God is Calling

June 2, 2024 1 Samuel 3:1-20 2nd Sunday After Pentecost Year B God is Calling Prelude Greeting Call to Worship The psalmist declares, “Lord, you have searched me and known me.” Will you open yourselves to be searched by God? Search us, O God, and know our hearts. God searches you, knows you, and loves you, and invites you to search out God in return. Will you seek the heart of God? We will search you, O God, to know your heart. The Triune God who creates all and knows all is revealed in running rivers and fluttering butterflies, in warm sunshine and the smell of the earth. Will you pay attention? We will pay attention, O God, to your fingerprint of love on all of creation. Open our hearts today to encounter your love, holiness, and glory that create and sustain all that was, is, and will be. We come today to enter the dance of the Trinity, the all-knowing Creator and Sustainer of life. (Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, February 2024.) Song Open my Eyes that I May See UMH 454 A Sermon for all Ages how children your headphones and ask, Why do people use headphones? One reason people use headphones is to hear something better. If it’s noisy around you, you can put your headphones in and hear what you’re listening to. That’s kind of what we need to do if we want to hear God speaking to us. In the Bible, there was a little boy named Samuel. He lived at the Tabernacle serving Eli the priest. One night, God called to Samuel. “Samuel,” God said. But Samuel didn’t know it was God calling him. He thought it was the priest, Eli. So, he got up and went to Eli’s room. But Eli said he didn’t call him, so he sent Samuel back to bed. God called Samuel two more times, and Samuel kept thinking it was Eli calling him. Finally, Eli figured out that God was calling Samuel. He told Samuel that the next time God called him, Samuel should say… (Read 1 Samuel 3:9.) “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.” God did call Samuel again and when Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening,” God talked to him! In fact, God talked to Samuel a lot after that. But he had to learn to listen to God’s voice first. It’s the same in our lives. If we want God to speak to us, we have to listen for Him. We might not hear a voice as Samuel did, but we’ll hear God speaking in our minds and in our hearts. What do you think are some ways we can listen for God’s voice? We can read the Bible and pray and pay attention in church. God speaks to us through all of those things. And when we read the Bible or pray or pay attention in church, it’s like we’re putting our headphones in to listen to God. (Ministry to Children, Stephen Wilson) Responsive Reading Psalm 139. UMH 854 Scripture. 1 Samuel 3:1-20 Sermon. God is Calling The first event that I attended at General Conference was a briefing that was held by The national Women of Faith group, they wanted to encourage the women delegates to pay attention to legislation that affected women. They started out with the general secretaries giving an encouraging and inspiring speech. One of them asks the crowd to think of the women in their lives that inspired them and encouraged them in life. Who was it that mentored you and told you that you were important, the general secretary asks, as the recognizes me and walks toward me to answer the question in the mike. I look at her and shake my head, and say nobody, I cannot think of anyone who ever encouraged me in life. Now of course, there are many people in my life who encouraged me, mentored me, and helped to open doors for me. But at that moment, I had been up the night before packing, I had to catch a ride at 6am in the morning catch a 9 am flight, figure out how to get to my hotel and it was 3 in the afternoon and my day had just begun. Under different circumstances, I would have been happy to answer her question and name all of the important people in my life, but at that moment, I was just too tired and exhausted to even think about the answer to her question. Unfortunately, it happens a lot in life, when there are things going on in life, but because of the circumstances, we are not able to process the information that is given to us. Our scripture for this morning is a story which clearly demonstrates how God is always speaking to us – but we are not able to listen. The passage starts out by saying this this story takes place at a time when the Lord’s word was rare and visions were not widely known. It was a time of corruption, when the leaders were more concerned about lining their own pockets, then helping the people around them. It wasn’t that God’s presence was not around, but the religious leaders had forgotten about their personal relationship with God. In the midst of all of this chaos and confusion, a young mother had put all of her trust in God. She prayed for a son, when he was born she gave him to the temple priest to raise and to mentor. Even though his own sons had turned out to be very bad individuals, she trusted God to take care of her son. One night her son Samuel hears a voice calling him in the night, - it takes his mentor Eli to recognize the God does indeed still care about this world and God still speaks with a voice of justice, peace and healing. Samuel goes on to become a very well respected priest and prophet for the nation, who does a lot of good for his community. But it was the night that he heard God’s voice – that God became real to him. When he was finally able to listen to God, he understood his pathways and purpose for life. He understood his calling. He say how God was leading his life forward. Unfortunately for most of us – when we think about God, when we think about our calling, about our purpose. God is far more willing to speak, then we are to listen. Over 80 years ago, Jed Harris was a successful producer of plays. One of his successful works was the production of Thornton Wilder’s play, “Our Town.” In the middle of a lengthy season mixed with the intense pressure of many details, Harris began to lose his sense of hearing. He could not even hear what other people close to him were saying and so he was missing crucial details during conversations. As a result, Jed Harris decided to pay a visit to a renowned audiologist who listened attentively as the producer narrated the sad account of his declining ability to hear. After a thorough examination of Harris’ ears, the hearing specialist drew out from his vest an expensive gold-coated pocket watch and placed it against the producer’s ear. “Do you hear this watch ticking?” the audiologist asked. “Absolutely,” the producer responded. The audiologist moved farther away and held the watch up to his office door. Harris focused and remarked, “Yea, it is quite audible.” The physician then walked into the next room and asked, “how about now?” “It’s still audible,” Harris replied. The specialist stalked back into the office and returned the watch to his vest. “This phenomenon is quite commonplace,” he said, “especially among successful individuals. Your hearing is excellent Mr. Harris. You’ve simply quit listening.” (1) God speaks to us all of the time, in so many different ways. The most important lesson of those story is to listen for God to speak to you. This story also tells us that we have to have ears that listen, but we also need a heart that has faith and hands that are obedient. When God calls our name, we have to be prepared to respond. If you know who Eydie Gorme is, you’ll know she is a wonderful singer - what we might call a torch singer. On a television talk show a few years ago, Eydie Gorme told some things about how her career got started. Her inspiration and idol was Judy Garland. So Eydie Gorme studied and tried to copy everything that Judy Garland did - the sound of the voice, the style, the mannerisms. Eydie Gorme’s first big break came at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, where she played to packed houses, and received rave reviews. Her next booking was not so elegant. It was somewhere around Pittsburgh in a not-so-classy nightclub - the kind with beer signs flashing in the windows and a pool table in the back. If that were not a come-down enough, there was a terrible blizzard on her opening night and most people, who might have been there, stayed home. Her second night the weather was even worse. She was there, but there was no audience. The third night she didn’t go either. The owner of the nightclub telephoned her and said, "I pay you to sing, and if you don’t sing you don’t get paid." It made no difference that nobody else had shown up either. She needed the job, so on the fourth night she bribed a taxi driver to get her there through the snow. Besides her there was just the manager, the guy who worked the lights, and part of the band. Some of the players didn’t make it either. When it was time for her to sing, the place was still empty, but the house lights were dimmed, the stage lights came on, she cued the band to play her opening music and she began to sing - to an empty house. She said that she told herself, "If I can sing to a packed house at the Waldorf Astoria, I can sing to an empty house here." Part way through the first song the door opened and in the glow of the lights from outdoors she saw the silhouettes of five people who came in and sat at a table in the middle of the room. So she began to sing to those five people. And again she said to herself that she could sing to these five people as she would sing if this was the largest audience Carnegie Hall ever turned out. She said she sang that night with a richness and a passion and an energy that was as good or better than she had ever sung in her life - to those five strangers. She finished her set, and the spotlight went off and the house lights came on, and she looked out at those five people who had been her audience. Four of them she didn’t recognize, but the one in the middle was Judy Garland, who surely had no idea of the power and influence and inspiration she had been in the life of an aspiring young singer named Eydie Gorme.1 God calls us through one another. God leads us through people who sometimes serve as angels unaware, by simply going about doing ordinary things but with the extraordinary presence of God implicit in what they do. How wonderful that God is not off somewhere ignoring us, but calls us in the common events of every day. That call comes to us in the subtle urgings we glean from things we read or see, in the beauty and wonder of creation. It comes in the simple words and lives of people who point beyond themselves to show us the way to God as John did for his disciples. What a wonderful and awesome concept it is that if we listen God can call us to our own destiny through common people like ourselves, and by that same token can call others through us. We’ve all had the experience of being put on hold. Perhaps that is where we have put the call of God in our own lives. Old Eli’s advice to his young servant Samuel is good advice for us all, to open the communication lines and listen, and say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." 