sermon archive

THE PROMISE OF GOD'S LOVE, By The Rev. Richard Garland
Isaiah 35:1-10
Third Sunday in Advent

Every passage of scripture has a setting and a context. Ours today is a desert, a profound hope, and a God who acts out of love. If you have ever been in or near a desert, it can be a disorienting, frightening, and awesome experience. In the heat of the day there is a shimmering which, to the thirsty, is the promise of water. To follow it is to walk toward a great peril and broken hope. Rocks strewn on the ground, appear like loaves of bread to a mind disoriented by the heat and dehydration. It is no wonder that the desert became a common image for discouragement, hopelessness and despair - a valley of shadows. And yet, for those who know it best, a desert is filled with surprises: a sudden oasis, nourished by water, full of green - a place to rest - "he leads me beside the still waters, he restores my soul." At night, with the bright and familiar stars, even in the desert direction is revealed. So, for those who believe that God cares and is willing to act, even the desert is a place of hope. This is a powerful image for those who walk through their own shadowed valleys, looking for a place to find rest for their souls.

One of the most startling pictures in my vast collection of photographs is one taken from the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It looks to the southeast from a point near the magnificent Al Aksa Mosque. When it was taken twenty-five years ago, one saw in the distance a vast desert, rich with splendid colors, but foreboding and forbidding. At the edge of the city there was a lovely home with a walled garden. Inside the walls were signs of life and the grounds were rich and green. What is striking about the photograph is a walled line of green against the great desert beyond. The truth it told is that the desert there is a climactic desert. It is a fertile place, full of possibility. Full of life and hope if only someone would add the water. And for those who believe that God is a fountain of the water of life, even the desert places of life can and will bloom.

Listen then as the Prophet Isaiah sings a song of hope to the people who have walked in the desert of despair, a song that tells of the promise of God's Love. [A reading from Isaiah 35:1-10]

Someone once observed that the teachings of Jesus are filled with action words like - believe, go, say, tell, show, pray, love, witness, watch, hope, serve, hear, and do. The insight here is that Love is a verb - an action. It is action borne of deep faith and devoted to filling the world with its presence. We say that God is Love, and that is true. But the Love of which we speak is the compassion of God reaching into the hearts of those who find themselves walking in darkness. So allow me to invite you to a new way of looking at Love, particularly God's Love - to see Love as God's activity in creation - to see Love, born at Christmas, full of possibility and hope - to see Love even as the expression of our own life and faith.

We have sung the beautiful words: "Love came down at Christmas, Love, all lovely, Love divine, Love was born at Christmas; Star and angels gave the sign." But when we're honest sometimes that seems remote and out of reach - particularly at Christmas. The truth is that sometimes we don't feel very loving, or very lovable, and sometimes we just wonder what this thing Love is all about. It's hard to feel that way at Christmas, but sometimes we do. It's normal to feel that way sometimes - it may even be a blessing that we do feel that way, because it may help us to sort things out. But as true as that may be in retrospect, who can think about love when they have been "downsized" out of their job? Who can bear the thought of love when they have been disappointed in relationships or lost someone they have loved? Who can feel worthy of love when they feel they have made a mess of things?

How we understand love and loving is rooted in how we envision God. That said, it is also true that our understanding of God is colored by our own experience of being loved, or accepted as lovable. It is significant that the Christmas story is rooted in peoples of ancient faith - people who had every reason to give up on life - even give up on God. When we hear words like "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light," it is a testament that people could still trust God even though, by any other standard, they had nothing in which to hope. When we look at the prophecies, we see the language of wilderness and loss and weakness and danger. But from them came the language of hope and fulfillment and redemption and glory and joy. As difficult as the lives of these people had been they still trusted God and still believed that God would save them, could even make the desert bloom. What they saw was that God was still committed to them, that God cared for them - loved them. That truth kept them strong and enabled them to live in the promise of God's Love.

So, what is this love which reveals the promises of God? Love is that which gives energy and creates. We see that in creation itself. What God had made was affirmed as good. It was filled with vitality and life, and it is the source of our life. If you want to see love, look for those things that are life-giving: people caring about one another and encouraging each other - people listening to each other and seeking to understand each other - people committed to justice and mercy - people laughing and crying together and being with one another in holy silence - people valuing one another not for what they do or who they are, but because they are. When you live in this kind of environment, it fills you with energy and releases the vitality of the grace of God.

The subtlety of this is that it is not something that ones does alone. Love is possible only in relationship and it always has a human dimension. The story is told of a small child who was frightened one night doing a storm. He cried for his mother and she came and hugged him and calmed him down. As he settled into that satisfied comfort that comes when a person feels safe, his mother said: "You know, you can pray to God when you are afraid, and God will comfort you." I know, Mommy, but sometimes I need someone with skin on." His insight is deeper than one might imagine, and theologically correct. There can be no doubt about God's love. We see it in the gift of creation - we see it all around us in the beauty of nature. But sometimes we need someone "with skin on": - to quiet the ancient fears - to share the beauty we see - to work together for justice and peace. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, upon them has light shined..." "...they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given!"

