Preparing for Christmas: Giving Gifts

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Matthew 6:1-4

December 22, 2013

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

            So,… how many of you are done your Christmas shopping? That’s good, about 1/3^rd of you. Now, how many of you love Christmas shopping? Wow, that’s about 1/3^rd of you, too. How many don’t like Christmas shopping? That’s about 50% of you. For many of us, Christmas shopping is a drag.

            You know, there’s a reason why so many people don’t like Christmas shopping: it’s compelled giving. The basic problem for many people is that Christmas giving is meant to be giving out of love and generosity, but it doesn’t always feel like that. Often it can feel like forced giving where we give gifts to others because we are supposed to, not because we want to. I’m not criticizing Christmas giving. Christmas gifts can be incredible, tangible expressions of our love. I’m just pointing out that while Christmas is a time of love, it can become so focused on giving gifts that it causes people to forget about giving love

            The fact is that Christmas giving all started with love. It all started with St. Nicholas. Do you know who St. Nicholas was? We know him now as that chubby guy in red who lives in the North Pole. But 1700 years ago he real as can be, and a bishop in the early Christian Church in what is now southwestern Turkey. He was born in 275, and became a priest in a very dangerous time to be a Christian. It was during the reign of Diocletian, who, between the years 283 and 305 significantly increased the persecution of Christians to the worst ever in the Roman Empire. His persecutions only ended after he resigned as emperor, and Constantine became emperor, eventually making Christianity the religion of the empire.

            Diocletian was a reformer who wanted to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory, and Christians were seen as a problem sapping the empire by instilling weakness. His belief was that if he could get rid of Christians, he could both solidify his power and rid the empire of this rapidly growing nuisance religion. So, he instituted rules that demanded each person submit once a year to making a sacrifice to the Roman gods, and specifically Jupiter (Zeus). Failure to do so could lead to imprisonment and possibly execution. He then destroyed many, many churches, forcing Christians to worship in secret. He also imprisoned and executed thousands of Christians.

            At this time many priests and bishops protected themselves by making the sacrifices despite remaining Christians. Bishop Nicholas refused to do so. He was the bishop of the region around Myra, a town on a peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean from what is now southern Turkey. Nicholas refused and was imprisoned for a while. This made him popular among Christians because he stood up for his faith and gave them an example of how to hold out in hard times. But what really made him popular was his work among the poor.

            Much like Pope Francis does now, where he apparently sneaks out at night to serve in soup kitchens and homeless shelters, Nicholas spent much of his time caring for the poor. That’s where he gained his reputation for giving. He was especially known for giving gifts to children. He often secretly left money in the shoes of poor children while they slept.

            This is the man who eventually became what we know as Santa Claus. The reason we call him that today is that when the Dutch came to America in the 1600s, they revered St. Nicholas, and called him Sinter Claes. The English garbled it to Santa Claus. The point, though, is that the whole idea of giving gifts on Christmas, and of Santa Claus, came from this 4^th century saint, who embodied the spirit of Christ in giving to the poor.

            Many people still have the spirit of St. Nicholas. They give gifts out of love, not compulsion. Christmas just gives them an opportunity to express their love in gifts. What St. Nicholas understood, which a lot of people, including us Christians, seem to forget is that at it’s foundation the Christian life is all about love. It’s about agape.

            Do you know what “agape” is? It is the Greek word that Jesus and John use for love. It was not a common Greek word, but it is common in the New Testament. The closest we come to “agape” is the term “unconditional love.” Agape is the love that God has for us, which is undying, awe-inspiring, overwhelming, complete, and eternal. It is a love God has for us no matter how much we mess up or work against God in our lives. Jesus uses the word “agape” when he says that we should “love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, and all our strength.” John uses the word “agape” when he says in the first letter of John that “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” Both are telling us that there is a love that transcends any kind of love that humans typically have, and we are invited—actually created—to live that love.

            We confuse agape with other kinds of love. As I said, the Greeks had different words for love. Often, when we are young, we confuse love for “eros.” Eros is the root of the word “erotic.” Eros is a desire for another person. I can be lust, but it is also infatuation. When we are first smitten by another person, we become infatuated. As our love for them grows, it moves away from “eros” and more toward “agape,” that is if we keep loving them. Our culture prizes eros, but not so much agape, and that makes it hard for us to reach agape.

            The final kind of love is “philia.” You know this word at the root of the name for Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love) or philosophy (the love of wisdom, phil+Sophia). Brotherly love was the highest ideal for the Greeks and Romans. To love someone as if she or he was a family member was sought as the ideal in those cultures. Christian culture wasn’t satisfied with brotherly or sisterly love. It sought divine love.

            The problem is that too many Christians make Christianity out to be about everything BUT love. For example, they make faith out to be a question of whether we believe the right things. Do we have believe the right things about Jesus, God, the Bible, the virgin birth, the resurrection? If we don’t, we’re considered to be damned by God.

            Others stress whether we have the right kind of faith? Do we live out our faith in the right way? Are we moral enough? Committed to social justice enough? Giving enough?

            Still others make Christianity out to be a question of whether we go to the right church or are part of the right denomination. The more contemporary question is whether we are part of the right non-denomination. So many people are now part of non-denominational churches, and say that they are so because they don’t want to be part of something that tells them what to believe. The massive irony about that is that most denominations don’t tell you what you must believe. In fact, if you look at a denomination such as the Presbyterian Church, you don’t have to believe the right things to worship or even join the church. And if you look across the country at individual Presbyterian congregations, you’ll find seriously conservative ones and majorly liberal ones and everything in-between. If you go to most non-denominational churches, you will find that most believe mostly in the same thing, and expect the same kinds of beliefs from their members. The point, though, is that what matters is not so much what beliefs we have, what faith we live out, or what church or denomination we belong to. It has to do with our love. Do we love with God’s love?

