"The Spirit of Christmas" -- 12-27-2020 Montevallo

“The Spirit of Christmas”

Wayne McLaughlin

December 27, 2020 

First Sunday after Christmas

Montevallo Presbyterian Church

_________________________________

Isaiah 61.10—62.3 Contemporary English Version

I celebrate and shout

    because of my Lord God.

God’s saving power and justice

    are the very clothes I wear.

They are more beautiful

than the jewelry worn

    by a bride or a groom.

11 The Lord will bring about

justice and praise

    in every nation on earth,

like flowers blooming

    in a garden.

62 Jerusalem, I will speak up

    for your good.

I will never be silent

till you are safe and secure,

    sparkling like a flame.

2 Your great victory will be seen

    by every nation and king;

the Lord will even give you

    a new name.

3 You will be a glorious crown,

a royal headband,

    for the Lord your God.

Psalm 148 Contemporary English Version

Shout praises to the Lord!

    Shout the Lord’s praises

    in the highest heavens.

2 All of you angels,

and all who serve him above,

    come and offer praise.

3 Sun and moon,

and all of you bright stars,

    come and offer praise.

4 Highest heavens,

and the water

above the highest heavens, 

    come and offer praise.

5 Let all things praise

    the name of the Lord,

    because they were created

    at his command.

6 God made them to last forever,

    and nothing can change

    what God has done. 

7 All creatures on earth,

you obey God’s commands,

  so come praise the Lord!

8 Sea monsters and the deep sea,

fire and hail,

snow and frost,

    and every stormy wind,

    come praise the Lord!

9 All mountains and hills,

    fruit trees and cedars,

10 every wild and tame animal,

all reptiles and birds,

    come praise the Lord!

11 Every king and every ruler,

    all nations on earth,

12 every man and every woman,

young people and old,

    come praise the Lord!

13All creation, come praise

the name of the Lord.

    Praise God’s name alone.

The glory of God is greater

    than heaven and earth.

14 Like a bull with mighty horns,

the Lord protects

    the faithful nation Israel,

    because they belong to God.

    Shout praises to the Lord!

Galatians 4.4-7      Common English Bible

4 But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent the Son, born through a woman, and born under the Law. 5 This was so he could redeem those under the Law so that we could be adopted. 6 Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are God’s child, then you are also an heir through God.

Luke 2.22-40       The Message

22-24 Then when the days stipulated by Moses for purification were complete, they took him up to Jerusalem to offer him to God as commanded in God’s Law: “Every male who opens the womb shall be a holy offering to God,” and also to sacrifice the “pair of doves or two young pigeons” prescribed in God’s Law.

25-32 In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God:

God, you can now release your servant;

    release me in peace as you promised.

With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation;

    it’s now out in the open for everyone to see:

A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations,

    and of glory for your people Israel.

33-35 Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother,

This child marks both the failure and

    the recovery of many in Israel,

A figure misunderstood and contradicted—

    the pain of a sword-thrust through you—

But the rejection will force honesty,

    as God reveals who they really are.

36-38 Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was by now a very old woman. She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four. She never left the Temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and prayers. At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectantly for the freeing of Jerusalem.

39-40 When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.

SERMON TEXT:

During December we sometimes hear someone talk about “the spirit of   Christmas.” They are usually referring to the way the season brings out the generosity of people, and perhaps the ambiance of cheerfulness. Two of our readings for today speak explicitly about the “Spirit” of Christmas. I’m referring to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit shows up four times in the readings appointed for today. Three times in Luke and once in Galatians. Let’s start in Luke. 

Simeon & the Spirit

In the second chapter of Luke a man named Simeon has the Spirit of Christmas. Luke mentions three ways the Spirit is at work in the life of Simeon. Luke says:

…the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple.

So, the “Spirit of Christmas” functioned in three ways: She rested on him; She revealed something to him; and She guided him. That is what the Spirit of Christmas does: gives a sense of spiritual presence, puts ideas into our heads, and nudges us in a particular direction.

These activities are everyday miracles. When we feel the sense of the sacred, that’s the Spirit resting on us. When you get a shiver going up your spine while watching a movie, or at a concert, or in bed with your spouse/partner. That’s the Spirit resting upon you—the Spirit giving you a touch of the divine.

In the Ordinary

One day you are sitting around thinking, and all of a sudden a new idea pops into your mind. “Wow,” you say to yourself, “I never thought of it like that before.” Or, “Oh my God, now I understand!” That’s the Spirit revealing something to you. The Spirit works in our everyday thoughts.

Or have you ever been going somewhere and you suddenly have a hunch about something, and you turn the car around and change your destination? Something tells you to go see someone. Or you decide to call a person you haven’t talked to for a long time, and it turns out that they had been wishing you would call. That’s the Spirit nudging you; planting a hunch in your psyche; giving you knowledge by intuition. 

