“Who is Christmas Really For?”

Isaiah 61:1-3

Luke 1:46-55

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            “Who is Christmas really for?” 

            Many will answer, “Christmas is for children”, because they are the ones who seem most excited and enthusiastic.  It is children who wake up way too early to begin the day and children whose eyes light up with Christmas candles and their first sight of Santa Claus.  Christmas is for children many say, so what do you do when the children are all grown up and have moved far away?  How can you have Christmas if there are no children in your life?

            “Who is Christmas really for?”

            If you glance at the magazines when you check out at the grocery store and browse through the pages that describe the perfect holiday you will find instructions on how to decorate the perfect tree, create perfect table decorations, wrap perfect presents, and prepare the perfect Christmas dinner.  Read enough of these magazines and watch enough commercials and you’ll soon realize that Christmas seems to be for those who can afford it, who can spend a lot of money on it.  If that is true, what do you do if you can’t afford it?  Can you have Christmas without going into debt and spending too much?

            “Who is Christmas really for?”

            Some will say it is about family.  You don’t need a lot of money or even the giggles of little children ripping the paper off their presents.  All you need is family gathered around the tree or table.  So, what do you do if the most important member of your family is stationed in harm’s way or rests eternally in a cemetery? What do you do if your family is divided by divorce or hard feelings?  Can you have Christmas when you family is not there?

            “Who is Christmas really for?”

            When the prophet Isaiah described the coming Messiah he mentioned neither money or family, nor even children.  He did not describe trees or lights, presents or cookies. God will send, he said, a Messiah, a savior, redeemer would come for those who are brokenhearted or bound by powers beyond their control.  The Messiah will come for those who mourn and are afflicted.  Christmas, it turns out, is for those who have the hardest time finding the Christmas spirit touted at shopping malls and in holiday movies.

            Before we look at the prophet’s promise for Christmas, let us pray:

Franticly, fearfully we search for the spirit of Christmas, O Lord.  We work hard to create it, but find our preparations only exhaust and cast us into debt. We fantasize about family and friends around the tree, but in reality some are separated by distance or death, or grudges we cannot let go. So, we pray for the spirit that can only come through Christ.  Help find the center of our holiday and our lives in him.  Amen.

            Two weeks ago I set the scene for the back end of the prophecy of Isaiah.  The people of Israel, you remember, had been conquered, captured, and carried away to Babylon, present day Iraq.  There they languished in captivity for seventy years.  When Babylon itself was defeated by Persia, present day Iran, Cyrus the king told the people they could finally go home.  So they did.

            “Over the hills and through the dale to grandmother’s house they went.”  With each step homeward anticipation grew.  To pass the time they shared their grandparents’ stories about the Promised Land, “flowing with milk and honey”.  They recited the litany of liberation that God had promised and provided to Moses and their ancestors who had also been held in slavery. They sang the song of Moses and Miriam, “In your unfailing love, O Lord, you will lead the people you have redeemed.  In your strength you will guide them to your holy Temple. So, I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider fell into the sea.”[1]  With each step homeward “visions of sugar plumbs danced in their heads.”

            When finally they crested the last mountain at Moab looked across the Jordan River to the golden city of Jerusalem, their joyful singing was suddenly silenced by the sight Solomon’s great Temple in ruins. When they saw their homes destroyed leaving only burnt scars upon the land; when they saw fields overgrown with weeds and flocks scattered, a mournful, tearful lament began to fill the air. Like hurricane survivors they were shattered by the enormity of the destruction. In shock they wondered, “Where will we live?  How will we live?  They faced only obstacle and challenge.  They had nothing but emptiness and loss.

            That is when the prophet Isaiah spoke of a coming Messiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted and oppressed; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners; to comfort all who mourn.”[2]

You will recover the Lord said.  Your lives will be restored, even born again.  I will come in the form and life of a chosen one, a Messiah, to renew and make whole.

Those of you familiar with the Gospels know that Jesus cited this verse when he began his ministry at the synagogue in Nazareth.[3]  And where did he get the idea for this mission statement?  Did he just read this passage and conclude – “that’s me”? Well, maybe that’s what happened. But, I believe his mother Mary had a role in shaping his identity and helping him to understand and fulfill the promise and potential that God had placed within him because that’s what mothers do. They bring out the best in us.

  The passage of scripture in the first chapter of Luke that was read this morning is called the magnificat because Mary begins, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”  This is a cradlesong, I believe, that she sang to the child Jesus, “He lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry with good things.”[4]  While rocking her baby, she sang this lullaby again and again. These words became so ingrained in his memory they help shape and form his mission.  He understood that God sent him to “seek and save the lost”.  God sent him for those who are alone and afflicted, for those who are bound by powers beyond their control, and for those who mourn.  They are the ones for whom Christmas is really for.

How did Isaiah put it?  He will “give them a garland of beauty instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a mantle of praise for those with a heavy heart.”

Ashes, in scripture, are a symbol of loss and the grief that follows.  After Job lost wealth and health and family, the Bible says, he mourned in ashes.  Eyes downcast, shoulders slumped, everyone who walked by could see how hard he had been hit.[5] Ashes are all you have left when the fire has consumed all that was important. 

