Dramatic Crops!

Sermon Mark 4:1-10; 14-20 April 22, 2018 Earth Day Dramatic Reading of the Sower and the Seed.

Dramatic Crops!

Please take a moment and thank the youth choir for bringing the Word of God to you through dramatic interpretation.

One thing that has always surprised me when I’ve read or listened to this parable from Jesus, is how entertaining it is. It is dramatic. It is understandable. It is always intriguing.

I’ve recently been wondering about the predicament the seed faces as it lands on a variety of soils, rocks, and harsh conditions. Perhaps, the variety of conditions that seed falls to are about the variety of circumstances all humans encounter in their journey of faith.  

Jesus is telling the listeners of this parable about the ways the Good News of God is received. Think about your faith journey for a moment. Is it possible to relate to each of these ‘soil’ situations?

I can guess that those wonderful seeds of good news have fallen on the path, the rocks, among the weeds and on fertile soil in the measure of one day of my life.

Jesus said the seed fallen on the path has no chance because evil snatched it up.

There are times when we hear God’s Word but it goes in one ear and out the other. We would rather get caught up in gossip, or name calling, than obey the voice of good news. We would rather steal joy from someone else by acting out or screaming or cursing or losing control of the faith God has put in us-in those moments-evil has snatched us up as a bird snatches seed from the path.  

No matter how mercy filled the Good News of God is as it comes to us, we are unable to open up to it, and we miss the blessing God has for us. Living in integrity that means so much to us has been stolen so quickly.

Betraying behavior, bullying, and dishonesty don’t just seep into our lives it enters so quickly we are almost unaware that who we are as a child of God in those moments is about to be stolen away. Evil has acted and we are taken by surprise.

Jesus said the seed that fell on rocky soil hears God’s Word is filled with joy but then shrivels under pressure.

There are times when we are filled with the joy and wonder and delight of the good news of God. But, disaster strikes us. Illness comes upon us. Friends die. Tornadoes destroy homes. We fail exams. We lose our jobs. We don’t have enough money. Divorce happens. School shootings happen. Factories shut down. Car accidents happen. It as if the bad things are beating down anything that could be good news and all the joy of God is shriveled up in us and we cannot find a way to respond with our faith.

It can be so hard to when we seek to share joy and all around us is dismal moments. These, I believe are the most challenging times. The troubles of the world and of our lives would crush our faith if we allow them to. We know however, the wonder and joy of the continuous presence of God is strong and powerful within us to create the resilience to endure and overcome. Faith expressing itself through love brings us through. The only thing that counts is faith working through love. Galatians 5:6

The seeds falling among the thorns is probably the easiest of our moments to recognize. The times our ambition took the front seat pushing aside any good will, or grace in relationships. When our desire for success caused us to drop our lifelong friends in order to be with the cool crowd. Even in retirement we can let the thorns take hold of our faith. We can become so obsessed with our earnings and our financial outcomes that we lose sight of the power of God to sustain us through all times. We find ourselves choked of any joy of good news of God because we miser our time and talents for fear of losing them. Yet. Jesus is the one who has offered us incredible promises of talents in abundance as long as we use them.

Finally, the seed that falls among fertile soil can only grow and be fruitful. When our lives are filled with the presence of God. When every breath we take is aware of the beautiful, the noble, and the sacred, we learn happiness and discover creativity and joy.

Do we take time to be aware of what surrounds us each day? Do we have time for any of these in the seconds of our days? 

How will you honor the Creation and the earth we have around  us? Take ten seconds, I’ll watch the time.

Go, with good news and scatter the seeds everywhere. Amen.

Resources: NIB Mark. 

A Follower of Jesus, Not Your Politics

A Follower of Jesus, period. 

I'm reading a lot of articles lately about religion, Christianity and faith. While the words of politicians are not used, it is clear it is all about politics.
I hear and read people saying, 'I will not live with hate.'
Or, 'I will not be that kind of Christian.'

I find that no matter what I am reading there seems to be an enormous amount of judgment going on. And, I am afraid, that this is pushing us into a place where churches, ministers, and maybe even denominations are going to just go down party lines.

