This is Epiphany Sunday.

Technically tomorrow is Epiphany. It is always on January 6th. It is the 12th day of Christmas. If you know the song, 12 days of Christmas, tomorrow is the 12th day. In the Eastern Christian church, tomorrow is Christmas.

When my seminary class did our cross-cultural to Turkey we got there on January 2nd. On January 6th, when we went to church, we watched their Christmas pageant with their children, because they were celebrating Christmas day.

Not so much in the U.S. But we like to still lift it up. Sometimes it is a Sunday where we talk about the Magi because the Magi did not get there at the same time that the shepherds were there. Things just didn’t work out quite that way. We just like to put it together in a neatly packaged story.

But, today I chose this reading from Luke because we are in the Gospel of Luke for our lectionary this year.

I love this reading about Simeon and Anna. I think it’s a lovely story. So, that’s the one that I thought I wanted to bring up today. And as I was doing my readings recently, a story came up for me about the Maasai people.

The Maasai people are nomadic people who live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are herders, and they have cattle, sheep, and goats, and they move based on feeding their livestock. Because they move around, they meet each other at different times. Other people that are part of their tribe. The greeting that they always do when they meet another person, another messiah is, “How are the children?”

I just want you to sit on that question for a minute. The answer that they’re hoping for is the children are well because the Messiah people understand that the children are the most vulnerable in their society and if the children are being cared for, then everyone is being cared for.

The Maasai tribe understands that even if you don’t have a child, the well-being of the children is your responsibility. Everyone takes responsibility for the well-being of the children.

I just wonder if that’s not something we should think about. As a congregation for 2025, I’m suggesting that we become the beloved community that would be concerned about the well-being of the children.

Think about our community. Think about our country. Could we answer that the children are well?

We don’t know why Simeon and Anna came up to this child when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple for his dedication. It was part of the law that the firstborn son was to be dedicated to God, to the Lord. So, they did this.

One of the first early ones is in the Bible, and there’s a good bit made about it was when Hannah dedicated Samuel. Hannah also was one who had prayed for a child, and then a child was given to her, and she dedicated Samuel to God. But here, Joseph and Mary come to the temple, they’re following the law.

Luke is reminding us that yes, they are Jewish. They are Jewish and in good order, right? They know the law. They are following the custom, the tradition. They’re bringing this child to be dedicated. It’s also for Mary’s purification. That’s part of it, too, so that she will be considered clean again.

But Simeon and Anna come up to this child and then Simeon sees something in this child. There is something different about this child that we know as Jesus. In their language, it would have been Yeshua, which means the Lord saves. His name means the Lord saves.

And then we have this part, “Now let your servants go in peace for my eyes have seen the salvation” – Luke 2:29.

It’s called the song of Simeon and I read it every at every funeral. It’s the commendation prayer. That’s the song of Simeon. The note de Midas is the Latin for it, meaning it is the dismissing. You are now dismissing that as Simeon’s. Call of liberation, his song of liberation. He no longer feels that he is under Roman at the Roman empire. His soul is at peace because he has met the Lord, the Lord’s salvation. He is just a member of the Lord or a slave to the Lord, not to the Roman empire any longer, and his soul can depart in peace.

It’s quite powerful. I hope the next time you attend a funeral here, which I hope is not anytime soon, you listen for that. Because I almost always do it. I don’t know how many other people do that prayer at funerals, but it’s a beautiful prayer about how God is making the world right. Even if that means that we have lost someone, we are at peace. It’s acknowledging that we are at peace as Simeon was at peace. Now that he has met this baby.

Anna agrees. Anna just supports what Simeon has said. Usually in Luke, he tends to favor the women. Luke tends to give women voices. And in this one, Simeon gets the voice. Simeon gets to say everything and Anna just goes along with it and supports it. But it’s a lovely story.

So, if we have been redeemed, if our salvation has come, if the light of the world has come, and now it is our job to carry that light into the world, what does that look like?

How do we carry the light into the world? Well, that’s where I thought Colossians 3:12-17 tied nicely to this. I boiled it down to just a few items.

So being the light of the world means clothing ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. What if those were our top virtues? What if that is what we valued? Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. That to me is being the light of the world.

