Retelling the Story

 one more week until

Its been quite a couple of years, hasn't it? 

I don't even know where to begin. Actually the last 3 years since the Special General Conference has been a treat. (Please read as much sarcasm as you can muster into that sentence.) The amount of division and problems that persist in the church and in society feel like they are at an all time high.

But, if we are honest, this world didn't just get messed up in the last couple of years. It's been a jumbled mess of incoherent garbage long before you and I came along. It was a mess when our Savior stepped into our human existence some two thousand years ago. John records the facts in his Gospel stating that, "He came to those who were his own and his own received him not." Have you seen the glory of the Lord in the turmoil and pain of the last couple, three years? It is easy to lose sight of what is important when the trouble around us gets to a boiling point. 

John and the rest of the disciples could not have had it easy. They walked everywhere they went. They worked their fingers to the bone trying to make it in a riches or poverty world. In the midst of it all, John records what was important. They saw Him. The saw the glory of the Son of God. Later in his Epistles he would use wording to suggest that they saw it with their own eyes. They laid hands on it. They witnessed the Glory of God in a personal manner and it forever changed their lives. There is nothing quite like some much grounded grace and truth to bring our focus back to a good center. Next year we will spend much of the time focusing on what we believe as United Methodists. Grace and Truth will be subject matter as we go forward. It all starts with what we end with here. The Glory of the Son of God. Who is He? What do you believe about Him? Why is that so important to us? We will take the time understand all of this as we turn the corner into 2022. Won't you come with me? It will mean some extra study. It will cause us to think and reflect. It will move us into a new area in our journey with Jesus. It is a journey, let me emphasize that. We are not here to just sit and wait. We are going somewhere with all this. 

The best thing we can do with our lives and our faith is turn the corner and keeps moving ahead.

God of Love

 

a precursor to

Everyone does the list of words through Advent in a different order. 

Most normally, you will see the order of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love.
I have seen the word Faithfulness go first and then Hope, Joy and Love.
Some in their liturgical ordering put Love on the 3rd Sunday and end with Joy.
Yet another group will put forgo all of the word we know and speak of Prophets, Shepherds, Angels and Magi. There really is no wrong way to go about celebrating the season Advent. But, the one thing we can do wrong is to leave Love out of the picture altogether. 

If Magi is the 4th Sunday, then we see Love being expressed in its greatest way.
Traveling from so far away, they bring gifts that will help the Savior's family make the long trek into Egypt for safety until the boy is old enough to return after the death of Herod. What would you be willing to give in order to bless a family you don't know or have never met before in your life? Love is the ultimate expression of who God is. None of us have met God. And, yet, we seem to have the unexplained connection to this faith and the God it speaks of. 

Nicodemus was a man who knew of the unexplained. It is the whole reason he comes to Jesus at night. He can't get past this nagging feeling that there is something more than what he has been taught to believe and what he himself has taught others to believe. How many of us know how to nod our heads at the correct things to believe? How many of us have been following the correct beliefs in our Christian faith? How many of us truly know what Love is? Jesus shows us what true love is. 

Last week we covered joy and we talked about the need to look beyond ourselves in being able to share Joy. Love is another step. If we have Hope and we can share in that with others, good. If we have found Peace because of what we share, good. If we can take the next step into Joy and begin to focus on the well being of others, then we are ready to move into Love. It's what God does with us. He sent his One and Only Son into a world with no Hope, that needed to find Peace, lacking in Joy, all of which could be found in the Love that only God can express. Can Merriam- Webster truly define it?

Can you gather how difficult it is to define something as exemplary as Love? Much of what we read above centers on the human emotion, the Eros or Greek meaning centers on the human carnal affection. Phileo is a word from the Greek that focus on our human desire to reach out. Agape is the word we use to talk about the Divine. John 3.16 is all about the Agape. God is reaching out to the world. He wants to bring the world close to him. This world doesn't handle change very well, however. Maybe that's why he comes in such a quiet unsuspecting way. Just a few people bothered to pay attention or listen. Too often, that how Love slips past us unnoticed. Our ears and eyes and hearts and minds miss the drawing in from God's Love. Our nature is on an intransitive plane with God. We don't share Love in the same interests or areas. We need to be shaken and moved.