            I think that many of you already know this, but over the years I have spent a lot of time reading about Near Death Experiences (NDEs). I’ve been fascinated with them ever since I read Raymond Moody’s book, Life after Life, in the mid-70s. He interviewed a large number of people who had died in car accidents, heart-attacks, and other calamities, and then were revived. That coincided with my girlfriends’ mother telling me of her NDE when she gave birth to her youngest child, after she had died in childbirth and was resuscitated. Since then I’ve read easily over 15 books on topic, talked with over 30 people who’ve had these experiences, and gone to several conferences on it. And the one constant that most people who have NDEs experience is a God of overwhelming and complete love.

            Many to most say that there is a judgment, although not in the way we think it is. Either Jesus or a being of intense light and love shows the person her or his whole life. The person watches while simultaneously feeling God’s love filling them. They actually experience again everything that had happened in their lives, as well as other people’s feelings and thoughts in response. It’s not God who judges them, but these people who judge themselves in light of God’s love. No one escapes the judgment feeling satisfied, but all come away from it knowing that God has loved and forgiven them completely. And they return to life ready to change their lives so that they can live lives of love.

            One of the most interesting things that many have spoken about is what happens to many fundamentalist Christians who are so certain about who is and who isn’t accepted into heaven. John Price, an Episcopal priest in Texas who has written a book, Revealing Heaven, speaks about a former pastor he knows whom he calls Robert. Apparently Robert was a very successful evangelical/fundamentalist pastor who had a church with thousands of members, and a radio program broadcast over more than 30 radio stations nationwide. He said that his whole message was one of sinners in the hands of an angry God, fire and brimstone. He preached God’s hate and anger, and the more he did the more his church grew.

            Then he had an accident in which he died and experienced God. He did not experience an angry God, wrathful over his sins, but an overwhelmingly loving God who forgave him his sins. God’s love was indescribable. When Robert was resuscitated, he became angry because he wanted to remain with that God of love. He had no choice, when he returned to the pulpit, but to change his message to one of love. In doing so he killed his ministry. First 1000 left the church. Then 2000 left. 3000 left. Then the radio stations dropped him.

            He eventually had to leave ministry because the people he had attracted to Christianity wanted to believe more in a God of anger than one of love. The lesson of Christmas, though, is not one of anger, but one of love. It’s the idea that God loves us more than we can even fathom, and that as we tap into this love, this agape, it leads us naturally to become giving.

            The point of all of this is that Christmas is about giving love, and the gifts we give are only expressions of love. But they can be incredible expressions. As long as we remember that God and love are what truly matters both in the beginning, and the end.

            Amen.

Preparing for Christmas: Cleaning Our Houses

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Isaiah 38.1-6

December 1, 2014

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’ Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord: ‘Remember now, O Lord, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ‘Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and defend this city.

            As we begin the season of Advent, Rev. Frierson and I are beginning a new sermon series for Advent. Normally creating sermon series topics aren’t hard for us, but Advent always presents a challenge. The reason is that over the years the Advent stories become very familiar, with the angels appearing to Elizabeth, Joseph, and Mary, and the story of preparing for Christ’s birth. How do you talk about these events in a fresh way year after year? As we were trying to figure out what to do for this year, Rev. Frierson came up with a brilliant idea, which is to focus on what we normally do to prepare for Christmas as a metaphor for how Christians are called to prepare for Christ’s coming. Advent is a season of preparation, so we decided to use the basics of Christmas preparation, such as cleaning your house, putting up the tree, going to parties, and giving gifts to look at how we can prepare for Christ. And this morning I want to talk about the first of those ideas, which is cleaning our houses.

            So,… how many of you stuck around for Thanksgiving? And how many of you who stuck around hosted Thanksgiving dinner? And how many of you who hosted dinner cleaned your house first? If you are like our family, pretty much all of you cleaned.

            We didn’t host Thanksgiving dinner, but we did have our extended family over to our house the evening after Thanksgiving, which meant that Friday was a day of cleaning in preparation for Friday night. I helped a bit in the morning and early afternoon, but I had tickets to the University of Pittsburgh football game against Miami University, so I got out of some of the heavy cleaning. Still, my wife, Diane, and my kids got to mop, vacuum, straighten, arrange, and wash. Before we could celebrate, we had to prepare.

            In a lot of ways this season of Advent is meant to be a season of cleaning before a party. We don’t normally think of this season in this way, but preparing for celebration is at the center of the season. Christmas is meant to be a celebration, but not just a celebration of food, trees, presents, and family. At its center it is meant to be a season of celebrating Christ coming into our lives. But before we can celebrate that, we have to prepare for it.

            Advent is the season of preparation. It is meant to be a time of prayer, reflection, and centering in preparation for Christmas, but we’ve forgotten it in our rush to celebrate Christmas. Advent reminds us that we cannot celebrate Christ’s coming without preparing, but that doesn’t mean we listen. Let me explain.

            Have you heard that there is a war on Christmas in our culture? You can’t escape the warnings if you watch Fox News. It has become something of a tradition for them to rail against the war on Christmas this time of year. Watch Fox today. Someone will talk about the war on Christmas. They self-righteously complain that nobody says “Merry Christmas” anymore in stores, but substitute “Happy Holidays” instead. They then encourage people to boycott stores that say “Happy Holidays” until they return to saying “Merry Christmas.”