To those who have suffered so, the Messiah promises garlands beauty, oil of gladness, and garments of praise.  Make no mistake, he’s not talking about holly wreaths, or scented candles, or even Christmas sweaters festooned with trees and blinking lights.  These outward symbols of garland, oil, and praise express and inward reality that becomes possible when Christ comes into someone’s life.  Oil was used for healing and anointing and praise is the instinctive response that follows.  How this happens is not always understood.

For example, a while ago I saw an advertisement by a comedian whose name I do not remember, but the title of her show I’ll never forget.  She calls her nightclub routine, “Jesus is Magic.”  I’m not sure why she chose that title or what she meant by it, but I suspect she is poking fun at those who believe Jesus will by a wave of his wand make all problems go away.  She probably doesn’t believe that, nor should she, because that is not what Jesus came to do.

How does the Bible put it?  Well, Eugene Peterson reads it this way:

“Now that we know what we have – Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God – let’s not let it slip through our fingers.  He is not out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all – all but sin.  So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give.  Take the mercy, accept the help.”[6]

I’ve seen it.  You’ve seen it.  We’ve all met people who’ve done, who have “taken the mercy and accepted his help” and so have endured far more than most of us could ever imagine. Yet, they emerge with faith strong and vibrant and continue on while others collapse in the ashes. We’ve all met folks who seem to have experienced “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” 

It’s not that they no longer suffer or feel loss or pain. Jesus did not wave a magic wand. Rather, they have learned to place their loss and pain and suffering upon Jesus confident that while he may not make it all go away, he will provide the strength and comfort to help them carry it.  Most of all they know he knows.  He understands what we are going through.  We need not face our problems all alone for “he will never leave us nor forsake us.”[7]

Consequently, as God said through the prophet Isaiah.  He will give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit heaviness so that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

            This image of a great tree is used in scripture to describe the spiritual condition of God’s people.  It can be positive image, “trees righteousness”; or it can be used to describe a negative condition.  At the beginning of this prophecy, Isaiah said, “you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.”[8]  They were November trees, lifeless in winter.  Why? He told them. They did not, “cease to do evil, learn to do good.”  They did not, “seek justice and correct oppression.”  They did not “defend the fatherless and plead for the widow.”[9]

            Now, after their seventy year time-out period in Babylon, the prophet points to the tree in spring time, with leaves budding and reaching to the sky. The tree becomes a sign of life and renewal and growth.  The people of Israel were not the only ones to do that.

            Most of you, for example, will decorate a Christmas tree.  We have a couple here in the church. But, when you read the Christmas story you will find no description of decorated evergreen trees. There evidently was no Christmas tree next to the manger under which the wise men could place their presents of gold and frankincense and myrrh; because neither Luke nor Matthew mentions a tree at all. Still, trees are part and parcel of Christmas today.  Why?

It goes back to the Druids of course, who worshipped particular trees believing them to be inhabited by the spirits of the forest.  When missionaries to the Celts arrived in what is now Great Britain and observed this practice, they did what the Apostle Paul did in Athens.  You remember when he saw all the statues of the many gods the people worshipped; he neither dismissed nor discounted this polytheistic practice.  He did not make fun of them or ridicule.  Rather, he found a statute in a corner that they created to cover their bets, lest they forget to honor one of the gods and make him angry.  At the base of this cover-your-bases statue was a plague that said, “To the unknown god.”  Paul read the words and smiled and said, “Let me tell you about this unknown god whom you already worship.”[10]

Christian missionaries who knew their business did the same thing wherever they went.  So, when they saw the Druids decorating evergreen greens in the dead of winter a they took advantage of this opportunity to tell them the story of Jesus and his birth and the star in the sky and the shepherds.  They described his life and death and resurrection and told them that as sure as the leaves on the pine tree and spruce will be forever green, so will they live forever because of Jesus Christ.  Like these trees, they said, will you be able to stand tall against any winter winds that might blow.

Anyone who knows anything about trees will tell you their strength comes not from trunk or branches, the part of the tree we can see.  The strength will come from the roots, the part of the tree we do not see. The power of faith is like that, so the writer of the very first psalm observed, “Blessed is they who delights in the law of the Lord.  They are like trees planted by streams of water.”[11]

In other words we find our strength and our spiritual roots grow deep as we read, reflect, remember and follow the word of God.  This is where we find strength to bear fruit, to do something that matters for God.  This is how we glorify our God, and you can do that whether you will share your Christmas with children or not, whether you will share your Christmas with all of your family or not, whether you can spend a great deal of money on decorations and presents and trees – or not.

You can glorify God with a dollar dropped in a Salvation Army kettle, you can glorify God by helping us serve meals to the homeless on the week between Christmas, you can glorify God with a prayer and praise him by singing “O Come all ye Faithful” and mean it.

Christmas, you see, is for everyone who is willing to receive Christ.  The Christmas spirit is the spirit of Christ and he has come for everyone, but especially for the poor and brokenhearted, for those bound by powers beyond their control and for those who mourn loss of any kind.  To them especially he promises, “Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that you may be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

Let us pray:

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast our sin and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel!