Let the Love of God move you in this Christmas season. Let is shake you out of complacency into a devotion that moves beyond yourself. Move out into the world and share what God has done for you.

Star of Joy

 

a precursor to

 

Do you know what Joy is?
Maybe you've been happy or excited or even content, but do you know Joy?
Lets jump into the third Sunday of Advent and find out what we are in for this morning.
Our scriptural focus is set in the book of Matthew as we hear the story of wise men and gifts.

Enjoy this musical selection to go with the message today.

 Its a story that we will cover more in depth on Christmas Eve.
These men come a great distance in order to find a child they believe to be the new King of Israel. Traveling possibly from as far away as Persia, this is a walk/hike cross country. by the time they reach the baby Jesus he more than likely about 2 years old. They have been following a star. This star led them all the way to Israel. How long the trek takes is not clear or certain. But, it definitely was not a simply half day walk. I have shared in the past about Joseph and Mary's walk to Bethlehem and also the two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, which most likely was a 7 mile stroll for those men and the Savior. This is a much longer walk. Using our technology available to us at Google Maps, we can find out just how long of a trip these three men were taking. If they were coming from Persepolis, then the capital of Persia (which today is Iran) their trek, most likely, would have taken then on a northwestern route before cutting straight across the heart of Iraq and its capital of Baghdad (which in ancient time would have been Babylon) before coming through the southern portion Syria and then taking a southern route into the northern part of Israel. Driving it, our friends at Google say it can be done in 27 hours. But, we know these men were on foot. 

Clicking on the walking symbol as we use Google Maps for directions shows that the cross country journey would taken a total of 437 hours. That's around 18 and a half days. More than half a month to get there without stopping. With the need for sleep and rest and food, the trip more than likely took these men around a month to get there. However, the scriptures show that they did not arrive in Bethlehem until he is around two years old. When exactly did the star appear? How long did the trip truly take for them? Some details will never be perfectly clear. Some mystery is necessary in order to draw us into the reality of the Savior's birth. I would plead the case that we don't need to know every little detail. What we need to do is believe. That's what drives these three men. Belief that a new ruler has arisen in Israel. Why they feel the need to go so far away from their home on foot to greet a new king who isn't even of their country or, most likely, their belief system, is also a mystery. Some mysteries are wrapped up in joy. Its about time we looked at the word itself and understood what we are getting ourselves into this morning.

The scripture from Matthew suggests that the men were "overjoyed" at the sight of the toddler. But, why? What was it about this little boy that caused them to rejoice or be glad? Do we truly understand what joy is? These men who have traveled all this way are believers, plan and simple. We don't understand their full story and we don't have to. All we need to know is that they believe in the coming of this Messiah. And, they have come a really long way to see it with their own eyes. The definition from Merriam Webster suggests that joy is "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires". We covered hope and understood that it is transitive in nature. More than one person can have hope and it seems to transfer. As we covered peace we noted the intransitive nature of it. I cannot give you peace. It is something you seem to have to seek and find for yourself. Joy is noted as being both transitive and intransitive. I can experience "great pleasure or delight", but I can't give to someone else. In the difficulty of explaining such an experience as joy we find there is a transitive nature to it. But, look at the wording here. It's an archaic notion that says "gladden, enjoy". It suggests a different kind of transference. With hope we seemed to simply declare that we have it and someone else declares they have it and then we find that it goes between others. Joy is more than a declaration. There truly has to be something going on between the parties to experience joy as a community of peoples. The story is told of a little boy who went into a 5 and Dime store and asked for two pieces of hard candy. The shop owner noted that the boy was by himself, so why did he need two pieces of candy. The boy exclaimed, "So, I have one to share with someone else." Joy is like that. Jesus, walking with these twelve men for those three and a half years finds joy being with them. 