It’s not easy, and we always fail. Sometimes we’re better than others. But we have the ability to remind ourselves that we also get forgiven. Because God does not expect perfection. God expects that we will try. That we will do it to the best of our ability.

So we are called to be the light. Remember, the light is what all of creation needs. If the sun went away the rest of us would wither. Everything needs light to grow and to be healthy. However, if we have too much light, we’re blinded, right? Too much light is blinding. We can’t see anything. So we have to be enough light without being overpowering.

But the light that we are to be is to be a light that attracts others to shine.

We want them to say, “I want to know what they know. I want to live like that. I want that peace. I want that love. I want to be that compassionate and kind. That patient.” I know that’s one of my challenges. I could always be more patient with myself and others.

So how will you be the light of the world in your place? We can’t affect the whole world, but you can affect the people around you.

How will you be the light of the world in 2025? And how are the children? Are they well?

May it be so. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast

When I think about Humility, this verse always comes to my mind, “To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8

They’re the words of the prophet Micah. When I was thinking about the story of Christmas, I thought, where was humility involved? I decided to start talking about Charles Dicken’s character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Because I think Ebenezer needed to learn a bit about humility. He was one who thought that the be all for him was his money. He put all his faith in his ability to live the way he wanted to live, albeit tightly so that he had more money. Money was going to be his salvation. Think about that.

I think there are some other people who look at money as their salvation. Certainly it helps, but money does not save us. And that was the lesson he learned, that although he could control many things, he could not control in life.

Actually, I think being humble is one of those pieces of our faith journey that is very difficult for us.

Because if we’re honest we’re a bit like Ebenezer and we want to do our own lives. We love being independent. We don’t want to have to rely on anyone. We want to do it our way. We have our own agendas, time frames, and lists to be checked. It’s Christmas and I found myself obsessing about the food needing to be made and the gifts needing to be wrapped. It’s part of the season and our culture certainly encourages that feeling, but none of that is about God.

God is asking for a very different reaction from us. I often use the 23rd Psalm in funerals to remind us that our God is the one who wants to run our lives. Who will take us to those gentle streams and those, those fields, but will also sit us down at a table with our enemies. It was not meant to be an easy life, but God is looking for our attention.

As I was thinking about this, I thought about the second and third steps of the 12-step program of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), which, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, created not as a religious organization, but they recognize that part of what we have to do is know that we are not the be all and end all that we think we are. It is not all about us, and there is a higher power to whom we answer. We call that Jesus Christ, God, or the Holy Spirit. Other people might just say the divine, the creator, but there’s someone who is organizing the world and trying to influence the world. It is more than any of us. We have to look at that in our lives and we have to make the decision.

It’s a choice every day. Every moment of every day to stop focusing on ourselves and turn our attention to what God would want for us, what Christ wants for our lives.

What is Christ calling us to do? The wording I’ve been using is, what’s the next most loving thing to do? Because I think that’s what Jesus calls us to. What is the loving decision, the loving choice in each of the moments?

Today we are looking at the character of Joseph.

Our scripture today is Matthew 1:18-25 and it’s Matthew’s version of the Christmas story. Remember, Matthew had a very definite goal. Matthew wants to make sure that we know that Jesus is Jewish and is in the line of David.

When you start Matthew 1, the first 17 verses is all of his genealogy, which goes all the way back to Genesis, but connects Jesus to David. Interestingly, through Joseph, but connects the dots for us and then gives us this image of this earthly father. Stepfather is the language we would use today, who will come into Jesus’s life and guide him in a loving way.

It wasn’t the decision he had to make. Divorce was an option. We think of divorce as after people are married and that may not be a good translation either because they weren’t married. She was promised to him. There was a contract. Because that’s how marriage worked at that time. So, he could have said this pregnancy makes it null and void and that would be our language of a contract, right? The contract’s null and void. I don’t need to marry her, I can break this contract and walk away. I don’t need to be part of this.

But had he done that, he would have left Mary in a very desperate position, because at that time you needed to have a male to have any kind of power or money. She would have been destitute and very likely she could have been stoned because they would have thought that she had an affair with a married man, so it could have cost her her life.

But that wasn’t the decision he made. He made the decision for love. He chose life instead of death. And that’s at the heart of this story. I think that God wants us to choose love and to choose life.