I am concerned that people who voted differently are beginning to feel uncomfortable and not welcome in their home church.

This, dear friends out there, is so WRONG!
This is not how we live as Christians in this world.

I really, really, really don't care who you voted for.
And I am not going to judge your faith in Christ or the truth of your religion by your vote.

I am frankly getting pretty tired of the self righteous religious ideal that only one kind of personal thinking is right.
I am worried about those who are putting themselves on a pedestal of true faith because they did not vote for Trump.

Well, I am sorry to all my dear friends who feel they are the true Christian as they smugly write their blogs about what a 'real Christian' looks like.

Just your action of writing blogs shows your judgment against the 'other'. And I am doing the same as I call you out! You see I'm a judger too, whether I want to be or not. But it has to STOP! ALL of US!

We are NOT better than those who think and vote different from us.
We are being cruel in our judgment.
We are acting bitter in our disdain.
We are trying to make ourselves feel better because we are 'not like them'.
Scripture teaches us to 'Remove the log from our own eye before we remove the speck from the other.'

SO, how do we get back to loving each other in the pews?

How do we stop writing articles that supports pointing fingers at who is the better Christian?

How do we get back into the pew and the pulpit and start listening to the words of Jesus?

Jesus has called us to love one another, and if Jesus had heard the phrase he would have used it-'warts and all!'

Come on folks on both sides-just cut it out! 

Not one of us is a better Jesus follower than the other.
So stop making Jesus a political icon for our own gain.

I am frankly exhausted with the rhetoric on both sides. I want to get back to the things that matter most.
I want all of us to get over ourselves.
Seriously, we have all acted foolishly, and I mean all of us.

I want to be showing grace to each member of my congregation and not even know or care where they stand in politics,

I want to care about their need for love, mercy, grace, and community;
their need for Jesus, their need for the church.
I want to show I am a follower of Jesus by making sure everyone,
and I mean EVERYONE, feels welcome at church.

I am a follower of Jesus because its my job to listen to the concerns of all God's people
 and believe me no matter what your politics are,
you each have many of the same worries.

I want to show I am a follower of Jesus; 

because I can hold the hand of the sick or the dying.

I can read and tell stories to the children.

I can sup with the widow or the lonely.

It's time to stop using Jesus as the political puppet to make each person feel justified in their political choices.
It's time to just stop, pray, hear the whisper of mercy, and receive the gift of grace.

So, let's do ourselves a favor.
Let's get on with simply living and simply loving in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ.

At the Crossroads-Peter

Sermon Luke 22:54-62 March 26, 2017 4^th Sunday Lent

At the Crossroads-Peter

As we travel these weeks of Lent we’ve met some interesting people along the way. 

Bourgogne Crossroad

Today we meet Peter. He has been made famous for his many choices documented in Scripture. We feel like we really know him. He made a lot of declarations about Jesus during his ministry. He was rather pushy at times and excited and even a bit childlike in his mannerisms.

What are some things you can remember from your Bible teachings about Peter?

Is there any one story that sticks in your mind?

Peter and Andrew were called to follow Jesus at the same time. Peter was first known as Simon and the Jesus named him Cephus/Peter which means rock. He was from Bethsaida but lived in Capernaum, he was a fisherman.

Peter is the disciple that walked on water just to see Jesus. He has been the one quick to action and quick to fall. Peter was part of the inner circle of Jesus. He was with James and John on several occasions when Jesus took only three disciples with him. Occasions such as the raising of the daughter of Jairus and at the transfiguration. Peter was impulsive and he even sought to rebuke Jesus when Jesus starting talking about his own death. Peter pledged to Jesus that he would never forsake him and that is when Jesus warned him that he would deny Jesus three times.

Perhaps this is why we can all identify with Peter. He seems real to us. We feel that we might be just like him in some situations. Or we are pretty quick to judge him and say that we would not behave like him.

It is so easy for us on this side of Easter to look at Peter and his denial of Jesus in the courtyard and chastise him for his reaction to those gathered around him.

But, Peter had no clue what was to happen. Even though Jesus talked about suffering and death none of the disciples had any idea of how this was going to transpire.

We don’t live our lives with crystal balls in front of us.

