Is The Prophetic Word Enough?

                    

Jan 1, 2017  Colossians 3: 12-17

Many years ago, 43 to be exact, due to circumstances beyond my control I had the responsibility placed upon me to take care of someone who was very close to our family.  This person was unable to speak nor could he fully comprehended my words.  Sometimes there were periods where he would babble incoherently.  There seemed to be disorientation when I would speak of persons, places or things, but did seemingly respond to his own name.  Even after working with him for the first 6 months he still showed complete disregard for his physical appearance and could make no effort to assist me with his own care.  He required someone to feed, bath and cloths him and without teeth, his food needed to be pureed and his shirt was almost always spotted from his constant drooling. Others in the family would often comment on his erratic sleep patterns.  Most of the time he seemed fairly contented, but could all of a sudden out of the blue get quite upset and unhappy, often wailing until some would come and comfort him.    Now I ask you, is this a responsibility you would have liked bestowed upon you?   Well, here is the strangest of things folks.  I got immense pleasure from taking care of him and he taught me much about myself.  He taught me a deep sense of gratitude that I had never known before.  He also tempered my sense of trust in something greater than myself, and I began to understand the power of unconditional love.               Let me show you his picture!  






                                                   

                                                           Our first born son Kenzie!
The arrival of an infant into anyone’s life brings with it many lessons and responsibilities for us to learn.

Now I want you to imagine the baby Jesus as an infant?  Completely at the mercy of his mother Mary and father Joseph.  There would be many lessons for Him to teach not only to his parents but to all who would come into contact with Him.   Just as my Son Kenzie did and continues to do for me and the many people he comes into contact with today.  

How many mothers or fathers here this morning remember you’re first borne child  Boy or Girl?    Do you remember the wonder, joy and miracle that birth brings, that of seeing “your child” for the first time?  Then the flood of other emotions that hit you as you begin to realize the care and responsibility that new life brings with it.   How helpless and dependent he or she was in your arms.   I have a question for you this morning.  Do you remember the first lesson your child taught you?   What do you remember, would anyone like to share a little bit of their experiences?   [ at this point take time to reflect for yourself}

We who claim to be Christian and who have accepted the birth of this infant child into our lives, do you realize that we were meant to have a life with Christ.  Not just on Sunday morning for an hour; not just through the singing of our traditional songs that tell the story;  not just while attending the Christmas eve church service on December the 24^th but to have and maintain a full and joy filled life with Him and it was not meant to end with our physical death.   When we bind our hearts with the love of Jesus it is for eternity folks.  This child would not only teach his parents life lessons but anyone who came into contact with Him, especially the one who would take him into his or her home and into their heart.   That’s what this season is all about, Christmas I mean.  The birth of this infant into your midst should have the same effect for you as it did for Mary and Joseph, because this child, Jesus was meant for you, for He would embody the universal Christ and the Christ child belongs to all humankind, for all things were made through him and for him.  John 1: 3-5 tells us and I quote:  ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 If you claim to be one of His followers, then there must be and always is room in your Inn for Jesus.  

May the words of Colossians sink deep into your physic this morning?  The lesson the infant Jesus most wants to teach us is this.  You too, are a child of God, the God who loves you and chose you for his own.  Jeremiah 1:5   “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”   This scripture brings a serious question to mind folks: have we taken seriously our responsibility to be a prophetic reflection of this child in the world.  For it is our responsibility as followers of Jesus "to show" others his teachings.  Did you hear that, our responsibility is to show others by what we do, not only by what we say. 

So then, let us no longer support or create war but let us be seekers of peace in our world.  Cloth yourselves in the garments of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Be tolerant and forgiving of one another in all situation because forgiveness is the key to your spiritual freedom.  Forgive them, just as the Lord has forgiven all.  But most important add love to all these qualities because love binds all things in perfect unity.  Do this and the peace that Christ gives will guide you in the decision you make during your lifetime.   Plant your soul in the soil of thanksgiving and gratitude and Christ’s message will live and thrive in your heart.  Now it is up to us to teach what the infant has taught us.  Teach and instruct one another in wisdom.  Let us gather singing songs of praise and worship to the One who created all things, that in doing so we might become one united in that love.  Everything you do or say then should be done in the name of Our Lord Jesus who offers to us the anointing and transforming power of the Holy Spirit.  May this be the season that bestows a blessing upon you and your family.  
                                                        He Is Born

"Virgin Birth?" Questions Make Us Think

Questions make us think:  It is good to ask deep questions of your religious tradition! 

