O:9:"MagpieRSS":24:{s:6:"parser";i:0;s:12:"current_item";a:0:{}s:5:"items";a:25:{i:0;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-5937511242609750401";s:9:"published";s:29:"2009-01-04T12:00:00.000-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2009-01-05T14:59:24.271-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2009-01-05T14:59:24.271-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:40:"Barbara Moyer Lehman: Drawn to the Light";s:12:"atom_content";s:13646:"span style="font-weight: bold;"January 4, 2009 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Epiphany: Matthew 2:1-12; Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Isaiah 60:106/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4081262169852631450amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /[coming soon]br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2009-01-04.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br / In the bleak mid-winter, I love building a fire in our wood burning stove.  While sipping a hot drink, I sit entranced before the flickering flames  on a small stool made many years ago by John?s grandpa, Andy,   Equally soothing is sitting on the recliner next to the stove with a good book and my soft blanket, made by a dear friend.  All my senses are engaged in these activities.  I am drawn to the warmth of the fire, the light of the flickering flames, the odor of the burning wood, the crackle of the logs and the taste of good tea (or coffee) :-)br /br / On a warm summer day, I am drawn to something completely different.  If I could, I would spend more time at the ocean.  I am drawn to the seashore.  I love the sun shining brightly over the water, the sound of sea gulls, the smell and taste of salty air.  I find great delight in playing in the sand, even as an adult, or walking the beach, collecting seashells and assorted creatures.  And nothing can compare to the soothing sound of the water lapping the shoreline, the waves crashing upon the beach, the tides moving in and out, in and out.br / br /All of us are drawn to special places and experiences that capture us in some unique way.  What might they be for you?br /br / Not only are we drawn to places, experiences and things, we are also drawn to people.  We might be attracted/drawn to people who stimulate our intellect, capture our imagination, move us with their passion.  Any number of things or characteristics in a person might draw us to them.  The warmth of their personality, the calmness of a gentle spirit, the depth of their spiritual faith, the attractiveness of their smile, the joy and delight of their humor, the serenity from their inner peace.br /br / When we are drawn to something or someone, we become engaged with them.  It is not something we observe passively, but rather it is an experience, a place or person with whom we want MORE.  We want to repeat the experience, or visit it again or be with the person more frequently.  We are drawn in.. we are drawn to.....we want to follow.br /br / In the OT reading from Isaiah 60:1-6 we read of the prophet?s words that announces a new day for the people of Jerusalem, paints a new vision for the reestablishment of Jerusalem as a beacon for others, a light for all nations.  The light of God?s glory has dawned.  Even though darkness covers the earth...is all around them, the prophet proclaims, ?today God rises on you, his glory breaks over you and nations will come to your light....they will be drawn to that light.?  In the previous chapter of Isaiah, we read that it was because of Israel?s sinfulness, their own wickedness that prevents them from salvation, but now things have changed.  It is a new day.  It is time to rise up, to shine, to get out of bed, to put on a new face, one that reflects the glory of God.  Look up!  Look around!  Watch as they gather.  Your sons and daughters are returning home.  There will be a big reunion.  It is time for their spirits to be renewed!  The light breaks forth into the darkness as God enters into their brokenness.  The light will shine, the light will prevail, will pierce the gathering gloom and guide them toward a life of wholeness.  Arise, shine!  It is your time and now nations will be drawn to you!  You, O Jerusalem, will be a beacon to them!br /br / In Matthew?s gospel we see that the magi also knew what it was like to be drawn to something, something so powerful and unique, that it, too, penetrated the darkness and beckoned them to follow, to search, to question, to seek, and to find.  In Matthew?s gospel, the beacon is not a nation, but a star that leads the magi to the Christ child, the true light.  In the ancient world it was commonly believed that when the birth of a great ruler occurred there would be signs in the heavens that accompanied that birth.  The delegation from the east, the magi, claimed to have seen such a sign and made the pilgrimage to Judea to find this ruler and worship him.  In Matthew we read that when Herod is still king, this delegation arrived in Jerusalem. They are depicted as Gentiles, non-Jews, but they are seeking a king of the Jews.  They are not ordinary Gentiles, but rather the spiritual elite of the Gentile world.  When they come seeking this king of the Jews, they embody the promise of Isaiah 60:3, ?Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.?br /br / In both Matthew and Luke?s gospel, the birth of Jesus is disclosed to a select group of persons.  They set out to discover the child, they find him in Bethlehem.  But the two groups who receive this news are about as different as can be.  In Luke, the good news is proclaimed by a host of angels to an assorted group of hard-working, rough and tumble shepherds who lived on the margins of Jewish society.  Yes, they were Jews, but often living on the edges, not part of the inner circle, more often than not, considered ?outsiders?.  On the other hand, in Matthew?s gospel, the news came to a group of elite Gentiles from a foreign country, with no connections or real link to Jewish faith and life.  True, they were from the ?upper crust? we might say, but Gentiles?    true outsiders!  In both gospels we are reminded that the visitors who come looking for Jesus are outsiders in one sense or another, one because of low social class and standing, living on the margins of Jewish society, the other because of being non Jews, Gentiles, a separate group.br /br / Magi and shepherds will be included in the salvation which Jesus brings.  Lowly shepherds and wise men were drawn to the light of Christ.  Having heard of a new king?s birth, the outsider Gentiles follow a star, seeking the child.  When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy!  And when they entered the house and saw Mary and the child, they knelt down and worshiped him.br / What did King Herod, the insider, do when he heard about a new king?s birth?  He and all of Jerusalem were frightened, fearful, and the news evoked all kinds of consternation and leads Herod to seek to destroy Jesus.br /br / Matthew?s gospel account reminds us that, as commentator Richard Gardner writes, span style="font-style: italic;"?Jesus is at one and the same time the king of the Jews and the long awaited world ruler whom all the nations will honor and serve.?/span (p. 50)br /br / People of all classes and cultures and language groups will be included in the salvation which Jesus brings.  People are drawn to the light.  Boundaries and barriers between people and nations crumble when we all kneel to worship the Christ child, the one who welcomes all. (Taize services when we kneel around the cross, bringing our prayers, burdens.... powerful image of being one in Christ..not knowing each other, yet feeling the spirit at work among us)  The welcoming face of God reaches out in loving hospitality to all peoples and nations.  The light of Christ shines upon us, and in our faces we should reflect that light to others.br /br / As we begin this new year, 2009, what is it that we are drawn to?  What is welcoming us, inviting us?  Who or what star are we following?  Are we drawn to something that reflects the light of Christ?  Are our choices and decisions good ones, ones that we can embrace wholeheartedly and know that what we are doing illumines for us and others the welcoming face of God?br /br / This is the last Sunday in our sermon series which began on Nov. 30, Advent 1.  The overall theme, ? Let Your face shine?, you saw every Sunday on the beautiful bulletin cover that Joe Alderfer designed, along with Bonnie?s stain glass and Ervin?s photograph.  That theme is not only a plea to God, to let his face shine on us, but it is also a call for us to become part of the shining transformation of our world.  The writers for the material used during this season stated,span style="font-style: italic;" ?Our faces can reflect the light of God as we welcome the Divine to dwell among us, embrace the way of Jesus, work for justice, and open our arms to include all whom God welcomes.?/spanbr /br / In New York Harbor stands the Statue of Liberty.  On the base of that pedestal a poem by Emma Lazarus is engraved.  Many of us would know parts of that poem....span style="font-style: italic;""Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.?/span  In the 19th and early 20th centuries millions of immigrants of northern, southern and eastern European descent came to our shores through those waters.  After being greeted by the Statue of Liberty and processed at Ellis Island, these immigrants purchased tickets and boarded trains at the Central Railroad of NJ terminal, that took them to new homes throughout the US.  This became an historic gateway for millions who desired so much to see their hopes and dreams realized in this new land of America.br /br / Today we continue to have people entering our country, our towns and neighborhoods.  They come from different parts of the world.  They too, come with hopes and dreams.  How are we the welcoming face of God to our new neighbors, classmates, co workers?br / br /We also know that living among us are people suffering with mental illness, facing challenges of no work, or health care, people dealing with PTSD.  How are we the welcoming face of God to these within our community?br /br / In the last few weeks I received two e mails from Brooke Rodgers, the ED for HARTS.  Both pertained to families in need. Each had several children and needed housing.  She was writing to me as a member of the board, saying she would send us in the new year demographic info that she was compiling.  But then she adds, (quoting from her letter),br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"?The demographics will not tell you the individual stories that are incredible and very sad...the stories that provide some insight into why a person is chronically homeless or a family suddenly faces homelessness.br /This is proving to be an exceptionally challenging time for all of us and I find it particularly difficult for those who are finding themselves homeless for the first time and for those that are chronically homeless.  Your support has been and continues to be immeasurable to the success of this program.  Support in providing shelter, meals, fellowship, donations of personal items for the shelter, your response to housing the families that are coming to HARTS, serving as members of the Board of Directors, others serving on committees to address health needs and housing needs and your very important financial donations.  You are truly a community, expressing your humanity in caring for our homeless individuals and families....HARTS is evidence of that.... and for all of this I am very grateful.br /I will also say...each guest in the shelter has expressed their thankfulness for the shelter, for preparing meals for them and treating them like you would want to be treated.  Thank You!"/blockquoteBeginning Jan. 12, we will be hosting HARTS for one week and then again the end of Feb. for another week.  I know that Shirley B. Yoder has been busy organizing the volunteers from here and several other churches that will be helping us.  Contact her if you want to be involved.  Things may already be covered.br /br /On Friday, Jan. 23 another event being planned by our Missions Commission will be held here.  span style="font-style: italic;"Music to Warm the Hearth/span will be a musical event for all ages and will be a fundraiser for People Helping People, another organization in Harrisonburg that is being stretched financially and in other ways to meet the increasing needs within our town.br /br /As we embark on this new year, 2009 and embrace our own personal journey and our journey as a congregation, how are we being drawn to be the light of Christ in this time and place?  How may we be the welcoming face of God in all that we do?br /br /May God give us courage, wisdom and insight for this journey.br /br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/5937511242609750401/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=5937511242609750401";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/5937511242609750401?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/5937511242609750401";s:4:"link";s:75:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2009/01/barbara-moyer-lehman-drawn-to-light.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:1;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-3128319558464223824";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-12-21T12:00:00.002-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-12-23T13:36:45.973-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-12-23T13:36:45.973-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:61:"Barbara Moyer Lehman: Willing Bodies Awaiting the Divine Gift";s:12:"atom_content";s:16023:"span style="font-weight: bold;"December 21, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Advent 4: The indwelling face of Godbr /Luke 1:26-38; Luke 1:46-55/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=8478390666749230966amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTItMjFfV2lsbGluZ19ib2RpZXNfYXdhaXRpbmdfdGhlX2RpdmluZV9naWZ0Lm1wMw/2008-12-21_Willing_bodies_awaiting_the_divine_gift.mp3autoStart=no" quality="high"  width="210" height="25" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" //embedbr /a style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-left: 41px; color: #2DA274; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: none;" href="http://www.podbean.com"Powered by Podbean.com/abr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-12-21.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /In Luke?s gospel, Mary receives the news from the angel, Gabriel, that she is to conceive and give birth to a son.  At the end of that passage, Mary answers, ?I am the Lord?s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.?  Then the angel leaves.  It is not hard to believe that after receiving that kind of news, Mary needs to talk, to process this information.  She makes preparations and leaves to seek the listening ear, the wise counsel of aunt Elizabeth.  