Forgiveness and Beyond

September 17, 2023 Romans 14:1-12 Forgiveness and Beyond 16th Sunday After Pentecost Prelude Welcome Call to Worship (Inspired by Psalm 103) One: Bless the Holy One with our whole selves. Praise the Maker of our being! Many: Remember the mighty deeds and the good works of our God. One: The Sovereign One endows us with many gifts and equips us to do good work. Many: Remember the mighty deeds and the good works of our God. One: Holy Love entered the world without condemnation but with grace and forgiveness, mercy and compassion, redemption and restoration. Many: Hallelujah! We give thanks for the mighty deeds and the good works of our God! (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay) Invocation God who calls, it is you who gathers us together and forms us as a community. It is you who makes us uniquely individual and who designs us for companionship. Let us journey together this day in your presence reminded of our interdependence with one another. May we see your glory and be inspired to demonstrate your goodness and care through our lives. Amen. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay) Song. There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy. UMH 121 Children’s Sermon Romans 14:1-12 Choices Made in Peace By Lois Parker Edstrom Suggestions: Play tug-a-war if appropriate to your setting and situation. Teenagers playing tug of war Tug of war is a game that was first played hundred of years ago and it is still a sport enjoyed in many parts of the world. At one time a tug of war competition was part of the Olympic Games. It is a good game to play at a family reunion or other events where several people are gathered together. You need a long, strong rope. Then the people divide into two teams with the same number of people on each team. A line is marked on the ground and the purpose of the game is to pull the opposite team over that line. The two teams move back and forth as each team pulls in opposite directions. The team that causes the other team to step over the line is the winner. Playing tug of war reminds me of what it is like when two people argue. In an argument each person thinks they are right and they try to get the other person to come over to their side and agree with them. Arguments often happen when we are angry. Perhaps someone did or said something hurtful. The argument goes back and forth and, now and then, cruel things are said to one another. The Bible asks us this question: “…why do you judge your brother?” (14:10) and reminds us that “each one of us will give account of himself to God” (14:12). When you are angry it may be helpful to remember that we are all accountable to God. Instead of fretting about the actions of another person, we should try to make good choices for our own behavior. Choices made in love and peace honor God. Scripture quotations from the World English Bible Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan Prayer for Transformation and New Life God of grace, we need your strength in our weakness. We confess that we can be judgmental and hyper-critical of our neighbors, family, and friends. We project our own shortcomings on others in order to deflect attention from our mistakes. We withhold and condition forgiveness, mercy, and grace from those who wrong us at the same time we seek it for the wrongs we have done. Even still, we struggle to forgive ourselves. You have shown us the better way. Help us to follow your path–receiving and extending forgiveness in a world in need of an infusion of grace for transformation. In your mercy, O God, hear our prayer, and let us forgive as you forgive. Amen. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay) Words of Grace Beloved, grace has always been part of God’s relationship with humanity. God does not want you condemned or held captive by unresolved anger leading to bitterness. Rather, Creator desires you to be released as both forgiven and forgiver so that all may live a life that is whole, free, and flourishing. (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay) Passing the Peace Prayer for Illumination Open us, Eternal God, to you Word read and proclaimed. Help us not to turn from your truth or avoid your message. Help us to be receptive to the wisdom that you offer. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Teri McDowell Ott) Scripture Romans 14:1-12 Sermon Forgiveness and Beyond As we come to understand nutrition, our diets have evolved. As a matter of fact, we have lots of healthy choices for a diet. Is there a diet that is healthiest for us? Which diet brings us closer to God? Does God prefer meat eaters or vegetarians? Romans 14 starts out by saying that being a vegetarian is a weaker choice, and eating meat is a stronger choice. Really? Well when Paul talks about eating meat that has been blessed at the temple, he is not concerned about diets, but about how we like to judge the choices of one another and them separate ourselves accordingly. Sometimes it is hard for us to accept the choices of people that we do not understand. All summer, as we read through Matthew, Jesus has been preparing us for ministry to new people. Jesus led the disciples across the lake, out of their comfort zones to meet new people and to change their lives. What the disciples did not expect was the fact that