All posts by roslin_thomasburg

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 4 – Love

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December 23, 2014

December 21, 2014: Advent 4: Love

2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16; Lu. 1:47-55; alt. Ps. 89:1–4, 19–26, Rom. 16:25-27; Lu. 1:26-38

But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him..  Romans 16:26 NLT.)

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 4 – Love

 

We have been considering Four Promises that Can Change Lives, I say “Can” because in order for God to work these miracles in our lives, we must cooperate with God.  God does not force God’s grace upon us.

The first promise was hope and we were reminded that we have reason to be hopeful because God has given us others to walk the journey with, the gifts and talents necessary to live as Christ wants us and a partnership with Christ, a reminder of Christ’s presence in our midst.

The second promise was that of peace.  We talked about how we can find ourselves at odds with others for no apparent reason only to discover irritates us about them is actually the something or ourselves we see in them, how quite often a lack of peace with others is actually a lack of peace within ourselves and how it is difficult to have peace within ourselves if we do not have peace with God.  We also talked about how coming to peace begins with an honest conversation that eventually takes us down the path of justice.

Last Sunday we talked about Grumpy the Cat and how we don’t have to be grumpy.  In fact, we looked at how we can find or retain a sense of joy no matter our situation – be in a constant state of prayer, be thankful no matter the circumstance – perhaps not for those circumstance but for how God had provided in the past.

Today, we will consider Love and how God’s love is not only something that is generally true – i.e. God loves people – but also specifically true – i.e. God loves you and I as individuals.

Joke:

A rich man went to his minister and said, “I want you and your wife to take a three-month trip to the Holy Land at my expense.  When you come back, I’ll have a surprise for you”.  The minister accepted the offer, and he and his wife went off to the Middle East.

Three months later they returned home and were met by the wealthy parishioner, who told them that while they were gone, he had had a new church built. “It’s the finest building money can buy, pastor,” said the man. “No expense was spared.” And he was right. It was a magnificent edifice both outside and in.

But there was one striking difference.  There was only one pew, and it was at the very back. “A church with only one pew?” asked the minister.

“You just wait until Sunday,” the rich man said.

When the time came for the Sunday service, the early arrivals entered the church, filed onto the one pew and sat down.  When the pew was full, a switch clicked silently, a circuit closed, the gears meshed, a belt moved and, automatically, the rear pew began to move forward.  When it reached the front of the church, it came to a stop.  At the same time, another empty pew came up from below at the back and more people sat down.  And so it continued, pews filling and moving forwards until finally the church was full, from front to back.

“Wonderful!” said the minister, “Marvelous!”

The service began, and the minister started to preach his sermon.  He launched into his text and, when 12 o’clock came, he was still going strong, with no end in sight.  Suddenly a bell rang, and a trap door in the floor behind the pulpit dropped open.

“Wonderful!” said the congregation, “Marvelous!”

 

Prayer:  In the words accredited to Mary, let us see your truth.

Have you ever had experience that just seemed to be too good to be true and when it was over, perhaps the next day, it caused you to wonder if it actually did happen?

Consider Mary.

She has this totally unexplainable experience where she is told that she would become the mother of the long awaited Messiah.  How to you think she felt the next day?  Do you think that perhaps she may have wondered if it was nothing more than a dream?  She has good reason to doubt.  Everybody knew that the Messiah would be born to upper class people, probably living in or near Jerusalem.  Parents even went so far as to have a servant be present with their daughters at all times to ensure that any child born to them would be legitimate.  But if there was the slightest chance, don’t you think she would do what she could to discover if that experience was fact or fantasy?  Well, there was one thing.

The angel in her dream or vision or whatever it was told her that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant.  Remember that it was impossible for that to be true.  So, if Mary went to see for herself, then she would know for sure.  If in fact, Elizabeth really was pregnant then she would be too.

Mary gets permission to go to visit Elizabeth and as soon as Mary’s eye’s behold Elizabeth, because Elizabeth is pregnant enough to be showing, Mary knows instantly that what she experienced was not just a young girl’s dream.  It was something that really happened.

So overwhelmed is she that she bursts out in a song, perhaps with or perhaps without a tune but a song none the less.

She praises God she is not crazy.

She praises God that God would see her, a nobody, and choose her to be the mother of the Messiah.

She praises God that God has, or at least will soon make good on the promise given so long ago.

She praises God that all those promises connected to the reign of the Messiah would soon come to pass.

She praises God that God has been faithful to Israel even though Israel had turned their back on God so many times.

She praises God that despite what she has experienced, living in a land occupied by a foreign power, God is still at work within her people and will soon things aright.

She praises God because God loved God’s people so much that God was about to change everything.

When the angel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would bear a child, Mary was quick to respond with a yes to God.  Why, well perhaps, on the surface, it was because of the fact that becoming the mother of the Messiah was the ultimate dream of every Jewish girl.  But deep down inside, it was that she loved God with all her heart.

