Dec. 29, 2019                       Two Kingdoms                              

On Christmas Eve, I spoke about the movie, “It’s a Wonderful life”. I talked about the difference between the world that was Bedford Falls with George Bailey in it, and the world that would have been, Pottersville without George Bailey. I talked about how Jesus Christ was born into the world, so that rather than the world becoming a Pottersville, it would become for us Bedford Falls. And finally, I spoke about how we were called to follow in the way of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to continue to bring into being God’s kingdom in our lives.

This morning, I would like to continue this theme. Bedford Falls is a place where people have a conscience, where they do the right thing, where they help the young and the old, where they take care of those in need, where they provide opportunities to live a reasonable life to those who are weak and struggling to make ends meet. The end of the picture, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, doesn’t tell us that the Potters of the world are gone, or that things will be rosy from then on. There will still be plenty of trials and troubles. But the good news of the movie, and the good news of the Gospel are, that the powers of darkness can be overcome, by the Spirit of God in human life.

That is where our gospel lesson in Matthew picks up this morning. A lot of commentators and sermons I read this week speak about how it would be nice to continue living in the Christmas moment. Jesus is born, God is with us, all is calm, all is bright, peace on earth and goodwill toward all humankind. But that’s not the story we get this morning.

Jesus is born into the world where a despot rules. Herod has been appointed by Rome to rule Israel, and he does so with an iron fist, and by murdering members of his own family to do so. Herod is so fearful that someone will do the same to him, that when he hears that a king has been born who will someday rule his kingdom, that he orders the slaughter of children. You want a sure sign that a ruler is unfit, they always go after the children. Pharoah had them thrown into the Nile, Herod had them slaughtered. You want another sure sign, they don’t care about foreigners or refugees. Pharoah made the Israelites living in Egypt slaves, Herod with his slaughter drove them out of Israel back to Egypt. That’s what happened to Joseph and Mary, they became refugees, fleeing from Herod.

How does the world get like this? Matthew has a theory, and that is that the world gets like this, when people forget who they are, children of God. People who are called not to take life, but to give life. You know, I never really understood that stuff about Rachel crying for her children till this week. Rachel is the first woman to die in childbirth in the bible. She suffered death in order to give life to her child. That’s the kind of people the Israelites were supposed to become, but they didn’t. So Rachel’s tears were for her children, which were no more.

Christmas has come to us, we have celebrated the birth of Christ, and we have been comforted by the idea of peace and hope, and joy and love. But the reality is, the world still is as it is, and there are despots out there going after children, and foreigners, and refugees. There are plenty of people out there in the world, beyond the walls of our church, who have forgotten who they are, sometimes we forget ourselves. We forget that we are called to be Children of God, called to give life to others. But through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are reminded again who we are called to be, a people who give life to others.

We are called to be a people who protect the young and the old. A people who care for the weak and powerless. A people who welcome and work with the stranger and the foreigner, so that we may grow together and become one people. A people called to suffer one another in love, so that the world may become a better place for all. And the good news is, like the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, despite our failures, we will have wonderous moments when we overcome the forces of darkness in our lives, and we know God’s peace and joy and presence among us.

Dec. 25, 2019                    It’s a Wonderful Life                              

The title of this sermon is, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, because that was the inspiration for my sermon this evening. You all know the story of George Bailey, how he saved his kid brother from drowning, saved Mr. Gower from losing his pharmacy business, saved the Saving’s and Loan from Mr. Potter, saved Mary from being an old maid, moved all those people out of Potter’s slums and into Bailey park, and was ready to take his own life, to pay off a lost bank deposit.

Perhaps the most important part of this movie is the contrast between what was, and what could have been. Or more accurately, what could have been Pottersville, verses what was Bedford Falls. The idea, that you could take the same people, the same town, the same world, and it could be made different by one person, someone who always thought of others, someone who did the right thing, someone who suffered himself in order to give life to others. The idea that it makes all the difference in the world, is a pretty wonderful idea.