the experience would change them just as much. As they got new people to take on their faith, they started to wonder if God puts us all under the same standard. Do you have to become a Jew before you become a Christian? With new people, came a whole new standard for the church. A new understanding of what grace really means. All throughout the history of our church, we have had to find a new standard of grace. Do we force new people to accept new rules? When we bring new people in, do we mold them into who we are, or do we let them be? If we are a culture where the women wear dresses to church, is it okay for young girls to come to church in shorts? And when they do come to church and don’t quite understand the rules, how do we treat them? With judgement or with grace? A certain pastor was visiting one of his parishioners, and as they were talking the conversation began to lag. The lady of the house, wanting to pick up the conversation, pointed out her window to her neighbor's back yard where the wash was hanging on the line. She said: "See that lady next door and the wash she hangs out, see how dirty it is, she never hangs out a clean wash." The pastor felt somewhat uncomfortable and tried to change the subject and quickly drew the visit to a close. As he was departing from the house the lady of the house walked out on the front porch with him and again the wash next door was clearly visible to both of them. They both realized at the same time that this wash was sparkling white, just as white as any wash could ever be. The truth began to dawn on them that it wasn't the neighbor's wash which was dirty, rather it was the window through which they had viewed the wash. (4) How clean are your windows? Where Do You Live? Which house do you live in? Judgment House or Grace and Mercy House? You and I have been challenged to deviate from the world, to be abnormal. We've received a prescription for holiness and we've put on Christ. And now we are called and challenged to live to the Lord. But we can't do it by ourselves and we sure can't do it in Judgment House. We can only do it in Grace and Mercy House. How clean are your windows? Where Do You Live? Our lesson for today – is how to give people grace and not judgement. It is about making sure that the church is a house of grace and not a house of judement. God’s grace not only welcomes new people with new ways, but it also reminds us to find joy in ourselves and what we do to serve God. Welcoming Grace In our experience "no vacancy" happens. We sometimes hear the words "no room," but we also hear a different voice. "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you" (Matthew 7:7). Lewis Smedes writes: "Why do we call grace amazing? Grace is amazing because it works against the grain of common sense. Hard-nosed common sense will tell you that you are too wrong to meet the standards of a Holy God; pardoning grace tells you that it's all right in spite of so much in you that is wrong. Realistic common sense tells you that you are too weak, too harassed, too human to change for the better; grace gives you power to send you on the way to being a better person."2 We can welcome him because he first welcomed us. This past summer a group of radio control model airplane pilots had a public demonstration of their skills: flying aerial acrobatics hundreds of feet in the air, explaining the techniques of flying, and building the model planes. The highlight of the day was when the children in the crowd were invited to become "pilots." With an instructor by their side and with special dual controls, the children flew the planes high into the sky -- two mistakes high. This implied that there was little a child could do to place a plane in irretrievable danger (beyond an expert instructor's ability to recover) if it was high enough. And it was almost a perfect rule that day, until a child and an instructor crashed the club plane, the one which had been purchased by club members so that young people could learn the sport without incurring at first the expense of a plane. Club members didn't seem to mind much. After all this is what the club plane is for: to bring along another generation in the sport they love. Risking what you have to share your joy. A welcoming grace which creates free space, welcoming space for those who will come. Thus, welcoming grace is the hospitality of which Henri Nouwen speaks when he writes, "Hospitality, therefore, means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend...."3 And Paul instructs: Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you (15:7). So two travelers offered lodging to the stranger who had joined them on the road to Emmaus, and he made himself known to them as their Savior and Lord in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:13-35). When "No Vacancy" or "No Room" is converted into welcoming, hospitable grace, "fearful strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them." Welcoming grace diminishes the distinction between guest and host and allows sharing of gifts precious.4 I like that story because it turns the table on judgement and shows us that grace is possible to new people. When reaching out to people in some way we have to accept them for who they are and love them as God would love them. It is beyond love the person and hate the sin. But