A Song of Joy

The song of the angels in Luke 2 is one of the most joyful songs in all of scripture. But where is the joy in our world today? Oh, it's there -- but sometimes we have to search for it. This sermon might give you some ideas where to look.

It was a night like any other night. The sheep were calm, moving quietly through the pasture. Some were softly munching grass, while others were sleeping peacefully in the starlight. The shepherds were quiet, too. A few were keeping watch over their wooly charges, but the rest were enjoying some well-deserved sleep before dawn broke. Suddenly, without warning, the night became as bright as noontime, waking the shepherds, and paralyzing them with fear. An angel voice boomed from the heavens: “Don’t be afraid! I have good news for you! And not just for you – for everyone in the whole world. The Messiah has been born in Bethlehem! If you want to find him, look for a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And then, there were millions of angel voices all singing together, their music surrounding the shepherds in a great cloud of harmony: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, God’s peace to everyone!”

The light disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving the shepherds stunned and bewildered. It took them a few moments to realize what had just happened. The skies had split apart, and heaven had touched earth. They had seen the glory that surrounds God with their own eyes! They looked at one another in confusion. “What should we do?” one of them asked. “Should we go tell a priest?” “No,” answered another. “A priest would never believe us. Let’s go find that baby!” And, of course, that’s exactly what they did. They ran to Bethlehem as fast as they could and searched through stable after stable until they found a brand new baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. What do you suppose they thought when they saw him? He looked like a very ordinary baby, after all. Do you think that they were disappointed? Maybe they secretly wondered what all the fuss was about. I doubt if he was surrounded with the heavenly glow that we see in all the nativity pictures. He was just a baby. But in that baby, the veil between God and humanity split apart, and heaven touched earth. His birth was good news of great joy, indeed!

That is our joy, too, on each Christmas day and on every other day of the year. God is with us! But sometimes that reality is very hard to see in the darkness of our world. We have to search for it, just like the shepherds had to search through dark, crowded, smelly stables until they found what they were looking for. If the angel hadn’t told the shepherds where to look, you know, they might never have found that baby. We need some help, too, to find the Child that is living among us. We aren’t looking for a baby in a manger these days; but we are still looking for signs of Emmanuel, “God-with-us.”

What would the angel say to us today? Maybe the announcement would go something like this. “Listen, I bring you good news of a great joy that is for everyone in the world! God is among you! And this will be a sign for you. Look for a man who is helping his elderly neighbor by carrying in her groceries for her, by shoveling her snow, and by checking up on her every now and then.” We might have to search to find something like that. Oh, we know that there are many caring people in the world, but they don’t usually post a neon sign when they show that care to others. On the contrary, they are as secret as a baby born in a stable. God is among us.

Or maybe it would be an announcement like this. “Listen, I bring you good news of a great joy that is for everyone in the world! God is among you! And this will be a sign for you. Look for a woman who carries bags of toiletries and comfort items in her car, and gives them to the homeless people who stand on street corners begging for help.” That would be even more difficult to find! How many cars in the WalMart parking lot would we have to look through before we found something more than gift wrap, cheap trinkets, and bags of bows? But I assure you, there are folks in our midst who help the homeless on a regular basis. God is among us.

If we traveled to the Middle East, the angel’s announcement would sound a little bit different. “Listen, I bring you good news of a great joy that is for everyone in the world! God is among you! And this will be a sign for you. Look for a Jewish boy who is friends with a Muslim girl.” That might be the most difficult of all to find. But I guarantee that such children exist. And they are our hope for the future. God is among us.

Actually, that angel could give us all kinds of signs that God is among us. This will be a sign for you: “Look for a woman living in Chicago who is caring for her three grandchildren because her daughter is in prison for dealing drugs. Even though she has already raised a family, she makes sure that those grandchildren are fed and clothed and educated.” “Look for a man in a small Pennsylvania town who helps to staff the volunteer fire department every single holiday. He wants the younger volunteers to be able to spend the holidays with their families.” “Look for a young girl in Phoenix who insists on giving away her own Christmas gifts to the family down the street who just lost everything they own in a fire. She doesn’t want anyone to be without at Christmas.” Those are the signs that Emmanuel is here; but we usually miss them because they are so ordinary. They don’t look special at all – but neither did the baby who was born in a barn and laid in a manger. They all show Emmanuel, God-with-us. The spirit of God that fills them is the source of our joy. They bring the good news that is for everyone in the world.

“Fear not! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be to all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and singing, “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, goodwill to all people.” That joyful song is our song, too! Sing it with everything you’ve got! Sing your lungs out! And as you are singing, give thanks that the signs of God-with-us are all around. We just have to look for them.

A Song of Victory

What do Rosie the Riveter and Mary, Jesus' mother, have in common? More than you might think! If this comparison intrigues you, you might want to read this sermon to find out more!

