And Why Has This Happened To Me?

Someone brought to the office a little statue from our Annual Rummage sale.  Santa Claus kneeling in front of baby Jesus.   It is a numbered piece in a collector series, made in Italy, and it may have been donated by one of you.  I keep for a sermon during Advent and so here it is.  We learned in our Service of Decoration of how Santa derived from St. Nicholas.  So there is some truth in this.  But we know that in the popular culture, Santa has come to serve many commercial interests.  Someone sent me an email with a child’s letter to Santa.  “Dear Santa, I just learned that you are not the reason for the season.  I do not want to be mean but I thought you would want to know.”

Jon, Aged 4 wrote, “Dear Santa, I’m sorry, but I don’t have a chimney.  I left the cat flap open for you.  Watch out for litter box.

Kayla wrote, “Please Santa, don’t bring me any new clothes. “  Kayla, Aged 9

Dear Santa,

You know that remote control car you brought last year.  Thank you!  It broke the next day.  I know you tried and that’s what counts.”  Alex, 8

I am eager to gather with you on this last Sunday of Advent.  Christmas is almost here.  I am hoping that you will spend some reading the stories of our faith.  We have heard that the Pope has started on Twitter.  He is not following anyone, but he expects to have lots of followers.  And he has already clarified that many things that are popular beliefs are not in the scriptures.  Over the years our Service of Decoration has been altered in order to contain less of the legends and more of the biblical stories.

So today we visit a story about two pregnant women laughing together in joy at what God has done.  Elizabeth is older than one would expect to be pregnant; she is so happy God has blessed her in this way.  Mary is a younger family member who has made a journey to be with her for a while.

You cannot fault Mary for wanting to get out of town for a bit.  Mary went to visit Elizabeth both out of need and out of strength.  I would guess the gossip and ridicule around her was strong and she needed a break.  She was poor, pregnant, unwed though engaged.  She was in a hurry to find a safe secure place within her extended family to be comforted, supported and affirmed.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Mary was blessed with a pregnancy of world-changing importance.  The two could spend some great mother-to-be time together.  I can safely say that if a young mom were to become a great mom, conferring with a veteran mom would be great, don’t you think.

Spending a few months with Elizabeth was also for a very positive reason.  For Mary to be blessed in this way was thrilling and she needed to tell someone who would listen and respond in a favorable way.   The messiah is going to be born with Mary; that would take some getting used to.  So she received confirmation and she gave confirmation.  Elizabeth needed to know what God was doing.  Joseph must have coping with the news in his own way and getting many things ready.   The Holy Spirit filled both Mary and Elizabeth at the moment they got together…there was great joy.  So Mary and Elizabeth offered to each other emotional connections and spiritual growth.  They blessed each other with confirmation of the blessing of what God was doing in their lives.

We all need places to express and receive confirmation of our joy at God’s goodness and love.  We need places of affirmation.  That is one of the purposes of our church.

This church needs a revival.  Most churches I know need a revival.  Each of needs to revive our beliefs in God’s goodness and God’s power.  Currently there are Christians who are convinced in God’s goodness, but not in God’s power.  And others, to hear them talk, are convinced of God’s power, but God’s goodness is only for those just like them.  Mary’s song is about both, a witness to God’s grace who has done great things for her and looks with favor upon the lowly and fills the hungry with good things.  God’s mercy is God’s forgiveness and long-suffering patience with the weakness and corruption and violence of humanity.

We see in Mary a humility which elevates God to the highest.  God has claimed her and us to be disciples ready to transform the world.  We rejoice in this blessing.  God has been blessing us from the beginning of time, so says Mary’s song.  God is saying to us:  “I will be your God, won’t you please be my people.”  Mary’s song tells the greatest blessing of all:  God is good, God is powerful, and God keeps promises.”

CAUMC IS PLACE OF BLESSING AND COMFORT SORELY NEEDED.

CAUMC IS ALSO A PLACE OF CHALLENGE TO HEAR GOD’S GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.