The Spirit of God works in our thoughts, our intuitions, and our gut feelings. (Although sometimes our gut feelings turn out to be the pizza we had the night before.) You see, we don’t have to wait for miracles to happen in order to experience the Spirit. Everything that happens is a miracle. All of life is a miracle. The miracle of thought, of intuition, of emotional knowledge—all come from the Spirit. Human consciousness is a miracle. Day dreams are miracles. The stories we write every night in our dreams are miracles. God is everywhere. The Spirit is at work all the time and in all places.

The Spirit of Christmas is ubiquitous.

The Spirit of Christmas leads old Simeon to find the baby Jesus in the temple with his parents. Simeon knows right away that God has let him see the Chosen One before he (Simeon) dies. He is so happy. He takes the forty-day-old child into his arms and declares him to be the light to non-Jews, and the glory of the Jewish people.

The Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit—the presence and power of God. That Spirit is the same Spirit that Jesus was anointed with so he could heal the broken-hearted and bring liberation to the oppressed, the mistreated, and the forgotten. The Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of the Lord, the Giver of Life, the One who gathers people into the Beloved Community.

The Way it Happened

We may have grown up thinking that when God called Abraham and Sarah to leave their home and go somewhere God would show them, that there was a booming voice from a big guy in the sky, telling Abraham what to do. But as we mature in our faith we come to understand that the call of Abraham was a thought that Abraham had one day. It was such a strange, yet compelling, thought, he knew it was a thought put into his head by the Creator of heaven and earth. So, Abraham and Sarah followed that thought, picked up everything they owned, and started out on a journey without knowing where they were going.

The Bible tells us that on the Day of Pentecost there was the sound of a strong wind, and tongues of fire descended on the head of each Apostle. The Holy Spirit came as wind and fire. Who knows what group dynamics were going on that day as they prayed in the upper room. Those gathered there must have come to a consensus that there was a force at work, like the wind, an energy, like wind and fire, that motivated them and moved them to go public and boldly speak the Good News. Movements for human rights and liberation sometimes feel like the answer is blowing in the wind. Liberation movements set people on fire for their cause. So, yes, there was "wind" and "fire" that day. And we've all felt it.

The Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Christmas, doesn’t have to be a thundering voice from heaven or miraculous fireworks on earth. The Spirit works through our thoughts, our hunches, our intuitions, our convictions about the truth that liberates. The Spirit works through artists and musicians and athletic competition and the play of children. 

Discern

I read a news story recently about the mayor of Lincoln County, Tennessee where Covid-19 was surging. The mayor said he was not imposing a mandate to wear masks because he was waiting for “the approval of the Holy Spirit.” Sometimes we confuse the voice of the Spirit with our own prejudices or ideologies. Not every thought or hunch is the Spirit speaking to us. We have to learn to discern. That is why it is important to be part of a worshiping community where prayer, liturgy, and education is part of our maturing process.

Paul’s Christmas

Our Epistle Lesson is from the letter to the Galatians. It’s Paul’s version of the Christmas story. Very brief and to the point. No angels, no wise men, no stable, no manger. Just a woman (not named), and the Jewish context. Paul writes:

When the fulfillment of the time came, God sent the Son, born through a woman, and born under the Law. 

Through a woman; under the Law. Now, that’s a brief Christmas story. But there is more. Paul says:

This was so he could redeem those under the Law so that we could be adopted. 

Two important words there: “redeem” and “under.” To redeem is to set free, to liberate. He was born under the Law in order to liberate those who were under the Law. It seems reasonable to say that this liberation from "under" results in being raised up, lifted up, or brought higher; being brought out from under. Therefore, Christmas is a story about liberation and lifting up. Paul continues:

Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit…

Oh! The Spirit. The Spirit of Christmas. Paul says:

God sent the Spirit of the Son into our hearts… 

Oh! The Spirit of the Son. So the Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of the Son! The Son and the Spirit are of the same substance, so to speak. And Paul says:

The Spirit of the Son comes into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 

The Inner Father

A psychoanalyst named Joao dos Santos tells a story about children who were brought together for a game in which they were to launch an assault on a castle. The teachers had prepared everything and the whole class was about to assault the castle, in full daylight, with swords and helmets made of cardboard. But just as the battle was about to begin, one little four-year-old refused to take part. He began to cry, and said, “I’m afraid. I have no strength. I can’t fight a battle, my father is in Paris.” Now, none of the other children had parents present. But this little boy was speaking of an absence on a different level. His fear had to do with the fact that he had not yet internalized the presence of his father in such a way as to give him confidence in his own abilities. 

To be able to call God "Abba" is not just a matter of relating to a distant God “out there” somewhere. To know God as Abba (or Amma) is to have appropriated the fatherly or motherly reality of God as a good, loving, caring Parent in such a way as to have access to the Spiritual Presence of strength, love, and wisdom. To call God Abba/Amma is to have an inner sense of the Goodness of Life—that Life is trustworthy and beautiful. To call God Abba is to be able to live with hope and experience joy.