In our travels through Christmas music in the Bible, we have come to one of the most famous songs in the New Testament: Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-55). We Protestants don’t talk about Mary except at this time of the year. The rest of the time, we pretty much leave her to the Roman Catholic church, and she fades away into the wallpaper. When we talk about her at all, we call her “gentle Mary, meek and mild.” That’s the image of Mary that most of us have. She’s wearing a blue tunic over a white garment, and her head is encircled by a halo. Her hands are folded in her lap, her eyes are cast modestly aside, and her expression is quiet. Actually, she doesn’t have much of an expression at all. No wonder that “gentle Mary, meek and mild” fades into the wallpaper! But that image isn’t biblical. It actually comes from the Middle Ages, when many paintings depicted Mary in just that way. In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church taught that Mary was the ideal woman. And what did an ideal woman look like? Why, she sat down and shut up, she folded her hands quietly in her lap, and she cast her eyes modestly aside – just like the pictures of Mary. Ideal women in the Middle Ages were gentle, meek, and mild. But in those pictures, Mary doesn’t look like she is capable of blowing her nose, much less giving birth to the Messiah!

That’s not the Mary of the gospels, though. The Mary of the gospels is strong and capable; able to deal whatever life throws at her. And Mary had to deal with a lot in her life! From the beginning, she was thrown every curve ball in the book. When the angel Gabriel showed up and asked her if she was willing to birth the Son of God, Mary was still a virgin. Any woman who was meek and mild would have run for the hills; because pregnancy outside of marriage was frowned upon in those days. In fact, women were stoned for it! But Mary, strong and capable, agreed to God’s plan! When she was 9 months pregnant, Mary made a difficult journey to Bethlehem, bouncing along on the backbone of a donkey; and then she gave birth in a barn, with no support from family or friends. Matthew tells us that the whole family had to become refugees in Egypt to escape King Herod, who was so terrified of Mary’s baby that he slaughtered all the young boys in an entire town in an effort to get rid of him. When Jesus became a man, she had to watch him walk away from her when he left his home to become an itinerant preacher. At the end, she watched him die on a cross. No, Mary wasn’t “meek and mild,” she was the original steel magnolia! Why, Mary is more like Rosie the Riveter, strong arm bared and face determined, proclaiming “We can do it!”

This song of Mary’s reflects her inner strength. It’s a song of victory – God’s victory over all the forces that would keep us oppressed: the proud, the rulers, the rich. Today she might sing about God’s victory over Wall Street, over Congress, and over clueless political candidates; but regardless of the details, it’s the same take-home message. The people who are in power are unjust and arrogant; but God has claimed victory over all of them! Mary stands in a long line of biblical women who sang victory songs of their own. Moses’ sister Miriam was the first one. She stood on the banks of the Red Sea after it had drowned the Egyptian army, and led the Hebrew women in a victory song: “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15:21) The Hebrew judge Deborah sang a song of victory after the Israelites defeated the pagan general Sisera. “Hear this, you kings,” she sang. “Listen, you rulers! I will sing to the Lord! I will make music to the Lord, the God of Israel.” (Judges 5.) Hannah sang, too, when, after remaining barren for years, she gave birth to a son who would grow up to be the prophet Samuel. Her song is a lot like the one that Mary would sing many years later: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my strength is lifted high! My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance!” (I Samuel 2:1-10) Mary carries on that tradition of women’s victory songs that celebrate what God has done for them.

We don’t very often sing victory songs at Christmas time – but we should. Christmas, after all, spells the doom of the forces of evil in this world. When God came to be with us human beings as a human being himself, the forces of evil didn’t stand a chance. Greed, pride, oppression, hate, misery – they’re all doomed! Just as D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Nazi forces during the Second World War; God’s incarnation was the beginning of the end of evil. God’s victory is already on the way, sweeping across our world like Allied tanks swept across Europe on their way to defeating Hitler. But, just as the Nazi forces fought the Allies even more fiercely after D-Day, evil is still fighting against God and against God’s people today. That means that we need to be like Rosie the Riveter, too, just as strong as Mary was. Like Mary, we need to be prepared to cope with all the difficult things that life throws at us. Christmas, after all, isn’t for meek and mild people who quietly fold their hands in their laps and modestly cast their eyes aside. Christmas is for those people who are sick and tired of evil always winning the jackpot in the lottery. Christmas is for the folks who see a homeless veteran begging on a street corner in tattered clothing and say, “I want to do something about that!” Christmas is for all the people who would say to an angel who has just suggested some crazy scheme that can’t possibly work, “Let it be to me as you have said.” Mary said just that when Gabriel announced her pregnancy; and we all need to say it, too!

