the direction I want to explore with this topic. As we look at the text again, I want to point out just a couple of things that might have been overlooked the first time we read through this.

In this text the apostle Paul is pointing out that if it were possible to gain God’s favor, what he calls the inheritance, through works or behavior, that is by following the law, then faith and the promise of faith simply have no purpose. In Paul’s words, faith is null and the promise void. He goes on to clarify this position in the second verse; For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. This is an amazing concept and I think it relates directly to what we might consider to be a process of releasing the prisoner. Because how often do laws, rules, regulations and tradition hold us prisoner to do things in a particular way or to believe a certain way?

I want to approach this from a different direction as we let the significance of this scripture begin to sink in. I know I have mentioned growing up in Iowa on a number of occasions, and have spoken of the snowstorms that would sometimes come to call on our part of the country. There just isn’t anything quite as much fun as a snow day. I know many adults, me included, who still feel this way, but a snow day as a kid is just almost too exciting to put into words. This is especially true when they call off school the night before!

As I think about why a snow day is so special, one of the things that comes to mind is that all the normal “rules” or “laws” kind of go out the window and we experience a freedom from those rules that only happens on rare occasions. When I was growing up we had certain rules around the house about bed times and homework and such things that applied particularly on school nights. When school is called off for the next day, suddenly all those laws are null and void. I don’t have to be in bed at a particular time, because I don’t have to get to school. I don’t have to worry about my homework, because I don’t have to go to school. The freedom experienced at the hands of a simple snow day is magnificent! In reality, the freedom we experience is a result of being liberated from the prison of rules and laws. When school officials call off school; they are from a certain perspective releasing the prisoners!

Now I am not advocating that we abolish all laws and all rules and regulations. They serve a function and without any laws I’m afraid our world would be rather chaotic. But there is a time when the invasion of rules and regulations begins to hold us prisoner and at times it becomes necessary for us to identify this condition, and then offer liberation from that prison. So the true question becomes what laws are necessary and what laws are oppressive? This can be a tricky question to answer and it has been a constant companion of progressive thinkers and civil rights leaders for centuries. At what point did the laws from England become so oppressive that the colonies had to revolt in the revolutionary war? When did we realize the laws around slavery or segregation were oppressive and began to seek ways to change these laws? For decades in the church we had laws about the role and status of women in the church that we finally have overcome that example of oppression – at least in this denomination. This is really a very interesting question if we begin to think about it and try to identify what becomes oppressive and what is useful.

I happen to believe that most of the ministry of Jesus was centered on this idea of freedom from oppressive law steeped in ancient Judaism. The system had evolved to the point where much of the law was oppressive and held people back; it held them in prison. Jesus sought to release those who were oppressed and in prison from the law. So to get back to the apostle Paul, and our text this morning, if we abolish the law, then there can’t be a violation of the law. When the United Methodist Church abandoned the law that women could not be clergy, then women had the freedom to pursue that calling and women that are now clergy are not in violation of the law, because the law does not exist.

This dichotomy still exists today. We have laws, both in society and in the church, that are oppressive and we need to find ways to offer freedom to those who are held prisoner by those laws. This may require us to examine our traditions, our theology, our political positions, and how we structure a worship service-but make no mistake, if we are to truly answer the call to release the prisoner and if we are to truly follow the example of Jesus, we need to examine this closely. But when we do, the question still remains; how do we know when a law has become oppressive?

Let me offer just one possible perspective that can help us determine when a law or a tradition has become oppressive; it is really very simple, and yet very elusive. If we can identify the source of the law and determine if it comes from a position of love or fear, that can be very helpful in recognizing the potential for oppression. When a law originates from a place of love, it is understood that the law provides protection or opportunity or equality and it has a spirit of love and acceptance. A simple example would be a red light at an intersection. You must stop at a red light. This law comes from a place of love because we are trying to protect people from car accidents at busy intersections. I don’t think anyone could mount an argument that stopping at a red light interferes with their personal right to rush through an intersection. Talking on a cell phone while driving becomes a little more ambiguous, but I still think it comes from a place of love and an effort to reduce car accidents.

But what if they passed a law that said red cars are the most visible, and in an effort to reduce car accidents all cars must be red? It gets a little trickier at that point, doesn’t it? Would a law like that come from a place of love or does it come from a place of greed by some lobbyist who manufactures red paint? These are the hard questions we are faced with when we are called upon to release the prisoner – it isn’t always black and white and it isn’t always crystal clear as to what direction we need to go or what position we need to take.

The important thing, I believe, is that we create an environment where we can openly talk and question and discuss important issues and work through some of these questions. It is the only way we can be actively involved in the ministry of releasing the prisoners. We must be open to new ideas, new perspectives and be willing to acknowledge that laws and our perspectives on those laws evolve over time. And when we come face to face with a law that seems oppressive, we must be willing to change it; only then can the prisoner that was held hostage by that law be free.

The same principal applies to tradition. Just because it has always been done this way, isn’t necessarily a reason to continue to do it that way. We have an interesting example of this that comes to us from the Old Testament, in the book of Ruth. You are probably familiar with the story. When traditions concerning marriage, widows and inheritance compel Naomi to leave her daughter-in-law Ruth, the tradition gets challenged by Ruth from a position of love. She doesn’t want Naomi to leave, but rather than being left alone, Ruth agrees to go with Naomi back to her homeland. Ruth tells Naomi, “don’t force me to stay behind” and then she goes on and tells Naomi, “your people shall be my people and your God my God.”

In this story, I believe we have an example of where tradition became oppressive and the result was that tradition was then challenged by Ruth. And it was challenged from a place of love. We can challenge laws and tradition and work to release the prisoner if we keep love in the forefront of our minds and our motives.

To close our thoughts on this topic this morning, the chancel choir will bring to you the “Song of Ruth”.

Amen.

 

 

Text: Matthew 5:6 – ⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

You may remember that we have been referencing a poem over the past few weeks written by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian titled “The Work of Christmas”. For those who may be unfamiliar or who have forgotten, let’s take another look at that poem.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

We have been considering this list of work that is offered and hopefully we may have expanded your thinking around a couple of these items. We have talked about finding the lost and healing the broken and today, the third item on this list is “feed the hungry”.

Of course there are a couple of ways to look at the feeding of the hungry; we have people with physical needs that are actually hungry because they lack food and lack the resources to buy food. There are also many people, I believe, that suffer from a spiritual hunger. Feeding the spiritual hunger is maybe a little trickier than feeding the physically hungry so I will be more focused on that aspect of what we do as a church than the physical hunger.

This is not to say I don’t consider the physical hunger an important part of what we do; we offer quite a bit of ministry as it relates to people’s physical needs. We prepare and serve a meal through the Salvation Army one day a month, we collect food on a regular basis for the food bank and we participate in a number of other ministries, like Family Promise or Circles that are designed to help people meet their physical needs. These things we do and do quite well.

Feeding the spiritually hungry is a little more obscure; many of us may not know exactly what that looks like, or worse yet, we think we are offering food for the spiritually hungry, but we really are not. I think this is a problem many in the church fail to recognize; we think we are offering food, but what we offer and how it is presented make it inaccessible to many individuals. The results of our failure to feed the spiritually hungry is now becoming apparent as more and more people leave main stream Christianity and look elsewhere for their spiritual nourishment. These are the spiritually hungry that self-identify as “spiritual, but not religious” and they are the fastest growing demographic currently in the United States.

