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.