1. With appreciation to Reverend Robert Morley who brought this story to my attention. CSS Publishing Co., Inc., Why Don't You Send Somebody?, by Frederick C. Edwards Yes, we are images for one another. We are influenced by people who may never know it, and others of whom we have no idea may in turn be patterning their life in some small way upon us. Think of those who become a part of you. Think of those who awakened your ideas, and quickened your spirit and encouraged and inspired you. Sometimes we are called to be the Judy Garlands of the world, sometimes we are called to be Eydie Gome. Sometimes in life we are called to be the Eli’s of the world leading the way and encouraging others, sometimes we are called to be the Samuel’s of the world – listening to God’s call. In all that we do in life we are called to have a faithful heart, a listening ear, and an obedient hand. I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to listen for God’s voice in our everyday lives. God leads us, we just have to be able to listen. I may have given this challenge under different circumstances before, but I think that it fits again today. I have don’t this challenge myself a few times over my years of preaching, but I think it is good to do it again. It is a challenge to engage in prayer – to listen for God’s call to us and to watch it unfold in our lives. John Ortberg is a pastor, who used to work for Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Church, he is now a Presbyterian pastor – his wife is also a pastor. She tells one of my favorite stories. Nancy Ortberg tells of going out to dinner with a man named Doug Cole in Washington D. C. years ago. Doug told her about a 30-year old insurance executive he met at a party. Doug learned that this young man, Bob, was a new Christian. Intrigued, he asked how things were going. Have you found a church? He asked. Yes, Bob said. Have you found a Bible Study? Yes, I have one of those too. Finally Doug asked, How about your relationship with God in prayer? Bob didn’t have much going on there, and said that he didn’t know much about that. So Doug laid out a challenge for him: to pick something to pray over every day for the next six months. The prayers could be elaborate or simple, structured or free form, listening to or speaking to God, whatever. But Bob must pray at least briefly every day. “If at the end of six months God has not done something truly significant,” Doug told him, “I will then pay you $500.” “Hmm,” Nancy told Doug, “That doesn’t sound very biblical.” “No, but I do it all of the time,” Doug answered her. Bob accepted the challenge, but didn’t know what to pray for. Bob and his wife lived in DC. What with the city’s international flavor, they chose a different land to pray for every day. So along those lines, Bob decided to pray daily for Kenya. Not much happened for four or five months. The prayer experiment was yielding little. Then one night he sat next to a woman at a dinner party. She was from Kenya. She ran an orphanage. Bob related that he felt as though ice water was suddenly running through his veins. He had been fantasizing about how to spend the $500 Doug had promised him, but suddenly he had a strong image of a wad of $500 sprouting wings and flying away. He asked for details about the orphanage and listened to her answers for a full intense hour. She told Bob that no one had ever shown such interest. Would he consider flying to Kenya to see it first hand? To make a long story short, Bob ended up providing for the care of those Kenyan children and seeing to the supplying of that orphanage. He made such a splash that the President of Kenya invited him to his palace. There Bob advocated for prisoners of conscience in that country. Later those prisoners were released. The US Secretary of State called Bob and asked him how he did it. The United States government had been unsuccessfully seeking their freedom for some time. It was no mystery to Bob how it came about. God had guided him to pray for Kenya and wonderful things were happening. (6) If you and I were truly listening to God, we would see wonderful things happen in our lives too. If you could think of one thing to pray for six months, what would it be? Without giving it much thought, the thing that comes to mind is probably the area that God is calling you to serve. My challenge is to actually pray that prayer for the next six months and watch how God’s calling unfolds in your life. How is God calling you? Who are the people that encouraged and influenced you in that call? Who are the people that you are influencing, just by being faithful to God? This is the time when God’s words are an every day occurrence and God’s visions are widely known. Listen for God to call your name. Amen. Song. 451. Be Thou My Vision. UMH 451 Prayer A Prayer of Thanksgiving (Ps. 139) God, we cannot escape your love. We can find no place to hide. You search us out wherever we may be. Your love is like a mother’s blanket, protecting us wherever we go. Your love shields us from evil. We may travel to the moon or to the depths of the ocean: your love is there. We may think ourselves to greater levels of sophistication: your love is there. We may fall in the pits of sin: your love is there. Thank you, for steadfast mercy. Thank you for being there, wherever we may be. Lord, on this communion Sunday we come to you to cleanse our hearts and to lay our concerns at your altar. We pray that you will listen to our concerns. Today we pray for conditions, for situations in the world and in our community, we pray for the people in our hearts. We ask for your healing touch upon all that we pray about now. (a moment of silent prayer) Written in part by John H. Danner in Touch Holiness: Resources for Worship, Updated, ed. Ruth C. Duck and Maren C. Tirabassi (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2012), 277. Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Prayer of Dedication Provider God, we give you thanks for all your good gifts to us: for work and rest, for creativity and play, for this community in which to practice our faith together. Take these offerings that we bring today and use them to meet the needs of those around us. May our work and witness reflect our beliefs in your compassionate care for us and for all you have created. In Christ name we pray. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Ellen William Hensle) Communion Hard hearts have a way of angering Jesus, as we hear in Mark’s Gospel. Just the reverse is recognized when we come to a time of sharing in this simple meal. This communion time is an opportunity to welcome one and all to a feast “in remembrance” of Jesus. He is the host. We are all invited to participate, recognizing the table is large enough for all who are eager to be in fellowship and communion with Jesus. So come, repentant people. Offer your short-comings and your brokenness to the One who is able to forgive and heal. Offer your hard-heartedness to the One who is able to soften our spirits. Offer your yearning for abundant Life to the One who tasted death and was raised up to new life. Come to share in this feast with others who are broken, hard-hearted, full of desire for life. Come, for the table is prepared, and you are welcome. Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook As we prepare to leave this place, turn to a neighbor or, if you are at home, look in a mirror. Now, look into the eyes of the person in front of you and say, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” May this truth be a blessing to you this week: the Creator who knows you better than you know yourself fearfully and wonderfully made you just as you are. Let us go now to speak truth, share love, and recognize the Creator’s fingerprint in all of creation. Amen. Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, February 2024. Community Time. – Joys and Concerns Charge and Benediction As you go out from this place, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Make time to savor God’s creation, to rest from work and worry, and to bask in the goodness of all God’s gifts to us. Remember that the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit follow you wherever you go. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Ellen William Hensle)

Jesus is the answer

January 14, 2024 Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B John 1:43-51 Jesus is the answer Greeting Opening Prayer Awesome God, you knew us before we were born. You love us into life. Open our hearts and our spirits today to hear your word for us. And, upon hearing the word, may we be convinced of our call to ministry and mission through the church. Bless us with your presence and your powerful love, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN. Scripture John 1:43-51 Common English Bible 43 The next day Jesus wanted to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael responded, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?” Philip said, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here is a genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are God’s Son. You are the king of Israel.” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these! 51 I assure you that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up to heaven and down to earth on the Human One.”[a Sermon So this is the second week of January, so it looks like we are approaching Blue Monday season. Back in the 90’s it appears that a marketing company in England did some research and determined that there is a certain time in the month of January that is the most depressing time of the year. The exact date is supposed to be January 24th – which is why it is called Blue Monday. But it has been snowing all weekend, and now it is -20 below with the windchill with no hope of things getting better I would say that this qualifies as blue Monday season. The good news is that this is also the second Sunday of Epiphany. Epiphany season is all about finding the light in the midst of the darkness. If we can find the light then we can find Jesus. Jesus is the messiah that gives us hope that things will get better – and warmer eventually. The gospel lesson for the second week of Epiphany is always John. John’s whole mission is to help us to understand that Jesus is the son of God, and that God understands what it means to be human, if Jesus is with us, then God’s hand is working in the world and in our lives. Jesus is here to help us from feeling the effects of blue Monday and any other thing in life that may be holding us down. During Epiphany we always look at some part of chapters 1and 2 of John. John starts out telling us that Jesus us the word of God that became flesh and came to earth. Next it starts with the ministry of John the Baptist. John became so influential in baptizing and telling people to repent of their sins that he had disciples of his own. Until Jesus comes along and steals his ministry and his disciples. Well Jesus didn’t particularly steal them – John admits that the ministry that he is starting is not his own – it belongs to Jesus. Jesus takes over for his cousin, and if you read through the gospels, especially John, you will see that Jesus never forgets his cousin and all that he did to spread the good news of God’s presence. Originally, I had a whole service planned about the baptism of Jesus – but I changed the whole theme for this service so that we can do that service in person next week. I can’t believe that I have never done a sermon on that last part of John, but I think it is a fascinating story – and an important lesson for us. This scripture is a call story – usually when we hear the word call – we think of ordained ministers and missionaries. But this story is a call to the laity – the ordinary people. In reality God calls everyone – not everyone listens. The Goodness and Joy Are Everywhere Long before Frederick Buechner was a well-known Christian author and Presbyterian minister, as a young man he sat in the dead of winter in Army fatigues somewhere near Anniston, Alabama, eating supper out of a mess kit. The infantry training battalion that he had been assigned to was on bivouac. There was a cold drizzle of rain, and everything was mud. The sun had gone down. He was still hungry when he finished and noticed that a man nearby had something left over that he was not going to eat. It was a turnip. He asked if I could have it and the man tossed it over to him. He missed the catch; the turnip fell to the ground. But Buechner wanted it so badly that he picked it up and started eating it anyway, mud and all. And then he had a transforming moment. Here is how he describes it, “as I ate it,” he says, “time deepened and slowed down again. With a lurch of the heart that is real to me still, I saw suddenly, almost as if from beyond time altogether, that not only was the turnip good, but the mud was good too, even the drizzle and cold were good, even the Army that I had dreaded for months.” He concluded: “Sitting there in the Alabama winter with my mouth full of cold turnip and mud, I could see at least for a moment how if you ever took truly to heart the ultimate goodness and joy of things, even at their bleakest, the need to praise someone or something for it would be so great that you might even have to go out and speak of it to the birds of the air." Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com In John’s gospel, he is not talking to the birds – he is talking to us the people of God – helping us to understand and recognize Jesus as messiah. In chapter 1 Andrew and Peter had been disciples of John, but when they meet Jesus, they recognize the light and become his disciples. Philip is from the same town as Andrew and Peter, he too recognizes the light and he tells his friend Nathaniel. Scripture says that Nathaniel is sitting under a fig tree – he is not convinced and asks what good can come out of a place like Nazereth. Sitting under the fig tree – is symbolic for just hanging around hoping and waiting for a change, but having no real idea of what that looks like or how it is going to happen and being doubtful that it will ever come – that is most of us isn’t it. Philip preaches the lesson in this scripture – just three words – come and see. That is the invitation to salvation. All of us are hanging around waiting for the messiah – the messiah is in the world – all we have to do is come and see. When Jesus comes to meet John’s disciples he asks them what are they looking for – he tells them that whatever it is that they are looking for – Jesus is the messiah and cam make it happen. Jesus ministry unfolds from there and it is the disciples that spread the word that the messiah is here for the salvation of all of us. As I said, most of us are sitting under the fig tree waiting for a change. We are all in this world waiting for something to happen. We are all hoping for a better day. We have all experienced blue Monday – maybe not on a specific day – but at some point in our life. The good news is that Jesus has a way of coming into the world and shedding some light on the situation. Jesus came to the disciples, Jesus came to Fred Beuner in the form of a dirty turnip. Jesus came to Martin Luther King in the form of a dream for a better world. If we could just get people to try Jesus. It is eaiser than you think. Evangelical Attitude One day St. Francis of Assisi, invited a young monk to join him on a trip into town to preach. The young monk was so honored to get such an invitation from St. Francis that he quickly accepted. All day long he and St. Francis walked through the streets and byways, alleys and suburbs, and they rubbed shoulders with hundreds of people. At the end of the day, the two headed back home, however, not even once had St. Francis addressed a crowd, nor had he talked to anyone about the gospel. The young monk was greatly disappointed, and he said to St. Francis, “I thought we were going into town to preach?" St. Francis responded, "My son, we have preached. We were preaching while we were walking. We were seen by many and our behavior was closely watched. It is of no use to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk!” It’s no secret that we, the church, have forgotten what it means to preach the gospel, what it means to bring to others the good news, what it means to evangelize. The word evangelism has become a dirty word in some churches, and if it isn’t outright dismissed altogether, then it is relegated as a task for only those who have been ordained, or for those who are the professional speakers, who make a living giving their testimonials and asking for altar calls, or for those who are missionaries overseas. Author Unknown Now, let me close with the story of the man with two umbrellas. Dr. Gordon Targerson, a Baptist pastor in Worcester, Massachusetts, was crossing the Atlantic by ship some years ago. He noticed on several occasions a dark-skinned man sitting in a deck chair reading a Bible. One day Dr. Targerson sat down beside him and said, "Forgive my curiosity. I'm a Baptist minister. I notice you are a faithful Bible reader. I'd like to meet you." After introductions, the dark-skinned man said, "I am Filipino. I was born into a good Catholic home. I went to the United States as a young man to study in one of your fine universities, intending to become a lawyer. On my first day on campus, a student dropped by to visit. He welcomed me and offered to help in any way he could. Then he asked me where I went to church. I told him I was Catholic. He explained that the Catholic church was quite a distance away, but he sat down and drew me a map. I thanked him and he left. "On the following Sunday morning it was raining. I decided to just skip church. But then there was a knock on my door. There stood my new friend and he was holding two umbrellas. He said that he worried that I might not be able to read his map. So, he said he would escort me to the Catholic church. I hurriedly dressed, thinking all the while what an unusually thoughtful person he was. I wondered what church he belonged to. "As we walked along I asked him about his church. He said that his church was just around the corner. So, I suggested that we go to his church this Sunday, and then to mine the following Sunday. He agreed. But somehow I felt so much at home in his church that I never got around to finding mine. After four years I felt that God was leading me into the ordained ministry rather than into law. I went to Drew University Seminary and was ordained a Methodist minister. Then I returned to the Philippines to serve in a Methodist parish. My name is Valencius, Bishop Valencius, Bishop of the Methodist Church in the Philippines." The hero of the story is not the Bishop, important though he is. The hero is that anonymous young man with two umbrellas. Whether they ended up at the Methodist or Catholic churches doesn't really matter. Go all the way back to the beginning of Christian history and you'll always find him. He is behind almost every Christian convert...that unnamed man or woman with two umbrellas...that person with a winsome faith who builds a bridge of friendship with another person. And across that bridge walks the living Christ and claims another eternal soul. You can be that person with two umbrellas. You can be like Andrew! Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com He comes to us as he came to his disciples, and says to us, "Follow me." To "follow me" means, identifying with the poor and the oppressed, loving the sinner, and living sacrificially for others in this world, taking up your cross. That is the sole qualification for everybody to be his disciple - that you will take up your cross. Martin Luther King understood that, I think, probably better than anybody else in our time. Like all historical figures, he will be interpreted from different perspectives. But the way he would want to be interpreted is that he was a "servant of Christ." Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com God calls some people to do great things, God calls all of us to do little things in a great way. We all have been called to spread the light of Christ and tell others about a man named Jesus. We don’t have to have any special skill – it is as simple as us being like Andrew and inviting a friend to come and see – the messiah is here in the world. We don’t have to invite them to a special event, just invite them to see Jesus as the lord and savior. Jesus can take it from there. Jesus has a way of breaking through the darkness of the world to bring peace, comfort and hope. Jesus comes to us in special moments, in a spirit of love, in a relationship, in a call to be the light of the world. We have all had a touch from God in our ordinary life. In our scripture Jesus assures Nathaniel – You will see greater things that these. I assure you will see heaven opening up and God’s angels at work on earth. Wow! What a promise. There Was a Man in the World Who Loved Me James Baldwin, in one of his novels, says, "There was a man in the world once who loved me, and because that was the case, I can dare now to continue the struggle to become a man myself." For Christians there is a man in the world who loved us, every one of us. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. The love with which he loved us is not just human love. This is the mystery. The love with which he loved us, in the words of Dante, was "the love that moves the sun and the stars." Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com The Church depends on volunteers to do ministry. At some time in our lives we all received an invitation to follow. But, unfortunately we are not always willing. In John we have one of the first recorded volunteers that Jesus invited to help. Jesus asked Phillip to “follow” and Phillip responded by asking Nathaniel to “follow.” Thus began a series of volunteers who eventually became disciples. Keith Wagner, Not So Great Expectations We will talk more about that in person next week. We are in the season of blowing snow, cold dark days, blue Mondays, searching for something better. But we are also in the season of deeper listening, deeper understanding, and recognizing the light in a brand new way. We are all called to invite others to just come and see, we are called to bring the light to the world – how are we spreading the light of christ in these cold days? Let us pray…… Pastoral Prayer Patient and Wise God, you have called this church into being to serve you in this world by helping others. We rejoice in the many ways we are able to be of help. We offer our prayers for each other, for those near and dear to us, for the situations of difficulty and strife in community and world. You hear our voices cry out and with your eternal compassion you respond in loving care to each of us. We gather here this day, meeting and greeting each other, celebrating fellowship and friendship, welcoming each other in your name. You remind us that you are with us always. What have we to fear? But we fear far too often the unknown tasks that lie ahead of us. We always want to be assured of the happy out come of our efforts. Help us to trust your guidance and presence, Lord. Help us remember that there is no time in which we are out of your care. Enable us to be in serving ministry and mission with joy and confidence. Heal our wounds, bind up our bruises and broken spirits. Put us on a pathway of peace. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN. Benediction, Blessing, Commission Go into God’s world, aware of God’s call in your life. Follow our Lord Jesus Christ who will lead you in paths of service and hope. Lean on the power of the Holy Spirit to give you courage and strength. May peace, joy and love flow through you to others, in God’s name. AMEN. Moment for Stewardship In John’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus calling Philip and Nathanael to become his disciples. Gratefully, the scripture details Nathanael’s skepticism! He wasn’t sure any good thing (or person?) could come out of Nazareth. Philip’s response was not a proclamation to persuade…it was a simple “come and see”. In the life of our congregation, we may have moments of skepticism about this whole faith business. Yet again and again, we urge each other to “come and see”. Here, we can see (name one or two specific ministries of your congregation). Here, if we come, we can see (name one ministry which is not well known, but is living out the Good News). Here, each of us has opportunity to participate in making ministry happen as we share our tithes, our gifts and our offerings of time, talent and treasure. Knowing our actions can become the invitation to others: “Come and see!”, let’s bring the symbols of our lives to offer back to God. Prayer of Thanksgiving God, today we remember the times our skepticism has been overcome by what we can see – right before us, or in our mind’s eye. Thank you for accepting this offering, that we might continue to grow in our ability to follow Jesus with our whole lives. AMEN

Let Justice Roll Down