We don’t live knowing how things are going to unfold.

Therefore, when we make strong declarations and bold statements of how we will act and how we will be bold, it might not transpire as we hope.

Life gets in the way all too often.

Peter was following closely as Jesus was taken to the High Priest’s house. He wanted to be close but he had no idea what to do next. He had already tried to fight and Jesus didn’t want any of that to happen.

He was probably following close trying to figure out his next move.

When the servant girl and the two servant men identify him as one of Jesus’ disciples. It catches him off guard.

It catches him in the middle of his thoughts about what to do to help Jesus.

These people have messed up his planning.

He needed more time.

They took him by surprise and he wasn’t ready to respond.

He reacted as usual with quick words.

He just wanted them to leave him alone as he followed Jesus and tried again to make plans to rescue him or maybe even prepare a discourse.

And before he realized he had denied knowing Jesus three times and the rooster crowed.

In the gospel of Luke, the poignant moment wasn’t the realization of the denial. But, that Jesus looked at Peter. And with the look of Jesus, Peter was filled with remorse. He was devastated and he ran away and wept bitterly.

Peter’s faith didn’t fail him at this moment. It was his faith in Jesus that responded with regret when he saw the face of Jesus. In the face of Jesus, we experience love, mercy, grace beyond measure. In the face of Jesus our relationship with him is sealed forever. We call that salvation. Salvation, our relationship with God, sealed through the love of Christ.

Fred Rogers had many things to say about relationships. As an ordained Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers chose to spread the message of the gospel through the show, Mr Roger’s Neighborhood. It was a program all about the power of relationships and love for one another.

“Love isn’t a perfect state of caring. It is an active noun like ‘struggle’. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now-and to go on caring even through times that might bring us pain.”  

At that is what the look of Jesus upon Peter did. It loved him and showed forgiveness even in the moment of the pain of being denied.

Forgiveness is necessary in all relationships.

We cannot survive without the love and forgiveness of others.

And when we receive forgiveness we have the opportunity to repent, to change, to turn another way. It is our choice point. It is our crossroads.

The power of faith is that repentance flows from faith rather than precedes it. Repentance is actually born of faith. It is the sum of our faith. (Calvin Institutes) When we recognize that we have succumbed to temptation and denied the very One in whom we believe; it is our faith that brings us to our knees in sorrow. For, how could it be that if we were without faith that we could even experience remorse for our sin of denial? 

Dr Orr once said, ‘There is only one thing evil cannot stand, and that is forgiveness.” And forgiveness is born out of love. And love is born from God. For God is love. And we belong to God who loves us. 😃

All of us find a time or place where we should have said a bold word, a good word. We struggle with what we should say. We struggle with how our faith will help us. We struggle if our words will help or hurt our relationships. We may never face a time where our words will put us in danger for our lives, but there are times when we will find ourselves at a crossroads that calls on us to speak boldly.

How do we handle those times?

Have we yet to experience those times?

We are so quick to condemn Peter for not standing up and being bold at the very moment when we think he should have been. We are so quick to rebuke those who do not take a stand for justice and righteousness in the way we expect it to be done. We especially get angry when those silent have caused harm to us.

The toughest thing for us is to love someone who has hurt us. Someone who has been cruel, mean, and unjust to others. And yet, somehow there is this power that flows from the look of Jesus, the power of love and mercy, that causes us to see Jesus in that person as well.

To find mercy in our heart to offer to them what Jesus has offered to us.

Now the other toughest thing is to love the someone who has been mean to us when that person is our self. Take good care of this person. Offer this person mercy and forgiveness too.

Let us be gentle as we hold expectations before us and recognize our need for courage comes from above.

God is the one who calls us into lives of purpose.

God is the one who calls us to serve with the unique gifts given us. And when we falter, we can look up and see the face of Jesus loving us, forgiving us, and pouring his grace upon us.

Fear not.

Grace will lead you home. Amen.

Humble Heir

Sermon Genesis 15:1-12, 17, 18 February 21, 2016 Lent 2C

Humble Heir

Lent is a time of reflection and a time of opportunity. In Lent we intentionally choose to think about those who have influenced our life of faith. We take the time to think about all the people who have influenced our lives.

