Watch, Turn, See, Dream

November 26, 2016 Romans First Sunday of Advent Advent is upon us once again, it always seems to hide right behind Thanksgiving, so as soon as I cook my turkey, and put up my fall decorations, I have to rush to take them down and put up the winter decorations. I was determined that I would be prepared this year. So on my porch right now are some mums that are dead and need to be thrown out, and evergreens and wreaths that are waiting in the corner. I think that it is important for us to remember advent. Advent is like entering into God’s time. The Board of Discipleship set these themes for the four Sunday’s of advent this year are watch, turn, see, dream and on Christmas eve have peace. Today our instructions are to watch. Watch what is going on in the world, watch what is happening in our spiritual life, watchhow we treat one another, more important watch what God will do in the world. SERMON ILLUSTRATION Coach Bear Bryant Urges His Players to Stay Alert Paul "Bear" Bryant is widely considered to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. Bryant's record in 38 years at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Alabama included 323 wins. He also took 29 teams to bowl games and led 15 of his teams to conference championships. In the 1960s and 1970s, no school won more games than Alabama (193-32-5). As one of his colleagues said, "He wasn't just a coach; he was the coach." John Croyle, an All-American defensive end on the 1973 national championship team, played for the Bear, and was deeply impacted by the man. John recently told me about one of Coach Bryant's pregame speeches. Coach Bryant paced in front of his assembled team as the band played for the capacity crowd waiting outside in the stadium. He made eye contact with each player as he spoke the following words: In this game, there are going to be four or five plays that will determine the outcome of this contest. Four or five plays that will swing the momentum toward us, or away from us. I don't know which plays these will be. You don't know which plays these will be. All you can do is go out there and give all that you have on each and every play. If you are doing that on one of those crucial plays, and you catch your opponent giving less, that play will swing things in our direction. And if we rise to the occasion like that, on those four or five plays, we are gonna leave here today a winner. Possible Preaching Angle: Prayer, Attentiveness, Obedience—Our life is made up of a series of moments. A few of those moments will be absolutely transformative—they will change our life and the lives of others forever. But since we usually don't know which moments will be the "game-changers," the Bible repeatedly urges us to "stay awake," "walk in the light," and "redeem the time." Dave Bolin, Gadsden, Alabama The first sentence of our scripture in Romans 13 – As you do all this, you knowwhat time it is. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your sleep. In order for you to be able to watch what God is going to do in your life, you have to wake up. How much of our life is spent on automatic pilot, where we do things without thinking. Or really paying attention to what we are doing. We know that we have to wake up in the morning, we get ready for work or school, we memorize our schedule, look at the clock to see how long before lunch, eat, return to what we are doing, get ready for dinner, watch tv, go to bed, and start all over again the next day. As long as we know our schedule, we don’t have to think about it. How many of us talk with people and already anticipate in ourheads what theyare going to say. We don’t listen to them, because we have already had theconversation in our heads. Paul is telling us that we are about to enter into God time, and that we have to change our ways. Live life a new way, be prepared to do a new thing. But before God can come into our lives, we have to wake up and watch what is happening. The word that Paul uses for time is Kairos. Which literally means God’s time. Chronos is the time on the clock, Kairos is the spiritual time, the timing of life, when we just know it is time for things to occur. After thanksgiving dinner is over, you just know that it is time to put up the Christmas tree. Before thanksgiving, no one wants to hear Christmas music, or see Christmas decorations, because it is not time yet. Yet as soon as dinner is over – you know it is time. That is Kairos time. The apostle Paul asks us if we know what time it is. Our response is that today and every day is God’s time — it is the time for us to get our act together, living in the light, transcending the darkness all around us to celebrate a Savior who can and does change lives. Amen. But advent is time for something much deeper. Leonard Sweet says that there are three advents that we have to prepare for. First we prepare for the coming of Christ as Christmas as baby Jesus, second we prepare for Christ to come again, and third we prepare to live our lives in Christ as faithful Christians. You celebrate the first coming, you pray for the second coming, but you live in the second coming. Romans encourages us in our third task- living as faithful Christians. Paul says that oursalvation is closer than we think it