When Will We See Jesus?

Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24: 36-44

“Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

As we begin the Advent season, we are reminded once again that in our expectation of the coming messiah – our savior, we are to stay awake and be ready. Yet staying awake, as some of us can verify, can be difficult at times. Think this past Thursday, or in past years, after the traditional Thanksgiving dinner when you’ve settled in on the couch or easy chair or sprawled out on the floor to watch a little football before dessert, and somewhere in the second quarter… it becomes harder and harder to pay attention to the game. It’s second and nine for the Patriots on the Lion’s thirty-five yard line …your eyes close … then the Lion’s are kicking the ball off after just scoring a touchdown. After watching a few more plays, with the score tied, your eyes close again and the next thing you know the game is over and everyone but you have had dessert.

It’s times like that, when your stomach is full, you’re relaxed, and everything is as it should be, that it is hard to not fall asleep. Rev. Carol E. Myers, Iowa Falls First United Methodist Church, says the same can be true for life in general and that of the church. We are in risk going to sleep. She says, “To be asleep is to have our eyes closed, to not notice, … to not pay attention … to go through the motions of life, unaware (of what’s really going on). Meyers goes on to say, “All too often we sleepwalk, (even) in this season of Advent, …immersing ourselves in the busyness of Christmas preparation, oblivious to what God is doing in and all around us.” Let me add that in doing so, we run the risk of missing out on dessert.

The apostle Paul perfectly describes in Romans 13, the challenge for this season when he writes: “…make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” Our day-to-day obligations often increase as Christmas gets closer and closer and we think about all the things that have to be done for a perfect Christmas. These are the things that get in the way of our seeing God at work in our lives and in the world. Yet the hope of the gospel is; relief is near! Dawn is about to break! God intercedes in human affairs, bringing life to us. God’s incredible love is dwelling among us, a love that is be reflected by us.

But, for this to be a life-giving Christmas, our drawing closer to God needs to take priority over any material desire on this year’s Christmas list. Our focus needs to be on seeking God first; on living into eternal hope, carrying that hope for others, knowing that no matter what we go through, we are never alone. God is here, right now, if we would only open our eyes.

In Matthew today, we are told, Wake up! Open your eyes! See the Light!
Look! In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s vision for creation has already come and breaks into our today in surprising ways. Look! Christ is here, right now, in the ordinary events of life. Unexpectedly, the Son of Man can be found in the faces of the hungry, the sick, the thirsty, the poor and the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-46). God is at work here and now, bringing new life, resurrection life, if only we have eyes to see. When we see clearly, we see hope. We see urgency. We see that we are being asked to live as if God’s kingdom has already come, agents of God’s peace and justice and compassion in the world.

The text today reminds us we are either part of God’s kingdom, part of the faith community, or we are not. To live as though God’s kingdom has already come is to be saved, literally “to be healed,” right here and now, today.

In your mind’s eye, look ahead to Christmas Eve. Imagine someone in town watching this church from across the street as all of you gather for worship. In the darkness, there is a soft glow of candle light through the stained glass windows. Prayers are prayed, songs are sung, Holy Communion is celebrated. Then the light from the Christ candle begins to spread from one person to the next. Slowly but remarkably, the windows of the church begin to blaze with light and color. That light and color is reflected on the cold snow outside. This is God’s kingdom come! As people stream forth through the doors, carrying that Light back to their homes and into their community, the Light of Christ is made visible for all to see.

The question of this first Sunday of Advent is not about when Jesus is coming or when will we see him, but rather have we been ‘asleep’ to him in all the things that occupy our time. “Do we recognize Jesus when we see him in others and in ourselves?” Where have we seen God at work in the world? When has God gotten us through something that seemed hopeless at the time? Think about it.

Now ask yourself, “How might others experience that same hope of God’s presence through a card or caring act by me? How can I help them know the possibilities for healing and restoration that are only found in God? Paul says, “Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” That’s good advice for people like us, isn’t it? May we and others be blessed by its hearing and its doing.

November 14,2010

Luke 21:5-19

Jesus and his followers are walking by the Temple in Jerusalem... a very impressive building indeed... even by today's standards... built from stones as large as 37-1/2 feet long by 12 feet high by 18 feet wide. His disciples are amazed by this architectural wonder made of countless stones placed precisely one upon the other. This is where God's lives... this man-made mountain of pure white stone… glistening in the sun. It is easy to think that this Temple, a symbol of God’s Presence among the Chosen, will last forever. Jesus’ disciples talk about how beautiful it all is... this monument to God. We can imagine their "Ooohs!" and "Aaahs!" as they walk along side its massive walls... bumping into one another and stumbling over their own feet... with eyes uplifted and fixed on this symbol of permanence. It was a good time for a lesson.

Jesus says: "Remember well what you see today... for it will not last." This is the first lesson... OUR MONUMENTS - the things which mean so much to us... around which we center our lives- will not last forever. For they, too, will come tumbling down. The things important to us today... which seem so permanent – family and friends, jobs, homes, even church buildings - are not! Situations change. The things our life are focused on now, both the good and the bad – the monuments we have constructed - no matter how well, do not last forever.
Lesson #1 is: Something better is coming. What you see today will someday be no more.