The delightful poem by Joyce Rupp called "The Visitation" captures what that encounter might have been like:br /br /div style="text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"Mary, you went hurriedly over hillsides,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"many of them, to be with aunt Elizabeth,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"whose womb also swelled with surprise./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"You, the woman of youth and vigor,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"weary from the long road?s rigors,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"wondering still about the mystery within./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Elizabeth, wrinkled and wise,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"weary from the child kicking inside,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"(already a hint of wildness in him)/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"The two of you, meeting at the door,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"weeping and laughing at the same time,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"each one gasping at the other?s fertility/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"And leaping between and among you,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"those two frisky fetuses, yet to be born,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"the prophet and the One to be proclaimed./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Did they feel the love of your hospitality?/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Did they swim and sway with your voice?/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Did they listen with tiny, eager ears to all/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"that passed between the two of you/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"in the days and weeks that swiftly passed,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"growing and feeding on your rich love?/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"I don?t know which I?d have wanted more,/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"to be in one of those glorious filled wombs/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"or in the house of that woman-blessed place./spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"/span?Joyce Ruppbr /br /br //divTwo women whose bodies become the dwelling place for rich treasure, the gift of new life.  One woman, old and wise, but past her child bearing years. The other, young, innocent, engaged, but not yet married.  What a conversation they must have had!  Can you imagine?  Two expectant mothers, both trying to understand, comprehend, absorb what was happening to them......and Mary, still hearing those words from the angel, ringing in her ears, ?Nothing will be impossible with God.?br /br /On the long journey across the Judean hills to Elizabeth and Zechariah?s house, Mary probably had much time to think, to ponder this incredible turn of events in her life. At the mere sound of Mary?s greeting, Elizabeth feels movement within her body as her baby leaps with joy.  She exclaims in a LOUD voice to Mary, ?God has blessed you more than any other woman....... The Lord has blessed you because you believed that he will keep his promise.?  And Mary, full of great joy, sings her song of praise.  As one commentary writer put it, ?Mary, ?preaches? as the prophet of the poor.  She represents their hope.?br /br /Mary?s song, or ?The Magnificat?, is more than a beautiful passage of scripture.  It proclaims in a powerful way that the one who is to be born will be and already is, an agent of radical social change! (as John Howard Yoder states in, The Politics of Jesus, p.27) The fact that God chose Mary, a young servant girl, a handmaiden, to be the willing body, the receptive space for the son of God to be nurtured, already indicates the nature of God and God?s activity.  God noticed her humble position and chose her.  The upside-down kingdom, the reversal of fortunes is already at play.  It happened in the past, happens in the present context and will continue to happen in the future.....the verbs indicate a timeless truth!br /br /God brings down the powerful, lifts up the lowly.br /God fills the hungry with good things to eat, sends the rich away empty.br /br /Mary proclaims, ?the Mighty One has done great things for me..holy is his name.?br /br /Caryll Houselander in her book, Reed of God, refers to Mary as the ?warm nest?, who received Jesus into her life and nurtured him.  In recent months I have read material from several different writers that use this image of the nest as a powerful symbol of how the word of God ?was made flesh and dwelt among us.?  Houselander writes, ?we are receivers of that word as nests are receivers of new life.?br /br /Joyce Rupp suggests that maybe we should call Advent the season of nesting.  We prepare ourselves for the indwelling, for Emmanuel, for God with us.  We sing, ?let every heart prepare him room,? and ?be born in us today?, and ?O come to us, abide with us, our Lord, Emmanuel.?br /br /In recent weeks, I have noticed lots more nests than I usually do.  In the starkness of winter, leaves are stripped off trees, branches are bare, but often nests are seen cradled in arms of a branch or two.  We can see them more clearly in winter without the green, lush foliage of spring and summer, but we rarely pay much attention to them.  They are often empty, sometimes with icicles hanging from the varied grasses and feathers.  But come spring, we notice the robins gathering bits and pieces of ordinary things to make a nest for their eggs.  It becomes a warm, hollowed out, welcoming space ready to receive the gift of life.br /br /As I look out into our back yard, I see several nests high in a tree at the edge of our property. On windy days, I am surprised that they continue to remain intact, as the branches bend to and fro.  Another nest is outside a window in a large magnolia tree, as I look toward our neighbor?s back yard.  I remember there was much activity in that nest last summer.  Now I see more clearly the odds and ends gathered by some ambitious bird, grasses, feathers, even pieces of string.br /br /Each year I place this ?bird in a nest? ornament deep into the branches of our Christmas tree.  It was added to our family collection years ago, probably bought at a 50% after Christmas sale.  But it has taken on a new meaning for me this year, as I prepared for this sermon.  It reminds me that we are to prepare a way for the Lord, to make a dwelling place for the Christ in our life.  As a bird gathers everyday fragments, bits and pieces of ordinary stuff to create a nest, a home, it always leaves a hollowed out center, a warm hospitable place for the new life that will come.br /br /In the Dec. 16 issue of span style="font-style: italic;"The Mennonite/span, Isaac Villegas, pastor at Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, wrote in an excellent piece on the inside cover,br /blockquote?Mary shows us how to extend hospitality to God....She made room for God?s life within her own.  She opened her life, her very body, to bring Jesus into the world..  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son received life in Mary?s womb.?/blockquoteI believe that God desires for us to be willing and receptive bodies to his in-dwelling.  Jesus needs a home.  We need Jesus.  Jesus wants to abide with us, to make a nest in us, but we need to prepare the place, to make a space, to open up and hollow out a welcoming center!  If our schedule is too full, our minds too distracted, our energy depleted, then there will be no room in our inn.br /br /Isaac Villegas states, ?God desires people who offer their lives as spaces where good news is born.?br /br /Are you and I willing to ?hollow out? a welcoming center within us where Christ can dwell and be born in us each and every day?  What would that look like for you?  How does God continue to dwell among us, to empower us, to transform us, so that we can become part of the shining transformation of the world?  How does God?s face shine in us?  Do our faces reflect the light of God as we embrace the way of Jesus, as we work for peace and justice, as we become ?salt and light? in our communities?br /br /Every year about a month before Christmas, I receive an e mail or phone call from Hannah Lapp, asking me if I would like to ring bells again for Salvation Army.  Almost every year, I have said, ?YES.?  Do I do it to help out Hannah fill one of her slots, or to make myself feel good, or because it is so much fun?  Well, I do like to help Hannah when I can, it does give me a good feeling, and whether it is fun....?  I am not sure I would describe it as fun.  It is interesting, fascinating, but what I have come to understand, is that it has become for me an Advent spiritual discipline.  It is one way I carve out, hollow out, a bit more room for the Christ to dwell. For two hours I deliberately, intentionally, pay attention to people, most of whom I have never seen and will probably never see again.  I can smile, greet them, thank them, engage in small conversation, bless them, maybe even murmur a silent prayer.  It isn?t much, a few hours, a few words, a few thoughts, a few dollars.  Nevertheless, in a small way, it helps me open up, and hollow out that welcoming center.  It reminds me that the One whose birth is announced every year at this time came to lift up the lowly, to fill the hungry with good things to eat, while the rich and powerful are brought low and sent away empty.br /br /Come, Lord Jesus, dwell with me this day.  Come, Lord Jesus, be born in us today.                                                                                           br /br /I will end with a poem posted on the span style="font-style: italic;"Sojourners /spanblog. It is a contemporary take on the Magnificat.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"Mary?s Song: A Poem/spanbr /by Lisa Sharon Harper (12-17-2008)br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"Dark timesbr /Regime change.br /?How are we gonna make it??br /?How are we gonna live??br /Tomorrow?br /br /Fear for breakfastbr /Trembling for brunchbr /Despair for dinner.br /br /Dark thick airbr /Full of fumesbr /Can?t breathe.br /br /Thick over the man on the streetbr /With feet sticking out of his shoes.br /Shoes wrapped in muslin.br /It does not cover himbr /He lay cocked to one side.br /In a fetal position.br /He was a baby once.br /Once -? he cried and cuddled and coo-edbr /Now he knows evil of this world.br /His eyes have been baptized in the warped world of war.br /They stare ?- numb.br /Dead eyes.br /Murdered by drugs and guns and bloodbr /Murdered by full metal jacketsbr /Innocent eyes stolenbr /Stolen, too, the man?s soul.br /Nowbr /He lays in a fetal positionbr /Waiting?br /br /And the woman on the trainbr /Across the aisle from me.br /Her hand stretches forthbr /Rests on the carriagebr /Rocking a sleeping baby.br /Innocent in all things.br /Deserving of nothingbr /Deserving of all thingsbr /Baby lay waitingbr /In a fetal positionbr /Baby waits to breathe above 125th street.br /Fumes hover in her neighborhoodbr /Where bus depots pepper the map.br /Cancer fumesbr /Asthma fumesbr /Fumes that shape lifebr /Limit lifebr /Steal lifebr /But for now she sleepsbr /And her momma rocks her carriage.br /br /And the GMbr /And the Hedgefundbr /And the free-market giantsbr /Three of thembr /Jolly and Greenbr /They lay nowbr /Tears trickle from baptized eyesbr /Dead eyesbr /They stare ?- numbbr /Ransacked by green greed and time catching upbr /Now ? nothing ?- or at least it feels like nothing.br /They have what feels like nothing.br /And for fear of feeling fearbr /The giants lay feeling nothing.br /br /Darkness hovers over the deepbr /And we wait.br /br /We watch with dead eyesbr /Eyes that have seen too much.br /Eyes that have known too much evil.br /Redeem! Lord, Redeem!br /br /Watch for the light.br /Wait for the light.br /It pierces darknessbr /And unfurls curled bodiesbr /It covers twisted limbs.br /It replaces fumes with blankets of breathbr /Mixed with love and sacrifice.br /br /Mary watched and waitedbr /The powerless, harassed young girl ?- 13.br /Barely a foot in the worldbr /On the runbr /Chased down by powerbr /Death surrounded herbr /Wrapped in the stench of King Herod?s dying babiesbr /br /Butbr /br /Into the darkness Mary sang!br /br /?My soul doth magnify the Lord!br /My soul doth magnify the Lord!br /The one more mighty than darkness has done great things!?br /br /For resting in her bellybr /Turning in her bellybr /Pressing on her bellybr /Light was being bornbr /br /?God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts,?br /Mary says!br /?God brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts the lowly,?br /Mary proclaims!br /br /And the man with feet peeking from his shoes will be lifted up.br /He will stand up!br /And the baby covered in fumes will be lifted up.br /She will stand up! Up!br /And the green giants laying with dead eyes ?- yes, even they will be lifted up!br /They will stand!br /Blessed are they now, for they are ready to be lifted up.br /They will lock handsbr /With their sisters and brothers and ?br /br /Our souls will magnify the Lord.br /Our souls will magnify the Lord.br /Our souls will magnify the Lord ?br /? together!br /And our spirits will rejoice in God our savior!br /br /Amen.br //blockquote(poem posted at: http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4790amp;title)br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/3128319558464223824/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=3128319558464223824";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/3128319558464223824?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/3128319558464223824";s:4:"link";s:75:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/12/barbara-moyer-lehman-willing-bodies.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:2;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-5922838640904230282";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-12-14T12:00:00.000-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-12-16T14:19:48.539-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-12-16T14:19:48.539-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:45:"Phil Kniss: In Search of the Christmas Spirit";s:12:"atom_content";s:16562:"span style="font-weight: bold;"December 14, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Advent 3: The restoring face of Godbr /Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126:1-6/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-3766917669552003509amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTItMTRfSW5fc2VhcmNoX29mX3RoZV9DaHJpc3RtYXNfc3Bpcml0Lm1wMw/2008-12-14_In_search_of_the_Christmas_spirit.mp3amp;autoStart=no" quality="high" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="210" align="middle" height="25"/embedbr /a style="border-bottom: medium none; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-left: 41px; color: rgb(45, 162, 116); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.podbean.com/"Powered by Podbean.com/abr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-12-14.