Worship Is A Gift!

Today’s sermon is going to be about worship.

But what it is not going to be about me wishing that more people would come to worship.

This is not going to be a sermon about how worship is marginalized in our society.

It is not going to be about stores being open on Sunday, or sports programs that overtake the importance of God.

Mainly because I am tired of the culture wars (I am sure most of you are too!), and I feel that would be a wasted sermon.

Today I want to declare peace.

Instead what I want to talk about is why worship is a gift to us.

In this season of giving, I want us to remember that God gave us worship not as a punishment, not to bore us with old fashioned hymns, and long winded sermons, but as a gift.

In the midst of our busy over productive lives God has given you and me permission to stop and take a break.

God has set aside time for us that is holy and special.

It is time that we have to simply be.

That is the great gift of worship.

This morning’s Gospel from Luke we are told the historical circumstances of Jesus time.

We are told the year and the rulers, and the religious leaders.

And then we are told that in the midst of this there will come a messiah who will make things straight.

We are told that there are powers in this world.

And we know from the story that those powers are corrupt, they are unjust, and they are bent on making lives difficult.

All those powers expect something from us.

The political powers expect us to produce to pay taxes.

The religious powers expect us to be holy and keep the cultic practices alive.

What are we to do in such a world?

Where can we go?

This morning the crowd is ready to follow John into the wilderness.

They are ready to escape and get away.

They need John’s message of repentance.

More than this they need to know that something greater lies ahead.

They are filled with hope and expectation.

This morning I am suggesting that our worship is a gift because it allows us to flee into the wilderness into the secluded places where we can clear our heads and see the greater picture.

This week on Facebook I asked people to tell me what worship meant to them and why it was important.

Here are some of the responses:

“Worship is where I'm given the vision of God, so I can see with that vision everywhere else.”

“I remember that I am a small part of a big world and it puts things in perspective for me....”

“Worship for me is giving my body, soul, heart and mind to God.”

“It is a time when I have a chance to think, listen and reflect. I feel at peace.”

“A chance to reflect, gain perspective and prioritize what's important in my life.”

“For me it’s fellowship and strong renewal of faith, spirit, and love.”

“It helps to center me and to realize what is truly important in life and what I can let go.”

“Feeling of community. Singing praise. Forgiveness.”

“Communion that enfolds, forgives, challenges, and connects me with Jesus.”

“Phones off. Tv off. Radio off. No baseball talk. It's all about God and only God.”

“During worship I feel like it is my time to learn grow and to be reminded of what is important.”

“Gives me comfort, strength, and guidance.”

Interesting that in the 22 responses I received on facebook no one said, “I worship because I have to…”

All of the responses I received about worship have something in common.

All of them have a sense that worship is a gift.

They all talked about worship as a special time that allows them to receive something important.

Peace, perspective, comfort, love, strength, guidance, renewal, all of things that are important in our lives.

For the rest of the time we spend here we are running around, getting things done, working, paying taxes, shopping, fixing things, being productive.

Here in this place, for this time, there is nothing to do, nowhere to go.

At the end of worship there are no report cards, no performance reviews, no bills to pay.

There is only space to be ourselves and to allow God’s grace to be sung, spoken, tasted, given unto us.

Before every worship service I take out my calendar, my wallet, and my phone and I stick them in a drawer in my office.

I do this partly because it reminds me that this is time when I don’t have to worry about anything except being present with all of you and with God.

This is not the time to worry about those other things; they will be there when I get done.

But this separate time is God’s time.

I am thankful for the gift.

I am thankful for that space in my life to reconnect, to recharge, and as many people said on Facebook to gain perspective about what is really important in my life.

During advent that is what we do.

We gain perspective.

We go out into the wilderness to hear that God is at work even among the busyness of life, even among the turbulent historical moment; even now we are called to be in this special sacred space, in this sacred time.

Sure things look bad, but God is filling in all the rough spaces, God is making the crooked straight.

It is important in our lives to have that perspective and we gain that in worship.

Worship is not about earning points with God.

But it is about a choice we make each and every week.

I bet that all of you are busy.

There are a million things that need to be taken care of or tended too.

But here you are, because it is important to you.

You have carved out this time to be here because you need the time to sit and reflect, to sing with joy, to hear the good news that God is here.

And every week in worship we are given the advent that God is here with us, among us, in us.

Of course worship is partly about our participation, but this morning I want you all to see that is more about how God acts on us.

In this time that we set apart to be with God, God does something to us.

God tells us yet again that we are forgiven.