Unfortunately, I have to name that this feels very political right now. So, I also need to say that as I affirm choosing love and choosing life, that is not necessarily at someone else’s expense.

The abortion conversation has become politicized and it’s a health decision and they are all individual cases. We don’t know what is going on in the lives of people, but we can still advocate for love and for life. I think we can hold both of those pieces because advocating for life means you advocate for the entire life of the child. Not just it’s birth.

So as we approach the end of the year, I want you to consider what challenges you met this year with God’s strength. How did God help you get through this year?

Where did God help you adapt, pivot, or show resilience as you may have met some struggle in your life? What small or big milestone can you honor without ranking or judging? Where did you act with love? Where did you show humility, instead of insisting that it be your way?

Those are big questions for us to sit with. So, I hope that between now and the end of the year, you take some time to consider that. It really does come down to that old Deuteronomy, where Moses looks at the people and he says, “life is laid out before you choose life or choose death.”

The decision is yours. We can’t avoid death. But we can avoid some of the heartache, struggle and the pain. Because we cause a lot of our own issues. We can avoid that by choosing love, choosing humility, and choosing life.

May it be so. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast

What do you think joy is?

We heard from the kids. It was pretty clear that joy was connected to happiness for them. Is there anything that you could add to that?

I think joy is more than happiness. I think it’s different, even, than happiness. It’s connection, love, being home, a big smile, something that can be found, the feeling after helping someone and the absence of fear.

I don’t know how many of you have seen Inside Out. Inside Out’s a cute Pixar movie about the emotions that go on within us. They’re animated and that is a picture of Joy. Joy is just happiness on steroids. And part of the storyline is that Joy tries to run this little girl’s life, and she finds that the little girl is absolutely miserable because Joy won’t let her experience anything else except ultimate joy.

That’s not the way life is. You know, when someone hurts you, your feeling is not joy like that. The little girl on the right also can have joy, but is expressing it very differently.

When I think about joy, joy is a deeper emotion for me. It’s not just about being happy.

There’s connection and it involves doing something for someone else. It involves something that makes us feel like home. Something that is deeper, that we can find within us. Not something exterior, but something interior. Happiness is a feeling about us. You can be happy because you have a bowl of ice cream, but that’s not this deeper joy.

The deeper joy often comes from doing something selfless. Something that’s directed towards someone else. You can be grateful because you can help someone and it’s not all about us. Whereas, I think happiness is very self driven. Very, “this is what makes me happy.” But, this is what gives me joy, when I’m doing things for others, and when I’m focused on somebody other than myself.

I think that’s how Joy ties in to Philippians 4:4-7. Think about how is this directing us?

“Love one another with mutual affection; Outdo one another in showing honor. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; practice hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” – Philippians 4:4-7 Abbreviated.

Is that about us or is that about others? To me, that’s about others. It’s about the experience of others. Although prayer could be about us too, right?

Now I want to talk about Luke 1:26-38 which sets us up for Mary and trying to understand who Mary was. That’s part of our challenge today.

If we look at the scripture, it doesn’t really give us a lot. It tells us that she was young, but young was of marrying age at that time. It tells us that she was engaged or promised. I almost hate using the word engaged, because when we think about engagement, we think about two people who have found each other and love each other and whereas promised, I think gets a little bit closer to what relationships were still like at that time. Marriages were still more contractual. Love probably wasn’t involved. But at that time, that wasn’t as important as having a male heir to inherit what one has, leave one’s legacy, one’s name, those kind of things.

We know also that Mary has a cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is the one that she runs to after this encounter with the angel Gabriel. Whether that’s because she wants to have somebody to talk about this experience with, someone that might understand. But, it also raises questions because there’s an absence of information.

Quite a few years ago, I did a sermon from Mary’s perspective, and I wrote it that Mary’s parents were not pleased. They were not keen on this whole, “I’m pregnant by the Holy Spirit” piece. But, this week I heard two ideas. They’re just things to help us open our minds.

One said that Mary was an orphan. I never thought about that. But, maybe that’s why there’s no mention of Mary’s parents. Maybe Mary didn’t have parents. We don’t know that. We don’t know why Mary was alone and went only to her cousin. We don’t know.