            The irony of Fox’s obsession about the supposed war on Christmas is that they completely miss the fact that in their railing they have been part of the War on Advent. They ignore Advent by consistently proclaiming that we are in the Christmas season. We’re not in the season of Christmas, despite what the consumer culture might lead us to believe. Ironically, the Christmas warriors ignore the season of preparing for Christ’s coming. They act as though the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving, or even Halloween, when it doesn’t actually start until Christmas day and then goes on for another eleven days afterwards. I don’t mean all of this as a particular swipe against Fox News. I mean it to point out the fact that in our zeal for Christmas we can forget a more ancient wisdom, which is that spiritually we can only discover God’s presence when we prepare for it. And in our modern culture, our zeal for Christmas celebration obscures our need for Advent preparation.

            The fact is that while most of us like parties and celebrations, we don’t necessarily like the cleaning and preparation we have to do before them. Who wants to clean? Who wants to straighten? Who wants to prepare? It’s much more fun just to show up.

            In a lot of ways we’re like that spiritually, too. We love spiritual good times. We love those times when we feel complete, joyful, purposeful, and close to God. The problem is that we don’t always like to prepare for them. We don’t like to do spiritual work. We want our spirituality to come easily, and we ignore the fact that while people may be naturally spiritual, spiritual growth and maturity requires work. It requires taking time in self-examination to determine whether or not we are truly open to God. It requires taking time to read the Bible, or religious/spiritual books, to stretch our thinking and understanding. Spiritual growth is always about learning. It requires time in prayer, especially during difficult times. Spiritual growth requires preparation and work, just like anything else in life. And when we take time to prepare, it also allows us to eventually celebrate what we become ready for. The problem is that not everyone wants to do this prep work.

            Over the course of the past six months I’ve been having conversations with younger people in their 20s and 30s about the growing tendency of many their age calling themselves spiritual but not religious. I’ve asked them what their impression is of their friends, and why they walk away from church. I’ve been surprised by many of their answers, which often boils down to “they’re lazy spiritually.” I asked, expecting to hear them say that they find church boring, that they don’t resonate with our music or ideas, or that they find Christian beliefs hard to grasp and accept. All of those might be true, but the ones I’ve been talking with have been telling me that they think their friends are just lazy spiritually. They say that their friends like to talk about being spiritual, but then don’t want to do anything to build on that spirituality because it might interfere with their leisure time.

            I have no idea if what they are saying is true. And I tend not to be critical of people and to call them lazy. But what they are saying does fit with our struggle with Advent:  people don’t like to prepare. This points out that in this day and age a significant part of the population, including the Christian population, doesn’t see spiritual work as essential. This is different from Christians of ages past. 50, 100, 200, 500 years ago, people were much more willing to work on their spiritual and religious lives, and to work hard. People read and knew the Bible. They made prayer an essential part of their lives, and not just prayer begging God to do their will. Much of their prayers were for God to help them to do God’s will. These people made church and worship essential to their prep work for God.

            If we want to experience God in our lives, we need to be responsible for putting our personal spiritual houses in order, and doing so allows us to actually be blessed by God. That’s what happened in our passage for this morning. Hezekiah was king of the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah as the Assyrians were threatening it with destruction. Hezekiah had been a so-so king up to this point. He had done much to pull the Jewish people back to a centering in God, but he also had done some things that were a bit more self-focused. Then the prophet Isaiah comes to him and says, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” Hezekiah is distraught and pleas with God, reminding God of all the good Hezekiah has done. And he prepares to put his house, his spiritual life, back in order. God responds by giving Hezekiah 15 more years, and Hezekiah puts the kingdom back in order.

            In the same way, the angels visits Elizabeth, Joseph, and Mary as preparation for Christ’s birth. And the angels do this because these folks had already put their houses in order. In fact, each had always kept their spiritual houses in order. They were constantly prepared spiritually for God’s coming, and it made them part of Christ’s coming.

            Advent is a season of preparation, and we are called to spend time in it preparing for Christmas by cleaning our own houses. I’d like to close by giving you a final thought. A number of years ago I became a fan of a British television series on BBC America. The show was called “How Clean Is Your House?” It was a fascinating show in which two women travel around Britain looking for the filthiest houses. They then come in and clean the houses, all the while teaching these people how to keep their houses clean. The houses they work on are amazingly disgusting. Often what caused these people’s houses to become so filthy and cluttered was the snowball effect. Something caused them to stop cleaning, and over time the accumulation of filth and mess became overwhelming. They didn’t know where to start, so they just stopped.

            The one episode I remember most was the house of a lifelong bachelor whose house was awful, especially the kitchen and bathroom. He hadn’t cleaned his bathroom in 28 years. It was the must DISGUSTING thing I’d ever seen. Nor had he cleaned his kitchen. They did culture swabs of his kitchen counter and alarmingly found it covered with salmonella, wisteria, e coli, and all sorts of other creepy, harmful bacteria. They told him that his house was actually dangerous to visitors. He smiled and responded that it wasn’t a problem because he hadn’t been sick in over 15 years, so it couldn’t be that bad. They told him that it was only because his immune system was in such constant high alert that he couldn’t get sick, but if he prepared food in his own kitchen to take to friends’ houses, that he could actually kill them.

