Not your typical sermon...

What follows as you scroll down the page a ways is the sermon that I wrote... but it is not the sermon that I gave.  Sunday I hardly had a voice and it was scratchy and painful to listen to.  Instead of making the congregation listen to the entirety of what I had prepared I decided I would cut it much shorter and just give a short synopsis of what I had written.  What happened next was an example of God's glory, power, and awesomeness.  The sermon I then delivered was probably better than the one I had prepared.  It was the message that needed to be heard that day.  And it took a scratchy voice that was barely audible.  I am not telling you all of this to brag on my "newly found" ability.  I am telling you this because it is one of the many examples of God's Spirit interceding in our lives.  The words I spoke were as sincere as they always are.  I was as confident as I always am in the message.  But something was different.  Perhaps it was the perception of the listeners or perhaps it was that it seemed more real not coming from a screen.  Whatever the reason, God used my lack of voice to make it even louder.  I would love to tell you that God turns every negative into a positive but I am not sure it happens that way.  And that was part of the struggle that I had all week.  The second Sunday of Advent means we light the candle of peace and I struggled to wrap my head around what peace looked like.  With all the turmoil abroad and at home, I couldn't pretend things are just hunky-dory even if most aspects of my life are unaffected by these events.  But what is my place in being the solution?  That is that real struggle.  There are plenty of people out there willing to tell us what the problems are: racism, radical Islam, ethnocentrism, a general lack of respect for one another, homeless veterans, gun control, mental illness and the list goes on and on.  Social media is a prime source of what is wrong with the world. But my question to all of us is: What are we doing to be a part of the solution?  Listing wrongs doesn't fix anything.  My car may need brakes, an oil change, new tires and a wash but simply listing the problems do not fix them.  Where do we find peace?  We start looking for it.  We start creating it.  We actively pursue it.  For example, think about the most important earthly relationship in your life.  Think about the work it takes to keep that relationship relevant and current.  Think about the effort it takes to cultivate that relationship every. single. day.  It can almost be exhausting but we keep doing it.... why?  Because love is worth fighting for.  Peace is worth fighting for.  Peace doesn't mean we sit on our hands and allow others to mistreat us.  Peace means action.  Peace takes work.  Peace isn't easy.  But the key is that peace is only attainable if all parties involved are also seeking it.  Its like that Jr. High crush that we are so in love with but the feeling is not reciprocated.  We are crushed and the relationship is over before it started.  So it is with peace, it has to be sought by all and when it isn't then it honestly is not attainable.  The only way to eradicate hate is to replace it with love.  It sounds so incredibly cheesy and I almost can't stand to say it but it is true.  The more we respect and care for one another, the less room hate has to fester and grow.  I am not a hippie dancing in a meadow among rainbows and unicorns but peace is worth fighting for.  It is worth the difficult, uphill battle to fight for it or these mass shootings and terror attacks will become an even larger part of everyday life.  And keeping my children and future grandchildren from living in a world like that, where hatred, death and terror reign, is worth every damn ounce of energy and fight I have.  And I think Christ felt the same way and he even spilled his blood to prove his love for us.  He fought for peace.  He fights for you and for me.  I honestly don't care what denomination, what faith, whether your atheist or agnostic but if you are not actively pursuing peace then you are part of the problem.    

Luke 1:68-79New International Version (NIV)

68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[a] of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
73     the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

As you can tell, Zechariah was excited about the future of his son.  As we all are when we find out we are going to parents.  Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were getting up there in age and not yet had any kids.  God sent the angel, Gabriel, to tell him the good news but like so many of us would be in his situation, he was skeptical about God’s promise.  But once it sunk it, Zechariah couldn’t hardly contain himself so he wrote a song.  First, he writes about the glory of God who has kept His promises and redeemed the people of Israel.  The song continues by listing all the ways God has fulfilled His promises to His people.   The last half of the song is directed at his unborn child and talks about God’s calling for this child.  It is a really unique aspect of the Gospel of Luke and it fits perfectly into the Advent season as we too talk about redemption and prepare for the coming of an unborn child.  Zechariah had pretty high expectations, hopes and dreams for his child.  I think we too can relate.  