It was an imperfect situation with Mary. She’s young. She’s not married. This could really mess her up. But, she also is a person of faith. So, she does say yes. That was the other piece that I read, was that it had to be a woman who wasn’t married yet, unlike Elizabeth. Because a woman who’s married at that time would have had to ask her husband for permission before she said yes.

I think that’s a powerful piece that we don’t think about. A woman at that time would not have been able to make that decision on her own. But Mary was. And Mary did have faith in God. Mary did believe. And if Mary was alone in the world, I could see where wanting to be loved and needing someone to love is a strong reason to say yes to something that others would say is crazy.

Would you say yes if an angel came to you tonight and told you that you could become pregnant? Males, how would you feel if your wife came to you and said, “the spirit has come to me and told me that I’m going to bear a child.” That’s not an easy thing to put your mind around.

But I remember being a teenager who felt alone, who needed to be loved, who needed someone to love. When we look at our teenagers, we need to be thinking that way, too.

We need to make sure that they feel loved. That they feel accepted for who they are and remind them that they are children of God. That God loves them just as much as God loves everyone else.

So, Mary said yes. Mary said yes to living because living doesn’t mean it’s going to be all happy and joyful. The joy of living means going through the hard stuff, but knowing that you don’t go through it alone. Even if you physically appear to be alone, God is with you. The spirit is with you and it takes an inner sense of knowing. Looking deeper than the physical circumstances around us to know that, but it is in knowing that where we can find joy.

We’re living through an interesting time where there’s a lot of people who are not feeling joy right now. There is a lot of fear, a lot of worry and anxiety about the future on many levels in many different ways.

We are called to be that light and to share that joy that we know that comes from our relationship with Christ. We are called to be the light in the darkness right now.

I was in two rooms with people near death, and I was in conversation with someone. Who is telling me that if this one thing doesn’t happen, then life isn’t worth living. I’m trying to say, there is more to living.

This one thing may not work out, no matter how hard you pray. And they are praying with all their might. But sometimes we have to just rest in the joy of knowing that we are loved because life has hard spots and we are called to be the light in the darkness.

May it be so. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast

On this second Sunday of Advent, we’re talking about waiting. I’m wondering, how well do you wait?

Think of the places and times you’ve had to wait. How good are you at that? At waiting in long lines? Waiting for news about a test? Waiting for something to happen? I know there’s quite a few young people among us who are waiting for a special day this month.

We all wait differently, but I think our ability to wait has a lot to do with how much patience we have. When I was thinking about patience, I realized that patience is directly correlated with peace. It’s very difficult to find peace if one is not patient. They go together.

One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that we believe Christ has been born and is the Messiah, and yet we don’t fully realize what that means.

Because we haven’t as a world found peace. We’re in this in between space. This paradox is actually the tension between Christianity and Judaism, because we say the Messiah has come. They say, if the Messiah had come, there would not be injustice anymore. There would not be hatred. There would be peace on earth. We have this tension there. What does this peace on earth look like? How do we make that come about?

One of the scriptures that is used this Sunday is about John and the Baptist. One of the pieces that he talks about with the messiah coming is that is that “Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plane” – Isaiah 40:4.

It’s this evening out that is supposed to happen with the messianic age. We don’t have that yet. We’re still on our way towards that.

While we are in this time of waiting, let’s talk about Zachariah a little bit. I think Zachariah and Elizabeth can be a model for us on how it is to wait.

When I think about Zachariah and Elizabeth, for me, it brings up Abraham and Sarah, an older couple who thought that they were beyond childbearing, who suddenly are going to bear a child, because of what God is doing. God is in the midst of this. And he can’t even talk about it. He has to wait in silence, so to speak.

He is able to write, because I wondered about that. I thought, well, can’t he just write this all down? It appears that he doesn’t write anything down until John is born. He writes down his name will be John and then his speech is returned.

But can you imagine having that kind of wonderful news? Maybe a little scary too, right? Could be a little fear in there. Some of us in here are beyond childbearing years. How about if somebody told you you were going to have a child? I enjoy having that grandson that I love to death and then I give him back to his mother.

That’s where they were. They were in this expectancy. Imagine it. This almost but not yet. The paradox.

Then we have Romans 12:18-27. ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

It’s so important that I would challenge you to read it every single day this week. Just keep reading it every day because it is the heart of Christianity. It’s about focusing on love and how can we love others in a better way.