In the last trimester of the time in the womb, the inner ear is fully-developed.  At 26 weeks, most fetuses respond with an increase in the heart rate to sound stimulation.  There is evidence that some sounds comfort and excite excite the fetus.  Even exposure to music is thought to increase the interest of a baby after birth in sound imitation.  Find a young mother around our place and ask them what they think.

I hope that our worship and the experiences you have here both bring you comfort and stir you to greater faithfulness.  It is time to sing Mary’s song louder and live it in the world around us.

Leonard Sweet tells the story of a wedding about to begin in a Catholic church.  The groom’s party was in place and the bride and the women were lined up ready to process.  The moment had come but the organist was not playing in the loft.  The pastor waved…nothing.  The usher snapped fingers….nothing.  Finally the usher called out, with a loud voice, the organist’s first name.  “Neil, Neil!”  All over the church you could hear the dropping of the kneelers and most people kneeled.  

This week I have the privilege of hearing a mother tell about the impact of this church on the lives of her children, now grown.  They loved this place and it was the reason they started coming here.  Children were more than tolerated…they were blessed continually.  They saw this church, through children’s eyes, as a grand gathering of extra grandmas.  And grandpas, though that was not part of the conversation.  Here were people who cared about them, valued them, interacted with them, taught them new songs, and called them by name. 

As adults her children come back home and plan that visit around times when they can come and visit because they know they are loved here.  The greatest complement a church can have is to be a place of multiple Marys and Elizabeths.  And Josephs and Zechariahs.   What a blessing from God that we have that at College Avenue UMC.

The mother also told that one of their daughters had found a similar church where an usher gave high fives to children when they went by or put an offering in the plate.  High fives can be the work of the Holy Spirit.  Hugs work too.  The purpose of those things is to connect persons of faith.  What this means is that we come here awaiting opportunities to connect more deeply with people around us.  We are here hoping that God will combine our stories and connect them with God’s stories.

So…here are two expectant mothers, hugging, laughing, and singing one of the radical songs of the centuries.  They, along with Joseph and Zachariah, have listened.  It is time to laugh, to treasure, and to see where God is appearing again.  It is time to join God working for justice. 

I hope the Holy Spirit will touch your heart and you too can say with a smile along with Elizabeth:  “AND WHY HAS THIS HAPPENED…TO ME?”  We often say that when negative things happen.  But we should be saying that with positive opportunities given to us from God.

All of God’s greatest stories in the Bible start with human-sized beginnings.  God can turn a shepherd boy into king.  God can turn a poor couple into the parents of the Son of God.  God can turn a carpenter into the King of Kings. 

I am so glad that this church gives to children and youth two gifts that cannot be wrapped but are most give-able.  We want to give them a core trust that is not built on arrogance, but confidence in God.  We want them to know they can rely on the steadfastness of God; this enables them to be steadfast.  It is an awareness that if they drum well, or sing well, or write well…this is the best gift they can give their Creator.  They learn to know that there is a future ahead that takes everyone God-ward. 

How about you and me?

TURNING TOWARD CHRISTMAS – Luke 3:1-6

Larry Fry

College Avenue United Methodist Church

ADVENT IS PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

Christmas is coming so quickly.   Have I told Penny what I want?  No.  Have I gotten Penny request…not yet.  Have I written our Christmas letter or sent cards.  No.   Penny has been baking.  We bought some stocking stuffers yesterday.  And this afternoon we will put up our tree.  

For some of you, it means planning for a trip to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl.  If guests are coming, we plan out sleeping arrangements.

So, we prepare our homes, gifts, cards, parties, trips….but what about preparing our hearts, our lives, our families, our church?  The Service of Decoration is an example of what Advent is about…remembering and reclaiming the meanings of Christmas.  We come to worship so we don’t lose sight of the essentials as we get caught up in busyness, or worry.  One person in Bible study this week, helpfully reminded us that we do not need everything.   We hope to welcome Jesus into our lives, in a new way, in order to grow more faithful in our discipleship.