There are conditions to be met with joy. We need to follow and listen. If our parents are to have joy in us, we need to listen to what they have to say and follow the direction they give. If we care at all about sharing in joy, we need to be around other people and not make it about ourselves and what we want. Joy is simply shared between other when we just enjoy being in the presence of others. I would plead the case that this country has found it hard to feel much joy since the attacks of 9/11 20 years ago. It has been hard to have hope. It has been even harder to find peace. And, there isn't much joy because we have the harder task of feeling comfortable around other people; trusting that they have our backs while we should have theirs. 

What does it mean then to be "overjoyed"?
I think of the words to song by the foursome known as Jars of Clay. 

You named me
Who am I
That I should company with
Something so divine
Mercy waits
Overjoyed
Prospects of finding freeing
Freeing me

Love is the thing this time I'm sure
And I couldn't need you more now
The way that you saw things were so pure
Overjoyed     - Jars of Clay, Overjoyed (from the album "Much Afraid") [1997]

 

Jesus said to his disciples that if they needed anything to ask in His Name and they would have it. Jesus claimed that if they kept his commands, there would be love to experience and they would know his joy. Jesus' joy came from doing what they Father asked of him. It was a delight for the Son to listen to the Father and work along side of him, doing what the Father wanted.  The Son forgot about what He wanted and gave his life for the direction the Father pointed him in. Joy is condition in the sense that we forget about ourselves. That we give of ourselves to "gladden" someone else. It means that we "enjoy" being with other for their benefit, not ours. I challenge to to find out what joy is in this season. It might be the one thing you truly are missing.

Voice of Peace

 

A precursor to

 

We quickly find ourselves two Sundays in as we enter December 5th.
It's time to focus on the subject of Peace. I can't hear the word without my brain first going here.

Peace like a river flows within me
Love like a waterfall pours on me
I'll never be alone, can't you see
Peace like a river flows on 

 

Hope is a fire burning in my soul
Life is eternal with you Lord
Who could ever ask for more
Peace like a river flows on 

 

On, thing of all I could have missed
Oh, I just can't get over this

 

Faith is a light shining down on me
Mercy is a wind blowing over me
The grace of God has set me free
Peace like a river flows on    - Third Day from the Album "Conspiracy #5" (1997)

Sometimes there is no better feeling than driving down the road with the radio cranked up listening to some Third Day. That song is a favorite that deserves to be played and replayed. I hope I'm 80 and still able to handle the volume at 30 as I'm trucking down the road listening to that. Sometimes there is nothing better than a good song to bring some much needed peace to my life. 

What is peace and why is it so important? It is something we crave and desire for ourselves, but at what cost do we pursue peace? What would you give to be able to say you have peace in your heart?

Marion Bond West Was a contributor to Guideposts magazine for an article in the section about People Helping People. She recalls the events of a hot August day when she met a homeless veteran and his dog named Cheeseburger. 

Have you ever felt as if you weren't as close to God as you should be or wanted to be? Marion West shares that his is how she felt on the day she recounted these events. Sometimes we can't find peace because of the situations we find other people in. It was 100 degrees in the sun on that sweltering day in August. Heading home after running some errands, he came across a dog laying on large green duffel bag on the sidewalk outside of an Applebee's restaurant. The homeless epidemic being what it is in our country, its easy to feel overwhelmed with a sense "what do I do and how do I help" when we are confronted with such a problem. Meeting the dog's owner revealed that they were homeless and, in fact, living in the woods in a tent just outside of town. Marion wanted to make sure the dog had water and food, but she couldn't get the dog to respond with her own efforts. After speaking with the owner, he simply helped her to be "introduced" to the dog. This baffled Marion as she was a dog lover and dog usually like her. But, the owner, a man named Johnny, brought her over to the dog and gave a proper introduction. The dog name was Cheeseburger, who offered paw and wagged his tail excitedly as the names were exchanged and Johnny helped her meet his dog. 