is. The night is almost over andthat day is about to arrive. So Paul says that if wearefollowersofChrist,then we should stop acting like it is still night time. He says that there are certainbehaviors that people only do at night. (Paul didn’t live in Chicago, where people sin in broad day light). But he says that when we live in Christ. We should always live as if it is daylight, and other people can seewho we are and what we are doing. We have to make sure that we are always being the light on Christ in any situation. In order for us to do that. Paul says that dress yourself with Christ. When you go outside and it is cold, what do you do? You put on a coat in order to keep warm. When you go out into theworld, and you seepeople who are comfortablewith sin and wrongdoing, what should you do? Put on Christ Jesus. On Sundays, I make sure that I get dressed for church. But when I get ready togo into the pulpit. I put on a robe. To be clothed in Christ for the task ahead. As we enter into Advent 2016, there seem to be a lot of uncertainties ahead. There are a lot of things going on in our world that have never happen before, and we don’t know what the outcome of these changes will be. But we know who holds the future. We will have to watch, turn to God, see God’s miracles, and live God’s dream for the world, and pass the peace of Christ to all that we know and do. In Western Colorado there is a road called the Million Dollar Highway. My guess is that both tourists and even most of the people who live on the western slope don't know how this road got its name. They probably assume it got its name because it was expensive to build. That's not correct—although it probably was expensive to build because it runs through very difficult terrain and at a high altitude. The real reason it's called the Million Dollar Highway is because waste material from the ore in gold mines was used as the bed for that highway, and not all the gold dust and nuggets were removed by the mining processes available at the time. As a result, there is a partial roadbed of gold that is probably worth a lot more than a million dollars. It isn't the cost that gave it its name, but rather what is inside it. The same is true for the royal law of love ("Love your neighbor as yourself"). Sure it's costly, but what gives it the name is what it is made of: it is made up of God, the God who is love." Leith Anderson, in the sermon How to Treat People, PreachingToday.com Loving God in every situation, that is whyChrist came to this earth, that is what weare waiting and watching for. That ishow we must live in the advent season. You are about to enter into God’s time – What blessings will God bring to you this year? You will just have to watch, turn, see, dream and have peace. Amen. Children’s sermon……. Scripture: Romans 15:7 Concept: People should be able to expect the church to be a place that is warm, kind, accepting, and fair. Preparation: None. Lesson: How many of you love to go to school? Raise your hands. Suppose you loved to go school. You loved to read and write, do math problems and science experiments. School was your all-time favorite place to be. Let's suppose summer was about to end and it was time to go back to school. You couldn't wait to do all those neat "school" things that you enjoyed doing. But when you got to school you found there would be no reading and writing, no math and no science. Instead you were simply going to sit at your desk all day and listen to music. That would be a letdown. That's not what school was meant to be and it would not be what you had expected. Suppose you wanted to be on the football team. You liked wearing the uniform and tackling other people. You liked running and throwing and catching the ball. But when you got to football practice, the coach said there would be no uniforms or running or catching or tackling. You were not actually going to play football. Instead you were going to listen to other people tell you about playing football for the whole season! That would be disappointing, wouldn't it? It would not be what you had expected. Imagine you went to the toy store and only found books. Don't we have the right to expect a toy store to have toys? If it says it's a toy store, shouldn't it be like a toy store? How about a church? People who have never been to church do not always know what to expect. Most of them expect that if they come to a church, the church people will be nice, friendly, and accepting. They expect that they can come to worship God even if they do not look like everyone else or dress like everyone else. They should be able to expect these things. You would be disappointed if you went to school and it was not what you expected school to be, or if you went to football practice and there was something else in its place, or if you went to the toy store and there were no toys. People coming to church hoping to find God's loving, kind, and fair people will be terribly disappointed if they get to church and find people who are unkind and cruel. Let's make sure that people looking to find God and God's people always find exactly what they are looking for at our church. God bless you. CSS Publishing Company, A TIME TO PLANT, by Teresa L. Major Extra illustrations……… SERMON ILLUSTRATION Many