Amen.[12]

  

           

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[1] Exodus 15:13-14, 21

[2] Isaiah 61:1

[3] Luke 4:18

[4] Luke 1:52-53

[5] Job 2:8

[6] Peterson, Eugene:

[7] Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5

[8] Isaiah 1:30

[9] Isaiah 1:16-17

[10] Acts 17:16-26

[11] Psalm 1:1-3

[12] Brooks, Phillips: O Little Town of Bethlehem. Verse 4

The Glory of the Lord Shall Be Revealed

Isaiah 40:1-11

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            Where do you go to find a little comfort?  When you’re feeling stressed or burned out, put down or shut out - where do you go?  What do you do when you’re feeling frustrated and agitated, disappointed and discouraged, overwrought and under appreciated?  If you just want all the noise to stop, all the pressure and pain, to whom do you go?

            There are many places we can turn - to a bottle or a stranger’s bedroom, to a ball field for distraction or Bermuda to just get away.   We can turn to the government and demand they fix all of our problems or just stroll through the mall looking for something to buy that will make us feel better, if only for a moment or two.  There are many places we can go to find some comfort, but the prophet proclaimed there is one to whom we can turn who will offer comfort that does not quickly fade like the flower in the grass.  Only God’s Word endures forever.

            This morning we will prepare the way of the Lord and pray he makes the rough places a plain and will reveal his glory once more through his word and by his spirit.  Let us pray:

            Lord, so often we look for love in all the wrong places.  We grasp for some comfort to carry us through the day, the week, the season.  We settle for cheap substitutes and turn away from your love that endures forever.  Open our eyes and hearts we pray so that we may recognize you are with us right here and right now.  Amen.

             For a long time the people had been stuck in Babylon, the place we now call Iraq.  They didn’t want to be there, but they were trapped and could see no way out.  There was no withdrawal strategy.  All they wanted to do was to get out and go home, but they could not.  Maybe you know the feeling.

            For seventy long years the people of Israel languished in Babylon.  Mary Beth called this a “time-out” period.  You know the disciplinary technique that modern parents use when their children get out of line. If the child is getting out of control and not listening anymore, parents will send their children to their rooms or a time out chair so they may think about what they’ve done and what they should do.

Through the prophet God the heavenly parent had said to the children of Israel, “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” – they did not.[1]  Instead, “they bowed down to worship the work of their hands,” which means they thought they could solve every problem and find every answer all on their own and worse than that believed they knew better than God the course their lives should take.[2]  They put all their eggs in a basket they wove themselves out of dried grass.

Again and again the prophet warned, but after a while, as every parent knows, the warnings will not work if they are not backed up with some kind of discipline.  Something must be done, so God sent the Babylonian army, which could not be ignored.  In short order the people of Israel were overwhelmed, captured and driven to Babylon against their will.  This was God’s way of sending them to their time-out chair so they could think about what they had done and should do.

            Now, at long last the time-out was over. Babylon was conquered by Persia, and Cyrus the King of Persia, told them children of Israel that they could go home.  That’s when God told the prophet to “Comfort, comfort, comfort ye my people.”  The words are tender and soft. George Fredrich Handel began his great work, Messiah, with these words and he captured their mood with a lyrical tenor solo that lifts the soul and stirs the heart, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”  These are the words of a parent lifting a three year old out of the time-out chair and whispering, “I still love you.”

When this Hebrew word for comfort was translated into Greek, into what is called the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, it turned out to be the same word the New Testament used to describe the Holy Spirit.  In the gospel of John, Jesus said, “The comforter, (there’s the word) the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance, all that I have said to you.”[3]

            In other words, comfort here means more than just a pat on the back and soothing words.  It is more than the words a mother says to her toddler when he scrapes his knee, “there, there it’s not so bad, everything’s going to be alright.”  Comfort here is more than well wishing because it recognizes that some things are that bad and cannot be made better by words alone.”  The old Peanuts cartoon captures this sentiment when Charley Brown and Linus, wearing winter coats and mufflers walk by Snoopy who is freezing outside in a blizzard.  They pat him on the head, tell him, “Be of good cheer” and then go in their warm house leaving him outside in the cold.

 God’s comfort makes a difference.  God’s Word offers more than easy bromides like “every cloud has a silver lining.”  It is deeper than a bottle that dulls the pain and offers a love more profound than can be found at night with a stranger in a bedroom.  It provides more than the distraction we find at a ball field or on a winter getaway to Bermuda.

            God’s comfort, Jesus said, will teach you and bring to remembrance all that God has said and done and that is what will finally lead you home.  That is exactly what those stuck in Babylon needed most, because they did not know how to get home.  Remember they had been living there for over seventy years.  Their grandparents, ripped out of Israel, were now mostly dead and buried or too old to make the long journey home.  So, it was to their children and grandchildren, the king declared, “You are now free – go home!” 

            But, none of them had ever seen the Promised Land. All they knew were Grandma’s stories about the old days, and you how much attention the children pay to those.  Babylon was the only home they ever knew.  Like their forefathers in Egypt a thousand years before, some may have been thinking, “better the devil we know than the one we do not”, “better to be safe than sorry”.  At least we’ll have bread and a warm bed.  Maybe we’ll just stay where we are, where we’ve always been, where everything is familiar and certain.  Sometimes there is nothing more frightening than seeing a long deferred dream fulfilled.  Fantasy is not so frightening until there is a chance it may become real.