            Typically, the women made a plan to clean and de-clutter the houses, and then made the owners help them clean. In the process they taught them how to clean. They always started with the bathroom because it was typically the smallest space, as well as the one with the most potential bacteria. Then they moved onto the kitchen, because it was the next smallest, yet dangerous space. They cleaned counters, stoves, refrigerators and tables. Then they moved to the rest of the house moving onto the bedrooms, dining room, and living room. The amount of trash they would pull out was astounding. And when they steam-cleaned the carpets, often they would collect up to 30 gallons of filthy water of dirt just from the carpets.

            I learned lessons from this show about how to put our spiritual houses in order. First, start small. Do the simplest things to connect with God. It might mean reading an inspirational quote once a day from an Advent calendar, or taking three minutes to pray for someone else. Then build on that to add in bigger spiritual acts. The point is to take care of part of our lives, and the move onto others.

            Don’t just make this a season of being pulled out of order in the zeal for Christmas, but make it one where you put God at the center, and put your house a little bit more into order.

            Amen.  

Who Is God? Shekinah

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Exodus 13:17-22

November 17, 2013

 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, ‘If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.’ So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle. And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had required a solemn oath of the Israelites, saying, ‘God will surely take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones with you from here.’ They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

            I want to start by asking you to take time, before reading this sermon, to watch a video on YouTube. It’s a song called “I Saw God the Other Day” by Victor Wooten. You may not know who he is, but he is considered one of the top bassists in jazz today, along with Stanley Clark and Marcus Miller. If you like jazz you may be aware of him from his work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

            Victor has become good friends with our music director, Bruce Smith, who is the one who first made me aware of the video. It’s a video that Victor made seven years ago, and it has a lot to do with our passage for today, but even more with the idea of God as Shekinah. Here’s the link to the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_h9eQ15CIs

            If you veer more toward Christian orthodoxy, you probably found a number of things that bother you in the video, but I’m going to ask you to put those aside to pay attention to a bigger message. What Victor says in the song is a profound reflection of God as Shekinah.

            My guess is that you’ve never heard the name or term, Shekinah, but it is ancient understanding of God that appears in our passage, and continues on throughout the rest of the Bible. Shekinah is a name for God that means “God’s presence in our midst.” The word in Hebrew looks like this: שכינה‎. It literally means “to settle, inhabit, or dwell.” When our passage talks about God as appearing before the Israelites as a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, that is God as Shekinah. When we hear about the tabernacle (a tent that holds the ark of the covenant), we are hearing about the holy place where the Shekinah of God rests. When Elijah is in the cave, and he hears God in the silence, that silence is Shekinah. When the prophets hear God speak to them, and share God’s word with the Israelites, that is them living in and sharing Shekinah.

            The Bible is adamant about the fact that God is a presence constantly in our midst, a holy Shekinah living in, with, and among us. Too many Christians have a problematic theology that promotes the idea of God’s separation and distance from us. Many Christians hold the belief that God is up in heaven and we are down on earth. They also believe that when each of us was created, we were given the task of living out the Golden Rule, treating other as we would be treated ourselves, and believing Jesus so that when we die and go up to heaven, St. Peter will let us in. That’s a belief in God’s separation.

            That is not a biblical belief, and it is definitely NOT what either the Old Testament or New Testament. They teach God’s Shekinah. They teach that God has been a presence with us from the beginning. In Genesis we are told that God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. We are also told that God literally appeared before Abraham to tell him that Sarah would bear a child. All throughout the Bible we find God’s Shekinah, including in Jesus.

            What is also interesting about God as Shekinah is that like the name for God that Rev. Frierson preached about last week, Sophia (God as Wisdom), Shekinah is also feminine. In English we don’t have feminine or masculine words, so this idea can be confusing to us. It certainly was confusing to me when I was taking French. I could never figure out why some words were feminine and some were masculine. But I’ve since found out that one reason is that the originators of the words were trying to communicate something essential in their choice of masculine or feminine designations. What was essential about making Shekinah feminine was that God’s presence has many of the qualities of what we think of as feminine: nurturing, loving, gentle, peaceful, and intimate. We often think of God as a “he,” and therefore give God masculine attributes. The Hebrews were adamant that God has feminine qualities, too, that come out in God’s Shekinah.

            I first heard of Shekinah from the great Quaker mystic and writer, Thomas Kelly. His book, Testament of Devotion, was a revelation for me because it was the first Christian writing that opened me up to a whole different dimension of understanding God than I had been aware of before. He said, “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of men. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all.” Prior to reading this passage, I had never heard the word “Shekinah,” and I had to look it up, which took a while to find.

            This is one of the most profound passages I’ve ever read, and it has had a deep impact on me. Kelly emphasizes that there is something of Christ, of God’s presence, in each and every one of us, but that this is a polite presence. God’s Shekinah will never be forced upon us. If we choose to ignore God’s presence in us, then God will become a “Slumbering Christ” within each and every one of us, remaining unknown and dormant. But if we choose to say “yes” to God’s Shekinah within, God’s presence will grow in us to lead us to an amazing life.

            This message of Shekinah is a message we preach all the time at Calvin Church, so it’s most likely familiar to you, but it’s not to many Christians. As I mentioned before, too many Christians think of God as “up there,” and of us as “down here.” God as Shekinah is a radical understanding of God that says that God is with us wherever we are, and deeply involved in our lives. It also means that God’s presence isn’t just in humans, but that it’s in everything. Everything manifests God’s Shekinah: nature, books, music, relationships,… life.

            Why do so many Christians have a hard time with this idea? I believe it has to do with orthodox, doctrinal Christians being scared of pantheism, which literally means that everything (pan) is God (theism). Many New Age believers like to promote everything as being God—us, trees, mountains, lakes, animals,… everything. The truth is that Christians do not believe in pantheism, but we do believe in panentheism, which is that God (theism) is in (en) everything (pan).