We think about how the courage and fortitude of others has impacted who we are today. We think about those people who mentored us, those people who changed the course of our lives just by being faithful to their principles and their understanding of what mattered.

We think about those who we know followed the call of God. Often the people that influenced us most were not the ones getting the accolades and fame, but the ones who quietly and humbly walked through life, steadfast and true to their calling.

                                         Who were or are those people for you?

Abram was the heir to all the promises of God for a future people. He was an heir to a promise that he would not see until the fourth generation. Abram was granted righteousness because he followed God, believed God, and listened to God.

Abram, we consider a humble man, not because he blindly obeyed, but because he had the courage and boldness to follow through even in the midst of uncertainty. He was promised much from God but remained as true as possible to who he was. He messed up, he did some dumb things, he wasn’t perfect, yet he kept going with the promise God had given him as his hope for the future. A future he was not sure he would see.

And so when God comes to him again in this chapter he begins to speak and ask questions.

Here is the question of faith for us:
Can a person who has doubts, and questions God be an example for us about faithfulness?
If a person asks questions about God’s plan and God’s actions in their life does this make them unfaithful?
If a person is in this situation are they having a crisis of faith?

This story of Abram-and perhaps many more Biblical stories-demonstrate for us that his journey is our journey and the doubts, the questions, and the uncertainty are not a crisis but an element of faith.

Frederick Buechner says, “Faith is better understood as a verb than a noun, as a process than a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where we are but going anyway. A journey without maps. Tillich said that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”

 

Brian Peterson-Night Sky

As we look to this story of Abram we notice three elements of his faith as he converses with God.

1.       This first element of faith we witness is that God speaks and Abram listens.

In our time alone with God do we give God room to speak or are we the ones doing all the talking. Some of the ways we give room for God to speak is by sitting quietly with God’s Word and allowing the words from the text to sift into our minds. We pause and maybe we fall asleep, or maybe our mind wanders to all the distractions around us. Can we sit long enough with God to allow God to speak to us in the silence that surrounds us? If we like to fish or hunt or garden or cook or sew or knit or clean; can we allow the words from God to filter into those activities of our lives to offer us guidance and peace?

2.      The second element of faith we witness in this story is that God promises and Abram believes.

Abram trusts God’s promises. I think most of us trust God’s promises of love and life too. The promise of God that I believe Abram trusted was God’s power and presence. He recognized in hearing God that God was with him even in his questions and doubts. Abram knew God enough to ask God the how and even the why questions. He trusted God’s presence enough even to challenge God about God’s purposes. When we struggle to understand the direction or the course of life we are on, it only makes sense to ask God what this means and if there will be something revealed to help us know we are still moving in the right direction. We face many struggles and in our struggles we are faced with anxiety, fears and doubts.

I find it a comfort to be able to reach out to God and question it all.

It is not our lack of faith that puts us there but our desire to be faithful!

Show us God!

Help us see!

We read that Abram believes God after he is shown the stars in the sky.

But, is it the stars he believes, or the future, or the existence of God?

Somehow Abram finds assurance of who God is and who he is in this exchange of words and dreams. Yes, it’s in his exchange with God, his connection, his conversation, that he finds his assurance. In his exchange with God he is affirmed and that brings him to belief.

And perhaps when we exchange our doubts and fears with God we too can find assurance.

Hebrews 11:1 Says faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

3.      And the third element (I’m certain there are many more, but these we observe today), God commands and Abram obeys.

Abram doesn’t have answers to all his questions. he doesn’t have the details of the future spelled out for him and he certainly doesn’t have a blueprint, excel file, or map of where to go or what to do next. Abram doesn’t even fully understand what God meant.
But, he forged forward anyway.

These elements of faith sustain.

And so do the prayers of faithful people.

This past week as you know has been difficult in our family’s loss. Yet-we have been carried by your prayers as if being raised up on wings of eagles.

Prayers are our life blood.

And they hold me now as I try to talk about Abram and faith.

The thing that hurts is Faith is the name given to our granddaughter and in her loss,

Baby Faith-Tiny Feet

it hurts just to say it.

