Thursday, December 28, 2017
Sermon: Each Light A Prayer
Isaiah 9:2-7
I was reading a sermon by Timothy Cargal, (yes, pastors listen to and read
other pastor’s sermons, how else would we be spiritually fed?) and in it he
talks rather humorously about how, “One of the great cultural traditions of
modern American Christmas observances is the use of lights. Everything that
doesn’t move is decorated with lights. Christmas trees are recognizable by
their lights, and indeed as more and more types of trees are used as Christmas
trees, the more it is the presence of the lights that identifies them as such.
Lights are put around lampposts. We hang lights from the eaves and awnings of
our homes, and around windows and doorframes. Lighted fixtures and images are
arrayed in front yards, and those that are not self-lighted are bathed in
spotlights. Without a moment’s embarrassment at the brazen self-interest,
electrical power companies promote contests for the best and most elaborate
seasonal displays.” He then goes on to talk about the psychological reasons
that we do this during the darkest time of year, when the days are short and
the nights are long.
During the gloom of December, as long as the kerosene lamps were ablaze he
could endure the long nights. But if there was no kerosene his father would become
violent and angry from his fear. The year when Roger was nine particularly
stands out in his memory. 37 inches of snow had fallen in three weeks, and more
was coming. They hadn’t been able to get into town to buy oil or candles and on
Christmas Eve – both ran out. Roger’s mother called a mile distant neighbor on
the phone, pleading for any extra kerosene they might have.
On those blizzard shrouded days there was little to do. One pastime was
rubbernecking (some of you will know what that is, it is when there are 18
families on a party telephone line, each with its own distinguishable ring.
Well, even if the call wasn’t for you, you could very carefully lift the phone,
cover the mouthpiece and listen in on your neighbor’s conversation.) The
neighbor said she didn’t have any extra oil, and the phone call ended.
What happened a while later was a miracle due to people being nosy. As
Roger stood by the window, he saw lights like fireflies in the distance,
lanterns, seventeen lanterns growing larger as the bearers came nearer. Roger’s
father saw the light and cried out, “The lights – look at the lights.”
Roger says, “They came on that Christmas Eve, the light bearers. But they
bore more than light. Though jobs were scarce and gardens had dried up and the
snow was too deep to care for trap lines, everybody brought something to share.
Tilllie Mauldin had come up with the makings of mincemeat pie. Bill Cooley had
some ground venison. Gyp Matthews brought corn to pop. Thirty people or more
crowded into the tiny living room and kitchen . . . ”
“We sang and laughed and shared far into the night. Ted rolled in our
kerosene barrel, and everyone poured half a lantern-full into it. We would not
be without light.”[1]
The people walking in darkness have
seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.
It isn’t until after he has told us about light that he says:
A child is born to us, a son is given
to us.
He will be named Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
In the darkest night, Isaiah says, there will be light, spiritual hope, and
that hope comes in the form of a child, the Christ.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing says, “Hail! the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, risen with
healing in His wings.”
Do you hear what I hear says, “Pray for peace, people everywhere! listen to
what I say The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night: He will bring us
goodness and light, He will bring us goodness and light.”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and
dreamless sleep The silent stars go by; Yet in thy dark streets shineth The
everlasting Light; The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee
tonight.”
As humans, we crave hope. We want to see dark times vanish, we want the
shadows of evil lifted, we want the lonely midnight hours of the soul to be
lightened by the company of angels. We
want to be standing out in the fields by night and see the glory of the Lord
shining upon us. We crave hope. And the lights that cover our houses, the lights
that cover our trees, the lights that drape our sanctuary represent prayers
from the depths of our spirit, prayers to God to bring light, hope-filled
light, into our world.
Imagine as you drive home that each light on the houses and trees you pass is
a prayer, and some of us really like to pray. But still it is a voice crying
out. The owners of the homes, the people putting out the lights may not realize
it, they may not be aware that they are praying. But deep in their spirits it
is there. The desire for the light to overcome the darkness.