            Panentheism is deeply biblical. You find it promoted in the beginning of John’s gospel, where is says that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

            Panetheism is promoted in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where Paul says about Christ, “for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible.”

            Panentheism is also promoted in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

            The point is that God’s Shekinah is here among each and every one of us, but that doesn’t mean that we are always aware of it. I want to close with one of my favorite stories that speaks to the difference God’s Shekinah can make in our lives. Years ago there was a small monastery in the mountains of France. It once had been the center of inspiration for pilgrims and seekers yearning for God. People came from all over Europe to discover God in the monastery. But then it changed. It became proud. The brothers took themselves too seriously. Instead of being truly humble, they became proud of their humility. So began their decline. Fewer and fewer pilgrims sought their wisdom, and few monks joined their ranks. They became old. They became rigid. They worshiped their past. They were spiritually dead and physically dying. In another generation their members would be dead and they would be no more. 

            One day a scraggly stranger came to their door. He smiled a toothless smile as he asked for a place to rest for the night. He was invited in. The monks thoroughly enjoyed his presence at dinner and sensed a spiritual depth about him, even if he was rough and smelly on the outside.

            The next morning, as he was leaving, he profusely thanked the abbot. Taking the abbot’s hand, he leaned forward, and said in a soft whisper,  “I need to tell you a secret, one that God has given me permission to tell you. Christ is here in your midst. The messiah is masquerading as one of your brothers.” The abbot was shocked:  “The messiah? Here? In this place? No, it isn’t possible!” 

            He told the other brothers what the stranger had said. They also couldn’t believe it. Then they began to think about it.  Could it be brother Joseph? No, he’s too selfish. Could it be brother John? No, he’s much too strange. Is it brother Bernard? No, he’s too clumsy. No matter whom they thought of, they couldn’t imagine that brother being the messiah. Still, what if the stranger was right? A thought occurred to them. What if brother Joseph is really Christ, and just pretending to be selfish? What if Christ is brother John, and he is just pretending to be strange? What if Christ is brother Bernard, and just pretending to be clumsy? So they started to treat each other as though each one was possibly Christ, lest Christ really be one of them. As they did, the monastery changed. They began to focus more deeply on God during worship, lest Jesus catch them slumbering. They read scripture with a renewed fervor, lest Christ catch them daydreaming. As they did, they grew spiritually. Their prayers took on a new life. So did their teaching and service. And people noticed. Soon pilgrims and seekers came to their doors to learn from their wisdom. New monks joined their ranks to learn the spiritual secrets. They became alive once again, and once again they became a center of spiritual life for all of Europe. They became alive to Christ. 

            Two questions reflect on:  Do we allow ourselves to be a dwelling place for God’s Shekinah? Do we recognize God’s Shekinah in others and the world?

            As a final note, and as an exclamation point to this sermon, I want to share with you something that happened right after I preached this sermon at our 8:30 a.m. worship service. As I was shaking hands with members, one of our members handed me a blue folder and said, “God told me to give this to you.”  Not knowing what was in the folder, and a bit nervous that it might be his letter to me about the 50 ways I stink as a pastor, I stepped back and said, “Should I be afraid?” He said, “No, but let me explain it before you open it.  I wasn’t coming to church this morning, but it was like this nagging voice in my head kept urging me to go to church. It felt like there was an important reason for me to go. So I got dressed and headed out the door. But before I could walk out, I also felt this urgent compulsion to grab this folder. It seemed preposterous, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so I grabbed it and headed out the door. I was a little embarrassed to walk in to church with it, so I left it in my car. After I heard your sermon, I realized that I was supposed to give it to you. Open it up.”

            I opened up the folder and found in it this bumper sticker:

            He said, “I got that bumper sticking at a Victor Wooten concert three years ago…”

  

            Amen.

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How Do We Find Happiness? by Giving

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2 Corinthians 9:6-15

October 26, 2013

 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written,
‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
   his righteousness endures for ever.’ 
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

            I want give you a quick quiz: what’s the one extremely lucky thing, that if it happened to you, would both fulfill your dreams and ruin your life at the same time?  

            You probably guessed it, but the answer is winning the lotto. The fact is that, as often as not, winning the lotto ruins lives. Studies have been done on this, and many researchers have found that when you win the lotto, your life improves appreciably, and then in the ensuing years degrades incredibly. Many lotto winners end up worse off 5-10 years later than they were before they won. Let me give you some examples.

            Lara and Robert Griffith won $2.7 million. Before winning, they were reportedly a happy couple, but within two years of winning it their 14-year marriage ended. They first bought a million dollar house and he bought a Porsche. He then started having affairs, and then they called it quits.

            Sharon Tirabassi won $10 million from an Ontario lottery. She had been on welfare before winning. After winning she bought a huge house, bought a jacked up designer car, outfitter herself in designer clothes, hosted lavish parties, took exotic trips, gave handouts to family, and bad loans to friends. Within 10 years she was back in poverty.

            Ibi Roncailoli won $5 million, but she kept the winnings for herself and didn’t really share them with her husband, a gynecologist, or even tell him what she was doing with it.  Two years later he murdered her with an overdose of painkillers after he found out that she gave $2 million to man she secretly had child with (how you keep the child a secret from a gynecologist I’ll never know).

            Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lotto twice, the two totaling $5.4. Over the course of 5 years she gambled it all away in Atlantic City and is now living in a trailer park.

            Willie Hurt won $3.1 million in the Michigan lottery. Two years later he was a crack addict, was separated from his wife, lost custody of his children, and was accused of murder.  