Besides that, they didn’t really know where their Promised Land was. They had some vague sense of direction, but they didn’t know how far it was and what obstacles and challenges they would face.  They didn’t think they could make it to the Promised Land on their own.  They were right about that.

That’s why the prophet cried out, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”[4]  What does that mean?  How is that done? 

To find the answer to these questions we turn to John the Baptist because this was the verse he quoted when he stood hip deep in the Jordan River to make way for the coming Messiah.  You’ll never recognize God in your midst, he said, if you do not prepare and make straight a highway for our God.  The Lord could tap you on the shoulder, as we learned last week, and ask for a cup of water or something to eat and you might look right through him if you do not prepare yourself, make straight the highway.[5]

Of course, John believed that reflection, repentance and resolution to follow the Word of God are the tools used to straighten out our course.  This is how we open our ears so God may speak and how we open our hearts so God may move within our lives.  That’s how we are to prepare to receive the Messiah.

That’s not how we do it now. Today and over the next four weeks we will prepare to receive the Messiah by plowing through the mob at the mall to find the perfect present.  We’ll shove our way past competitors who are looking for a parking place or elbow pasty someone looking at the last X-Box.  Maybe you saw the stories the other day about the Wal-Mart riots that got so bad the police had to be called.  Somehow, I don’t think that’s what God had in mind when he sent Jesus to be born in Bethlehem.

Even so, we’ll still spend a lot of time and effort choosing and decorating a perfect tree.  We’ll shop ‘til we drop and bake ‘til we break to create a Currier and Ives Christmas.  We’ve done it before.  We’ll do it again.  We’ll knock ourselves out preparing for Christmas, but then wonder why life is still so hard, why the valleys and mountains have not been smoothed over and why we face the same challenges and obstacles. We’ll find ourselves after Christmas to be exactly the same people we were before.  There will no transformation and little joy.  We’ll be no closer to the Promised Land.  We will never really see the glory of the Lord revealed through lights and tinsel.

How is it revealed?  How does God make himself known? The prophet continued, “A voice says, “Cry out!”  And Isaiah said, “What shall I cry?”    This is a question preachers understand.  Every Monday morning we look to that hard Sunday deadline when you will gather expecting to hear a good word, some word for the Lord that will get you through the week or bring you home to God.  So, all preachers ask, “Lord, what shall I say?” 

This is how God answered, “All people are grass and like flowers in a field.  The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord abides forever.”[6]   What does this mean? How does that lift our spirits?  We’re like grass, here today and gone tomorrow?  That’s supposed to make me feel better?

I think God is telling us that so much of what we work so hard for will not last and we know it.  We’re like people who build sand castles at the shore or carve ice sculptures in July.  We invest our time and talent, heart and soul into things that will wash away with the incoming tide or melt away under the hot sun.  The beautiful Christmas tree that stands at the center of our holiday loses its needles in January and just looks sad lying by the street waiting for the city to pick it up.  The only thing that endures is the Word that comes from God.

The Apostle Peter picked up on this same verse in his first letter and added this note for clarity.  “The word is the good news that was announced to you.”[7]  What is that good news?  It was the same news Isaiah received. “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms.”[8]

Have you ever seen a picture like that?  Maybe you saw it hanging in your grandma’s hallway or in a Sunday school room when you were little?  Have you seen that picture of Jesus with a lamb over his shoulder and at his feet?  Hold onto that image of the shepherd.  Turn it over in your hand like a Christmas ornament and look at it from every angle.  What does that mean to you – this shepherd and his lamb? 

This is the very picture of care and comfort. God is here, right here, right now.  God is tender and whispers quietly to you as a shepherd to a lamb.  Some of our favorite passages from scripture paint this portrait.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.”[9]  “O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”[10]  What did Jesus say?  “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”[11]

I believe it was no accident God first revealed the birth of Christ to “shepherds who were keeping watch over their flock by night.”[12]  They, more than most, understood how to care for the flock and what it takes to keep vigilant against predators who prey upon the weakest of the lambs.  They understood the sacrifice of a shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep.  So, the shepherds were the first, the Bible says, to “make known the saying which had been told them concerning this child.”[13] They were the first to fulfill Isaiah’s command to “lift their voices and declare, “Behold, your God.”[14]

Will you do the same?  Will you by your attitude and actions, by your words and deeds declare, “Behold, your God.”  During this season there are so many opportunities.  It can be as simple as choosing a Christmas card with a nativity scene and Bible verse instead of one with Santa and eight tiny reindeer.  Rather than buying some meaningless trinket for someone you know has everything they could need or want, you could make a donation to Katrina victims in their name, or contribute to the Heifer project as our Sunday school children will be doing. You can volunteer during the week between Christmas and New Year to help us feed the homeless through the congregational-based shelter.  Next week the sign up board will be in the Narthex.  There will be many ways you can help, many opportunities to say, “Behold, your God.”  Will you?  Your take on Christmas, what it means and what it’s for will be shaped by your answer.