We want to be prepared.  If we were Amish folk this morning we would be worshipping in someone’s home.  The benches might be brought to your house on a wagon and set up just for the day.  There are no clergy.  A worship leader is chosen by lot or last-minute consensus.  If you were coming to worship you might be the one chosen to give the sermon that day.  It would be good to have one ready.  Wow!  You are selected to read scripture and tell what it means.  I would guess that most of you would say that it is hard enough to gear up to listen to a sermon, let alone be ready to give one at a moments notice.  What would your message be if you were to give the sermon this day?  Would you be prepared?

And even more importantly: Are you, in your relationship with God, ready for a celebration of Christ’s birth.

One chaplain described the way I write Christmas in my daily logbook.  I put an “X” down and put “mas.” “Xmas.”  The chaplain went on that it was OK to do that but it was so easy at this time to go into Xhaustion, Xcesses, Xcuses, Xtravagances, Xasperation, Xhibition, and wordly Xcitement.  And he said some want to Xcape from it all. 

I read that some big box stores give anger management classes to employees before the shopping season and now keep their top selling items off the shelves to prevent fights.  They tell customers they are sold out.  And we found out that GPS unites can now be purchased by churches to put inside their outdoor nativity sets so that when they are stolen they can be found.

How do we prepare the way of the Lord?  How do we open our hearts for Christmas.  How do we make smooth the rough places.  How do we make more straight our paths for Christmas.  And how do we make the rough paths that someone else is traveling on, and make them smoother.

In our church family there are many paths to Christmas.  Some of you have lost a spouse or a parent this year.  It is really tough road if you have just gone through a divorce.  Anyone battling depression goes into this season holding on.  How can I make it when everyone around me seems so happy?  Certainly for all of us—happy or sad—it is a time to ponder our priorities regarding time and money and thing that matter most.

Advent offers to us all an opportunity reflect on where we are in life and what we need to do to get back on the right road.  One woman in a church decided to turn away from worry.  She was facing a biopsy and she figured out that no amount of worry was going to improve the diagnosis of her biopsy.  She decided it was time to take a deep breath and figure out how to live more deeply each day.   For others it will be a time to set aside a few minutes each day to turn off all other voices and to listen to the voice of God.

ADVENT IS PREPARING THE WAY FOR GOD TO ENTER OUR LIVES….

Penny and I enjoy watching an occasional episode of Top Chef.  Chefs battle against each other to win a cash price and bragging rights.  Chefs receive a short amount of time to prepare a gourmet dish and they are given some awful secret ingredient like “gummy worms” that must be highlighted in the final dish.  I remember one show because a man named Lance was competing against a French woman who wanted to win the prize to visit a grandmother in France.  The reason I remember this was the amazing faith witness Lance made.  He said that before his faith commitment he was a jerk willing to do anything to win.  He did not care who he walked over.  He edged out the woman in the competition and then gave the woman enough money to journey back to France.  He said, “Life is a journey.  None of us are finished products.”

TURN TO THINK OF WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU

Last week Bill Bunyan did the presentation of Saint Nicholas and passed out potatoes.  Bryce Hutchinson did not get one and his face fell.  So Colin Hohenbary gave him a potato.  And I do not remember who, but a grateful child ran by me at the door, saying: “This is going to going to be French Fries.”  At the end of the pageant last week, Grace Hutchinson had handed out all of the potatoes.  So as she sat with St. Nick to finish the program, Bill handed her one, too.  You should have seen her smile.

TURN TO MAKE A NEW LIST OF HOW TO EXPRESS YOUR GRATITUDE

TURN TO FIND NEW WAYS TO MAKE ROUGH PLACES SMOOTH

Advent is the time to trash the idea that each of us can live however we want with no consideration of the consequences of our actions.  We are the ones who write the stories of God for others to experience.  How are you doing that?  How does Jesus bring peace, joy and love into this world, this year, through you?

Sigmund Freud tells the story of a three-year old boy who went to bed scared.  He called out from a dark room in the night: “Auntie,” the boy cried, “I am scared, it’s dark.”  His aunt answered him, “What good would that do?  You cannot see me.”  The boy cried back, “But, when you talk it gets light!”  The world needs your voice.  Your family needs your voice.