Oh yes, this was not an easy life. It was filled with hard work, faith, and integrity. You could see in the movie that George was often tempted to think only of himself, and each time he chose to think of others. It seems to me, that George knew the kind of person he wanted to be, and each conflict was an opportunity to define himself, and despite the consequences of missing his overseas trip, missing college, getting married, spending his life helping others, he wasn’t about to become a kind of man like that miserable Mr. Potter. He wanted to be alive, not dead to the world like “old man Potter”.

And I think that many people wrestle with that to some degree, those who haven’t given up their conscience, seek to live a life of which they can be proud, a life they believe has meaning and purpose, a life that makes a difference in the world, and in the lives of others. In contrast to this, there are many who have just given up, slogging through the days of their life, with no other meaning or purpose than survival or pleasure.  While they might be alive, that is not life. At least, not the life that is offered to us in Jesus Christ!

     And that is where we run into the Gospel of John this evening! The gospel reading says in referring to Jesus. “What has come into being through him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and darkness did not overcome it.”

As I mentioned in a sermon a couple weeks ago, both Judaism and Christianity believe that there are two kinds of lives that people can live. One in which people are physically and spiritually alive, and one in which people are physically alive and spiritually dead. In the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” George Bailey represents those who are physically and spiritually alive. They are people of integrity, who care about who they are, and about how their actions affect others. They live their lives in the struggle to make the lives of those around them better, to make the world a better place. They live a life that gives light to others, and overcomes the darkness of the world to build a new creation.

Now I could go into the darkness of those who are spiritually dead, and talk about the Potter’s of this world, and how they have given up, or they think they are better or smarter than those “suckers” who care about others. They live in darkness, and the world they create is darkness, darkness for themselves and darkness for others.  

But into this darkness is born a child, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And through his Words, through his life, through his suffering and death and resurrection, the world has been forever changed. Formerly it was on the path to Pottersville, and now it is on the path to Bedford Falls. And for two thousand years, people who believed in Jesus Christ have been taking that path.

In the midst of the darkness of the world, and the darkness of the lives around them, they have chosen a life that is a light to others.   They have chosen a life, believing that life will be a light that overcomes the darkness. They believe that despite their sufferings, that their lives will be redeemed, that the purpose and meaning of their lives will be rewarded, and the world will continue to move forward towards the day of God’s salvation. And for many, they have found this belief to be true, and have experienced the blessing of faith in Jesus Christ in their lives.

And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ that we celebrate every Christmas, as we celebrate Christ’s birth! 

Dec. 22, 2019                     A Sign                                                            

I would like to talk about all three of our readings from the lectionary this morning. The first of these readings is from Isaiah, and in it King Ahaz is confronted with a difficult situation. He is the king of Judah, and at that time, Judah is at war with Israel and Assyria. Now behind the scenes, Ahaz is negotiating with both Israel and Assyria, promising both that he will be on their side in order to spare Judah. In short, he is playing both sides.

Now instead of that, Isaiah asks Ahaz to trust in God, and allow God to show him a sign, that God will stand by Judah and help them to overcome Judah’s adversaries. And while Ahaz’s pious response, that he will not put God to the test, seems correct, it is really a reflection of his lack of faith in God, and his faith in his own political calculations. Isaiah on the other hand speaks of a sign, the sign of a young woman having a child, and before the child reaches 2 years old, the age at which they can distinguish good and evil, Judah will be delivered from it’s enemies.

In short, without faith in God, Isaiah is saying Ahaz doesn’t know right from wrong.

Our second reading, which we skipped this morning is from the book of Romans, in it Paul is speaking to a Roman Empire in decline. In Rome, they worship the Emperor as the Son of God, and that worship has worked for the powerful elites, the winners in life, but has reduced the majority of the citizens to poverty, the losers in life. To the Romans, Paul proclaims Jesus Christ as the Son of God. A foreigner, who practiced a foreign religion, who was crucified by the roman army for insurrection. In short, a loser.