So, the Spirit of Christmas works from within us, enabling us to address God as Abba (father). [Or if you prefer, Amma (mother).] The Spirit is what produces in us an intimate, trusting relationship to God—just like a child who trusts and loves her parent. The universe is friendly. Life is beneficent. We can depend upon God. To call God Abba/Amma is to be confident of an inner power available to us in every situation.

Abba and Angst

It also means that we can address God just as Jesus did—with the word Abba. There is only one place in the New Testament where Jesus’ use of the Aramaic term “Abba” is retained in the Greek text, and that is Mark 14.36:

Jesus said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”

In the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is shaking. He is in anguish, on the threshold of a painful, shameful ending to his life. He is bargaining with God. Is there another way? Remove this cup from me. Please, God—please, Abba—don’t make me go through this.

It is the Spirit of Christmas, the Spirit of the Son, that enables us, even within our anxious moments to approach God with the trusting, childlike word, Abba.

Liberation

Paul continues:

Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son or daughter, and if you are God’s child, then you are also an heir through God.

No longer a slave. The Spirit of Christmas liberates us from the bondage of any religious conception of God as slave-driver, God as monster, God as inhumane, God as enemy, God as wrathful judge.

The Spirit of Christmas, the Holy Spirit, is the liberating Spirit. She gives us the assurance that we are God’s children—loved, cherished, dignified, and precious in God’s sight.

The Spirit of Christmas is that power that liberates us to be our true selves, and sets us on a mission to liberate others. It offers a certain kind of joy as we go about our ordinary lives, not worrying about being good enough, accepting ourselves as we are, and accepting others as fellow travelers on this human journey. 

All Year Long

We sometimes hear that Christmas should in some sense be all year long. We should continue to be generous and cheerful. The truth is that the “Spirit of Christmas” is present and working all year long. Every day the Holy Spirit is our companion, our inner source of strength, and our guiding wisdom. 

God is present in our thoughts, in our dreams, in our friendships, in our motivations, in our desire to advocate for justice and equality, and in our times of silence and sadness and anger. The Spirit is as close to us as our breathing. In fact, the Spirit is the Breath of Life.

Leeds -- sermon: "Time (Not) in a Bottle" -- Dec 6, 2020

 

 Sermon:   “Time (Not) in a Bottle”

Wayne McLaughlin

December 6, 2020 – Second Sunday of Advent

Leeds Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 40:1-11

40:1 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

40:3 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

40:4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

40:5 Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

40:6 A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

40:9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"

40:10 See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

85:1 LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

85:2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. Selah

85:8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

85:9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

85:10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

85:11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.

85:12 The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

85:13 Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

2 Peter 3.8-15a

3:8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

3:9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

3:11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness,

3:12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

3:13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

3:14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;

3:15a and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.

SERMON TEXT:

God’s Time

It was 1970. The singer, Jim Croce found out his wife was pregnant just before he went out on tour. He was inspired to write a song. He called it “Time in a Bottle.”

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day

'Til eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure and then

Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

That you're the one I want to go

Through time with 

The author of 2nd Peter (whom I’ll refer to as “Peter,” though it was probably a much later writer) is concerned with “time.” It’s been a long time since Jesus was executed, then showed up alive again, then left the earth, promising to come back. In fact, it’s been about seventy years. His followers had been saying that he would return soon. When people who were not part of the Church heard them saying that his return was imminent, they scoffed; they made fun of them. 

“Soon, you say? Why, it’s been seventy years already. What’s the delay?”

Peter starts out by saying, Look, our view of time and God’s view of time are totally different. Peter quotes Psalm 90:

With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.

God’s watch doesn’t work like our watches. Time is nothing to God. What we think is a long time is only a snap of the finger to God. We humans experience time as past, present, and future. But for God it is always NOW. There is no past or future to God. We are limited by the passing of time. God is not.

The Season of Advent plays with “time.” It’s a little confusing. In this season we anticipate something that has already happened! We wait for the birth of Christ. But Christ has already been born. We anticipate a past event! If that doesn’t confuse you, you’re not paying attention.

Inner Time

Think of it like this: The nativity is both a past event and an ongoing existential reality. What happened two thousand years ago is an outward event that has meaning only if we allow it to become an inward reality for us. We are preparing to internalize the Birth and its power.

The 14th century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, used to say that each of us must become Mary—we have to let Christ be born in us if the power of Christmas is going to affect our lives. When the birth of Christ takes places within us, the result according to Eckhart is that wherever you look, “Everything stands for God, and you see only God in all the world.” 

Eckhart’s mystical language is not the kind of vocabulary we usually hear today. Nevertheless, allow him to instruct us:

The birth takes place …

“in the purest thing that the soul is capable of, in the noblest part,… in the very essence of the soul which is the soul’s most secret part,” its “silent middle” into which “no image or form of activity from outside can enter…. Here God enters the soul.”