            My point in all of this is that so many of us think that winning the lottery would make us happier, and that having tons of money would make life easier, but many, if not most, winners find their lives become a mess after winning. This shouldn’t shock anyone, since Christianity has been talking about the connection between wealth and unhappiness, as well as giving and happiness, for thousands of years. Scripture constantly talks about how giving leads to happiness, and extreme wealth leads to unhappiness. But that’s a hard message to get across in a culture that equates the acquisition of wealth with the pursuit of happiness. When the Declaration of Independence said that we are endowed with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” modern Americans have equated that happiness with being rich. But that’s not what the founders believed. They believed that the pursuit of a meaningful life led to happiness, and that the nation should protect that right.

            The funny thing is that while Christianity has been saying for centuries that the pursuit of wealth for wealth’s sake leads to misery, and that giving leads to happiness, it’s only been in recent years that social research has confirmed this ancient wisdom. And in our modern life, nothing seems to be accepted as true until social research says it is.

            Many journalists are writing stories of what social researchers are finding regarding the connection between wealth and unhappiness, and giving and happiness. For example, Britt Peterson, a freelance writer for the Boston Globe and the Dallas Morning News, did a wonderful article citing research on how money changes us, and how the more money we have, the more it changes us (“Why it matters that our politicians are rich”). She wrote the article during the 2012 election, and noted that most people running for office now are exceedingly wealthy.

            She noted that there is a preponderance of research out now showing that the more money we have, the more it changes our personalities. As we become wealthier, we become more security conscious and less compassionate. She noted that recent research shows that when people just think about money, they become more focused on personal goals, while their ability to form relationships degrades. As one researcher cited said, “What money does ... is, it obviates the need for others… When you have feelings of security, there’s no extra motivation to spend your resources for compassion on other people.” Peterson also said that recent research shows that “a subject whose family income is over $75,000 will show more compassion and generosity than a subject with a family income over $150,000, and less than a subject with an income of $30,000.”

            Peterson’s insights are backed up by other studies and research. Ken Stern, a writer for The Atlantic magazine noted that in 2011, the wealthiest Americans— those with earnings in the top 20 percent—contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid—those in the bottom 20 percent—donated 3.2 percent of their income (“Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity”). In other words, the less money you have, the more you are likely to give sacrificially, while the more money you have, the less likely you are to give sacrificially.

Basically, the more we have, the less likely we are to share, even if we have more to share

            This is all getting to Paul’s point for this morning, which is a point Jesus made over and over again in the gospels. They both teach that a secret to finding both meaning in life and happiness is to give—to be generous—not just with money, but with time, effort, and love.

            Adam Grant, an organizational psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about the impact of giving on happiness in his book, Give and Take. He suggests that there are basically three types of people in the world when it comes to how we negotiate and relate:  Givers, Takers, and Matchers. Matchers are people who look for fairness and equity in relationships and negotiations. Their attitude is that “if you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.” In negotiations they look for what is fair and equal. Takers, as you can imagine, are people who look for advantage. They enter negotiations and relationships to see what they can get, and they love to get more out of negotiations and relationships than they put in. They always want more than is given. Givers are the opposite. They enter relationships and negotiations looking for ways to improve people’s lives. They want what’s best, not what’s equal.

            Grant’s research show that most people, relatively speaking, are Givers in their personal lives, but only 8 percent of people describe themselves as Givers at work. In other words, when we move into a work environment we are more likely to become a Matcher or even a Taker. The irony of this is that Givers are generally the most successful people in business, and they typically are the happiest. As he says, "There is powerful evidence that givers experience more meaning in their work than takers or matchers."

            A great example of this is John Huntsman. You may remember him from the 2012 presidential election where he ran for president as part of the Republican primary. He didn’t do all that well, but that may have something to do with his qualities. Before running for president he was a past governor of Utah, and then an ambassador to China under the Obama Administration.

            According to his 2008 book, Winners Never Cheat, he was in negotiations with Charles Miller Smith, the CEO of a British chemical company, to acquire it. In the midst of negotiations, Smith’s wife died. This potentially gave Huntsman a great negotiating advantage. He knew that he could use Smith’s grief to chip away another 20% of the price.  Here’s what Huntsman said about it: "I decided the fine points of the last 20 percent of the deal would stand as they were proposed… I probably could have clawed another $200 million out of the deal, but it would have come at the expense of Charles' emotional state. The agreement as it stood was good enough." What’s made Huntsman successful is his willingness to give, rather than to match or even to take.

            This fits completely with Paul’s and Jesus’ teachings: if we want to find meaning and purpose in life; if we want to find God in life; if we want to serve God in life, find a way to become a giver.

            The whole point of this is that if you really want to be happy, live a generous life. Now it’s easy to think that my point is to compel you to give more to the church, but that’s not what I’m aiming at. My point is that while I do want you to give to the church, and giving is important, what’s really important is to be a giver in everything. Don’t just give to the church. Give to charity. Give your time and effort to people in need. Give your compassion to people who are struggling. Give your love to others and to God.

            Basically, if you want to find happiness in life, you will find it in generosity.

            Amen.

How Do We Find Happiness? Humor and Humility

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Song of Solomon 4:1-5

October 20, 2013

How beautiful you are, my love,


   how very beautiful!
Your eyes are doves

      behind your veil.


Your hair is like a flock of goats,

   moving down the slopes of Gilead. 


Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes
   

   that have come up from the washing,


      all of which bear twins,
   

         and not one among them is bereaved. 