bringing out the God in them, and seeing God in a whole new way. Grace Chooses Love Storyteller Bill Harley tells a simple story about a children's T-ball game he witnessed a few years ago. On one of the T-ball teams was a young girl named Tracy. Tracy ran with a limp. She couldn't hit the ball to save her life. But everyone cheered for her anyway. Finally, in her team's last game, Tracy did the unthinkable. She hit the ball. Tracy's coach began hollering for her to run the bases. She landed on first base, only to be told to keep on running. She rounded second base, and the fans stood to their feet and cheered. With one voice, they were all urging Tracy to head home. But as she neared third base, Tracy noticed an old dog that had loped onto the field. It was sitting near the baseline between third plate and home. Moments away from her first home run, Tracy made a momentous decision. She knelt in the dirt and hugged the dog. Tracy never made it to home plate. But the fans cheered for her anyway. Tracy had made her priorities clear. Love was more important than winning. And the fans cheered for her anyway. That is Grace. Those fans were living a life of Grace before the entire world In Romans, Paul is telling us that we are all different. That being a disciple means learning to accept that everybody is different. We have to accept those differences in love. When we lead people to Christ, that we let grace lead the way. And that each of us in on our own faith journey, where we have to stand before God on our own. We judge ourselves and love others. In the matter of choice, we let others chose. In the matter of faith, we all come together. In practice we are many, in discipleship we are one. I love to use the words of Romans 14 a lot in ministry – every knee shall now every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Vegetarians and meat eaters can worship the same God and sit alongside one another. The Joy Will Be Our Own Frederick Buechner has often said that as much as anything, one of the things that finally made him turn his life over to God was something that the preacher George Buttrick said in a sermon one Sunday. Buttrick said that every time Jesus is crowned as Lord and King within someone's heart, this wonderful moment takes place amid "confessions, and tears, and great laughter." Buechner says that it was the joy of that last item, the "great laughter" that caused something within him to awaken and led him to want to have this holy hilarity in his own heart. Such holy mirth and deep delight should be true of everyone who receives the gift of grace. Barbara Brown Taylor imagines that in the parable, when the farmer improbably hands the one-hour pickers a whole day's wage, there must have been hoots of laughter and some "ain't we the lucky ones" good-natured back-slapping going on. But on that great and final day when Christ shall come again and bring us to himself, we should pray not only that we will indeed discover that the grace of Jesus is more than enough to get us into the kingdom. We should also pray thatwhenwe discover that eternally joyful fact, the great laughter and joyful back-slapping will be our very own. This is the last lesson that we will learn from Romans this year. Romans tells us all that we need to know about believing in Christ, about following Christ and about being together in Christian fellowship. The closer we get to following Christ, the more obvious is becomes that we are not the same. It is impossible for any of us to love together in harmony about anything – we can never agree about anything. We will never accept the same diet, or follow the same rules, or get anything done. Unless we honor the power of grace. It is God’s grace the brings us together as the church, it is God’s grace that holds us together. It is God’s grace that works in each of our lives that keeps us devoted to Christ. One day each of us will have to stand before God and give an account of our life and of our faith. Paul’s message to us – work on our faith, create a space where others are free to do the same. Each of us lives a life where we delight in God, so that God can delight in us. The holiness of laughter reminds me of a story about C. S. Lewis. A group of theologians and scholars approached the great Christian thinker and asked him, “What is the most important theological discovery you have ever made?” Lewis smiled and responded, “I exist to enjoy God’s enjoyment of me.” I came across a wonderful quote from Nadine Stair, an 85-year-old woman from the hill country of Kentucky: “If I had to live my life over again, I would dare to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. I would be sillier… I’ve been one of those persons who never went anyplace without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it over again, I’d travel lighter.” What would you say if you had to finish this sentence: “If I had to live my life over, I would ...”