And how do we prepare for this inner birth? Eckhart says it is by “utter passivity.” The soul must be “empty, unencumbered, free.” You must “come to a forgetting and not-knowing. There must be a stillness and a silence for the Word to make itself heard.” 

To translate all of that mystical language into 21st century terminology—the meaning of Christmas only becomes real to us if we (1) allow our minds to be silent and calm; (2) acknowledge that God is a mystery beyond our understanding; (3) empty our egos by serving others instead of living selfishly; (4) making room for the Sacred and the Holy in the center of our being.

When Christ is born within us everything shines with the light of God. The whole world looks different. We see every person as our sister or brother. We see Nature as part of who we are.

We don’t have to become mystics in our preparation for the interior nativity. We simply need to slow down, be still, and surrender to the Holy Spirit. To be Mary in a Martha-world is the spirit of Advent.

St. Paul speaks of this inner birth when he writes to the Galatians: 

My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I were present with you now (Gal. 4.19-20).

He’s says: I’m feeling a birth taking place in me as I work toward the gestation of Christ in you.

What this season asks of us is 

to take a past event, 

the birth of Christ, 

and make it happen again in our hearts. 

We are invited to allow Christ 

to be born again inwardly.

We have to make room in the Inn

of our souls so that

Christ can be born again in us.

When we allow this to happen,

then Christmas becomes something more

than bright lights and continuous music

and shopping online.

It becomes a real, inner spiritual reality

of Newness, Hope, and Peace.

The Slow Work

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a Catholic Priest, a Jesuit, and a scientist—a paleontologist. His writings are creative, poetic, and a little mystical. He combined a scientific sensibility with a spiritual ambience. In his correspondence with a young man he wrote:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time. 

I love that first line: “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”

Our universe came into existence about 13.8 billion years ago. About 9 billion years went by until our planet came into being: the earth is around 4.5 billion years old. It took another billion years for life to appear on the earth. It took another 3.499999 billion years until humans came on the scene. 

I repeat. The universe has been around for over 13 billion years. We humans didn’t evolve into our species until 100,000 or maybe 300,000 years ago. What took so long? Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

Peter said to the scoffers: God is patient. God is in no hurry. We, in the 21st century, with our knowledge of the cosmos can put that into perspective. We too can say, God is patient. Astrophysics and Evolution agree with Peter: God is patient.

Therefore, if we are godly people, we will imitate God—we will be patient. We will learn to wait calmly, without being antsy. 

This liturgical season invites us to double down on our practice of patience—one of the disciplines of the Christian life. This is a time to learn to trust in the slow work of God.

We cannot do what Jim Croce suggests—we cannot put time in a bottle. But another song writer named David says in Psalm 31: My times are in your hand (Ps. 31.15). If we put our time and our lives into the hands of God, we don’t have to worry about anything.

The Fire

I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about time, and I should probably stop right there. After all, I know some of you are thinking about time—you’re asking yourself, How much more time is this sermon going to last? I can sympathize. I listen to some sermons and ask the same thing.

But I feel like I should at least say something about the fire. Peter scares a lot of people with his talk of how the world is going to end by being burned up. He writes: 

and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire… the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire.

Poetry. Think poetry. Think philosophical poetry. In the first century the major philosophical schools of thought were Epicureanism and Stoicism. The Stoics taught that one day the world would end by burning up. Then it would be created again. After a while it would end by burning up. Then it would be created again. And so on, and so on. That was a widely held belief in the Roman Empire.

I think what Peter is doing in his letter is simply taking the cultural language of the day and using it symbolically to get his message across. He takes the commonly held belief and mixes it with the Biblical message which is the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth, which is language that comes from Isaiah, and is repeated several times in the New Testament.

Did you know that the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace” makes an allusion to the “fire” in 2nd Peter? Yeah. There are two verses in that hymn that we never sing. 

The first verse begins: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound…

The second verse begins: ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear…

The third verse says: Through many dangers, toils, and snares…

The fourth verse: The Lord has promised good to me…

The fifth verse, which we never sing, says:

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,

And mortal life shall cease,

I shall possess, within the veil,

A life of joy and peace.

The sixth verse (which we don't sing) alludes to 2nd Peter:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

The sun forbear to shine;

But God, who called me here below,

Will be forever mine.

“The earth shall soon dissolve like snow.” Peter says: “and the elements will be dissolved with fire.”

Amazing grace! The world will be dissolved! Poetic language for the transforming power of God’s grace. The snow will be dissolved so that the Eternal Spring can come.

I think the “fiery” terminology Peter uses is poetic language pointing to a transformation that will take place. After all, “fire” is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When we Christians think about the “end of time,” we don’t need to be scared. What God promises us is a transformed world where life will continue in a pleasant manner. 

Remember what the Westminster Catechism says? The chief end of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. We are going to enjoy God. The life to come will have continuity with this life, except it will be more enjoyable. When Peter speaks of the burning fire, I think he means positive transformation that will come about by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing to be worried about, but something to look forward to.

