3rd Sunday of Advent... “Gift Giving”

Sunday Dec 16, 2012                                 

Zeph 3:14-20, Luke 3:7-`18

Prayer:

We see in our OT & Gospel stories the suggestion that the main idea is one of “Gift Giving.”

Our story in Luke reminds me of the movie “The Matrix.”

In the movie, Morpheus, is “The John the Baptist” of the movie, although, he is a much better dresser than the Baptist. In the movie Morpheus is on a mission to call out the old order and bring to light “The Truth.” The old… namely, that we are all plugged into a machine, ie “The Matrix.” It is the safe home of humanity.

Morpheus proclaims he is not “The One”, but is seeking and preparing the way for “The One.” Along the way Morpheus has liberated a few from their comfortable comas to join him in seeking “The One” who will save them. The problem… outside the Martrix the world is a dark & dangerous place. Being connected to the system/Matrix is comfortable and safe and outside the system, if one is willing is the gift is liberty & freedom… but it’s a struggle.

Then, in Zephaniah, there are 2 gifts… Judgment and Joy… we read the joy part as part of our readings, and these two gifts are referred to as “The Day of the Lord.” Zephaniah is a prophet in the 7^th century BC and about 50 years after Isaiah, and about 10-15 years before Jeremiah. The rulers spoken of in Zephaniah are those of Judah and not some foreign oppressor. Zephaniah is speaking of the unjust social & political policies the rulers have enacted and that they have turned away from God. Which by the way is the nation’s MO. The Israelites are always turning to God only to turn away from God. Zephaniah challenges them to turn back to God or God will bring judgment.

The buzz-word for this book is “The Day of the Lord.” Chp 1:17-18… “The Day of the Lord will come and their blood shall be poured out like dust and the earth shall be consumed.” But, also within this story is “The Day of the Lord” where Zephaniah reports that God says, “The Day of the Lord, I will renew you… I will remove disaster… I will deal with your oppressors… I will restore you.” Zeph 3:17-20

So… One could say… it’s Gift Giving Time.

One wouldn’t necessarily get this from Luke’s John the Baptist. John starts his sermon by saying, “You bunch of snakes.” Some translations say, “You brood of Vipers.” John is not…. To borrow a phrase from Dale Carnegie…trying to “How to win friends and influence people.” nor… is Zephaniah as he starts his sermon by saying, “The Lord says, Now I will promise to destroy everything.” Not a pretty picture isn’t.

So… you may be wondering… where are the gifts?

I believe there are two gifts in each of our stories… the gift of Judgment and the gift of Joy.

In Zephaniah, the gift of judgment is that God is going to take care of Judah’s rulers if they are willing to turn back to God. The people heed this warning and after a while God delivers them and provides the promise… vs 18… “The Lord promised, your sorrow has ended, you can celebrate.”… and thus the gift of Joy.

In Luke, John the Baptist provides God’s gift of Judgment in the form of “Meta-noi-a”… vs 8 “Do something to show that you really have given up your sins.” In other words…. Demonstrate you’ve made a change… that you have turned around.

So the people say, “What do I have to do?”

-       John tells them… if you have 2 coats, give one away.

-       If you have food, share it.

-       To the Tax Collector… don’t make people pay more than they should.

-       The soldier… don’t force people to pay you more… be satisfied with your wage.

o   The gift of Joy… sharing with others.

So… what does this say to us today as we begin the 3^rd week of our Advent preparations?

1. Immediate Gratification

For the most part people want immediate gratification… give it to me now… then I will have joy… happiness. I don’t believe that’s how we started out in this life. There’s a TV commercial out right now that shows a toddler playing in the box that her gift was in… she is not playing with the toy, but the box. The box has more value… a simple box!

On Thanksgiving I did something I've never done. Maybe it's because as I get old-er I'm thinking about this kind of stuff more. Actually, I've been thinking about this for a few years now, but just getting around to verbalizing it now.

As we gathered to say a prayer I said to my family that I was glad we were able to gather as a family. That as I get older, balder, and fatter I appreciate all of you that much more. That I hope that we can love one another in greater ways. That despite our differences and understandings we can still share life together. And... that the true gift was that we were a family, and that means more to me than anything. I love you all! 

In Zephaniah… there is a common phrase “I Will.” Hearing this doesn’t always satisfy our immediate needs. It does say, if we want utopia, it will take work, and whatever that is, it might not be there. I’m wondering if the gift we desire here is that of simplicity. Yet… simplicity is rarely SIMPLE. But… maybe it’s the gift we need to practice!

2. Restore Us

These stories also offer to restore us. John the Baptist tells us to turn to God, to make a change, to share what we have. Zephaniah offers a litany of promises for security, peace, protection, and economic prosperity. The message here is, “I will restore your future by restoring your fortunes.” Does anyone really believe this to any extent? I’m wondering if what God is saying is not about fortunes, but about relationships?