When love came down at Christmas, God wrapped that love in the shape of a baby - and as the baby grew, he "became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him." One of the things that love does is that it changes our vocabulary. A tragedy of our modern era is that, in the name of realism and truth, violence and evil and greed and self-centeredness have become the centerpiece of much of our culture and even our entertainment, and the mantra has become: "I did it my way." To them I say: "There is another way!" Ringing bells for the Salvation Army, placing a gift under a Giving Tree, donating blood at the holiday, contributing to the food pantry, baking cookies for a lonely neighbor, sending a card to a friend grieving their way through Christmas, a pleasant smile for a shopper or a store clerk overwhelmed by it all. It's not flashy but I'll take that kind of realism and truth any day! That kind of realism and truth holds the promise of God's love, wrapped up in kindness and justice and mercy, reaching into the lives of people walking through their own private deserts, offering life and hope, and setting before them a vision of grace and love. We don't need any more of "I did it (or I got it) my way." The deepest love and the most enduring truth, is seen in people who have prepared in their hearts room to receive the promise of God's Love, who are willing to walk hand in hand together on the path to peace. This kind of love outlasts everything else.

Many of us have heard of the composer Felix Mendelssohn. It is he who wrote the beautiful music to which Charles Wesley's text, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", is set. Few, however, have heard the story of his grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. When it was time for Moses to marry, his father made arrangements for his warm and compassionate son to wed Fromet Guggenheim, a rich, young, and beautiful woman. They had never met. What made this proposed union extraordinary was not only the humble origins of Mendelssohn, but his physical appearance. He had a brilliant mind, but he was small, ugly, and he was a hunchback. A party was arranged for the two to meet. While he was deeply engrossed in conversation, she had an opportunity to observe him from a distance, and was immediately repulsed. She emphatically told her father that the engagement was off.

When Moses was informed that she did not wish to marry him, he requested and was granted a conversation with her alone. They talked quietly for a few moments, then Mendelssohn said, "I wish to tell you a story." "As you know," he began, "all marriages are arranged in heaven. Before I was born an angel was escorting me to earth. I asked if it was possible for me to see the woman God had selected for me. The angel answered that though it was highly unusual, he did not think it was impossible. I was granted one look, and to my astonishment the woman had an ugly hump on her back. I pleaded with God, "It is not fair that a woman should be a hunchback. She will be the object of scorn and contempt. I beg you, give me the hump and let her be well formed and beautiful."

Mendelssohn was silent for a moment before he concluded. "God heard my prayer, and granted my wish. I am that young man and you are that young woman." Fromet Guggenheim looked at Moses Mendelssohn and viewed him with different eyes. The man she now saw and later married was wonderfully attractive - a man of warmth and compassion. From them came a grandson in whose music was the song of God's Love.

The promise of God's Love is not some impossible purpose, laid as an other burden upon an already weary person of faith. It is a gift of energy borne of the creative power of God. It is the devotion to see with different eyes, the beauty of another. It is healing that brings hope where before people could only see obstacles and weakness and frustration. Out of that hope grows a deep and satisfying peace, which makes it possible to love. Let the Christmas story change how you look at life. Look deep within your heart and see the image of God, full of hope and possibility, active and life giving. May the promise of God's Love bring joy and peace to you this day and always. In gratitude join your voice to those of the angels to give Glory to God for a wonderful gift.

At our Church/Charge Conference on Tuesday night we will enact various items of business. One of these will be the report of the Lay Leadership or Nominating Committee which presents persons for election to positions of servant leadership for the next year. There are many roles within the church which are not listed in that report - and one of them is particularly appropriate for this Advent season. It’s an important one and it involves each and every one of us. All of us - young and old, male and female, rich and poor have been elected to the position of “carrier of the vision.” You were elected to that position when you were baptized.

Any person seeking to know Christ, any person looking for the God of hope and peace is a “carrier of the vision.” We are in good company when we carry this vision. We join with prophets like Isaiah, Psalm writers like David, early preachers and letter writers like Paul, and with those who heralded the coming of the Messiah, like John the Baptizer.

Each week as we worship we hear and proclaim part of this vision, but today, the Second Sunday of Advent we hear it in vivid terms. We hear from the prophet Isaiah that there is One coming in whom will dwell the Spirit of God, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and awe. We hear that there is a time coming when there will be a kind of peace which we cannot even imagine. Isaiah describes this in language that is surprising and exciting. He talks about wolves living with lambs, calves and lions together in peace, and a child leading all of this. What a surprise this would be - and yet - do we not worship a God of surprises?

This child will come in a surprising way like a shoot or a branch from the stump of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David - a young boy chosen by God to become the second King of Israel. David tried to follow the ways of God and even though he made some really big mistakes and some really bad decisions, for the most part he did what God wanted him to do. To David’s credit, when the things he did wrong were pointed out to him, he was sorry. He repented, and he turned away from them, trying again to be faithful to God.

By the time Isaiah wrote, however, David’s kingdom had been split into two. The northern kingdom, Israel, had been destroyed and the southern kingdom, Judah, was in great danger. There would come a time when there would be no more king in David’s line. But still, out of what appeared dead, nothing more than a stump, would come a shoot, a new growth, a new branch - One in whom would dwell the spirit of God.

In the Christian church we have understood this passage in Messianic terms. We have understood it to be telling about the coming of Jesus. We have understood that he brought a new day to the earth, a new kind of life. We proclaim that he brought a new kingdom, a new form of government, a new way of being and living together. A way that will fulfill the vision that Isaiah proclaimed, where those who once were greatest enemies will live in perfect harmony and peace with each other. This is part of the vision which we are privileged and challenged to carry.