? Don’t wait to experience God’s joy in your life. Do it now! Learn to play again. Enjoy God’s enjoyment of you. Remember Paul’s words: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 NRSV). Amen! CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lose the Cape: Cycle A sermons based on second lessons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, by Charley Reeb The real question is not even what is a “guilty pleasure” or what is a “sacred pleasure.” The real test of discipleship is whether we use our lives, our hands, our heads and our heart “to bring God pleasure,” to “honor the Lord,” to “glorify God and enjoy God forever” (as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it). Does your life bring the God who is just pleasure? Does your life bring the God who is love pleasure? Does your life bring the God who created a world overflowing with “milk and honey” pleasure? Enjoying the tastes, colors, sights, smells, textures, sounds of all that caused the Creator to proclaim “it is good” — thatis what “honors” the Lord and “glorifies” God. Too many times we get sucked into piling up “pleasantries” instead of enjoying sacred pleasures. Every lesson that. Jesus teaches us in intended to give us a sense of hope to move forward You may know that the great comedian W.C. Fields died with money in hundreds of bank accounts which were never located. Wherever he went he opened a bank account. Often he used fictitious names and kept no records whatsoever of his deposits. At one point, Fields told a friend in confidence that he had over seven hundred accounts and knew exactly where they were. Unfortunately he died without telling anyone else the locations of those accounts or the name in which they were held. He had one account in Berlin that alone was said to have $50,000 in it. During the bombing of that city, however, all traces of that bank and the money were destroyed. Fields attributed this strange behavior of storing money in all these cities to a dream he had repeatedly in which he saw himself stranded in a strange city without money or friends. The dread which this dream produced in Fields’ heart caused him to open these strange, anonymous accounts in every city in which he played. (1) Still, we all want to belong to someone. If we feel we have no one to love us, no one who cares, no one to whom we belong, life becomes drab and meaningless. Mary Gordon, in her novel, Final Payments, introduces a character who represents humanity in microcosm in this need. Mrs Riesart is a patient in a nursing home where she receives generous, personal care, yet she is a deeply unhappy old woman. One of the other characters in the novel, Isabel, asks her why she is so unhappy. Mrs. Riesart replies, "I’m alone I’m old and I’m dying. There’s no one who loves me enough ... What I want is to be with someone who wants me. Wants me. Or else I want to die. I don’t seem to be dying fast enough." St. Paul speaks boldly from the pages of the New Testament to Mrs. Riesart and to all the rest of us lonely people to remind us that Christians belong first of all to Jesus Christ The key to joy within ourselves and within our community is when we find our life inside of Christ. Romans 14 says that we are never alone, our lives do not belong to us alone, we belong to Christ. When we live, we live in Christ and when we die we die in Christ. Romans 8 says that there is nothing that can separate us from Christ. Not even the judgement of another person. When I was at a craft fair yesterday, I saw a cute baby onesie that said I still live with my parents. That is true – when we are children, we belong to our parents, we are a part of a family unity that takes care of us. When we get older, we belong to our spouses – they are the ones to take care of us. When we get sick, it is the doctor who has the responsibility of taking care of us, when we die the funeral director has a legal responsibility to take care of us, and during the funeral – the pastor says a prayer and gives us back to God. In life and in death, there is someone who has the responsibility to care for us and to be with us. But all along the way, Jesus has been with us. Jesus cares for us, Jesus gives us strength Jesus gives us grace, and our hope is in Jesus. Jesus prepares a place for us in life and in death. As we stand here today – it is only through the grace of God that we stand together. Romans 14:13 says Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another, Instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling block in the way of a sister of brother. Amen. Song Freely, Freely UMH 389 Prayer Loving and merciful God, we come before you this day, fresh from a week in which we have been challenged. Some of the challenges have caused us worry and strife; other challenges bring to us clear directions for our lives. In all of this, you are with us bringing healing and peace for our lives. We offer to you names of those who are ill, who mourn, who feel lost and alienated, wondering if anyone cares about them. [Congregation may offer name of someone in the above categories for prayer]. Hear our prayers, O Lord. Bring your healing mercies to all these people we have named with our hearts and our voices. We also bring to you, loving God, names and situations of great joy and celebration, for you have been in our midst during these times as well as during the difficult times. [Congregation may offer name of someone in the above categories for prayer]. Hear our praises, O God. Bring your loving presence to all these people we have named with our hearts and our voices. For it is in confidence of your abiding love and mercy that we offer this prayer. AMEN. (United Methodist Worship