Perhaps, that is the truth about our faith and our walk with God

sometimes it hurts just to say it.

And sometimes it hurts to live it.

And sometimes it hurts to know its truth-faith in God is from everlasting to everlasting. And when we or I remember that, then
saying,

living,

speaking

Faith
is joy

and the hurt is mingled with wonder and love that fills our hearts with peace.

Faith is this mystery that carries us from day to day.

It is the hope we have in the promises given to us in Jesus Christ.

The promises of love to sustain through all things.

The example and person of Jesus Christ renews the promise that we are heirs to all God has for us.

In this Lent let us open our hearts and minds to listen, believe and be led forth not only for ourselves but for future generations.

Amen.

Resource: Feasting on the Word-Dan Debevoise; Wishful Thinking-Frederick Buechner. 

Diving In

Sermon John 5:30-47 January 17, 2016 Series of four

Diving In

I know it’s winter and the last thing on our minds is a swimming pool, unless of course it is the heated one down at the Y. But, have you ever sat in those big chairs on the side of the pool and just watched how people get into the water? Some people come running to the edge of the pool and dive bomb in. They make a huge cannon ball blast in the water and the entire pool is set in motion. Others like to climb to the top of the high dive and do fancy dives into the water. Others dive from the edge, cautiously preparing for the perfect form before they take the plunge. And yet, others choose not to dive at all but

check the water temperature with their big toe before they begin the descent. Then, little by little they enter and stop, pausing until they have acclimated to the water before they go on. Eventually they have accomplished the same as the first guy that dive bombed in the water, they are all in the pool, they made it.

There are different ways to dive into pools as well as there are different ways that we approach life. Not one of them is more correct than the other. They are just different fashions of who we are and how we enter into the opportunities around us.

Yet, getting in is essential.

Getting into life and a life of faith is essential.

Often we are hesitant and unsure of how to go about it.

We are unsure of who we are and what we are to do.

Not only are we uncertain of who we are but we wonder about who God is as well. We ask others and ourselves the question, “who believes this stuff? And what keeps people believing?”

Which brings us back to the words we heard from the gospel of John about Jesus-Jesus dives right in to share with the people who he is and why he is. He doesn’t dance around the topic. He doesn’t worry about what they will think of him or if they will like him. He is careful to share all that he has, to give all he has, and to hold nothing back.

He speaks to the experts, the leaders, who have spent their life diving into God’s Word to discover all there is to know about God and yet, Jesus says to them-they haven’t a clue!

Jesus uses the very Scriptures, the prophecies (the Law & the Prophets) to declare that he is the one sent by God and then points to the blindness of the leaders who do not see him in the Word of God.

Jesus as we have read and read during Christmas-and now in the season of Epiphany-is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the Logos!

He challenges the people then to believe what is written. If they choose not to believe what is written then how can they believe what Jesus says?

The Scriptures are the Logos. The Word of God.

Part of the worry of the early church was how to interpret the Scriptures.

It was difficult back then to interpret and understand the role of Jesus in the light of the Word of God, the Scriptures and the prophecies.

It became increasingly difficult for followers of Jesus to remain welcome in the Old Testament tradition due to the interpretation of Jesus as God’s revelation of salvation.

It was a challenge to be able to show that Jesus was the continuation and the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah.

Therefore the gospel of John was written as a witness and as an assurance for the people of the early church. The words of the gospel gave them a place to search and to find and renew their faith in Jesus. It was written somewhere between 85-95 AD. It is clear it was written after the destruction of the Temple. It was written before 100 AD since it is made reference to in documents that date from then.

And so, here we listen to Jesus come to his own defense as if he is on trial to those who oppose him. He presents his words similar to trials found in the book of Isaiah, In Biblical Old Testament tradition, for a trial to have any credibility (Deut. 19:32) it required two to three witnesses to verify the person’s claim.

SO Jesus presents his three witnesses-1. John the Baptist- 2. the works of Jesus- 3. and the Scriptures.

The Scriptures point from the beginning to the end to Jesus. Jesus reports that all the prophecies of the Old Testament point to him as the Messiah. All the words of Moses verify that Jesus is One who God has sent.