January 19, 2020 Isaiah 49:1-7 2ns Sunday after Epiphany Let Justice Roll Down Year B Announcements Remember Martin Luther King weekend – Invited to be a part of the leadership conference. Will be one of the presenters – along with pastor of New Lenox, workshop on racism – living together in harmony. Children’s Time Object: A pillow. Good morning, boys and girls. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? You've heard that old rhyme, haven't you? I don't know the answer to it, but I do know that woodchucks don't chuck wood this time of year. You know what they are doing? They are hibernating. A woodchuck normally has a pulse rate of about eighty beats per minute--about the same as you and me. But when it goes into its long winter's nap, that pulse rate slows down to about four beats a minute. And he lives off of the fat cells he has stored up. He is patiently waiting for springtime. I brought my pillow with me this morning. Sometimes when I have lots of problems or the weather is miserable outside, I would like to be that old woodchuck, and just hibernate and wait for spring when things will be better. But God didn't create us to live in a cave. God created us to love one another and serve one another. God is not hibernating and God didn't create us to hibernate either. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Stewardship time ." People say "charity should begin at home," and that is surely correct. Our problem is that so often it ends there. The person or the church with the world view, with the cosmic view, is so filled with compassion for others, that the people close at hand end up being beneficiaries of that same compassion. The task of the servant in our world today is to be a giver. Let me encourage you, in spite of the high cost of giving and the small number of servant models you may see around you, to determine to be different. We are never more Godlike than when we give. Shortly after World War II, Europe began picking up the pieces. Perhaps the saddest sight of all was that of the little orphaned children starving on the streets of war-torn cities.Early one morning an American soldier spotted a little lad with his nose pressed against the window of a pastry shop. Inside the baker was kneading dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts. The hungry boy stared in silence. His eyes glued to the glass as he watched those mouth-watering morsels being pulled from the oven, piping hot. The soldier's heart went out to the nameless orphan. Hurrying inside he quickly purchased a dozen hot doughnuts and took them outside to the hungry boy. "Would you like these doughnuts?" he asked. As he turned to walk away, the soldier felt a tug on his coat. He looked back and heard the child say, "Mister, are you God?" We are never more like God than when we give. The glory of being God's servant is the opportunity to do what God did in Jesus Christ our Lord. "For God so loved the world, that he gave...." Scripture The servant speaks up 49 Listen to me, coastlands; pay attention, peoples far away. The LORD called me before my birth, called my name when I was in my mother’s womb. 2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of God’s own hand. He made me a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in God’s quiver, 3 saying to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I show my glory.” 4 But I said, “I have wearied myself in vain. I have used up my strength for nothing.” Nevertheless, the LORD will grant me justice; my reward is with my God. 5 And now the LORD has decided— the one who formed me from the womb as his servant— to restore Jacob to God, so that Israel might return to him. Moreover, I’m honored in the LORD’s eyes; my God has become my strength. 6 He said: It is not enough, since you are my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the survivors of Israel. Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. 7 The LORD, redeemer of Israel and its holy one, says to one despised, rejected by nations, to the slave of rulers: Kings will see and stand up; commanders will bow down on account of the LORD, who is faithful, the holy one of Israel, who has chosen you. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Sermon Some years ago in Chicago, a parish minister sent out hundreds of questionnaires to people in every walk of life. He received a surprisingly great response, all of which he carefully indexed and tabulated. In each questionnaire only one point was raised: What is the outstanding problem or question you face daily in your thinking or living? Twenty-two percent named their family. Forty-eight percent mentioned personal living: the seemingly loneliness, general failure and futility of it all. On the bulletin board of an Ivy League university, this item appeared: "WANTED - a young couple to care for an elderly millionaire who has been taking tranquilizers for twenty years. The need is desperate in order to give him meaning to life. He has nothing to live for." Have you ever felt discouraged? All of these instances have a common factor that can be expressed in one word: futility. This mood is reflected again and again in our human story, and the Bible is no exception. In the fourth verse of Isaiah 49, we hear a cry of discouragement from this great prophet: "I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing...." Now, for more than a half-century the people of Israel had been exiles in pagan Babylon. But God had not abandoned them, for a new chapter of their history was beginning to emerge: out of the north came Cyrus, the Persian warrior, whose pressures on the Babylonian Empire eroded its strongholds and set the captives free. What a tremendous hour for the prophet! Now his hopes were being fulfilled and his prophecies vindicated. God had intervened and opened up a highway for the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple as a free nation. Well might he sing: "Lift up your voice with strength ... fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ " (Isaiah 40:9). In life, in service even in the church it is easy for us to ask the question what is the point in what I am doing? If we ask that question, we are in good company. Question asked by many in the bible, Elijah, Moses, Job. Question asked by many people in scripture for today. Question asked by the suffering servant. This is the second of stories told of a servant who has been encouraged to do do things – bring the exiles back to Israel to rebuild and then to become a light to the nations. This suffering servant admits that they have been called by God from birth, and that they have followed God to this point. They will do anything, but right now they don’t see the point. No one is listening, things are not changing, and his mission is filled with one disappointment after another. Kathy dropped by her pastor's study one Saturday morning on her way to her last university class before graduation. Pastor noticed that Kathy's left arm was wrapped in a towel. In her right hand, Kathy held a straight razor. The towel dropped from her left arm revealing a long, open, bloody gash. Holding up the razor, with tears in her eyes, Kathy pleaded, "Convince me not to finish this." With a gulp and a silent prayer, Pastor Michael said, "I don't know if I can, but let's take a memory walk first." Together they strolled through the church building, pausing to share stories of nursery school, confirmation classes, and youth group activities. Kathy recalled how her clinical depression kept coming back, reminding her how empty and meaningless her life had become. Even though she was on the dean's list, she felt stupid. Even though she had received a superior rating for her student teaching, she believed that she would be a disaster as an elementary school teacher. Even though her parents had chosen to adopt her while she was still in her birth mother's womb, Kathy could only see that she did not live up to their expectations. Just like God's servant in our text, Kathy believed: "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity" (Isaiah 49:4). "Come on, Kathy," urged Pastor Michael, "we have one more stop on our memory walk. Let's go into the sanctuary." Together they stopped at the baptismal font. "Here is where your mother and father promised to introduce you to an enormous family who would support you always. Here is where God named and claimed you and chose you as a child in God's forever family," said Pastor Michael. Kathy remained silent still clutching the towel around her arm. Yet she allowed the pastor to lead her down the center aisle toward the altar. "Look at the cross, Kathy. Here is where Jesus suffered and died so that you might have life. Here is the altar where Jesus gave his own flesh and blood for you." Kathy dropped to her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably. After a few minutes, just when Pastor Michael was planning to call the emergency squad, Kathy stood up. Placing her bloodstained towel and straight razor on the altar, Kathy announced, "Okay, I remember. Let's go get some help now." And they did. "Yet, surely," remembered the servant, "my cause is with the Lord" (Isaiah 49:4). Surely, remembered Kathy, servant of God, there is still work to be done; a life to live, and a baptismal commission to fulfill. At first the task of God's servant was limited to restoring the scattered children of Israel ... no simple job, but the servant knew that he was honored and strengthened by God to carry it out. "I am honored in the sight of the Lord and my God has become my strength" (Isaiah 49:5). At first, the task of God's servant, Kathy, was to begin to heal and to graduate. At first, the task of God's servant, Harold, was to provide driving lessons for his daughter. Each of these servants of God experienced failure and discouragement. What about us? What failures confront us? What dreams seem futile? Yet, surely, just as the Lord refreshed the memory of God's servants with reminders of God's forever love, God reminds us, as well. Not only did the servant in our text receive the necessary strength to complete his first mission, God expanded it. God said: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6). Wow! Not only did God's servant, Kathy, graduate with honors from college, she became Third Grade Teacher of the Year in her elementary school. Today she is principal of that school and serves as a youth advisor in her congregation. Wow! Not only did God's servant, Harold, renew a relationship with his daughter, he now volunteers as part of a ministry team working with youthful gang members. Recently, some of these young people presented Harold with a cross, made from melted down pistols, knives, and chains. Wow! These servants of God could not remain faithful to doing any of these things by their own efforts. They could only carry out their tasks in God's word to them, "... because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you" (Isaiah 49:7). Kathy was able to find hope in her memories and her relationship with God. When you are discouraged, where do you find hope. Where do you look for hope? Where do you find it? Scripture says that the suffering servant found hope in two words – yet nevertheless. Friends, pay attention to the turning point in our text. The next two words in verse 4 are decisive for the complaining servant and for God's discouraged people. They are decisive words because they announce that God is about to transform our perception of reality from failure and futility to promise and possibility. With these two words God gets our attention. God is about to reverse our self-definition from weak, depressed, and exhausted to named, claimed, and commissioned. For the servant and for God's people, it's not all about us. It's all about God. What are these two transforming words? They are, "Yet, surely." In the middle of the servant's exhausted complaining, he declares, "Yet, surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God" (Isaiah 49:4). Yet, surely, in his discouragement, Harold had a vision of God's renewal as he remembered the plaque given by his students. Yet, surely, in the midst of our own frequent failures and depleted energy, God gives us visions of renewal. Look around you right now. Look at the cross, the font, and the altar. See the scriptures opened. See God's gathered people around you. Yet, surely, right here, among us, God is naming, claiming, and commissioning us. Yet, surely, right here, God is reversing reality for all splashed and nourished sinner servants of the Lord. Yet, surely, with the servant, today we remember, both God's claim of us and God's commission to us. Celebrates God has been with him, but God named him. In culture the name of a child was not only something to be called, it was also a purpose to live into. Interesting thing – we never learn the name of the suffering servant. As a matter of fact, there is debate is it Jesus? It is the nation of Israel? Is it the church. Many think the ambiguity is on purpose. It is all of those things – but the suffering servant could be any of us in this room. Anyone who has become discouraged in their service to God. The point is being discouraged in not an excuse to give up. We are not let off the hook. Yet nevertheless, God is still with us, still loves us – still asks us to serve. I've always been intrigued by the