Of course this led to Jesus’ followers asking, “When?” and “How will we know?” Thus, an opportunity for a second lesson: We will not know… no one will know… when and how it will happen. People will always claim they know... but they don't. Terrible things will happen in the world as they always have. Those who follow Jesus will always to be at risk. And life, as we know it, will change.

Whether we are Jesus' disciples or the church of today, we want to know what’s around the corner. We want resolution. We want a simple answer. So, sometimes we embrace those who seem to know. But Jesus says, "Don't be fooled. None of them know." English poet and author, Rudyard Kipling once wrote, "…keep your head while all around you are losing theirs." We are encouraged not to ‘lose our head’ during the chaos of changing times. We would like there to be peace in the world... and everyone to get along with one another... and bad things not to happen to good people... but that's not the world we live in. Bad things are going to happen.
Lesson #2 is: Something better is coming, even in the midst of the bad things in this world.

This leads to the third and most important lesson... "Not a hair of your head will perish." By standing firm you will gain life. Knowing how things turned out, we could ask, "What do these words really mean?" - Jesus is crucified. Paul is beheaded. Peter is crucified upside down. Stephen is stoned. James is pierced. They all stood firm... and they all died. There must be a difference between "dying" and "perishing?" Does one perish by "playing it safe?" Are we saved by risking to stand firm? 'Not a hair of your head will perish' evidently refers to something beyond physical death. It speaks of an eternal relationship with the one God who "knows every hair of our head" and as such, includes us in God's building the new heaven and new earth. God's caring for us. . . God's love for us... God's desire to include us... will never perish.
Lesson #3 is: Something better is coming, and you will be part of it.

"Not a hair of your head will perish" is a clear statement of hope... everything we experience is temporary... only for awhile... and yet, all that we are is forever safe in God's hands. Don't worry. Bad things will happen to good people. And you are good people. But, don't be afraid. No matter what happens in our life... we are God's own, God is for us, and God is with us. God's caring for us... God's love for us... God's desire to include us... will never perish.

Our good news today is although the things of this world will parish, those of God will not.

November 7, 2010

Luke 20:27-38
“Alive”

Tough Questions

Over the last few weeks, Jesus has faced some tough questions. And each time, by his responses, he has hit home runs – not by answering the question, but by using each one as a ‘teaching moment’ to reveal the very nature of God.

He has been asked these difficult questions, some say, for the sole purpose of trying to get him to mess up, to say something that will turn the people against him. He’s made no claims, but others who have come to hear him are suggesting he’s the messiah. The religious leaders, those who benefit most from the status quo, see him as a threat, a troublemaker – doing things that will bring their house down.

Before it was the Pharisees asking the questions. This time it is the Sadducees.
“Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question,”

Their question was a complicated one. It was about resurrection (which they didn’t believe in because it wasn’t mentioned in the first five books of Hebrew Scripture) and the Law of Moses concerning marriage, marital identity, spousal obligation, and family heritage in the age to come. If it wasn’t in their Bible, it didn’t or wasn’t going to happen.
‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second; then the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

We believe in the resurrection after we die, don’t we? So, how would you have answered their question? After the woman died, whose wife would she have been in the life to come? In Jesus’ answer, neither marriage nor death is a primary concern in the resurrection or the life to come in God’s presence. For us, as well as this woman, participating in the communion of God’s love is what matters.

It’s not the conventions or the obligations of this world – those things we have got to do – that matters. Rather, it is God’s relationship to us. And that is, ‘God is present.’ Remember Jesus answer to the Sadducees? It’s there in verse 38,
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”
Earlier in his response, he said those who have died, being “children of the resurrection,” are “children of God.” He pointed out that Moses himself confirmed that the dead are raised in his story of the burning bush, where he speaks of the Lord “I am” as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Come to think of it, Moses at the burning bush was not given answers to his questions or solutions to his problems, yet barefoot “stood in the presence of God.”
And that is exactly what Jesus reveals concerning the true nature of God. God is present, in this life and the life to come. He is God of the living and in him all are alive.
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Several weeks ago, a long time friend gave me a couple of movies to watch and I finally got around to watching them later this week. One was titled Joshua and fits right in with our lesson for today. It tells the story of a stranger whose supernatural powers inspire an entire town. It too, speaks of ‘standing in the presence of God’ (in this case, Jesus) and ‘resurrected’ lives. [When Joshua moves to the outskirts of Auburn, he awakens the curiosity of this sleepy town. His wisdom and compassion place him at the center of the town’s attention. Some are suspicious of him and wonder what he’s up too. But in the end, lives are changed, transformed, resurrected. Sound familiar?
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Yesterday morning at Men’s Breakfast, Don Logan shared a chapter from this book [hold book up] The Practice of the Presence of God by brother Lawrence.
[Read chapter from book, First Letter, pages 29-32]
“Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Julian Hartt writes, “We have a great and desperate need for the gospel. The power of that word is not in utterance, but in concrete life.” The church has above all else [the things we do] a life of love to share, and a message of God’s free sharing of God’s self in Jesus Christ.

God is always present. May we live in that presence, always.