What More Could We Be?

                                                                                                  Isaiah 40:1-11

                                                                                                  11-04-12

                                                                                                   Advent II

How about those prophets?  They intrude on our otherwise joyous season of Advent.  Their voices crying, strange and disturbing words.  Always they leave us with a challenge rather than the warm fuzzies.  I don’t know about you, but I would rather hear stories about the weary traveler finding rest for the expecting mother.  I would rather hear about the angels who couldn’t keep a secret finding the poor shepherds.  Tell me about the baby wrapped in the swaddling clothes and lying in the fresh hay of the manger as the animals are seemingly the first to respond.  But the prophets, Isaiah, John the Baptist and the rest, seem to say to us, “No!  You are not ready for that story!  If you want to hear that story you must get ready; make the necessary preparation.  Then, and only then, will you be ready to receive the story of the events that are coming.” We, like those who went out to hear John the Baptist, think these prophets have to be crazy.  At the very least, they are a sorry lot who want to say bah-humbug to our otherwise joyous season.

While we would like to receive the good news of Christmas without the challenge that is not the way it goes.  If we are to hear the songs of the angels we must first hear the cries of the prophets.  If we are to arrive at the manger we must “prepare the way.”  Let’s stop and listen to the cry of Isaiah today.  Let’s try to understand what it is he is saying to us.  Let’s attempt to respond to his challenge in a way that would prepare not only ourselves but the world in which we live for the coming of the Christ Child.

It is important to remember that the prophets were more “forth-tellers” than “fore-tellers.”  Yet, they seemed to look at the state of affairs of their day and see more.  They were aware of the ills of the time in just as real a way as everyone else but they could also see the “not yet” of what God purposed and was preparing to do.  They could see what was not visible to others.  They were a voice that gave rise to hope in the midst of disappointment and doubt.  They could proclaim comfort and peace even when suffering and conflict were the realities of the day.  The message of Isaiah we hear today is, “Get ready!  Make the necessary preparations!  God is going to do something but you are not ready for it just yet.”

Let us ask ourselves some challenging questions based on this cry of the prophet.  First, what are you aware of that is not yet seen?  It sounds like one of those elusive questions of philosophy that has no substantial answer.  Yet, it is one that had the prophets not entertained, they would have been silent.  Had the prophets not asked the question and sought the answer, there would have been no vision of what God was about to do.  There would have been no hope beyond what already met the eye.  So, what is God doing that is not yet seen in your life, in our congregation, in our neighborhood and beyond?  Isaiah and his counterparts would challenge us, regardless of the conditions of our day, to capture a vision of God’s “not yet.”  This is a vision not reserved for Old Testament prophets or ancient holy men.  It is information God offers as an “open secret” to all who will allow themselves to look, see and imagine in new ways.  To arrive at this awareness we have to look past what is physically present.  We have to look into that which is about to become visible.  We have to join the prophets in seeing God’s “not yet.” 

We all have fleeting glimpses into the “not yet.”  We can, when we let our defenses down, begin to imagine how things could be different than they are—we know things are not as they should be, whether in our lives or in our world.  What do you imagine being different?  That is where the prophets started.  But they didn’t stop there.  They didn’t dismiss what they were seeing that was not yet visible.  They didn’t allow it to be hidden—but cried out the message that all could hear.  They did not dwell in the boundaries of doubt and personal limitations.  They simply stood, in the face of reality, with eyes of their spirit wide open and took a peek beyond what they were seeing.  Then, they told everyone what was “yet to be.” 

The first way these prophets disturb us is by challenging us to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and gaze into God’s “not yet.”  It goes beyond taking a glance and realizing that things are not as they should be…anybody can notice that. But, what do you see coming that is “not yet” seen?  Take a look with the prophets into God’s “not yet,” catch a vision and proclaim it boldly, regardless of who it disturbs.

That would have been challenge enough but Isaiah doesn’t stop there.  He perceives not only the “not yet,” of how things could be different but he realized that he and his hearers were a part of it.  The prophets realized that if things were not as they should be, and they weren’t, they were to be where the change began.  So, Isaiah calls the people to make preparations necessary for God’s purpose to come.  Isaiah’s second challenging question to us is “what more can you be?”  We are put into the scenario of the “not yet.”  Isaiah calls his hearers and us to be more than our immediate situation.  We are called to be more than passive observers.  We are to be more than victims of circumstances.  We are to be even more than visionaries.  We are to become the change God purposes to bring into reality.  “Prepare the way…make straight the way…”  The call is to make the preparations in our lives, in our world, for the change to take place. 