I want to take just a minute and have some fun with this idea. In the movie Castaway, which starred Tom Hanks, there is a scene early in the film that I think depicts beautifully, what I am talking about. In this scene, Tom Hanks has been alone on this deserted island for perhaps 24 hours or so. He has had nothing to eat or drink that entire time and he is beginning to recognize that he needs to find food and water soon. In this clip from Castaway, our hero discovers that the island has coconuts! Let’s watch.

Play movie clip

Some of you may have figured out where I’m headed with this idea, but I think it is important for us to recognize some of the truth that is depicted in this film clip. We may offer spiritual food at times, but to get to the real beneficial part of that food requires some technique and some stripping away of things that just get in the way. Our hero struggled a little bit to access the water and the meat that was contained inside of the coconut. If he had not been starving and desperate, I think he probably would have just given up and sought food elsewhere; don’t you?

We need to think about this. I believe it is a huge problem that goes unrecognized or unacknowledged by many in the church. We offer spiritual food to the general public as a green, whole coconut without any indication about how to access what is inside. In some cases the church actually prohibits the peeling away of the outer layers and the breaking of the coconut shell; it simply is not allowed or not encouraged in any way.

There are many ways that we in the church do this, I think. But of all the ways we fool ourselves into thinking that we are providing spiritual food, I believe the worst offender is probably the Bible. We offer the Bible as a complete meal, a giant smorgasbord of spiritual food, the answer to every question and the final authority on any disagreement. We do this often without even recognizing ourselves how shrouded the true meat of the Bible actually is. We don’t recognize what is required at times to cut through the outer shells of misguided understandings and traditions and belief systems which surround this sacred text.

When we offer the Bible as spiritual food to the unchurched or the first time visitor, we need to recognize that it comes to them as a whole green coconut. We need to help them strip away the outer shells and grant them permission to do so. But that is rarely found in the church and it is even rarer to hear it preached. When we do not help them, they become frustrated and seek food elsewhere.

Just in case you are not following what I’m talking about, I thought I would provide a couple of examples. Of course you have heard this before, but generally when I offer a personal opinion or observation on something it comes with a disclaimer. These are my ideas and opinions; they don’t have to be your ideas or beliefs. That being said, there are a couple of thoughts about the Bible that I don’t think we make clear enough.

One thought is I don’t believe the Bible was dictated by God. All 66 books of the Bible represent imperfect, flawed and very human products of human authors. Are some of the scriptures inspired? Certainly, I think we can claim that, on the same level that Mozart and Bach were inspired or Martin Luther King Jr was inspired. But my belief is that the authors of the Bible retained their faculties and were not puppets on a string being manipulated by God. Further, I think most of us feel this way, but we don’t say it enough.

Another example is I don’t believe the Bible is a science book and trying to make it function as a science book is just crazy. The earth is not 4,000 years old, evolution is real and the creation stories are just that; stories. Again, I think most of us in mainstream Christianity believe this to be true, but we do not say it enough.

A third example is that I believe the Bible contains many errors and is not a reliable source for answers to contemporary questions. When we begin to discuss things like gay rights, capital punishment, the role of women, questions about marriage and divorce or even violence in our culture, the Bible, at least in my experience has little input that is of real value in these areas. I think most of you would agree with my assessment of this and it certainly isn’t a radical or extreme position, and yet we fail to really put that message out there on a regular basis.

One more example is the notion that you can use scripture to justify scripture; in other words the use of circular reasoning has no place in an actual theological discussion. But, as I have stated previously, we don’t say this enough and when we see it or hear it, we don’t challenge it or call it out. The Bible isn’t true simply because the Bible says it is true. Things don’t work that way. At least not from my perspective.

When I complain that we don’t say these things often enough or put that word out there for the visitor or unfamiliar I’m speaking of mainstream Christianity as a whole. Not necessarily this particular church. For example, I have been in a number of churches, mostly United Methodist, that share the majority of my opinions about scripture. In spite of this, however, when scripture is read, it is often concluded with the phrase “the Word of God for the people of God” or something to that effect, and often the people respond with a line like “praise be to God” or something like that.

I’m not saying that this type of liturgy is inappropriate or not meaningful; what I am saying is that we need to consider the impact that traditions like this have on a demographic that is already suspicious or disenfranchised from Christianity as a whole.

To return to the movie clip example, if we are going to feed the people coconuts, we need to tell them how to get into the coconut, give them permission to get into the coconut and perhaps demonstrate for them what that looks like. This is a large topic, too big really for one sermon or one sitting. But it is worth thinking about and worth considering in what ways we may be perpetuating belief systems or traditions that we actually don’t agree with.

So that, of course, is food for thought. Perhaps we can continue the discussion at Preacher’s Pub tomorrow, but for now, go in peace and go with God. Amen.

 

Text: Isaiah 61: 1-2

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

If this text looks or sounds familiar to you it may be because this is the text in Isaiah that is referenced in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus goes into the temple to teach. In that story the text in Luke says that Jesus was handed a scroll from the prophet Isaiah and he read these words. I wanted to use the text in Isaiah today rather than the text from Luke, because for some reason the part about bind up the brokenhearted does not appear in the Luke story. Today, I want to focus on this idea of what it means to heal the broken and perhaps expand our understanding of what it means to be broken and how to fix it.

You may remember that we have been referencing a poem over the past few weeks written by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian titled “The Work of Christmas”. For those who may be unfamiliar or who have forgotten, let’s take another look at that poem.

When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with their flocks,

the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart.

 

Last week we began to look at the list of projects presented here and at the top of that list was to find the lost and we talked a little bit about that. The second item on that list is to heal the broken, so today we will be focused on that idea.

About 30 years ago-I almost choke when I say that, because I remember it like it was yesterday…but about 30 years ago, I was building a house. Go figure. At this time our three boys were young and a little bit crazy, Matt, the oldest was 9 or 10, Jacob the middle one was about 7 and Zachary the youngest would have been 5. When the trusses went up over the garage the kids thought that would make a great place to build a club house-I wasn’t going to insulate the garage, so I figured it was a good place as well. I showed Matt, the oldest how to nail down scrap pieces of plywood so they could build a floor up there.

Well, either something got lost in translation, the nails missed, or something else went wrong, but Jacob-the middle one, stepped on the edge of a piece of plywood that was suspended between two trusses that was not nailed down. As you can imagine, the plywood tipped straight up in the air and Jacob headed straight down toward the concrete garage floor. As he fell, he reached out to try to catch himself and caught his arm in the crook of one of the trusses where two pieces of bracing came together. This snapped both bones in his forearm and we went to the emergency room with a compound fracture.

The doctor on call told us they would have to do surgery to re-align the bones correctly and possibly put a plate in there to hold everything in place. So that is what happened and Jacob returned to the job site a day or two later with a cast that didn’t slow him down in the slightest.

I’m not telling this story to demonstrate my incompetence as a father, although that could be argued, nor do I tell the story to demonstrate that a job site can be dangerous, although that could be argued as well. What I really want you to take from this story is that when Jacob’s arm was broken, it was out of alignment and the surgeon had to realign the bones before the cast was placed on his arm.

I want us to begin to think about our poem and the listed task of healing the broken and what that might mean in terms of being out of alignment. I happen to think that is a pretty good definition of being broken; in other words, being broken means being out of alignment.

There are many ways for us to experience brokenness, but in almost every example I can think of, the metaphor of being out of alignment rings true. With a physical brokenness the physical alignment must be restored as was the case for Jacob. But many of us experience other kinds of brokenness that are actually much harder to fix or impossible to The text from Isaiah speaks of binding up the brokenhearted. Now I’m pretty sure that a literal reading of this text is not appropriate. We are not talking about open heart surgery and actually binding up a broken heart in a physical sense; so obviously the implication for us is to interpret this text in another way. The question then becomes how do we bind up the brokenhearted and what exactly does that mean?