John the Baptizer proclaimed this vision in a different way than Isaiah. Living in a time when most Jews were oppressed by the Roman government he proclaimed that the Messiah was coming and they should get ready. He was a wild looking character out there in the wilderness proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” The Message, a modern retelling of the Gospel story, puts it this way, “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

John wasn’t a particularly popular carrier of the vision. He spoke the truth as he understood it and it got him in trouble. Some of the temple authorities came to him and, again in the words of The Message, John proclaimed, “What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama - compared to him I’m a mere stagehand - will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house - make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

What is this new life? What is this vision which Isaiah proclaimed in glowing exciting terms and which John warned people to prepare for? Again we hear part of it in the Psalm for today. We might update the language a little to fit our current times and hear, “Please help our President and Congress to be honest and fair just like you, our God. Let them be honest and fair with all your people, especially the poor. Let peace and justice rule every mountain and hill. Let the President and Congress defend the poor, rescue the homeless, and crush everyone who hurts them..... Let the President be fair with everyone, and let there be peace until the moon falls from the sky. “(Psalm 72:1-4, 7 CEV revised) The Psalm concludes recognizing that these things will not happen by themselves, “Lord God of Israel, we praise you. Only you can work miracles. We will always praise your glorious name. Let your glory be seen everywhere on earth. Amen and amen.” (18-19 CEV)

It is a vision that we are called to carry - a vision which we are to proclaim, and a vision which we are to share with others and work to help make a reality.

When we carry something normally we are taking it from one place to another or from one person to another. Carrying the vision means taking it from our place of worship into our homes, into our schools or places of employment, into our communities. Being carriers of the vision means we take the vision to others who may not share the vision, who may not have heard it - who don’t know about this surprising and radical way to live.

During Advent we remember and celebrate the surprising way that God chose to reveal God-self to us, as an infant, the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem. During Advent we wait for the time when the vision will be fulfilled in its entirety - when Christ shall come again. During Advent we carry and proclaim the vision as we look to the ways that God enters into our lives everyday.

With the prophet Isaiah, we are called to proclaim the vision. With John the Baptizer, we are called to confront the ways that we and others are not preparing the way of the Lord, but are instead being obstacles to the vision becoming reality.

We are challenged to carry a vision and a prayer, as the Psalmist did, that we would be honest and fair with all God’s people, especially the poor.

We often fail to realize that we are always carrying a vision. The question is, “What vision are we carrying?” Is it a vision of the poor being treated with respect and care or is it one where everyone looks out for their own needs and doesn’t care about others. Who is at the center of your vision - is it God or is it you? Look at the way you spend your paycheck - it’ll tell you a lot about the vision you carry. Check out your calendar - how you spend your time speaks volumes about what is important to you.

What is the vision we are carrying to our children, grandchildren, the children in this church, or in our neighborhood? The way we treat children, the elderly, or disabled speaks volumes about whether or not we really believe that all people are God’s children. Notice the way you talk to you family, friends, co-workers. Do your conversations show respect and promote a vision of peace and harmony?

Hear the way The Message shares the Romans passage. “Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, `How can I help?’

“That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. `I took on the troubles of the troubled,’ is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. May our dependable steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir - not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

“So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it!” (Romans 15:1-7)

At all times - and especially during Advent - we are given both the privilege and the challenge of being carriers of the vision, those who seek to live out the vision found in Isaiah, in the Psalms, in John the Baptizer’s words, in the exhortation and encouragement of the Apostle Paul, and in the life of Jesus the Christ. We are to be those who reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory.

Thursday we ate turkey. Friday was the biggest shopping day of the year. Christmas decorations are appearing all over the place. Yet today marks the beginning of Advent – a time of preparation. But for what exactly are we preparing? Are we preparing for a month long shopping spree? Are we preparing for a month of frenzy, filled with parties, commitments, the need to decorate, to send Christmas cards, to buy just the right gift – or any gift? Are we preparing for heavy traffic jams or for financial difficulty as we once again spend too much to try to purchase the perfect Christmas? If we are, then we are likely to find ourselves on December 24^th, singing “O Holy Night” but really thinking “O Crazy Nightmare.”

Are we preparing as some religious groups seem to do this time of year, for the end of the world, the anticipated second coming of Christ, an event about which Christ said that no one would know except God? Are we preparing for the birth of the Christ Child which took place over 2,000 years ago? Are we preparing for and anticipating the presence of Christ in our lives every day? The lighting of the first Advent candle invites us to dream dreams of a better world, to allow expectant visions that have nothing to do with sugar-plum fairies to dance in our heads. Advent invites us to fill the cup of today with a full measure of tomorrow. The passage from Isaiah, especially, expresses the Christian hope for a different, brighter future.

During Advent we celebrate that God changed the world in a dramatic way in Bethlehem long ago when God became human and entered into our world as a newborn infant. However, we also recognize that in our very complicated world, we need more than an infant Jesus. The really big problems of our lives need an adult Christ - and even more they need a Divine Christ.

During Advent as the lights of the season sparkle in the night around us, we are encouraged to think about the ways in which we might walk in the divine light that God gives. As we are invited to parties, and this year as we are still a nation at war, we are invited to open ourselves to a world transformed by the peace of God. As we put on party clothes, we are reminded to dress ourselves in Christ’s light so that we may become catalysts for the transformation of the world.

When the prophet Isaiah thought about the advent of God, he envisioned a world of peace – a radical peace where every nation would come to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob to learn the ways of God and to walk in God’s paths. He describes a time when weapons of war will be turned into tools for gardening, when people will no longer learn war and when everyone will walk in the light of the Lord. What a wonderful vision, but how radically different from the world in which Isaiah lived, and about 2500 years later how still radically different from the world in which we live.

These words from Isaiah proclaim a vision that has been able to catch the imagination and the hope of people through the years. These words are among Isaiah’s most famous: “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

These words appear on a plaque outside the United Nations building in New York, when the UN was founded out of the ashes and rubble of World War II, and still warfare rages among nations, with Iraq being only the most recent in a long series. Humanity has not come any closer to fulfilling the prophet’s dream of peace.