When it comes to the peace we think about this second week of Advent, we are challenged to become more than we have been.  It is not enough to notice the places peace is less of a reality than what God intends for our world.  It is not enough to imagine what it would be like if there was “peace on earth.”  Isaiah cries for us to make a way for it to happen.  We are reminded of our personal responsibility by Quinn Caldwell who writes, “if you really want swords beaten into plowshares you’re going to have to work.  You’re going to have to pay and organize.  You’re going to have to convince other people, people like you and people who run businesses that do stuff that you can’t do yourself, that peace is profitable.” 

In short, we are challenged by the prophets to not only capture a vision but to use that vision and risk doing the work to make it into something real.  We are challenged to do the work of personal involvement and preparation that it takes to test, to refine, to start over as many times as it takes.  This is the kind of work that is enough to make us give up before we ever start.  This is the kind of work that, if we refuse to do, keeps things the same and prevents the “not yet” from ever becoming a reality.  We are called to ask ourselves what more we can be.  To paraphrase Isaiah, eye has not seen, ear has not heard nor has it entered into our hearts what we are prepared to become. 

It would be so much more convenient to start with the baby in the manger.  But we have to go to Bethlehem through the prophets.  We can only hear the angels’ songs after we have paid attention to the cries of the prophets.  They challenge us to ask what is not yet seen.  They challenge us to ask ourselves what more we can become.  When we answer these questions, and only when we answer these questions, are we ready for the rest of the story.

In a moment we will be called to the communion table.  We will affirm our faith; we will confess our sins and receive assurance of pardon; we will bless the bread and cup.  Then we will hear the words, “The gift of God for the people of God.  Come all is ready.”  Let these words be about more than our participation in communion.  Let these words be our Advent prayer.  Let us see the “not yet” gift of God; let us see ourselves as the people of God and all that we can become.  Let our Advent prayer be “Come!  All is ready!”

More Than Meets The Mouth

                                                                             “More Than Meets The Mouth”

                                                                                      Amos 5:18-2 

                                                                                      11-6-11  Mission 1

           

Today we will receive communion.  A small piece of bread and tiny cup of wine or juice.  But, no one would say that the communion we receive is only bread and wine.  While there may be a wide range of what we individually understand to be present in the bread and cup, we agree and affirm that these elements are more than meet the mouth.  In this cup we celebrate the gift of God’s grace.  We affirm our commitment to Christ, through whom we who hear and see the message of God’s grace.  We renew and restore our fellowship with God and with one another as a community of faith.  This bread and this cup become more than meet the mouth.

Think quickly about the institution of this sacrament.  Jesus, in the night that he was betrayed, together with his disciples, after the Passover Feast…the Passover Feast.  Again, food, but food that was for Jesus and his disciples more than met the mouth.  Food that was for generations of Jews before and after Jesus’ meal much more than met the mouth.  The food at that feast was and is filled with meaning.  It was a living symbol of God’s deliverance and presence with the Israelites in the Exodus.  It was and is a memorial and a source of connection for the people Israel. 

In both the Passover Feast and Communion, food becomes more than meets the mouth.  It becomes a mystical and spiritual experience which unites us as community and with our God.

Could this also be the case not just for the bread and cup we will share today but also for all other food as well?  Could food be more than meets the mouth?

Norman Wirzba in Food and Faith:  A Theology of Eating, writes that, “Eating joins people to each other, to other creatures, to the world, and to God through forms of ‘natural communion’ too complex to fathom.”  He wants us to understand that every mundane act of eating is a daily invitation to commune with God, one another and God’s creation.  It’s all about communion, community and membership.

Wirzba writes about eating in “exile.” He offers many ways in which we may eat that do not enhance our connection to creation, the God of creation or one another.  For our purposes today let us consider those who are in Exile from the very substance of food; those who live in “food insecurity,” or who have uncertainty regarding the availability of affordable, healthy food. 