Restoration here begins with the gift of Judgment… it’s an opportunity to refocus… renew… and restore our relationships rather than our fortunes. Perhaps the circumstances of our lives are God’s way of saying relationships are a more important gift than the materialized gifts we most often seek.

3. The Gift of Change

In both of our stories the events change… “Meta-noi-a.” In Zephaniah… God restores and it’s time to celebrate. In Luke… the people think John could be the Messiah… the people are excited. The gift of Judgment brought opportunity to change. When change takes place… change brings Joy. When were connected to the Matrix we are safe and comfortable, but there is little joy. Only when we are changed from the system/Matrix we are free to experience liberty and that brings Joy.

John says, and I para-phrase… “I’m not the One, but One is coming and I’m not good enough, but he is coming with the Spirit, and he is bringing real Joy.”

Closing:

One Advent evening a pastor was called by his four young children to come and be the audience for their living room Christmas play. Typically the father entered the play's set to find Jesus played by a flashlight wrapped in a blanket, Joseph defined by his bathrobe and mop-handle staff, Mary looking solemn with a sheet-draped head, the angel of the Lord with pillow-case wings, and one wise king with another pillowcase full of gifts. This king was being played by the youngest child, who felt duty bound to explain herself and her mission. I'm all three wise men. I bring precious gifts: gold, circumstance and mud!

Holding in his laughter, the pastor reflected on just how wise those three gifts truly would be, if we would lay them before the Christ child.

Our gold: The most common item of our own enslavement. We spend so much of our time and energy trying to save money, make money, manage money that it easily can become the focus of our lives. Handing over our gold to God then becomes a symbol of our commitment to a different set of values.

Our circumstance: We all exist amidst a host of particular circumstances, sometimes freeing, sometimes limiting, sometimes depressing, sometimes challenging. But it is a safe bet that none of us considers our particular set of circumstances to be ideal or the embodiment of our hopes and dreams. Instead of constantly wishing that our lives had taken shape in a different way along different paths, consider offering God yourself this Christmas, whatever the circumstances are surrounding your life.

Our mud: Through real effort we have all gradually added enough dirt and grit to the clear waters of our lives to muddy them up into a silty, slimy, solidifying mess. By taking our mud to Christ we do not dirty our relationship with God, rather we obtain fresh water for our lives, water to flush down our muddy nature and get the flow of pure waters running through our souls again.

Give God the greatest of the wise gifts this Christmas. Your gold, circumstance and mud; that is, your whole life. That is where you’ll find the gifts of Joy!

See You Out On The Road

"The Art of Appreciation"

Sermon from Thanksgiving Eve.
Nov. 21, 2012
Matt. 6:25-34

According to Craig Boldman and Pete Matthews (authors of Every Excuse in the Book: 714 Ways to Say “It’s Not My Fault”), if you burn the Thanksgiving turkey, here are a dozen reasons to be thankful:

1. Salmonella won’t be a concern.
2. No one will overeat.
3. Everyone will think it’s Cajun blackened.
4. Uninvited guests will think twice next year.
5. Your cheese-broccoli-lima-bean casserole will gain newly found appreciation.
6. Pets won’t pester you for scraps.
7. The smoke alarm was due for a test.
8. Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
9. After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
10. The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.
11. You’ll get to the desserts quicker.
12. You won’t have to face three weeks of turkey sandwiches.

Prayer:

Our story is a familiar one. It is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Most Bibles have this story of Jesus titled, “Worry”. In fact Jesus say’s Don’t Worry” 6 times throughout 9 vs & alludes to another 4 times. So… you might think I’m going to talk about “NOT WORRYING?” No… you and I have been told not to worry so much that I don’t think we listen very much to it anyway.

-       We still worry a lot … don’t we!!

So rather than talk about worrying… I’ve titled this message “The Art of Appreciation”

The way I figure it… perhaps the reason we worry about things is because we don’t appreciate what we already have. What God has already provided. We tend to look at life from the perspective of scarcity rather than the perspective abundance. WHY??? Jesus says, “You have little faith.” We’ve been given so much… yet all we see is what’s lacking.

No doubt we are living in a world filled with lots of anxiety ranging from economic, to health, to work, to relationships.

If we really think about it… We’ve always lived with these anxieties. So… what is God saying to us today?

I believe God is saying for us to be appreciative of our relationships.

Jesus tells us if we are connected to God, there’s no need to worry. God’s got our back… God will provide what we need.

How does God do this?

God works through the lives of people being in relationships.

Caring for your neighbor, your brother & sister, friends, parents, those whom you might

not know.

When we care for others… our worries take a back seat.

When we care for each other…our worries tend to disappear, the focus then is not on us.