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /Eleven days til Christmas.br / As usual, about this time,br /  lots of talk about ?the Christmas spirit.?br / We?re all trying to ?get into the spirit of Christmas.?br / That means different things to different people, of course.br / But generally, the ?Christmas spirit? meansbr /  feelings of hope, peace, joy, optimism, generosity,br /  friendship, family, community.br / Bottom line is, the Christmas spirit is joy. It?s happiness.br /  And it?s supposed to be contagious.br /br /But this year, there?s a complicating factor in the Christmas spirit.br / The economy.br /Listen to these news headlines from the last couple weeks:br / How to Renew Your Christmas Spirit with the Economy in the Dumpsbr / Sour Economy and Layoffs Dampen Holiday Spiritbr / Layoffs Could Put a Crimp in the Christmas Spiritbr / Shortage of Money Endangers the Christmas Spiritbr / Can Retailers Get Consumers into the Christmas Spirit?br /br /It?s clear that our culture makes a direct connectionbr / between the Christmas spirit and money,br / between happiness and our ability to buy, spend, and consume.br /br /But that should come as no surprise.br / All year round, every minute of every day,br /  we see evidence that our culture believesbr /  happiness is something that can be bought.br / And buy it we do.br / People literally try to purchase happiness by the dose:br /  by the bottle, by the shot, by the joint, by the hook-up.br /br /And don?t think this just applies to drugs and sex.br /All of us, at some level, at one time or another,br / try to purchase happiness.br / Whether in rich food, stylish clothing, sporty cars,br /  exciting entertainment, or exotic travel.br / Or simply buying new earrings, or a cool gadget,br /  or a Kline?s chocolate peanut-butter in a waffle cone . . .br / We buy in the hope that it might pull us out of our doldrums.br /br /Maybe it?s an effort to stave off sadness or maintain happiness.br /Maybe we buy because we like the sense of euphoria it brings,br / the momentary comfort, the feeling of pleasure . . .br /  even if the feeling is fleeting, which it always is.br /br /Now I don?t think anyone here truly believes, deep down,br / that money can buy lasting happiness.br /And that?s certainly not our conscious motivation,br / every time we go to the grocery, or department store,br /  or enjoy dinner and a movie.br /br /But I do think we are all on a quest for joy,br / for deep and lasting happiness.br / And on that quest, we are likely to try many different paths.br /  And most of those paths don?t lead us very far.br /br /It?s not that the quest is wrong.br / Not at all.br / On the contrary, it?s what God wants us to do.br / To pursue joy. To seek the full and abundant life.br /_____________________br /br /Every year on the third Sunday of Advent, Joy Sunday,br / the message of the scripture readingsbr / is that there is a way provided that leads to joy.br /There is a path, and God wants us to walk it.br /br /There is a Christmas spirit worth pursuing.br / But it has very little to do with sluggish retail sales,br /  or a falling Dow Jones,br /  or a diminishing 401K,br /  or rising unemployment.br /br /We have a lot to learn about joy in our scriptures.br /Let?s look first at the prophet and dreamer Isaiah.br /The words of Isaiah 61, told by Tilli Yoder,br / should surprise us, more than finding high Christmas spiritbr /  in the middle of economic collapse.br /Isaiah said to a lost people, in exile, abandoned and without hope,br / ?I?m here to bring good news to the oppressed,br /  to bind up the brokenhearted,br /  to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.br / This is the year of the Lord?s favor.?br /br /Right in the middle of the people of Israel?s deepest suffering,br / when they stood ankle-deep in ashes,br / the dreaming prophet said,br /  ?I?m here to give you a garland instead of ashes,br /   to comfort all who mourn,br /   to anoint you with the oil of gladness,br /   to place on you the mantel of praise.?br /br /Oh yeah? Where was Isaiah?s evidence?br / On what grounds did the prophet have the nervebr /  to tell the people to cheer up, everything?s going to be fine?br / When the soil was hard and dry and cracked,br /  how could Isaiah dare talk about green shoots springing up?br /br /The joy Isaiah was dreaming aboutbr / was not joy based on happy circumstances.br /It was joy based on a larger vision.br / Isaiah was driven by a vision that came from God,br /  a vision of a peaceable kingdombr /  where God?s reign was unhindered,br /  where lion, wolf, lamb, and kid would live together in peace.br / Isaiah?s dream was faithful dreaming,br /  not wishful thinking.br /br / Wishful thinkers try to ignore present painful reality,br /  and imagine something new and beautiful into existence.br / Faithful dreamers do not deny the darkness that is,br /  but they start with the light.br /  They begin with God and God?s purposes for creation,br /   which cannot and will not, in the end, be thwarted.br /br /Faithful dreamers see with the eyes of faith.br /They don?t close their eyes to the facts.br / If they are standing in the middle of a dry river-bed,br /  they admit that the soil is dry and hard and cracked.br / But they refuse to let their lives be defined and ruled by that fact.br / They allow themselves, by faith, to sink their toes in the mudbr /  and watch the fish swim by.br / They dream God?s dream.br /br /We heard the same faithful dreaming this morningbr / in 1 Thessalonians, where Paul could tell persecuted Christiansbr /  to rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances.br / And in the Gospel of John,br /  where in the midst of crushing oppression from Rome,br /   one of the darker periods of Israel?s history,br /  John the Baptist could come and, as it says,br /   ?testify to the light.?br /_____________________br /br /So maybe that?s the path to joy that all of us are looking for:br / Learning how to dream God?s dream.br /Maybe that?s the secret to living in a Christmas spirit year-round:br / Seeing with the eyes of faith.br /br /Well, yes it is, but something is missing.br / Let?s get practical. Let?s get real.br / If all we can say about living above the sorrows of life,br /  is ?have more faith? . . .br / If the only message of the church to a society gripped by fear,br /  is ?dream God?s dream? . . .br /  then I?m afraid we?re going to lose some folks.br /br /Because society has all kinds of practical solutions for our fears.br / And they?re for sale.br / What alternative do we have to offer?br / Well, I happen to think the church has a better alternative.br /  And it?s both simple and practical.br /  And I guarantee it will work.br / Three things we can do to stay on the path to joy:br /  blockquote style="font-style: italic;"Tell stories.br /  Stick together.br /  And love what God loves./blockquote_____________________br /br /Number 1, tell stories.br / That?s what Psalm 126 was about,br /  which we read a few minutes ago.br / The people were singing their story.br /br / When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,br /  we were like those who dream.br / Back then . . . our mouth was filled with laughter,br /  and our tongue with shouts of joy;br / Back then it was said among the nations,br /  ?The Lord has done great things for them.?br / The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.br /br /Past tense. This psalm is a look back . . . a history lesson in a song.br / The psalmist says to the people, ?Back in the day...br /  remember what God did,br /  and remember how we laughed??br / Finding the path of joy, requires looking back.br /  Joy is rooted and nourishedbr /   in the memory of God?s acts of mercy.br /br / Recalling the works of God in the past,br /  is the way we get oriented on this path of joy.br /  We can?t find our way down a hard path,br /   without knowing from whence we came.br / And to keep alive the memory of God?s mercy and goodness,br /  we have to be intentional, diligent.br /  We have to retell the stories. Over and over again.br /  Our culture is obsessed with anything and everything new.br /  That?s what drives the so-called ?Christmas spirit?br /   in the retail sector.br /   The desire for something else new.br /  As a culture, we?re losing the skill of cultivating memory,br /   of valuing where we have been.br /br / Joy is rooted in a deep familiarity with the Godbr /  who has been faithful to God?s people throughout history,br /  and is not going to abandon us now in the crisis of the day.br /_____________________br /br /The second practical activity on the path to joy,br / is sticking together.br / Maybe you didn?t know that Psalm 126br /  is part of a series of 15, from Psalm 120-134.br /  They?re called the psalms of ascent.br /   You?ll see that subtitle in your Bibles.br /  It is believed that the people sang these psalmsbr /   while they were on pilgrimage to the temple.br /  The temple was on top of a hill, Mt. Zion.br /   Thus, psalms of ascent.br /br / Picture a huge crowd of pilgrims,br /  men and women and children.br /  Out in front are the musicians playing trumpet, lute, and drum.br /  All are singing this song together, in rhythm with their steps,br /   slowly and steadily making their way togetherbr /   uphill toward the temple.br / The key part of this picture, of course,br /  is that nobody is walking up that hill alone.br /br / They?re each walking it themselves, but not alone.br / They have other pilgrims nearby to lift their spiritsbr /  when they get weary,br /  to encourage them, to egg them on.br / There are other pilgrims by their side,br /  to maintain joy on their behalf,br /  when they don?t have the personal capacity to sing.br /br / Sometimes we need people to pray what we cannot pray,br /  to see what we cannot see.br / Our pilgrimage is a pilgrimage of the people.br /  We walk together.br /  We encounter obstacles together.br /  We arrive together.br /  We meet God in worship together.br / There is no lasting Christian joybr /  without being in community.br /_____________________br /br /The third thing the church can do in an anxious and fearful culture,br / is to love what God loves.br /Maybe the most important five words in Isaiah?s dreambr / were in verse 8: ?I the Lord love justice.?br /br /Justice, or righteousness?same Hebrew word?br / is what God is all about.br /It defines the mission of God.br / God?s love and longing is to restore justice in all creation.br / God is the One who created all things right and justbr /  to begin with.br / And after creation, God said, ?This is very good.?br /  By those words, God declares what God loves.br /  God loves creation that is in harmony and peace,br /   each creature fulfilling its God-ordained part.br /   All in right relationship.br /   All reflecting God?s justice.br /br /So it stands to reason,br / that if we want to walk the path of joy,br /  we must orient our lives around what God loves.br / We will value what God values.br / We will live in the righteousness and justice of God.br /br /You know, if we were created in the image of God,br / doesn?t it make sense that we will be most alive,br /  and most fully human,br /  and most joy-full,br / when our passions line up with God?s passions,br / when our loves match God?s loves,br / when our values reflect God?s values.br /If we were created in God?s image,br / we will be at our bestbr /  when our lives accurately reflect that image.br / When we love what God loves.br /br /So the more familiar we are with what moves God,br / with where God?s heart is,br / and the more we pursue that,br / the more joy we will know in life.br /br /God?s heart is reconciling all people and creation to himself.br / God is moved to deep compassion for the poor and the suffering,br / God has a longing to restore those who are lost and wandering.br /Our path to joybr / is a path oriented around those longings and loves of God.br /br /In no way is this a denial of the sadness and tragedy and strugglebr / present in our lives in this world.br /In no way is this a suggestion that we should notbr / weep and grieve and lament and protest the darkness around us.br /The brokenness of the world is a reality.br / But it is not our starting point.br / We were created by God and for God.br / We were created in love and for love.br / We were created with joy and for joy.br /br /Even while we weep and mourn the sorrows of life,br / there is a deeper current, an underground river so to speak,br /  that is a river of joy . . .br / if we have aligned our loves with God?s loves,br /  our purposes with God?s purposes.br /br /It shouldn?t come as a surprise that a culture orientedbr / around self-fulfillment,br / around satisfying individual drives and desires,br / around the accumulation of material wealth and power,br /  is a culture that, when times are hard,br /  get paralyzed by fear, anxiety, and self-doubt.br /br /We as a church have an alternative to offer the world,br / if we make it our practice?br /  our continual practice, and our sacred practice?br /  blockquote style="font-style: italic;"to tell storiesbr /  to stick togetherbr /  to love what God loves./blockquoteWe will be a people of joybr / when we live as a community of memorybr / that commits itself togetherbr /  to orient itself around God?s mission and passion.br /We will be a people,br / who even in the midst of the most dire circumstances,br / can say with full confidence,br /  blockquote style="font-style: italic;"Faithful and true is the word of our God.br /  All of God?s works are so worthy of trust.br /  God?s mercy falls on the just and the right;br /  Full of God?s love is the earth.br /br /  We who revere and find hope in our Godbr /  Live in the kindness and joy of God?s wing.br /  God will protect us from darkness and death;br /  God will not leave us to starve.br /br /  God of creation, we long for your truth;br /  You are the water of life that we thirst.br /  Grant that your love and your peace touch our hearts,br /  All of our hope lies in you.*br /br //blockquoteGod of life,br / rain down your love and your joy on your people.br /br /?Philip L. Kniss, December 14, 2008br /br /*span style="font-size:85%;"from the song, "Rain Down," by Jaime Cortez, based on Psalm 33/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/5922838640904230282/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=5922838640904230282";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/5922838640904230282?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/5922838640904230282";s:4:"link";s:73:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/12/phil-kniss-in-search-of-christmas.