God tells us in songs of praise that we are loved.

God calls us out in the world filled with corrupt leaders to act for justice and truth.

God reminds us that every hill shall be made low, every valley filled, and every path made straight.

In other words we don’t have to climb a mountain to get to God, because God is right here in our midst.

We don’t have to worry when life brings us into valleys of despair because God is right there with us.

When our lives get blown of course, when we stray down crooked paths God is on that path with us.

In worship we are reminded of that and brought back to equal footing.

What a great gift we unwrap together every week.

God knows we need it.

God knows that we need saving, and God has sent his son for us.

This sacred time and space is our reminder that God is with us.

It gives us strength to go back out and in the world, it gives us perspective to remember what really matters, it gives us forgiveness to love ourselves and others, it gives us comfort when things go wrong, it gives us God’s vision to see that vision everywhere else.

Thanks be to God for the gift of worship!

Amen

Being Proactive

The next four weeks we are going to be talking about stewardship.

We are going to be talking about giving a portion of our lives over to God.

But I want to start this morning with a word of clarification.

Stewardship is not just about how we give 10% of our time, talent, and treasure over to God it is about how we give 100% of our whole life to God.

Stewardship is about how we use all of ourselves in all of our life to serve God.

Having said that we also acknowledge that there are certain times and places that we give of ourselves over to God in a very focused and intentional way.

We do it not because it is ordered of us, not because we think we should, but because it is better for us spiritually to give a specific portion of our time, talent, and treasure to God.

Today we are going to be talking about giving a portion of our day to God in prayer.

And I want to start that discussion by confessing to you that this is part of my spiritual life that suffers the most.

I of course pray.

I pray all the time.

I pray when I hear that someone in our congregation is struggling with illness or some other hardship.

I pray before I have to have a difficult conversation with someone.

I pray before an important meeting, or during an important meeting.

But what I don’t do enough is have a disciplined time in my day that is devoted to spending time with God in prayer.

I don’t take five or ten minutes every morning to pray for the day.

I know lots of people that do this.
And I am always in awe of them.

But why does it even matter?

Who cares if I have some kind of prayer routine?

Isn’t prayer best when it is spontaneous and heartfelt?

Isn’t prayer most authentic when it is done in the heat of battle?

Doesn’t scripture tell us to, “Pray without ceasing”?

Why would we need to take time out of our busy schedules to stop for prayer?

This is usually my excuse for not having a more disciplined prayer life.

I am too busy.

I pray all the time anyway.

I pray before Bible study every Tuesday morning with my colleagues, I pray every Wednesday night with some of you before Bible study, I pray before every meeting, I pray whenever I visit someone, I pray the Lord’s prayer at the end of any meeting of the congregation, I pray before many meetings in the community, I pray every Sunday here with all of you.

Why would I add another time of prayer?

I have noticed something about my prayer life.

It is mostly reactionary.

I pray as a reaction to things.

Someone gets cancer and I turn to God in prayer.

Someone dies and I ask God for strength.

I lost my patience with my kids and I pray for forgiveness.

I am walking down the street on a beautiful day I give thanks to God for God’s creation.

I am always praying in reaction to things around me.

This morning Jesus suggests that our prayers are more than reactions to the world falling apart.

They are also preparation for when the world will fall apart.

“Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place.”

Prayer is not only our supposed to be reactionary they are also meant to be proactive.

Prayer is meant to build us up and give us strength for the things that we will face in life.

What would it mean to your life to pray when you first woke up in the morning?

Instead of merely reacting to the events of the day you could have a few moments with God to ask for strength before having to deal with something difficult at work?

You could take a few minutes to ask for God to give you patience with your kids.

Perhaps you might not get so mad.

Perhaps, instead of just reacting to what is going on around you, you are actively seeking to live in a different way.

You can be proactive as you anticipate the hard things you will face that day and ask God for the strength to handle those things with power, love, and grace.

Jesus knows that his followers are going to face some difficult times.

He knows that you and I are going to have to deal with all sorts of crazy events in our life and in the world.

And Jesus also knows that there is no way we will get through those things without God.

We need to have that relationship with God that gives us strength that keeps our faith alive.

And one way to do that is to have some time each day that we designate for having a conversation with God.

Just like any relationship in our life needs to be nurtured through spending time on it, so does our relationship with God.

Prayer is the way that we talk to God.

It is the way we let God know about our fears, our struggles, our failures, and it is how we gain strength.