There is something about this story that we all know but perhaps have never thought about.  As the eternal is breaking into the temporal – that is as God is breaking into the realm of mere mortals, it is also true that the temporal is breaking into the eternal – that the actions of a mere human being will have eternal consequences.  When Mary said, “Yes” she made it possible for things to happen at affected not just her life and the lives around her but has and will affect countless generations in including us.  There is a very real sense that our lives and the lives of so many others were changed because of what she did.

We all know from our own experience that God’s love for us changed our lives.  But it is also true that when we say “Yes” to God, our love for God will literally changes the lives of others.  And not just in the here and now, but in the time beyond time.  Why?  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believe is him shall have eternal life.

The love of God for us has the power to change our focus and life’s orientation from chasing what I want to living our lives as God wants, to being in right relationship with God.  But most of the time, God demonstrates that divine love as God has always done, through people.  People like Mary.  People like you and I.

Prayer: Remind us God that your love is no small thing and neither are those little things you ask us to do for others.  Amen.

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 3 – Joy

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December 15, 2014

December 14, 2014: Advent 3: Joy

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

 

Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  (Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT)

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 3 – Joy

Most of us know that joy and happiness are not the same thing.  Happiness usually has something to do with our circumstances but joy can often be found in spite of our circumstances.  So here is a little story to illustrate.

A Joke: A teacher was testing the children in her Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.

She asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”

“NO!” the children answered.

“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”

Again, the answer was, “NO!”

Now she was smiling. Hey, they’re getting it, she thought! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?” she asked.

Again, they all answered, “NO!”

She was just bursting with pride for them. “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into Heaven?”

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”

Dying is rarely thought of as a happy occasion but going to heaven is always seen as a joyous one.

Prayer: God of all joy, help us to see how we can rise above our circumstances.  Amen.

Most of you probably know that on the internet are sites that allow people to display their videos.  One of the most used sites is YouTube.  If you were to go to YouTube, you would find that many of the most viewed videos have to do with pets and that one of the current big internet starts is Grumpy Cat.  She is all over the internet and just recently there was a movie in which she starred.

Grumpy Cat got her name from her face.  She always has a big scowl on her face and always looks like she is fed up with the world.  No matter what is in front of her, all she can see is a problem.

Sometimes people are like that too.  Always a frown, always grumpy.

Well, I don’t know about cats, but I find that people who are always grumpy are the ones that always feel trapped.  Somehow life has handed them some bad circumstances and those people feel like there is nothing they can do to change anything.  But you know, that isn’t true.  No matter what we are going through, no matter how helpless we are to change things, we can change something that makes life so much better.  That something is our attitude.

Paul was a man that was very familiar with things not going his way; he was whipped, stoned and spent a lot of time in prison.  And yet, as unpleasant as much of his life was, he learned this lesson: 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

How are we supposed to always be joyful?  Well, he tells us – never stop praying – when our relationship with God is strong we are much more content.  We talk about how God is always present but when pray, God’s presence becomes far more a reality.  Saying the words, “We are not alone” is one thing but having a sense of God’s presence is far better.

The second thing we are told, is to “Be thankful in all circumstances” – it is hard to be truly thankful when we are sick, when we are facing a major problem or when someone we love is hurting but we can be thankful for all the times in the past when were sick or facing a big problem or someone we loved was hurting and God took care of us of those we love.  And it would be crazy us to be happy because the doctor has just told us that we have pneumonia or cancer and might die soon or that we have dementia and in all likelihood will soon forget who we are and who all of those people who we love and love us are.  But we can be joyful knowing that no matter what we face, God is with us helping us and that no matter what we are facing God can use the bad things in life as well as the good things to help us understand God better.

You see, whether or not we are happy usually depends on our circumstances but having a sense of joy deep down inside is often in spite of our circumstances.

Grumpy Cat is always grumpy even when things are going well.  It seems she just can’t see the good and so to her, things are always bad enough to complain.  When we have joy, even when what’s going on tells us we can’t be happy, we can be joyful because God is with us, because God cares for us, because God always supplies what we need, because God always has a plan and purpose for us even in the midst of our suffering.

And so, we return to the words found in 1 Thessalonians, 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Prayer:

Open our eyes, Lord.  Help us to see the opportunities you set before us to help us make our lives and the lives of others rich and full even when our health is failing or our age is increasing.  Open our eyes to your instruction that comes from your hand through the everyday circumstances of life.

Help us to remember that you want us to have lives that are full and rich regardless of how our bodies and brains may fail us.  Give us the courage to say, “Hello” to the day with a sense of expectation and to be ready to learn more about you.  Help us to be truly joyful people even when we are not happy.

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 2 – Peace

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Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8

 

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 2- Peace

2 Peter 3:11, 12a: 11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.  (NLT)

 

Joke: Good Sermon!

After a very long and boring sermon the parishioners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher.  Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.  “Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!”  The pastor was thrilled. “No-one has ever said anything like that about my preaching before.  Tell me why.”  “Well – it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and the Love of God because it endured forever!”

Today, the second Sunday of Advent is the day we turn our thoughts to “peace.”  But peace is much more than the absence of war.