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:3;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-3924872086941433893";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-12-07T12:00:00.001-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-12-10T07:45:06.534-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-12-10T07:45:06.534-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:33:"Phil Kniss: Found by God at peace";s:12:"atom_content";s:14991:"span style="font-weight:bold;"December 7, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style:italic;"Advent 2: The comforting face of Godbr /Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8/spanbr /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=9115302602496356535hl=enfs=true" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /embedbr /br /span style="font-style:italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTItMDdfRm91bmRfYnlfR29kX2F0X3BlYWNlLm1wMw/2008-12-07_Found_by_God_at_peace.mp3autoStart=no" quality="high"  width="210" height="25" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" //embedbr /a style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-left: 41px; color: #2DA274; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: none;" href="http://www.podbean.com"Powered by Podbean.com/abr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-12-07.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /This is Advent. The word means coming.br / God has come.br / God is come.br / God will come.br /Those are the great truths of the Christian faith.br / And in Advent, we celebrate them.br / God come. To be with us in Jesus Christ. Emmanuel.br /br /But simply to declare those truths begs some questions.br / This season of celebration is also known as br /  a season of spiritual searching.br / When God comes to us, what does God find?br / In what state does God find us?br /br /In the scriptures on the second Sunday of Advent,br / we always meet John the Baptist.br / We heard the story told by Tara this morning.br /br /The question of what God will find when he comes,br / is exactly the question John was dealing with.br /John was preparing the way for Jesus to come.br / Jesus the anointed one, the Messiah, was about to be revealed.br / John was getting the people ready.br /br /Which was no small task.br / Let?s recall what John and his Jewish peoplebr / were dealing with in the Middle East 2000 years ago.br /His Hebrew community of faith, the children of Abraham,br / were losing sight of their peoplehood,br / they were getting farther and farther from the covenant.br /Which was quite understandable.br / They were under extreme pressure.br / The Empire of Rome was slowly and surely crushing their identity.br / They were becoming more and more like the Romans and Greeks,br /  and most of the Hebrew people didn?t notice, and didn?t care.br / There were some sub-groups that were strong, almost separatist.br /  Pharisees, Sadducees, Nazarites, Zealots.br /  They tried their best to strengthen and renew the Jewish identity.br /   To help the people remember who they were.br /  These groups used vastly different methods?br /   ritual purity, fasting, denial, violent rebellion.br /  They operated out of different convictions, br /   different assumptions about what God wanted for the Jews.br /   So there was a lot of conflict between them.br /  Meanwhile, br /   God?s people were losing their communal moral grounding.br /br /Now . . . think about that description of a people.br / A faith community once close, cohesive, in covenant,br /  now fragmented, polarized,br /  under cultural and political pressure.br / A faith community losing their peoplehood in a hostile culture.br / A faith community losing touch with the corebr /  of who God called them to be in this world,br /  because they have assimilated into it, br /   rather than engage it with their faith.br /br /I could be describing 1st-century Palestinian Judaism.br /Or I could be describing 21st-century American Christianity.br /br /Seems like the social and spiritual state of affairsbr / in these two faith communities?br / are more similar, than they are different.br /So maybe John the Baptist?s message is relevant to us, too.br /br /Actually, John?s message wasn?t even original to him.br / He was comparing their state of affairs,br /  with that of his people hundreds of years earlier.br / John borrowed the text of his sermon directly from Isaiah,br /  the great prophet of Israel in the olden days.br / When the Hebrew people were floundering in exile,br /  Isaiah was calling them back into covenant.br /br /So here we have three vastly different cultures,br / in vastly different eras,br / over a period of 2,500 years,br / to which the same sermon applies.br / And it?s fresh every time.br /br /It goes like this,br /?People of God, remember who you are.br / Repent. Return to your God, to your covenant.br / Return to your mission and identity as a people of God.br / God is full of mercy. God will abundantly pardon.br /  God wants to move among you,br /   to form you as a people,br /   to partner with you, as a people,br /   to establish God?s reign in the world,br /   to bring about what is right and just,br /   to restore what has been broken.br / So repent, my people. Prepare the way for the Lord.?br /br /That is Isaiah?s message and John the Baptist?s message?br / a message to the lost people of God.br / Repent, people. Repent.br / But this is not the kind of repentance you might be thinking of.br /br /This is not exactly the same as the repentance called forbr / by a revival preacher inviting us to walk the sawdust trail.br / This is not you and me individually, feeling sorry,br /  being emotionally convicted of my personal sin.br / That might happen in the process.br / I very well might feel sorrow and regretbr /  for particular ways I?ve been disobedient to the covenant.br /br / But repentance is not the same as sorrow.br /  Repentance is not remorse.br /  Repentance is a change in our way of thinking.br /  The Greek word for repentance, metanoia,br /   literally means, to ?think again,? br /   to ?change one?s mind.?br /br / Thinking rightly, is the first step toward living rightly.br /  It doesn?t guarantee a change in behavior.br / But faithful thought,br /  points us toward faithful living.br / I?m not saying right thinking saves us.br /  No, right thinking prepares us for God?s coming.br /  It prepares us for the Advent God wants to usher in.br /  It makes us ready for God?s saving work.br /br /That?s why John the Baptist was very modest in his claims.br / He preached repentance, and he baptized.br / But he didn?t tell the people coming out of the water,br /  ?Okay, now you?re saved.?br / He said, ?Okay, now you?re ready for God to come to save you.?br / He said, ?I?m just the messenger.br /  One is about to come who will do the saving,br /   the Messiah.br /  Don?t look to me. Look to him.br /  I?m not even worthy to stoop down and untie his shoes.?br /br / Furthermore, this call to repentance br /  was a call to the whole community.br / People were individually being invited to respond, yes,br /  but the question they responded to was,br /  Do you want to identify yourself br /   with this new thing God wants to do with his people?br /  Are you ready to join this repenting communitybr /   who are going think differently about who they are,br /   and about what God is up to in this world?br /br /Communal repentance was the essential step of preparation.br / A change in thinking was exactly what the people needed br /  to get them ready.br /_____________________br /br /So if John the Baptist?s message applies to br / the lost people of God today,br / what would it look like for the church of Jesus Christ, in this place,br / to have communal repentance, br / a collective change in our thinking?br /It?s a big question. But it?s worth wrestling with.br / And we don?t wrestle with it often enough as a church.br / Critical thinking takes a lot of work, and time, and energy.br /br /Much easier to go with the flow, with what seems to work.br / If what we?re doing here in churchbr /  looks good, feels good, sounds good,br /  it must be good.br /br /The trouble with that line of thinking is,br / our thoughts and values are so deeply formedbr /  by the culture around us,br /  that what looks good to our culture looks good to us.br / And we end up with a bunch of ?successful churches?br /  that are mirror images of the culture around them . . .br /  where big is better than small,br /  where popular is better than unpopular,br /  where now is better than later,br /  where security is better than risk,br /  where individual happiness and personal fulfillmentbr /   is the ultimate goal.br / Trouble with that line of thinking is,br /  we end up with a kind of church and a kind of Christianitybr /  that is just one more product to market, to advertize,br /   and to sell to individual consumers.br / God and religion are just one more pathbr /  to a better life, a happier and more secure life.br / So the ?good life? is our end, and God is our means.br /br /Brothers and sisters,br / whenever anyone makes the God of all creationbr /  into the means for achieving something they want,br /  they have just committed the sin of idolatry.br / Idolatry is something we religious people are very good at.br /br /That?s what was getting John the Baptist all riled up.br / His people had lost themselves.br /They had become good citizens of the Roman Empire,br / but they had stopped depending on the God who walked with thembr /  out of physical and social and spiritual slavery.br / They were opting for the safe path.br / They chose not to risk the wrath of the Emperor,br /  by openly declaring their undivided loyalty to Yahweh,br /   the God of Abraham.br / John was inviting them to repent,br /  to think differently about themselves,br /  to think differently about their God.br /br /That?s the only thing that would prepare them adequately,br / for what God was about to do among them, br / in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.br /_____________________br /br /We really are in the same boat today. Most of us.br / We play it safe.br / We put our security where our culture puts its security.br /  In the strength of the dollar.br /  In the rise of the stock market.br /  In the ability to buy all the stuff we want,br /   and protect ourselves from those who would take it from us.br /br /But a collective, communal repentance of God?s people todaybr / would completely reorient us as a church.br / We would stop thinking of church as br /  just another group to belong to,br /   or activity to attend,br /   or charitable cause to support,br /   or spiritual product to consume.br / Being an active part of the people of Godbr /  participating in the mission of God in the worldbr /  would be the?I said THE?orienting reality of life.br / It would form our values and shape our thinking.br /br /So when we face threatening circumstancesbr / such as the world faces today?br / economically, socially, militarily, environmentally,br / our instinctive response would not be to hunker down in fear,br /  or to slip into our protective shell,br /  and hold on to what we have for dear life.br /No, reoriented people of God ask people-of-God type questions.br / They look for signs of God?s reign br /  even in the midst of a desolate wilderness.br / And they live in genuine hope.br /  And deep trust.br /  And peace.br /  And comfort.br / They live in a spirit of readiness for God?s salvation.br /br /Our hope and comfort and peace come br / from the voices we choose to listen to.br /A repentant, reoriented people of Godbr / will hear the voice of God in the desert,br / saying, ?the valleys will be lifted up, br /  the rough places made level,br /  and the glory of the Lord will be revealed.?br /br /They don?t consider it folly,br / when in the middle of a long exile,br / they hear a welcome word, like Isaiah?sbr / ?Here is your God!br /  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; br /   he will gather the lambs in his arms, br /  and carry them in his bosom, br /   and gently lead the mother sheep.?br /br /They don?t read Psalm 85 as wishful thinking . . .br / ?For God the Lord will speak peace to his people . . . br /  Surely his salvation is at hand . . . br /  Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; br /   righteousness and peace will kiss each other.?br /br /They take it as genuine encouragement,br / not religious mumbo-jumbo,br / when they read the apostle?s words in 2 Peter,br / ?The Lord is not slow about his promise . . . br /  Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, br /   strive to be found by God at peace.?br / God is coming.br /  Strive to be found by God at peace.br /br /When God?s people repent together, br / when they turn in their thinking and their living,br / and reorient themselves around the hopeful truthbr / that God has come, God is come, and God will come in Jesus Christ,br /  it changes everything.br / It brings deep hope and trust.br / It brings a centeredness to life.br / It brings peace.br / br /It makes them ready for the present and future Advent of God in Christ.br / I think this is at the heart of what we at Park View Mennonitebr /  are trying to do,br /  as we begin a process of re-examining our vision,br /   and our priorities as a congregation.br / It will be an opportunity for communal repentance,br /  for a collective change in our thinking about ourselves,br /   and about what God is up to in the world.br / It will put us in a position for God?s Advent among us.br /  It will make us ready for God?s saving work.br /  It won?t save us, anymore than good works saves anyone.br /  God saves. And repentance gets us ready.br /br /So whenever and however God comes, br / we will be found at peace.br /We will, like the hymn writer put it,br / have our hope built on nothing less than Jesus.br /?When Christ shall come with trumpet sound, br / oh, may we then in him be found, br / dressed in his righteousness alone, br / faultless to stand before the throne.?br /br / ?Philip L. Kniss, December 7, 2008br /brbrspan style="font-style:italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/3924872086941433893/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=3924872086941433893";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/3924872086941433893?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/3924872086941433893";s:4:"link";s:72:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/12/phil-kniss-found-by-god-at-peace.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:4;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-4120550701783197852";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-11-30T12:00:00.001-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-12-02T18:59:36.691-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-12-02T18:59:36.691-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:59:"Barbara Moyer Lehman: Wrestling with God?s apparent absence";s:12:"atom_content";s:12014:"span style="font-weight: bold;"November 30, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Advent 1: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19; Mark 13-24-27/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;"[due to technical difficulties, the first five minutes of the video are missing]/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7142074771973163378amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTEtMzBfV3Jlc3RsaW5nX3dpdGhfR29kc19hcHBhcmVudF9hYnNlbmNlLm1wMw/2008-11-30_Wrestling_with_Gods_apparent_absence.mp3autoStart=no" quality="high"  width="210" height="25" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" //embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-11-30.