We are aware of the spiritual quest of humanity. We speak quite openly
about our hope that comes from this child of God born many years ago. We
believe that what the angels sang is possible, that there can be peace on
earth, and goodwill among all people, and that this child is part of making
that happen. And we lift our lights to heaven praying that it would be so.
Each candle is a prayer. We are bearers of the lanterns of hope, messengers
of the everlasting light, who come to bear homage to the child in the manger,
who is our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace.
Sermon: 12 Hour Pregnancy
Luke 1:26-38
I remember my seminary professor of worship commenting that one of the
strangest things about Christmas, is that we don’t read the scripture about the
angel appearing to Mary until the last Sunday before Christmas. This year, that
timing is particularly strange because -- with today being Christmas Eve, this
morning we read about Mary being told by an angel that she is pregnant, and
then tonight we will read about her giving birth to Jesus. So in less than 12
hours we will go from Mary hearing about God’s plan, to her being in the very
fulfilment of it.
So the timing of the scriptures this year is relatively entertaining. She
barely has time to buy maternity clothes before giving birth! Amazingly it is
estimated that 1 in 2500 women doesn’t know she’s pregnant until she goes into
labor! There are some wild stories out there. So much so that TLC has a
television show called I didn’t know I was pregnant.
Of course, we know Mary’s pregnancy didn’t really happen like that. And that is what my seminary professor was trying to remind us.
We really ought to read the passage of the angelic visit 9 months before
Christmas – so that we can be part of the slow build up to the birth. Then we
can experience the agonizing decision of Joseph as he planned to disband his
engagement to Mary, and then changed his mind with the help of a dream. We can
enjoy the days, perhaps weeks and months that Mary spent living with her aunt
Elizabeth who was also pregnant. We can wonder with all of them, and ponder
with them what God’s intentions are for this child who is developing and
growing in Mary.
Then as the day nears, and we are in the last month, we can experience the
frustration they must have felt in knowing that they would have to travel for a
census. Yes, it would take longer than our time between services for Mary and Joseph to travel by foot or by slow
footed donkey (if you believe tradition) from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It’s a
trip that takes 2 hours and 10 minutes by car according to Google maps, but for
a pregnant woman walking or riding would take 4 to 7 days. And all of that not
knowing if the baby would be born along the way, or wait until they had reached
Bethlehem.
My professor was trying to remind us, that this was no easy one day
pregnancy. It was an emotional roller coaster, with ups and downs, struggles
and difficulties. And we don’t take enough time to consider all that went into the
preparations for the birth of Christ. We make it sudden, as if it only took a
few days. Imagine if we started reading the angel’s announcement in March, if we
agonized with Joseph in April and May, if we visited with Elizabeth and read
about the joy of their meeting in June. If we heard about the upcoming census
in August, and made travel plans in September and October. And then last week,
we had left with them by foot. For some of us, this would be too much
Christmas! But the power of it would be a reminder that God’s ways are often
slow and deliberate. And that what we read in a few sentences in the bible is
God’s work over months, and sometimes years.
Reading this passage so close to Christmas can give us the illusion that
God’s answers to the world’s problems are quick, like an order on Amazon.com
with delivery by Fed-Ex, absolutely guaranteed to be there the overnight. But
God often takes the slow, grow a messiah in a mother’s womb, let him be a
helpless babe, grow into a child, mature through being a teenager, wait until
he is 30 years old before he goes public, path to salvation.
But, as I was preparing for today, and knowing that we would go from the announcement to the birth in the space of 8 hours, I thought, perhaps there is something for us to learn from hearing the two stories in such a short time, also.
Perhaps there is power in thinking of the birth of Jesus into our world as
a sudden and surprising event that we didn’t really have time to prepare for.
Because honestly, that is how it was for most of the world. Mary had time
to prepare, but the shepherds in the fields didn’t. Suddenly there were angels
singing in a heavenly host around them. And they had to decide right then and
there if they were going to go to Bethlehem and see this child who had been
born.
Joseph had time to change his mind, but the innkeeper didn’t. He had to
decide when the couple came to his door, right then and there if he had space
for them.