Cultures Still Don't Have a Word for Boredom Science writer Winifred Gallagher argues that what we call boredom (which she defines as "the unpleasant sense that there is nothing that interests you"), is largely a recent problem that still doesn't exist in many places around the globe. She writes: Situations that would strike us as unbearably dull, say, waiting for hours or even days for a bus, are considered just the way life is in many developing countries. Anthropologist Henry Harpending has done extensive fieldwork in the back country of [Africa], where in most ways, he says, "folks are just like you and me. But one thing that the Westerners that go there just can't understand and are open-mouthed about is the people's tolerance for tedium. They can just sit all day under the trees …." [Harpending] is fluent in Bushman and he has tried for twenty years to elicit a word for boredom, but the closest he has gotten is the unsatisfactory [word for] tired. Gallagher also adds, "[In the English language] boredom has no derivation: That is, it doesn't come from any other word but was specially created. Moreover, the word didn't appear in English until the later eighteenth century." Winifred Gallagher, New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change (Penguin, 2011), p. 126. Bible scholar N.T. Wright uses the analogy of waking up in the morning for how some people come to Christ through a dramatic, instant conversion and others come to Christ through a gradual conversion: Waking up offers one of the most basic pictures of what can happen when God takes a hand in someone's life. There are classic alarm-clock stories, Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, blinded by a sudden light, stunned and speechless, discovered that the God he had worshipped had revealed himself in the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth. John Wesley found his heart becoming strangely warm and he never looked back. They and a few others are the famous ones, but there are millions more. And there are many stories, thought they don't hit the headlines in the same way, of the half-awake and half-asleep variety. Some people take months, years, maybe even decades, during which they aren't sure whether they're on the outside of Christian faith looking in, or on the inside looking around to see if it's real. As with ordinary waking up, there are many people who are somewhere in between. But the point is that there's such a thing as being asleep, and there's such a thing as being awake. And it's important to tell the difference, and to be sure you're awake by the time you have to be up and ready for action, whatever that action may be. N.T Wright, Simply Christian (HarperOne, 2010), page 205 [ read less ]

So that I can live

November 6, 2016 Daniel 7:1-3,15-18 All Saints Day I want to put you all on the spot. We read the vision and mission statement earlier in the service. How many of you can say it again right now? What is a mission statement? What is a vision statement. Our mission is who we are and what we value, the vision statement is how we live that out. We say it every sunday to remind us that we should be living out our vision statement in everything that we do. When visitors and others come in contact with us, and then hear our vision statement, they should immediately say- yes I can see that in them. Where did we get that vision and mission statement? By looking around our community and seeing what is possible for God to do in this community. But we also got it from those who came before us, what they saw to be possible in this world if God were fully present. A vision statement is not just about who we are, but who we aspire to be. If we lived in a perfect world, what would it look like? How would we treat everyone? We would we be doing for one another. We get our vision from those who came before us. It is our job to live out their hopes and dreams. There is a shirt going around the internet that says “ I am my ancestors wildest dream”. Everything that they hoped for us comes true in us, and we pass it on to our children. So that they can live in the world that we envisioned. On this day, we want to honor the visions of those who came before us. We honor family and church members who are no longer a part of the struggle. We honor those who have gone on before us. They were a part of the vision of God, but now they have gone on to perfection. We want to honor them for all they have given to us and to the world on this all Saint’s Day. We don’t deal with the book of Daniel very often, as a matter of fact, this is the only time the book of Daniel is in our readings. Many people are afraid of the Book of Daniel, because it talks about dreams and visions. It talks of Daniel’s vision of the endtimes and God’s final judgement. The judgement is only scary if you are on the wrong side. If you know God and you know that we you have not made God the center of your daily vision, they you should be afraid. It was Daniel’s intention not to scare people but to give them hope. He wanted to encourage the saints – to continue to live holy. It is not the end that we should be afraid of-life gets better. He wrote his visions and dreams down- to show people that the tough times we are going through only came to