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br / It probably isn?t too difficult for many of us to think of a time in our life when we were devastated by something that happened, or when we  had to endure great hardship, grief, or physical, mental or emotional pain.  The event or experience might be far in the past or as recent as this year, this month!  It might  have been just one isolated event or experience, or a long accumulation of things, one crisis piled on top of another.  Knowing some of your stories and personal journeys, I am aware that what you might be remembering right now would cover a huge variety of experiences.....and no two would be alike.  If we would name some of them the list might include:br /ulliloss of job/lilichronic disease/liliinfertility/lilifacing addictions/lilimiscarriage/lilidisappointments with children/lilibankruptcy/lilidealing with abuse/lilisudden death of spouse, parent, child/lilifears/phobias/lilidiagnosis of a physical or mental illness/lililoss of homes/property/lililoss of mind/body due to accident/stroke/lilidivorce/li/ulThe list could go on.....br /br / When we faced the most difficult, challenging, painful time of our life, we probably cried out in similar ways as the prophet, Isaiah, ?Where are you, Lord?? or ?Why, Lord?  Why now? Why us?  Why my son?? or ?Why don?t you come down and do something?!?  One of the mysteries of life and our relationship with our Creator is that at the time when we most need to experience the closeness, the comfort, the compassion and tenderness of God, we very often feel a sense of isolation, abandonment, aloneness.  The sense of God?s presence may not always be felt.  God may seem distant, HIDDEN from us.  It may be difficult to pray.  Sometimes our very spirit feels shriveled up.br /br / If we have not ever been in a situation where we have felt that way personally, there are times when we have some strong emotions and feelings about what is happening in our nation and the world around us, and might have cried out to God, ?Come down, and break into this scene, into this mess that we and/or others have made and do something, stir things up, shake up the nations and our leaders!?br /br / This Isaiah text for the first Sunday in Advent is not a passage that makes us ?feel good?.  It is not one of comfort.  It does not lead us into the season of Advent in a gentle, sweet, comfortable way, as we move toward Christmas and the birth of the Christ Child.  In fact it is a communal lament!  The language and emotions are raw.  The images are real and understandable.  They rise from the center, deep within, a visceral cry that erupts from the gut of the prophet, Isaiah.br /br / Isaiah finds himself in the role as mediator between God and God?s people.  The community is on the brink of losing its center, its spiritual identity.  The relationship between God and God?s people is fragile, broken.  Isaiah stands between them, wanting to honor God and wanting the well being of his people.br /br / They have returned from exile, they are back in the Promised Land, but it isn?t very rosy.  They are suffering economic hardship and humiliation and abuse, sometimes from foreign powers, sometimes at the hand of their own leaders.  Out of a situation of great need, this lament rises.  It actually begins in chapter 63.  Isaiah is trying to recall for them and remind them of all the gracious deeds God had done for them in the past.  It was a time when  God?s presence was with them in the midst of their suffering.  But they turned from God, they rebelled.  They grieved God?s spirit.  God turned away.  Now they felt God?s absence and wondered , ?Where is God??  ?Where is he who brought them through the sea??  ?Where is he who led them through the depths??br /br / Isaiah cries out to God on behalf of his people, ?Look down from heaven and see....where are your zeal and your might??  ?Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.  ?For a long time now, you?ve paid no attention to us....It?s like you never knew us!? (Is. 63:12, 19)br /br / They were wrestling with the apparent absence of God!  There life was turned upside down.  They were tired, exhausted.  The resources of the faithful few were depleted.  Out of anguish, Isaiah pleads for God to ?look down?, but even that is not enough.  In this desperate time, when chaos seems to engulf their world, Isaiah reaches the breaking point, ?God, rip open the heavens and come down.?  It is time to act!  The images are graphic, even violent!  Mountains quake, nations shake in their boots, fire burns, water boils!  Isaiah is appealing to God to reaffirm God?s sovereignty!  Make your name known.  Restore us, O God.br /br /How is a broken relationship restored?  The people had rebelled, turned from God.  God had turned away from them, abandoned his people.  How can divine grace and forgiveness and healing reenter into the lives of a rebellious and broken people?  How does it come into our lives?  How does restoration take place, when God feels so distant and even hidden from us.br /br / On Thanksgiving Day, John and I drove to Charlottesville to spend the day with our son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.  While the turkey was in the oven and we were waiting for it to be done, we were playing with our granddaughters.  I was holding 4 month old Kate and John was sitting in a nice, comfy chair in the living room, playing with 22 month old Samantha.  He had a blanket that he would pull over his head and body, covering himself  up and then he sat there quietly, without moving.  Sam knew that grandpa was under the blanket, but she couldn?t see him.  She would stand by me, waiting with anticipation, her big blue eyes wide open, her blond curls dancing around her head as she stood on tiptoes.  When John would slowly pull the blanket down, slowly revealing his face to her, Sam would just squeal with delight and cry out, ?Paw-paw?.  Yes, she knew he was there, but one time was not enough.  She wanted him to do this again and again.  And each time they played this little game, there was such joy and delight expressed in the face and eyes of both Sam and Paw-paw, as the ?unveiling?, the revealing took place.  Maybe that is much like the joy and delight that we experience with God, when we feel a sense of aloneness and abandonment, and then sometime. somehow God is revealed.  God?s face becomes known and seen and what joy and delight God and God?s people feel, as they make that contact, when the relationship is restored again.br /br /Isaiah knows what is needed.....He leads the people in confession.  Repentance needs to happen.  They had sinned...big time, for a long time, in fact they had been at it for so long, they weren?t sure there was any hope for them.  Even there best attempts at doing right and living righteous lives didn?t seem good enough, they had pretty much given up.  They didn?t pray to God, they didn?t reach out to God.  God?s face was hidden from them.  They were left to deal with their own sinfulness.br /br / But confession does something.  Confession clears the way for God?s love to work and for restoration and healing to take place.  In almost a childlike way, they appeal to God, recognizing that they can?t save themselves.  They need God.  They are God?s people.  They are in this together...parent-child.  They know they don?t deserve what they are asking.  They are aware of their shameful past, but they appeal to God, not to remember their past for ever, not to be angry with them forever...to give them another chance.  For God created them, God formed them.  God shaped them and molded them, as a potter molds the clay.br /br / The last verse of chapter 64 addresses the very heart of God when Isaiah says, ?Will you keep silent and punish us severely??  One final plea is made to the one who can help.br /br /Joyce Rupp, in her book, Praying Our Goodbyes, writes these words when she talks about how sometimes God is silent and we do not have a feeling of God?s nearness.br /br / At these times God says to us, ?Keep believing in the greening, in the springtime of your heart.  I know that it feels as though I am far away from you but I am closer to you than your next breath.  On your weary days, just come and sit by the well of life with me.  I will stay with you.  On your discouraged days, remember that I year to fill your life with joy.  It  will return to you in time.  On your days when you feel the ache will never go away, press your pain against me and know that I surround you with an everlasting love.  Draw you strength and energy from me.  I will sustain you in this wintry, dark time.? ( p.82-83)br /br / In the act of lament and anguished pleas to God, troubles do not instantly vanish.  Doubts don?t disappear, contradictions and tensions aren?t immediately resolved.  Yet we trust that God will hear us, that God will not abandon us, that God will not remain silent forever.  We do not know when the glory of God will be made visible to us.  We do not know when or where light may break through the darkness.  We believe it can happen.  We believe in what we can see, but sometimes we are asked to believe in what we cannot see!br /br / And so this Advent we wait.....we wait expectantly.  We wait for God to show us his face.  So,  Pay Attention, Be alert, Watch!  With Isaiah, we cried out our frustrations, we vented our pain and pent up emotions, we confessed our sins and recognized our failures.  We come before God, open, yielded, ready, willing to trust again.  Shine on your people, O Lord, in the darkness and into the light and may our faces reflect the light of God, as we welcome the Divine to dwell among us.br /br /div style="text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"Restore us, O God; /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"make your face shine upon us/spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"that we may be saved.  (Ps. 80:3)/spanbr //divbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/4120550701783197852/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=4120550701783197852";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/4120550701783197852?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/4120550701783197852";s:4:"link";s:75:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/11/barbara-moyer-lehman-wrestling-with.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:5;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-4920420681197553965";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-11-23T00:00:00.001-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-11-25T18:39:20.452-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-11-25T18:39:20.452-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:61:"Phil Kniss: The liturgy of abundance and the myth of scarcity";s:12:"atom_content";s:19799:"span style="font-weight: bold;"November 23, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"Trustees in God?s kingdom: A sacred trustbr /Psalms 104:1-2, 10-18, 24-30, 35b; Matthew 6:25-33; Deuteronomy 8:10-18/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-9163568096642592780amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTEtMjNfVGhlX2xpdHVyZ3lfb2ZfYWJ1bmRhbmNlX2FuZF90aGVfbXl0aF9vZl9zY2FyY2l0eS5tcDM/2008-11-23_The_liturgy_of_abundance_and_the_myth_of_scarcity.mp3amp;autoStart=no" quality="high" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="210" align="middle" height="25"/embedbr /a style="border-bottom: medium none; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; padding-left: 41px; color: rgb(45, 162, 116); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.podbean.com/"Powered by Podbean.com/abr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-11-23.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /We live in one of the best times ever to be a Christian in America.br / I can?t think of a more ideal period in our history,br /  to be identified with the Christian churchbr /  in the United States of America.br /br /I?m checking facial expressions right now.br / I?m noticing some puzzlement.br /  A little skepticism here and there.br /  A smattering of shock and disbelief.br / About what I expected.br /  br /Now why would I say such a ridiculous thing?br /For one thing, that statement sounds patently false.br / There is abundant evidence backed by solid research,br / that the Christian church in America is at an all-time lowbr /  in its social influence,br /  its public respect,br /  and its number of active members.br / Compared to a couple generations ago,br /  the church has been shoved from the center of American societybr /   to the margins.br /br / Not to mention, that just being Americanbr /  increasingly puts us on the margins in the global community.br / Our reputation and strength around the worldbr /  has taken quite a beating in recent years.br /br /So not only does it sound false to saybr / it?s a great time to be a Christian in America,br / but it sounds patently offensive and paternalistic.br / We live in an age where we are trying to move away frombr /  attitudes and behavior that smack ofbr /  Christian domination and American imperialism.br / We hope we have matured to the point wherebr /  we both tolerate and value the wide range of ethnicities,br /  and nationalities, and religions.br /br /Well, I agree wholeheartedly with both of those objectionsbr / to my opening statement.br / The church is at an all-time low in American society,br /  and I personally do treasure thebr /  social, political, racial, ethnic, and religious diversitybr /  that makes up our culture today.br /br /But all that notwithstanding,br / I am grateful to be a Christian in 21st-century Western culture.br /br /Because the church is a people shaped by a liturgy of abundance.br / And we live in a culture shaped by the myth of scarcity.br /br /We have something important going for us.br /We have some significant gifts we can give the worldbr / at such a time as this.br /br /If we worship the God of Abraham and the God of Jesus,br / we worship with a liturgy of abundance.br / And that worship shapes how we look at God,br /  look at ourselves,br /  and look at the world around us.br / A world shaped by the myth of scarcity needs people like us.br / So it?s a great time to be alive;br /  a great time to follow Christ in our daily living.br / And I say that with all humility,br /  because I know that we have a very long way to go,br /   in actually reflecting the liturgy of abundance in our lives.br / Much of the time we are a very poor reflection, indeed.br /_____________________br /br /I?m going to develop this idea,br / first by looking at today?s scripture readings,br / and then by listening to the words of the renowned biblical scholarbr /  Walter Brueggemann.br /  to whom I owe these termsbr /  ?liturgy of abundance and myth of scarcity.?br /br /I chose only three scripture passages