Introductions can be a simple means of excruciating uncomfortable-ness or it can be a stress reliever (once we get past the awkward beginning). Imagine being in the shoes of a young Jewish girl who suddenly finds herself in the presence of an angel. She is just minding her own business and then a holy messenger shows up telling her that she will be pregnant and have a child. What in the world do you do with that? If someone came busting in my front door and I'm just sitting in the recliner in my living room, I pretty sure I would be instantly frozen with fear. What do I do? What do they want? How do I handle this? The notion of peace is not immediately front and center when a traumatic situation arises or confrontation is imminent. the subject of Joy will find its way into our message next week. I've been baffled by the world of James, the biological brother of Jesus, in the opening words of his letter he states... 

I don't know, but Joy is not my first inclination when having to deal with hard times and trials. James says he wants his readers to be "complete, not lacking anything". Peace would certainly be a part of the mix there. However, peace seems to be something we have to find or be in search of. Last week we looked at the word hope. I didn't go into much details about the transitive nature of certain words. Hope had that transitive sense to it. If something is true between parties 1 and 2, and the same thing is true between parties 2 and 3, then it stands to reason the same thing is true for parties 1 and 3 even though they aren't touching or in direct contact with each other. Hope works like that. Hope seems to be something we can share or transfer to one another. I can give someone else a sense of hope. We can share that sense of hope. But, if we are reading our dictionaries properly, we see that peace is used as an intransitive verb. 

I can't give peace to someone else. It is something I have to find for myself. Jesus seems to be the only one who can bestow peace to someone else. "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." If you have invited Jesus into your heart and life, then you know how that peace feels inside. I can remember when Jesus came in. I know what it felt like to go to work that night. A smile on my face. Some joy in my step. It's hard to understand. Jesus would say, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it is coming from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

When peace comes to us in such a nonsensical way, it is also just as perplexing when our peace is stolen from us. This past week I was driving back to Thornville out on St Rt 13. As I traveled north, I passed a truck headed south. Just as we met, the driver tossed a yellow cat out the window. I had no time to stop or hit the brakes. The poor cat landed on its feet but I was unable to avoid hitting it. It is a few days past and I'm still shaken at the thought. I was just going along, minding my business and suddenly... This crazy world we live in likes to rob us of our peace, our joy, our hope. Maybe you woke up this morning feeling fine and headed into your day and something just derailed your heart. A silly fight with your spouse before you headed to work. An unexpected phone call bringing bad news. A conversation with a person you didn't see on your radar. As much as we would like to be in control of all the nonsensical things in our world, we quickly find out we are not. We would like something concrete we can hang on to in the moment. When we find that there is nothing in this world that meets the requirements, we can only go to the One who can give peace. It is in Jesus we find our peace. He is our Hope. He fills us with his Joy. Jesus put himself in the Father's hands and let Him lead the way. Jesus taught us by example what it meant to live in peace with the Father's decisions. Jesus has no idea when he will return. It is all in the Father's hands. When God says it's time, then Jesus will come back. We trust. We hope. We look heavenward waiting for him to come take us to where he is. 

I'm reminded of words from a favorite song as I close. 

This is not the land was promised me,
Even as far as my eyes can see,
I'm so wound up I can't even breathe,
I don't want words,
I just want some peace-   Caedmon's Call, from the self titled album (1995)

Light of Hope

 

A precursor to 

As we wrap up 2021, I find myself being drawn back to more of a manuscript preaching mode. This means, we are coming back to the blog setting where my time began here in the Thornville church. Now that Thornville and Hopewell are together again in this two point, connectional, sharing ministry (sharing me as their pastor) we find ourselves in a place where both churches will begin to get the same message on Sunday morning. Up until now, I have felt the need to speak to Hopewell on a different plane of thought. I have been with Thornville for 10 years. Hopewell was not in the same place as Thornville, in their relationship with me or as a church. Now, as we get ready to round the corner into 2022, I feel we are ready to take that step. Both churches will get the same message on Sunday. 

What we are going to journey into is an explanation of what our United Methodist beliefs are and why we believe them the way we do. This structure of messages going forward can truly begin right here in the season of Advent as we cover these four topics the next four Sundays. Hope. Peace. Joy. Love. These are words and ideals we truly believe in as United Methodists. But, why? What is it about these four words that we hold so dear? 