There was a story that appeared in the Boston Globe a few years ago. “It can never be said that Adele Gaboury’s neighbors were less than responsible. When her front lawn grew hip-high, they had a local boy mow it down. When her pipes froze and burst, they had the water turned off. When the mail spilled out the front door, they called the police. The only thing they didn’t do was check to see if she was alive… she wasn’t.

Police finally climbed her crumbling brick stoop, broke in the side door of her little blue house, and found what they believed to be the 73-year old woman’s skeletal remains, where they had lain, perhaps as long as four years. “It’s not really a friendly neighborhood,” said Eileen Dugan, 70, once a close friend of Gaboury’s, whose house sits 20 feet from the dead woman’s house. “I’m as much to blame as anyone. She was alone and needed someone to talk to, but I was working two jobs and was sick of her coming over at all hours. Eventually I stopped answering the door.”

Unbelievable… isn’t it? But it points to an important reality… real kindness is sacrificial. Real kindness calls us not just to address a need, but to invest into a person’s life. Sometimes it means building a relationship with them. And… THAT is costly, and sometimes risky. But… isn’t that what Jesus calls us to do?

I also believe God is saying, be appreciative for what we have been given.

Look around… I mean… really look around you. Look at what you’ve been given.

Jesus says, “Look at the birds. They don’t do anything….Yet God cares for them.

 Look at what God has given… the beauty of Creation…. our Relationships… Most of us have a warm place to live…. Food on the table….And… Yes… even a few dollars in our pockets.

John O’Hurley… of Sienfeld, Dancing w/Stars fame shares this story from his book about his dog titled, “It’s OK to Miss the Bed on the First Jump” he says from the chapter titled “A Cold Can of Meat is Still a Feast,”

“Appreciation is a lost art… at least in me. I find myself caught continually in a sad paradox that as I age I have to fight to appreciate more, without realizing that as I age I simply have more to appreciate. I send fewer thank-you notes, return fewer calls. I distract myself with distraction often to avoid the joy of a spontaneous moment or a conversation with a stranger in an elevator.

Appreciation, it seems to me, has an all-consuming, natural enemy. It is the arrogance of presumption. The more I have, the more I assume, and the less I appreciate. There is a universal tension between assumption and appreciation, and it never gives up.

My first car cost most of my personal fortune at age nineteen… $100.00. And… it was worth every penny of that. It was a twenty-year old, paint-faded, blue convertible with a leaky roof and a leaky transmission, which seemed to favor neutral and reverse over the stress of any other direction. Yet for that one moment in time it was the treasure of personal freedom, a magic carpet that I could hitch to my every whim. I would glance out the window at night to admire it. I would run down the stairs in the morning to make sure it was still there.

Today, the style of a car has replaced its function. The convenience of a car has replaced the wonder of its purpose. I move in and out of a car lease with the predictability of a thirty-six month locust. I no longer appreciate the presence of an automobile; I take for granted its inevitability.

Yet our two dogs begin each day with nothing. The trip down to the kitchen seems to come each day as an unexpected surprise to them, as it did to me to find my car still in the driveway. They see a cold can of meat as a feast. They end the day with nothing more than the bond of our companionship and the comfort that, together, we continue to survive another day.

For my dogs there is always time to appreciate the simple joys of life… the pomp and parade to the kitchen each morning, riding with their heads out the window of my car, or chasing the Wicked Witch, the toy of the moment, down the hall until she bounces off enough furniture to come to a rest on the floor, when she will then get the shacking of her life. There’s the soft feel of the grass in the backyard, always worthy of a roll or two. There’s the singular sound of the word “walk,” which apparently sounds like “lotto winner” to them. And, of course, there’s the unexpected joy of a suitcase that returns home. The list is endless, and the list is repetitive. And they are always as grateful as if it were the first time.

As my wife has taught me to love more deeply, my dogs have taught me to appreciate more fully and assume mush less. Appreciation, for me, is an act of humility, a way to acknowledge what we cannot or did not do for ourselves. It sets a balance between being individual acts of self-fulfillment and being simple creatures of need.

The fact that I can have a dog as a pet and companion means that my life is filled with abundance. If I can recognize that, then every day is the Beginning of Time, and the whole world is the Center of All Great Things That Could Possibly Happen.”

Perhaps… if we were a bit more appreciative of the abundance we have we would not worry about the scarcity we don’t have.

Perhaps… if we appreciated & cared a bit more about our relationships we would not have to worry about being abandoned.

Perhaps… if we trusted in God’s gift of grace we wouldn’t need to worry about how tomorrow would turn out.

We’ve all been given all we need & then some.

There’s no need to worry.

This Thanksgiving let’s be Appreciative of God’s Gift of Grace in our lives.

See You Out on the Road