Ways, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Invitation to Generosity Romans 14:7 tells us, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.” We are in covenant with God and joined in community with one another. Let us give of our resources as those who live for the good and well-being of all. Prayer of Thanksgiving Holy God, it would have been enough if you had just breathed into each one of us and given us life. It would have been enough if you had sent Jesus to show us the Way of Love. It would have been enough if you had poured blessings into our lives and challenged us to be a blessing. And yet…you continue to lead us into lives of gratitude and service. Thank you for this opportunity to share a portion of what we’ve received. Help us be spurred on to greater acts of giving and forgiving. AMEN. (Disciples of Christ, Center for Faith and Giving). Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Go in peace into God’s world to serve and help others. Go in confidence of God’s presence with you. Go into this world with messages of hope and reconciliation. Go in love. AMEN. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Community Time Benediction God does not abandon us. God’s love is steadfast. May this love inspire all our relationships as we leave this house of worship, knit together in God’s love, bound as a community of Christ, guided by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Teri McDowell Ott) Additional Illustrations Sacred Pleasures by Leonard Sweet – Romans 14:1-12 There is an old Hasidic tradition. You may have heard of it before. A large drop of honey is placed on the first page of the Torah the first time a Jewish child opens the Bible to read and study it. The child is instructed to lick the honey from the page, forever imprinting the young scholar with the memory-paste of pleasure, the conviction that the study of God’s “Word” is sweet. It is what we are calling a “sacred pleasure.” “Pleasure” in life is not something most of us immediately connect to the “sacred.” Instead the word “pleasure” is more typically coupled with another word, “guilty,” as in “guilty pleasure” or even “naughty pleasures.” It’s almost as if we think that to find some activity enjoyable, or pleasurable, means it must also be suspect. Here’s my proof: an extra rich, extra dense chocolate torte. What is it usually dubbed? “Chocolate decadence.” And of course there is the old standby favorite of “Devil’s food.” AOL just came out with a list they dubbed “Ten Guilty Pleasure Movies” — meaning movies you know you shouldn’t like, but you do anyway! (Maybe like “The Blob,” or some really weepy “chick flick,” or anything with Steven Segal). What are your “guilty pleasures?” Anyone? [This is a opening for you to get interactive here if you wish.] Let me tell you one of mine . . . . My “therapists” are named Bill and Gloria Gaither. Whenever I’m depressed, I take out from hiding one of their homecoming videos, and spend the next hour or so weeping my eyes out and cleansing my body of all those built-up toxins. Come on, now. I’m not alone here. I know some of you listen to Barry Manilow when no one else is listening. I even suspect that some of you actually like music that involves an accordion. You’d just never admit it to your kids or pewmates. For some of us, a day dug into a sandy beach, listening to the waves and scanning a stack of magazines, is our guilty pleasure. For others of us, it might be making way through an eight course, five-star meal with a two-inch-thick wine list. “Guilty Pleasures.” Why do we think we have to feel guilty about our pleasures? Are we secretly convinced that deep down God doesn’t want us to have a good time and enjoy life? Are we under the impression that our Creator couldn’t possibly take pleasure in watching us creatures savor all that creation has to offer us?... . Billy D. Strayhorn, Luxuriate In God's Grace First, read the scriptural promises. The message of hope is not really going to do us much good unless we read about it. I know that millions of Bibles are printed each year. You can find a Bible almost anywhere you go. But is the Bible read? Someone has said that if all the neglected Bibles were dusted simultaneously, we would have a record dust storm, and the sun would go into eclipse for a whole week. Perhaps the situation is not quite that bad; nonetheless, it is serious. You probably have heard about the test given to students in a prominent New England high school. Asked to give answers to simple factual questions about the Bible, among the replies were: Eve was created from an apple. Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers. Jezebel was Ahab's donkey. Jesus was baptized by Moses. The New Testament gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Johnny Appleseed is a folk hero in the American heartland. Born in 1774 he traveled through the frontier country planting apple trees. What is not as well-known is that he also was a great student of the Bible and further that he shared his enthusiasm for the Bible with others. As he went about his travels he often would be welcomed to stay the night in the home of a kindly settler. During his sojourn he was observant of the personal needs of the host family. Many of these people living on the harsh, bleak frontier were lonely, frustrated and worried. Before Johnny left the home in the morning he would rip out a page in his Bible and leave it with the family. Not any old page would do but one that he thought would fit the condition of this particular family, a passage that would exude hope. In this Advent season we can be certain that God's Word has a promise to suit our personal need. Let us make this scriptural hope our own. Let us believe that the light will shine again, spring will come again, the birds will sing again, and we will hope again. Paul's final words in the lectionary text consist of a prayer or a blessing: "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." All we can say is -- Amen! CSS Publishing Company, EMPOWERED BY THE LIGHT, by Richard Hasler Second, study the scriptural promises. It is not enough to read the Bible; we also must study it. Now, I know that the common complaint is that the Bible is too difficult to understand. But I have always liked the method of Bible study proposed by D. L. Moody, the Chicago businessman turned evangelist. He said that he studied the Bible the way he ate fish. When he came to a bone he did not throw away the whole fish. Instead, he put the bone aside and finished the rest of the fish. Even so, if he came across a difficult passage in the Bible, he did not cast away the whole Bible. He just put those verses aside for the moment and went on with his reading. Inevitably he discovered that the additional knowledge he gained could be used to go back and help explain the previously obscure passage. Third, memorize the scriptural promises. Read, study and also memorize the Bible. Why do I say that? You probably know someone like the person I met once during a hospital visit. Despite his serious illness he radiated calmness, a cheerful spirit and hope in the future. He told me his secret. He had memorized the 23rd Psalm, and each day in the morning and in the evening he repeated these words to himself. Although we have just noted that millions of Bibles are available, yet there are circumstances when we do not have ready access to the Bible. For example, in the middle of the night when we cannot sleep, when we are so sick that we cannot read, and at numerous other times the Bible itself may not be handy and we desperately need to hear God's Word. The words of scripture that we memorize will be invaluable to us in those critical moments, and further they will be with us a lifetime. Fourth, and last of all, incarnate the scriptural promises. Read, study, memorize and incarnate. In other words, let us put flesh on these words of hope, and live out in our daily existence what we say that we believe. Everyone wants to belong to someone. None of us want to go through life alone, with no one to love us, no one to care. We human beings are social creatures, made for fellowship with one another, intended to live in a community. Without someone with whom we can share our lives and our love, our hopes and our hurts, we are incomplete. God was aware of this from the very first moment of creation. "It is not good that the man should be alone," God mused after his creation of Adam. "I will make him a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18) - and he did! God made Eve, the first woman, and Adam knew that he would never he lonely again because Eve was "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh." Adam knew that Eve was forever his, and Eve knew that Adam was forever hers, and they both knew they belonged to somebody. The problem, however, is that we human beings have forgotten to whom we belong first of all. When we are children, it is assumed that we belong to our parents. When people become adults, many assume that they belong first of all to their husbands or wives, or in these days of easy morality, to their live-in companions. A popular song of the seventies was entitled, "You Belong to Me," and its theme was that the object of the singer’s love belonged to him exclusively. Certainly this is not a But Paul also says we Christians belong to Jesus when we die. "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord." Not only do we belong to Jesus first of all while we live as Christians, but we also belong to him first of all when we die as Christians. This sort of statement sounds strange to many people because the prevailing opinion today is that when we die, we belong first to the attending physician and then to the undertaker. When a person dies, nothing can be done until the attending physician pronounces that person officially dead. Even when that is accomplished, the physician must sign a release before anything else can be done. It is as though the dead person belongs to the doctor. Then the undertaker takes charge and the dead person belongs to him. It is the undertaker who prepares the body for burial and who makes all of the arrangements. Only when the dead person is lowered into the ground is the minister allowed to give the body back to him to whom the person belonged all of the time. The minister intones, "Forasmuch as the spirit of the departed hath returned to God who gave it, we therefore commit his (her) body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust ..." - and at last, the dead person is formally given back to God to whom he (she) belonged first of all. Years ago there was a Jules Feiffer strip that