And sometimes the same thing is very true for each of us. Although we have
time to get our decorations out and ready for Christmas, and although we have
time to consider and reconsider what gifts we are going to give each of our
family members, when it comes to God erupting into our lives it is often a
sudden and unexpected thing that we are not ready for.
For example, this has literally happened to me. I have been driving past
someone’s house, and I have been nagged by God to stop and go in and see them.
As though God is shouting at me, “Now, right now.” Twice I have had that happen
and the person has been on their death-bed with family around. They hadn’t
called me to tell me. But God had.
Or an accident occurs and you are the car right behind it. So you are the
witness, and the first on the scene to try to provide help. You don’t have time
to prepare for that. And yet God is calling you to serve in that moment and to
use your gifts and talents at that moment to help in any way you can. To be an
agent of calm, to summon help, to pray for those involved, to give first aid.
Whatever it is, God is calling you to be present.
Or perhaps you are in prayer, and suddenly God is saying to you, “Hey I
have a job for you to do. A project for you to give birth to that will bless
the word.” God has never put that idea into your mind before, you had never
considered it. A change of profession, a move to a new area, starting of an
outreach to homeless, or opening a pre-school in the church. But there it is –
a calling from God. Suddenly later that day a door opens in your life and the
very opportunity that God shared with you in prayer is available, and you
simply are not ready. It is too sudden! But you know that you have to decide
now, whether you are ready or not.
That’s where Mary becomes a role model for us. She stands there in shock and surprise with an angel standing before her and she says, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.”
She is a role model of listening to God’s surprising news, listening to
God’s sudden and unexpected announcement and saying, “Yes.” So for all those
moments when God throws us into ministry, into service, when God calls us
without warning – she reminds us as unready as we are, we can enter into the
whirlwind of God’s call upon our lives. Oh, yes we will wonder what is going to
happen next. But before we know it, time whirls by and the next thing we know
God’s promises are coming true for us. It is the sudden and surprising that
leads to the long range and the life changing.
Yes, there is something for us to learn from this amazing 12 hour
pregnancy, it is that when God bursts into your world, say, “Yes” and be
prepared for the blessings that follow. What unfolds may take weeks, months or
years to come to fruition, but it is the suddenness of God’s call that begins
the process. So this morning we celebrate the surprising nature of God’s call –
which can come out of nowhere like an angel appearing to us – and we
contemplate what it means for us to say, “Yes.”
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Another Year Is Dawning
Frances Ridley Havergal was an English poet and hymn writer
– her best known hymns from our hymn book are Take My Life and Let It Be and Lord,
Speak to Me That I May Speak. She showed signs of being very intelligent
very young, began writing verse at age seven, but was discouraged from rigorous
study by delicate health. Yet she still took a year to study music in Germany,
was able to speak several modern languages along with biblical Greek and
Hebrew, and published many books of hymns. She died too young at 42. (Thanks to
the wholesomewords.org for links to a number of biographies on her!)
In one of her letters to a friend she said this about
writing hymns: 'Writing is praying with me, for I never seem to write even a
verse by myself, and I feel like a little child writing. You know, a child
would look up after every sentence and say, "What am I to say next?"
That is just what I do. I ask that at every line He would give me not merely
thought and power, but also every word even the very rhyme. Very often I have a
most distinct and happy consciousness of direct answers.' (Popular Hymns and Their Writers by Normal Mable, 1951).
All of that is background for what follows – one of her
verses written specifically for New Year’s.
ANOTHER YEAR IS DAWNING
Another year is dawning,
Dear Master, let it be,
In working, or in waiting,
Another year with Thee.
Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace;
Another year of gladness
In the shining of Thy face.
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days.
Another year of service,
Of witness of Thy love,
Another year of training
For holier work above.
Another year is dawning,
Dear Master, let it be
On earth, or else in heaven
Another year for Thee.
--Frances Ridley Havergal (1874)
There is much that I like about that hymn, and I pray that
you will reflect upon it, and use it in prayer and preparation at the beginning
of this new year! By the way she also has a wonderful reflection called “Twelve
reasons for attending church on a wet Sunday”, which is worth looking into and
reading, but I will save that for next month!