Then, time will be no more. We can’t imagine what that will be like. Life without time. We won’t be “doing time.” We will be enjoying God, and enjoying each other, and enjoying good music, and enjoying so much more than we can enjoy here and now.

This season invites us to internalize the birth of Christ and to anticipate the birth of a New World in the future. 

My sisters and brothers in Christ, Trust the slow work of God. Trust the transforming work of God. Trust the God who comforts his people. Trust the amazing grace of God.

Now it’s time to put this sermon in a bottle and let it age. 

Nov 22, 2020 Montevallo sermon: "Given"

 

Sermon:   “Given”

Wayne McLaughlin

November 22, 2020 

Montevallo Presbyterian

Deuteronomy 8.7-18 NRSV

 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

                The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Psalm 65 CEV

1 Our God, you deserve praise

in Zion,

    where we keep

    our promises to you.

2 Everyone will come to you

    because you answer prayer.

3     Our terrible sins get us down,

    but you forgive us.

4 You bless your chosen ones,

    and you invite them

    to live near you

    in your temple.

We will enjoy your house,

    the sacred temple.

5 Our God, you save us,

and your fearsome deeds

    answer our prayers for justice!

You give hope to people

everywhere on earth,

    even those across the sea.

6 You are strong,

    and your mighty power

  put the mountains in place.

7 You silence the roaring waves

    and the noisy shouts

    of the nations.

8 People far away marvel

    at your fearsome deeds,

and all who live under the sun

    celebrate and sing

    because of you.

9 You take care of the earth

and send rain

    to help the soil

    grow all kinds of crops.

Your rivers never run dry,

    and you prepare the earth

    to produce much grain.

10 You water all of its fields

    and level the lumpy ground.

You send showers of rain

to soften the soil

    and help the plants sprout.

11 Wherever your footsteps

touch the earth,

    a rich harvest is gathered.

12 Desert pastures blossom,

    and mountains celebrate.

13 Meadows are filled

    with sheep and goats;

    valleys overflow with grain

    and echo with joyful songs.

SERMON TEXT:

Our Scripture Readings today are the appointed readings for Thanksgiving Day. In the Deuteronomy passage I see three elements of gratitude.

After being in the desert for forty years, the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. A land where there will be no scarcity. They will have everything they need. Verse 8 says, “where you will lack nothing.” That echoes Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” That is, I shall lack nothing. The Promised Land will be the green pasture where God feeds the sheep.

PART I

Given

Moses looks backward and forward. Look back and remember, he says. 

Verse 11: Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God, by failing to keep God’s commandments. 

In verse 14: then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 

Verse 18: But remember the LORD your God, for it is God who gives you the power…

I can’t over-emphasize the importance of memory in the Bible. The Jewish and Christian traditions are built on memory. 

To forget is to take a wrong turn. 

To forget is to dry up like a withered flower. 

To forget is to be confused and run in circles.

Spiritual amnesia is the enemy of faith; it is the enemy of gratitude. If we forget God we lose awareness of the given-ness of life. 

The key word—“given”—is in verse 10: You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD  your God for the good land that God has GIVEN you.

Life is a “given.” Everything is gift. If we live with the continual awareness of the given-ness of life, we will live a life of gratitude. 

Thanksgiving is giving thanks for the given.

Everything is gift. Our whole existence is a gift. We have been given our being so that as human beings we can give praise to our Creator by the way we live.

We might begin each day by thinking, "Another day has been given to me. This day is a gift. I will open it to see what opportunities God lays before me. I will live this day as God’s gift to me."

Every day we could say to ourselves, "Today I will remember who I am. I will remember where I came from. I will remember who I belong to. I will remember my Maker and my mission. I will not forget."

If we remember the given-ness of life we will not fall into the trap of anxious striving to be worthy—to be “enough.” Because everything is a gift, our worth, our dignity, and the meaning of life is also a gift. The Bible calls this “grace.” We are worthy by grace. We have dignity by grace. Our lives have meaning by grace. Meaning is not something we invent. It is a given. We are saved by grace.

If there were no God, we would have no worth, no dignity, nor would life have any real meaning. Artificial meaning is just that—artificial. Real meaning comes from God. It is a gift.

PART II

Turtle

I said Moses looks backward and forward. As he looks to the future he warns the people. He says, "When you have eaten your fill and built your fine houses…do not exalt yourself… Do not say to yourself, My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth" (vv.13, 14, 17). 

You’ve probably heard about the proverbial turtle—you know: If you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you know it didn’t get there by itself. The fact is, we are all turtles on fence posts. None of us got here by ourselves. There are no self-made men or self-made women. 

Just as God brought the people out of Egypt, we have all been “brought” to where we are.

Everything is “given.”

The 19th century pastor, professor, and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher, called the father of modern theology, taught that we know and experience God by the “feeling of absolute dependence.” He wasn’t talking about an emotion, a psychological feeling, but a deep existential “feeling” in our bones. To know God is to acknowledge our complete dependence upon God.