In the news, a woman got a surprise.  She was eating at a restaurant and two men in fatigues came in and sat down and ordered.  She responded in gratitude by telling the waitress that she wanted to take care of their meals.  “Are you sure, asked the waitress?”  So as the waitress headed off with her credit card,  a dozen addition soldiers joined them and headed to the banquet room.

One ten year-old girl just won an award in a Texas school.  Some of you know her.  Her name is Hope Jeffers.  Her mom, Nicole Sherwood Jeffers, grew up in this church and Hope has been around here a lot too.  She was awarded a Medal of Compassion for her extraordinary care to other students.  When she was presented the medal she thought she was just going to a regular school assembly and she did not see her family there ready to see her receive it.  She has learned to help rough places smooth. 

GOD COMFORTS AND SO WE COMFORT OTHERS

It is time for you and me to seek a bit of comfort where comfort is truly found….not in possessions, or wealth, or overflowing appointment books, or endless self-examination.  Advent is the time to renew our connection God.  God is the only One who can truly comfort us.  Isaiah, the ancient prophet, even more ancient than John the Baptist….here Isaiah:  “I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to them.”  (Isaiah 57:18).

There is a time to be comforted and a time to comfort.  John calls out to us from 2,000 years ago that Jesus was coming and did arrive that first Christmas.  Thank God John still points us to Jesus. 

The world HAS to change.

Christ began the change.

And we have are the ones to make that change.

Two Kings on Trial - John 18:33-37

Two Kings on Trial, Both for Life

John 18:33-37

Christ the King Sunday

Rev. Larry Fry

Jesus and Pilate are having a kingly discussion.  They both were kings about the same age, yet what a difference.  Both had amazing power, yet so different.  And their conversation shows how the Kingdom of God is so different from any worldly kingdom.  And this story helps us define how to bring God’s kingdom into our worldly kingdoms.

Christ the King Sunday was created as the last day of the Christian year.  Next Sunday is the beginning of Advent.  Christ the King Sunday helps us see more clearly how we may honor Christ as King over all we do and say.  The kingdom of God transcends any earthly kingdom and is at work in every kingdom.

Pilate even made into our Christian creeds:  “he suffered under Pontius Pilate.”  He was a Roman ruler sent to Judea representing the world’s greatest political power at the time.  Even though he is in charge we can imagine that he was not too pleased with this assignment.  While his friends who had graduated from whatever training, many of them had cushy jobs in Rome near the spas.  Here he was in the middle of a desert trying to maintain order over a rowdy bunch of people who continually threatened revolution.  

Pilate came in and tried to straighten out the religious leaders by putting images of Caesar in the Temple.  To protest, Caiaphas, the high priest, sent 2000 Jewish men to surround Pilate’s Palace for 6 days.   So he took the images out.  Then he decided to give Jerusalem a new water supply: that would make everyone happy.   But, the money he needed for the project he took it from the Temple Treasury.  So there was a revolt and he had any other rebellion.   He was so violent that he was called to Rome and was told not to make any more mistakes.  And he is about to make the biggest one of his life.

People have told him about Jesus.  And what is about to do is built upon rumors.  So what does Pilate do with Jesus?  First: Is Jesus a king?  Pilate does not want to be responsible for more problems.  He would like to give this whole mess back to the religious council who brought him this mess.  Unless he confesses that he is a political king, there is nothing in Roman law which Jesus violates.

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If he releases Jesus the religious leaders will be mad again.  He is caught between trouble and trouble.  So he has to decide what kind of trouble he can avoid and what kind he can live with.  Even though he is still in power, he is terrified and frayed beyond belief.

It is a very interesting dialogue.  Jesus is on trial for his life.  But the way John writes we can see that it is Pilate who is on trial for his political life and he is scared.  Pilate has all the worldly power; Jesus has all the spiritual strength and he is calm, the one without fear.  

We can hear Pilate grabbing the power:  “Don’t you know I have all the power in the world over you…I can set you free or crucify you.”  So are you King or not?  