I believe this is where the concept of alignment can become so useful. Many of us think of trying to ‘fix’ things when they are broken. In other words, the surgeon fixed Jacob’s arm and returned it to normal. He did this by restoring the alignment of the bones, but the arm was also fixed. I think it is harder for us to heal the brokenhearted when it is a situation that cannot be fixed. Many people suffer from a kind of brokenness that cannot be fixed in a traditional sense. They may be grieving the loss of a loved one, for example, and we cannot fix that situation. Someone else might be suffering from a broken relationship that cannot be fixed and there are countless other examples of brokenness that simply cannot be fixed.

I know many of us struggle with what to say or how to help heal someone in this situation; we simply don’t know what to say or how to help. If we shift our focus from trying to fix things to simply helping to restore alignment, the task can be much easier. I think most of us know this by instinct, but it may have never been pointed out to you in exactly these terms. But when you minister to someone who is broken, for whatever reason, you are helping to restore alignment, and if you think about it in this way, I think, the task becomes much easier.

So when we are called upon to heal the broken, as we are in our poem The Work of Christmas, I think it is helpful for us to think about the healing in terms of restoring alignment. You see, when you pray with someone or pray for someone, you are helping to restore their alignment with the Divine. When you send a note or call someone, you are helping to restore their alignment with their spiritual community. When you visit with them or take a meal to them, you are helping to restore their alignment to personal human connection. You may not be able to fix the problem or the source of the pain, but you can help them move toward realignment. And moving toward realignment is the source of all healing.

Let me say that again. Realignment is the source of all healing.

Chances are you cannot bring the lost loved one back from the grave or cure the cancer or restore the broken relationship or even restore the lost job. But you can help someone move toward realignment through the simplest of acts. That is who we are and that is what we are called to do.

So I want to introduce you to a new idea that I call a “Ministry Board” that will be mounted probably in Fellowship Hall somewhere. This is a physical reminder and an opportunity for you to participate in the healing of the broken by providing gentle acts of realignment.

The board is really very simple. Listed on the board are names of individuals that are experiencing brokenness on any number of different levels. Next to each name are several opportunities to offer realignment for that individual. If there is a colored magnet in the square that represents a particular opportunity, then that person would benefit from that act of compassion. If there is an “X” through the square, then that is not a specific need for that person.

For example, you generally would not bring a meal to someone who is hospitalized or in an assisted living center where meals are already provided. In those cases, an “X” will appear in the square which represents a meal for someone in that particular situation.

To participate in the Ministry Board system, you simply take a look at the needs, decide what you can do and then remove the magnet from that particular square and move it to the pending area. You can then write your initials or name in the square indicating that you are performing this particular function, and when it is accomplished, your name can be erased and the magnet will be replaced allowing for someone else to do the same thing.

This can even be done over the phone. You can call the office and ask what tasks are available, and we can sign you up. Once the task is complete, we can also erase your name and replace the magnet making it ready for the next person.

I consider each action on this ministry board to be an act of realignment; it may not fix the problem, but it will help each individual begin to move toward realignment. As I said earlier, I think that realignment is the source of all healing.

When I first read the words in our poem about healing the broken, it wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t really know what that looked like. It sounds great, but what does it actually mean? What does it actually look like? I can imagine these questions racing through your mind.

Well, now you know. Healing the broken means helping them move toward realignment and helping them move toward realignment looks like this Ministry Board. We can all participate in this and we can all benefit from this as we build a community together that explores our faith and experiences the Divine in new and wonderful ways.

How will you respond? Food for thought. Go in peace and go with God. Amen.

Text: Luke 10: 25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.^[a] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii,^[b] gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

When Heidi and I first arrived in the LC Valley, we decided to live in Clarkston mostly because that is where the Habitat office was and it seemed to make sense to live and work in the same state; so we rented an apartment in Clarkston for the first year or so that we were here. Apartment living can have a few advantages, although I can’t think of any at the moment, but there is one thing that is almost always a certainty and that is you will generally know who your neighbors are-one way or the other.

As a matter of fact, I was visiting with another gentleman a few years ago that also lived in an apartment complex and he was talking about his neighbors. He said that the neighbors that lived in the apartment directly above his got up around 5AM every morning. “Wow, that’s early” I said to him. Then he went on to tell me that after they got up they would start jumping up and down on the floor. “That’s awful”, I said, “how could you stand it”? “It must have been horrible; didn’t it bother you” I asked. “Naw”, he said, “I could barely hear it; I was practicing my trumpet”.

Last week I mentioned a poem written by Howard Thurman that I thought had some interesting insights about who we should strive to become as a church. The name of the poem is “The Work of Christmas” and I think it is worth looking at again. Here is the poem:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

It is interesting to me that the very first item on this list is to find the lost. Notice that it doesn’t say to save the lost, or to convert the lost, or to evangelize to the lost-it says to simply find them. As if to say that finding them will be enough. Finding those who are lost implies that once found, the lost will know where they are and be able to find the rest of the way on their own.

Think about someone hiking in the wilderness that becomes lost. They went for a hike on Sunday afternoon and then failed to return home that evening, or didn’t show up for work on Monday morning. A search begins, first they find the car, then the search party has an idea of where to look, and hopefully the lost hiker is found before too much time goes by. Once found, if the hiker is in good health, the search party doesn’t have to take the hiker all the way home; once returned to the his car, for example, the hiker knows where to go from there.

I believe we often make assumptions about who we consider to be lost and what it means to find them. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw once that said “Not all who wander are lost” – and that is a good thing to remember.

We can also think about expanding our own understanding of what it might mean to be lost. It doesn’t have to be limited to just a couple of definitions; people can be lost in a lot of ways. Finding the lost can cover a whole lot of territory if we begin to open our minds to all the possibilities of what the word “lost” might imply. For example, the text I read a few minutes ago, a familiar story about the Good Samaritan, is one way of looking at the lost. The man who fell victim to the robbers was lost in a number of ways. He had lost his money, he had lost his ability to travel, he had lost his good health, he had lost a certain amount of dignity, he had lost the chance to arrive at wherever he was headed; he had lost in many different ways. And the Samaritan in the story found him.

I want us to look at this scripture one more time, but I am going to leave out the middle portion of the story and just focus on the question and answer about the neighbor. The lawyer asks Jesus, what must I do, and then Jesus confirms for him that he must love his neighbor. Then the lawyer asks Jesus the question; “who is my neighbor” and after the story, the lawyer answers his own question, saying the one who showed mercy was the neighbor.

I think this is interesting because it begins to turn the tables on how we think of neighbors and what defines the neighbor. We have a natural tendency to think of our neighbors as the other, but what this story is really telling us, is that we are the neighbor. We are to be the neighbor to anyone who is in need of mercy. By showing mercy and compassion for someone, we become the neighbor. Who is your neighbor? You are. To everyone.

So when we revisit the poem about the work of Christmas, I think it is a safe assumption to conclude that we are to be a neighbor to the lost. The finding of the lost I believe could be thought of in slightly different language as becoming a neighbor to anyone in need of mercy.

Now I want to introduce one more word for us to consider in this context. That word is refugee. When we think of the refugee, we think of someone fleeing their home sometimes on foot, sometimes over the water, sometimes using other forms of transportation, but generally our first thought is of a person, or group of people fleeing a particular region or country. There can be many reasons why people flee or leave their home land; it could be war, it could be natural disaster, it could be political unrest, it could be famine or drought, but for whatever reason, the place they used to call home is no lI believe we are called to be a neighbor to the refugee. That is not intended to be a political statement, although we are hearing a lot of debate recently about refugees in our political climate. Rather than a political position, I believe it to be a moral and Christian position to be a neighbor to the refugee. As a church, I believe we can do that-but not in the way you are probably thinking about it right now.