Advent is about waiting for the time when Jesus will come in the manager, it is also waiting in anticipation for when Jesus will come again, and finally it is a call for us today to wait and be on watch for the signs of the fruit, and to watch for the coming of summer, of new life.

Even in the midst of winter’s first snow fall, we wait even now for new life.

Even now as the days are darker we wait for the sun to return.

As we sing this morning, “In darkest night his coming shall be, when all the world is despairing.”

Jesus uses as his example a fig tree.

Perhaps it is a good example of our prayer life.

In the midst of our own dying, of the dying of the world around us we urgently seek new life.

In prayer that promise of new life is gently whispered again and again into our ears.

Look at the fig tree which today is dying and dry, but tomorrow bears leaves and fruit to eat.

This we know is the very circle of God.

Dying never leads to death, only the miraculous birth of new things.

This is what daily prayer gives to us a proactive way to look for the signs of the fig tree.

Setting aside time to pray gives us a proactive way to wait for God’s promises to be realized in our lives and in the world around us.

Over the Thanksgiving I saw the movie Lincoln.

In it Lincoln tells a story about a man whose parrot every morning announces, “Today the world will end”.

The man finally shoots the bird, and, Lincoln says, the prophecy came true that day for the parrot.

The end of the world can be any day for any of us.

It can come in the devastation we feel in any one of number of life events.

But are we ready.

What I suspect is that my life would benefit from regular disciplined everyday set aside time to pray, because it would prepare me for those times better.

It would make me more proactive towards being ready for the end.

In this way Jesus is doing us a favor by giving us spiritual advice that is meant to strength our faith and our relationship with God.

What I am going to add this advent is that structured time with God.

I hope you will hold me accountable.

Ask me next time you see me if I had taken my five minutes to pray.

I hope that all of you will also prepare yourself this advent for the coming of Jesus by giving a portion of your day to pray.

(If you already do this I am in awe of you already.)

In so doing may we all become proactive in seeing the ways that God is birthing new things into our lives.

Through prayer we see that God is actively at work in our daily dying and rising to new life.

And through prayer we see the promise of God’s love, power, and grace.

Amen

Walmart Opening Early on Thanksgiving is Anti-family

My Dad spent his life working in retail. For many years with Sears and then for TJ Maxx.  He put his three kids through college, provided a home, and food to eat with his job. He taught me that it was honorable work. My Dad for the most part liked his job and he was good at it. When I heard that Wal-Mart was opening at 8pm on Thanksgiving I thought of my dad and what that would have meant for our family. It would have meant less time together on Thanksgiving. We still would have eaten. We would have made arrangements to eat earlier. But for us Thanksgiving was an all day family event. We got up and watched the parade, and then my sisters and I would plan a play to be put on for the adults at dinner. Later in the day other family would arrive. We would spend a couple of hours simply sitting in our living room talking to each other and catching up. Then we would have eaten, after dinner I would have watched football with my dad and some of the other guys.
We could have skipped parts of this ritual, but all these years later I still enjoy the day of leisurely visiting with family, eating, watching football, and giving thanks. Walmart has robbed families of that ability to not rush, to take our time and simply enjoy being together. When in our culture do we have such time? I have no problem with shopping, or Christmas, or companies that want to make money. I do have a problem when those companies do not take into consideration the importance of families having time together. I have a problem when companies decide that being open a couple of more hours is more important than their employees having time to sit and watch some football with their kids.
I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday (it is a close tie with Easter) because it is about a very simple idea that we should take time out of year to give thanks to God for all that we have. We do that by slowing down for a day. We do that by paying a little closer attention to those we love. I pray that those who run Walmart (Michael Duke, CEO) would want that same thing for their employees, and for all families in this great country. I am thankful this year for all those memories I have of spending time on Thanksgiving with my family and I wish that for all the employees families at Walmart.
Happy Thanksgiving

God Has Bigger Dreams for You!

This week I attend a community discussion about New Americans who have come to call Concord their home.

There was a panel with many people who told their stories of how they came to be here in Concord.

All of their stories were a combination of heroism and tragedy.

For example, on the panel there was a woman who came here from Sudan.

She told us a harrowing story.

She was with her family sitting in their home.

Over the ridge came a raid by military.

She heard gun shots and people screaming.

She fled and hid with her family.

When she came out her home and school were totally destroyed.

They had to flee.

She ended up her in Concord, learned English, and now wants to be a cardiovascular surgeon.

She said that even though her life was totally destroyed when she was a kid even then she believed that, “God had bigger dreams for her life.”