Polish linguist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski has written, “There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything, or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.”

There is a story about a theologian and a philosopher who are engaged in intense debate. The theologian says, “The trouble with you philosophers is that you are like a person who is blind looking in a dark room for a black kitten that is not there.” To which the philosopher replies, “And the trouble with you theologians is that you always find it.”

These days, questioning previously held beliefs has become quite commonplace. New expressions of Christianity are taking shape, which are exciting to some but disturbing to others.

In fact, it is becoming more evident that the greatest differences in the church today are not between people who believe different things but rather between those who believe the same things, but interpret them differently. With so many interpretations, some folks want to know who’s “right” and who’s “wrong.”

Huge numbers of people flock to those churches that connect faith with certainty. Some congregations go so far as to demand absolute acceptance of particular doctrines. But when the acceptance of doctrine is required in advance of the experiences those doctrines are meant to define, there is little evidence of believers engaging in a genuine search for truth. Indeed, unless there is room to say “no,” there is really no room for an authentic “yes.”

Furthermore, we will never make faith seem strong by being wilfully blind to everything that denies it. Nor do we honour the truth we have found and experienced through the biblical story by ignoring truth elsewhere. This includes truths in other religions. Daily, we hear about intense and violent disputes that find their roots in religious beliefs held with absolute certainty.

All of this leads to the big question: Do I need to be certain about my faith? But let’s flip the question around. What if certainty is the very opposite of faith? Might it be possible to adhere to an understanding of faith that has nothing to do with being certain of anything?

In approaching Scripture, American biblical scholar James A. Sanders suggests that we misuse Scripture when we turn to it to find models for our morality. Instead, we read it more faithfully when we discover, through the biblical narratives, mirrors of our identity. In other words, we shouldn’t turn to the Bible to be told what to do, but rather to discover who we are. Who are we being called to be in our particular time and place? Such an approach to Scripture recognizes that the Bible is not meant to close a discussion but to open one. Thankfully, the unfolding drama of the biblical story also reveals a God who promises never to abandon us — wherever our feet or our beliefs may take us.

More important than certainty is willingness, in the midst of doubt, to put our ultimate trust in the radical graciousness of God. Such a faith depends less on a rigid set of doctrinal beliefs and more on openness to mystery. It is an understanding that results in a widening of compassion and a reverence for all of creation.

Evoked or not, God is always with us. So, rather than trying to use or manipulate God in the present, we may want to number ourselves among those who simply trust God with our final destiny. Perhaps this was what theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer meant when he spoke of “living without God yet before God.”

Writer and theologian Frederick Buechner is now in his 80s. As he enters the twilight of his life, he makes this acknowledgment: “I know no more now than I ever did about the far side of death as the last letting go of all. But I’m beginning to know that I do not need to know and that I do not need to be afraid of not knowing. God knows. That’s all that matters.”

Our believing comes to full power only when it is conscious of its radical uncertainty. At the end of the day, all I can really testify is this: I do not know, therefore, I trust. But in doing so, I also find most liberating the healing truth conveyed by the 17th-century Christian thinker Blaise Pascal. He offers each one of us this assurance: “Console thyself, thou wouldst not seek Me if thou hadst not found Me.”

This Article was written by:  Rev. Wayne Hilliker of Kingston, Ont. 

And I concur!  As we begin the 12 days Of Christmas may Blessings abound.  

"Naughty or Nice"

                              Dualism requires us to think: "We or Them"  "Bad or Good"

                              Unconditional love requires us to think "Everything & Everyone Belongs"  

Dec 18 2016     Matthew 1: 18 -25

One of the great theologians and renowned author of our time, Karl Barth, was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School.   Dr. Barth being quite elderly, not well and quite tired, sat quietly after his arrival.  The organizers for the lecture thought after speaking Dr. Barth shouldn't be expected to handle the strain of the many question that were expected from students.  It was decided that the Presider would ask one general question for all.  He turned to the renowned theologian and asked, "Of all the theological insights you have ever had, what would you consider to be the greatest of them all?    It seemed the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print.  The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to note down the great insights of one of the greatest theologian of their time.  Dr. Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a minute, and then he half smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young theology students, "The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so”

Karl is right folks, for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest love story ever written!  If it weren't for Christmas we might never have known the intensity of the love that God has for each and every one of us.