went something like this: A man is speaking into the telephone and you hear only his side of the conversation. "Yes, mother, I've had a hard day. Gladys has been most difficult ” I know I ought to be more firm, but it is hard. Well, you know how she is. Yes, I remember you warned me. I remember you told me she was a vile creature who would make my life miserable, and you begged me not to marry her. You were perfectly right. You want to talk to her? All right." He looks up from the telephone and calls to his wife in the next room, "Gla Comedian Danny Kaye frequently entertains at the Palladium in London where he draws standing-room-only crowds. On free afternoons, he loves to roam around the city or take in matinees. On one such afternoon, he took in a play that was being received with the reserve we've come to associate with the British. As the play was letting out, Danny overheard the play being discussed by three British army officers who were standing stiffly to one side: "Ghastly," said one. "Beastly," agreed the second. The third was tight-lipped. He didn't say a word. One of the vocal ones turned to him. "And what was your opinion, Colonel?" he asked. The Colonel explained that he had come on a pass. "Hardly cricket to speak out under the circumstances," he added. "But if you gentlemen will excuse me . . ." and with that he strode to the box office a few feet away and bought a ticket. He was back in a moment with a ticket. "A stinker, gentlemen," he said tersely, "a stinker." (6) I like that third man's approach. Until he bought a ticket he felt he was in no position to criticize. When you are tempted to complain about what kind of parent someone else is, first ask whether you are entirely the kind of parent you ought to be. Before criticizing someone else's character, ask if you have arrived at perfection yourself. If we put our criticism to that test, most of us will be mute. For we, too, are sinners saved by grace. Do you know all the facts? Have you earned the right to pass judgement? There is a little story that actually comes from the Islamic religion that sums up the biblical attitude toward the very human tendency to pass judgement on others. There was an old man who earned his living by selling all sorts of odds and ends. It seemed as if the man had no judgment because people would frequently pay him in bad coins, and he would accept them without a word of protest; or people would claim they had paid him when they hadn't, and he accepted their word for it. When it was time for him to die, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Oh, Allah! I have accepted many bad coins from people, but never once did I judge them in my heart. I just assumed that they were not aware of what they did. I am a bad coin too. Please do not judge me." And a Voice was heard that said, "How is it possible to judge someone who has not judged others?" (7) Do you know all the facts? Have you earned the right to judge others? Only One has earned the right to judge others. He did it on a cross 2,000 years ago. And the amazing thing is that he was the most tolerant, loving, accepting man who ever lived Our natural human tendency is to homogenize our surroundings and our acquaintances so that they are virtually indistinguishable from ourselves. But this is not a healthy environment for a body of Christ. In order to remain fit, we've got to stretch and grow, reaching out to and welcoming all God's children home to Christ even those we dislike and find distasteful. While walking along a street with one of his disciples, a sage met his rival. The sage politely greeted his rival, but the man arrogantly disregarded the greeting. The sage's young disciple was furious, condemning the ostentatious behavior of the rival sage. Waiting for a while, the sage asked his disciple a question: "Are you angry at a person with an ugly face?" "No," replied his disciple. "Then, why are you angry at a person with an ugly heart?" the sage calmly reasoned. (AndrewSunghoPark, et al., "Epiphany 6: Anger," Korean Family Devotions [Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1994], 31. Where is Christ calling you to go right now to spread the gospel? Where is the "anywhere goes" in your walk with Christ? In the irreverent comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is a send up of the King Arthur tales, there is a scene where one of the knights, Sir Bedevere is confronted by a group of villagers. It seems they have gripped one of the local women and claim she is a witch. It's very obvious that her long crooked nose is fake and has been tied on and she's been dressed up to look like a witch. Sir Bedevere questions the evidence and the people confess that they made it all up. But they still want to burn the woman as a witch. You know, we may not judge people as witches anymore, but we do judge them by everything else under the sun. We judge people by their clothing, jobs, friends, the kind of car they drive, the music they listen to, their hair style, their family and even where they live. We love jumping to conclusions, don't we? Sometimes that's ALL the exercise some of us get. That's what normal people do, right? But don't forget, we're not the normal people. We're the abnormal people. We've given our lives to Christ. And through Christ, we're called to live by different