Sermon - 2017-12-03
Happy New Year, one and all. Granted last night there was no ball drop, there was no concert of popular musicians to welcome us into the new year. Not even Dick Clark or Ryan Seacrest was there. Our new year ends not with the dropping of a ball but with the raising of the King to be seating at the right hand of the Father. However, today we return. We long for Christ to return so that we can speak directly to him so that we may know exactly where he is leading us, teaching us, and helping us.
During the season of Advent, we gather once again as a people who are waiting. We are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We place our hope, trust, and our very lives into the hands of God. The one who created us sustains us and guides us. We wait but also we hope and search for meaning in the world. Along with that, each year, early in the fall, the voices begin clamoring to tell us what we want and need in order to be satisfied with our lives. We cannot go shopping, read the newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television without being told what will make our holidays complete...We rail at the commercialism of Christmas even as we sometimes get caught up in it. But the voices will never tell us what we really Want, what we really long for, what we desire with heart and soul.
Those who have sat in the darkness know how the shadows give way to desire. Without sight, without our heads swimming with the images of what others tell us we want, we can turn our gaze inward and search our souls. What speaks to us? What calls to us? What dreams have we buried? What wounds cry out for healing? What longs to be born in us in this season? What is the yearning which we have not dared to name? Our desires reveal to us what we think about God, about ourselves, and about the world.
I understand the Christian life to be about the aligning of desire: our personal desires, our political vision, and our longing for God. So far from being separate or in competition with one another. I believe our deepest desires ultimately spring from the same source. Advent offers the opportunity to explore that source, to discern our desires and to find their common ground. For many of us this is often where we stop. We stop with our own desire. We want others to realize our amazing insights and ideas for the world but we struggle when challenged or when others do something that is against our ideas. So how do we expand to be outside our own desires? Conversations.
There is a story that says in ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric hordes to the north; so they built the Great Wall of China. It was so high they knew no one could climb over it and so thick that nothing could break it down. They settled back to enjoy their security. During the first hundred years of the wall's existence, China was invaded three times. Not once did the hordes break down the wall or climb over the top. Each time they bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right through the gates. Could it be that the people were so busy relying upon the walls of stone that they forgot to teach integrity to their children?
True story? - I don't know. But it is true that without integrity, without community, and without love, we will all perish. Human society cannot survive without trust. Traditions cannot be passed down from one generation to another unless conversations, understanding, and love are shared.
Within the church, we gather together to help one another learn through Bible studies, meals, discussions, prayer, confessing when we have done wrong, and help one another through the lessons of life. You share with one another what is weighing upon your hearts. You begin your journey within the community of following God and living out that compassion and love within the world. For the church is so much bigger than our building. God is so much bigger than our building and this community. There are Christians gathered throughout the world.
Looking around within our own communities, we have fresh water, health care, and an abundance of resources all around us. When you have an abundance, you should not store it up because there are those who are in need. Those who are begging for what you have. Now how would you feel if you wanted it, if you needed it to survive. Would you want them to share or would you understand why they do not share?
And now let me remind you of what has been given to you. God created you and all that is around you. God sent his only son to die on the cross to give to you exactly what you needed. No you didn’t ask for it, you didn’t expect it to happen this way but that is what happened. It was given to you fully and given to you, scared that it would not be enough, scared of what others may do to you, and scared for what others may do for you. Be on alert, for you do not know the day or the hour that the Messiah will come again. That you will stand before the Son of Man. There you will receive what God truly gives to you, justice, love, and compassion.
Thanks be to God that it is true. Amen.
During the season of Advent, we gather once again as a people who are waiting. We are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. We place our hope, trust, and our very lives into the hands of God. The one who created us sustains us and guides us. We wait but also we hope and search for meaning in the world. Along with that, each year, early in the fall, the voices begin clamoring to tell us what we want and need in order to be satisfied with our lives. We cannot go shopping, read the newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television without being told what will make our holidays complete...We rail at the commercialism of Christmas even as we sometimes get caught up in it. But the voices will never tell us what we really Want, what we really long for, what we desire with heart and soul.
Those who have sat in the darkness know how the shadows give way to desire. Without sight, without our heads swimming with the images of what others tell us we want, we can turn our gaze inward and search our souls. What speaks to us? What calls to us? What dreams have we buried? What wounds cry out for healing? What longs to be born in us in this season? What is the yearning which we have not dared to name? Our desires reveal to us what we think about God, about ourselves, and about the world.
I understand the Christian life to be about the aligning of desire: our personal desires, our political vision, and our longing for God. So far from being separate or in competition with one another. I believe our deepest desires ultimately spring from the same source. Advent offers the opportunity to explore that source, to discern our desires and to find their common ground. For many of us this is often where we stop. We stop with our own desire. We want others to realize our amazing insights and ideas for the world but we struggle when challenged or when others do something that is against our ideas. So how do we expand to be outside our own desires? Conversations.
There is a story that says in ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric hordes to the north; so they built the Great Wall of China. It was so high they knew no one could climb over it and so thick that nothing could break it down. They settled back to enjoy their security. During the first hundred years of the wall's existence, China was invaded three times. Not once did the hordes break down the wall or climb over the top. Each time they bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right through the gates. Could it be that the people were so busy relying upon the walls of stone that they forgot to teach integrity to their children?
True story? - I don't know. But it is true that without integrity, without community, and without love, we will all perish. Human society cannot survive without trust. Traditions cannot be passed down from one generation to another unless conversations, understanding, and love are shared.
Within the church, we gather together to help one another learn through Bible studies, meals, discussions, prayer, confessing when we have done wrong, and help one another through the lessons of life. You share with one another what is weighing upon your hearts. You begin your journey within the community of following God and living out that compassion and love within the world. For the church is so much bigger than our building. God is so much bigger than our building and this community. There are Christians gathered throughout the world.
Looking around within our own communities, we have fresh water, health care, and an abundance of resources all around us. When you have an abundance, you should not store it up because there are those who are in need. Those who are begging for what you have. Now how would you feel if you wanted it, if you needed it to survive. Would you want them to share or would you understand why they do not share?
And now let me remind you of what has been given to you. God created you and all that is around you. God sent his only son to die on the cross to give to you exactly what you needed. No you didn’t ask for it, you didn’t expect it to happen this way but that is what happened. It was given to you fully and given to you, scared that it would not be enough, scared of what others may do to you, and scared for what others may do for you. Be on alert, for you do not know the day or the hour that the Messiah will come again. That you will stand before the Son of Man. There you will receive what God truly gives to you, justice, love, and compassion.
Thanks be to God that it is true. Amen.
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