How do we do that? It starts with let love be genuine. It’s not about putting on a mask and being kind. It’s about really being kind, wanting to do that from your heart and reminding yourself each day, what that’s about.

The part we didn’t read the next verse, Romans 12:19, goes into “vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” God will take care of all the other stuff. Our role is to love others, to not get caught up in our stuff, so that we can see the needs of others.

The words we used in raising our children were helpful, thoughtful, and kind. That was their goal. Every day you needed to be helpful, thoughtful, and kind. If we just took that to heart, we would be closer. But I want to encourage you to sit with that.

I know that right now life is difficult. There’s a lot of us that are grieving for many different reasons that life just feels overwhelming. So, I want to share with you this meditation practice. It’s called RAIN.

RAIN is an acronym and it was created by Tara Brock. These are the four steps.

Recognize: What’s going on? Recognize the situation and how you are reacting to it. Recognize, look at your feelings. When something happens, notice your body. Are you clenching up? Do you feel all jittery? What’s happening? Just notice it because in noticing it, it gives you some space to then allow it.

Allow: This is the let it be and let God by allowing it, noticing it and allowing it. We give room for the spirit and the spirit has space and time to work with us. There’s another phrase that says, what we resist persists. So don’t resist it.

Investigate: Be curious, go for it. That will take you from a place of maybe anger or frustration. Be curious, go into that wonder. What’s this about? Why am I feeling like this? What’s going on here?

Nurture: Be kind to yourself too. Give yourself grace. Forgive yourself. Allow God to speak to your heart. Listen to your heart. Because that divine, I often talk about the little bit of the divine that is in each of us. We can learn to hear it. When we practice listening to it. Let’s practice that. Let’s work on those muscles.

When I was preparing last week’s sermon, there was a lot about the muscle of hope. Well, I think there’s a muscle here too, because we only experience peace when we practice peace. We will only find it elsewhere when we have it first within us. If we go looking for peace outside of us. We’re not going to find it.

It has to start here.

So I encourage you to think about that this week. Pay attention to how you’re feeling in the different situations. Allow God and the spirit within you to take care of you so that you can be there for others.

May it be so. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast

This is our week to begin this period of waiting and watching.

This period is where we look for what new thing is God doing in this world. How is God breaking into our world today? What hope, peace, love, and joy is God bringing?

The thing I was sitting with was this idea of what are we longing for right now? And as I was writing this sermon, my dog came up and pestered me. I thought, I know what she wants. She wants fewer people. It’s been a busy week. She wants fewer people in the house, fewer dogs in the house, and a little bit less noise. Let’s go back to normal, right? Let’s have that normal life again, that simpler life.

But the reality of normal is that we’re using those rose-colored glasses. What we think is normal is more of a dream that probably never existed anyway. We paint everything and smooth out all the edges so that we only remember the good parts and forget all the hard parts. But life is hard. That’s a reality.

We need to remember that the point of coming together is so that we support one another in all of the hard stuff. It can be nice to support one another in the fun stuff and the good stuff. We all like that. But we need one another in the hard stuff and when life gets real.

So, I was thinking about, based on our vision and mission, what are we longing for?

What came to me was compassionate care for creation. Our scripture today (Luke 2:1-3 & Romans 8:18-25) is about creation, and we’re looking to give that compassionate care and to share that with one another, with the world, and with our community.

To try to be there for one another. What does that look like? Well, back in early November, I read this article by Guy Sayles, who is a pastor in Western North Carolina. He wrote about the experience of Hurricane Helene, where the mountains of North Carolina never experienced anything like that before.

What he talked about first was a quote from Mr. Rogers that Mr. Roger’s mother always told him when things were going wrong, “Look for the helpers. There are always helpers.”

Who are the helpers and what are they doing? He started looking around at what was happening in his community, which was devastated. Hurricane Helene was a leveler or an equalizer of sorts. I don’t mean that in a good way. But, it brought the helpers. It brought the religious and the other non-profit volunteers to help. It brought FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers. It brought the North Carolina National Guard and the state and local agencies.

But more than that. It brought neighbors out to help one another. A woman who had rain barrels started tapping off the water so that people had water to flush their toilets. Another neighbor who had a generator put it in their driveway and set it up as a charging station so everybody could come and charge their phones or other devices. Neighbors who had freezers that no longer had electricity started handing out the food because it was going to thaw and go bad.