Sure, we accomplish great things by our own efforts. We work hard to get where we are. We use our brains and our muscles to create and build and make money and establish a career. I did this all by myself! God didn’t have anything to do with it. When I walked across that stage to get my diploma, they didn’t give it to God, they gave it to me!

Moses says: Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” But remember—remember the LORD your God, for it is God who gave you power to get wealth, so that God may confirm God’s covenant.

The covenant is a partnership. If we forget our partnership of God, we become arrogant. And arrogant people are not thankful people. To give thanks is to recognize the partnership of God.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh holds up piece of paper. He asks, “What do you see?” After someone says, “Paper,” the monk says, “If you look closely you will see a cloud, because the tree from which the paper is made needs rain. You will also see the sun. And there is a lumberjack there, and the pancakes he had for breakfast—you can see that in the paper, and you see the farmers who grew the food for his breakfast; and the lumberjack’s mother and father are in the paper too.” 

There is nothing we do or accomplish that doesn’t have thousands of people and the earth’s resources involved in it. We are not self-made. We are part of an interrelated web of life that supports and sustains us. 

Everything we accomplish is accomplished with the help of God, and the help of other people. Let us give thanks for God's help, our family's help, our colleagues' help, and the resources of the earth.

PART III

Test

Moses says one more thing. "God made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the desert with manna that your ancestors did not knows." Why did God do this? Moses says, "in order to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good" (vv. 15-16).

We never get out of school. All of life is a classroom. There are tests to pass. We can all think back to some event in our life, or some period in our life when we were tested. It might have been…

an illness, 

a failure, 

a broken relationship, 

or some other kind of difficulty. 

God tested the Israelites by taking them into the desert for forty years, through times of thirst and hunger and scarcity. They had to learn to trust God and God’s Word. The testing was for their own good. Through the various trials and tribulations the Israelites were formed and shaped as God’s people. They had to be ready to accept their identity at Sinai.

Many of the tests we go through are simply the result of being human. As biological animals living on planet earth, we naturally struggle with disease, disaster, and all the ambiguities of life. That’s just the way life is. Most of the tests we go through are random occurrences with no meaning. It’s just life.

But occasionally God will step in and put an obstacle in our way to see how we deal with it. Just as a good parent might give a challenge to a small child for the purpose of the child’s development, so God our heavenly Father and Mother challenges us through situations that we have to learn to overcome.

Then there are those circumstances or events in life that we think God should step in and stop, but God allows them to happen. And that is another way God tests us—by not doing anything—by permitting things to happen to us. St. Augustine once said that part of our faith is trusting God’s “permissions.” That is, to keep trusting God when bad things happen to us, and God doesn’t do anything; God gives permission for the bad things to happen.

It’s difficult to know if God is actively involved in some situations in our lives. It’s usually only later when we look back at those circumstances that we discern God’s hand at work. Most of what happens to us is just “life.” 

It is not for us to tell anyone else that they are being tested. It is only for ourselves that we can judge something as a test; and even then, it is usually only by looking back.

But even tests give us a reason to be thankful. There is a prayer in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer that goes like this:

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. (p. 836)

CONCLUSION

Our reading from Deuteronomy gives us three elements of thanksgiving.

First, we can thank God for everything God created. Every day is a gift. Every breath is a gift. The meaning of our lives is given to us. Our existence is given. All good things are given. Thanks be to God for the given-ness of life.

Second, whatever we may accomplish in life is not our doing alone. We have help from other people. We have help from natural resources. We have help from God. Arrogance does not lead to gratitude. Humility is the road to thanksgiving. Thanks be to God for the strength and know-how to accomplish good things.

Third, we can give thanks for even the difficulties, the frustrations, the pain, and the sufferings we have endured. Because through those difficulties we have been drawn closer to God, and we have been strengthened. Thanks be to God for the tests that we have been given for our own good.

Religious Jews begin every morning with a prayer of thanks. The first words are: Modeh ani—I thank you. That’s the male form of the prayer. If you’re a woman it is: Moda ani.

Men: Modeh ani. Women Moda ani. Say it with me: “Modeh/Moda ani.” Whether we use the Hebrew words or English words, starting every day by thanking God is a good practice.

This Thursday is a national celebration of the American Experience. We, as Christians, will join our fellow citizens in that day of gratitude. But our gratitude goes beyond this nation since we are members of a global community called the Body of Christ.

I wish you a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving Day… 

where turkey is on the table and politics is off the table; 

where family celebrates kinship and wounds are healed; 

where diversity is appreciated and our common humanity is recognized; 

where thanks is offered up to God, our Creator and Redeemer; and all good gifts are received with joy.