Sermon: Sowing Tears
Psalm 126
I have been listening to Christmas Carols on the radio while driving. I
joked with Kristi that every time I get in the car I hear at least one of these
three songs: White Christmas, Silver Bells, and Blue Christmas they are so overplayed.
So then we took a 10 minute drive to Arby’s for lunch together and what
happened – they played White Christmas, and Blue Christmas – but no Silver
Bells.
Well, if I were going to play one of those three songs today as part of my
sermon, it would be Blue Christmas. You see, one of the realities of Christmas
is that it comes with tears. Every Christmas as we gather in the church for
Christmas Eve it is a different gathering. There are those who are no longer
part of our lives, those that we are separated from by changes in relationship,
by moves, or by death – and we deeply miss them. But there are also those that
are new in our midst that remind us that there are new joys, new lives, and new
relationships and these bring hope and gifts for tomorrow.
This interplay of joy and sorrow is captured well by Psalm 126.
Psalm
126
When
the Lord changed Zion’s circumstances for the better,
it was like we had been dreaming.
Our
mouths were suddenly filled with laughter;
our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.
It
was even said, at that time, among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them!”
Yes,
the Lord has done great things for us,
and we are overjoyed.
Lord,
change our circumstances for the better,
like dry streams in the desert waste!
Let
those who plant with tears
reap the harvest with joyful shouts.
Let
those who go out,
crying and carrying their seed,
come home with joyful shouts,
carrying bales of grain!
As I read the psalm I was captured by one of its lines. “Lord, let those
who plant with tears, reap the harvest of joyful shouts.” And I began to
reflect on the image that that created in my mind.
I imagined a person going out to their garden and weeping, with the tears
running down their cheeks. And then that person takes those tears and carefully
plants them in the ground. Over time the tears sprout into plants and they
grow. What they grow into, I am not sure. I guess it is just a time of growing
and waiting for the expected vegetables to grow. The plants flower, they are
pollenated, and then begins to grow what the gardener wanted. Weeks or perhaps
months later the vegetable is ready to pick. In this case, the vegetable is
joy. Such joy that you want to shout.
As I reflected on that image I began to wonder how our sadness and tears
can grow into joy. How are the two emotions related to one another? When have
you seen one transform into the other?
Now I know that the writer of the Psalm may not have meant it to be a
picture like the one I created in my mind. I realize that they simply may have
watched people planting with tears in their eyes because the times were tough –
they were being oppressed and under the power of others. And then later when
the harvest was happening the situation was changed and the threat to their
lifestyles was gone.
But even when you see the image that way, the emotions are connected.
People rejoice because what once was heavy upon them is gone. The sorrow and
the joy are still bound together, they are related, and one transforms into the
other. And so I decided to ask you – for your wisdom as a group. Because you
have been through tough times, I know you have shed tears, and I also know that
God has sometimes turned those tears to joy.
The sermon today is not just me sharing my words. You see, I knew that you
have sat here and listened to the kids, and heard the Christmas story from them
with its message of hope and peace, and you might be ready to do something more
interactive. So I am changing my approach today, and asking all of us to contribute
our life experience as we talk about three questions. Just three, so don’t be
afraid to speak up! I won’t keep us going forever with a thousand questions. We
can take our time and answer a little more deeply and get several viewpoints in
answer to each. Ready?
Question 1. How are sorrow and joy related?Question 2. How do you see God involved in transforming one into the other?Question 3. What advice do you give to someone who is right now planting tearful seeds?
Thank you all for sharing your wisdom. For those of us who are feeling blue
this Christmas, there was some great insight and advice there.
