Hope in hard times!!

Isaiah 40:1-5

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

If you've been listening to the news or reading the newspaper over the last year or so you know that we are living in hard times. No matter how you may define hard times or how others define hard times it would appear as though our reality for the foreseeable year we will be living through hard times.

With hard times come the unholy twins of fear and worry. If you're just starting out you worry about job prospects, if you have a job you worry about losing your job, if you've lost your job you worry about finding a new job, if your retired you fear losing your retirement. If you're not worried or fearful right around now there is something wrong with you is the message we are bombarded with on the news and in the news outlets.

The people of Israel knew a thing or two about hard times. Time and time again they found themselves in one hopeless situation or another. From the exile in Egypt to the crushing defeat by the Babylonians hard times was an ongoing reality in the lives of God's chosen people. But yet they never lost hope in the God who was their savior (well actually they did a few times but that didn't last too long thankfully).

The people of Israel knew that in their hard times that hope was not lost. They lived in hope that even if they themselves did not see the end of their hard times that their children and their children's children would see a new day.

Do we share that same hope?

As we turn our gaze towards Christmas we seek to capture some of that hope that the people of Israel sought in the midst of hard times. But are we filled with the same hope and trust in God that better things will come?

There is a reason why God chose to come to us in the form of a child rather than with trumpets and great glory. God chose to come as a child because in a child we see "the hopes and fears of all the years." We see possibility in a helpless child, we see hope. In Jesus our hope is made flesh. But our challenge as we live through these hard times is to place our hope in the One who call us to do more for others than for ourselves. Our hope is to be in the God who sees us through hard times. Our hope cannot be in ourselves or our things but in our good and gracious God.

May you find true hope in the midst of hard times.

Giving thanks?

Psalm 134

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

Psalm 134 Modern Translation

Be thankful, servants of God, You who wait for God. Be thankful all the days of your life. Be thankful for the beauty of the earth. And the One who is making it will bless you.

A seeker once went to the holy woman in the desert because life had become too chaotic and he yearned to have balance and order restored within him. The desert woman said to him, “Your life is chaotic because you have become dependent on change, on excitement, on variety. You want always to experience something new instead of finding what is new through the repetition of what seems old. If you would have balance and order within, do one small thing at the same time each day with gratitude in your heart and slowly the tattered fragments of your life will be bound together into a textured tapestry of beauty. It does not take great doses of hardship – only one small thing done every day at the same time with gratitude in your heart. One small thing every day, at the same time, with gratitude in your heart. One small thing, every day, same time, with gratitude. And that will be enough.

We live in a world filled that often moves a pace that many of us find had to keep up with on our good days. All around us tells us to go, go, go and if we are at rest something must be wrong with us. But there is something special about taking time to take time.

One of those times ahead of us comes in the form of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Many of us will be gathering with family for the yearly ritual of turkey and mashed potatoes. We will once again run ourselves frantic with preparing to host or be hosted at the table once more. And then on Friday next the frenzy of pre-dawn shopping. A time that is supposed to be about family and giving thanks for God's bounty has, like most other days of rest, become a time of chaos.

But what would happen if we stopped this Thanksgiving and really gave thanks? How different would our lives be if instead of frantically gathering the family for food we gathered our families and together prepared a meal with thanksgiving? What would happen if at our gathers rather than eating and running off to the football game of the day we gave thanks for each other? What if we shared memories and let our families know how much we love and care for them even when we disagree?

I think our Thanksgiving celebrations would be a lot different. I think we would find in this holiday a joy that has been lost in the shop-til-you-drop mentality that has become part of our cultural celebration of thanks.

I for one will make an effort to slow down this Thanksgiving Day, to give thanks for the many blessings and great things that God has given me in all aspects of my life. My invitation is for you to do the same. Let us promise that we will make this year different because if we lose sight of what giving thanks, we lose sight of who we really are, and that is too high a price to pay for the latest electronic gadget.

Why Go to Church??

Scripture
Galatians 1:11-24:

For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I, Paul received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism.

I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, ‘The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they glorified God because of me.

Meditation: Why go the Church?