Today in our Gospel Jesus is talking about the world coming to an end.

Most of the time when we talk about the end of the world we think about death and destruction we think about earthquakes, wars, and people being whisked away to some heavenly place.

To view the end of the world in this way is to misunderstand the nature of apocalyptic literature and its place in the Biblical witness.

When people in the Bible talk about the end of the world it is from the perspective of a people in the midst of great tumult.

Their lives are being invaded and taken over.

Our first reading from Daniel is a perfect case.

At that time the Emperor had declared Judaism a crime, he had desecrated the temple, and co-opted the leadership of Israel.

This sent people into a panic.

What did it mean?

All the things that people had relied on for security, spiritual support, and stability,  had been taken away.

To talk about the end of the world was a way to make sense of what was happening in the world.

To tell what God was up to in uncertain times.

And a couple of things are consistent in this type of literature.

One, God is always in control.

Two, it is not the end but the beginning of something new and better.

Three, be ready because God is up to something.

In our culture apocalyptic movies, books, and theology is often used to scare us.

We better shape up or else God will really get us.

You better believe in God or else you will have to suffer throw a horrible future.

This morning I want to recapture the tradition of this type of literature as a way to see a better tomorrow and to have faith that God is in control of that better tomorrow.

So that we can have the same faith as that woman from Sudan, and we can believe that God has bigger dreams in store for us.

Where do we turn when our life has ended?

When we experience a horrible event?

When our lives are turned upside down where do we turn?

Often times we look to leaders to solve our problems.

We want our leaders to tell us that we are safe and that nothing is really wrong.

I was surprised in this last presidential election how much we were promised by both candidates.

We were told that we could have everything that we wanted without any sacrifice on our part.

We were told that we would always be kept safe and secure.

Jesus warns us this morning about finding our security in anything but God.

In today’s Gospel the disciples are impressed with the size of the buildings.

Jesus warns them not to be too impressed.

The buildings are not as great as they seem, they too like all human endeavors are fleeting.

Jesus also warns them not to be taken in by leaders who say that they can do it all and save them.

Our hope as Christians, as people of faith, does not belong in our institutions, our buildings, or even our leaders; it is always based on God.

For only God can truly help us.

God is the only one who is there for us no matter what.

I have sat with many people whose world was coming to an end.

Most of the time it is because someone they trusted let them down, or an institution they believed was always there for them failed them.

And my message is always the same in those circumstances trust God.

God is up to something even when things are falling apart.

God is usually creating something new out of those horrible situations.

God is birthing new things to life.

No wonder Jesus describes the end as birth pangs.

In our lives all the time God is starting new things.

The woman from Sudan’s faith told her that this was not the end for her and her family.

God had bigger dreams for her.

God has bigger dreams for us too.

What new things is God birthing for you?

When we are ready for God to act then we can better understand the new way we are being led.

This is Jesus advice to his disciples.

If we take out all the stuff about wars, famines, and earthquakes we see Jesus advice to his disciples.

Beware!

Don’t be lead astray.

Do not be alarmed.

Beware of when people tell you they can solve all the problems of the world.

Do not be lead astray to think that every little thing is the end of the world.

I was amazed that after the election so many people wrote on Facebook and twitter that this was the end of the world.

(I am sure that if the election would have turned out the other way that people who didn’t get what they wanted would have also written that it was the end of the world.)

Let us be clear that it was one election among many.

It is not the end of the world, it is only the start of another four or two years.

Which leads us to Jesus last piece of advice to us don’t be alarmed.

Perhaps we all need to calm down a bit.

Is the world a scary place?

Sure.

Is the world difficult and complicated?

Sure.

But I believe that God is ultimately in control.

That even though we humans are trying our best to destroy the world God is up to something even beyond our wildest dreams.

I think this morning about the Pilgrims who came to this country because they wanted something more.

They wanted religious freedom, they wanted a better life.

They fled the comforts of their home to find that.

They traveled across the seas and endured a life threatening year in a new world.

Because they had faith that God had something better in store for them.

And amidst the crumbling of their life something new and better came out of it.

Still today New Americans are coming here looking for that same new start.

One person at the event told this story about a New American who told him at an ESL class that USA stood for You Start Again.

If your life feels like it is coming to end God is saying that there is new things coming and you can start again.

Today God is offering us to start again.

If your world feels like it is coming to end.

If you feel that there is nothing but death and destruction all around.

Be ready because God is in control and birthing new things to life so that you can start again.

Because God has bigger dreams for you! Amen