UCC pastor and author Quinn Caldwell reminds his congregation every Christmas Eve:

“If you came to this place expecting a tame story, you came to the wrong place… If you came to hear of the coming of a God who only showed up so that you could have a nice day with your loved ones, then you came for a God whom we do not worship here. For even a regular baby is not a tame thing, and goodness that cannot threaten complacency and evil is not much good at all, and a God who would choose to give up power and invincibility to become an infant for you certainly didn’t do it just so you could have dinner. But. If you came to hear a story of tyrants trembling while heaven comes to peasants… If you came for a story of reversals that might end up reversing you… If you came for a tale of adventure and bravery, where strong and gentle people win, and the powerful and violent go down to dust, where the rich lose their money but find their lives, and the poor are raised up like kings… If you came for salvation and not for safety, then, ah, my friends, you are in precisely the right place.” (You can read the full text of his remarks in All I Really Want, Abingdon Press, 2014, pp.110-112. I cannot recommend his book too highly.)

As we move through the final days of Advent, I invite you to join in singing Mary’s victory song!

“My soul praises the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are arrogant.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things."
Sing with courage! Sing with joy! Sing your lungs out – because this child changes everything!

A Song of Gratitude

You may not know that the Bible is full of songs. Last week, my sermon considered an Old Testament song from the Psalms -- a prayer that asked God to rescue the people from their troubles. Today, the song is "The Benedictus" from the Gospel of Luke. "Benedictus" is the Latin translation of the first word of the song: "Blessed." It is a song of gratitude for God's goodness. Could you use a little more gratitude in your life?

Gratitude abounds during this season of gift-giving, but we don’t usually offer in advance. It would sound a little nervy to say, “Thanks, Uncle Ezra, for the great Christmas gift that I know you’re going to give me this year!” That kind of gratitude is risky, because Uncle Ezra might well say, “How do you know that I’m going to give you something this year? I’m still waiting for a thank you note for last year’s present!” But gratitude in advance is perfectly appropriate when a promise is involved. If, during your senior year of high school, Grandma announces that she plans to buy you a car when you graduate, I’d say that some gratitude is not only appropriate but absolutely required! It is in that spirit that we read this morning’s scripture, the song of Zechariah from the gospel of Luke (Luke 1:68-79). When the old man sang this song of gratitude for a savior, the child Jesus hadn’t even been born yet! He was still being formed in his mother’s womb, several months away from the long trip to Bethlehem and his birth in a barn. But listen to Zechariah! He is singing his lungs out, as if the savior were already standing in front of him. He’s singing his thanks for what God has done in the past, all the way back to Abraham. He’s singing his thanks for what God is doing right now, especially for his new baby John that he is cradling in his arms. He’s singing his thanks for what God will do, for the “mighty savior” that is already on his way to being born. And to get the real impact of Zechariah’s song, you need to hear a little bit of the backstory that led up to this magnificent song of gratitude.

That story started nine months ago, while Zechariah was in the Temple performing his priestly duties burning incense as an offering to God. All of a sudden, without any warning, an angel popped up at his elbow. And it wasn’t just any angel. It was Gabriel, God’s right hand angel! As Zechariah stood slack-jawed in amazement, Gabriel announced that Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was going to give birth to a son, and that his name would be John. What’s more, John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born, and he would prepare the people to receive the coming of the Messiah. Now, this was all just a little bit too much for Zechariah. He and Elizabeth had no children, and they were way past the years when that was a consideration. Why, they’ve been on Medicare for 10 years now! A child? Get real! And Zechariah said as much. His response to Gabriel was something like, “Really? I’m an old man, and my wife is no spring chicken, either.” Now, telling an angel that you don’t believe his message is not a wise thing to do! Gabriel didn’t take too kindly to his lack of belief. In fact, the angel struck Zechariah silent, and announced that the old priest would stay that way until after baby John’s birth. And that’s just what happened. Not a peep was heard from Zechariah until after that baby was born and was named “John.” Then, the very first thing out of Zechariah’s mouth was this beautiful song of praise! His skepticism of God’s promise kept his mouth shut; but when he saw that God’s promise could be believed, his voice was freed for praise. Christians all over the world still sing Zechariah’s song. In fact, it’s traditionally sung during morning prayers by Christians who observe daily morning and evening worship. As they sing Zechariah’s song of praise, they pray that their voices will also be freed to sing God’s praises.

What we say – or what we don’t say – has a powerful effect not only on others, but on us as well. Talking about things makes them real to us. Once you tell someone that you love them, for example, you can’t really take it back. It makes that love permanently real, for better or for worse. Imagine the impact that statements like these have after they are spoken aloud:

• “I’m gay.”
• “I’m pregnant.”
• “I’m an alcoholic.”
• “I’m turning my life over to Jesus.”
• “My husband abuses me."
• “I forgive you.”

We can’t unsay these statements any more than we can unsee the images that we see on the evening news. Once we speak them, our feelings are real, both to us and to whoever is listening to us. Zechariah’s song of gratitude made that gratitude real – to himself, to the people who heard him, and to God. And it did something else, too. It made Zechariah one of the people who helped to prepare the way for God’s coming, just like his baby son John who would one day proclaim that God was on the way!

Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing, too? Aren’t we supposed to be preparing the way for the Lord? We can do that by expressing our gratitude to God a little more often than we usually do. Oh, we might say “Thank you” to God on Sunday morning in church; but do we dare to do it in public? Sitting on the sidelines and keeping our thoughts to ourselves may be safe, but it doesn’t help other people to see how God is working in our lives. Our society is full of people right now who spout doom and gloom like a pot boiling over. Just go on Facebook or Twitter and you can read all kinds of hate-filled messages. Does everyone feel that way? In the words of the late great singer Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?” I, for one, believe that there is goodness in our world even though it might be hard to see at times. What if those of us who are getting ready for the Messiah would decide to point to that good? What if we, like Zechariah, decide to sing songs of praise instead? What if, during this Advent season, we make it our mission to express gratitude whenever we hear a negative thought? When the conversation turns to greedy politicians who seem to care only about themselves, what if we point to local people who are benefactors of the arts? Ben Schuster and Miriam Rosenthal are just two people here in Dayton who left beauty as their legacy; and there are many others who are still doing it. God is working through their hearts. Or what if, after acknowledging the suffering that is all around the world, we lift up all the people who participate in relief efforts to help relieve all that suffering? Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and our own United Church of Christ all take great risks to help others who are in need. God is working through their hands. What if, instead of asking, “How can God possibly fix this?” we say, “I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next!” Could we change our skepticism into confidence that God will do what God has promised to do? I believe that it would make a real impact on a society that seems to have lost faith in anything good.

“Blessed be the God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them! By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace!” That was Zechariah’s song of gratitude. May it be our song, too, as we get ready for the coming of the Christ child!

A Song of Yearning

Advent is a time of waiting. So... what are we waiting for? Is it Santa who fills our stockings on Christmas Eve. or is it something else? This sermon might help you to think about that.

Advent is the time in the church year when we wait. For four long weeks, we wait. Oh, the stores might be playing “Joy to the World,” but we’re waiting, we Christians. And our waiting begs the question, “What are you waiting for?” Now, that question can be taken two ways. It might be a question asked of someone who isn’t taking action that he might take. If a young man who is attracted to a young lady, for example, but he hasn’t asked her out, his friend might ask him – probably somewhat impatiently – “What are you waiting for?” Go ahead! Take control of this situation! Ask her out! But there’s another way to ask that same question: “What are you waiting for?” If we ask it of a ragged woman who is standing by a bus stop holding a tattered suitcase and an old sleeping bag, we mean it another way. “What are you waiting for?” Are you waiting for the bus? A taxi? A ride from a friend? Or are you waiting for someone to offer you bus fare because you don’t have any money? And when we ask the question this way, we assume that the one who is waiting has no control of the situation whatsoever. Otherwise they wouldn’t be waiting!

Advent is this second kind of waiting. What are we waiting for? Why, we’re waiting for God to show up; and we have no idea when that is going to be, we just know that one of these days, it’s going to happen; and we want to be around when it does! We’re waiting because we’ve done all that we can, but our world is hurting and our lives are incomplete, and we have this deep yearning way down inside that we can’t explain and we certainly can’t fill. What are you waiting for? What is your deepest yearning that will be satisfied when God finally arrives? The details of that answer are different for each one of us; but I’ll bet that if we ask a few people that question, we’ll recognize ourselves somewhere in their answers. Let’s meet them.

Teresa is over there, sitting on the curb. She’s wearing a pair of ragged blue jeans and a green tee shirt that’s at least two sizes too big for her. Teresa ran away from home when she was 13, because she couldn’t stand the woman that her father married after her mother’s death. She left with only the clothes on her back and the fuzzy brown teddy bear that she’d had since she was 3 years old. After a year of sleeping on the street, this prodigal daughter decided that it was time to go home; but when she called her home phone number, the phone had been disconnected. She’s 15 now and has no idea how to locate her father. Teresa is making out OK. She sleeps in shelters and eats in food kitchens; and all those people are nice to her, but more than anything else, she wants a family, relationships with people who love her. Don’t we all want that?

Over there, on the other side is Keeshon. Right now he’s shooting hoops with a couple of his friends on a vacant lot surrounded by the shells of boarded-up buildings. Keeshon is 16 and lives in the projects of the inner city. His dad left when Keeshon’s little sister was only 2, and hasn’t showed his face since. His mother works a couple of low-wage jobs to support the family. Keeshon is looking for a meaning to his life. He’s not a bad student – he generally gets B- and C+ in school – but he knows that’s not good enough to get him into college. His mother loves and supports him, but she dropped out of high school herself. Keeshon doesn’t want to deal drugs or go on welfare, but he knows his options are limited. He believes that he will never get out of the projects. “Is this all there is?” he asks. Keeshon is yearning for a life of meaning! Can we argue with him?