today,br / out of hundreds of possibilities.br / Everywhere we look, scripture reveals to usbr /  a God of abundant generosity.br /br /In Psalm 104 we have a rich, even opulent,br / picture of God?s abundance in creation,br / and his over-the-top provisions for all of his creatures.br /br /The psalmist gushes in his praise of God.br / ?O Lord my God, you are very great.?br / You make springs gush forth in the valleys . . .br /  you give drink to every wild animal . . .br / You water the mountains . . .br / You cause grass to grow for the cattle,br /  and plants for people to use . . .br /  to bring forth food and wine and oil and bread . . .br / O Lord, how manifold are your works! . . .br /  the earth is running over with your creatures . . .br /  things innumerable . . .br / These all look to youbr /  to give them their food in due season;br /  when you give to them . . . they are filled with good things . . .br / When you take away their breath, they die . . .br /  [but] when you send forth your spirit, they are created.br / Praise the Lord!?br /br /Every work of creation,br / from humankind, to cattle, to fish, to the land itself . . .br / God is praised as the One and only source of their life.br /  Everything they enjoy comes from God?s abundant hands.br /  And if God?s hands close, they wither and die.br /br /And in Deuteronomy 8, God?s people are instructed,br / ?Eat your fill and bless the Lord your Godbr /  for the good land that he has given you.?br /br /This is an urgent matter for people about to get to the promised land.br /This is a liturgy they need to keep them oriented.br / ?When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses . . .br /  when your herds and flocks have multiplied,br /   and your silver and gold is multiplied . . .br /  then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God,br /   who led you through the great and terrible wilderness . . .br /  He made water flow for you from flint rock,br /   and fed you in the wilderness with manna . . .br /  Do not say to yourself,br /   ?My power and the might of my own handbr /    have gotten me this wealth.?br /  But remember the Lord your God,br /   for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.?br /br /There is no time for God?s people that is more dangerous,br / in terms of losing their orientation toward God,br /  losing the liturgy of God?s abundance,br / than when they are settled and prosperous.br /  That is when God?s people forget who God is.br /Is there a lesson in there for North American Christians?br / You decide.br /br /And then there?s Matthew 6,br / straight from the Sermon on the Mount.br /All through Jesus? ministry,br / he reinforced and demonstrated the liturgy of abundance.br / The miracles were case studies in God?s abundant generosity.br /  Turning water into wine.br /  Feeding 4,000 and 5,000 from a few fish and loaves of bread.br /  Catches of fish so excessive they broke the nets.br /  Lepers cleansed. Demoniacs cured. The dead raised.br / So with that backdrop, Jesus preached, saying,br /  ?Don?t be anxious about your life,br /   what you will eat or what you will drink,br /   or about your body, what you will wear.br /   Look at the birds of the air . . .br /   Consider the lilies of the field . . .br /    through nothing of their own doing,br /    God feeds them . . . abundantly,br /     and clothes them . . . majestically.br /   And they are of relatively little value.br /    And their life is momentary.br /   How much more will God abundantly care for you?br /   But strive first for the kingdom of Godbr /    and all these things will be given to you as well.?br /_____________________br /br /Just three out of a hundred passages,br / All pointing the same direction.br /We learn that the God of the Bible is a God whobr / created every good thing that exists in the universe,br / and who owns it, and has ultimate authority over it.br /And we learn that the God of the Bible is a God whobr / stands before the people he loves with generous open hands.br /God is not stingy or self-protective with his blessings.br / God is a huge risk-taker in his generosity.br / Time and again, God gives more than is needed for life.br / God gives to those who don?t fully appreciate his gifts.br / Even to those who abuse and misappropriate his giftsbr /  to their own selfish purposes.br /br /Yes, God sometimes judges the disobedient,br / by withholding abundance.br /But the withholding is simply to draw them back,br / to restore them to a place where they can receive God?s abundance,br / with joy and gratitude.br /br /When we are steeped in, and formed by,br / a liturgy of abundance,br / we live free of anxiety,br /  full of joy,br /  full of gratitude,br /  and we respond with similar generosity.br /Unfortunately, we are even more strongly steeped in, and formed by,br / our culture?s myth of scarcity.br /br /I told you I was indebted to Walter Brueggemann,br / the brilliant and provocative O. T. Bible scholar,br / who coined these terms,br /  liturgy of abundance and myth of scarcity.br /br /He is far more articulate on this topic than I.br / So I?m simply going to read some selected quotes from his writing.br /br /These are Brueggemann?s words, from several of his writings:br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"The Bible starts out with a liturgy of abundance.br / Genesis 1 is a song of praise for God?s generosity . . .br / It keeps saying, ?It is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good.?br /God blesses the plants and animals and fish and birds and humankind.br / And says ?Be fruitful and multiply.?br / Overflowing goodness . . . pours from God?s creator spirit . . .br /br /[In the face of a famine,]br / Pharaoh introduces the principle of scarcity into the world economy.br / For the first time in the Bible, someone says,br /  ?There?s not enough. Let?s get everything.?br / Pharaoh [creates a] monopoly.br /  When the crops fail, the peasants give up their land for food . . .br /   the next year, they give up their cattle.br /  [Then] they have no collateral but themselves.br / And that?s how the children of Israel become slaves.br /br /[Later, in the wilderness,br / the children of Israel received the gift of free bread.]br /At first, everybody had enough.br / But because Israel had learned to believe in scarcity in Egypt,br /  people started to hoard the bread.br / When they tried to bank it, to invest it, it turned sour and rotted,br /  because you cannot store up God?s generosity.br /br / Exodus is a record of the contestbr /  between the liturgy of generosity and the myth of scarcity?br /  a contest that still tears us apart today.br /br /The liturgy of abundance says . . .br /Appearances notwithstanding, there is enough to go around,br / so long as each of us takes only what we need.br /In fact, if we are willing to have but not hoard,br / there will even be more than enough left over.br /br /An ideology of scarcity says no, there?s not enough,br / so hold onto what you have.br /In fact, don?t just hold onto it, hoard it.br / Put aside more than you need, so that if you do need it,br /  it will be there, even if others must do without.br /br /The fundamental human condition continues to be anxiety,br / fueled by an ideology that keeps pounding on us to take more,br / to not think about our neighbor,br / to be fearful, shortsighted, grudging.br /br /The Bible offers an antidote to all this . . . the call to Sabbath.br / Sabbath is based on abundance.br /God?s generosity reached [its] climax on the sixth day [of creation],br / when God proclaimed it sufficient . . .br / and declared all this ?very good?br /br /But how willing are we to practice Sabbath?br / A Sabbath spent catching up on choresbr /  we were too busy to do during the week,br /  [or racing to the mall to catch the last of the weekend specials]br /  is hardly a testimony to abundance.br / Honoring the Sabbath is a form of witness.br /  It tells the world that ?there is enough.?br /br /We can live according to an ethic whereby we are notbr / driven, controlled, anxious, frantic or greedy,br / precisely because we are sufficiently at home and at peacebr / to care about others as we have been cared for.br /br /The gospel story of abundance saysbr / we originated in the magnificent,br / inexplicable love of a God who loved the world into generous being.br /The story of abundance says that our lives will end in God,br / and that this well-being cannot be taken from us . . .br / neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor things?br /  nothing can separate us from God.br /br /Wouldn?t it be wonderful if liberal and conservative church people,br / who love to quarrel with each other,br / came to a common realization thatbr / the real issue confronting usbr /  is whether the news of God?s abundance can be trustedbr /  in the face of the story of scarcity?br /br /What we know in the secret recesses of our heartsbr / is that the story of scarcity is a tale of death.br /And the people of God counter this talebr / by witnessing to the manna.br / There is a more excellent bread, [and there is plenty.]br //blockquotespan style="font-size:85%;"span style="font-style: italic;"[see end of sermon for source citation]/span/spanbr /br /--------------------------br /br /You know, the liturgy of abundance has nothing at all to dobr / with being wealthy and having lots of possessions.br /In fact, the wealthy (like nearly all of us in this room)br / are probably more likely than anyonebr / to fall for the myth of scarcity.br /That?s why the children of Israel were sternly warned in Deut. 8br / when they arrived in the promised land,br / ?Do not say to yourself, ?My power and the might of my own handbr /  have gotten me this wealth.??br /br /I have personally been in worship services in small,br / extremely poor villagesbr / in India, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland.br /I never cease being amazedbr / at the sheer joy and exhuberance and gratitudebr / of Christians in poverty worshiping God their provider.br /And oh, the abundant and celebrative feasts that can be spreadbr / by people with almost nothing.br /br /Contrast that with high church worship in the wealthy West?br / Europe and North America.br / Now, I love the beauty and liturgy of high Western worship.br / But I don?t often get the impressionbr /  that this worship is driven primarilybr /  by a deep and visceral gratitude to God the daily provider,br /   without whom we would not survive.br /br /What I invite us to do this morning,br / is to begin laying down the myth of scarcity.br / To lay down this useless anxiety we carry around in our beingsbr /  about whether we?re going to have enough.br / To lay down our worries, our self-protective behavior,br /  our tendency to hoard.br /br /But rather, in spite of our shrinking 401K?s,br / in defiance of the latest drop in the stock market,br / in rebellion against the media messages of doom and gloom,br / I invite us to invest ourselves in the liturgy of God?s abundance.br / I invite us to be formed by that liturgy,br /  into people of radical joy, gratitude, sharing and generosity.br /br /God created this world beautifully and abundantly.br / It is full and overflowing with life.br / And God continues to sustain and reproduce this life.br / There is enough for all. There is plenty, if we share.br /br /So today I invite us to celebrate the offeringbr / as if we all believed in this liturgy of abundance.br / Maybe we?re not completely convinced of its truth.br /  It doesn?t hurt to act like it. To practice it anyway.br /  Behavior can shape belief, just like belief shapes behavior.br /  So participate in this offering as if you fully believedbr /   that God is your daily provider.br /   That God never has, and never will abandon you,br /    but has provided enough for a full life.br /br /The first thing we do is make sure we all have something to give.br / The offering is an act of the community.br / One reason we can be so confident in God?s abundance,br /  is that we are part of a sharing and caring community.br / So we all participate.br / You may not have come this morning with somethingbr /  in your hand or pocket or purse.br / That?s okay. Because there are people all around you with extra.br /br /Our offering this morning can be whatever you want to bring.br / Your weekly offering to the mission of this church.br / Or your filled-out Faith Promise cards for 2009.br / Or whatever else you might have to give to God.br /Take a moment now to look around you,br / and make sure everyone, including all the children,br / has something in their hands to bring.br /Share.br / If you have an empty hand, show it. Hold it out.br / I?m sure someone around you has something to put in it.br /It doesn?t matter whose pocket it came from,br / because, remember, it all came from God anyway!br / Now it?s going back to God in an act of gratitude.br /br /Everybody have something? Okay.br / Now we don?t have to be prim and proper and orderlybr /  when we?re giving a joyful gift to God.br / We?re not going to use ushers.br / But maybe to prevent people from getting run over and stepped onbr /  in your enthusiasm to give God an offering,br /  I suggest that we move this way.br / Those in the center section, go to the center aisle,br /  and make your way to the baskets,br /  returning to your seats by the opposite aisle.br / Start in the front and work your way back.br / Same with those in the side sections.br /  Come to the side aisles.br /  Make your offering,br /   and return to your seats by way of the angled aisles.br / If it?s physically difficult to make this trek yourself, that?s fine.br /  Send your gift up with someone else.br /br /We?re ready?br /So let?s worship, with great joy and gratitude,br / the God who gives us all we need, and more.br /blockquotespan style="font-size:85%;"Brueggemann quotations came from two of his articles:br /"The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity" by Walter Brueggemannbr /http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_10_116/ai_54367179br /br /"Enough Is Enough" by Walter Brueggemannbr /span style="font-style: italic;"The Other Side/span, November-December 2001, Vol. 37, No. 5./span/blockquotebr /span style="font-style: italic;"?Philip L. Kniss, November 23, 2008/spanbr /br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/4920420681197553965/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=4920420681197553965";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/4920420681197553965?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/4920420681197553965";s:4:"link";s:75:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/11/phil-kniss-liturgy-of-abundance-and.