Mary and Joseph, far from home because of imperial rule, a peasant mother giving birth in unsanitary substandard conditions... There was no fanfare, no religious delegation and no royalty in attendance only a few shepherds who were apparently attending their flock that night, but some might say what about the wise men Sim, they were there weren’t they?   Well the truth be known, and I hope I don’t shock to many of you but there is no gospel account of the wise men from the east showing up at the manger screen.  Here is some homework for you: There is only one gospel account of wise men visiting Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and it can be found in the gospel of Matthew 2:   1-12.  The account speaks of wise men from the east showing up much later when Jesus was a child not an infant.  Check it out folks.  If you attend our worship service on Christmas day I will explain this in more detail when we talk about the season of “Epiphany” or the 12 days of Christmas. 

So, in the original telling of the story, we have only the Shepherds vising Mary, Joseph and their newborn in the manger. They, amazed at the miracle of new birth, gauze in joyful celebration as they looked upon the face of their newborn, just like every new parent would do.   But this child would be different for He was to be the sign of God’s true unconditional love for the world to see and to know personally. 

Unconditional love accepts us for who we really are; God chooses to love us precisely because we are all His and because we are all subjected to the human condition... Let us set aside the myth that we are loved only if we are good, for if that were true, none would be loved.  Let us also set aside the myth that if we are bad we are not loved, for if that were true none would be loved.  How come the same? Bad or Good we are loved folks.  We all know that good stuff and the bad stuff make their home within all of humanity no one escapes these two natures.    Mary and Joseph had nothing to offer but their obedience to a calling beyond themselves and that is precisely all we have to offer, a calling beyond ourselves.  It is an invitation to trust and surrender our lives over to the care and control of something greater than ourselves. 

Jesus was to be the Son, the true Son of God so patiently waited for, and now to be born into our world.  This child would be the ONE, the one who was willing to finally embody God’s unconditional love for all to see and experience.  Not just some of the time, not when it was convenient, but in every waking, breathing minute of every single day... It is the birth of that love into our world that we celebrate at Christmas.    It’s not about making list and checking it twice, and it’s not about being naughty or nice folks.  It’s about a love so great and unconditional that its power transcends naughty and nice, good and bad.   Who would have ever guessed that this crossing of paths, this intersection of the divine and the human, would take place in a remote village in the Middle East?  That a child would be born into our world, who would fill His life so much with the love of God, that in Him , thousands upon thousands would be moved to make the incredible claim that they had actually met their God in person.   On Christmas night God would sent out a love letter of cosmic proportions as Jesus was to embody the incarnate Christ.  You can read about the Christ being there in the beginning, Genesis 1: 26.  This birth was the moment that all were waiting for, when God and humanity were offically joined as a bride and groom on their wedding day.  As Jesus grew and went out into the world, so our understanding of just how much God loves us also grew.   We find in Jesus that God's love doesn't demand perfection - that forgiveness isn't given away sparingly but recklessly and indiscriminately - that unconditional really means unconditional, and that God's love is completely and thoroughly inclusive no label, sign or promoting necessary. My hope is that our UCC can take that in.    In and through this love there is no them and us folks, all are accepted.   We find that even the likes of us gathered here today including me, fall within the embrace of that love, and that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.   But I also know this folks; that without this trans-formative Christmas birth my life would be positively unbearable!  ---  that for me the baby in the manger is the light of my world, even when my world is in shambles...For in that baby the Divine and the human miraculously cross paths.   The infant Jesus is our living, breathing sign of the immeasurable love that God has had for all of us from the very beginning and gives us reassurance that we too contain within our genetic makeup that divine love.  For it is within the ingenious gen of the true “Atom”, from which we all were created, which some might believe is the true image of God.  

Christmas is the living promise that we are never ever alone.  No matter where we are in life, no matter in what condition we find ourselves, no matter how far we might stray or how unfaithful we are, God, the supreme lover, will pursue us in love for eternity!    It's a love that never stops shining.

May God bless each of you and those you love this Christmas