Isaiah’s listeners would have understood immediately that when he spoke of people coming to the mountain of the Lord, he was referring to Mount Zion, the mount on which the city of Jerusalem is build. Jerusalem would have a unique role as a place of worship and law-giving. Today, Jerusalem is the center of a hot-bed of tension. Still, I have to wonder and dream of the vision of peace, when I realize that the biggest problem, the fact this one location is the center of holiness for the world’s three largest religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – religions born out of a common ancestry could possibly be the very source of the solution .

The psalm appointed for this day is Psalm 122. We heard a few words from it at the beginning of the service as we prepared to light the advent candle, but there is more to it. The first time, I really paid attention to this psalm was in March of 2002 sitting on the streets outside of Jerusalem, looking at the city that we had just left. I looked at the building closely crowded together and read in the psalm about a city “closely compacted”. I thought about the soldiers that I saw on the streets with their weapons and the checkpoints through which we had to pass to get to the Western Wall, and the prohibition against going up to the temple mount where the Muslim Dome of the Rock is located, the golden domed building that dominates the skyline of Jerusalem. I read, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers. For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, `Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.”

What would it be like if the three major religious groups in Israel truly prayed for the peace of Jerusalem, and more importantly worked for the peace in peaceful ways instead of in ways that promote more violence?

I think that this is a key question to ask ourselves during Advent. It is a key question to ask ourselves not just about Israel, but about Afghanistan and Iraq, about the Sudan and about many other places in the world. Is peace possible?

It’s hard to even ask that question sometimes. There’s a whole arm of the entertainment industry that is dedicated to war and violence. It's big business. Today it may be Halliburton that profits, but there have always been plenty of individuals and corporations who have made a bundle on every war we have declared. It's also a national unifier. It is easy to oversimplify. To put yellow ribbons on the back of our cars, display our country's flag, slap "Support our Troops" signs on our cars and think that those who believe this war is wrong are unpatriotic, are against the troops, and are jerks. It’s easy to forget that our flag stands for the right to disagree with each other and with our nations policies and to do so in freedom. It’s easy to forget that this is one of the reasons we claim to be pushing democracy in other countries, so that individuals are free to express their viewpoints and to freely elect those who represent us.

Can you imagine what life would be like in our nation if people put the same kind of energy, prayer, sacrifice, and zeal behind something like affordable healthcare and housing, or some other equally important humanitarian concern? Might this help to bring about peace?

“God's role in the Exodus; in Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection; and in Isaiah 2:2-5 all have significant implications for us: (1) There are other ways to make good things happen than by going to war. (2) God is creative in the way God transforms situations of human bondage, and we who seek to be God's servants can also be creative when we set our minds "to study war no more." We are called upon to put as much energy into peacemaking as currently gets put into war-making by so many others. (3) The impossible is possible. (4) It's up to us to take this question seriously and look at ways to say yes to it. (5) There are concrete examples of places it has worked: South Africa in ultimately resolving apartheid, the USSR, which fell due to bankrupting itself on military spending, India's liberation from Great Britain at the end of WWII. Moreover, with the death of Yassir Arafat, slight though it may be, there is an opportunity for both Israel and the Palestinians to compromise and give up some of what they want in terms of land and rights in order to establish peace for both peoples.”[i]

The real point is that our ways are not God’s ways, but they should be. When we ask God to bless our nation or to bless something we do, it would be better if instead of asking God to bless our actions, we were to do the things that God blesses.

“Jesus is both realistic and challenging about issues of war and peace. He tells us that there will be "wars and rumors of wars," but his blessing in the Sermon on the Mount is given to the peacemakers. It is a challenge that is offered to each one of us. We pray that the leaders of the nations would be peacemakers, but the well-known prayer of Saint Francis reminds us that that role begins at an individual level. ‘Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.’"[ii]

It is a matter of transformation. Advent should be an opportunity for Christians to open ourselves to be made instruments for God’s peace, in preparation for the coming of the Prince of Peace.

There is a story from an unknown source about a piano teacher at a university who was simply and affectionately known as “Herman.” “One night at a university concert, a distinguished piano player suddenly became ill while performing an extremely difficult piece. No sooner had the artist retired from the stage when Herman rose from his seat in the audience, walked on stage, sat down at the piano and with great mastery completed the performance. Later that evening, at a party, one of the students asked Herman how he was able to perform such a demanding piece so beautifully without notice and with no rehearsal. He replied, "In 1939, when I was a budding young concert pianist, I was arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp. Putting it mildly, the future looked bleak. But I knew that in order to keep the flicker of hope alive that I might someday play again, I needed to practice every day. I began by fingering a piece from my repertoire on my bare board bed late one night. The next night I added a second piece and soon I was running through my entire repertoire. I did this every night for five years. It so happens that the piece I played tonight at the concert hall was part of that repertoire. That constant practice is what kept my hope alive. Everyday I renewed my hope that I would one day be able to play my music again on a real piano, and in freedom."

William Sloan Coffin once said, “We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God.”

We do this as the pianist did, by practicing everyday; by living everyday the way that God has called us to live; by praying that each one of us may be an instrument of God’s peace. We know that peace is much more than the absence of war. True peace is so much deeper, a peace that passes understanding. The biblical concept of peace or shalom includes justice and genuine accord between people. Even more widely, shalom includes peace with the natural world and with non-human creatures.

It’s a beautiful dream, and I believe that the vision of the prophet is a sign of its real possibility of becoming a reality. The vision itself is the first fruits of the rich harvest that God will one day bring to all. “Our anticipation for that day of fulfillment is intense. There are times when we wish the angels of heaven would swoop in and right the wrongs that are so obvious, and bring in God's kingdom of justice and peace.