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:6;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-7080334395480235211";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-11-16T12:00:00.003-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-11-18T15:08:12.848-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-11-18T15:08:12.848-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:35:"Phil Kniss: After We Say We Believe";s:12:"atom_content";s:16474:"span style="font-weight:bold;"November 16, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style:italic;"Trustees in God?s kingdom: A shared trustbr /1 Corinthians 12:12-17, 24b-27; Mark 12:28-34/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /span style="font-weight:bold;"(due to technical difficulties, only the last 12 minutes of the sermon are on the video)/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7893146726486716051hl=enfs=true" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTEtMTZfQWZ0ZXJfd2Vfc2F5X3dlX2JlbGlldmUubXAz/2008-11-16_After_we_say_we_believe.mp3autoStart=no" quality="high"  width="210" height="25" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" //embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-11-16.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /I often begin my annual stewardship sermonsbr / with something semi-apologetic and semi-humorous.br / To lighten the mood,br /  to sort of ease you into the dreaded money-talk.br /br /Not this year.br / Because I am in no way apologetic,br /  and in no way hesitant,br /  to preach not just one, but two sermons on stewardship.br /My only apologybr / is to say I?m sorry if I ever preached a sermon, any Sunday,br / that was not, at its core, a stewardship sermon.br /br /We think far too small about stewardship.br /Theologian Douglas John Hall once said,br / ?Stewardship is all that I do after I say, ?I believe.??br / I couldn?t agree more.br /br /When we make a genuine statement of belief, of faith, of trust in God,br / it reorients everything.br /Forget the silly notion that stewardshipbr / is deciding how much money to give the church.br /Stewardship is everything we do, after we say we believe.br /br /If we believe that God isbr / creator and owner of all that exists in the universe;br /If we believe thatbr / God has entrusted us with the responsibility to care for all of itbr /  in a way that honors the owner;br / then welcome to your full-time job,br / a job for which you?re not just on-call, but on-duty 24/7.br /Job title?  ?God?s Trustee.?br /br /I use the word Trustee instead of Steward.br / Same thing.br / But ?trustee? is more familiar,br /  and it explicitly names the essential truth on this subject?br / This is all about trust.br /br /We all know we need to have faith in God.br / We need to trust God.br /But the most astounding truth about life as a servant of God,br / is that God has faith in us.br / God trusts us.br /br /If we don?t understand that, br / we don?t understand the core message of scripture.br /br /Since God wants a relationship with us based on mutual love,br / God gave us freedom to choose whether to be in that relationship.br / The consequence of giving us freedombr /  is that humankind often chose against God,br /  to our detriment, and the detriment of the world.br /br /But God is still determined to bring us, and everything else,br / back to our created purpose.br / God is determined to save, to redeem, to restore.br / But God needs us, as trusted partners in this work.br /  Because if God put things right unilaterally,br /   with a divine flick of the wrist,br /   God would have destroyed human freedom,br /    the very thing necessary for a love relationship.br / So God called out a people, put his complete trust in that people.br /  God made them partners in mission.br /br /Saving, redeeming, restoring, and reconciling is God?s mission.br / And we are God?s trustees.br /br /The definition of a trustee is simple.br / A trustee is someone who is given trust,br /  by the owner of whatever is being entrusted.br /br /So for instance, when a young child inherits a large sum of money,br / it?s put into a trust fund,br / managed by a trustee.br / Someone who can be trusted, more than an 8-year-old,br /  to manage large sums of money.br /br /And when a church appoints trusteesbr / to look after the building and grounds,br / they choose someone they trustbr /  to take care of the property the church owns.br /br /But one important thing about being God?s trustee,br / it?s not a solo job.br / It?s not a sole trusteeship.br / We are a board of trustees.br /br /Most universities have a board of trustees.br / The trustees don?t own the university.br / Maybe the state government owns it,br /  or a church owns it.br / And the board of trusteesbr /  carry out the mission and vision of the owners.br / Trustees don?t make up their own mission,br /  they are in service to the mission of the owners.br /br /But just as significantly,br / they function together as a board, not individually.br / When the board is not in session,br /  they are ordinary citizens.br / Individuals are not authorized to speak on behalf of the board.br /They are part of a joint trusteeship.br / It needs to be this waybr /  because the organization needs the wisdom of a community.br / It?s not always clearbr /  how the vision and mission of the owner br /   gets interpreted and applied in various circumstances?br /  such as how to prioritize the annual budget,br /   and whether to fund this building, or that program,br /   or change this policy, or that curriculum.br / So the Trustees act as a community of interpreters,br /  trying to meet a changing set of needs and circumstances,br /  in a way that remains faithful to the owner?s vision and mission.br /br / That?s why it?s healthier to have a board of trusteesbr /   with a wide range of perspectives,br /   with a variety of gifts and strengths and expertise,br /   who approach problems from different angles.br / When they can work together as a body,br /  unified in purpose and mission,br /  and diverse in gifts and perspectives,br /  they are more likely to stay faithful to the owner.br /_____________________br /br /We?those of us who say ?we believe??br / are God?s board of trustees.br /We who acknowledge that God is Sovereign over all creation,br / and who submit our lives to the reign of God in Jesus Christ,br / have, by definition, accepted a communal responsibility,br / to act on God?s behalf in this world,br /  serving the mission and purposes of God.br /br /We are the body of Christ,br / not in some mystical and metaphorical sense,br / but literally, physically.br /Together, we embody Christ in the world,br / acting on God?s behalf, as God?s trustees.br /br /And God has seen fit to give this body a variety of gifts.br / And has blessed the members of this body br /  with a variety of perspectives,br /  and personality characteristics,br /  and ways of thinking and solving problems.br / So that working together,br /  with God?s saving and reconciling mission at the center,br /  we have what it takes to be good trustees,br /   faithful to the trust God has placed in us as a body.br /br /That, I believe, is precisely the message brought homebr / by today?s epistle reading from 1 Corinthians.br / ?The body is one,? the apostle Paul writes, br /  ?and it has many members.?br / We need each other.br /  ?If the foot would say, ?Because I am not a hand,br /   I do not belong to the body,?br /   that would not make it any less a part of the body.br /  If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be . . . ?br /  The head cannot say to the feet, ?I have no need of you.??br / But God arranged the body,br /  and God intends the body to work togetherbr /   with a unified purpose.br / That is the body to whom God had entrustedbr /  his mission and purpose for all creation.br /_____________________br /br /We don?t really have a big issue with this.br / Yes, we?re one body with interdependent members.br / We can live with that, in the abstract.br /But when it starts getting personal,br / our enthusiasm diminishes.br /We get a little edgy about this notionbr / that we all share some responsibility for each other, mutually,br / in terms of how we?re doing as God?s steward,br /  God?s trustee.br /br /Some of the boards I?ve served on have done peer reviews,br / where the board members evaluate each other br / on their performance as a board member.br /br /But in the church,br / we don?t really want other trustees looking over our shoulder,br / giving us specific counsel.br / This is true in any area of our lives?br /  vocational issues,br /  relationship issues,br /  personal morality.br / But it?s certainly all hands off br /  when it comes to money and possessions.br / That?s private.br / That?s just between me and God, thank you very much.br /br /And suddenly we opt off the board.br / We act outside the authority of God?s board of trustees.br /I think our deep commitment to privacybr / when it comes to how we use God?s money and God?s possessionsbr /  comes directly from our culture of individualism.br / It doesn?t come from the Bible.br /br /Some of you might be thinking,br /?Oh, but didn?t Jesus teach that when we give moneybr / we shouldn?t let our left hand know what our right hand is doing??br / Actually, no. He did not.br /br /Jesus did say that when we give money to poor people,br / we shouldn?t go out in the street and make a big show of it,br / so as to impress other people about how kind we are.br /br /But in the Bible, people?s contributions to their faith communitybr / were nearly always a public matter.br / People were held accountable.br / Jesus himself, one day,br /  sat down with his disciplesbr /  directly opposite the temple treasury deposit box,br /  and not only watched what people dropped in,br /   but pointed it out to bystanders,br /   and made comments about it.br / Did you see what those rich people put in?br / Did you see what that poor widow put in?br /br /Members of the early church, Ananias and Sapphira,br / were publicly called out, and punished by God,br / for their selfishness and deceit,br /  in the way they used their finances for God?s kingdom.br /br /And when Paul wanted other churches to contributebr / to the needy Christians in Jerusalem,br / he played one church off another,br /  the Macedonians off the Corinthians.br / He encouraged generositybr /  by publicly pointing out the generosity of others.br /_____________________br /br /Interesting, isn?t it, how we?ve come to where we are.br / That in terms of how we save, spend, or give away br /  God?s money and God?s possessions,br /  privacy is a sacred cow.br /Now I wouldn?t suggest the only way for me to be faithfulbr / is to invite my church friends over to my house,br /  gather around my computer,br /  and open up Quicken and TurboTax, and say,br /  ?So, tell me what you think.br /   Am I being faithful with God?s money??br / No, it?s not the only way to be faithful.br /  But I think it?s one legitimate way.br /br /I at least ought to consider, with some careful and honest prayer,br / ?How can I open up my decisions about how I manage my finances,br /  and how I invest in the work of God?s kingdom?br / How can I let those decisions actually be shaped by the factbr /  that I am a part of the body of Christ,br /  that I have a role as a member of the board of God?s trustees??br /br /I think that question is especially crucial right now,br / in a time a great economic distress and uncertainty.br /br /If we?re not careful,br / suddenly all our financial decisions, br / including our investments in God?s kingdom,br /  are being determined by a very earthy, primal, and reactive fear.br / Suddenly, protecting the quantity of grain in our private storehousesbr /  is concern #1.br /  Everything else is secondary.br / It is times of crisis like this that reveal br /  the naked truth about ourselves.br / Suddenly it becomes clear if our hope and peace,br /  and joyful anticipation of the future,br /  is rooted in our trust of God and God?s kingdom,br /  or in the state of the U.S. and global economy.br / Suddenly we find out whether our commitment br /  to worship God with our First-fruits,br /  to give God the first of our harvest,br /   and not the leftovers,br /   is just lip service,br /   or a genuine life-shaping commitment.br /br /And I?m not just talking about the way we choose to fill outbr / the Faith Promise cards for giving to Park View Mennonite Churchbr /  next year.br / That?s part of it, sure. But just one part.br /br /It?s about how freely and joyfully we materially invest inbr / God?s mission of redeeming and reconciling creation.br /Not just with our charitable giving,br / but with all of God?s moneybr / that we?re temporarily managing for God.br /It?s about how we care for the least of these among us,br / the faces of Jesus in the poor and hungry and homeless.br /br /Isn?t it curious, that when the economy goes south,br / many service organizationsbr / start running out of money to care for the most vulnerable?br /br /I?d like to say that the drop in givingbr / comes only from those without a faith orientation.br /I?d like to say that everyone who puts hope in God?s kingdom,br / and who worships a generous God,br / keeps up, and even increases, their own generosity.br /But I might be on shaky ground.br /_____________________br /br /I wonder what it would be like,br / if in times of economic uncertainty,br / the automatic response of Christiansbr /  would be to turn to each other for support,br /  for counsel, for spiritual reorientation.br /If instead of letting our decisions be governedbr / by our very real and substantial fears about the future,br / we intentionally turned to the community of God?s trustees,br / to get reoriented.br /If instead of circling the wagons, taking a protective stance,br / and getting even more private about our money,br / we invited a few of our sisters and brothers in the churchbr / to meet together for a time of worship and prayer and Bible study,br /  that focused on our hope in God?s kingdom,br /  and our experience of God?s abundance and generosity.br /What if we intentionally took steps to orient ourselves br / not around our fears and worries,br / but around the source of our hope and joy,br / to orient ourselves around the God of abundance and generosity.br /br /And then from that position of re-orientation,br / we sought counsel from others of God?s trustees,br / on how God might want us br /  to spend, save, or give away God?s money,br /  and God?s other material assets br /   that we are privileged to manage for God?br / And this mutual counsel could include, as one part of it,br /  how we fill out our 2009 Faith Promises.br /br /Radical way of thinking?br / Maybe, for our culture.br / But not for biblical people, I would think.br / Not for people who think Jesus meant what he saidbr /  when he spoke in ways that were upside down br /  to our culturally-conditioned ways of thinking.br /br /Such as blessed are the poor,br / and blessed are those who mourn,br / and blessed are the lowly.br /In the Beatitudes, the word blessed means ?supremely happy.?br / The poor, the mourning, and others in a lowly state,br /  can be happy for the simple reason br /  that they have been reoriented.br / They judge their state of affairs by the values of God?s kingdom.br / In the midst of trying circumstances,br /  they can genuinely rejoice and be glad,br /  for theirs is the kingdom of God.br /br /Can we find reason to rejoice?br /br /span style="font-style: italic;"[To leave a comment, click on "comments" link below and write your comment in the box. When finished, click on "Other" as your identity, and type in your real name. Then click "Publish your comment."]/spanbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");br /document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));br //scriptbr /script type="text/javascript"br /var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5697941-1");br /pageTracker._trackPageview();br //script";s:12:"link_replies";s:156:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/7080334395480235211/comments/defaulthttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2419340047340611514&postID=7080334395480235211";s:9:"link_edit";s:86:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2419340047340611514/posts/default/7080334395480235211?v=2";s:9:"link_self";s:66:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/feeds/posts/default/7080334395480235211";s:4:"link";s:74:"http://www.pvmcsermons.com/2008/11/phil-kniss-after-we-say-we-believe.html";s:11:"author_name";s:10:"Phil Kniss";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/14584052456977885511";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:7;a:14:{s:2:"id";s:70:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2419340047340611514.post-4423755087191606670";s:9:"published";s:29:"2008-11-09T12:00:00.001-05:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2008-11-12T14:37:05.845-05:00";s:3:"app";a:1:{s:6:"edited";s:29:"2008-11-12T14:37:05.845-05:00";}s:5:"title";s:40:"Phil Kniss: How (not) to heal brokenness";s:12:"atom_content";s:19508:"span style="font-weight: bold;"November 9, 2008 /spanbr /span style="font-style: italic;"On being the healing community of Jesus in the worldbr /Luke 9:1-6; Acts 3:1-16/spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to view video:/spanbr /embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2573085987368817337amp;hl=enamp;fs=true" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embedbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"Click "play" below to listen to audio only:/spanbr /embed src="http://www.podbean.com/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerdarksmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://pvmchurch.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMS5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS8yMDgzMy91LzIwMDgtMTEtOV9Ib3dfbm90X3RvX2hlYWxfYnJva2VubmVzcy5tcDM/2008-11-9_How_not_to_heal_brokenness.mp3autoStart=no" quality="high"  width="210" height="25" name="mp3playerdarksmallv3" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" //embedbr /span style="font-style: italic;"(/spana style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pvmchurch.org/sermons/2008-11-09.pdf"click here for printer-friendly version/aspan style="font-style: italic;")/spanbr /br /So I wonder if anyone thought it was a bit curiousbr / that in a series of sermons on the public life of the church,br / I chose to end with a sermon on healing.br / What does healing have to dobr /  with being the church before a watching world?br /  The ministry of healing is usually private.br /  A pastor or elder prays at someone?s bedside.br /  Or an intimate gathering of friends and familybr /   prays, touches, anoints.br /  Even in public worship,br /   healing prayers are quiet, personal, and private.br /  Our healing ministry is not somethingbr /   we are ready to take to the streets, is it?br /  Or is it?br /_____________________br /br /We are a nation and culture built aroundbr / individual and private consumers.br / And I think we?ve come to look at God, and faith,br /  and healing, through the same lens.br / What has God done for me lately?br /br /There?s a huge interest these days in the relationship betweenbr / spirituality and good health.br /Research shows that people who pray when they?re sickbr / get better quicker.br / So we are urged to be more spiritual, to pray more,br /  so that we will be more healthy.br /br /But what does this say about God?br /What happens when we make individual health and well-beingbr / the highest good, the end toward which we strive,br / and we make God and faith the means to achieve that end?br /Haven?t we just made health to be the real god,br / and reduced the God of the universebr / to little more than a instrument to achieve our ends?br /br /But this instrumental way of looking at God, faith, and healingbr / is wildly popular in our culture.br / It spawned a whole industry of spiritual products,br /  from angels on the dashboard, to Jesus figurines,br /  to specially-blessed prayer oils.br / It created the phenomenon of independent celebrity healers,br /  who are not accountable to the local church,br /  whose ministry is focused entirelybr /   on healing individuals of various physical ailments,br /  and who preach a shallow theology.br /  They pay scant attention to daily discipleship,br /   or following Jesus in the ordinary,br /   or the central role that Jesus? body, the church,br /    plays in our health and spiritual growth,br /   or to the rich and multi-layered theology of sufferingbr /    that is part of Christian faith.br /br /To popular culture, pain and suffering is an unmitigated evil,br / and death is to be avoided at all costs.br / We?re not much interested in a God who, in Jesus,br /  became our companion in suffering,br /  became a suffering God.br /br /Yes, God is all about healing.br /You can?t read far in any of the four gospelsbr / before you encounter a story of Jesus healing.br /In Jesus, God showed his compassionbr / on those who were sick, blind, or lame,br / on those oppressed by spiritual beings . . .br /  even on those already dead.br /So, it?s not a question of whetherbr / God has the capacity and desire to heal individuals.br / Of course, God does.br /br /No, it?s a question of context.br / The healings in the gospelsbr /  were part of something much larger God was up to.br /  Healing was not the end, but the means.br / Jesus did not come just to heal people.br / He came to proclaim and make known the kingdom of God.br /  And healing was one of the main signs of that kingdom.br /br /My criticism is not that we pray over individuals for their healing.br / No, we ought to pray for the healing of persons.br /  And we do, and we always will.br /My problem with celebrity healers is not that they pray in faith for healing.br / My problem is what they leave out of the message.br /Both the culture and the churchbr / too often makes individual healing an end to itself,br / and ignores its larger context.br /br /God?s mission is still the same as it was in the Gospels,br / to establish the kingdom of God on the earth,br / and to invite people into kingdom communitiesbr /  that proclaim and demonstratebr /  the full and fruitful life God intended for us at Creation.br / Healing is an integral part of that mission.br / Kingdom communities are healing communities.br /br /Look at any healing story in the Gospels.br / Jesus did not care for just one narrow slice of their well-being.br / He wanted them to live a full and fruitful lifebr /  as a member of God?s covenant people.br / If the purpose of Jesus? ministry was simply to healbr /  every disease and every disability and every oppression,br /  then he actually wasn?t very efficient.br / He wasted a lot of time telling stories,br /  hanging out with his disciples talking about the kingdom,br /  eating meals with Pharisees and tax collectors,br /  going to wedding parties,br /  retreating into the mountains to pray.br / Meanwhile, there were a lot of sick people not getting healed.br / He could have organized differently,br / He could have deputized hundreds of disciples,br /  and spread them over the whole region,br /  and set up 24/7 assembly-line touch-and-heal stations.br / Even in a short 2-year ministry, he could have gotten to everyone.br /br /Apparently that wasn?t the point.br / Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God,br /  to explain it, to demonstrate it, to invite people into it.br / Jesus was just as concerned that lepersbr /  found their way back into the covenant community,br /  as he was that they got cured of their leprosy.br /br /Read Matthew chapter 8.br / When he healed a man of leprosy, he didn?t just say ?be cured.?br /  First, he broke the law by touching the man,br /   openly confronting the social and religious systembr /   that isolated lepers from their own people.br /  Then he told him to go to the priest to be declared clean,br /   to be fully restored to his covenant community.br /br /And read Luke chapter 8.br / After he cured the demon-possessed manbr /  that lived out in the cemetery,br /  the man begged to go with him and become a traveling disciple.br / Jesus said,br /  ?No. Go back to your town. Tell people what happened.?br / And I don?t think Jesus? rationale was just spreading the news.br /  When a man who used to break chains, and cut himself,br /   and cry and babble, and live naked among the tombs,br /   suddenly is sane, clothed, and having normal conversations,br /   word gets around, without trying.br /  No, I think Jesus knew the man needed deeper healing.br /   He wasn?t quite finished being healed.br /   He needed to be restored to his family and community,br /    to find the wholeness that comes from knowingbr /    who you are, and who you belong to.br /br / You?d be hard-pressed to find any healing story in the Gospelsbr /  that did not have some deeper restoration going on.br /  Healing is much more than the absence of disease.br /  It nearly always means being drawn into a healing community,br /   finding a full and fruitful life as one of God?s peoplebr /   living out God?s kingdom on earth.br /_____________________br /br /Remember today?s Gospel reading, from Luke 9?br / This story comes right after the healing of the demoniac,br /  and a couple other healing stories.br / In Luke 9, Jesus does deputize his disciples.br /  But not to create a more efficient healing machine.br /  He gave them authority over diseases and demons,br /   but then told them tobr /   ?proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.?br /  Their methodology was community-building.br /  They were to go without any bag, bread, or supplies.br /  They were to be dependent, not self-sufficient,br /   in order to encourage sharing and building community.br /   They were to find homes that welcomed them,br /    that extended peace.br /   Then they were readybr /    to share the good news of the kingdom and to heal.br /   Healing was located within a kingdom community.br /br /And the disciples kept on taking this approach to healing ministry,br / even after Jesus returned to heaven.br / All through the book of Actsbr /  it?s impossible to separate physical healingbr /   from restoration of relationshipsbr /   and incorporation into a healing community.br /br /This morning we heard the story of the crippled beggar, Acts chapter 3.br / It wasn?t the healing itself that got Peter and John into trouble.br /  It was the fact that Peter and Johnbr /   tried to put that healing into a larger context.br /  They used the opportunity to point out that this healingbr /   was a direct result of the fulfillment of covenant,br /   begun with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,br /   and fulfilled in Jesus, who the people had just crucified.br /  And they used the chance to invite the crowd to repent,br /   and turn to Jesus,br /   and become part of the new community of the kingdombr /   that God was bringing forth.br /  And about five-thousand of them did.br / That?s the reason Peter and Johnbr /  were dragged in front of the high priest and Council.br /_____________________br /br /It?s really not a difficult thing to pray for healing.br /All we do isbr / respect God?s right to heal whomever God will,br / realize that it is only God who heals,br / and then pray, trusting God.br /That?s not the hard part.br / The hard part is to take seriously this larger call of God,br /  to enter fully into the life of a healing communitybr /  oriented entirely around the kingdom of God.br / That?s where deep healing, deep reconciliation,br /  and deep restoration can happen.br /br /Healing, divorced from a healing covenant community,br / may happen to some degree.br /But it can never be deep healing,br / because we were created by God for life in community.br / In God?s eyes, a whole life, a life healed of brokenness,br /  must be a life restored to community,br /  restored to the life God made us for.br /br /Today I want to challenge us at Park View Mennonite Churchbr / to explore a deeper life as a healing community.br / I?m convinced that if we desire deep healing,br /  then we need a deep communal life,br /  a life in a healing communitybr /   centered on Christ our healer.br /This is true no matter what brokenness.br / Whether bodily illness, or estrangement, or grief,br /  or spiritual bondage, or mental illness,br /  or social fragmentation.br /br /But this healing community needs to be on a small enough scalebr / to allow for face-to-face relationships that are deep,br /  are intentional, and are bound by mutual covenant.br / We simply cannot expect that all the healing we needbr /  will happen in the privacy of our prayer closet,br /  or in the anonymity of a worship service with 300 people.br / We must do what Jesus expected his followers to do,br /  build intimate communities that embody the kingdombr /  in our broken lives and broken neighborhoods.br /br / So when one among us struggles with intensebr /  and persistent grief,br /  they will never carry that burden alone.br / And when someone faces a debilitating illness,br /  they can expect more than a perfunctory prayer from the pulpit.br /  They will have persons who come to their aidbr /   to help with chores without being asked,br /   and who gather around them in concerted prayer for healing.br / When someone suffers from domestic violence,br /  or some injury too painful to name publicly,br /  they will have persons?a few, but enough?br /  who will hold their story safelybr /   without judging or abandoning,br /  who will carry them in prayer,br /   when they cannot pray for themselves.br / And when a marriage, or other significant relationship is broken,br /  there will be persons who can both support,br /   and challenge with integrity,br /   and with an honest and authentic love.br /br /You know, healing communities are not just a vehicle tobr / support and affirm and provide emotional comfort.br / They are not just spiritual-psychological support groups.br /Healing communities challenge each other toward wholeness.br / They are communities committed to embodybr /  the values and character of God?s kingdom.br /So whether the brokenness is physical, emotional, or spiritual . . .br / whether it is personal or relational or systemic . . .br / a healing community oriented around the kingdom of Godbr /  is best equipped to minister the healing power of God.br /br /That includes being the healing representatives of Christbr / in the culture and world around us.br / That is why I say healing is central to what it meansbr /