I think the greatest joy of this passage is the promise that our tears can
be turned into joyful shouts. It can happen. As Isaiah 61:11 says, “As the
earth puts out its growth, and as a garden grows its seeds, so the Lord God
will grow righteousness and praise before all the nations.” There is water for
the desert, and life in Christ. Thanks be to God.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Sermon: Comfort
Isaiah 40:1-11
When I was looking over the scriptures for today, I said to myself, You
know what, I love this passage from Isaiah. I used to preach on it frequently
at funerals, but I haven’t in a while. I don’t know why that is, but I haven’t
used it in a while. And it is both somber and hopeful. The opening words shout,
comfort! Here is comfort! And I thought to myself, after a year like this, that
is what we need. We need comfort after a year of hurricanes, we need comfort
after a year of mass shootings, we need comfort after a year where our personal
lives have been thrown into a tailspin by health problems, or marital troubles,
or stresses from work, or unexpected turns of event that we did not want. We
need comfort.
“In one of his books writer and philosopher Loren Eiseley tells about the
time when he was only a young lad and his father died. His father died a slow
death in great bodily torture. Eiseley's mother was deaf. Young Loren alone
heard the sounds of his father's agony. This was before the wide application of
painkilling drugs. Eiseley said a curious thing happened to him during that
very stress filled time. He became so tense that he could no longer bear the
ticking of the alarm clock in his own bedroom. He smothered it with a blanket
but still he heard it as if it were ticking in his own head. He tried to sleep,
but he could not. His distress and loneliness were too great. It was then that
help came.’
“His grandmother saw the light burning in his room in the wee hours and
came to sit with him. Later when it came time for her to begin her own long
journey from which there is no return he touched her hair and knew in those
moments that she had saved his sanity. Into that lonely room at midnight she
had come, abandoning her own sleep, in order to sit with troubled young Loren.
Eiseley never forgot what that meant to him. To know that someone sees and
understands. sometimes that is all we need to know in order to make it through
a time of crisis.”[1]
Well, today’s passage shows that God, like the grandmother sees us in our times
of crisis, when the distress of the situation is too great, and God pulls us
onto God’s lap and holds us.
I’m not making that up, listen to Isaiah 40, some selected verses.
Comfort,
comfort my people! says your God.
Speak
compassionately to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her compulsory
service has ended,
that her penalty has been paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins!
A
voice was saying: “Call out!”
And
another said, “What should I call out?”
All
flesh is grass; all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field.
The
grass dries up and the flower withers
when the Lord’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are grass.
The
grass dries up; the flower withers,
but our God’s word will exist forever.
Go
up on a high mountain, messenger Zion!
Raise
your voice and shout, messenger Jerusalem!
Raise
it; don’t be afraid; say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
Here
is the Lord God, coming with strength,
with a triumphant arm, bringing his reward
with him
and his payment before him.
Like
a shepherd, God will tend the flock;
he will gather lambs in his arms and lift
them onto his lap.
He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
Yes, we need what God is offering in this passage. We need to see God
opening up God’s arms wide and saying, “Take comfort my people, I love you.
Even if it feels like you are being punished, I love you. I love you like a
shepherd cares for the lambs and lifts them onto his lap, the care of one who
is powerful and protective over one who is so fragile. Like a grandmother who
takes an anxious boy onto her arms and sits with him. I love you.”
The beauty of that word, love, is that it isn’t the kind of love that we think of normally. This word in Hebrew is hesed and it is often translated as loving-kindness.
It is a kind of love that is promised to another, it is a love formed in
the bonds of a covenant. It is love that extends to all generations. (Agape
Bible Study).
A similar word from the New Testament Greek is agape which might be described as the highest form of love,
sometimes translated as unconditional love. It is love which is there for us no
matter the time, the place, the situation. Even when times are tough, even when
we have wandered away, the love remains. CS Lewis describes it like this:
“There are two kinds of love: we love wise and kind and beautiful people
because we need them, but we love (or try to love) stupid and disagreeable
people because they need us. This second kind is the more divine because that
is how God loves us: not because we are lovable but because He is love, not
because He needs to receive but He delights to give.” The fact is, not many of
us are good at agape. Most of you
when you encounter a stupid or disagreeable person don’t want to love the
person. But try to love me anyway!