Yet, as Jesus himself says, "No one knows the day or the hour." It's not for us to know. For us, there is only the waiting. Such waiting is the task of Advent.”[iii]

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake” a sparrow asked a wild dove. “Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer. “In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,” the sparrow said, “ I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow – not heavily, not in a raging blizzard – no, just like in a dream, without a sound, and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953^rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing, as you say, the branch broke off.” Having said that, the sparrow flew away.

The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for awhile, and finally said to herself, “Perhaps only one person’s voice is lacking for peace to come to the world.”[iv]

[i] The Immediate Word, Nov. 28, 2004

[ii] The Immediate Word, Nov. 28, 2004

[iii] The Immediate Word, Nov. 28, 2004

[iv] Hewett, James S. Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, Wheaton , IL , 1988, p.404, #6

Today is an exciting day in the life of our congregation. There is a spirit of thanksgiving in the air as our nation prepares to celebrate that holiday this week. There is a spirit of celebration as we received three people into membership in our congregation at the 8:00 service. There is a spirit of excitement as the children and youth of the Sunday School share their favorite food and celebrate their thanksgiving feast. There is a spirit of generosity and compassion as food is sorted and details completed for the distribution of Thanksgiving food through the food pantry. There is a spirit of expectation as we consecrate our offerings to God and our commitments for the coming year. I hope you feel the spirit because thankfulness is a mighty virtue, it leaves no room for discouragement.

There is a “legend of a man who found the barn where Satan kept his seeds ready to be sown in the human heart, and on finding the seeds of discouragement more numerous than others, he learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. When Satan was questioned, he reluctantly admitted that there was one place in which he could never get them to thrive. `And where is that?’ asked the man. Satan replied sadly, `In the heart of a grateful (person).’”[ii]

This spirit of gratefulness comes through loud and strong in the reading this morning from Exodus. It is a story from about 3300 years ago during a time when the Hebrew people were wandering in the desert wilderness under the leadership of Moses. At some point in their wandering God told them to build a place of worship. The immediate chapters around this passage tell of the design of a tabernacle in the desert. It was large, but also portable. It had a wooden frame bedecked with jewels, and hangings of fine linen.

Gifts were needed to build the tabernacle. So a call went out, “bring your offerings. Bring money or jewelry or precious stones, or wood or fine linens. Bring whatever you can give to the building of the temple.” The call went out and the people responded. The gifts came pouring in.

Then a most unusual thing happened. There is no other story like this in scripture – and probably few in history. The project managers came to Moses with a request: “Tell the people to stop. We already have more than enough to do what the Lord wants us to do. We are being inundated with offerings. Ask the people to stop bringing them.” So Moses sent word for the people to stop giving and they did. But there was already more than enough to do what needed to be done.

Can you imagine that! Wouldn’t it be amazing if someday the food pantry and the RI Food Bank were to say, “Please stop bringing in donations. We have more than enough to feed all the hungry people.” Can you imagine being told that there is more than enough money to help the people who need fuel assistance! Can you even conceive of the idea of the finance and stewardship committee standing up and saying, “Please, no more pledges, no more offerings, we have more than enough to do what God wants us to do.” Wouldn’t that be a great day!

Brian Bauknight, a Methodist pastor, preached a sermon on this passage and he pointed out three things about the success of this offering for the tabernacle. Three things that explain how the people got to the point of “more than enough” and show us what we can learn from this story.

First, the trust level was high. The trust level in the community of believers was high. Integrity was in place. This is an important starting place for any offering. There was no arm-twisting, no gimmicks.

This must be true for the church as well. In order for this church to ask you to pledge toward the ministry and mission of this congregation, you must be able to trust those who are in positions of leadership. That does not mean that you have to agree with all of them about everything; but it does mean that you must believe that the finance and stewardship committee has worked hard to determine the financial needs of the congregation; that this work has been done in a prayerful spirit understanding the mission of the church and the needs that exist. You must believe that the financial secretary, the weekly counters, and the treasurer will make honest accountings of the monies received and use them for the purpose for which they were given. As I said last week, you must believe that the church has something to offer to the world and that this congregation will be faithful about meeting that responsibility. It is vitally important that the trust level not be eroded.

“God has placed the church on a growth track. Growth is not necessarily in quantity so much as it is in quality – Christian formation, faith development, the most important kind of growth. If you take time to know the story, you will sense integrity. Integrity is very important to all of us – to the church. Integrity was present in the desert. Therefore, the resources came in as requested.

Secondly, the capacity to give was present. Who would have believed that a nomadic people wandering in the desert in the thirteenth century B.C. would have had these kinds of resources to give?”[iii] However, they had brought resources with them. Their capacity to give was greater than they knew, and Moses was aware of this.

Bauknight says that “the capacity of most local churches to sustain a vital, healthy ministry is clear. The church is not at the end of its rope. Unfortunately, we have told ourselves that we are poor for so long that we now believe our own prophecy! The real question is our willingness to release some of what we have for the work of the kingdom.”[iv]

“One Sunday morning a pastor encouraged his congregation to consider the potential of the church. He told them, `With God’s help we can see the day when this church will go from crawling to walking.’ The people responded, `Let the church walk, Pastor, let the church walk.’

“He continued, `And when the church begins to walk, next the church can begin to run.’ And the people shouted, `Let the church run, Pastor, let the church run!’

“The pastor continued, `And finally the church can move from running to flying. Oh, the church can fly! But of course, that going to take lots of money for that to happen!’