Through this same prophet God said, “As one whom a mother comforts, so I will comfort you.  You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.”[15]  So where will you go to find a little comfort?  When you’re feeling stressed or burned out, put down or shut out – to whom will you go?

Let us pray:

O come, thou dayspring, come and cheer,

 Our spirits by thing advent here;

 Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

 and deaths’ dark shadow put to flight.

  Help us to rejoice Emanuel and declare

through attitude and action, word and deed,

“Behold, you are here, right here, right now.  Amen.

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[1] Isaiah 1:16-17

[2] Isaiah 2:8

[3] John 14:26

[4] Isaiah 4:3

[5]

[6] Isaiah 40:6-7

[7] 1 Peter 1:25

[8] Isaiah 40:9, 11

[9] Psalm 23:1-2

[10] Psalm 95:6-7

[11] John 10:14-15

[12] Luke 2:8

[13] Luke 2:17

[14] Isaiah 40:9

[15] Isaiah 66:13

Who is Shaping Your Life?

Isaiah 64:1-8

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            This is the time of the year when you think about putting up a Christmas tree.  Maybe yours is already up.  When you do it is always the same. You set up the tree, string the lights and then pull out the old box of ornaments. Now there are two schools of thought with the ornaments.  Some like to have them color coordinated and following a theme.  Others have a more eclectic approach.  The decorations are almost like a history listen reminding you of the time you bought the dream-catcher on vacation in Arizona, or the one with your child’s name that says, “Baby’s First Christmas”.  My favorites of course are the ones my children made out of crayons and glitter and play dough. They may not be fancy, but shaped by their little hands they are filled with love and that makes all the difference.

            Our scripture today takes us to the potters house where God shapes with love our lives, our hopes and our dreams. 

            “Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me.  Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me. Melt me; mold me; fill me; use me. Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me.” Amen       

            There is hardly a craft more visual and more tactile than that of making pottery.  The potter’s hands are immersed in the clay.  They feel their way through the mud until an elegant ceramic vase emerges.  The slightest touch this way or that can shape the form intended or send it spinning wildly off the wheel. Watch a potter at work and you will see complete focus and attention on the vessel being created.

            It occurred to Isaiah as he watched this artisan work that this was simple parable, a picture of God at work.  He believed that God’s hands continue to shape the soul and spirit of those who yield themselves to his touch.  He believed that God is present and active in the historical events we read about in the newspapers.  He believed that God is still there and that God does still care.  He also knew that the Lord is not the only one who wishes to shape and influence us.

           

            Early on we don’t have much choice.  We come into the world and into the arms of our parents who will tell us what is what.  They will teach us as best they are able how to tie our shoes, ride a bike, and drive a car.  Their beliefs and values and their understanding about what is right and what is wrong will become our default position.  Our attitudes and actions will be shaped by and influenced by Mom and Dad. They are forever be imprinted on our souls. 

            But, they are not the only ones whose hands bend the clay, because one day Mom and Dad will drop us off at the bus stop and from there we’ll be taken to a classroom. For the next dozen years or so teachers of various shapes and sizes will be given an opportunity to teach us reading, writing, and arithmetic and how to understand our history and how we might look to the future.

            Between classes, and during recess, and after school our friends will have their say about what kind of clothes we wear, what kind of music we listen to, and what they think is right and wrong, good or bad.

            Even when they are not around a thousand voices a day call out to us from the radio or through the television screen or in the advertisements in the magazine we read while we’re waiting to get a hair cut.  They also have an opinion on what we should buy and how we should live.  They also want to put their hands into the clay.

            There are no shortage of voices that beckon us this way and that, and there are plenty of people who want nothing more than to shape your understanding of what really matters and what really counts.  On Sunday mornings the preacher is just another one of those voices.  Hopefully though, he or she brings a good word from God, the same God who said to the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”[1]  

            Maybe the one who knows you best is the one you should listen to as you try to make your way through a confusing a complicated world.  Maybe the one who through this same prophet said, “I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not evil, plans to give you a future and a hope” is the one you allow to shape and form your life.[2]  Maybe we give a little less credence to the countless voices that surround us and pay a little more attention to God’s still small voice that whispers to us in those rare quiet moments when we are alone with ourselves and with God.

            As Isaiah watched the potter work he noticed that sometimes the clay did not turn out as the potter hoped.  It was almost as if the mud had a mind of its own.  Though the skilled craftsman intended to create a perfect piece, sometimes he ended with a cracked pot because of some unseen flaw that revealed itself in the weakness of the clay.

            This is where this teaching really hits close to home, because if there is one Biblical truth that is acknowledged by everyone, believer or not, it is that none of us are perfect.  We all know a crack pot or two, someone whose imperfections drive us crazy.  Sometimes we’ll overhear someone saying the same thing about us.  We all agree with those biblical passages, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and there is none who is righteous, no not one.”[3]  No one I know would ever say with a straight face, I don’t know about you, but I’m perfect – never made a mistake in my life and never intend to.”  You may know someone who thinks they are perfect, but they’d never say it out loud, and you wouldn’t believe them anyway.

            Since we are all more or less in the same boat the only question that really matters is what are we going to do about it?