Way over there, so far away that you can hardly see him, is Jamal. Right now he’s standing in line in the middle of a tangle of makeshift tents waiting to get a gallon of water. Jamal is in a refugee camp in Eastern Europe with his wife and young son. They used to live in Syria, but when he heard that ISIS was just a few miles away, they fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They are Christian, you see, and they knew that the thugs of ISIS would murder any Christians that they found. Jamal just wants a place to live in peace. He has heard rumors of resettlement, and that would be fine with him; but what he really wants is to go back home. Home: a place where Jamal can raise his son in security and peace. Is that too much to ask?

Finally, right over here is Emily, the older woman sitting in a wheelchair. Emily lives in an assisted living facility, and she is quite comfortable. Her children visit her frequently and make sure that she is well taken care of. Her life has been good, and she has been able to do many of the things that she values; but she’s tired. Emily’s husband died… oh, it must be over 10 years ago, now; and all her close friends have died, too. Even though Emily has made new friends in assisted living, she yearns for the people she used to know. Emily is waiting to be reunited with her late husband and with the friends who have all gone before her into glory. Emily is yearning for the joy of eternal life. Maybe we all are.

Did you recognize yourself in any of these folks and in what they yearn for? A family… a meaning to our life… security… peace… eternal joy. Aren’t these the things that we all want, in the end? And no one can buy them at Wal-Mart and stuff them into a stocking for us to pull out on Christmas morning. God’s grace alone can give them to us. That’s why the psalmist wrote, “Restore us, O Lord God almighty!” (Psalm 80) and why we sing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel!” We’re yearning for what God alone can give us. So we will wait, this Advent season, and the days will tick by until Christmas. As we wait, I invite you to ask yourself, “What am I waiting for?”

Forever Thankful

So, what are YOU thankful for this Thanksgiving? I ask the question in this sermon and suggest that maybe our typical responses aren't the best ones. Do you agree with me?

Thanksgiving is this Thursday already; and that’s no news to any of you. Have you bought your turkey yet? How about the cranberries? Sweet potatoes? Pumpkin pie? If you haven’t shopped yet, you’d better get cracking, because that big day of eating is right around the corner! But despite all the preparation that goes into that day’s dinner for many families, Thanksgiving isn’t a major holiday; it’s really only a “sandwich holiday.”

Now, I’m not saying that because turkey sandwiches follow us around for days after Thanksgiving! No, Thanksgiving is a “sandwich holiday” because it is sandwiched in between two other holidays that have become big business. Halloween, the holiday just before Thanksgiving, now brings in the second most sales dollars in the whole year! Halloween used to mean a homemade hobo costume for your kids and pumpkin cupcakes at school; but now it is a major retail event with adults as its target. Those adults spend big bucks on costumes, decorations, and party supplies. And of course, following close on its heels is Christmas. If Christmas merchandise isn’t already in the stores at Halloween, it’s there in the next few days, enticing us to buy all kinds of gifts that will amaze our kids, our friends, our spouse, and even our in-laws with our creativity and our generosity.

And that’s exactly the problem. Because it is sandwiched in between buying stuff for Halloween and stuff for Christmas, even if Thanksgiving doesn’t get lost, its emphasis is twisted to focus on stuff that can be bought and sold. Quick, what comes to mind when I ask you what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving? Your house? Your car? Your comfortable recliner and your big screen TV that brings you your favorite football team in high definition? It’s fine to be thankful for those things. I know that I’m thankful for what I have. But let’s set all those things aside, for a few minutes at least, and let’s imagine what would happen if a tornado swept away all that stuff. What would we be thankful for then? Ah, that makes us think a little bit!

Many of us would be thankful for our health. I hear that a lot: “At least I’m healthy.” And that is a good thing to be thankful for! But some of us aren’t healthy. In fact, most of us at some time in our lives won’t be healthy at all. It’s just a fact of life that as we age, most of us deal with chronic diseases. Our bodies just don’t work as well as they once did. So I ask you again – if we don’t give thanks for our possessions or for our health, what are we thankful for? I have some suggestions that you might want to consider when you’re bowing your head, ready to say grace at the dinner table on Thursday.

You might want to say thanks for the people who love you. Some of those folks are probably people in your family. But there are many others – close friends, for example. These folks will pick up the phone and ask, “What can I do?” when you call them at 3:00 in the morning. They know you, and they care about you, and they put your welfare before their own convenience. And some of the people who love you don’t even know you personally! These are the people who put love into action by the way they live their lives. These folks donate food to soup kitchens because they know that people are hungry. If you were hungry and needed some help, they would be there for you. Other folks work on disaster assistance teams. Remember that tornado that blew away all your stuff earlier in the sermon? In the aftermath of that tornado, these folks would be helping you to sort out whatever was left from the storm, giving you a shoulder to cry on, and helping you rebuild. They work in offices that offer assistance to folks that are down and out, in day care centers, and in the corner grocery store. They volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, answer the phone for FISH, fight fires and protect our communities. The late Fred Rogers – the beloved Mr. Rogers – once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” His mother was right, and I hope that we all give thanks for them!