You see, I believe we have a population of refugees, right here, right now in the LC Valley. In the LC Valley we have refugees who are lost, in need of direction and who are in need of a neighbor to show some compassion and understanding. But these refugees are not fleeing their home country or their home land or even fleeing a particular part of the country. The refugees I am speaking of are fleeing their home faith tradition; you see they are theological refugees.

When the home faith tradition of Christianity has become too uncomfortable, a certain percentage of people flee. Right now, according to national statistics, that is about 30% of people who once considered Christianity to be their home faith tradition but have now fled Christianity looking for something else. This number is increasing faster than any other segment of our current population.

Can we be a neighbor to these theological refugees? I believe we can. Can we become an example of an interpretation of Christianity which will feel comfortable once more? I believe we can. Can we find these lost refugees and bring them back to a place they already know? I believe we can.

Last week I spoke of New Year’s resolutions for the church and how we might create some for this church. But I cautioned that New Year’s resolutions often fail, and we need to be precise with our resolutions and only resolve to do things we have control over and the capacity to carry out. As for precision, I would like to recommend that we find the lost, but we are precise in who we are looking for. I am suggesting we look for the theological refugees in our midst and become a neighbor to them. We can expand on this idea in other ways, but for now, let us just imagine what it means for us to find the lost and bring them back to an experience of Christianity they assumed did not exist. Let us imagine a refugee returning to a faith tradition they thought they had to flee. Let us imagine the joy and the love that can be expressed in such a homecoming. Let us find the lost, the refugees and bring them home to a place where they can be comfortable and they can be who they need to be. Let us imagine what that may look like in the months and years ahead. Just imagine what we can do.

Amen.

Text: 2Corinthians 5: 7, 17

⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight.  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

The other day I was trying to take a picture with my smart phone. This may not seem unusual to you, but for me it is quite rare. If I’m going to take a picture, chances are I would prefer to use a real camera…but that is another story. Now, I don’t know if you get along with your smart phone or not. With me the relationship is a bit of a roller-coaster ride, one minute I really like the technology and the information it puts at my fingertips and the next minute I’m thinking about feeding it to the garbage disposal. We don’t always get along and to make matters worse, it is usually something I did wrong that makes the dumb thing smarter than I am.

So I’m taking this picture and I hold the phone up and I can’t see anything; the screen is all blurry and dark. I shift the phone around a little bit and change my grip, and then I can see myself! I’m thinking this is weird and it’s never happened before, what’s going on? Most of you know this already, but a smart phone has a selfie mode that switches the lens somehow so that the image points back at the operator. I’m not exactly into selfies, and when I do shoot one it normally involves a tripod and the timer on a regular camera…but again, that is another story. I guess somehow without realizing it, I inadvertently hit the button on the touch screen to put the phone into the selfie mode rather than the regular camera mode. Perhaps if I took pictures with my phone more often I would get familiar with how it all is supposed to work, but I don’t. It took me a few minutes to find the right button again and get the dumb smart phone back into the regular camera mode.

Of course I grew a wee bit frustrated with the entire process, but eventually took the photo I was after. Now, a week later, I am able to use the experience in a positive way as a sermon illustration; funny how that works!

This idea of pushing a button and the entire universe is now looking back at you is intriguing on several different levels. Take the scripture I just read a few minutes ago as an example. Those of us in the church have always considered this scripture about anyone being in Christ is a new creation, the old person falls away and a new person is born, descriptive of the process of what happens when someone begins to follow Jesus seriously. There are plenty of personal testimonies of the drug addict or the criminal that had a life transformation in the process of learning about and following the person of Jesus. The old life of drug addiction falls away, and behold everything has become new! This is how most of us, I believe, see this scripture. It is a valid interpretation and it is verified occasionally through life experience. But, like an onion, this scripture could also have more than one valuable layer.

I’m wondering if the church has ever taken a selfie through the lens of this scripture?

In other words, has the church ever considered that being “in Christ”, so to speak, qualifies us for rebirth and renewal and to have the opportunity to allow old things to pass away and for everything to become new? Have we in the church ever considered that this scripture when turned back toward us has the same transformative power to make things new as it does to transform the drug addict? Is it time for us in the church to take a selfie through the lens of this scripture and begin to determine what is old and needs to pass away and what the church might look like when “everything becomes new”? I think it is. Actually I think it is past time for us to do this.

One way for us to think about what might pass away as old and what might be reborn as new in the church would be for us to ponder some New Year’s resolutions for the church for 2016. People make New Year’s resolutions, so why not the church? I think we can and should make some resolutions with an eye toward fulfilling the essence of this scripture in 2 Corinthians. What would our resolutions look like if they were specifically written to help the old pass away and to bring about the birth of the new? Isn’t this what we need? Isn’t this what all the seminars and focus groups and books that have been written regarding church renewal and revitalization, isn’t this exactly what they are talking about? Finding ways to allow the old to pass away and finding other ways to welcome the birth of something new? Have we not been talking about this for decades, and yet nothing concrete ever seems to come about? Why do you suppose that is?

When people create New Year’s resolutions, they almost concede in advance that the resolutions will never be kept. It is just too hard. You resolve to lose some weight, get out of debt or learn to play the piano; and yet at the end of the year, the old resolution is forgotten and a new one is made. Perhaps the church has been following the same pattern, we just call it something different.

Perhaps one way to increase our chances of success when making resolutions is to better understand what the differences are among things like resolutions, goals, hope and wishful thinking. I believe that a resolution is something you resolve that you currently have the power and capability of actually doing. Goals and dreams, hopes and wishful thinking are something else; but a resolution, I think, is something that you currently have control over.

For example, we could make a resolution that we want to double our membership in 2016; we could make the resolution, but it would fail because we don’t have the power or the capability to actually do that. What we can control is how we welcome visitors, for example, and we can make resolutions regarding that process. If we happen to increase our membership as a result of that resolution, that would be great, but we should only make resolutions about things we can control.

Over the next several weeks, I want to explore this idea of resolving to do things we have control over. I think it would be valuable for us to begin to think about what is old and what needs to be new, and what positive steps we might take as a congregation to accomplish these things. We can resolve to do certain things we have the power and the capability of doing, and if we focus on those things, perhaps some of the larger goals and dreams and aspirations will begin to take shape as well.

As we begin to move beyond the Christmas season and into 2016, I think it is always a healthy exercise to consider what has been accomplished and what we would like to see happen in the year to come. I believe that a poem written by the African-American theologian Howard Thurman accurately points us in the direction we need to go and may help us focus on what needs to be accomplished.

Here is that poem:

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among the people,

To make music in the heart.

What resolutions can we make that will help us accomplish the work of Christmas which has now begun? That is the question we will be exploring over the next few weeks and that is also food for thought. Go in peace and go with God. Amen.

Text: Matthew 25: 42-45

⁴² for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

I’m thinking there isn’t any other passage in the New Testament that identifies as clearly our calling to care for the poor and oppressed, to lift up the downtrodden and to bring those who are marginalized back into the mainstream of society than this passage. It seems like some of us have forgotten what that looks like or our collective fear of the other has blinded us to that need. What seems even more ironic to me is the real messages of the Christmas story echo these same sentiments, but they are often overlooked.