Your lips are like a crimson thread,
   

   and your mouth is lovely.


Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate
   

   behind your veil. 


Your neck is like the tower of David,
  

    built in courses;

      
on it hang a thousand bucklers,
   

         all of them shields of warriors. 


Your two breasts are like two fawns,
  

    twins of a gazelle,
   

      that feed among the lilies.

         This is the Word of the Lord….

            I want to start with a story. It’s one of my favorites, and one that I believe reveals a lot about religion and human nature. Back in the Middle Ages there were periods in which the Jews were heavily discriminated against, often violently.  

            During one of those periods the advisors to the pope tried to convince him that unconverted Jews should not live in Rome, the center of Christian Catholicism. The pope was unsure, but eventually relented and issued a decree: all Jews either had to become Christian and be baptized, or they would kicked out of Rome. The Jewish community panicked.  hey weren’t just being forced out of their homes. They also knew that they would be persecuted and attacked throughout the rest of Europe. They had lived good lives in Rome, and had been treated with relative respect. And so they sent a delegation to the pope asking him to rescind his decree. The pope listened patiently, and finally said, “Okay, I will rescind my decree if one of you can defeat me in a theological debate in pantomime (don’t ask me why he felt the need to debate in pantomime – it’s just part of the story).

            The Jewish delegation went back and reported to the rest what had happened. The Jews again panicked. The pope was known far and wide as a master debater. How could they possibly hope to defeat him, especially when he was the debater and the judge? They asked for volunteers among the rabbis, but each declined, saying that they couldn’t possibly bear the burden of debating on behalf of all the Jews. They then asked the leaders, but they, too, declined in fear.  No one would volunteer. Finally, the custodian of the synagogue volunteered: “I’ll debate the pope!” The rest responded, “How can you, a custodian, possibly hope to defeat the pope?” He answered, “Because none of you are willing.” 

            So the day for the debate came. The Jewish delegation entered St. Peter’s Basilica with their black robes flowing, and their white beards swaying. The pope sat ominously on his throne, flanked by all the cardinals. The custodian stepped forward, and without delay the pope jumped off his throne, stood before the custodian, and in one motion began the debate by sweeping a finger across the sky. Without skipping a beat the custodian defiantly pointed toward the floor. The pope stood back in surprise at the gesture. He thought for a moment, and then held his index finger up before the custodian’s face. The custodian responded without hesitation by holding up three fingers in the pope’s face. Again, the pope stepped back in shock at the man’s response. 

            The pope pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his brow. Pausing for a while, he finally reached into his robes and pulled out an apple. With that, the custodian reached into his robes and pulled out a flat piece of matzo bread. The pope stopped, looked at the man in amazement, turned to his cardinals and said, “The debate is over. This man has defeated me. The Jews can stay and keep their faith!” With that, he strode out of the room, followed by his cardinals.

            The cardinals stopped the pope and asked, “What did that man say?” The pope responded, “He is a master debater.  I could not defeat him.  I started by sweeping my finger across the sky to say, ‘God is the master of the universe.’ Then the man pointed to the ground, saying, ‘Yes, but there is also the devil who wants to take our souls.’ Then I put one finger out to say, ‘God is one.’ Imagine my surprise when he puts up three fingers to say, ‘Yes, but he is manifested in three persons.’ Finally, I pulled out the apple to say, ‘Some heretics say the world is round.’  The man responded by pulling out his bread to say, ‘Yes, but the Bible tells us that the world is flat.’ I simply could not defeat him.” All the cardinals agreed that the Jews could stay. 

            Meanwhile, the Jewish delegation asked the custodian what had happened. He said, “It was all a bunch of rubbish. The pope starts by sweeping his finger across the sky, saying, ‘All of you Jews get out of Rome!’  So I pointed to the ground and said, “No way!  We are staying where we are!’ He then puts a finger in my face, saying, ‘Don’t get fresh with me!’ So I put my fingers up, saying, “Hey, you were three times as fresh as me!’ Finally, he pulls out his lunch, so I pulled out mine.”

            I love that story because it has all the elements of a profound story. First, it speaks to how we all can be confused by theology, especially when expounded by big religious figures. Second, it speaks to how the powerful often use religion to oppress the weak. Third, and maybe the most important, it teaches that it’s the humble who are closest to God, not the proud. And it teaches all of these lessons in a humorous way.

            One of the things I’ve been very, very aware of since I’ve become a pastor is how important humor is to the spiritual path, mainly because humor often makes us humble, and grounds us more in our humanity. I had a conversation with Connie Frierson, our associate pastor, on Thursday, and I told her something that I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone before. I realized that over time my spirituality has become a spirituality of joy and laughter. I’ve come to discover that, in addition to all the spiritual practices of prayer, Scripture reading, and reflection we can do, one of the most powerful ways of discovering God comes from learning to find joy in life. Laughter is an entryway into joy. Often my approach is to find the joy in whatever situation we are in, even if we are in a bad situation.

            I don’t think I developed this spirituality on my own. This spirituality has been, and is, very much a part of Calvin Church’s life. You can see it in our worship and pastoral staff during worship services in the way we banter back and forth. That’s because we find joy in each other. You can see it on our staff in general in staff meetings. It often takes us 20 minutes to get down to business because of our laughing. And you can see it in our church as a whole.

            Back in 2005, we were part of a large, national study of churches. Diana Butler Bass—a church historian, researcher, and writer—studied mainline churches that were growing, but not by offering contemporary worship services and a ton of programs. Instead, they were growing by emphasizing prayer and spirituality—what Diana called “spiritual practices.”