            Some surrender to the flaws.  They make friends with their sin.  When they say things they shouldn’t say, or do things they shouldn’t do and someone complains they just slough it off with an easy, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” That becomes their excuse. If they once felt a twinge of conscience, if they once felt guilty they don’t any more.  They’ve learned to justify and rationalize almost anything.

            The prophet Jeremiah refers to these folks in this way.  They say, “We will follow our own plans and act according to the stubbornness of our evil hearts.”  The Bible describes this in another way. Sometimes hearts become so hardened even the hand of God cannot soften. Sometimes people become so stubborn in their sin no amount of coaxing or persuasion or warning will open their eyes. As a consequence the prophet says in the next chapter, “As one breaks a potter’s vessel, it can never be mended.”[4]

            After the clay has been through the fire, the flaws will be forever frozen.  They cannot be re-shaped.  It can have no use.  It will be tossed aside. 

            Eventually our attitudes and actions freeze in place the choices we make in this life, and the path we’ve followed.  We end exactly where we’ve chosen to be by the decisions we make every day.   We often see this portrayed in cartoons as fire and brimstone, but in the image here is more like the poignant pile of pottery shards piled behind the potter’s shed, broken and beyond redemption.

            Before the fire though there is always hope.  Even if we’ve resisted the hand of the Lord god does not give up. The Bible says, “the potter just re-worked it into another vessel as seemed good to him.”[5] 

            Here is where we need to dig deeper into this parable. If God is the potter and we are the clay, do we have any say about how we will be shaped and formed?  Are we just clay or are we mud with a mind of our own?

            In one sense we are like clay shaped by forces beyond ourselves.  Talk to any counselor or psychologist in a therapy session and they’ll go back through your life to help you understand those people, events, and experiences that have impacted your life and influenced the way you look at things.  No man is an island.  We are all impacted by others. 

Some times for devotions I use this book, “A guide to Prayer for all God’s people.”  I happened to be reading it this week when I came upon this passage written by a woman named Paula Ripple a potter who works with clay.  She said,

“Both my hands shaped this pot.  And the place where it actually forms is the place of tension between the pressure applied from the outside and the pressure of the hand on the inside.  That’s the way my life has been.  Sadness and death, misfortune and the love of friends and all of these things that happened to me that I didn’t even choose have shaped the person I am.

My life, like this pot, is the result of what happened on the outside and what is going on inside.  Life, like this pot comes to be in the places of tension.”  Often there is little we can do about those outside forces: the sudden death of a loved one, the loss of a job, health that is fading.  These things just happen to us.  We can, with God’s help choose how we will respond.  We can with God’s help allow his hands to shape us, his word to guide us, and his grace to forgive us.

No one understood that more than Myra Brooks Welch, a resident of La Verne, California.  She was called "The poet with the singing soul.”  She came from a very musical family and as a young woman became an accomplished organist.

In 1921, she heard a speaker address a group of students. She said she became filled with light, and wrote in 30 minutes a poem called "Touch of the Master’s Hand!" She sent it anonymously to her church news bulletin. She felt it was a gift from God, and didn’t need her name on it. Its popularity spread like magic. Finally, several years later, the poem was read at a religious international convention with the annotation, "author unknown." A young man stood up and said, "I know the author, and it’s time the world did too. It was written by my mother, Myra Welch."    

What the world did not see and did not know, was that the woman who created these masterpieces: Myra was battered and scarred from severe arthritis and confined to a wheel chair.  She could no longer play the organ so she took to writing.

She took wrote with a pencil in badly disabled hands. Using the eraser end, she would slowly type the words, the joy of them outweighing the pain of her efforts.  This is what she wrote:

T’was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.

"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who’ll start the bidding for me?"
"A dollar, a dollar," then, two! Only two?
"Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?

"Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three . . . "But no,
From the room, far back, a grey haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;

Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: "What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.

"A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice;
And going and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of a master’s hand."

And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.

A "mess of potage," a glass of wine;
A game, and he travels on.
He is "going" once, and "going" twice,
He’s "going" and almost "gone."

But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.[6]

            Let the touch of the master’s hand shape your life and there is no telling what music you can create, what peace and joy and grace you an express with your words and actions and the attitude of your heart.  It’s not too late, no matter what you’ve done and where you’ve been.  God’s tender hands can work within the tensions of your life.  The Bible says, “It does not yet appear what you shall be.”[7]

Let us pray:

            Have thine own way, Lord!  Have thine own way!  Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.  Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still.  Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way!  Hold oe’er my being absolute sway! Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see, Christ only, always, living in me. Amen.

---

[1] Jeremiah 1:5

[2] Jeremiah 29:11

[3] Romans 3:23, 3:10

[4] Jeremiah 19:11

[5] Jeremiah 18:4

[6] http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/storiesfolder/master.html

[7] 1 John 3:2

With Whom do You Identify?

Matthew 24:31-45

click to listen

            Sometimes, when I exit off 83 and onto Mt. Rose I’ll see someone standing on the lane divider holding a cardboard sign.  He is often disheveled and unshaven, wearing a coat worn and dirty holding a cup and maybe a sign that identifies his need.  He wants money. 