“The congregation grew quiet, and from the back, someone mumbled, `Let the church crawl, Pastor, let the church crawl.’”[v]

At the beginning of 2004, our church budget and our anticipated income had a gap between them, a rather substantial one – a cavern some might have called it, about $19,000. There are many fixed items in our expenses just as there are in family or municipal budgets. The place for cutting would have been program – and we do not consider that to be a viable place to cut – that is the heart and soul of the ministry and mission of the church. We prayed, made our needs known and studied the numbers carefully. By the summer that gap had narrowed to about $8600. A special request went out to the congregation. People responded as they were able. For some the capacity to give was great, for some it was somewhat smaller, for some the capacity to give at that time did not exist. Each person had to make that decision between him or herself and God. The gap was narrowed to about 2%.

As of right now, I can tell you that all of our current obligations have been met. We are on track with our connectional ministry – we have paid 80% of our mission shares. We fully expect to finish the year with all of our responsibilities met and our mission shares paid at 100%. Now, I am not at all ready to come to you and say, “Enough, no more!” But I come with thanksgiving that because of your faithfulness, we will have enough to do what we have been called to do this year.

My prayer is that, once all of our pledges for next year are received, we will be able to move ahead into 2005 knowing that we will not have to come to you again asking for an additional offering to meet our regular expenses. My prayer is that we may be able to go into 2005, asking God what else we are to be doing, and spending more of our creative energy on our ministry and mission and less on the financial needs.

Our church is not in a weakened position with regard to resources. Our capacity is present. We are not overextended or tapped out. There is enough to do what is asked of us.

Thirdly, the offering that Moses requested was a free-will offering. This is true of all offerings in the church; nothing less will suffice in the ministry of the Christian church.

If you are a sports enthusiast, or a supporter of the arts, you may have a season ticket to one of these, or you may purchase tickets for specific shows or events. Those prices are set – you are told what you will pay and if you are not able to pay it, you simply do not attend.

This doesn’t happen in the church. There is no season ticket, or ticket of admission to worship, Sunday school, VBS, youth group, Bible study, choir or anything else. Our ministry is funded by the free-will offering of the people.

“Carol Burnett tells a wonderful story about a ride she took in a taxi in New York City. She arrived at her destination and asked the amount of the fare. Upon being told, she voiced her opinion that the chargers were a bit high, but then paid the cabby his fare.

“As she exited the cab, her coat caught in the door. The cab drove away (fortunately quite slowly in traffic), with Miss Burnett running along behind, shouting for the driver to stop. Finally, someone got the cabby’s attention, and he stopped his cab, got out, and apologized profusely to the actress: `Miss Burnett, I am terribly sorry. Are you all right?’

“`Yes, I’m fine,’ she responded. And then, as only Carol Burnett would know how to do, she asked, `How much more do I owe you?’”[vi]

Your pledge and your weekly offerings are not a matter of what you “owe” your church. “The church is the one institution in the world that depends 100 percent on the free-will offerings of the people. The church of Jesus Christ operates with a standard that is different from that of the world.”[vii]

Perhaps the key to this whole story is the phrase, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the work which the Lord commanded to be done.” It is not what we want to do, but what God gives us to do.

As a teenager I was part of a building project for a new church building. The design of the building was awesome. At some point in the process another voice was heard and the building was scaled down. It is still a magnificent structure and it has been serving God faithfully and generously for some years now. Recently an addition was added to the building. Human ambitions can be too high and too grand. That is always a danger. God’s vision is what counts.

We have tried very hard to be led by God’s vision of the work that we are called to do in this location and the ways that we are called to reach beyond our walls into our community and our world. These are reflected in the missional budget that is proposed by the finance and stewardship committee.

At this time of thanksgiving, we might think of the woman who went to her pastor and said, “I really love this time of year.” “`You mean the fall colors and the crisp autumn air?’ he asked. ‘No, that’s not what I mean at all,’ she said. `I mean the stewardship campaign.’ `You’ve got to be kidding,’ he responded. `You actually like this time of year?’

“`Yes, and I’ll tell you why. This time of year makes me take stock of my life. It makes me think deeply about my priorities. It makes me ask if I am living the way God is calling me to live.’”[viii]

That’s what needs to happen to us at least once each year. We need to think deeply about our priorities, about what God is calling us to do as a congregation and how God is calling us to live as individuals and as a congregation.

[i] Sermon title and some thoughts from presentations by Brian Bauknight at NE Conf. Pastor’s Assembly Aug. 2004, permission of speaker, also from Sermon by same title in Brian’s book Right on the Money, Discipleship Resources, Nashville, TN 1995 pp.23-28

[ii] Hewett, James S. Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale Publishers, Wheaton , Il , 1988 p.262 #12

[iii] Bauknight, p.25

[iv] Bauknight, p.25

[v] Hewett, p.459 #6

[vi] Bauknight, p.27

[vii] Bauknight, p.27

[viii] Bauknight, p.11

When you looked at the sermon title in today’s bulletin did you wonder if I had lost my mind? I imagine that the members of the Finance and Stewardship Committee must have thought I was crazy. Why would the pastor preach about tearing up your pledge card during the middle of the Stewardship Campaign when our goal is to get as many people as possible to fill out a pledge card for 2005? Let me assure you that this is not a gimmick, the title and the intent of this sermon is exactly what they appear to be.

First, of all, let me say that I would probably never have come up with a title like this myself – or, for that matter the courage to preach this sermon. This summer while attending the New England Conference Pastor’s Assembly, I heard a wonderful sermon by Rev. Brian K. Bauknight from Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, PA. He has preached and even published a sermon by this title, and it really got me thinking.