pass, not to last. Daniel has a vision of 4 beast that have come to destroy the world, and the ancient one of days sits on the throne watching it all and eventually ending it all. He comes to judge all that has happened to his people. But He saves those whose names are written in the books of life. One book for those who are faithful and one book for those who are not. Those who are faithful will be saved from tribulation. Those who are in the book of life are not those who have done everything right, but those who in the midst of their sinning, still called on the of God as their savior. If you read through the new testament and the words of Jesus, there are two terms used for the faithful in the bible. There is the word disciple and the word saint. The mission statement of the United Methodist Church comes from the last words of Matthew – go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And today we honor the saints of our church. A disciple is one who is a student, who aspires to be just like his teacher. In this case we are disciples of Jesus Christ. A saint is one who has been sanctified, made holy in the presence of God. A disciple is one who is walking toward the future, a saint is one inherits the future. A disciple works toward the vision, a saint lives in the vision. And interestingly enough, the book of Matthew uses these two terms interchangeably. We are both disciples and saints at the same time. When we have a vision, we live in the now and what is to come at the same time. Our victory is that the race has already been won, the work has been done by Jesus Christ. But he still left some work for us to do. When we look at the world, the community, we don’t have to be discouraged by what we see, because we know that Christ has already declared victory over despair. The real winner of next week’s election is Jesus Christ. But how Christ will work in this world is still being determined. When I was ordained, one of the questions that the bishop asked us was are you going on to perfection? Do you strive to be a perfect person. We all know that as long as I am alive- I will never be perfect. Well the reality, I have already been made perfect in God’s eyes through the blood of Jesus. And yet when I stand before God – thejudge- I will be deamed perfect through my faith, and God’s grace. The only way I can achieve perfection is to do all that I can here, and to stand before God and say I did all that I could do. Today we honor those who have been made perfect in God. Who have fought the faithful fight and now stand at their eternal rest. We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, and Jesus. In our world of good and evil, there are times when we clearly are not in control of what is going on around us. But we are in control of what is going on inside of us. On days like this, we need to be able to ask ourselves what areas of our lives appear out of our control. Whatever they are, All Saints reminds us that we need to look toward the one who gives us life so that we can live our life as God would have us live it. Our God is the same God who acted in the past, in the present, and will act in the future to protect that which was so carefully created. Our faith needs to mirror that of those who have come before as we struggle today to become the saints God would have us be. The biggest lesson of today, is that everything is going to be okay. Today we may be in pain, we may be going through hardship, we as a church are a little far off from living out our vision. But that is okay – it just means that we have something to strive for. As the faithful ones we are both disciples and saints at the same time. But we take this time to honor those who have gone on to perfection, so that we can have the strength to move forward, to live out the vision, and to face the problems of this world. We take the time to remember, so that we can live another day. Amen. Children’s Sermon…… PREPARATION: None or bring a picture of a family tree LESSON: How many of you know what a family tree is? (Let the children respond) (If you have a family tree, show it at this time.) A family tree is very special because it lists everyone in your family from several generations back up to the present--grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. It is always fun to look and see how we are all related to each other, isn't it? Has anyone in your family been adopted? (children respond) If you have an adopted brother, sister or cousin, they have just as important a place on the tree as you do. That is what adoption means. Adoption means to take for your own. When someone adopts a child, they have all of the legal rights as a child born into a family. They are treated as their own. Did you know that all of us are adopted into God's family? That's right. God chose us and adopted us into his family through Jesus. That means if we love Jesus and ask him into our hearts, we have all of the same rights before God as His Son, Jesus. That is pretty awesome! Another amazing part of this is the last part of the verse. It says that adopting us gave God great pleasure. God is happy to have us in his family. PRAYER: Thank you for loving each of us enough to invite us to be members of your family. AMEN Collected Sermons by King Duncan