I admit it is hard to love unlovable people. We want to be Krampus to them. Krampus, you say? Krampus is a tradition in Austria and other parts of Europe on December 5th. Krampus is the evil half-goat, half-demon anti-Santa.
Think Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before
Christmas only weirder. Santa
rewards good kids. Krampus gives them coal.[2].
On Krampus night people dress up as this horned, goat man and roam the streets
looking for someone to beat with a stick. Oh, and alcohol is involved – no real
surprise there.[3]
The beatings are generally not harmful and more playful than violent, but hey,
who of us doesn’t have someone we want to beat with a stick, right? I made sure
that I didn’t share this story until after Krampus Night, which was December 5th
had passed, because I didn’t want you all showing up at my doorstep dressed
like demons waving sticks at me! I’d have a heart-attack! People even send
Krampus cards to each other, with pictures of this demon. This tradition says a
lot about us as human beings. Most of us have a hard time loving others
unconditionally – we believe that some people don’t deserve love. They deserve
being beaten with sticks or given coal. We even have a hard time believing that
God could offer them unconditional love.
But Isaiah says, God’s love is the love of a shepherd for a newborn lamb. The shepherd cares not because the lamb is needed, but because that is the nature and role of the shepherd.
God cares for us like that. Or perhaps we might say God’s love is the love
of a grandmother for a grandchild. She loves the grandchild simply because the grandchild
is hers. It is the love of a saint who loves even the stupid and disagreeable
people, because that is what saints do!
This is the God that says, “Comfort, comfort my people!” to us, the God of hesed and the God of agape. God does not want us to weep, to
feel like we are grass that has been dried up in the drought of life, flowers
that have withered in the heat of troubles. God does not want to send Krampus
after us to beat us with sticks. No, God says, your penalty is paid. God wants
us to know that God will gather us up into God’s arms and lift us onto God’s
lap. To help us silent the ticking of the alarm clocks, and to settle our
souls. To wipe the tears from our eyes, as we weep for the hurts of our lives
and our world. To tell us that the sorrows of this life: the hurricanes and the
shootings, and our personal trials and tribulations are like grass and will
wither and fade away, while God, God is eternal. God’s words last forever.
God’s strength does not fade, and with a triumphant arm God brings the reward
for God’s lambs.
God does all this even though we are temporary in comparison with God’s
eternity, even though we are weak in comparison with God’s strength. God’s love
is very real. That love is eternal and strong, and will always comfort us. Ah!
Thank you, Lord! For we need this so much!
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Sermon: Embrace
Isaiah 64:1-9
Every year when December comes, the focus of our church services changes.
For much of the year we focus on what it means to lives as followers of Jesus.
We focus on the things we do, our roles and our tasks. We look at the foibles
of humanity and watch how God works to help us on our way.
But in December we concentrate not on what humanity is doing, nor even how
God is striving to shape humanity; instead, we focus on God breaking through,
tearing open the heavens and coming into our world. We celebrate that God from
time to time is a little less patient with us, and simply bursts into the world
to do new things. I like what one commentator said, “God refuses to be held at
arm’s length from us.”[1]
It makes me think of a few of you when I greet you – if I try to shake your
hand you look at me funny and brush it away and give me a hug. God refuses to
keep shaking the world’s hand -- God rushes in and gives the world an embrace.
“Allan Nelson is a consultant to business operations throughout the world. Allan Nelson is also a deeply committed Christian.’
“He ofttimes walks a fine line through life as he seeks to live out his
Christian faith in the midst of a variety of culture clashes. One such clash
for Mr. Nelson took place in 1978 in a visit to Soweto in South Africa. In a
profound and exciting way he experienced in this land afar off the collapsing
of a circle of innate suspicion and hostility.”
“Mr. Nelson was in South Africa on a business trip to advise American
companies as to how they might best respond to pressures to do something
positive in this world of apartheid. As a church-going man he determined to go
to church somewhere in the city on Sunday morning. Quite intentionally he
sought a place to worship in a black South African congregation. He wasn't at all
sure he would be welcome in such a congregation. But he knew his scriptures. He
knew that in Jesus Christ the barriers that separated people should be broken
down. He hoped he would be accepted.”