I think it’s true that when we hear the word “peace” our minds almost automatically have in view two countries.  The United States and Canada have a long history of peace but that doesn’t mean that there are never hostilities.  Of course, there was that war which helped forge the identity of Canada –  the War of 1812 – but for the most part our disagreements seem to be most often related to trade and commerce.  As Canadians, we want our relationships with other countries to be peaceful but in our history we have also proven there is a line that we will not cross, that there are times when we deem war necessary.

Sometimes the word “peace” comes with images of other individuals.  Perhaps that most often comes when we have experienced a long term relationship that has not been peaceful.

What I am getting at here is that, the word “peace” is something that is absent or present within the context of relationships where there is a lack of conflict and that a relationship can be deemed a peaceful one even though it experiences periods of conflict that get resolved.  But it is not always true that the word peace has to be limited to me and someone else or us and another country.

Most often, we end up at odds with someone else because they do or say something that we find offensive, whether or not that can be considered aggression.  Some people are just mean and only consider their wants and needs and sometimes people just say and do things that rub us the wrong way.

But why is that?  Why is it that there are some people that once we meet and get to know them a bit better, our opinion of them changes and not in a positive way?  Why is it that there are those to whom we just take an instant dislike?  Any ideas?

Well, I don’t know about you but, I find that most often the things that cause me to have negative impressions about someone else are usually those very same traits that I find in myself – traits I don’t like.  Sometimes, it isn’t easy to look in a mirror, especially when what you see is ugly.

Our perceptions are not always true.  Sometimes we dislike others and find ourselves at odds with them because of their words and actions.  Sometimes, however, our discomfort and conflict with others is nothing more that the reflection of the conflict within.  It is very difficult to be at peace with others when we are not at peace with ourselves.  It is also true that when we are at peace with ourselves we find ourselves at peace with even some of those that are selfish and rude.

We can be at peace or not at peace with others and we can be at peace or not at peace with ourselves and if we are not at peace with ourselves it increases the likelihood that we will not be at peace with others.

So, how do we make peace with others?  We start by talking to them, trying to understand where they are coming from and trying to allow them to understand what the world looks like from our perspective.  While there are no guarantees, usually the first steps to peace begin with honesty and travels to justice.  We cannot be at peace when we are being treated unjustly, or at least being treated unjustly without our consent and without our resentment.  Even with our consent, if we are not at peace about being treated unfairly, sooner or later, we will rise up in anger.

How, then do we come to be at peace with ourselves?  Is not the pathway the same – we begin with honesty and travel to justice?  If there is no honesty or justice, how can there be peace.  And this is where we run into a big problem.  We can come to a place of honesty but how do we bring about a sense of justice within ourselves?

What happens when a baby is at conflict with themselves, when they are hungry, or thirsty, or uncomfortable because they are in need of having their diaper changed, or because they don’t feel well, or because they have gas, or because of all kinds of other things?  They cry.  Most often, regardless of what is causing that internal conflict, babies let others know that they are not at peace within by crying.  Babies are smart enough to know that when they are not at peace within, that peace can only be restored by someone else changing their diaper, feeding them, giving them something to drink or burping them or finding out what is needed to correct their sickness.  As we grow from infants to adults we learn to do a lot for ourselves but, in the process we also lose a lot.  We begin to think that just because we can feed ourselves, change our own clothes, take an aspirin ourselves that we can fix ourselves all the time.  Of course, that is not true.  Even as adults, there are some things that only someone else can fix, that only someone else can bring peace to our beings.

This, of course, leads us to the third area of our relationships wherein there can be peace or conflict, and that is our relationship with God.

As in the other two types of relationships; our relationships with others and our relationship with ourselves, the pathway to peace with God begins with honesty and travels through justice.

Honesty is what confession is all about.  Confession is not about making ourselves feel useless or worthless or ugly.  It is simply about being honest – with ourselves and with God.  When we do that, when we confess to God and to ourselves the lack of peace within and the reasons for it, at least, the ones we know of, God begins the process of waking with us down the path of justice.

We begin to discover the grace and forgiveness of God.  Sin, that is, our desire to live our lives our way instead of God’s way, is identified and we discover things for which we need to ask God’s forgiveness, things for which we need to ask ourselves for forgiveness and for which we need to forgive ourselves and things for which we need to ask the forgiveness of others.  When we seek forgiveness, we seek to have relationships restored.  Restored relationships is the plan and purpose of God, the mission of Christ, the process of growth in the lives of believers and the goal of all history.

Four Promises that Can Change Lives – the title of the sermon series for the four Sundays of Advent, are not just themes we return to almost every year during Advent.  They are promises, given by God.  The promise of Hope that we discussed last week is a promise that things will get better, that we will make it though, that we are not alone and that there is a plan and purpose.  Peace is not just something held out to us but a promise that God will work in us to bring us peace and to work through us to help bring peace to others.

They are promises that we can take advantage of or we can ignore.  When we take advantage of them, our lives do change.  When we refuse, I would like to say that our lives remain the same but that is not true, they get worse because the unresolved conflict raging within causes us to be uglier people on the inside.  We can choose.  Which will we choose?