Guy said people would sit around the generator as their devices were charging and they got to know one another. They learned to trust one another. They became a community. They gave each other hope in the middle of this disaster. They were there for each other. That’s where our hope can come from.

So today we have this letter from Paul.

If you are a regular attendee, you know that I struggle with Paul because he has this circular logic that he uses and you can get very confused. But before I get to that, I do want to talk about the fact that this is Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. I usually say to the churches in Rome, and I’m afraid that I might be misrepresenting that to you. They didn’t have cathedrals and the Vatican didn’t exist, this was before that.

At the time of Paul’s letters people were gathered in homes and they were of all ages and all economic groups. They were the merchants, the slaves, and even the destitute. They all came together, just like in Acts. They talk about everyone came together and shared as there was need. Kind of like that story about the hurricane. Same idea. These communities would come together and the message of Jesus’s love, the available salvation, and this equalizing love. Everybody was included. It was this inclusiveness that attracted the people and the reason Christianity grew.

So to them, Paul is saying the difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. Some of us know what it’s like to be pregnant. It’s uncomfortable and it’s challenging, but it’s not only around us, it’s within us. I think right now, when I look at the world and I look at us, we want something new. We want something new to come out. We want more justice for people. Not less. We want more inclusivity. We want more freedom, not less. We want more liberty, not less.

Imagine a pregnant person, how we get larger. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us, but that is our hope. That is this thing that God is building among us. But, the longer we wait, the larger we become and the more joyful our expectancy. So something is coming. A real justice with peace that we don’t know what that looks like yet.

But it’s going to be hard to get there. It’s going to involve pain and it’s going to mean that we have to come together and work together to survive it.

As I was walking the dogs yesterday morning, another dog walker had lost his gentle leader.

So this morning I brought him a gentle leader and handed it to him. He said I feel like other dog owners are supporting me. And I said, well, isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? That’s being community. I have something that I no longer need and you need it. Why would I not give it to you? I don’t need anything. You don’t need to buy it from me. I can just give it to you.

Our materialistic consumeristic culture starts to program us where we think that we have to pay for everything and we think that if we own it then it’s worth something and we ought to get something for it. Maybe we can just share this idea of justice.

So do we really long for a better world? Do we really want to figure out more of what this hope that’s coming is about?

Advent is a reflective season where we’re called to think. It’s not by chance that this hits in December as the trees have now let go of their leaves. They’re going into this dormant time. The nights are getting longer. We’re to rest more and take more time to slow down.

And what do we do instead? Fill everything with lights, loud music, and bright colors as we try to ward off the darkness. But if we can accept some of the darkness, we can light a candle. We don’t have to be in the pitch dark, but if we can take the time to stop and to give thanks to God, then to think, to reflect on our days.

Where was I merciful? Where was I loving and where did I fail? Because we all have those moments that aren’t our best.

It’s good for us to think about these and then to listen to our hearts because that’s where the still small voice of God is speaking. That’s where Christ meets us, in the quiet and the listening.

Can we give ourselves some time to do that? To listen deeply for what Christ is calling us to hope and long for. Then watch and wait with patience.

May it be so. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast

As I said our theme for Advent will be “Through the Eyes of a Child”, where we’ll focus on the awe and the wonder.

Because as I listen, I hear a lot of people who are still really struggling in life. We have a lot of grief, whether from a multitude of losses, even just the changes within the church, there’s still this grieving. The way to work with the grief is not to ignore it, but to also focus our minds and our hearts on awe and wonder.

So I wanted to start by getting you to think about the beauty of children. It might be a little easier today since our children’s choir got up for the first time in a long time and sang for us. But before you go to any kind of sentimental thoughts about the children, I want to emphasize a child’s ability to stay in that place of expectation, especially the younger ones, they wake up expecting to have a good day. For the most part, they’re expecting good things to happen, surprises, because they may learn something new that they didn’t know before. They may have an experience they’ve never done before. They live in this perpetual awe and wonder.

But I think as we get older, we lose track of that. And in the NRSV, more than in Peterson’s, what wasn’t there was this word, worry.