story, supposed to be true, of a man who was so discouraged by his poor health that he decided to end it all by running until he dropped. So, he got his things in order and one day started to run until he dropped. He ran and ran and ran and ran, and, while he got exhausted, he didn't "drop." So he decided he'd do it again the next day, but this time he absolutely wouldn't stop until he dropped. Perhaps you can guess the end of the story. The man ran and ran, pushing himself to his limit instead of pampering himself in an armchair popping pills, and his body became strong and the man had a new life Servants are people of God to serve and to give. God wants to build into our lives the same serving and giving qualities that characterized the earthly life and ministry of our Lord. To me, it is always inspiring when someone in the public spotlight remembers this basic call of God to be a servant. Many of you will recall the name of Colonel James B. Irwin who was a part of the team of astronauts who made the successful moon walk. When Irwin returned, he spoke of the thrill connected with leaving this planet and seeing it shrink in size. He mentioned watching earthrise one day, and thinking how privileged he was to be a part of this unique crew. And then, as they were en route back to earth, he began to realize that the experience he had shared with his crew in space would make them overnight international celebrities. It was then that James Irwin, a person of deep faith in God, made a decision. In his own words, he said: "As I was returning to earth, I realized that I was a servant, not a celebrity. So I am here as God's servant on planet Earth to share what I have experienced that others might know the glory of God." That is still our calling from God - to be servants The late John A. Mackay once remarked: "We become related to Christ singly, but we cannot live in Christ solitarily." Commitment to God in Christ directs our lives ever outward to work his purpose for all people. And when we are so engaged, the thrill of our enthusiasm outstrips any assault by futility. At one time in Africa David Livingstone felt his work was hopeless, futile and in vain, but it was then that he fell back on Christ’s promise, "Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world." And later he wrote in his diary, "These are the words of a man of the most sacred and strictest honor." There is a point in living! How happy we can be if and when we find it. Let us pray……. Additional illustrations Who is the servant? Is it Jesus? Is it the Church? Is it your congregation? Is it you? Is it all of these and more? Preaching task - To tell the story of how God’s work is being opened to all, and then bring it back down to the local level. In other words, this passage is about a relatively small group of people being used to bring justice to the world, and opening up God’s love to all people. How can this message be transposed to another group of people? The good news isn’t our good news. It isn’t news for this party, or this nation, or this race. It is for all. The Good News isn’t just for this church or this neighborhood - but it also IS for this church and this neighborhood. A senator, a clergyman and a Boy Scout were passengers in a small plane that developed engine trouble. "We'll have to bail out," the pilot announced. "Unfortunately, there are only three parachutes. I have a wife and seven small children. My family needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I'm the smartest politician in the world," said the senator. "The country needs me. I'm taking one of the parachutes." And he jumped. "I've had a good life," said to the clergyman to the Boy Scout," and yours is still ahead of you. You take the last parachute." "Don't need to," shrugged the youth. "There are two parachutes left. The smartest politician in the world jumped with my knapsack!" There are some of you here today who are feeling totally overwhelmed by life right now. I know that. And the issues for some of you are not light ones, they are bona fide heavy ones. Only you know the application in your life of the truth that Isaiah and Jesus were preaching. All I know is that God is sure to bless with new energy and new options and new vigor and new joy the persons or the church that chooses to dare great things for people beyond themselves, to be, as Isaiah said, "a light to the nations" out of commitment to and gratitude for God's great love for us which we have seen and known in Jesus Christ. Focusing only on ourselves and on easily reachable goals is simply too light a thing. It leads to un-health, dis-ease, and plugs up the flow of God's Spirit and power, so that even the "easy goals" are found to be unattainable. What this might mean for you and me and this church might make great dinner conversation, church committee discussion and prayer time contemplation this week. May we be open to what God would speak to us. All of these instances have a common factor that can be expressed in one word: futility. This mood is reflected again and again in our human story, and the Bible is no exception. In the fourth verse of Isaiah 49, we hear a cry of discouragement from this great prophet: "I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing...." Now, for more than a half-century the people of Israel had been exiles in pagan Babylon. But God had not abandoned them, for a new chapter of their history was beginning to emerge: out of the north came Cyrus, the Persian warrior, whose pressures on the Babylonian Empire eroded its strongholds and set the captives free. What a tremendous hour for the prophet! Now his hopes were being fulfilled and his prophecies vindicated. God had intervened and opened up a highway for the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple as a free nation. Well might he sing: "Lift up your voice with strength ... fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ " (Isaiah 40:9).

For the Love of God

8th Sunday after Pentecost July 15, 2018 Ephesians 1:3-14 Year B For the Love of God Children’s Time Object: a man's dress jacket with buttons on the cuffs Good morning, boys and girls. Check out this nice jacket I brought with me. Do you think you could wear this jacket? Might be a little big right now, wouldn't it. This is a man's jacket, and I want to point out something interesting about it. See these buttons on the sleeve? Why do you think they are there? Did you know that there is NO purpose for these buttons? So how did they get there? Hundreds of years ago, there was a military general named Frederick the Great. Now Frederick the Great was in charge of a lot of soldiers. And Frederick noticed that the sleeves on his soldiers' uniforms were getting very dirty. He discovered that the soldiers were using their sleeves to wipe the sweat off their faces. That's why their sleeves were so dirty. Well, Frederick the Great didn't like that, so he ordered the men to sew buttons onto their jacket sleeves. Now, if they used the sleeve to wipe their faces, the buttons would scratch them. Soon, the men stopped wiping their faces on their sleeves because they were tired of getting scratched. Now these days, men don't wipe their faces on their sleeves, so we don't need these little buttons. They don't have any purpose. But we still sew them onto men's sleeves for no reason. Unlike these little buttons that don't have any purpose, the Bible says that you and I were created for a very special purpose. We were created to bring glory to God, to praise and worship God and tell everybody about Him. That's why God created us. That's our whole purpose. That's a pretty exciting reason, isn't it? You and I aren't useless. We are very special and important in God's eyes. He made us for a very special reason to worship Him. That's why it feels so good to pray and sing songs and to learn about God. Because that's what we were made for. Let's thank God for making us for this special job. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Ephesians 1:3-14 Common English Bible (CEB) The believers’ blessings 3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. 4 God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world. 5 God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan 6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves. 7 We have been ransomed through his Son’s blood, and we have forgiveness for our failures based on his overflowing grace, 8 which he poured over us with wisdom and understanding. 9 God revealed his hidden design[a] to us, which is according to his goodwill and the plan that he intended to accomplish through his Son. 10 This is what God planned for the climax of all times:[b] to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth. 11 We have also received an inheritance in Christ. We were destined by the plan of God, who accomplishes everything according to his design. 12 We are called to be an honor to God’s glory because we were the first to hope in Christ. 13 You too heard the word of truth in Christ, which is the good news of your salvation. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit because you believed in Christ. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in the honor of God’s glory. Footnotes: a. Ephesians 1:9 Or mystery b. Ephesians 1:10 Or the fullness of times Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible I remember the experience like it was yesterday. In grade school, during recess, and the class would decide that we were going to play kickball. The strongest kickball players would be designated at captains, and the rest of the class would all line up waiting for the captains to choose you for the team. Those of us who were not particularly good athletes, would just hope that we were not the last one standing in line waiting to be chosen. Our self esteem was dependent on how soon we were chosen. The good news is when we came off the heavenly assembly line ready to come down on earth, God personally chose each of us to be a part of the heavenly team. How can you be sure? Do you have a belly button? That is where as you were coming off of the assembly line, God touched you and said, I want this one, and this one, and this one. We all have a belly button because we were all chosen personally by God. That is the message of Ephesians for today. The book of Ephesians is the epistle lesson for the next 7 weeks. Usually when I read Ephesians, it is a bunch of words to me, nice words with a message that makes no sense to me. But this time when I looked at it makes sense, and I think that it is an important message for all of us. The message is that God chose all of us to be a part of God’s team. Each is us is important. And those who follow Jesus Christ have been picked and specially prepared to do a job. This is the beginning of the book of Ephesians. It is intended to be a prayer of thanksgiving, when we become aware of all that God has done for us. It was sung in worship, it was sung after a baptism service to remind people to bless God, because God has blessed us. The message of Epeshians one – we are beloved, adopted children, we have been redeemed, we have been forgiven, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. In other words we have nothing to worry about. Billy Graham's daughter Anne Graham Lotz is both an author and an evangelist. Her house was broken into a few years ago. The robbers took almost everything of value. The night after the break-in, Ms. Lotz lay awake while fear filled her heart and mind. Not only had all of her valuable possessions been stolen away and so had her sense of security. , She began worrying about all the other precious things in her life that she could lose. Through illness or accident, she could lose her children or her husband. She could lose her health. She could lose her job, or her finances, or even her reputation. Just as anxiety was about to take over completely, she recalled the words from I Peter 1:4, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you . . ." Did you catch that? We have an inheritance that cannot be taken away from us. Anne Graham Lotz sat down and made an alphabetical list of the eternal blessings that cannot be taken away from us. Listen to the items on her list and notice her clever use of the letters of the alphabet. She wrote: I am: Accepted by God / Beloved by God / Chosen by God / Delivered by God / Enlightened