            Maybe you’ve seen him too. Now, sometimes we roll down the window and drop a dollar and then drive on, but most times we pass by without speaking or even looking.  We’ve seen him before, a thousand times before, and we’re pretty sure that any money he gets goes straight into a bottle.  We wonder why he doesn’t get a job, and why he doesn’t clean himself up? 

            It’s not so much that we don’t care, but we know that a casual dollar dropped into a cup will not solve his problem and may even add to it.  Because we don’t know what we should really do, we flick a switch in our hearts so that we can walk by without feeling so bad. We can only absorb so much suffering. Our empathy dries up.  The temptation to flick that switch and turn off our compassion is powerful and easy to understand, but we will see that compassion fatigue may have lasting consequences. 

            In these powerful words of scripture Jesus describes the burden we bear for turning our heads and walking by.  Let us pray:

Lord, sometimes the suffering we see swallows us up.  We grow weary in well doing.[1]  Our hearts become hardened and our souls calloused.  Soften our hearts we pray and grant us wisdom so that acts of kindness shall not be wasted, but heal and make whole once more.  Amen.

            This passage looks a little bit like a parable, but it lacks the language Jesus often uses to begin these stories.  He does not say, “the kingdom of God is like, or may be compared to.”[2]  This is not an allegory.  His words are straightforward.  This is the way it will be.

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate people one form another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.”[3]

I don’t know how often any of us really think about this “Day of the Lord”, when Gods judgment shall be revealed.  Some of us see that day on a far distant horizon, years and years away; and so we figure there will always be time to clean up our act and get right with God.  We don’t worry because we think there is no hurry. There will always be more time. 

Many do not consider at all this “Day of the Lord” because they don’t believe it will ever happen.  Since the Bible says, “God is love”,[4] and because the Bible says, “love will cover a multitude of sins”[5]; they believe God will open wide the gates of his kingdom to everyone, no matter what they have believed or how they have lived. 

In this view, those who have tried to live a righteous life or strived for personal holiness have done so in vain.  Those who have chosen to “eat, drink and be merry”[6] have chosen a wiser path because they get to enjoy the best of both worlds, the pleasures of sin and the promise of eternal life.

In this view, Jesus’ words of judgment don’t make any sense, because he says our actions and attitudes do have consequences.  But, they are his words, and I believe the only words we have for salvation. The Apostle Peter put it this way, “Lord where else can we go.  You have the words of eternal life.”[7]  In this passage Jesus says clearly there will come a day when the “goats shall be separated from the sheep.” 

What stands out in God’s judgment is how surprised everyone will be when this happens.  Both those who are identified as goats to be excluded from God’s kingdom and those recognized as sheep, to be welcomed into heaven, are equally astonished.  Those on the outside who find the door slammed in their faces do a double take and ask, “what happened?”  Those on the inside are equally incredulous and ask “how did I get here?”  No one expected to be where they were in relationship to God.  Heaven and hell it seems will be a surprise to everyone.  No one has really figured it out.  So, Jesus explains.

First, he turns to those on his right hand, to the sheep, the ones who are welcomed into God’s kingdom, and says, the reason you are here is because “you gave me food when I was hungry, and drink when I was thirsty, and when I was a stranger you welcomed me.”[8]

The sheep are puzzled.  “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and give you food, thirsty and give you something to drink, a stranger and welcome you?”[9]  They don’t think they’ve done anything special, and they are flat out positive that they never did anything out of the ordinary for Jesus.  All they did was to “treat others as they would want to be treated.”[10]  We call this the Golden Rule because we believe this is a valued way to live.  But, these sheep that Jesus described, just thought it was the way you are supposed to live.

When they see someone hungry, they make sure they are fed.  When they see someone thirsty, they get them something to drink.  When they see someone with any kind of physical or spiritual need they do their best to meet it.  They don’t do it for the glory, or so that people will speak well of them.  They don’t do it to make up for some past sin.  They don’t do it so that God will have to welcome them into heaven.  They just do it because it is the right thing to do.  That is why Jesus calls these people righteous.  They do the right thing because it is the right thing.

This is what those whom Jesus described as goats could not understand.  When Jesus told them, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat and I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink and I was a stranger and you did not welcome me” and that’s why “you must go away into eternal punishment,” those on his left hand protested.  That’s not true, they shouted.  We never saw you hungry or thirst or a stranger.  If you had come to our church on Sunday morning we’d have brought you right up front and let you sit next to the pastor.  We’d have had a big congregational dinner and put you in a place of honor.  We’d have taken up a special offering.  But, Jesus you never showed up.  We never saw you.

But, Jesus said, “I was there.”  I was there in every beggar who asked for a handout. I was there with every woman who showed up pregnant and alone, frightened and confused, who only needed some help and comfort and understanding and guidance. I was there with her child growing within, a child whose future was held in her hands and yours. I was there with every widow grieving because her world was suddenly turned upside down at the loss of her husband of fifty years.  I was there with the man who just lost his job and the teenager who ran away from home.  I was there with the immigrant who was overwhelmed by a culture he did not understand.