I have always been plagued by the question...Why do you go to church? More often than not my answer revolves around variations on "that's where I encounter God" or "that's where God works on me" but more recently I have started responding "Church is where I get my vision cleared." But there is much, much more to why I go to church than just that.

Recently I read an article that clarified why the church exists and why we go there. I share that article with you written by The Reverend Eyleen Farmer:

I’ve had my share of arguments with the Church. I’ve been bored enough to make grocery lists on the back of the bulletin; angry enough to stomp out in a huff; hurt enough to leave in a flurry of tears. Some of you may be shocked to hear this, but my guess is that I’m not the only one here who has ever felt this way.

Even my granddaughter, who is only five years old, has days when she would rather stay in her p.j.’s and play than get dressed and go to church. A few Sunday mornings ago, she told her mom, “I don’t like God, I don’t like Jesus, I don’t want to learn about them, and I wish church never existed!” Caroline of course is only the youngest in a very long line of church detractors.

In fact, it’s rather trendy these days to bash the church, along with religion and even God. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and The End of Faith by Sam Harris have both been best sellers. And Christopher Hitchens’s book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, is currently number three on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list. For Hitchens the falsity of religion is “blindingly obvious;” he calls those of us who cling to belief in God “morons, lunatics or liars.” (NYT review)

It’s too bad, but an undeniable fact, that the church so often lets us down. It disappoints, frustrates, infuriates. It betrays, wounds, and bullies. In its long, tortured history the church has more often than not been timid in the face of injustice, self-protective in the face of threat, and arrogant in the face of challenge.

You don’t have to know very much at all about history to click off the sins of the Church—Crusades, Inquisitions, and witch-hunts for starters. The greedy corruptions that fueled the Protestant Reformation, the misuses of scripture to justify slavery and the exclusion of women; more recently, abuse scandals and battles over homosexuality…

So, why are we here? Why do we continue to cast our lot with the broken body called the church? We come here, of course, for all kinds of reasons. But I can tell you that I am here because the freedom of which Paul speaks, living into the law of love, is more demanding, more difficult by far than following rules. I’m here because I know I can’t do it on my own, no matter how hard I try. I’m here, we’re here, because we need each other, because when we come together to say our prayers and share a common meal, we make love possible. Because here is where we have the best chance to grow into what Paul called “the full stature of Christ.”

Hospitality of Food...

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Food is an important part of who we are. Food expresses everything from our cultural background to our understanding of who God is in our lives. How we share food, with whom, when and where we share food are all important aspects of our identities and defines us to a certain extent.

Throughout the Scriptures food has played an important role in the lives of the people of God. Had Abraham and Sarah not set out a small feast for the angels God would have chosen another couple to be the parents of great faiths. Jesus in his day sat at table with the outcasts and disenfranchised of his time much to the chagrin of religious establishment of his day.

Food has been and continues to be a means of expressing hospitality. The funny thing about food is that it is a fundamental part of who we are as people. We mourn with food, we give thanks with food, we gather to reconcile, remember, drown our sorrows and even worship around food. Heaven has to be a place of dining tables!

Isaiah’s vision of a rich banquet, replete with foods of all kinds, the bounty of the nations gathered at God’s table to celebrate the best of who we are, is an inviting scene. This is Isaiah’s picture of heaven. I like the idea that heaven is a banquet. If heaven is a banquet of rich foods (and I would imagine no calories, this is heaven after all) we are in good company. We get a chance to preview heaven whenever we as a community gather for simple meals in our homes, for pot lucks at our church but especially on Sundays around the altar.

But like any good thing we can be tempted to draw lines around who is invited to the table and who is not. In Isaiah's vision all the nations come streaming into God's abundant feast and that is what we are to be about. We find it hard sometimes to even share food with the people next door furthermore inviting strangers to our tables. But hospitality around food makes the world of difference.

Imagine if you invited your next door neighbor over for dinner? Imagine if you invited that new couple at Church or that single guy you don't know very well to have lunch? I think stories would be told, common interests would be found, new relationships and connections would be made all because we chose to share the hospitality of food.