It is always amazing to me how God puts me in situations that help me relate to the scriptures that I preach on.  I know I shouldn’t be “amazed” at this but I think the more we try to focus on our faith in our everyday lives the more things like this happen.  The greatest part about starting a new job for me has been getting to know my new coworkers.  As they get to know me, they have become more comfortable asking me about my calling as a preacher.  Sometimes we joke in the break room but when they catch me along the conversation is typically more serious.  I have enjoyed these conversations and look forward to having more of them in the future as they get more comfortable around me.  During one lunch hour this week, the IT guy was working in the break room and he started talking about the tragedy of San Bernardino.  He is a pretty outspoken individual and unprovokingly made the comment that he didn’t believe in God and that he was an atheist.  The IT guy left the room for a minute and the guys looked at me and I think they anticipated that I would argue with him.  When he came back into the room, one of my coworkers asked me how long I had been a pastor to let the IT guy know what my other vocation was.  This cleared the room except for me and the IT guy.  Again, I think they thought it was going to be a deep and theological, hotly contested argument.  After finding out I was a pastor, he proceeded to tell me why he felt the way he did.  His reasoning for not believing in God was that he felt that it should be proven God existed beyond a reasonable doubt and if God did exist, He wouldn’t let the injustices occur that do in the world.  An argument I have heard dozens of times from those claiming not to believe.  From previous conversations I had had with the IT guy I knew that he was in the military and that he had served in the Army and in the Marines so my response to him was this “If I had seen and dealt with many of the things you have, it would be hard for me to not feel the same way.”  I felt like it was a thoughtful response that didn’t judge him for believing what he did.  I was proud of what I said because I felt like it opened the door for future conversations because I didn’t slam that door shut.  

But.... that conversation stuck with me the rest of the week.  The more I thought about it the less I was happy with my response.  I felt like I missed the boat... I felt like I missed an opportunity to share with him.  For me, it was like when you get into a heated discussion with your spouse and you always think of the best line after the conversation is over.  Anyway, if I could go back or if the opportunity presents itself again I will have a much different explanation.  I would still say what I did about seeing what he has because that lets him know that I am listening to his concerns and understand where he is coming from but I would add something to it.  Again, from previous conversations I knew this IT guy had two adult children that he told me he had to fight for full custody for them both.  He said it cost him dearly financially but that it was more than worth it to him.  He also shared in part how one of them had hung up the phone on him earlier in the day.  Yes, this guy shares a lot of information.  That all being said and keeping in mind the poem written by Zechariah, my response would have been better if I would have continued by saying: You love your boys, you fought for them in the courtroom, you fought for them on foreign soil.  You love them unconditionally and would do absolutely anything to protect them, right? His response would undoubtedly be “of course I would.”  To which I would say knowing about the disagreement he recently had with his son, “Why, then, would he not listen to you?  Why would there be any disagreement?  Shouldn’t he do exactly what you said based on everything you have done for him?”  I would say something like that so it opens the door for me to compare his fatherhood to our Godly Father.  I would continue by saying, “All of your unconditional love and protection only go so far.  You cannot keep them safe in every situation this life may bring no matter how hard you try.” By now I would hope it was starting to sink in.  Like God our Father, we are parents can do our best to raise our children to always do what is right and to stay safe but there are things that happen based on our choices and the choices of others.  Zechariah had high hopes for his child.  Zechariah wanted to keep him safe no matter what but we all know what happened at the end of John’s life.

This week, we lit the Advent candle that represents peace and I found it incredibly difficult to preach on that topic with all that was going on.  When it seems like the last thing on earth we see is peace, how do I preach on the topic?  The last world I would use to describe the current condition of the world is peaceful.  But that is why we are here.  We are called to be loving when love seems lost.  We are called to be hopeful when hope is smashed.  We are called to be a light upon a hill.  A beacon to the world.  We are called to be peaceful when peace seems nonexistent.  We can actively pursue peace.  It doesn’t mean we have to sit on our hands and let whomever do as they will.  It means doing what is necessary to keep the world safe.  It means praying for our enemies and being actively aware of our surroundings.  Peace isn’t something that happens by mistake.  It doesn’t happen on its own.  There must be two willing parties that are both looking for peace and if that is not the case, then hope isn’t necessarily lost but not likely.  So why would a God of love and grace allow people to not be peaceful?  Why would He allow people free reign to hurt one another in such heinous ways?  Our community knows this all too well.  Why does he allow these things to happen?  He allows us to be us and if we live in a way that produces disrespect and breeds hatred against one another this is the result.  The parable of reaping what we sow fits well here.  Those directly affected may not be the ones doing the wrong which is unfair but God’s heart breaks with theirs.  We can live the healthiest life possible and die of a heart-attack at 55 while someone who smokes lives into their 90’s.  Why do these things happen?  If God truly existed, He wouldn’t allow it but that seems like the simple way out.  That is the easy way to take God out of the equation because it implies that God can directly affect those things and He can but that would interfere with our free will.

In closing, the entire Gospel of Luke has an underlying theme of the Holy Spirit interceding into human life.  We have lost that.  It is scary.  It is intimidating to think about the Holy Spirit.  Hope and peace seem lost but that is why God created you.  He needed someone to spread the message of love and grace so that is why he created you.  He needed someone to influence young minds, plant and harvest the crops, take care of patients and He needs us now.  Open your hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit, pray for peace, and actively pursue it.  Some see the chaos of the world and think God cannot live here but that is why He created you.  The hopefulness we see in Zechariah’s song is the hopefulness God has in you.  God doesn’t make bad things happen so we have an opportunity spread His love. He isn’t that selfish.  Bad things happen as a result of the choices we make as a human race.  Plain and simple.  But how we handle those things is how we will be judged by Him.  Amen.