There are a lot of varying theological positions regarding the Christmas story. There are some who long for the evidence to prove that Christmas unfolded exactly as it is recorded in the Gospel narratives. There are others who acknowledge that some of the historical facts may be accurate in the story, but other parts are more metaphor or creative license on the part of the authors. There are of course other positions which claim the entire Christmas story is simply that, just a story, and our job is to find the meaning in the story rather than trying to prove it happened exactly in one way or the other. When we consider the Christmas story with an eye toward caring for the other, it is interesting to me that it doesn’t matter what theological position you happen to subscribe to-in this case, all roads lead to the same conclusion. In other words, I don’t think it makes any difference what you believe concerning the factual accuracy of the Christmas story; the truths that the Christmas story points out remain the same.

Let me see if I can explain this in greater detail.

A good place to begin may be at the beginning…and so I want us to first look at the choice of Mary to bring a son into this world. In the grand scheme of things, if you want to believe that the end game was to get Jesus here on earth and functional, it would have been much quicker and possibly more efficient to just have him materialize somewhere. You know, kind of like the Terminator movies where Arnold just sort of shows up in a back alley somewhere-God could have done that, but chose not to. I wonder why? Mary was a nobody, there wasn’t any notoriety to be gained through having Mary give birth. By most accounts, Mary was just an ordinary young woman; but for some reason God chose the common over the spectacular, the unremarkable over the remarkable. I think there is a truth in there for us if we choose to look for it. Perhaps God wanted us to notice the value in the ordinary, perhaps God wanted us to see the ordinary transformed into the extraordinary.

So Mary and Joseph take off for Bethlehem. I guess they didn’t have the chance to make reservations with Expedia or Priceline or even with relatives that one would assume lived in Bethlehem, because it seems they were having trouble finding a place to stay. So the last Inn they checked with was also full, but they might have mentioned the barn. Any way you look at this, it seems odd to me. Mary and Joseph were arriving in Bethlehem because of a census, they were returning to where their roots were. There wasn’t any family on either side that had an extra couch or room on the floor? I mean, this is where they were from; certainly there was an aunt or an uncle or the crazy cousin Larry-somebody? But instead they find themselves on the outside of the Inn. I think that is an important ingredient in our story. Mary and Joseph and eventually Jesus were on the outside. They were kept outside and not allowed inside where everyone else was allowed to stay. Does any of this sound familiar? Is the story trying to once again point to the ordinary, point us in the direction of those who remain on the outside? Is the story really about greatness coming to us from the most unlikely places; is the story reminding us that humanity will always divide between the outsiders and the insiders? In this case it is the outsider who is the hero. There is a truth here for us. The truth that God uses the potential of everyone, even the outsiders, or those considered outside of the norm by the rest of us. When Jesus was born he was on the outside; seems like he stayed on the outside his entire life. That is significant and it is worth thinking about. Any way you cut it, Jesus was on the outside.

Now I want to talk about marketing. This is something that I know at least a little bit about, and for all intents and purposes, God sort of blew it in this department. I mean, there wasn’t much marketing and what there was didn’t really hit the mark. Shepherds? Really? If you want to get a message out, you talk to the mayor, you get the king to issue a decree. Actually, think about it; the scripture tells us that Mary and Joseph had been informed they needed to go to Bethlehem and be counted. How did they know this? The age old and very familiar beginning of the Christmas narrative from Luke tells us that “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered”. So you see, if you want to get the word out, you issue a decree, or have Emperor Augustus issue a decree.

Now I will give God some kudos for creativity. The sky full of angels thing was pretty cool, even by today’s standards that would make a pretty big splash. But here’s the thing; nobody saw it. A few shepherds in a field someplace. What was God thinking? You go to all that trouble of rounding up all those angels and choreograph the angels and the bright lights and the voices and the singing and all that just for a couple of shepherds? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like having the production budget for a Super Bowl commercial, having the best creative team in the world come up with a great concept, you have Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise for a spokesperson and maybe Julia Roberts or Jennifer Lopez as well, just for good measure. You produce and edit and mix this absolute blockbuster of a commercial. It is award winning in every sense. And then you have it play on some obscure college TV station that only reaches about 15 students who happen to be channel surfing at 3 in the morning.

So the shepherds are wowed by this stunning marketing effort of the angels. So what? They go to Bethlehem and check out the story and find it to be true. Now what? What exactly are shepherds suppose to do for you? I’m not certain, but I don’t think in the first century shepherds were exactly at the top of the food chain. My impression of the average shepherd was a hard working, probably poor, little bit of a loner kind of guy that if you got too close to you might notice he smelled a little funny. Why shepherds?

If you are beginning to notice a theme here, I don’t think it is a coincidence. Once again, the choice seems to be in favor of the marginalized and not the main stream. Apparently the shepherds did their job, because word of Jesus eventually got out. And once again we are reminded that the lowly, the unnoticed, the unremarkable are the stars in this Christmas story.

The scripture I read a few minutes ago has Jesus speaking of the least of these; I’m wondering where he learned that? It seems the Christmas story is packed with the least of these, and in spite of that lowly standing, consider what has happened. Is the truth of the Christmas story designed to point us toward the least, the lost, the lonely and the lowly? I think it is.

If we are to recognize any shred of truth at all in the Christmas story it must be this; in the eyes of God, there is no least. All are worthy and all are important. And if you find yourself on the outside, you are in good company and when you need to entrust a world changing message to someone, character is more important than status.

And that, as they say, is food for thought. And it is also the truth. Go in peace, and go with God.

Amen.

 

This evening in very brief terms, I wanted to review with you how I personally view these four candles of the Advent season, and how I remind myself of what they mean and stand for every day of the year. In most Christian traditions each of these four candles represents some aspect of God or some symbol of the Divine; the exact interpretation changes a bit from tradition to tradition, but there is also considerable overlap. For our purposes this evening, I will identify four very popular interpretations of the symbolism of the four candles; they are Hope, Love, Peace and Joy. There is not necessarily a prescribed order for these and there are any number of variations on this theme, but for tonight, we will focus on the symbolism of these four as Hope, Love, Peace and Joy.

Before I begin to focus individually on each candle and the symbolism of that candle, I wanted to take just a minute to explain that this is how I see the world, and how I interpret the symbolism of what each candle might represent. My interpretation doesn’t necessarily have to be your interpretation, but what my hope is that through this process you might also discover a new way of recognizing God in your life on a daily basis through ordinary life.

For me, there is a strong connection to God that I discover and see every day in the natural world. I feel very connected to nature, and through that connection I feel like I also discover more about God as I understand God. One of the things which I very much enjoy is outdoor photography-if you have been around here for any length of time, you already know this. I often express this connection to God and my love of outdoor photography by describing what I do with a word that isn’t really a word, but rather a word that I invented.

Because we will be thinking about the words Hope, Love, Joy and Peace this evening, I thought it might be appropriate to introduce to you the idea of etymology. For lack of a real definition, let’s just say that etymology is the study of word origins and word meanings. You might recognize the “ology” part of that word that means the study of. This is also present in words like biology, is which the study of living things, which the prefix bio actually means. There are a lot words that end in this suffix of “ology”-and the study of God is no exception. The study of God is theology, the first part of the word “theo” means God, and the second part means to study.

We can also look at the word photography in this way as well. The first part of the word is “photo” which has a literal meaning of light. Often particles of light are referred to as photons and so forth, so you can begin to see that connection. The last part of the word photography is the “graphy” suffix, which has a literal meaning “to write”. So we can look at the word photography and interpret that to literally mean to write with light; which if you think about the process is exactly what happens. When you take a picture, you write upon a light sensitive surface the light which surrounds and is reflected from the area where the camera is pointed.

