Give and Take

Sunday was our "Hanging of the Greens" service, which is a very joyous service celebrating the season.  The service is a very long service so I was told early in the week to prepare a brief sermon.  As is my norm, I typically don't write/finish my sermon until Friday or Saturday.  We all know the events that took place on Friday morning.  Because of the nature of that horrific day I didn't know how to NOT address the issue in some way from the pulpit.  So here is my sermon from this past Sunday, or at least the general wording.

 

 

If I’m being honest I didn’t feel like writing a sermon this week.

If I’m being honest I don’t feel like preaching today.

But as a person of faith we gather together, to sing and pray and proclaim God’s presence in the world even in the midst of tragedy. 

Friday I turned on the TV only to hear about the events that took place in CT.  As a parent and as a Christian the news was difficult to watch. 

As I watched I was flooded with emotions…sorrow, confusion, anger, hurt, and disgust.

How could anyone do such a thing?

How can there be so much evil in the world?

Where was God?  How could God let something like this happen?

Social media was littered with posts and tweets about gun control, mental health reform and others proclaiming there can be no God because God would not let this happen.

It is in times of tragedy our faith is often shaken. 

The events of Friday beg the age old question…why do bad things happen to good people? 

There is no answer to this question.

I STRUGGLE to think that God was NOT present in the midst of the chaos.  In times of tragedy God IS present, and God weeps for those who are lost.

Last Sunday I said the church should not be in the business of morals.  I stand by that statement even today.

Nobody would ever say what happened Friday were moral.  The church does not need to tell that to anyone.  I’ve heard Christians say that God is not allowed in schools and that is the problem with society today.  I respectfully disagree. 

The problem is not that God is not in schools…the problem is we don’t take God outside of our churches.  We keep God bottled up inside these walls.  Jesus’ was not meant to be held inside.

Our reading today concludes with John the Baptist proclaiming the Good News to the people.

Who were those people you ask?

They were morally corrupt people, people who took advantage of those vulnerable in society.  

This crowd of people to whom John spoke were not Christians, rather people needing to hear of the coming of Christ.

On this day…there are many who need to hear that good news.

If advent is REALY about preparing for the coming of Christ why aren’t we telling people what that means?  Why aren’t we answering our call to be the light of Christ in the midst of darkness every day? 

When are we as a church going to start giving the Good News of Christ rather than taking the bad news of a trouble society?

What an incredible couple of days.  The birth of my daughter and all the joy that goes with it.  And writing a sermon.  A sermon written with her fast asleep on my chest. 

For those who know me, you know that I don't stick exactly to my manuscript, but it's close.  I also don't typically post sermons since for me preaching is as much an oral art form as it is literary, but I was asked/told I needed to...so here's my sermon for the Second sunday of advent.  The text was Luke 3:1-6.

 

 

Advent – coming, arrival…a time to prepare.

Those words have taken on a whole new meaning this week.  Our family has been waiting for the arrival of our baby.  Christina diligently read all the literature she could find over the last 12 months to prepare for our child.

We took CPR classes, we took birthing classes, and she even took a class called, “Happiest Baby.” 

We prepared the nursery, installed car seats, put together swings and bassinets. 

We frequently discussed what we would do when she went into labor.

We guessed dates, and gender and we were prepared!!!

Then it happened…at 1:00 in the morning…Christina’s water broke.  I should point out that in one of our classes the lady said, “When your water breaks, it’s not like it is in the movies.  She went on to say that 85% of the time your water breaks at the hospital.”  I should have known my wife would be the exception.

I was sure that I was prepared.  We would time contractions, and as we timed them we would gather together the last few items we needed to take with us, and at the appropriate time we would head to the hospital.

It never occurred to me to prepare for Christina’s water breaking at home.

Sure it all worked out in the end, we made it to the hospital in time, and all is well, but to be as unprepared as we were in spite of our belief otherwise is somewhat concerning.

In our reading today we hear of John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord.  In the church we often talk about being prepared for the 2^nd coming of Christ.

So this week I asked myself…Am I prepared.  I’m gonna be honest…after the events of this week probably not. 

We had 9 months to prepare for a baby…and they gave us a due date.  We don’t have a due date for the coming of Christ.  We know he’s coming but we don’t know when. 

So how do we prepare for something when we have no idea when it’s going to happen? 

After this week I’m not sure I’m fully capable of answering this question for you. 

John went out proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

That sounds like a pretty good place to start…be washed clean in the waters of baptism and repent for your sins.

The waters of baptism are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are washed clean.  But in our humanity we can always find a way to dirty ourselves.  So John tells us more.  Repentance…

We are called to repentance.  Most of us when we think of repentance we think of remorse or contrition.  But I like this definition better because it takes it a step further…To make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one's sins.

By repenting you are saying, I can’t do this on my own.  I can’t…becomes God can.

If you’re familiar with any of the 12 step programs such as AA the first step is saying…I can’t do this on my own…the second step is a power greater than myself can help me…God can help me.

I think we as a church get caught up in the morals of the world and telling everybody what they should and shouldn’t be doing.  We want to either ignore our sins or we want forgiveness of ours…yet we want to judge others.  We like to rely on our baptism and gloss over repentance.

The church needs to be in the business of forgiveness…not morals.  If we are doing the judging then the church becomes us good guys and gals AGAINST the bad guys & gals out there.  Repentance and forgiveness are much more productive the judgment and condemnation. 

If we are preparing for the coming of Christ this seems like a good place to start.

Our gospel reading concludes…with a leveling of the playing field.  Mountain and valleys will be made level…all flesh will see the salvation of God.  A leveling where all flesh will see the kingdom of God.

For those of you who struggle with scripture stating the first shall be last and the last shall be first…this paints a different picture.  It’s not a reversal it’s a leveling.

Rich and poor, slave and free, men and women, young and old, straight & gay…all flesh will see the kingdom of God.  It is a coming together…a meeting in the middle.

We do not live in a perfect world.  We have wars, disease, racism and poverty. 

Far too often we look to the world for salvation.  We put our faith in our stuff, our worldly possessions.  We need to stop looking to the world for God’s salvation and look to Jesus.

We can look to Jesus in scripture

We can look to jesus on the cross

We can look to  jesus in the waters of baptism

We can look to jesus in bread & wine

We can look to jesus in our gathering together

We can look to jesus lying in the manger

 

When you look around the world what do you see?

Do you see our differences?  Do you see our similarities?  Or do you see Jesus?

Imagine how different the world would be if we saw Jesus in everyone we met.

I don’t know if that prepares us for Christ’s coming.  I may not be the one to talk about being prepared.

We had 9 months to prepare for a baby who came on the due date, and we were still caught off guard.  I’m sure there will be some surprises when Jesus comes. 

We have no due date…but we can all prepare.  We can repent, we can work to eliminate division and level the playing field, and we can see Christ in everyone we meet.

And by doing so we can prepare for the coming of Christ.