            She studies 75 churches overall, and 12 churches intensively. Calvin Presbyterian Church was one of the 12. She released the results of her study in her 2006 book, Christianity for the Rest of Us. Calvin Church is mentioned prominently and constantly in the book. The particular practice she noted us for was discernment and listening to God as a community and as individuals. She wrote about how we run our meetings, how we encourage listening for God in budgeting and stewardship, and how we teach the congregation to make listening to God a priority.

            After she wrote the book, she told me that she and her research assistant, Joe, had a dilemma regarding our practice. Discernment was a prominent practice, but she noticed another “practice” that we have that no other churches had to the extent that we had: humor. According to her, we use humor in a way that no other church does. She saw our humor as a real spiritual practice that opened us up to God. This stands out because so many churches are SO SERIOUS.

            For me, humor is essential to spiritual growth because it makes us humble. Humor grounds us. Let me share two favorite stories as an example of what I mean. A grandmother was visiting with her grandson, and she asked him, “So, Mikey, do you say your prayers every evening before you go to bed?” He said, “Oh yes,… every night.” “And what about in the morning?” she asked. “Do you say your prayers every morning?” “Nope,” he replied. “Why not?” she asked. He answered, “Because I’m not scared in the morning.”

            I love this story because it points out that we often only go to God and pray when we are scared, struggling, or in trouble, but that we are called to reach out to God when things are going well, too.

            Another: Two men were hiking through the countryside across fields and pastures. Suddenly they heard a snort behind them. They turned to see a huge bull, with sharp horns, snorting and stamping, preparing to charge. “Run to that fence in the distance!” the one man said to the other. They ran as fast as they could, but the bull was gaining on them. “We won’t make it. We have to do something!” the one man said. The other replied, “What do we do?!” “I know,… say a prayer!” the first one said.  “But I don’t know any. I was never taught to pray”  “Pray anything,… it doesn’t matter what. Just pray whatever you know!!!” the first man said. So, as they sprinted, the other man yelled out, “Oh God, for what we are about to receive, make us truly grateful…”

            Again, there is great humility in the story that reminds us something Connie Frierson said in a sermon a few years ago: Don’t wait till you are in trouble to work on your faith and your relationship with God.

            There’s a deep connection between humor and humility. You can find that connection in the Creation story of Genesis. The word “humility” is literally rooted in the Genesis story in which the first human being, Adam, is created from the dirt, adamah (Genesis 2:7).  God breathes God’s Spirit into the adamah to create Adam.  The Latin root for “dirt” and for “human” is humus. Thus, to be human is to be “of the soil.”  o many words spring from humus:  humility, humor, and human.  All connote a sense of groundedness—a recognition that at our foundation we are nothing more or less than created matter.

            Good humor grounds us in our humanity. It reminds us that while we may be spiritual creatures, we are also humans created from humus. And this gives me an opportunity to show you what I mean through my favorite church joke. It’s a bit racy, but my hope is that your spirit of joy and humor will let you forgive me for that.

            There once was a pastor of a church that was doing poorly financially. The pastor didn’t know what to do, but he was desperate. If the congregation didn’t get more money soon the church might have to fold up shop. In desperation he came up with a bold plan: “I’ll hypnotize the people to give more money.” So the next Sunday, during his sermon, he pulled out a watch on a chain, swinging it gently back and forth. Once they seemed to be mesmerized by the watch, he gently said to the congregation, “You will each put $5 in the collection plate.” After the service, the plates were full of $5 bills, enough to pay all the church bills for the week. He decided to do it again the following Sunday. He pulled out the watch, swung it back and forth, and said, “You will each put $10 in the collection plate.” Afterwards the plates were overflowing with $10 bills, enough to pay the bills for the rest of the month. If he could just get $20 from everyone, they would have all the bills paid for a year. The next week he pulled out the watch and said, “You will all…”  At that moment the watch chain broke, the watch fell, and he yelled out, “Aw, crap!”  It took them two days to clean up the sanctuary. 

            This joke tells you all you need to know about how reluctant we are to give, how easy it is to manipulate people to give, and how all of our best laid plans can backfire. Humor is part of God’s world. I chose our scripture for this morning because I think the Song of Songs is an intentionally humorous book of the Bible. It is profound. It is a love sonnet between God (the groom) and us (the bride), but the imagery is both evocative and humorous. Comparing the bride’s hair to a flock of goats cascading down a mountain, her neck like the ramparts of a castle, and her teeth to shorn sheep with twins is not meant to be deeply serious. It is both evocative and joyful, using humor to bring out both. If you look at the picture on the cover of this sermon, you will see what these descriptions all would look like. It shows that the Song of Songs is meant to be both humorous and deep at the same time. The Bible is full of humor, mostly that we don’t get. In the original Hebrew you find puns galore, along with sarcasm, facetiousness, and absurdity.

            The humor of Song of Songs taps into the same humor that the greatest television comedies does. Whether you are talking about shows like “I Love Lucy,” “The Dick van Dyke Show,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Cheers,” “Seinfeld,” or “Modern Family,” they all start with the recognition that everyone in the show is flawed and human. And they exploit their humanness to both humor and humble us. Every character who lifts him- or herself up is brought down. And every character who is laid low gets brought back up. In great comedies, everyone is a fool, but they are fools in a community of people who keep lifting each other up no matter how often they stumble. These shows remind us, simply put, that we need humor as humans because humor keeps us humble. And real humility leads us to happiness.

            I have a simple message to close with for this morning:  When we combine humor and humility they allow us to find joy in the simplest things of life.

            Amen.