This seems like a lot of background information that is totally unrelated to an Advent wreath, but please be patient with me…we will get there, I promise.

If you can recall the very beginning of the service this evening, we began in what I described as symbolic darkness. As the candles were being lit, we were reminded through several readings the many ways that the person of Jesus or the presence of God is described in scripture as light. We heard that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. We also heard about the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. This metaphor is present throughout both the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible. It is literally everywhere; God is light in so many ways.

So this brings me back to the new word that I use to describe how I interpret my experience when I am in the natural word taking pictures. If the prefix “theo” has a literal meaning of God, and if you remember the suffix “graphy” from the word photography means to write, then when I am in the natural world taking pictures, I view that as a process where I am literally writing with the light of God. To write with the light of God could be expressed as “theography”. So it will be through theography that I wish to interpret the four symbolic representations of the Advent wreath.

As I light this first Advent candle, we will declare that this candle is symbolic of hope. One expression of this hope can be found in this theography experience of a sunrise I witnessed just a few weeks ago. I use the idea of a sunrise and link it to hope, because I believe that hope is more than just wishful thinking. Sometimes we use the word in that way, saying that I hope I get that new job or I hope the Seahawks win the Superbowl, but hope in the Divine surpasses wishful thinking. With Divine hope, we have a confidence that God is with us, regardless of what our current situation may be. The darkness prior to a sunrise can be interpreted in many ways and at many level of the human experience. But no matter how dark it is, we know with confidence the sun will rise again. And that is the Divine hope, the Divine confidence that I believe this first Advent candle symbolizes. Better yet, we can experience that hope each and every day when we pause and ponder a sunrise and allow it to remind us of the Divine hope available to us.

The second candle is often identified to be symbolic of love. For me, the interpretation of God’s love for us is present in the natural world when we observe mothers with their young. This summer my wife and I were touring Yellowstone National Park. When I first saw these young elk, I couldn’t see the mother anywhere. I was on one side of the river and they were on the other side. Sort of without thinking, I grabbed my camera and telephoto lens and scrambled down to the river’s edge to photograph these young elk. After a few minutes it dawned on me that if the mother was on my side of the river and if the mother interpreted my presence there as a threat to her young, I might be in serious danger. Thankfully, about the time that thought entered my head, the mother came into view and joined her two young ones for a drink in the river.

The reason I thought I might be in danger is because generally a mother in the wild will do almost anything to protect their young. The love that is demonstrated by these acts is really an expression of unconditional love; the same kind of love that I believe is expressed for us by God. Unconditional love is not dependent on behavior, a specific belief system, a set of rules or a specific interpretation of those rules. It is simply unconditional. Many people struggle with that concept, they want there to be some kind of a requirement for us to earn God’s love. I don’t think so. When I think about the unconditional love of a wild mother for her young, it reminds me of the unconditional love of God.

The third candle is often symbolic of Peace. For me, peace can be defined as the absence of anxiety-in other words, when we experience peace, the kind of peace that Jesus spoke of when he proclaimed that he gives us the peace which surpasses our ability to even understand it, that kind of peace means we are not anxious about our current situation or how that might change in the future. Peace is the absence of anxiety.

One expression of this in a theography experience happened to me while I was photographing tide pools on the Oregon coast. In those tide pools you will often find starfish. It’s hard to imagine a starfish having anxiety; and I don’t think they do. And yet they have every reason to be anxious. There are many starfish which when the tides don’t cooperate just right, find themselves in very dire circumstances. In spite of that, the starfish seems to be at peace, whenever you see one and wherever they happen to be. A starfish goes with flow in a sense and there are lessons for us to learn from the starfish about how we can experience the peace which surpasses all understanding.

The fourth candle is symbolic of joy. I saved joy for last because I understand joy to be the natural result of the other three. In other words, if you feel the unconditional love of God, and you experience the Divine hope of God and you are not anxious about your future and can experience the peace of God, the natural result of all those things will be joy.

A couple of years ago we attended the Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon. The theography experience of tulips represents joy for me. Part of that experience is the understanding that tulips have been waiting during the long cold and dark winter to express themselves in the spring. When they do come up and bloom, they represent the hope of spring, the love which causes them to grow and prosper, the peace of blooming where they are planted. So joy can be found as the natural result of experiencing the first three symbols and at least for me, is perfectly expressed in tulips.

There is also a center candle on an Advent Wreath that simply represents the person of Jesus and that light which came into the world. As we light this Christ Candle, may we once again be reminded that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not and will not overcome it. Amen.

 

Text: Proverbs 15: 1, 13, 14, 28 & 30

A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance,
but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
¹⁴ The mind of one who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

The mind of the righteous ponders how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil.
³⁰ The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,
and good news refreshes the body.

 

The entire 15^th chapter of Proverbs is full of interesting little sayings, or one-liners, as I like to call them sometimes and I just picked out a few of them for us to think about. This chapter of Proverbs seems to be dealing with how we feel about the world, what kind of condition our spirits are in and what our thought process is at the moment. There are some important messages here for us to consider, but I want to approach our thinking about this subject in a very unique way. I doubt you have ever experienced a sermon like the one you are about to receive. So, let’s get started.

The first thing that is unique about this particular sermon is that we are going to open with a science experiment. I have the experiment all set up and if you have a little trouble seeing, Robbin in the back is going to put a live picture on the monitors, so everybody will have a chance to see this work.

As you can see, I have constructed a make shift balance-it is very simple. There is just a dowel that I have notched in the center and have allowed the dowel to pivot on a small nail that is in this vertical support. At each end of the dowel is a paper bag and I can adjust where the bags are on the dowel and try to get the bags to balance perfectly. Once that is accomplished, we can begin our experiment.

I wanted you to witness this particular science experiment for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that it is really cool and you will enjoy seeing it work. The second reason is more to the point. That reason is that I want you to understand that things we cannot see have physical manifestations. Just because something is invisible to us, doesn’t mean it doesn’t impact our lives in some way. Specifically, what I am talking about is the balance between what we might call the physical world and the spiritual world. This science experiment will help us understand that what happens in our spiritual world impacts our physical world and vice versa, our physical world can impact our spiritual world as well. Many people seem to think the two are not necessarily related, but they are. Unless we have a good balance between the two of them, we will be out of balance and generally unhappy. More about that later.

So we can see we have a balance set up here and what I would like for you to think about is that one of these bags, say the green one, represents our spiritual world. The other bag, the blue one, represents our physical world. At the moment we seem to have achieved balance between the two. Now obviously, if I were to put a rock into the blue bag, a physical item, it would be heavier than the green bag and the balance would tip. I don’t think I need to demonstrate that.

But what would happen if I were to put something spiritual into the green bag? Would the balance shift and the green bag become heavier? I say yes, because I believe our spiritual world and our physical world are connected and one impacts the other.

In this pitcher I have created a formula which has released some carbon dioxide into the air in the pitcher. You cannot see it, but it is there. The thing about carbon dioxide is that before it mixes with the rest of the atmosphere, it is heavier than the air around it. Because it is heavier, it will stay for a time in the lower part of this pitcher.

I would like for you to think about this carbon dioxide as a thought or a prayer or as depression or a negative comment or as a positive affirmation of some sort-you can think about it as any of those things, because they are invisible to us. We cannot see a thought or a prayer, we can only hear a comment, but we still cannot see it. It is my belief, that these thoughts and prayers and comments; those things which we cannot see, have an impact on our physical world.