Jesus asks him a very personal question that does not have anything to do with the law.  What about you, Pilate?  I would like to know you.  What do you think?  I know what people have been telling you about me.  Do you believe it?   At that moment Pilate could have opened up and started a new life journey.  

Jesus, as a good shepherd king, even tries to gather Pilate into the fold.  He could have a more fulfilling life and amazing spiritual growth.  But truth for him is totally in the area of political power.  

The world since the time of Jesus has seen so many in power act poorly.  Kings, tyrants, monarchs, and emperors claim they have God’s blessing, or worse they are gods, to demand complete obedience.  Kings see themselves as accountable to no one.  We squirm when the news tells us a new world leader is grabbing power.

Jesus always puts people first with politics to serve people.  Every society of all time tends to put some people down in order to make thing better for others.  Every society founded on money and law and power finds Jesus very troublesome.  What changes would our nation make to put people first?  

Pilate was about to impose his version of the truth on the situation as he saw it.  He would love to get rid of Jesus.  

One key to the story is that we all belong to something or someone and Pilate belongs to Rome and Jesus belongs to the kingdom of God.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.  This means Jesus is the truth, he lives the truth, he belongs to the truth.  He belongs to God in such a powerful way that the religious leaders of his day saw him as a major threat.  And the only reason Pilate thinks he is a threat is that he wanted to keep the religious leaders under control.    Pilate does not want trouble.  So he tries to find a technicality that will allow him to crucify Jesus.  Are you a king?  If you are a political king…I will get rid of you.

JESUS DID NOT NEED PILATE TO TELL HIM WHO HE WAS

Jesus knew who he was.  Pilate was not so sure.  If you do not know who you are there are plenty of people to tell you who you are. Jesus is real, authentic, together.  Pilate is frayed, pretend, and with clay feet.  

An Amish man was once asked by an enthusiastic evangelist: Are you saved?  Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?  The man answered….”Why do you ask me that?  I could tell you anything.  Here is what you need to do.  Here are the names of my banker, grocer, my farm hands…ask them if I’ve been saved.”

Jesus could have told Pilate anything.   For Pilate, the only truth was what he believed.

In a school district there was a terrible battle between the school board and the teacher’s union.  The Superintendent’s son was had a 97% grade average, has gotten high ratings on the tuba, and had the highest scores on the ACT test.  But the school board did not like what the Superintendent had done in his attempts to get them through the conflict.  So they made certain his son did not get into the National Honor Society.  Things like that happen all the time.  After a short time of disappointment the son said: “I do not need them to tell me who I am.”  And he did not.  Jesus did not.

BELONGING

Pilate belongs to the kingdom of fear.  And when Jesus asks him a personal question that goes right to the heart….he grabs on to power, pulls rank, and get edgy.  Pilate’s kingdom depends on violence, capital punishment, soldiers, torture, and jails.    

As I look ahead to the future of our church, I see more children, thank God, who need to know who the are.  And as they grow I want them to experience a community that lives out our guiding values.  I want them to have help knowing that God-stuff is all around, that guides the human stuff.  I want them to know that God puts things in our hands and asks us to make something beautiful. We have the job of bring stuff that is beyond this world right in the middle of the world.  

So what is our truth?  Is it God’s truth?  For Pilate it was what he could impose by law and violence.  For Jesus is was to expose God at work in the world.  Truth is when we stand with those who need help.  Truth is family love around the Thanksgiving Table.  Truth is choosing our guiding values and not the ones in the world.  Truth is found in self-sacrificial love instead of self-serving power.  Truth for Pilate could have meant protecting an innocent man instead of trying to make the others satisfied.  If Pilate had protected Jesus he would have been a great leader.  He would have given the world something great….instead he crucified greatness.  

The world so needs the church to witness to the truth.  Without voices of concern,  forces arise with a twisted truth and grabbing for power to benefit themselves.  The world remains full of violence, poverty, oppression,environmental distress.  We have God’s call to make it different.  God calls us to transform the world with love…justice, healing.  Our Christian faith is what fills to overflowing.  The church, to tell the truth, offers us spiritual growth.

We have the opportunity to offer the world, God’s healing presence.