I was there Jesus said.  You looked right at me, but did not see me, so you turned away.  And when you turned away, you ignored the beggar and the woman pregnant and alone. You ignored the child growing within.  You ignored the widow and the teenager and the immigrant.  God, who is filled with love and compassion for people just like that, will not ignore apathy. God cannot and will not betray their suffering.  God will not tell them their suffering made no difference.  God will not tell them that it made no difference whether those who called themselves by his name helped or not.

Every time I read this passage I am convicted.  Every time I look with irritation at someone who just walked in off the street, and interrupts my sermon preparation, with another sad story I feel bad. I feel bad not so much for their plight, but because my impatience reveals just how far short I have fallen from the glory of God.[11]  I feel bad because my first instinct is to just toss them a couple of bucks and get them out of the office so that I can continue in my study of God’s Word. 

But, when I return to my study, the Word reads differently. It doesn’t warm my heart.  I feel instead cold and guilty like I did when Mom caught me with my hand in the cookie jar. God’s Word “is quick and powerful, and sharper than a double-edged sword.  It discerns the soul and spirit and the thoughts and intents of the heart.”[12]  It shows me that the intention of my heart was not to minister, really minister to the real needs; but only to salve my conscience with a couple of bucks I’ll never miss.

That’s what God’s judgment reveals here.  God’s judgment is not based on some eternal balance sheet where the goal is to garner more credits than debits.  God will not ask to see the line item for charitable contributions on your income tax form.  God is not going to enter the good deeds you’ve done and the sins you’ve committed into some computer spreadsheet that will automatically spit out a bottom line, which will determine your eternal destiny.  God does not keep score like that.

God is going to look to the heart.  The heart will reveal whether you do the right thing because it is the right thing or whether you do the right thing for the wrong reasons. It is your motive that matters. Jesus did not describe this judgment so that we will feel guilty and reluctantly throw a couple of bucks into the bucket at Christmas time.  He did it so that we can see how we harden our hearts every time we turn our heads from those who suffer.  He offered this warning so that we might know how seriously God takes those who suffer and how God looks at those who ignore such suffering.  Our hearts are hardened or softened by the choices we make every day.  That’s why they matter so much.  If we ever hope to see the face of Jesus in heaven, we must first learn to see his face in those who suffer and are alone and frightened and poor.

Let me tell you how I think that happens.  A couple of years ago, you saw a lot of venders in the mall who sold a kind of poster that always appeared to me as a pattern of chaotic scribbles.  Beneath the scribbles buried somehow was a real picture.  I never saw the picture but only saw the pattern.  I was told that only people who have vision in both eyes could see it. 

Those people who could see the pictures told me that if you tried to seek it you couldn’t.  You could only see the picture if you were really looking at something else.  You had to somehow look through the clutter.  I think that’s how we see the face of Jesus.

Those who minister to the poor begin to see Jesus when they see the beggar as a real person and not just an annoyance.  Those who minister to women alone and pregnant begin to see Jesus when they see her and her child not just as a problem that needs a solution, but as people facing physical, material, and spiritual needs.  Those who minister to the grieving begin to see Jesus in the face of their loss because they recognize the loss God felt when he gave his only begotten son.[13]  Those who minister to immigrants begin to see Jesus when they recognize that they like Jesus, have no place to rest their heads.[14]

In other words, they do not see Jesus not in a sunset, or in a book of theology, which is where we expect to find him.  They don’t even see his face in a prayer closet or a worship service.  They see the face of Jesus in the least of these, in those who face real and desperate need.  It is in the acts of charity that we begin to see his face through the clutter of this world.

So, what does this mean when you drive by the guy disheveled and unshaven, wearing a coat worn and dirty standing on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign?  Does it mean you have to drop a buck in his cup?  Does it mean you’re supposed to stop and try to get to know each and every one you pass?

No, the suffering will swallow you up.  There were times when even Jesus could not meet every need.  The better way is to support those who have been called by God to minister to a specific need, who can take the time to figure out what the real problem is.  The better way is to encourage those willing to meet with the woman, pregnant and abandoned, who understand the complex facets of her dilemma.  The better way is to minister in areas with which you have some experience and knowledge.

We really can’t be all things to all people, but we can do something for someone who needs some help.  Living a righteous life is really a matter of doing the right things for the right reasons.  It is living by the Golden rule because that is the only rule that makes sense.

The decisions we make here will either harden or soften our hearts.    Sometimes a soul can become so calloused that even God’s Spirit can barely penetrate.  When that happens we may find ourselves far from God.  As you have done it to the least of these, Jesus said, you do it unto me.  If we ever hope to see the face of Jesus in heaven, we need to see his face in the least of these.

Let us pray:

            Lord, you have promised that whatsoever is done for the least of these is received as being done unto you:  Grant us grace to be ever willing and ready to minister to the needs of those far and near, through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

---

[1] 2 Thessalonians 3:13

[2] Matthew 25:1,14

[3] Matthew 25:32-33

[4] 1 John 4:7

[5] 1 Peter 4:8

[6] Ecclesiastes 8:15

[7] John 6:68

[8] Matthew 25:35

[9] Matthew 25:37

[10] Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31

[11] Romans 3:23

[12] Hebrews 4:12

[13] John 3:16

[14] Matthew 8:20