I think this experiment helps us to visually understand what I mean by this. With the carbon dioxide in this pitcher, which I have told you is heavier than the atmosphere around it, what do you suppose would happen if I were to pour the co2 out of the pitcher and into our spiritual green bag?

Let’s take a look and see, shall we? You see, even though we cannot see it, even though it looks like there isn’t anything happening, even though there is no evidence anything is coming out of the pitcher, the green bag fills up and is now heavier than the blue bag, and the balance tips. Pretty cool, right? But think about what you just witnessed. Even though there is a scientific explanation, you just witnessed something invisible, something you don’t have the ability to see, moving an object in the physical world. I believe the relationship between our physical well-being and our spiritual well-being is a lot like this balance, if we simply focus on just one, we get out of balance and the other side suffers.

Right about now some of you might be thinking that I have really missed the mark. This is the fourth Sunday in Advent, Christmas is just around the corner, the sanctuary is all decorated and the organ is covered with nativity pieces; you wanted a sermon about Christmas and all I have provided was a science experiment! Well, think again. What do you think the word became flesh actually means? The word Emmanuel means God with us, is that a God we can see or not? Does God with us impact our physical world?

You see, Christmas is the one season where we actually celebrate the notion that the spiritual world can alter the physical world. We seem to forget about that the rest of the year. But there is more. I want us to understand this on a personal level, not some grand scheme full of angels and bright stars and world changing events. I want us to understand this concept on a personal level.

I have noticed something interesting about Christmas. It seems to me that the Christmas season impacts people one of two ways; either they love it or they actually hate it. It is hard to remain neutral about Christmas. Have you noticed that?

Here’s my theory as to why that is; there is so much spiritual energy around the season, so much stuff floating around and so many things that can impact our physical world that we simply cannot avoid the physical impact of all that energy. For some of us, we receive the positive energy, we enjoy the season, we enjoy the lights and the carols, we enjoy the gift giving and the decorating, we enjoy the spirit of cooperation that everyone seems to share. We receive the positive aspects of all that we cannot see and it impacts our physical world. We feel better, we are happier and we experience what people call getting into the Christmas spirit.

But there is a flip side. For many the Christmas season simply adds stress. They feel obligated to do things they can’t afford; they feel like there isn’t time enough to get everything done. The cards need to be sent and the shopping mall is crowded and the Christmas dinner hasn’t been planned and on and on. When we receive all that negative energy, that energy has a physical impact as well. It is just like the Christmas season pours out everything into our bags, and even though we cannot see it, we get out of balance and it drags us down.

Now here is the real point about the science experiment; we can control what goes into our spiritual bag. When a negative thought or a bad experience at the mall or a little bit of stress or depression begins to dump into your bag, here is what I want you to do. I want you to visualize this balance, and I want you to visualize your spiritual bag; in your mind I want you to simply take the bag and empty it of everything that is weighing you down. Turn it upside down and dump the negative energy out of it. When you do, your physical world will change and you can return to balance and you will feel better.

When we consider the Christmas story, we can imagine the impact on the physical world that has happened since the word became flesh and dwelt among us. But the rest of the year is coming and it will always be true that your spiritual world and your physical world are tied together and balance is something to strive for all year long. You can intentionally fill your spiritual bag when you need to and you can empty it when you need to as well. Practice this and as you do balance will be achieved and maintained, not just this Christmas season, but all year long.

Go in peace, go with God and go in balance. Amen.

 

Text: Hebrews 6: 18b-19a

“We who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…..”

A little over a week ago I was up early and went out to get the newspaper and I noticed the early beginnings of what I thought might be a fabulous sunrise. I thought about what might be a good vantage point in which to capture this daily wonder, and I knew the church was up on a hill and thought that might hold some potential. So I went inside, put on some real clothes, grabbed my camera gear and quickly headed for the church. That is the thing about a sunrise; they come and go so quickly that unless you are ready for them, the moment will escape you. So I was in a bit of a hurry.

Well, I found the vantage point I was looking for and proceeded to shoot the sunrise. I decided to post the photo on Facebook and I used one of them on the cover of last week’s bulletin. When I posted the photo on Facebook, however, I didn’t want to just put up the photo, I wanted to put something with it that helped communicate what I was feeling at the moment I took the photograph. What I was feeling was hope. I couldn’t really explain it, but for some reason, the sunrise gave me hope.

I wrote a little something on Facebook that morning about my hope – some of you I know have read that and commented on it. This morning I want to expand on my thoughts about hope, because at times our lives feel hopeless, and when we feel that way, we need to be reminded that hope is ours. We need to be reminded that hope is something we can participate in and the season of Christmas is the season of hope.

There was a basketball coach who found himself coaching his high school basketball team in the state finals. It was half-time of the state championship, a game of a lifetime, but the coach’s team had been outplayed in the first half. They were behind by almost 20 points and the coach struggled with what to say to his players during the brief half-time intermission. He gathered his team together and began to speak;

“Each and every one of you had hoped to win this game. That hope is now diminished, and may in fact be completely gone. If you reduce everything to winning and losing, more often than not, you will be disappointed in life. It may not seem like it right now, but this basketball game is a very small part of your life; but it is a part of your life you will carry with you forever. I want you to change your thinking about this game. It doesn’t matter who wins or who loses – that is just the score. What matters is whether or not you have made a contribution. In this second half, I’m going to do something unusual; I’m going to play everybody – not just the best players, but everybody, because at the end of the night I want everybody to know that he made a contribution. Don’t pay any attention to the score, we probably will not win the game, but that doesn’t matter. I want you to be able to hold on to the idea for the rest of your lives that you made a contribution in the state finals. A contribution may be a good pass, it may mean making a free throw, it may mean setting a good screen, it may mean getting a rebound, and it may mean scoring a few points. Just go out this second half and have fun and think about making a contribution, and don’t think about winning or losing.”

As you might guess, the team listened and responded. Pretty soon they were playing together as a team in the second half. Each player focused on making a contribution; slowly the deficit began to be made up as the players passed the ball more, set screens for each other and shared the basketball. True to his word, the coach played every player that night; the entire bench made a contribution. And the team returned to their home town as state champions.

The coach managed to shift the hope of his players from something intangible to something tangible. He moved the hope from something that seemed impossible, like winning the game, to something possible, like making a good pass. As he gave his team new hope, they could see the single step ahead of them and took that one, and then took another and another and another, until finally they worked themselves back into the game and eventually won the state title.

The coach’s words are important for us to hear today as well. Things can feel impossible and we can feel like there isn’t any hope left in the world. We turn on the news to yet another mass shooting or another terrorist attack somewhere in the world. The airwaves are full of hate and fear, we feel hopeless and helpless in a chaotic world. On top of that, now it has to be Christmas; as if we didn’t have enough stress already; now it has to be Christmas. In the midst of our despair about Isis and war and hatred and misguided reactions and misplaced blame, we are still supposed to celebrate Christmas. There are parties and concerts and cards to send and cookies to bake, presents to buy and wrap and ship not to mention decorating the tree or the house and on and on it goes; it can be overwhelming; and before we know it, we are behind. Way behind; we will never catch up and we will never win.

Let me ask you to think about this Holiday season in terms of just making a contribution. It might be just one Christmas card that will brighten someone’s day, it may be just one present for that someone under the tree, it might just be a phone call. If you can make a contribution this Holiday season, then the season will have been a success. Can you do just one thing? Of course you can. And that one thing may make a difference for someone else, it may brighten their day and lift their spirit. When I took the picture that gave me hope, it was just one thing. I didn’t wait until I felt like I had time, or everything else was done, I just took the picture. You will never get everything done, so why stress and fret about it? Hope to make a contribution and look and watch for those opportunities, and as you do, much will be accomplished.