Thanks be to God

who has given us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Psalm 56 -- Sept. 16, 2001 -- Tears in a Bottle

 Tears in a Bottle

a sermon by wayne mclaughlin

Psalm 56

(This sermon was given the Sunday following the 9-11 attacks)

**********************************************

During the 1930s, at the depth of the Great Depression, a play called Green Pastures was setting a new record on Broadway. It ran through 1,653 consecutive performances until its leading actor, 70 year old Richard Berry Henderson, collapsed and died.

The play depicted God and the angel Gabriel in heaven, peering down at the earth. It was a delightful interpretation of God’s care and concern of a world in which God had allowed humans the freedom of choice, and of how God was despairing over the terrible consequences of the choices which humans continued to make.

In the play, God watches over the world and tries to prepare humanity to meet the demands of life. After Moses and the prophets, God sends Jesus Christ, who shares the suffering and the heartaches of God’s people. But it all seems for naught. Again and again Gabriel wants to blow his trumpet and bring an end to it all.

“Now Lawd, now can I blow the trumpet?,” he asks. And always God holds out in patience, knowing that something far better can come out of it. Poor Gabriel keeps getting more and more exasperated as he watches the chaos and confusion of the people on earth, and he finally yells out, “Everything nailed down is coming loose!”

That’s the way our nation felt last Tuesday when terrorist attacked the symbols of our power. How could this happen in America? It seems like “everything nailed down is coming loose.” That’s why we need to turn to God’s Word and listen to what God has to say.

************

I’ve chosen Psalm 56 this morning because I think God will speak to us through this portion of His Word. There are four things we need to hear from this Psalm of David.

ENEMIES

First, David has enemies.

Verse 1 - all day long foes oppress me.

Verse 2 - My enemies trample on me all day long.

Recently I did an experiment that helped me understand the Psalms better. I read five Psalms a day for thirty days; through the entire Book of Psalms in one month. And one of the things I couldn’t help but notice was how often David or the other authors of the Psalms talk about their enemies. Over and over again the author of the Psalms complains about the people who are “out to get him.” It almost sounds paranoid after a while. But we have to realize that in the Middle East then and now, it pays to be afraid.

Since last Tuesday we too have become more aware of our enemies. They are out to get us. This isn’t a war movie, this is real life.There are people out to get us. The Bible pulls no punches. It tells it like it is. There are enemies in the world. Always will be.

It’s nice to be idealistic and talk about non-violence and everyone getting along. But the Bible warns us not to have our head in the sand.The Biblical bird is the Dove, not the Ostrich. We are to be peacemakers. We are called to work for the reconciliation of the world.But we aren’t called to live with our head in the clouds.

We can be so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good.

While I was at Montreat for Interim Pastor Training, we worshipped together everyday. One morning we sung a hymn in our Presbyterian Hymnal that I haven’t sung very often. I note in my hymnal in my office that we sung it last January, I suppose at the ordination of elders. But I  guess I wasn’t paying attention to the words, because when I sung them at Montreat, one line jumped out at me. 

I’m speaking of hymn no. 522, “Lord, When I Came Into This Life.” Words written by Fred Kaan in 1976. Let’s look at verse three to get the context for verse four:

Verse 3 -- In all the tensions of my life, Between my faith and doubt, Let Your great Spirit give me hope, Sustain me, lead me out.

Verse 4 -- So, help me in my unbelief, And let my life be true: Feet firmly planted on the earth, My sights set high on You.

That last line is important for us today. 

Feet firmly planted on the earth, My sights set high on You.

With our “feet firmly planted on the earth,” we know we must be realistic. Terrorists are not stopped by nice words about peace.They must be captured and imprisoned for life. Or they must be stamped out.

Having said that, let me also say that the way the United States relates to Islamic nations in terms of our rhetoric, our financial aid, our just dealings, our compassion--these factors are of continuing importance for our peace at home.

We do have enemies. We can’t stick our heads in the sand.

The Biblical bird is not the ostrich, it’s the Dove.

*******************

FEELINGS

The second thing Psalm 56 teaches us is that angry feelings are natural when being attacked.

Verse 7: So repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

My feeling last Tuesday was one of anger. I can’t even tell you in church what I was thinking. Anger is an emotion that overlays another emotion, namely, Fear. When attacked, we are naturally afraid, which translates quickly into anger.

Anger can translate quickly into a desire for vengeance and retaliation.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructed those who are His followers to never take revenge; to never retaliate. Of course He wasn’t talking to governments; He was talking to individuals.

As Christians, we are commanded by our Lord to never retaliate or be vengeful toward another individual. But when it comes to whole nations and governments, that’s another animal altogether.

Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 12 gives us God’s Word about our relationships with other individuals. Paul says:

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.Live in harmony with one another... Do not repay anyone evil for evil...If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” [selected verses, NRSV]

That’s a clear teaching. Leave vengeance to God. Leave room for the wrath of God. Let God take care of those people.

There is justice in the world;

        sometimes we see it take place;

                sometimes it will wait until the final judgment

                    before God.

But God will take care of it. That’s not our job.

But when you turn to the next chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapter 13), you see a clear teaching about the role of government.