But there’s something else that we can be thankful for – whether we have lots of stuff or nothing at all; whether we are healthy or sick; whether we have lots of friends or just one or two. We can be thankful that God’s love – the love that we show to one another so imperfectly – that love is going to get the last word! In fact, this last Sunday before Advent is the day dedicated to celebrating just that certainty. You heard about love’s last word in the scripture reading just a few minutes ago (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14). We saw a vision that imagined the end of time, with God seated on the throne, giving all authority to someone who was called “the Son of Man.” Jesus applied that title – the Son of Man – to himself. And that is something to celebrate, because it means that one day – although we don’t know exactly when – Jesus will get the last word. One day, God’s love will be so broad, so wide, and so deep that it will spread all throughout creation! One day, all fear and hate and greed and evil will be wiped away! One day, all relationships will be mended, and every creature will be the beautiful part of creation that God means for it to be! One day, “grace” will cover everything like a pure, white blanket of snow.

Don’t waste time trying to figure out when this is going to take place. Nobody knows but God. Jesus himself didn’t even know! And for heaven’s sake, don’t stop trying to make the world a better place, because God expects those of us who follow Jesus to do just that. But don’t lose hope. Don’t lose hope when all our efforts look like they’re in vain. Don’t lose hope when you read the morning paper or listen to drive-time radio or watch the evening news. Don’t lose hope when friends and neighbors think that there is no hope. Because we know better. We may not be able to fix what’s wrong with our world, but we know that God can. And God has given authority to Jesus, the Son of Man, the one who died for us on Calvary and rose again so that we might have new life!

So when someone asks you this week what you’re thankful for, go right ahead and say, “I’m thankful that I have lots of stuff that makes my life comfortable.” That’s OK. I’m thankful for those things, too. Say, “I’m thankful for all the people who love me, and for all the helpers in this world.” I’m going to say that. And I hope that, even if you don’t say it, deep down in your heart, you will give thanks to God that love will get the last word. Because, in the end, God’s love that gives us hope is the one thing that we can be forever thankful for.

Marching Orders

We read about God's call to Abraham to leave his home for a place that he didn't know anything about, and we think, "Wow! I'm glad that doesn't happen to us today!" But I think that it DOES happen to us today, maybe more frequently than we realize! My sermon today considers some reactions of church folks when they realize that God is calling them to move ahead in mission. You may even have experienced this yourself...

I have become convinced that there are only two kinds of travelers in the world; and that everyone fits into one group or the other. Whether they’re traveling across the country, to the next town, or just going to the grocery store, these two groups are as different as oil and water. The first group of travelers are the planners. Planners like to know what’s going to happen at every step of the journey. Before they begin, they want to know where they are going, how long it’s going to get there, and where they will stop along the way. These folks leave home armed with maps, hotel recommendations, and AAA travel books (or with multiple directional and restaurant apps on their cell phones). You planners know who you are. The second group of travelers is very different. They are the adventurers. Adventurers don’t really care exactly how they’ll get to their destination. In fact, sometimes, they don’t even care what that destination is! For adventurers, the journey is half the fun! They’re always ready to leave at a moment’s notice with no particular plans in mind. Hotel? We’ll find one. Restaurant? We’ll stop when we’re hungry. Destination? “That place looks like fun,” says the adventurer, “but then again, so does that one over there! I’ll know where I’m going when I get there.”

I’ve always thought that Abraham (or Abram, which was his name before God changed it) must have been an adventurer. In just the first four verses of his story in the book of Genesis (12:1-4), he responds to God’s call to go… well, somewhere; he wasn’t sure exactly where. God wasn’t terribly specific! All God told Abraham was that he should go somewhere – God would show him where – and that if he did, God would make him a blessing to all the people of the earth. That’s not exactly a detailed travel itinerary! But Abraham did what God told him to do. He had a garage sale in his side yard to get rid of all the stuff that he had accumulated – the leather sofa, the maple highboy, and the complete set of china that he and Sarah had been given as a wedding gift. Then he sold their house, too, and he bought a great big Winnebago motor home. He traded in their white Cadillac for a little tiny blue car that just holds a couple of people and maybe a bag of groceries; and off they went in their new Winnebago, towing that little blue car behind them. Yes, Abraham was an adventurer, all right. He didn’t get detailed plans when God told him to get up and go. But he got up and went, anyway.