According to statistics, that is 15% of American families.  Feeding America, a hunger relief agency, tells us what we have already realized in our community pantries, that food from pantries is no longer being used to meet temporary acute food emergencies. A majority of pantry clients now visit food pantries as a “normal” part of their survival strategy.  Many stories are circulating about those who used to go to neighborhood pantries to donate food but are now forced to go there as recipients.  Families are routinely faced with a dilemma of whether to pay for food or utilities, food or transportation, food or medicine.  And with the climate of the economy, more of those facing these decisions are employed, sometimes at multiple jobs and remain without resources for the basic needs of life for themselves and their families.  Child poverty rates reached 22 percent in 2010, up from 16.2 percent in 2000.  In our neighborhood the number of children living in poverty increased by 200 percent in those ten years.  Combined with this issue is the problem of Childhood Obesity.  A problem aggravated by the simple fact that calories are cheap but nutrition is costly.  In turn, poor health and related cost of health problems find those who struggle buried even more deeply and often without resources with which to address the problem.

These issues cannot be ignored.  Mission 1 is an initiative to call for not only our attention but for our response as a people of faith.  Mission 1 is a good name for the initiative for a couple of reasons.  One is, I think food and feeding people is God’s first mission.  In the story of creation, Adam and Eve are placed in a Garden and given the plants of the earth for food.  God sent Joseph ahead to Egypt to lay up food for the people in preparation for a coming famine.  The Children of Israel were fed in the wilderness by bread from heaven.  God provided for the widow of Zeraphath through the presence of Elijah.  Jesus fed the hungry multitude.  God has always been about providing food.  And when God provided food, it was always meant for sharing.  Feeding people has always been God’s Mission 1.  Why?  Because food is more than meets the mouth.  Remember the analogy made by Wirzba, “every mundane act of eating is a daily invitation to commune with God, one another and God’s creation.  It’s all about communion, community and membership.”  All food becomes holy elements of communion.  It is our source of connection to God, to creation and to one another.  In and through food, in some way that is too powerful to comprehend, we do become one.  This prayer of Jesus, the UCC motto, “that they may all be one,” is to be best realized WHEN FOOD IS RECEIVED FROM GOD AND SHARED BY ALL.  Maybe we could say that when it comes to calories food is cheep; when it comes to nutrition food is expensive; but when it comes to communion, community, and connection to God… that food is priceless.

Mission 1 calls for a response.  A bold response.  The goals are lofty and challenging.  As a denomination, the members of UCC congregations will collect more than 1 million items of healthy food for local food banks; gather contributions of more than $111,111 for Neighbors in Need offerings; and offer more than 11,111 letters to congress asking for reform that more effectively benefits hungry people worldwide.

In this initiative we hear the cry of Amos for Justice to roll like a might river; for Fairness to be like a vast ocean.  But Amos was wrong.  In spite of how Amos and we would like God to act and listen to our cries, Justice and Fairness do not seem to come like that.  Instead, justice and fairness seem to enter our world in small, seemingly insignificant acts.  Not as rolling, raging rivers but in the gentleness of small, single seeds planted, tended and nurtured in hope.  It may not be noticeable.  It may not be clear how these tiny seeds of righteousness will take root but when they do they will most certainly carry with them the prospect of bearing good fruit, of bearing a hundred-fold harvest.

It is not about boldness as much as it is about faithfulness.  It is not about largeness as much it is about the least of these.  It is not about the far-reaching as much as it is about the up-close and personal.  I find the paraphrase of Amos from the Message to be an ultimate warning for us in the wake of a bold campaign to address hunger and human need.  The Message has God saying this:  “I can’t stand your religious meetings.  I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.  I want nothing to do with your pretentious slogans and goals.  I’m sick of your fundraising schemes, your public relations and image making.  I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music…Do you know what I want?  I want justice-oceans of it.  I want fairness-rivers of it.  That’s what I want.  That’s all I want.” 

I am under the persuasion that the rivers of justice and righteousness flow one small drop at a time, one small seed at a time, one small bite of food at a time. Let the small piece of bread and the tiny cup we receive today be the source of a river of justice that will not cease to flow until all the gifts of God are shared by all of God’s children. Remember in receiving this bread and this cup that it and all other food is more than meets the mouth.  Realize that food is a holy gift of God.  Realize that food, like all the gifts of God, is to be shared with all.  In sharing food—the gift of God for the people of God—we share communion.  Communion with God, with creation and with one another.  We are called to share food that we may all be one. 

Synergy

I recently received an e-mail from a very good friend whom I had not heard from in about three years.  He wanted a copy of a presentation on “synergy” which he once heard me give. 