Our Gospel reading tells the story of a young woman, Mary, who becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and a man, Joseph, who thinks he is doing the righteous thing, by divorcing her quietly, when in fact, God has other plans. The righteous thing in this circumstance ends up being the unrighteous thing in the eyes of humankind. It is to stay with the young woman, Mary, and raise the boy Jesus as his own.

Right and Wrong. Ahab didn’t know it. Winners and Losers. The Romans didn’t see it. Righteous and Unrighteous. Joseph had to be told what God’s righteousness was. Can we tell the difference?

One of my collegues at text study this week suggested that maybe we can’t. Many people, he suggested, see God as All powerful, All knowing, all Controlling. They envision the coming of Jesus on the clouds to defeat the immoral and unrighteous in battle. They believe in the gospel where if we are good enough, pray enough and do enough good to others, we will be blessed with wealth and health and long life. These are the god’s of politics, power, and human righteousness. These are the god’s of winners, and we all hope and pray that they will be our god’s, but for most of us, this just isn’t so.  

But the gospel revealed in Jesus Christ presents another God to us. This is a God born in weakness, this is a God afflicted by our sin, this is a God who knows our trials and troubles, and gives us strength for living. This is a God who gives meaning to our suffering, and offers us redemption. This is a God who asks us to give of ourselves to others, without receiving in return. This is a God who calls us to welcome the outsider, to seek the lost, to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is a God condemned as a blasphemer and crucified as a traitor. This isn’t the God many people pray to,….. but it is the God who meets us in our moments of brokenness, death, and despair, and offer us new life.

So how do we come to know this God. Well this morning, God offers us a sign. A young woman “shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The sign is a sign of weakness, a sign of our need for God to save us from our sins, a sign of where we can find this God. We can find this God in how we care for the weak, the lost, the suffering, the stranger, the foreigner. We find this God in how we treat the most vulnerable in our society, not in how we honor and glorify the powerful and the winners in life. For both Jews and Christians, in both Isaiah and in Matthew, that is what the sign means. That is what God’s justice and righteousness are all about. When we do that, Emmanuel will be born among us, God will be with us, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Dec. 15, 2019                        Jesus is Coming!                                                  

This week, I attended the monthly meeting of the committee on ministry for the prairie association of the Illinois Conference, UCC. In addition to meeting with our in care students, who are seeking ordination. We met with one student who presented his ordination paper, and who then preached a sermon for us.

His sermon was about the Word. And he preached about the Word of humankind, and the Word of God. The Word of humankind he said, was a Word of Anger, a Word of Criticism, a Word of Blame, a Word of fear, and a Word of Complaint. The Word of humankind can be found everyday all around us. It is found on our news broadcasts, where almost all we get is the bad news of what is going on around us, which feeds our fears, and gets the highest ratings. It is found in our politics, where partisans on both sides of the aisle spend their time accusing one another of wrongdoing, and blaming them for all the problems of our nation and world. It is found in our daily lives, where we have been taught to think critically about the world, which evolves from there into of one another, and endless complaining about one another. This the Word of humankind, and it makes for a fog in our lives, that is as thick as soup, and clings to us, and permeates our lives. This Word of humankind leads us to be a broken people in the living of our daily lives. It leads to prejudice and apathy to the suffering of others, it leads to think only of ourselves or of our families, it leads to greed and impatience with one another, it leads to unfaithfulness and an unwillingness to commit to each other, it leads to gossip and backstabbing, cheating and stealing, hate and violence.  