“Allan was told that there was such a congregation just five blocks from
his hotel. As he and a friend whom he invited to go with him walked those five
blocks to church he was reminded at each step of the racial barriers that
separated the races in South Africa in those days. "Whites Only" and "Blacks
Only" signs were everywhere. There was no mingling of the races anywhere.
It became more clear to him than ever that white and black in South Africa were
divided by huge walls of practiced hatred. Maybe he shouldn't go to a black
church after all. Allan began to second guess his decision.”
“But then the church loomed just ahead. He consciously submerged his fears
of apartheid and nourished his hopes for a new kind of world where all the
baptized are one in Christ Jesus. Allan and his friend arrived early. They
simply entered the empty church, found a seat, and waited. Slowly the members
of the all black congregation began to file in. No one sat very close to them.
Not close at all! In fact when the sanctuary was filled there was a large
circle of empty seats that surrounded the two white Americans. Here they were.
Two white faces surrounded by a sea of black faces as isolated as an island in
the ocean.”
“A lump came to Allan's throat. His fears now drowned out his hopes.
Perhaps it was too much to expect that the circle of hatred could collapse even
in a Christian church.”
“And then, before the service started, a woman got up and began to sing
"Amazing Grace." Allan described her voice as one of the most
beautiful he had ever heard. Allan was moved by her singing. It was beautiful.
So beautiful, in fact, that when she started to sing verse two some great
impulse from within prompted him to join his tenor voice to her song. They were
singing. Just the two of them black and white in harmony.
An old woman from the back of the church came forward and touched him. "Jesus," she said softly. That was the one bond between them.”
“And then Mr. Nelson committed an illegal act. He embraced the woman. They
both wept. Suddenly, the circle of emptiness around them collapsed. People shoved
up against Allan from every side. His hopes had won out over his fears. There
was, indeed, one church, one baptism! Allan Nelson now says that this event
changed his life forever. "[2]
That’s December in the church. God gets tired of the separation between
heaven and earth and wanders into the midst of our world, and illegally
embraces it across the divide.
The power of this embrace is such that it changes the very way we think
about the way God works in the world. You see, we might be tempted to think
that God is hands-off, distant and seldom involved. We can look at hurricanes
and mass shootings, wars and famines, and think that God doesn’t really care.
But then along comes a child who is the very son of God, into our midst and
says, let me live this beautiful mess with you and show you a different way. “Jesus”
that one word spoken by the woman in South Africa, the one word spoken by God
that brings us together. Suddenly we start to see the work of God in every act
of compassion, in every hand reaching out to help others.
The passage from Isaiah says, “But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter.”
I like the potter and clay image. Imagine for a moment that God is the
potter of the world, of creation. We are clay. Can a potter shape anything by
being hands-off? If the potter refuses to touch the clay, will the clay change
shape? No, of course not, it will just remain a spinning lump. But as soon as
the hand of the potter reaches out and touches it, moving hands carefully and
constantly the piece begins to take shape. December is a reminder that God is
very hands on, helping us to see that God is like a potter with hands on the
world at every moment as it spins through the day. God is shaping, recreating,
and always in contact.
Even more, not only is God in continuous contact with us – once in a while
that isn’t enough even for God. Once in a while, God says, “I’m coming into,
stepping into the world with you. I will be clay too. I will help remove your
imperfections, I will show you what I want you to do and be, I will be clay
with you.”
So each year we remind ourselves that God refuses to be held off by a
handshake, but reaches out to embrace the world. Christ, the child, who is both
human and God, reminds us of this. And even more we remind ourselves that what
God has done in the past, God will do again. God will step into human time and
history and embrace us.
Michael A. Schmid writes the following words in a song of his called Embrace, the chorus goes like this:
“Embraced by Your mercy, Embraced by Your cross, bringing joy in our sorrow
and victory to loss; we embrace Your mission sent forth by Your grace, for it’s
Your hand we cling to and Your future we embrace.” That’s what December is
about in church, every year!
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