Usually, I try to talk about stewardship as being much more than pledging to the church. Stewardship is a way of looking at life. I really do believe that, and like many people I sort of cringe when it comes time for what we usually call the stewardship campaign, a time to raise the financial commitment for the church budget. I try to talk about stewardship as much more than financial, but I realize that generally the word stewardship seems to get associated primarily with money. This year, we have been very intentional about trying to remember that our budget is a mission budget – it is the document that guides us in fulfilling the mission to which God calls us in this place. Your pledges are commitments toward doing the work of God – and yes, that does include such seemingly mundane things as electricity and insurance and salaries.

The time for presenting pledge cards is often looked upon as necessary drudgery among one’s church obligations. Rev. Bauknight tells the story of two men who were stranded on a desert island. “One seemed cheerful and upbeat. The other was nervous and dispirited. The second man spoke first: `Why are you so happy? Don’t you know we’ll never be found? We’ll both surely die on this forsaken island.’ `Cheer up,’ replied the first man. `We’ll be just fine. My church pledge is due next week, and I know the finance committee will find me!’”[ii]

Many of you have received a letter from the church signed by both Robin Marek the chair of the Finance and Stewardship Committee and me. If you didn’t receive a letter and the enclosed pledge card and information, there are copies available in the narthex on the easel with the large poster that proclaims, “We are the Church Together.” As much as we would truly love to receive your pledge card and your commitment, I invite you to tear up your pledge card if any of several situations describe your life right now. I realize that this is risky business, but I really do mean it.

First, it is probably time to tear up your pledge card if you believe that the church no longer offers what the world needs!

If the church is simply one more nice institution in the community, a nice social club, where someone holds membership and visits occasionally and pays dues, then the church is no longer offering what the world really needs and you should probably give your money to the Red Cross, the United Way, or the Heart Fund.

Bauknight tells about an editorial in The Christian Century written by William Willimon. He wrote about a meeting of the Board of Trustees at the church – related college where he was serving. They hired a consultant to give some direction regarding their goals and objectives. The consultant said that “The college needs to focus upon helping young people become more adult.”

An older, retired United Methodist preacher asked, “Sir, what exactly do you mean by `adult’?” The consultant replied, “You know what an adult is. An adult is a person who is autonomous, liberated, capable of standing on his own two feet and looking out for himself.” “That’s exactly what I thought you meant,” replied the preacher. “Fact is, the people in my church who believed that are in big trouble right now.”[iii]

The reality is that life is not easy. In the church we proclaim a gospel that reminds us that we are only strong when we lean on Christ. We proclaim a gospel that tells us that we are only truly liberated when we are free in Christ. We declare that when we look out only for ourselves, we end up with a hard, crusty selfishness.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a son or daughter in Iraq right now without having a church family to count on to help share the worry and to be praying for all of our soldiers there and elsewhere. I cannot imagine facing a serious illness without a church community to surround me in prayer and to offer practical help. I cannot imagine raising young children without other Christian parents to help provide guidance and understanding.

The mission of the church is fundamentally about what the world does not and cannot offer: hope, peace, strength of soul. The church proclaims that every person is a child of God, that no one should live in poverty, or fear, but that when someone does, they are not alone – not ever. The church proclaims that healing means the healing of body, mind, and spirit – and that this healing is both earthly and eternal.

However, if you believe that the church no longer has a vision; if you think that the church no longer offers what the world needs, then you should probably tear up your pledge card.

Secondly, you should probably tear up your pledge card if giving is a chore and not a joy. In our epistle reading today, Paul says quite clearly that God loves the person who gives gladly. That statement means exactly what it says. God loves those who give with heartfelt gladness, rejoicing eagerly.

If you are angry or disgruntled because the church is always asking for money, then you should probably not give. In fact, you should probably tear up your pledge card.

Let me speak personally here. Through the years, one of the blessings that God has given me is the joy of giving. When I was a very small child, our Sunday School had offering envelopes for all the children. They had two pockets that said, “This side for us. This side for others.” You couldn’t get much clearer than that. Every Sunday morning my father gave each of us two nickels. One went into the side for us and the other the side for others.

My parents didn’t really believe in giving an allowance, so when I approached them about that when I was in junior high, I clearly laid out my expenses – lunch money, etc. and negotiated an allowance which included the amount to go into my church offering.

Years later as a young mother going through a divorce, my lawyer had me fill out a form listing all of my expenses. There wasn’t a line on there for my church pledge but I added it. He informed me that I would not be able to continue to give that amount, that I couldn’t afford it and that it wasn’t a valid expense in the legal system. I pointed out to him that there were lines on the form for cigarettes and alcohol, that they were considered valid and that I had left them blank. If I had put my pledge figure on those lines he would not even have batted an eye. Secondly, I told him that it didn’t really matter what he considered valid. When I had my bottom line figure, I would determine how it was to be spent and that it would most definitely include a pledge to the church.

You see, the only thing that got me through that divorce and through the years preceding it were the love and support of the few people in my church community who I had allowed to have a little bit of a view into my life. My pastor had been for me the person who modeled God’s love and my gratitude for that made me want to give back so that others could experience the same thing.

In the years following, I have always spent a long time determining what my pledge with be. Some of you have already returned your pledge cards for next year, I have not. But I will. I am still sitting with it, praying over it, and letting God show me what an appropriate figure will be. I know that it will be more than I think I can afford to give – it always has been, but when I put that amount down on the card, I will feel good about the amount I write, and I will feel good about every check I write during the year because I know what God has done in my life and I want to celebrate that by giving.