Well, lets get started with the first word on this first Sunday of Advent. 

Hope. What is so important about it? What does it mean to have hope? What is it you are hoping for?

As I have done in previous years, lets delve into the dictionary as a place to begin thinking about what the word means. 

There are six entries at Merriam-Webster which includes some biographical and geographical names. I'm sure you've met a girl named Hope or been through a small town somewhere in the Mid-West or deep South that was called Hope. But, what is it to "cherish a desire with anticipation"? Have you ever wanted something happen or to be true? Little ones are hoping that the gifts they are wanting will show up under the tree in just a few weeks. People are hoping some political candidate will rise up and change the country in the way they want. Many of us have heard the famous line from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) says to his prisoner friend Red (played by Morgan Freeman) "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Hope is something that we hang on to because we have this unspoken confidence inside that the thing we hoping for will happen. It will come to pass. For the Israelite, though, there is a matter of words that come to fulfillment. The matter had been spoken about for some time. Through the annals of prophecy words like what we hear from Isaiah chapter 9 come to fruition. 

 

 

 

Imagine being in a place where you are at the mercy of those who lord themselves over you. The one thing you would hope for is to be free. You would hope that someone would come and break that reign you find yourself in. This is the plight of the Israelite. Roman rule commands the life of the people of Israel. Rome has control of much of the Middle East during this time frame. Their technology and influence can be felt and seen in the language and architecture surrounding the Israeli people. The freedom the people felt at one time before the punishment in Babylon and at the hands of the Assyrians is long gone. When the Greek world began to press in after their return from Babylon, the persistence is made permanent as the Hellenistic influence changes to the Roman background we read about in our New Testament Gospel setting. As they rebuild their walls around Jerusalem, all they want is to be free again. But, never again will they live as they once did during the magnificent reigns of David and Solomon. They will live heavily taxed and burdened with the cares of Rome pressing into their daily lives. Hope is what they feel as those who trust the scriptures hearing words about One who will come and make things right. 

If the people of Israel are hoping for someone who will come and save them, what does it look like in our world to hope? What are you hoping for? Is what you are hoping for realistic? The last line of the definition speaks about "hoping against hope". It's the most unrealistic of hopes because if a person doesn't have any basis for expecting fulfillment then how can they hope for a thing? Yet many a person in our world hope in just such a way. We want things we cannot have. We hope that things will end up the way we want them yet all the while having no grounds for those assumptions to ever find fruition. Scriptural hope finds its basis and grounding in the promises of the Lord. When our God says "I will never leave you nor forsake you." we know that our hope that God will be there beside of us whatever we face or go through will find its way to fulfillment. Many a person who sits in pews, like these you find yourself in this morning, believes that God exists. However, the need to surrender to the Lord, to allow Him rule over the heart, is missing and when the hard times come, we are void of hope. We find despair and misery because we are trusting in ourselves. We want to handle the problem to achieve the outcome we desire instead of trusting God to handle the chaos of our lives. Trust is an essential piece of Hope. It seems strange that part of the definition we read labels the trust part of Hope as "archaic". It's thought of as "old fashioned". Trust is in short supply where people cannot hope. And, people don't truly know what hope is without God in the picture of their lives. 

The conversation between Agent Coulson and Steve Rogers in the first Avengers movie from 2012 is must see. It truly lays the ground work for much of what we will see ahead as the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolds. Riding in a quinjet, talking about everything that is happening since Captain America woke up from 70 years in an icy sleep in the North Atlantic, it is here that Agent Coulson declares some prophetic truth. Agent Coulson took some liberties with updating Captain America's uniform to which Steve Rogers exclaims, "The stars and stripes... aren't they a little... old fashioned." Agent Coulson is always optimistic. "With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned."

So, I will leave you with a thought. What is it yoy are hoping for? Does it have a good foundation to stand on or is it on shifting sand that won't hold up under the pressure of life? When the storms come and the rain falls, will your hope be fulfilled? Or will it leave you empty? 

Jesus is coming again. That's a hope we can truly believe in. And a hope that we can trust.