by God / Forgiven by God I have: Grace of God / Hope for the future / Inheritance in heaven / Justification / Knowledge of God / Love / Mercy of God / Nearness to God / Oneness with God / Peace / Quickening of the Spirit I am: Redeemed / Sealed with the Holy Spirit / Treasured by God / United with other believers / Validated as an authentic child of God I have: His Wisdom And one day I will be: / Exalted with Him! (1) What a beautiful way of saying that we are BLESSED with an ongoing inheritance from God. Remember, we are blessed. It is easy for us to want to be a part of the crowd and to think like everyone else. We all want to be picked on the kickball field. Even when we go to church, and learn to say we are a Christian, when we are in life with or friends, we want them to think of us as just another person. When by definition, we are different. Being Holy means being different. It means standing out. It means letting God make our choices, whether then using our own reasoning. The world tends toward division and strife. We as people tend to choose sides, we exclude people, we get selfish, we even sometimes put on blinders and forget what may be going on in others lives if it does not apply to us. When we deal with others, people give what they deserve, not what they need. And God says that I chose you to be on my team, to make things different. It is that difference that brings us all together in love. In his book Dangerous Wonder, Mike Yaconelli recounts a time he hired a man to lay tile in his kitchen. Yaconelli knew this man to be the alcoholic father of a teenager whom he had come to know through a youth ministry. The father had been emotionally and physically abusive to everyone in his family. Yaconelli determined not to be cheated or pushed around by this fellow. He demanded (and received) a written estimate in advance -- $350 for three days' work. When the work was finished the tiler said, "I need to talk to you about the money." Yaconelli braced himself for a battle royal. He writes: I was ready for him and glanced at my wife with the look of testosterone on my face. He started to hand me the bill, but then paused for a moment and said, "A couple of years ago I was drinking too much. I am an alcoholic and was at a very low point in my life. I almost lost my family because of my drinking. I mistreated my wife and my children, especially my oldest son. "But you and your wife spent a lot of time with him at a critical moment in his life when he could have gone either way. Shortly after that I went to AA, and I've been sober ever since. Because of you and your wife, I still have a relationship with my son. I've never been able to thank you, but I'm thanking you now." He handed me his bill for $350. "Paid in full" was written across the page. This abusing, untrustworthy man ... had just shown this arrogant snob the meaning of grace. God chose us in heaven, because God made a plan in heaven. God gave each of us free choice, and in free choice, we tend to forget about God and do what we want to do. That creates divisions and misunderstandings. In order to clear up those misunderstandings, God sent Jesus into he world, he took us out of the world and showed us what real love is. And when we spread that real love, we fulfill God’s plan of trying to unite the world together as one. God gave the world away, and God is trying to bring the world back under God’s rule. God is depending on us to carry out that plan. Ephesians 10 says that God’s purpose in creating the world is to gather all things in earth and heaven together united through Christ. When the Church Rises When the church rises up to be the church, the world rises up to be the world. What is the meaning of grace? It's that none of us deserves the love of God. None of us deserves another chance. That's the heavy part. But the lightness of grace is that God, magically, considers us worthy of being in a relationship with the Creator of the universe. The incredible news is that God has written across the debt-sheets of our personal lives, "Paid in full." CSS Publishing Company, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, by Glenn McDonald If we can’t remember anything else from this sermon, remember the fact that God gave us two wonderful words to live by – grace and peace. As long as we have grace and peace in our lives, we have all that we need. Alister MacLean tells of a lady in the West Highlands who lived a hard life, yet one of perpetual serenity. When asked the secret of it, she answered: “My secret is to sail the seas, and always to keep my heart in port.” Wherever the Christian is, he is still in Christ. According to Henry Alford Porter, The Greeks had a beautiful word for humanity--'anthropos,' meaning the being with the upturned face. "Men are queer things," Porter goes on to comment, "Man is so made that he cannot be content with forever looking down. He may look down a long time, so long that he almost forgets there's anything else, anything above, forgets that he was made for God ” until something happens, some crisis comes. And then he remembers and looks up.(5) I started with a memory from my childhood. And I want to end with another memory. I never watched this television show, but I do remember the show Ateam – it starred Mr. T. I do remember the Ateam was a team of people who would have assignments to catch the bad guys. I never really watched the show, but I would watch the opening and closing of the show. I do remember them driving around in a black van, that did not always follow traffic rules. At the end of each show, they would drive off in the black van…… Every great accomplishment begins with a vision, a dream, then a plan. Some of you may remember one of the more absurd shows that ever graced our television screens, the infamous "A Team." The black van careening around the corner on two wheels. B.A. is at the steering wheel. Face and Murdock sit back and relax as "The A Team" streaks away from the bad guys once again. In the copilot's seat, Hannibal reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket, pulls out a cigar, leans comfortably against the door of the van and with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, says, "I love it when a plan comes together!" (5) Our text for the day comes from that immortal television series, The A-Team. At the conclusion of each show the leader would light up his cigar and say, "I love it when a plan comes together." He's right! It is great when a plan comes together. What case can there be for the worth of an individual human being? Only this, that according to the Sacred Word, we are at the center of God's plan for creation. When we forget that central fact, then life does become meaningless and burdensome God’s plan starting with choosing you in heaven, showing you love and making you apart of the family, and a part of the plan, to unite all things in heaven and earth together in God’s love. It is a blessing to us in life, because it gives us grace and peace. And as long as we have grace and peace, we have all that we need. Praise God. Let us pray…. Amen. Other illustrations…. You Spell God Three women die and all three reach Heaven at the same time. There they meet St. Peter. He tells them he has some other important business to transact and asks them to wait outside. Finally he returns and calls the first woman into his office. He apologizes for making her wait so long. "Oh, I don't mind at all," the woman says. "I'm so thrilled just to be here in Heaven." St. Peter is delighted by her attitude. "Well, then, if you can just answer one question for me, we can finish processing your papers. Now tell me, how do you spell `God'?" The woman spells it for him, then she goes on into the celestial realm. St. Peter calls in the next woman and also apologizes to her for making her wait. "It will be worth it, I'm sure," she answers. "I am willing to wait one thousand years if necessary in order to see God face to face." St. Peter is very pleased. He insists, though, on asking her one more question for the Records. "Tell me, dear lady, how do you spell `God'?" The woman spells it perfectly, then enters the Pearly Gates. Finally, St. Peter calls in the third woman. He also apologizes to her, but she refuses to accept his apology. "It was quite rude," she says angrily. "All my life on earth I had to wait in lines. Wait at the checkout counter, wait at the bus stop, wait for the kids to get home from school, wait for my coffee break. And now you expect me to wait to get into Heaven? Well, I just won't stand for it!" St. Peter said, "I'm so sorry. If you'll just answer one more question for our records, then you can go on in. Tell me, how do you spell 'Czechoslovakia'?" Traditional Humor Unknown Can you recall a significant event that changed many things about you: maybe a natural disaster like a flood that swept away your house, maybe you had a car accident that left you with a limp, or a happier change when you got married? Either way, on the next day you are different and now you must start living life differently. That's how Paul begins our text. "Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light." Dr. Sandy Winter, pastor of the University Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, AL, tells a wonderful story about a conversation a daughter had with her mother when the mother was 88 years old and was dying. The daughter knew that as a tiny child during the worst part of the depression her family lived with her grandparents out in a rural area. There were the grandparents, this young family of 4, and nine more brothers and sisters and family members living in one place, all trying to eke out a living raising enough food. Of course, there was no means of transportation, other than walking. But this daughter also knew that later as she was growing up her family lived in town not out in the country. She wondered how this came about. So she asked her mother how she managed to get the family moved in to town in the midst of the depression at a time when people were using every resource they had just to put food on the table. The mother was weak and couldn’t say much, but her mind was clear. Her answer was, “I had to.” The daughter said, “What do you mean, you had to?” The mother replied, “We had to go to church!” Think about that. “We had to go to church!” “Her family being able to go to church,” says Dr. Winter, “was a matter of life and death for the mother, a matter so important that it empowered her to move mountains.” (4) Praise is our witness to the world that God reigns in our lives. We gather each week in this place to say to the world, “God lives! God matters!” What does it mean to be a chosen people? It means we live lives of integrity; it means we love one another as Christ loves us; it means that weekly we gather and lift our hearts in praise to God. We are chosen, not for privilege, but for purpose for serving God. A minister in Vermont tells about a Bible Class teacher who was registering the children in Sunday school, and she asked two brothers their ages and birthday. One of the two boys said, “We’re both seven. My birthday is April 8, 1976, and my brother’s is April 20, 1976.” The teacher was a little confused and said, “But that’s impossible!” The other brother said, “No, it’s not, one of us is adopted.” Before she was even aware that she had asked, the words came out, “Which one?” The boys looked at each other and smiled. Then one of them said, “We asked Dad that a while ago, but he just said he loved us, and he couldn’t remember any more which one was adopted.” (5) A piece of humor has been circulating on the Internet for some time about a young polar bear cub that approached his mother one day and asked, “Mom, am I a polar bear?” “Of course you are,” she replied with a smile. “OK,” said the cub, and padded off. Later, he found his dad out by the iceberg. “Dad, am I a polar bear?” he asked. “Sure you are, son!” said his dad, wondering why his son would ask such a silly thing. The next day, the cub asked the question again and again. “Are you and mom polar bears?” he asked his dad. “You are? Well, then, does that make me a polar bear? Pure, 100% polar bear?” Finally, his parents couldn’t stand it any longer. “Son, you’re driving us crazy with this question! You are a polar bear! Why do you keep asking?” The cub looked up and confessed, “Cause I’m FREEZING!”