In contrast to this Word of humankind, he spoke about the Word of God. The Word of God came into the world to proclaim to us Good News! The Word of God came into the world to point out the promises God has made and the blessing that are given to us by God. The Word of God came into the world so that we might stop blaming one another, and take responsibility for who we are, and what we need to do to make the world a better place. The Word of God came into the world to heal a broken world and heal broken lives, to overcome prejudice and apathy, to help us to see one another as brothers and sisters rather than enemies, and to overcome those human behaviors that lead to sin, suffering, violence and death.

I thought about this student’s sermon, because it reminded me of the passage from James that we read earlier. Jesus is coming, the Word of God, so stop complaining…. Stop spreading, stop allowing the Word of Complaint, the Word of humankind from dominating your lives. Prepare the Way of the Lord into your lives, start walking on the highway that is called the Holy Way, watch out, pay attention, to the opportunities given to you to speak the Word of God, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!

This week I had two interactions that related to our reading this morning. The first was with a kitchen manager, who was unhappy with a member of the kitchen staff. It seems the worker had not been getting her work done, and the manager was stomping around the kitchen complaining and talking about writing her up and getting her fired. After 20 minutes of this,  I got tired of the complaining, I took the manager aside and  gently suggested that she could find a more positive way to encourage the worker, maybe something was going on in this person’s life that had changed her behavior. Sure enough, the manager found out that the worker had been homeless the previous week, and it had affected her work. The manager encouraged her to hold onto her job, and to be part of our team, and asked if there was something she could do to help out. With this new tack, things changed, and the young woman was back to being the hard working team member that she had been in the past.

The second interaction was with my wife on our anniversary. Over thirty years we have had our ups and downs, our successes, our failures, and our complaints about one another. And as I thought about these, in the light of our scripture passage this morning, I realized that I’m tired of the complaints, those words only lead to death, I would rather focus on the blessings of our life together, and on working together to realize the best that God has to offer us in our life together. Really hope this works out!

Finally, I thought about the members of our congregation, and I wondered what I had to offer you this morning that would be helpful. You see, most of you already know what I have been talking about. You have been a most wonderful people, I don’t often hear complaints come out of your mouth. Perhaps it’s because most of you are older and wiser, and you passed through this stage of life, and you already made this decision. Perhaps it is simply because you are here, and already know the power of the Word of God to heal and strengthen and give your life. Life in a fellowship of those who love and care for you. Whatever the reason, I hope my reflections on this journey have at least reminded you of the Word of God that is ours in Jesus Christ, and will help you to prepare for our celebrating Christ’s coming into the world on this Christmas! Amen.    

Dec 8, 2019              What will Peace Look Like?                         

The picture I have for you this morning is from a mural in the great hall of the Department of Justice in Washington DC. The title of the mural is Contemporary Justice and Child, and the artist’s name is Symeon Shimin.

The mural seems to have three parts to it, the mother and daughter in the center, the mother looks slightly downward, perhaps filled with concern for her child, knowing what the world is like and worried about her future. The child looks straight ahead towards her future, but with a look of uncertainty.

To the left half of the mural we see some of the injustices of the past, smokestacks filling the air with pollution, slaves building railroads, immigrants being exploited, homelessness, disease and death. And in the right half of the mural we see a vision of the path to a more just society, hands grasp a compass and protractor, people gather around a set of building plans for the future, students work on science in schools, children playing joyfully in a field, and there is even a scene of a baptism, perhaps as a comment on the practice of the freedom of religion, as a part of what will lead to a better, more just world.   

Surely the artist has tried to convey, the injustices of the past, with the opportunities that are offered to us in the future. And the key figures in the mural, seem to indicate the idea that it is our responsibility to provide that future for our children, and not just our children, but for all the children of our nation, and world.

I came across this painting, as I was reading a number of commentaries on Isaiah 11 this week. Now the part of the passage we read this morning, when we lit our advent candle focused upon the idea of how the world might change, if the Spirit of the LORD would come upon us. How we would see the injustices of the world, and work to correct them, work to build a future, very much like the one described in our mural this morning. A world in which all might share in the blessings of creation, where we might build a new future, founded upon the counsel and wisdom and even fear of the LORD, which will lead to a just and peaceful future for all.  