Here’s what Paul says about the role of government:

For it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for [the government] does not bear the sword in vain. It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. [v. 4, NRSV]

The government is God’s instrument for justice. Protecting people from attack is part of the government’s ordained role.

In verse 4 (ch. 13), where it says, “For it [the government] is God’s servant,” the word for “servant” is diakonos, which is the same word for “deacon.” Paul is saying that the government is ordained to be God’s Deacon to carry out certain functions. Sometimes God’s wrath is executed through a properly ordained government.

Individuals are not authorized to carry out vengeance. But governments are authorized to carry out justice and self-defense.

David, in Psalm 56, has feelings of vengeance. That’s a natural feeling. But notice that he places the responsibility for vengeance in God’s hands, not in his own. We can learn from that.

*****************

TEARS

The third thing we can learn from Psalm 56 comes in verse eight:

You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record? [NRSV]

It may sound like a strange thing, keeping tears in a bottle. But in the Middle East there is a custom of mourners catching their tears in a little bottle, a symbol of their sorrow. They sometimes place the bottle in a tomb or casket. Perhaps that was a custom in David’s day, though instead of a bottle it would  be a leather bag.

There have been a lot of tears shed this past week in our country.Thousands and thousands of people have been personally affected by the death of a spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling, a relative, a friend, a co-worker, an acquaintance, a fellow church member, and by fellow Americans.

I found myself crying on Tuesday. I felt attacked as an American. I felt the sorrow of those family members wondering if their loved one had escaped, or knowing that they had not.

It seems such a waste...

         a waste of life,

              a waste of tears.

But not so.

Psalm 56 tells us that God does not forget. In fact, God catches every tear and (as if were) puts it in a bottle. And that becomes part of the record of that person’s life. Nothing is wasted with God. God never forgets what we’ve been through.

This past week God has filled tons and tons of gallon bottles with the tears of the grieving and the angry. Those tears will not be lost.

You know the shortest verse in the Bible, in John 11...

“Jesus wept.”

God knows about tears. Because He has come among us as a human being in the life and death of Jesus, God knows what it’s like to cry.

Our God is no distant, uncaring God. Our God is as close as our breath, and has walked in our shoes.

Our tears are not wasted. Don’t you love that great Resurrection Chapter in the Bible: 1 Corinthians 15?

I love how it ends... 

Therefore, my  beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Or as the New Century Version puts it,

...because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.

God’s filling up those bottles. I don’t know what He’s going to do with them. Maybe He’s going to plant something new, and water it with those tears.

Maybe in the New Heaven and the New Earth God will use the stored up tears to water the Tree of Life which has healing in its leaves.

****************

 

FAITH

The fourth thing we learn from Psalm 56 is about faith.

Verse 11 -- “In God I trust; I am not afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?”

In God I trust.

Do we trust God?

Can God be trusted?

There will be those, of course, who will respond to a tragedy like these terrorist attacks, not with faith, but with skepticism. They will say, “Where is your God now?” They will see this atrocious action of innocent people killed as a sign that there is no God.

It all comes down to this: Do we trust God? Can God be trusted?

There’s that verse from James Russell Lowell that Martin Luther King liked to quote a lot:

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne.

 Yet that scaffold sways the future,

   and, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow,

   keeping watch above his own.

      [from The Present Crisis]

Listen, God’s Word assures us that somehow, mysteriously, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. [Rom. 8.29, KJV]

Jesus said to His disciples, In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. [Jn. 16.33, NKJV]

The rock bottom assurance that we stand on is the Cross and the Resurrection. In His death on the cross, Jesus sucked the power out of evil and death. The powers of evil and death now have only short-term effects. The long-term effects have been conquered by the Cross.

And in His resurrection, Jesus showed us the mighty arm of God and the victory of God over sin, evil, the devil and death. Christ’s resurrection gave us a glimpse of what is to come.

We have seen the future, and it belongs to God.

There is no other basis for hope. But praise be to God, who has given us the assurance of salvation and deliverance through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord, Jesus the Christ.

*****************

Which brings me back to where I began...

It seems like everything nailed down is coming loose. But the only thing nailed down that is loose in the world is Jesus the Lord of all. They nailed Him down. And they thought, “That is that.” But you can’t nail down love.

You can’t nail down the eternal power of God.

You can’t nail down Resurrection Life.

You can’t nail down the Holy Spirit.

Make no mistake about it,

there’s something been let loose in the world

that is more powerful than all terrorists on the planet.

In the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth, God has done something that can never be undone. It doesn’t matter how clever evil people are; it doesn’t matter how much money terrorists have; it doesn’t matter how much hate is directed toward innocent people by the powers of the devil...

            there’s SomeBody that was nailed down

             and has got loose!

Death has been swallowed up in victory!

Where, O Death, is your victory?

Where, O Death, is your sting?

Thanks be to god,

       who has given us the victory

               through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immoveable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

And nothing is wasted!

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!