Holy Ground, Holy Purpose

August 31, 2014 Exodus 3:1-15 Holy Ground, Holy Purpose 12th Sunday After Pentecost Year A What are some of the problems of the world? We are living in some interesting times. There are so many different things going on in the world today. What are some situations going on in the world that you think need God’s attention…… The good news is that if you see it as a problem, God also sees. Sometimes when we hear the stories of the bible, we can start to believe that these stories are outdated, and say nothing about the world today. Nothing can be further from the truth. The God that we worship is a very hip and up to date God. He knows what is going on in the world – and he has a plan to fix this world up and to make everything right. What exodus says about what God can do 3. A Wonderful Experience. (v.7-10) (God replied with the following responses) A) "I have seen" (v.7a) B) "I have heard" (v.7b) C) "I know" (v.7c) D) "I have come down to deliver you" (v.8a) E) "I have seen the oppression" (v.9) We have all heard this story of Moses and the burning bush. It can be easy to be fooled into thinking that this is an old story, and that there is nothing new that we can learn from this story. But today, I want to encourage you to think about this story in a whole new way. I want to focus on things that we have not thought about. God is the center of this story not Moses. Story starts with God’s awareness of the world, not Moses answering God’s call. The message for today- God still appears to the faithful, God still has a plan. God still wants you and me to be apart of that plan to change the world. The importance of vision In the story, Moses had a vision to see beyond the ordinary, and to recognize God in the situation. Do we have that same vision? When we look at the world – what do we see? Do we see the situation, or do we see God’s future unfolding before our eyes. In order to see God, to have that special vision, you have to see with your eyes, but also see with your faith. The bush was burning, but was not consumed. Moses was able to see what was there, but to look beyond it and to recognize the presence of God. Is the world coming apart, or is the world coming together. It all depends on our vision. 5475 Mrs. Tan’s Vision Of Cross The New Grace Christian Church in the Philippines has a distinctively massive Cross outside its sanctuary. One mid-morning in 1976, Mrs. Julia L. Tan was returning home from a God-honoring project in Manila when she saw a beautiful, shining Cross over the church’s existing cross structure. Disbelieving her own eyes, she thought it must be a case of “double vision.” The shining Cross disappeared. But in another minute, the Cross again appeared over the roof of the church. This precious experience proved a great comfort and assurance to her in the ministry. Mrs. Tan co-founded the 5,000-student Grace Christian High School and Grace Bible Church, and started the Grace Gospel Church and Grace Christian Church. She still actively serves the Lord having completed over 50 years of educational service in the Far East by 1980. Count Zinzendorf owed much of his spiritual fervor to the casual sight of a picture of the crucifixion, with this simple inscription at the bottom: “All this for thee: how much for me?” In 1845, in the First Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia, the Southern Baptist Convention was organized. As a tribute to the faith of the founding fathers, the church placed this inscription in the building: “Men who see the invisible, hear the inaudible, believe the incredible, and think the unthinkable!” The best way to see how God is at work in the world today, is to make sure that we see Jesus clearly. If we see Jesus in the world, we also see God’s plan. We come to know Jesus by reading the revelation in the bible. By practicing prayer, and most importantly by living our lives the way Jesus calls us to. If we do that – we will be blessed with a special vision – to see God in all things. And to know God is there, in places where others cant see him. The significance of taking off shoes the story – God tells Moses how to indeed stay close to God. He tells Moses to take off his shoes. In Middle Eastern culture, you always take off your shoes before entering a house. In a mosque, before you enter in you have to take off your shoes. It is disrespectful to bring the dust of your shoes into someone’s space. The dust from the ground represents a sinful world. You remove you sin as a sign of respect. But there are other stories in the bible of people removing there shoes. In Ruth when her husband dies, a relative must present his shoes to the judge in order to vouch for Ruth in court. But God has another reason for asking Moses to remove his shoes on holy ground. It is not so much a sign of respect. Shoes are a part of our persona- our presence to the outside world. You may walk around the house in your stocking feet, but when you go outside in the world – one of the things that you have to do is put your shoes on. That is a part of making yourself presentable to the rest of the world is putting your shoes on. God tells Moses to take your shoes off – take of the mask that the rest of the world sees. Become vulnerable, be yourself. Present nothing to God –but your innerself. One of the most dramatic and world-renowned shifts from "I" to God is the conversion of C. S. Lewis. This little man, who held the chair of medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, sat in his study without typewriter or secretary and penned the great masterpieces, which made him perhaps the most broadly read Christian writer of our century. C. S. Lewis was an agnostic, but was Surprised by Joy--the title of a book in which he tells about "The Shape of My Early Life" as Christ replaced the "I" in his life. C. S. Lewis describes the exchange between self-will and God's will in Beyond Personality (and his words are a challenge to you and to me): "Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your money and so much of your work--I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self instead. In fact I will give you myself, my own will shall become yours. Donald Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, Resource, 1992, p. 162 Yahweh and abba It is interesting that in this story- we learn God’s name I am who I am – or Yahweh. A name so sacred, that we are not supposed to even pronounce it. And yet Jesus calls God Abba- daddy. You can’t get any closer than a father to a son. Jesus takes all the pretense away in his relationship with God. There are no secrets, no walls, no shoes. He has given his whole self to God, and he came to help us understand that we too can do the same. As a matter of fact, if we are to be what God calls us to be – we have to be present with God. 3. A Wonderful Experience. (v.7-10) (God replied with the following responses) A) "I have seen" (v.7a) B) "I have heard" (v.7b) C) "I know" (v.7c) D) "I have come down to deliver you" (v.8a) E) "I have seen the oppression" (v.9) G) "I will send you" (v.10) (God is fully aware of what we experience in life. He is able to handle anything that we might face.) The God who gets things done In his conversation with God, Moses first ask who am I that you would ask me to carry out this important task. God replies, I will be with you. You are important enough for God to want a relationship with you, you are important enough that God wants to know all about you, you are important enough that God has entrusted you with the most important thing in his heart – to save his people. God wants to know if you are up to the task? Are you ready for the relationship? Are you able to be close to God? God’s name is I am who I am – or more importantly I will be who I will be. The world that God created will be so. You may not know that Yahweh also means the one who causes things to be. Our God is the one who knows how to get things done. And we live in a world that needs him desparately. We were able to identify so many things that are going on in the world today. Yahweh knows how to make a difference and make the world a better place for all of us. He is choosing you to help him out – do you chose him?Let us pray. Amen. Children’s Sermon….. Yahweh by B. Kathleen Fannin Passage: Exodus 3:1-22 • Lectionary: Proper 17 Item 1 of 1 | Back to Results "But Moses said to God, 'If I come to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you," and they ask me, "What is his name?" what shall I say to them?' God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' He said further, 'Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "I AM has sent me to you." ' " Theme: Self-esteem. Visual Aid: White posterboard with "YHWH" written in capital letters. As the children come up to the front of the sanctuary, I place the posterboard face down in front of me. Following my usual practice, I begin with a question. "Does everyone here have a name?" This brings laughs and giggles as the children nod. Of course everyone has a name! At this point, with a small group, I will ask each child to tell me her/his name. "Have you ever forgotten someone's name?" Several children indicate they have. "How did that make you feel?" I ask. "Dumb!" Nancy responds. "Embarrassed!" offers Matt. "Once I forgot my OWN name," says George, causing more giggles. "Has anyone else ever forgotten your name?" I ask him. He nods affirmatively. "How about the rest of you? Has anyone ever forgotten your name?" Several more children acknowledge this experience. "How did that make you feel?" I question. "Like I wasn't very important ..." "Like they didn't recognize me ..." "Like they didn't care about me ..." "And how do you feel when someone remembers your name?" I continue. "Good!" "Yes, it feels good to have someone remember our name, doesn't it? Our names give us identity. Our names tell us we are somebody; we exist. "Did you know that God knows the name of every one of you?" This brings everything from assured nods to looks of surprise. "And we know lots of names for God, too, don't we? What are some of those names?" "Father!" "Lord!" "Creator!" "God!" "Jesus!" "Love!" Out of the mouths of children ... And then one little girl of about ten really gives me a surprise. "Yahweh," she says quietly. I know immediately that this child has been paying attention in church or Sunday School or both. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I find myself responding to each reply. "Yahweh!" I repeat in startled wonder when it is pronounced by the girl. I reach down in front of me to pick up the posterboard. As the children look at what I have written, they look puzzled. "This looks funny, doesn't it?" I ask. They nod. "Why?" I question. After a moment's thought, one of the older children says, "There aren't any vowels." "That's right," I tell her. "The Hebrews didn't use vowels in their writing very often. This is an English translation of the Hebrew letters they used to write 'Yahweh,' the name of God." "After a while, the name of God became so sacred that the Hebrews wouldn't even pronounce it when they were reading scripture. They would substitute the name 'Adonai' instead. 'Adonai' means 'Lord.' "Well, what have we learned together this morning?" This is always a risky question with any group, but perhaps particularly with children because they tend to be so honest. "We've learned the name of God," Jerry responds. "And what is that name?" I ask the group, holding up the posterboard for all of them to see. "Yahweh!" a number of them reply. "So, we've learned the Hebrews' name for God was 'Yahweh.' What else have we learned?" An uncomfortable silence follows. "What if I call you the wrong name or can't remember your name?" I ask. "Oh, yeah!" Marian says, "I like for you to know my name and not mess it up when you say it." "And if I did mess it up, what would you do?" "Tell you how to say it right!" she assures me. And I have no doubt she would. "Are you telling me your name, your correct name, is important to you?" She nods vigorously. "In fact, each of your names is important to each of you, right?" I ask the entire group. Numerous little heads bob up-and-down affirmatively. "Sometimes we get down on ourselves. Sometimes we don't think we're worth much. If that ever happens to you, I hope you'll remember that you are important to God. In fact, you are so important, and God loves you so much, that God knows you by your very own name." Cows In Church, B. Kathleen Fannin, CSS Publishing Company, Inc, 1999, 0-7880-1346-7 Extra Illustrations…… NAME OF GOD...? If you’re in Lake City, Fla., one of these days and happen to run into a 50-something fellow with a sandy moustache, a receeding hairline, and aviator glasses, you may be in the presence of I Am Who I Am. Really. But that’s because Columbia County Court turned down his first request for a new name: God. The former Charles Haffey says he wanted a new identity because of lingering feelings of anxiety over his military service in Vietnam. (Source: 10/15/02 News Headlines from The Christian Science Monitor) Text Illustration: Life Examples: Moses: God’s Pattern for Success (Ex. 3:1-4) One of the greatest differences between the world’s message about success and God’s is this: The world seeks a single formula to produce one set of results for all people, while God’s plan is far more creative, far more individualized, and far more personal. Moses did not have a vision for success early in his life, although as an adopted son of Pharaoh he enjoyed a certain degree of privilege. After murdering an Egyptian, however, he ran for his life and then spent forty years tending sheep. But one day the Lord revealed Himself to Moses and gave him a specific life mission. Many of us go through difficult and even devastating experiences, and then one day come face-to-face with the reality of God. Is this the pattern that god seems to be implementing in your life? If so, stick with His plan, regardless of how unorthodox it may seem-The Promised Land lies in that direction! -The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible A Living Sacrifice There is, I think it is true to say, something a little bit depressing about Labor Day weekend. For Labor Day weekend signals the psychological end, at least, to summer with its periods of refreshment, and the start again, for many of us, of the more hectic rhythm of life and work at school, in college, at office or, in home. So let me ask you: How is your work? Are you giving of your self at work? Is work a place where you sacrifice for a cause? I find it helpful to remember the story of the little girl who, in the process of growing up, discovered that more than anything else she wanted to be able to mow the lawn. But each season she was told that she was too young. The great day came, however, when her parents decided that, at last, she was old enough to do the task. She did it with surprising skill and great delight, and having finished admiring her work, she began to cast long, envious glances across the fence at the neighbor's lawn, which also needed cutting. The neighbor, seeing her interest, said, "Sally, would you like to cut my lawn?" And the little girl enthusiastically said 'yes.' "Well, let's see...how about $3.00?" said the neighbor. The little girl's face fell, and she turned away, shaking her head. "What's the matter?" asked the neighbor. "I only have $2.00," said the little girl. Brett Blair, wwweSermons.com. Adapted from a sermon by Rev. C. Wayne Hilliker: "Living A Life That Matters" Back to Results | Item 1 of 1 Text Illustration: IT DEPENDS WHOSE HANDS IT’S IN A basketball in my hands is worth about $19 A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is worth about $33 million It depends whose hands it’s in A baseball in my hands is worth about $6 A baseball in Mark McGuire’s hands is worth $19 million It depends whose hands it’s in A tennis racket is useless in my hands A tennis racket in Pete Sampras’ hands is a Wimbledon Championship It depends whose hands it’s in A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea It depends whose hands it’s in A sling shot in my hands is a kid’s toy A sling shot in David’s hand is a mighty weapon. It depends whose hands it’s in Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s hands will feed thousands It depends whose hands it’s in Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse Nails in Jesus Christ’s hands will produce salvation for the entire world. It depends whose hands it’s in As you see now it depends whose hands it’s in. So put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God’s hands because It depends whose hands it’s in.(Author Unknown)

Why is He Coming?