standards. God calls us to love each other and treat each other the same, no matter what. (1) The movie Coach Carter, starring Samuel L. Jackson, is based on a true story of a basketball Coach who locked his players out of the gym and the game until they focused on their schoolwork. But in the process taught them how to play, how to succeed and how to be champions on the court and in life. There's one scene where, after quitting the team, Timo Cruz wants back on, but the price to rejoin the team is impossible to pay. Coach Carter requires him to do 2500 push-ups 1000 suicide sprints within a week. Committed, Cruz hits the deck and begins. The week is over, and Coach Carter goes to Cruz to give him the assessment of his work. Carter tells him, "I'm impressed with what you've done, but you've come up short. You owe me 80 suicides and 500 push-ups. Please leave my gym." Cruz is crushed. He's worked hard every day to try to complete the impossible task, but he failed. Coach Carter turns to his team and says he'll see them tomorrow. As the coach turns to leave the gym, one of the players says, "I'll do push-ups for him. You said we're a team. When one person struggles, we all struggle. One player triumphs, we all triumph, right?" He goes to the floor with Cruz and begins doing push-ups. A moment later, another teammate says, "I'll do some. I'll run suicides too." And then, one by one, every player but one has begun to do push-ups or run for Cruz. And even though he is weary beyond belief, Cruz continues to participate along with his teammates. And finally, the last player chooses to join in as well, saying, "I'll do some..." While Carter is encouraged by their attitude, he doesn't let them off the hook. He tells his assistant coach to, "Keep countin'. Call me when it's done." But as he leaves, you know he's proud of the boys. And you know they finally get what being a team is all about. That scene teaches us a couple of things. One, like Timo Cruz, the task of standing accountable and blameless before God is impossible. There is no way we can be perfect and not sin in a fallen world. We can give it our best shot, but we will always come up short and alone. But the Good News is that we don't have to do it alone. Christ Jesus stepped into the scene and said, "I'll take his burden of sin. I'll take her burden of sin. When they triumph, we all triumph." Or as the apostle Paul writes The great writer, Pirandello once told a story about a man filled with so much dread that it drove him mad. When he fell in love with the woman of his dreams, he pretended that he did not care about her. He was afraid that if he gave in to his feelings of love for her he would lose her. He kept up this display of disinterest so long that he nearly did lose her. When he did finally ask her to marry him and she accepted, he nearly went crazy planning the honeymoon. He told everyone that they would be going to Florence and Venice. Instead he took his bride to Naples--in the opposite direction. This way he felt he could trick the misery he knew would be awaiting him in Florence and Venice. That was the only way he could enjoy the honeymoon in Naples. (2) There are some people who live with such a feeling of dread and doom about their lives that they dismiss the possibility of joy. Even when life is being good to them, they just know that it cannot last. Somewhere--sometime--somehow--something out there is going to happen to them that will wreck their best-laid plans--that will frustrate their fondest dreams--that will crush everything they hold dear. H.G. Wells once wrote a story titled “In the Days of the Comet.” Well’s story is a somewhat typical science fiction fantasy. A mysterious green vapor of unknown origin descends from the clouds and covers the earth. The vapor has the immediate effect of putting all the earth’s people into a deep sleep for three days. When they finally awake, something amazing has happened. Their inner nature is radically transformed. Petty quarreling comes to an end. Instead of seeking fame, power and wealth the people of the world seek to serve one another. Love, kindness and generosity become more important than greed or success. In short, the perfect society emerges--a society in which the dignity of every human being is honored. (3) The God of Hope. You and I are free to choose the attitude with which we confront life. We can believe that there is a five per cent chance of today and tomorrow or we can believe the Good News of Christmas that God is alive and well and at work in our world bringing in a kingdom of love and justice and freedom. We can face the future with fear and foreboding, or we can trust in the God who has sustained us through the years and has promised us that He will never forget us nor forsake us regardless of our situation. We can choose to live in continued darkness, or we can step out into the light of hope and triumph and eternal victory. We can live for ourselves alone, or we can make the world a better place to live for all persons. Doesn’t the Good News of Advent and Christmas change your attitude about life? Doesn’t it make you anticipate that sometime--somewhere--somehow--something good, not evil, is out there waiting to happen in your life? That is the kind of change that takes place when the Christ Child is born anew in our hearts.