I was surprised.  Not that it had been three years since I had heard from him—that is about how often we reconnect.  I was surprised that he remembered the presentation.  That surprised me for a couple of reasons.  One was that it has been at least twelve years since I gave that presentation.  So, I was surprised he remembered it.  I was not really surprised that I, on the other hand, did not remember it.  (I sometimes have trouble remembering what I said last week.…That is not a sign of poor memory but an indication that maybe I say too much.)

I wrote back and confessed I had no idea what presentation he was talking about.  I asked him to hum a few bars to see if I could recognize the tune and maybe start to sing.  He refreshed my memory and sure enough there was a growing recognition.

I share this story because I was surprised at how relevant the topic of “synergy” is in each of our lives after so long.  You see, “synergy,” at the risk of oversimplifying what it took me a couple of hours to explain originally, is the idea that when components of a whole project are pieced together the total outcome is greater than the sum of the individual parts. 

Isn’t that true of our life together as a congregation?  When each member of a congregation joins in the task of being the people of God something beyond the ordinary happens.  By your being the best you can be it reinforces who I can be and what I have to contribute.  Likewise, when I do my part the result is not that others are overshadowed but that they actually find their own contributions accentuated.  Through the joint efforts of everyone the outcome surpasses the sum of individual efforts.

“Synergy” is a good principle to remember.  We all want to get the most out of our efforts.  A great way to be sure that happens is by having our efforts multiplied through our life together as a congregation.  Likewise, it should give us satisfaction and inspiration to be reminded that even if it seems we have very little to offer, that through “synergy” each effort is multiplied by our shared life.

Of course, beyond the issues related to “synergy” we have at work in our congregation the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.  It is the character of God to touch and bless and make more abundant than we could imagine what we offer in service to kingdom purposes.

The task of being the church, the people of God, easily becomes overwhelming.  God has set us together in families—families of faith—to sustain and multiply our efforts.  Together as Bethany-Peace and together with other families of faith let us be focused and committed to the mission which is ours. 

Abandoned?

“How do you know when God is present with you?”  It was just one of the questions raised from the newly formed Faith Formation class I am teaching to our older children at Bethany-Peace.

Others have asked the same question.  I have been asked this question by those who are in the midst of the pain of isolation and despair.  It is a question that you may have asked or may be asking right now.  It is a question I have asked myself on more than one occasion. 

This question, “How do you know when God is present with you?” was raised by the Faith Formation class in response to a recent sermon.  This is an indication that knowing when God is present is an issue that is not necessarily answered in a sermon or even in the singing of a hymn of assurance.  It is a question that cannot be answered with any level of satisfaction by sermonic platitudes, “triage theology,” or even testimonies of someone else’s faith experience.  Nor will it be answered completely by the words on this page.

Sitting with the honesty of this question and the emotions from which the question comes is the key to experiencing the truth of God’s abiding presence in our lives in and through all circumstances.  There is no question that when we ask this question that there are very real feelings of abandonment.  There is no question that these feelings are the result of having been disappointed, let down, betrayed or hurt.  It is also true that these feelings have resulted from within a relationship that was of great significance to us.  Someone, or something, in whom we trusted has not come through or is no longer available in a way that is comforting or helpful.  We are, in fact, abandoned.  The critical issue is who or what is gone.  We may be assuming that it is God who has left us or failed us.  This leaves us in what some have called “a crisis of faith.” 

It may be that we have come to associate many of the sources of our security with God.  While the sources of security may have arrived as messengers of God and expressions of God’s goodness, they are not God.  The very fact that a system would fail us, that a relationship would change or turn against our good proves that these things and people are not God.  Standing in the midst of the pain of abandonment we may realize that what we had thought God to be was not God at all.  It was what we had come to trust for deliverance, satisfaction or fulfillment.  We may have had our needs met effectively or been reasonable in expecting to have our needs met in these places but to assume this was God is a mistake.  So, the issue is what has failed us; who has abandoned us?  Looking carefully at this question lets us know that the source of our pain is something that certainly is no God at all. 

So, where does that leave God?  Our Faith Formation class came to rest in remembering that God’s covenant with us is that God is always present and there is not a time that God is not present.  When we understand clearly who God is and displace our illusions of who God is then it may become more possible to be aware or experience God’s promised abiding presence.  It is not God who has abandoned us but it is certain that God is with us in our times of abandonment.