“Why is He Coming?” Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Third Sunday of Advent Year B December 11, 2011 Whoever got us into the mess should be killed A woman was in the midst of her Christmas shopping. She still had just a few gifts to get. But it seemed that these were the hardest gifts. Everything that she has circled in the sale papers, when she went to the store they were sold out. And when she was shopping, all of the stores were crowded and the lines were long. After she finally got her last gift, she went to get in the elevator to go home. There was a crowd already in the elevator, but everyone was gracious enough to pull together and to let her in. They gave her room for her and her packages to get on the elevator. In exasperation of the day, she says – whoever came up with all of this Christmas mess should be shot. They should just string him up and hang him in a tree. Everyone in the elevator responds – they already thought of that – they crucified him.’’ Without Easter, there is no Christmas Without Easter, there would be no Christmas. Without Christmas there would be no Easter. They go hand in hand. If we forget about Christmas – then Easter is just a supernatural myth that has no meaning. If we forget about Easter, then Christmas becomes a sentimental story that we can all feel good about. But together, they are about the coming of Christ into our lives, and the point of our salvation. We are grateful for the first coming, and preparing ourselves for the second coming. Advent is like being locked up in prison Someone said that advent is sort of like being locked in prison, waiting by the door for someone from the outside to come and open the door and set you free. Advent is learning to wait on God in a very special way. There are a lot of people in the prison of life – we need to tell them that God is coming. That is why the book of Isaiah is important to us. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me The spirit of the lord is upon me, because the lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. We have heard these words before – yes they are in the messiah. But they are also in Luke. These are the words that Jesus stood up to say as he was in the synagogue and he announced that it was time for him to start his public ministry to the world. Liberation theology These are words of liberation, comfort and grace for all people. The Hebrew word for people in need is anawim. It literally means the righteous people, who have been treated unjustly. The good news for me is that God has a relentless determination to ensure justice and mercy in the world. The anawim The lay leader of Rust has been talking about meeting the needs of the anawim. I was struck as she talked about the need of people and that there seem to be so many people in need today. Who are the anawim today? Single parents, children, those who are hungry, those who don’t have jobs, those who are afraid of violence. It is important for the church to meet the needs of these people. But advent is the time for us to also spread the good news. We spend so much time wondering how to get these people into our churches. There are two times a year, when the world is knocking on our door, waiting for us to speak up and tell them about our savior. And all that he has done for us, and all that he can do for them. This is the time to tell them that God has heard their cries and sent a savior into the world to set them free. This is our time to introduce them to that savior – Jesus Christ. God cares enough to do whatever it takes to set them free – even sending his son into the world to be killed. Another seminary word for you, especially at Garrett. Liberation theology. That is what God is doing all around the world to set his anawim free. It talks of what God does in poor countries, in countries where there is oppression, amongst those who understand oppression well, but are learning to take care of themselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The advice of Thessalonians Our text in 1 Thessalonians says don’t quench the spirit. Always let the spirit do its work, in us and in the world. But the spirit of God is what frees our souls from the oppression of the world. Last week we looked at 2 Peter – that was the last book written in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians is the first book. It would have been written in 50 AD – fifty years after Jesus’ appearance on earth. This is the generation who waited for God. The whole theme of Thessalonians is when Jesus is coming back. They ask the question – how long do we have to wait? They are as impatient as a young child waiting for Christmas. And Paul had to talk to them about what to do in the meantime. For a child – the time between thanksgiving and Christmas can seem like an eternity, not a month. Paul wants us to know that even in our waiting; we are to live as Christians. As if Christ is in our lives, because indeed he is. The advice that he gives to us in our waiting – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstance, don’t quench the spirit, listen to the prophets, and test everything. Repeat after me - rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything, and test everything. Remember the joy that we have in life today, the joy we have in Christmas, is the joy that we have because our lives are lived in the spirit of Christ. Whatever else is going on – if I have Christ, I have joy. The inner peace from God Anne FitzPatrick writes of coming home one night after a pleasant outing with her husband and friends to find that their house had been broken into and robbed. The house had been ransacked and many of the things taken had not only monetary value, but sentimental value as well. Anne was at first shocked, then angry and finally frightened. Her inner spring of security had been poisoned. For weeks, the break-in was never far from any of Anne's conversations. She became suspicious of anyone she didn't recognize and had trouble sleeping. She had become shackled to bad memories. One evening, several weeks after the robbery, the theft was again the topic of family conversation. Anne's teenage son, Bill, said, “We should stop dwelling on what happened to us. We lost only things, but [the thieves] lost a lot more. They're out of grace of God by breaking his law.” Bill went on to suggest that they should pray for the intruders. Slowly, Anne began to understand the godly wisdom her 17–year–old son had spoken. She later said that as she was able to forgive the thieves, her own sense of inner peace returned. The Sunday of joy The third Sunday of advent is known as joy Sunday. It is the Sunday when we remember the joy that we have in Christ. The candle we light is usually pink – lighter than purple to remind us that we are almost near the end. Next week its back to purple again, to remind us that life always gets worse before it gets better. But we have to keep on moving forward anyway. Sticky notes and joy I want to try an interactive demonstration today. I want to give a few of you a sticky note – stick it on you. It has a word on it, but I don’t want to share what the word is just yet. Funny thing about sticky notes though – they were designed by an engineer at the 3M company. He was given the assignment to design some sticky glue. He designed it – but he was embarrassed to tell his supervisor. When his colleagues questioned him about what he had been doing all of these months – he told him that he designed this special glue – but the thing is it doesn’t stick very well. You can stick it to you – but the thing is, it really doesn’t stay. You can pull it off. You can put it back on you, but and it will stick again, but I wouldn’t exactly call it glue – because it doesn’t stick. His colleagues looked at him and told him that he had hit the jackpot. This was a special glue that could be put on the back of some paper, and people could use them as sticky notes. That they can take off and put back on again. 3M and that engineer, made a lot of money off of something that was invented by accident, with a result they weren’t expecting. Can someone tell me what word is on their sticky note? Joy – what does joy have to do with the invention of the sticky note? The sticky note was not something that the engineer set out to invent, he thought he was going to lose his job and he ended up creating one of the most important product of the company. Can’t seek joy There are a lot of people out there in the world looking for joy. But the thing is, you can’t buy joy. There is lot of people out there in the world right now at these moments who are seeking joy – in things, in people, in situations, in drugs, in experiences. But the thing is – they get disillusioned – because no matter how hard you look – joy is not yours to find. Because joy is a gift from God. Anytime we set out to find joy, it may last for a moment, but the reality is that if you are looking for it, you can be sure that you are going to lose it. If you set out to get it, you are going to fail. Joy is a byproduct of seeking something greater. If you are looking for joy, you won’t find it, but if you are looking for Jesus Christ – it will be given to you abundantly. Joy comes to you when you serve Jesus Christ. When you know that God is with you, and that your life is in Christ – everything else falls into place. Rejoice always We are not called, we are recalled The spirit of the lord is upon me to because the lord has anointed me to bring good news. That is not our call – that is our recall. Our reminder of what the world needs now – the freedom and joy that only the lord can bring. We are not waiting on Christmas, we are waiting on the lord to set the captives free. Amen.