You don’t have to win the Holiday game. And it is a game, I hope you realize. You don’t have to score more points than your neighbor; you don’t have to be the champion of your block. All you need to do this Holiday season is make a contribution. Find a way to give someone else a lift; find a way to give someone else some hope. If you can do that, and I think each and every one of us can; then this Christmas season will be a winner for us.

What is left undone is undone. What we didn’t get to is inconsequential as long as we took the opportunity to make a contribution and offer hope to someone we may not even know. That is our hope this Christmas season, to make a contribution. It is a hope we can see, it is a hope we can accomplish, and it is the hope that has been set before us and it is the hope of the Christ Child. Don’t worry about winning the game this season, just make a contribution and change someone’s life.

If we can do that, it will in fact be the birth of hope. Go in peace and go with God, and go in hope. Amen.

Text: Luke 12: 29-31

²⁹ And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰ For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, strive for his^[a] kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Last week you might have noticed we were having a few issues with this monitor on the right, and I am hoping that I might have figured out what was going on. It seems there may have actually been two different problems; the first was simply a bad cable and I replaced that and then the picture came back…but just for a little while. You may remember last week that it would come on, and then go off again. This intermittent problem was a little more difficult to sleuth out, but I think I may have identified the source of the problem. While I was working on the connections, I put a receiver box that the new cable I replaced plugs into on top of that speaker. I think it is likely that the magnets in the speaker were creating interference of the signal and so the picture would come on for a time, and then it would lose its connection because of the interference. Nothing had changed physically, all the wires were still connected in the same way; but the signal was lost.

I want you to think about that for a minute. Nothing changed physically, but the connection was lost. Have you ever felt that way about God? Does it ever feel like God just goes away? For awhile you feel like you are close to God, connected to the Divine and then one day you wake up and realize the connection is gone, but you’re not sure when it went away; has that ever happened to you? There may have been a time when you were connected to God, but now the connection is gone. When that happens I’m thinking there may be interference with the signal.

I can imagine what some of you might be thinking about right now. What in the world am I talking about…God is always with us, God’s promise is that God is always near. There can’t be any interference with the signal. And I would tell you that you are right about that…the signal is always transmitting and God is always trying to be present with us. The question is whether or not we are in a position to receive or not. The problem with the monitor was not that the signal quit transmitting; the problem was the reception of the signal was interrupted. There is a difference between a signal being transmitted and a signal being received. And when you think about it in those terms, one part of the equation is up to God, that is the transmitting, and the other part of the equation, the receiving part, is up to us.

So what causes interference if we desire a connection with the Divine?

This is the question that I believe has plagued humanity almost from the dawn of time. And in all that time, I’m not sure the answers have changed all that much. I think part of what Jesus was trying to say in the text I read a few minutes ago is that worry about the physical will only hold you back. Jesus said to focus first on the kingdom of God and the physical will take care of itself. As I consider the situation further, I believe we can identify a couple of very specific things which can cause interference with our ability to receive clear signals from God.

One big one is fear or anxiety. Another is guilt or depression. If we could find a way to overcome these two obstacles, I believe our relationship with God would improve drastically. What’s more, this is not a new idea.

We have already explored a little bit about what Jesus had to say on this topic. The text I read was from Luke; it appears also in Matthew with slightly different details.

There are other places in the New Testament where Jesus eludes to this kind of understanding; this idea that we can actually interfere with our own ability to connect with God. Jesus spoke of asking and seeking and finding…he also stilled a storm; that could have been a physical storm or the storm of anxiety, or both. Jesus also spoke about losing your life to find it; and sometimes when we give up anxiety and fear and guilt and depression it might feel like we are losing our lives, but as we do, we will also find them.

This idea of being able to receive what the Divine Spirit is transmitting is really the key to spirituality. The Native Americans would go into a smoke lodge in an attempt to heighten their ability to receive this spiritual transmission. I know the Australians have an age old custom of going on a “walkabout” in order to clear their minds and open the pathways to receive a clear signal from God. Of course many of the eastern religions include specific times for meditation that are designed, once again to clear the mind of all interference and allow the Divine to be clearly received.

What ever method we might discover is beneficial, I still think the basic idea of every custom and every ritual is simply to not put any of our energy into fear or anxiety or guilt or feeling bad, but rather to focus on what is happening now and to find positive ways to interpret what is happening now and to find ways to feel good about what is happening now.

Consider this quote from Lao Tzu;
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

Here is yet another example of how ancient this idea truly is and how universal the concept is as well. Lao Tzu was a Chinese philosopher credited with being the author of the Tao te Ching. The Tao may be the oldest sacred text on the planet that we actually have a copy of and the Tao de Ching predates Jesus by at least 500 years, maybe more and predates our modern Bible by as much as 1,000 years. It is the philosophy of Lao Tzu that is thought to have formed the basis for much of what Confucius taught and is considered to be the central hub of philosophy of many of the eastern religions.

So what I am trying to communicate here is that we have a long history as humanity of trying to find ways to connect with God. For Lao Tzu, one of those key elements was to experience peace and live in the present moment. That is a message made popular by a contemporary author, Eckart Tolle, who wrote a New York Times best seller, “The Power of Now” and a follow-up best seller, “A New Earth”. Both books are excellent by the way.

But there is something else in Lao Tzu message that I think could be overlooked unless we read it very carefully. If you look at the text, there is a strong link between how you feel, and what you are thinking about. In other words, when you think about your past, and you feel guilty or upset or angry or you are feeling depressed, then you are living in the past. When you feel anxious or worried or are nervous about tomorrow or next week, you are living in the future. If you want to experience the peace that Jesus talked about, the peace the goes beyond our ability to understand, then you must live in the now, or as Lao Tzu says, live in the present.

We may not realize it, but we have an emotional guidance system built into each and every one of us. This emotional guidance system has the ability to sound an alarm if the signal with the Divine transmission is about to get interrupted. It is really this simple; if you are feeling good, if you are at peace, then you are fully connected to the Divine. You are hearing God, and God is hearing you.

But when you begin to feel bad, for whatever reason it may be, that is an emotional alarm that the signal is in danger of being interfered with. You run the risk of creating so much interference that the connection to God will be lost. And this is something that we do to ourselves; God has nothing to do with it.

Oh, but I’m fully justified in feeling bad, I hear you say. You wouldn’t believe what happened to me, or I just lost my job, or I just received a bad medical diagnosis or this catastrophe or that catastrophe and I have every right to feel bad. I have a right to feel bad and I’m going to do it!

And you are welcome to feel bad. Just bear in mind that when you do, the interference that those bad feelings create have the potential to create interference and the signal will be lost. Not only that, your feeling bad will generally will not bring your job back or change the medical diagnosis. As a matter of fact, the only person the feeling bad impacts is you, and only you. And it doesn’t change what is.

One of the best ways that I know of to keep feeling good is to keep busy serving others. If you stay focused on what you can do for others, for the most part, you will feel good about what you do. If you counter bad news personally with finding something nice to do for someone else, you will feel better; even about the bad news. Look again at what Jesus says:

Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat, or drink or wear or what we might need in the future. Instead worry about the kingdom of God, first, and the rest will take care of itself. And how do we seek first the kingdom of God? By serving others and feeling good about what we are doing. So that is the choice that each of us gets to make every day in every moment; we can choose to serve others and we can choose to feel good, or we can choose to feel bad. When we feel bad the signal is lost and our Divine connection is nowhere to be found.

And that is food for thought. So go in peace and go with God and feel good in the present moment. Amen.