If you are not happy inside about giving to the church, don’t give. If you don’t want to give to the Discretionary Fund to provide emergency funding for someone in need then don’t give. If you don’t want to support the mission budget of the church to provide Sunday School curriculum for our children, and a place for the community food pantry, and the many other opportunities that take place in this building, then don’t do it.

Please hear this: If you don’t have it to give, God does not expect you to give anyway. God does not expect us to give what we do not have.

For a disciple of Jesus Christ, giving is a voluntary act of the heart. Nothing less. If giving is not fun, if giving is a negative experience, you should probably tear up your pledge card.

Finally, You should probably tear up your pledge card when the reality of God no longer has a claim upon your life.

I just explained to you how the reality of God in my life is intimately connected to the joy of giving. They go hand in hand. Consider carefully, does the reality of God still claim you? Does God’s presence make a difference in your life? In our very busy world, God’s presence should be the center out of which all of our priorities are ordered.

The stewardship thought in today’s bulletin says it well. “A wheel can have only one center. Either everything in our lives, including our resources, will be organized around our relationship with God, or everything in our lives, including religion, will be organized around our pursuit of affluence-or whatever else we choose as the center of our lives.”

The church is a faith movement, not a charitable institution. We are disciples of the Lord of history; not an organization of do-gooders. Certainly we should be doing good things – but that is a result of the reality of God in our lives, not our purpose in being. However, if God is no longer an important presence in your life, your pledge card should probable be set aide. If seeking that relationship with God is not important then you should probably tear up the card.

So, there you have it. Three reasons to consider tearing up your pledge card. What we are finally about at pledge time is discipleship. The budget is important but that is not the bottom line, discipleship is the bottom line. The bottom line is not where we are headed, but who is our Head!

When the offering plates are passed on Sunday morning, it is not the dollar amount within the envelope that is most important. It is the representation of you and I that makes the difference. It is our statement of what the church means in our lives and what we believe it can mean in the lives of others. It is our statement of the joy of giving to God because God is vitally important in our lives. The envelopes are symbols of our presence, of the offering of ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ. The offering should be a happy time in the worship service, a time of gratitude and joy – otherwise, we might just as well send out monthly bills that you can pay when you pay all the other bills in your life.

[i] Many of the ideas for this sermon and some content came from Brian K. Bauknight, preaching at NE Conference Pastor’s Assembly, August 2004, Used by permission. His sermon by this title is also found in Right on the Money, Discipleship Resources, Nashville , TN 1995

[ii] Bauknight, p.16

[iii] Bauknight, p.17

They were trying to rebuild and it seemed like such a big project – overwhelming really. Everything they had had been destroyed, for years they had lived far from their home and now finally they were able to return to the land that they loved. Finally they were able to return to Jerusalem. After defeating the Babylonians who had deported the Jews, Cyrus allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. In 521 BCE Cyrus was succeeded by Darius who permitted another wave of exiles to return. Among them was a prophet, Haggai, whose ministry covered only one year, 520 BCE.

Haggai discovered that the exiles were spending a great deal of time rebuilding their homes, planting crops, going on about their lives, but they were not rebuilding the temple. For Haggai the temple was to be the center of their national and religious life; it symbolized and guaranteed the presence of Yahweh in their midst. This may be hard for us to understand because we recognize that God is with us everywhere. For the Hebrew people though, the temple was the place where God lived.

Haggai called them to remember – to look around them. He asked, “What do you see?” It was easier for them to remember the “good old times” back when Solomon’s magnificent temple stood there. It was hard to remember the “good old days” and to compare it with where they were then.

It’s often tempting to think about the “good old days” times that seemed simpler, more peaceful. If we are honest with ourselves though we realize that the “good old days” were not all that simple or peaceful. It doesn’t do any of us any good to get bogged down in thinking about the past. The Hebrew people to whom Haggai spoke needed to face the reality of their situation. We need to face the reality of the situations in our lives.

We live in a world where nuclear weapons are a reality. Since 9-11, we have learned that weapons of mass destruction can be things we would never have anticipated – including passenger airplanes.

This week I attended a meeting at the Rhode Island State Council of Churches. We were discussing some of the major needs that we expect to encounter this winter. We all knew that the cost of heating fuel is much more expensive this year, so we anticipated that we would be getting many more calls this year looking for fuel assistance. Many of us are grateful for the moratorium on utility shut-offs during the winter, what I did not realize is that we have many families in this state going into the winter without heat or utilities because they were never able to pay off the bills from last winter. The cost of gasoline and heating fuel is also expected to make it more difficult for people to purchase the food they need.

The newly returned exiles knew that there was no way that they could rebuild the temple the way it had been; they could not turn back the clock. They did not have the resources – the gold and silver of days long gone. They could not rebuild the temple the way it had been and so perhaps it was easier to not rebuild it at all. They faced a mammoth task.

We face a mammoth task in the days and weeks ahead. This week’s election has shown what we already knew that we are a nation deeply divided about many things. We realize that even as Christians we are deeply divided about many of the issues that were considered core issues by some of the candidates. However, there are some things that we, as Christians should be able to agree upon. One of these is the mammoth task of caring for our brothers and sisters in this community and state who will be hungry, cold, and homeless this winter. Like the returned exiles we may feel overwhelmed by the challenge. Like the exiles we are concerned about our own homes, our own heat, food, our own needs. It’s only human to feel this way – but it is not the call issued by God.

Three times, in this passage, Haggai calls for courage. First he urges the governor to have courage. Then he exhorts the high priest to have courage. Finally, he pleads with the people to have courage. Where would they get the courage they needed? Where do we get the courage we need? We find that answer in the fifth verse, “My Spirit is among you, fear not.”