The NRSV focuses on our worry and letting go of our worry because that worry gets in the way of seeing the things that God is doing around us. It stops us from being amazed at the wildflowers, as Peterson puts it. Or at the traditional language that you might be used to is “consider the lilies and how they grow” – Luke 12:27

When we’re worrying about whatever, then we miss all the rest. We miss that other part. It gets in the way of our ability to be grateful, to give thanks. So trying to turn our minds maybe a bit towards gratitude, towards what we already have.

So like this person, sitting at their computer and they can’t figure out their password. Sitting with that aggravation. Whereas we should just be grateful that there are such things as computers. Or maybe we should be grateful for ways to communicate other than computers, right? The computer doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all of our lives.

I read a story this week about a man who came into church and during the songs he got up and started dancing and clapping and singing.

Then during the sermon he continued and during the prayers. People were looking at him because that’s not the way we behave in church. The ushers tried to escort him kindly out of the room. And after church, they did like all good church people do. They had a meeting, a committee. A committee got together and said, “What do we need to do about this man who was dancing and singing during worship?” They decided they would go out and visit him and help him to understand.

When they got there, he was plowing his field. They said to him, “you know, that thing you did on Sunday?” And he said, “Absolutely!” He said, “Look at this land. God gave me all this land to work and provide food for my family and income to help provide for us. I am so grateful. I have so much to be grateful for. Look at my family. God gave me this family and they are wonderful. I am so proud of them. They share so much love with me and I’m able to share with them. I’m just bursting with thanks for God. Where else should I go with that? But to church on Sunday.”

I wonder how we would react if someone started dancing and singing through worship. I’m afraid we might act more like the ushers and elders in the story, more like the Pharisees, maybe of the stories of Jesus saying, “You don’t do that on Sunday.” We want you to be grateful, but not that grateful.

Do we stop people in there having some awe and wonder at the grace, love, and provision of God?

Something to think about, because this scripture (Matthew 6:25-34) was meant to be a blueprint. It was meant to say enjoy life.

This particular little piece is about relaxing and appreciating what you have. Notice it. Maybe even have some fun with it. When was the last time you played dress-up? I don’t do that anymore, except maybe with my grandkids. They’ll get me to act goofy. But we have to remember how to have fun, to relax, and to give thanks.

I learned this week that there is this whole thing called FOMO. I didn’t know that was a thing. That shows my age. So FOMO is the fear of missing out. People have a fear that they’re missing something in life. That might be who we are. We just didn’t know it. We didn’t know it was called FOMO.

But when Jesus was talking to these people, he knew that they lived under the oppression of Rome. He knew that they didn’t have a lot of clothing or food, but they also probably weren’t starving. They knew how to be a community. They knew how to come together and share. So that everyone would have what they needed. That’s what Acts tells us they did in the beginning. So they came together and they shared as every one had needs.

Today, I want to invite you to become like children. And there are two verses that stuck out for me.

In this one from Matthew 5:44, Jesus says, “But I say to you, love your enemies.” This is a really hard one. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So that you may be children of your father in heaven.”

God wants us to be like children. In Matthew 18:3, Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom.”

So an invitation as we get ready to start the advent season, I know. 30 days till Christmas. Today’s the 24th. It did dawn on me that we are a month ahead in planning because we already are planning the music for Christmas Eve this week because we try to stay a month ahead with the bulletins. It is a month from today that will be here for Christmas Eve and that month will go very quickly. This is that time of year when we start focusing on all of the other things, the clothing, the packages, and the food.

I’m going to invite you to stop at least once a day and be grateful. Just stop and take time to breathe and be grateful. All that you already have, all that you already are, and all that we can do together.

This is how I learned about FOMO. This came in my calm app. There’s only one reason why you’re not experiencing bliss in this present moment. And it’s because you’re thinking or focusing on what you don’t have.

So know that here, no one is bad, no matter what. That’s the things that we tell ourselves, or that we tell each other. We have differences of opinions, but All Are Welcome. All are part of us, and we will work through the differences. That’s life. Life never goes the way everybody wants it to. Joys and sorrows are part of life, but we are here so that we can do this together. This thing called life to support one another, to encourage one another, and to remind one another of the love and the grace that we have through Jesus Christ. Our savior. Amen.

Like this Sermon? Click Here to View More in this Series

Prefer to Listen to this Sermon? Click Here to Listen to our Being Apostles Podcast