The words of the gospel are consistent.

The gospel of John consistently speaks the one truth the readers are to hear from Jesus-“I have come in my Father’s name”-“anyone who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life.”

Whenever we struggle with the question of who we are or what we are to do the gospel of John redirects our questions about ourselves, our goals, our curiosity for our life and asks, “Who is Jesus?” It is in Jesus and through Jesus where the truth of who we are lies. It is God who sent him to remind us that we are loved, we belong and we will not be let go by the God of our creation.

This Bible, ‘the Way, or Reach Out’, it’s just a New Testament, written in simple English, was given to me at fifteen. It’s just a Bible. Yet, it was something so precious to this teenager of the ‘70’s that I would hide it under my pillow to catch snippets of the words written within it. The words pointed to Jesus and the power of the Spirit-the Logos-changed my life forever.

The words we heard today make the case for Jesus.

These words are the language of our faith. They announce for us who Jesus is, what he does, and what he offers.

Hearing and believing and turning to Jesus our questions of who we are and what we do are answered. We belong to God in Christ and that gives us purpose. Christ offers life and we in turn have life to offer.

Therefore we dive in:

1.       Because Jesus did

2.      Because even when we think the words we hear have no relevance they are as fresh today as the day they were written.

3.      The words from this gospel are not a how to book of discipline. The words we hear from here are about the real presence of Jesus. The words themselves act as witnesses to those who hear them no matter where they are read and say boldy here are the witnesses to the person of Jesus-listen and believe!

4.      We need to dive into Scripture like this and hear not only who Jesus is but also witness what Jesus does.

So whether we take a cannon ball dive into the Scriptures or begin with checking the temperature with our big toe.

Let’s begin the process of diving in-we will not be disappointed.

God is with us all the way.

Amen.

Resources: NIB volume IX O'Day; WBC volume 36 Beasley/Murray

Coping with Cancer thru the Holidays-a spiritual journey

I'm posting this talk from 3 years ago for anyone who might benefit from these words.
Coping with Cancer thru the Holidays-a spiritual journey (Talk for Lily Pad-cancer support group) 2012

Opening prayer:

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Isaiah 40:28-31

The Lord is the everlasting God,
The Creator of the ends of the earth
He does not faint or grow weary;
His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint
And strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
And the young will fall exhausted;

But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Thanksgiving is three days away and the turkey is probably already bought or at least it’s been decided on what to get and what to do this Thursday. Any talk I give about how to handle the holidays at this point is probably a day late and a dollar short. Because if you’ve had any anxiety, fear or worry about these days ahead you’ve probably already sweated out every last drop of how to handle the things you had never thought about needing to handle before. So, I salute you for the hard work you have already done and for your courage and your strength that you demonstrate each and every day, whether it’s a holiday or just a plain old week day.

You are all here tonight as members of a support group. Thanks be to God for Lily Pad and its founders to provide this opportunity here locally in Mount Vernon.

Some questions that we might ask ourselves as we face the holidays are:

Who am I?

What gives my life meaning?

What am I thankful for?

What is my relationship with my family and friends?

What is my relationship with God?

All of us face these questions at some point in our life and especially as we go through the stages that life deals us.

With the diagnosis of cancer or of any illness or disease our belief systems that we have had since we were children are put to the test. We actually have to experience whether or not we sense the presence of God when we are down in the pit. Do we experience the love of the community of faith when we lose our hair or when we are in the intensive care unit recovering from surgery? Do we worry about what our sisters and brothers in the faith think about us? And then is it too hard to go to church and always have to figure out a new answer to the question, “How are you?”

v                        Sometimes the expectation that we have to be happy around the holidays makes us stay away               from church or from family and friends because we think our poor health will dampen their                 spirits or they’ll dampen ours.

Scripture has an outlook that can help us as we struggle with these questions.

Psalm 139 reminds us that we are children of God. Listen to the words of the Psalmist…

Isaiah 43:1 God speaks as says, “I have called you by name and you are mine.” These words remind us that not only do we belong to God in life and in death, but our lives have purpose and meaning.