Now I would like to take a moment to speak about that phrase “fear of the LORD. Fear of the LORD, from the Jewish understanding, is not so much that God will punish us all, as much as that God will leave us to our own devices, will let our injustices grow until they consume us, and I think that Symeon Shimin, realizes the need for us to turn to God and  for God to be a part of what creates a just and peaceful future for us all, which is why he included that baptism scene in his mural.

Anyway, the rest of the passage from Isaiah speaks of lion’s laying down with lambs, and bears and cows living together, and children safely playing with poisonous snakes, mostly this is hyperbole, meant to say to us, that when we give our lives to God, wondrous things can happen, that the future is wide open, not only for us, but escpecially for our children. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.  

     

Dec 1, 2019                  Hope in the Darkness                               

Once upon a time there was a road with a dangerous curve in it. Three or four times a year there was always an accident on that road, and some of the townspeople had lost family or loved one’s on that road. So one day, someone came to the local council meeting and suggested that the road be changed, be made straight, so that people would no longer lose their lives on the road.

This sounded like a great idea to the town council, and so they called for an engineering study, in order to see how the road could be changed, and where it would go if they made it straight. And they found that the dangerous curve affected three properties that came together at the corners and was the reason for the curve in the first place.

Now the properties were owned by some pretty wealthy and influencial people, who didn’t want their land changed, and so they hired lawyers to fight the proposed changes. And there were a series of council meetings where people spoke for and against them. In the end, the council decided it would just be to much to trouble to make changes in the road, and people continued to die on that dangerous curve.

I know this was not a real happy story, but the point of the story, was to illuminate how changes, particularly good changes that would benefit all, can often be held up by some, based upon power and privilege. Which, whether we like it or not, is a regular theme in human life.

The main text that our lectionary group studied this week, was the passage from Isaiah 2:1-5, that we read for our advent candle lighting this morning. It envisioned a day when the sort of power and priviledge in our story above, would be overthrown, and when people would freely choose what was in the best interests of all, and be willing to give of themselves in the process. How did we get all that from Isaiah 2:1-5, well let’s look at the text.

First of all, the text from Isaiah speaks of the day when the mountain of the LORD will be raised up above all. This is a more poetic way of saying that the nation of Israel shall become the greatest of all nations. Second of all, it talks about the people of the nation’s stream to it to learn it’s ways, to learn what makes it so great. And third, what makes it so great is the law of God, God’s instruction that will teach them not to make war and destruction – that is the swords and spears part, but to invest themselves in more productive lives – that is the rakes and shovel part. That is the Jewish interpretation of this passage.

The Christian interpretation is a little different. In the Christian interpretation, the mountain that is lifted up is Calvary, upon which Christ was crucified. And the people of the nations will stream to Christ, seeking to become Jesus disciples, and as Jesus disciples they will turn away from the ways of sin, violence, and death, and turn to the ways of righteousness, peace and life. Then all shall walk in the light of the LORD!

Walking in the light of the LORD, the road in our opening story, gets made straight, and people cease to lose their lives. Walking in the light of the LORD, people of power and privilege are willing to do what is best for all. Walking by the light of the LORD, people will have the strength to demand what is best for all. Now I know, that a lot of worldly people might scoff at this, “the world just doesn’t work like that” they would say, and I would agree with them, but what if the world did work that way…, what if the people of the world, cast aside power and privilege, swords and spears, sin and death, and chose instead the ways of common interest, justice, rakes and shovels, peace and life?

It might look a little like Luke’s version of the apocalypse, where the worldly are swept away, where those who dare to hope are taken away, and those who are set in their ways are left behind. And in Luke’s gospel, Jesus warns us to be ready, make yourselves ready by believing and acting as if that day has already come, live that new life that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. That is our hope, and the good news of Jesus Christ.