Our church is in a situation that’s very similar to Abraham’s right now. We’re bringing our New Beginnings conversations to a close, and God is calling us to go out and do some new things. Now, please don’t misunderstand me! God has not ordered us to sell the china, buy a church bus, and go on a road trip! But God has given us marching orders: we are to go out into the community and serve them in the name of Jesus Christ. After all the New Beginnings conversations are completed; after we’ve put together all the thoughts and opinions and feelings of all the people in all the conversation groups; and after everyone in the congregation has had a chance to give their input, we’re going to step out in faith. But… what exactly are we going to be doing? Like Abraham, we’re not really sure yet. We don’t have many details. All that we know right now is that we’re going to try to meet the needs of the people around us. We can do that in lots of different ways; and we’ll have to try some things to see not only what meets community needs, but also what fits us as a congregation. And just like adventurers who start a journey without a detailed map, we’ll know where we’re going when we get there.

During the last month or so, I’ve been preaching sermons that were designed to get you thinking about this journey that we’re beginning together. I began by telling you that God is doing something new; and that God’s creativity might call for some new responses from us as we follow God into the future. While I was on vacation, Pastor Janice described how different people with different gifts and different experiences can work together in different ways to minister to the very same needs. In the same way, our congregation has unique gifts and experiences that will help us to minister to people in a way that no other congregation can! On All Saints’ Sunday, I reminded you that this congregation has a rich heritage of taking bold steps to meet challenges, and to serve the people around them. Oh, those steps weren’t taken without discussion, and sometimes even controversy. But in the end, they made us the vital, faithful church that we are today. And just last week, I described how God can breathe life into even a valley of dry, parched, bleached bones. I even suggested that those bones might look a little bit different when God raises them up into a new ministry.

As we move ahead on our journey together, I know that there will be some disagreements. That’s not because we’re not faithful Christians. It’s because we are faithful Christians; and faithful Christians approach decisions like these differently from one another! The planners that I talked about are going to want to know where we’re going and how we’re going to get there before we even start off. “Let’s not do something that we’ll regret later,” they’ll say. And those are voices of reason. But the adventurers among us are voices of passion, and it is to our benefit to listen to them, too! They’re going to want us to get started right away and live our way into our mission. “We don’t exactly know where we’re going,” they’ll say, “but we’ll know it when we get there!” And, believe it or not, both you planners and you adventurers are right!

If you were in worship last Sunday, I hope that you listened to the choir's anthem:

“This is a day of new beginnings; time to remember and move on;
Time to believe what love is bringing, laying to rest the past that’s gone.

Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring, step from the past and leave behind

Our disappointment, guilt, and grieving, seeking new paths and sure to find!
This is a day of new beginnings! Our God is making all things new!”

This is a time of new beginnings for us! We are about to step out in faith as Abraham did so long ago, not knowing exactly where we’re going. And we are doing it not so that God will be happy with us. God is already happy with us. We are doing it not so that we will be praised by the community. Community praise really isn’t important. We are stepping out in faith because we want to be a blessing to others, as Abraham became a blessing to all nations. You may remember Krissy’s beautiful solo from last week. The words to the chorus reminded us that we will be an example to our children and to our children’s children.
“Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful!”

“Go to the land that I will show you,” said God to Abraham. “Go do the mission that I will show you,” says God to us today. OK, God, we’ve got the Winnebago full of gas, and we’re ready to hit the road! Now show us where you want us to go.

Creative Reconstruction

Have you ever read a scripture text and suddenly seen it in a whole different light? That happened to me recently while reading about Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. I share it with you in this sermon. Maybe it will have the impact on you that it had on me!

You may not believe this, but when I was in grade school, I wanted to dig up old bones when I grew up. I was obsessed with dinosaurs. Most of my friends wanted to be cowboys or doctors or police officers when they grew up; but not me. No, I wanted to be a paleontologist! So I learned everything that I could learn about dinosaurs. I learned about Stegosaurus who had big plates on his back. I learned about Triceratops who had three long horns on his head and a big bony frill across his neck. And I certainly learned about Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the dinosaurs who tore other dinosaurs apart with his razor-sharp teeth. I was a really nerdy kid. My dream was to discover a brand-new dinosaur that no one had ever seen before. What a thrill it would be to dig up a creature that had been hidden in the earth for millions of years! After digging it up, of course, I would have to put it back together; and that always worried me just a little bit. Suppose I didn’t put it together correctly? That could lead to all kinds of problems! That actually happened at least once in the search for ancient creatures. Did any of you learn about Brontosaurus, the thunder lizard? He was a big, bulky guy with a long, thin neck and a tiny head perched way out on the end of it. It turns out that the skull that scientists put on the very first Brontosaurus skeleton came from another dinosaur altogether! They put it together wrong! We still aren’t sure what the head of Brontosaurus looked like, because, to my knowledge, nobody has found one yet. Digging up bones and putting them together is like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. It’s not always clear how they should go together.

Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem for God in the vision that Ezekiel tells us about. That vision is one of the most famous scenes in the whole Bible! Even if you aren’t familiar with the original story, I’ll bet that you know the song that comes from it: “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones; now hear the word of the Lord! The foot bone’s connected to the… ankle bone; and the ankle bone’s connected to the… leg bone; and the leg bone’s connected to the… hip bone; now hear the word of the Lord!” It’s a cute little ditty. But Ezekiel’s vision was anything but cute! God set him in the middle of a valley that was littered with bones. There weren’t just a few bones here and there. There were so many bones that it looked like a container of giant toothpicks had been spilled all over the ground. And those bones were dry, as dry as the sand of the Sahara Desert. Ezekiel could almost smell the dust that coated those bones. Maybe he even saw a rat crawling out of the eye socket of one of the skulls. It was a horrifying scene.

And then, God asked Ezekiel a question: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Now, Ezekiel answered very politely, “O sovereign Lord, you alone know,” but I imagine that he was really thinking, “Can these bones live? No! What kind of stupid question is that?” He must have been surprised when God ordered him to speak to those bones and say, “Hey, bones, listen up: leg bones and ribs and kneecaps and toes! God is going to put his Spirit back into you; and you’re going to get together again and be covered in flesh; and you’re going to get up and live!” And he was astonished when those bones actually did what God said that they’d do! Can’t you just imagine the noise it made when all those bones found one another joined together: foot bone to ankle bone, and ankle bone to leg bone, and leg bone to hip bone, and… well, you know the rest. It must have sounded like a million trillion baby rattles all shaking at once! And then those bones stood up, as alive as you and me. Of course, God had to interpret all this for Ezekiel, who was, by that time, probably not only astonished but terrified, as well! “This is Israel,” God told him. “These bones are my people. And they think that they’re dead and gone forever. But they aren’t. I’m going to revive them and give them new life! Remember, I can do things like that. So don’t ever give up hope! I am God, and I always do what I promise to do.” That vision must have overwhelmed Ezekiel. It’s almost overwhelming to us, too. After all, we aren’t used to seeing dry bones stand up and walk! Oh, we might see something like it on Halloween – but on Halloween, we know that it’s not real. But this – this is real. And the message is as clear as can be: even when God’s people think that there is no hope, God stands ready to breathe life back into their community of faith.

I recently read a brief meditation by author and UCC pastor Quinn Caldwell on this very text. He suggested something that I had never considered before. What if God didn’t put those bones together exactly the way they had been before? What if the new Israel was different – and better – than the old one had been? After all, when doctors do surgery, the point is to improve their patient’s bodies. Doctors insert pins in broken bones all the time so that those bones are stronger after they heal. Why can’t God do something like that with the community of faith? The amazing reality is that God does exactly that! When we need to be revived, God uses the divine creativity that called the universe into being not only to restore us, but also to improve us. After all, God is good at that. God can give us new hearts with more compassion for those around us who are suffering. God can improve our minds so that we have more wisdom when we interpret what’s going on around us. God can give us courage so that we take risks on behalf of that Kingdom. And we don’t even have to travel to the Emerald City to get those things like Dorothy and her friends did in The Wizard of Oz. God will improve us right here when he breathes his Spirit of renewal into our tired, dry bones! If we trust God’s promises; if we trust God’s power; if we trust God’s guidance… we will find that the impossible just might happen, and that people who have lost hope will live again as loving, vibrant communities of faith! Oh, they might not look exactly like they did before. In fact, they’ll be new and improved! But isn’t that how our amazing God does things? Dreams that we once believed were dead spring up alive and well, ready to be a part of God’s kingdom!

You might be interested in hearing what happened to my childhood dream of digging up dinosaur bones. I didn’t end up following that career path in my life. I did go into science, but I became a biologist. I worked in a lab with swirling liquids and bacteria in petri dishes instead of in the dirt with trowels and brushes. When my family came along, I exchanged my lab coat for a Girl Scout leader’s uniform and a school Room Mother’s badge. And then, God called me to seminary; and while I was a student, the most amazing thing happened! One day, one of my professors sat down next to me and asked me if I would be interested in volunteering on an archaeological dig in Israel. I would live in a hostel on an Israeli kibbutz with 20 people I had never met, get up at 4:00 in the morning to work while it was cool, and end up every day covered with dirt and sweat. But I would get to dig things up! Of course, I jumped at the chance. And do you know what happened? I found something! Oh, it wasn’t a dinosaur bone. It was even more exciting than that. I uncovered a white glass bowl that had been buried in the Israeli dirt for almost 2,500 years! The last person to set eyes on that bowl lived before Jesus lived, before King David lived, maybe even before Abraham lived! When I was in grade school, I never imagined that my dream of digging things up would come to life in such an amazing way.

God, in love, power, and creativity can restore us – and our dreams – in ways that we never envisioned! And what is our part in this miracle? Only that we trust God’s promises, we try our best to discern what God is doing around us, and then we step out in faith! May God give us the courage to be those people: restored, renewed, and alive!