So think about Isaiah's vision and think about your dining room table. Perhaps in no other place in your house do you get an opportunity to glimpse the life of heaven than in the place where we share food.

P.S. The early church buildings were designed to be giant dining rooms so in a sense our churches remain basically feasting halls.

Prayer: A Celtic Welcome Prayer

We saw a stranger yesterday.
We put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place,
And with the sacred name of the triune God
He blessed us and our house,
Our cattle and our dear ones.
As the lark says in her song:
Often, often, often, goes the Christ
In the stranger’s guise.

Meditation: Christmas in October?

Christmas has come early…or so it would seem. It seems as though every year Christmas come earlier and earlier. I walked into a store a few days ago to the sight of Christmas trees, lights and brightly colored presents. I honestly thought I had stepped into a Christmas wonderland, all that was needed was a guy in a red suit, some pointy eared elves and carols.

I have to wonder what it means that in the middle of October, well before Halloween and Thanksgiving, our culture has rushed on to Christmas. Do we really care as a society about the meaning of Christmas or has it simply become a commercial holiday?

The temptation for many us as people of faith is to join in the cultural rush towards Christmas. We can quickly be deemed "Grinch" if we don't follow behind the march towards Christmas trees and glitter. But what do we lose? I think we lose the tremendous meaning of Christmas; we cheapen the fact that the Creator of the Universe, the One who spun the planets and gave color to daisies deemed us worthy of becoming one of us. To me that is an awesome feeling that God chose to spend time in our shoes, coming as a child.

What we are called to do is to wait. We live in a society of instant everything, but the message of the church is to wait. There is something special about the anticipation of what is to come, and that is part of the allure of Christmas.

How will you hold off the onset of Christmas this year? How will you live in that place of waiting and hoping and longing for the coming of God in Christ? How we answer these questions will make all the difference in our lives and in our world.

Prayer

Gracious and Holy God, I know you come among me in the helpless and the lonely; grant that I may see you present in our world not only in the journey towards Christmas but in every journey. May IO see in the face of others your face and may my actions be guided and directed solely by you. I make my prayer in the name of Jesus your child our Savior. Amen.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

"All endings are beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..."

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. As the park has changed over the years -- from the Loop-the-Loop to the Pipeline Plunge -- so, too, has Eddie changed, from optimistic youth to embittered old age. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his -- and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

This rare glimpse into the life of heaven is a wonderful tale of the people who impact our lives in so many ways.

Following after Sum: Forty Tale from the Afterlives, The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a quick read and a wonderful transition into the realm of heaven.

As you read The Five People You Meet in Heaven here are a few questions to think about:

• Which person did you think had the most influence on Eddie's life?
• Why do you think these particular 5 five were chosen to show Eddie his life?
• Who would your five people be? Why those five?
• If you could only thank five people who have significantly impacted your life who would they be and why?

Sum: 40 Tales from the Afterlives

What happens when we die?

That has been the question that humans have asked perhaps from the dawn of time. We all would love to know what happens once life is over. Is there an afterlife? Does it involve clouds and angels? Do I get to meet God? Fair questions that we all ask as we journey through life.

In Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives David Eagleman attempts to answer, sometimes with great humor, the big question of what happens after death. Drawing from several understandings of the afterlife, Eagleman creates a theological platform for his readers to jump into the mystery of what happens after death.

As our July discussion book this collection of parables will elicit a number of different reactions. Each tale is about two pages long and will tickle your imagination in such a way that you'll fall into temptation: the temptation to read all the tales in one sitting. But I recommend that you read each one slowly, taking no more than two a day, which will give you a chance to appreciate and digest each tale. My hope is that we will have a lively discussion after reading this book.

So to spark our discussion here are some questions to ponder and respond to as you make your way through the book:

• Which afterlife was your favorite?
• If you could create an afterlife what would it be?
• Do you think we shouldn't diverge from the "authorized" understanding of the afterlife? (Heaven with angels and St. Peter etc.)
• Do you think some of the tales would offend? Which ones?
• What did you like most about the tales? What did you like the least?
• If you could sum-up Sum in two sentences or less what would they be?
• Would you recommend Sum to a friend?