Jesus promises us God’s presence in the midst of all things. Jesus promises his disciples who fear being left alone and who fear being isolated in the world, “I will not leave you orphaned-peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”

One of the things I hear so often from parishioners is that daily living and the struggle is so hard that they just can’t bring themselves to church for worship.

So the questions to ask at such times are,

·         “What is my source of strength?

·         When do I feel spiritually alive?

·         How do I want to be supported spiritually by my faith community?

·         And finally what sacraments or rituals are most meaningful to me?”

When we are able to honestly answer these questions-perhaps we don’t know the answer yet-then the burden of needing to be a certain way in our faith journey is lifted.

The power of God’s love for us and the scents and sounds of holiday celebrations are connected with our past experiences. Reflecting on God’s abundant grace allows us to focus on the things we have. Often we have a tendency to focus on the scarcity and get caught up in the long lists of I don’t have, or I won’t get to be part of disappointments. But, God’s Word can redirect our thoughts to what we do have and what we are able to participate in. The richness of our time in the days to come will depend on some of our own hard work in deciding how do go forth.

One thing to share with your pastors and elders is what you DO want from them. Let them know if prayers sustain you, let them know if you would like them to bring communion to you at home, let them know if you want them to visit you every day-or if the daily visit is driving you crazy. We’ll get the message and we won’t be offended. Remember, this time of your life IS about you-and that’s OK.

                                           

Now for the practical side of the holidays.

The first thing is a message from Rev. Dr. Michael S, Barry chaplain for the Philadelphia Cancer center. He says in his message-Get some rest.

Psalm 127 the Lord says, He gives sleep to his beloved. You are God’s beloved and therefore rest is important to God for you. Rest is not doing nothing. Rest is an activity. We say we have things to do and we can’t possibly stop to rest. Yet, there are times when the body must rest. Choosing to rest and allow others to do for you while your whole your body takes on the activity of slowing down and coming into the fullness of God’s rest will be a blessing for everyone.

Be prepared for the what if’s.

What if I’m too tired-let the family know ahead of time that you might disappear from the room for a while. Tell them that you give them permission to continue to enjoy their time with one another. And invite them to help themselves to the kitchen-to get their own servings and their own drinks, and they are welcome to do the clean-up.

What if I look different from when people saw me last-don’t be afraid to face them. Respond to their blank stares and their bumbling words with a practiced statement of your own. “Hi, I probably look different from when we last saw each other. The chemo has changed my hair color and I’ve lost weight from a diet method I didn’t choose. I’m so glad you’re here…”

What if I can’t eat the food-plan ahead of schedule how you will eat. Plan to eat a small meal ahead of others. When you sit down to eat and the portion you take gets comments let them know that you have already eaten. Tell them you are eating just a little now and you will eat more later.

Finally here are some holiday tips from the different cancer support centers.

• · Keep it simple-buy online instead of at the malls, have a pot luck meal, start a new tradition.

·         Accept help-don’t try to be the hero and don’t try to pretend that everything is as it has always been-remember someday we’ll be 97 years old and we’ll have to accept help then too.

·         Eat wisely

·         Know your limits-choose to be part of the things tht really matter to you.

·         Be smart about travel-perhaps stay at a hotel instead of on Aunt Susie’s sofa, or gramma feather bed. Pamper yourself and if it feels like it is going to be awkward it probably will be so listen and take care of yourself. If people insist you stay with them-respond, “Thank you for the invitation, you are most kind but we’ve already made reservations and they are non-reimbursable.”

·         Share your feelings-sometimes if people are clear on how you feel it can reduce the stress level for everyone. If you keep your cancer silent it will make the room feel like there is a giant elephant there but nobody wants to mention that they see it.

·         Set goals for the New Year-know what you want and how you will look to the New Year and plan for it.

Tears can be a sense of relief and cleansing moment from God as you share time with family. Laughter can enrich your time together and the spirits of everyone present can soar. Once the cancer has been put in the pot of conversation, move about to hear and listen to the lives and stories of everyone else around the table.

The Lord has given great things to us and we rejoice!

Finally, in all things for the holidays the words that come to us from Paul to the Philippians is applicable for us tonight. 4: 4-9 and the God of peace will be with you. Amen.