04/21/05 |
            
| Sermon Preached at Northbrae Community Church, November 27, 2005 – Advent 1 By Ron Sebring Foundations for Hope Two stories: consider the contrast. Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was a big shopping day. Black Friday, they called it. Stores were anxious to draw in business. This is a precarious season for merchants, with high gas prices and all. So stores offered all kinds of bargains. Stocking shelves with colorful items. Aisles lavishly decorated. Opening doors at 5:00 a.m., in the morning. People lined up at the doors, pushing and shoving. Some camped out in the parking lot, overnight, just to be first in line. The news reported that when the doors opened, there was a mad stampede. People knocked to the ground. Stepped on. The contents of purses scattered across the floor. And people rushed right on past. All to get ready for Christmas, to celebrate the spirit of peace and good will. The other story is one that was passed around the Internet, some time back. It is about the Special Olympics, up in the Northwest, somewhere. Many children, mentally challenged, competed in Olympic-like sports. Broad jumps, hurdles, races. Gold metals. Silver and Bronze. In one race, a whole crowd of children ran around the track. Parents cheering in the stands. Each child giggling and struggling to get ahead of the others. But suddenly, one child fell down and skinned his knees. He screamed, and the other children slowed down, and stopped. There was a moment’s pause. And then in mass, they went back and picked up their injured friend. It was an extraordinary thing that happened! It drew tears to the eyes of their parents and teachers in the stands. They all locked arms, carrying their wounded comrade, giggling and shouting. All crossed the finish line together. In which world do we want to live? And how do we realize such a world? Two wives. Each had a husband on dialysis. A painful process for both husbands! Each was not a match for her own husband. A situation of seemingly no hope, but both women were determined. They found each other on the Net; each gave a kidney to the husband of the other. After successful operations, they celebrated thanksgiving together. The love that bonded each couple became a love that bonded a small community. Born of a hope. Pursued with the vision of a hope. This is the first Sunday of Advent, and our theme is "HOPE." My whole point this morning is this: hope for a world of peace begins with a creative and proactive vision of such. Indeed, Vision is the foundation of hope. Vision is what makes hope possible. The Jews in exile, in Babylon, exemplify the power of visionary hope. This was the turning point in Jewish history. It was in their exile that Jews reflected on their past, pulled together their history, their scriptures, and established their ceremonies. After David and Solomon, the kingdom split and was unable to reclaim its former unity. First the Assyrians deported the ten northern tribes, and they became the proverbial "Lost Tribes of Israel." The Babylonians defeated and deported the two southern tribes. They became refuges in Babylon. What enabled them to return to their land was their prophets giving them "Visionary Hope." They created a vivid, living picture of their return. Isaiah pointed to the east, toward Jerusalem, and said that every valley will be lifted up and every mountain will be lowered, and God will make a straight highway, all the way back home. A vivid, rhetorical picture! Jeremiah, when they were about to be deported, got his secretary and went out and purchased land. He made a public display of it. "Why," everyone asked. "We’re about to be deported. We are losing our homeland. Why? What’s the point?" "Because God is going to bring us back, and when God does, I want me or my descendents to have a place to live." Martin Luther King, Jr. created a vision in his "I have a dream" sermon, one of the most powerful sermons ever delivered. Between his refrain, "I have a dream," his poetry creates a vision of what might be. · That our nation will live out the true meaning of its creed. · That children of former slaves and children of former slave owners will sit down at the same table. · That in places around our country, the heat of oppression will became an oasis of freedom and justice. · That children are not judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. The power in that sermon is not only did he, in the first half, point out what is wrong; in the second half, he pointed out what can be right. He gave people something in which to believe. A future. A possibility. So what kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of family do we want ours to become? What kind of church will we be in the coming decades? What kind of year do we want the spirit of this Christmas to bless us with? It begins with a vision. A vision upon which we can act, and out of which we can life. When my brother and I finished our education and settled into our careers, mom and dad had that "empty-nest" feeling. They went out and purchased a brand new car, a 1972 Oldsmobile. They were proud of that car; it was the first brand new car they had ever owned in their lives. Dad took it to the car wash, every few days. After a few years, when Dad passed away, mom kept the car. It held many memories. Yet it was too big for her to drive, so it sat in the garage for ten years. When Mom passed away, Connie and I needed a new vehicle, so my brother gave us the Olds. When I opened the door, it had cobwebs throughout the interior. It protested a long time before starting up, but it finally did. And in spite of being old, it drove smoothly, like a new car. Big. Solid. Out of fashion but with low mileage. The problem was that my stepson, in his junior and senior year in high school, didn’t want to be seen in that car. When Connie drove him to school, he scooted down in the back seat. Connie had to let him out three blocks from school so his friends would not see it. He’d open the door and crawl out, low to the ground. He hid behind a tree until she drove out of sight. I can smile at that now, but at the time, that really bothered me. That was being too spoiled, and it symbolized all the things I had to complain about. I complained to myself, constantly. This is not right. That is not right. My whole world was far less than what I had envisioned it. I remember the day and the moment that I changed my mind. Sitting in our back-porch swing, overlooking our back yard. It came with the realization that the problem was not outside of myself but inside myself. That what was challenging me was God’s gift, God’s "boot camp" for wisdom. And that if I was to have any inner peace, I would have to gain some equanimity. Something in me changed. And with that change came hope. Life cease to be just a matter of coping, and started to go somewhere. I was able to enter the process of our family’s shared growth. What makes equanimity possible is visionary hope. Like an acorn that has within it the complete wisdom of the oak. · We might plant it. · We might clear the brush around it making room for growth. · We might even water it during the dry spells. But what grows the oak tree is nothing we can do. The wisdom and the possibilities of the whole oak hides in the acorn. And like the acorn, every situation has within it, it’s own innate wisdom. All we have to do is envision it, and then believe in it. Anna and Simeon waited a long time, in the temple, for a solution. Their people were oppressed, and God had promised a new Vision. Then here came this young mother carrying a baby, and a young man, beside them. Anna and Simeon saw in this baby, HOPE. They saw in this baby, a PROMISE for a new age. They saw in this baby, a new possibility. Their hope for a new future was bound to the circumstances of their age. Our hope for a new future is bound in the circumstances of our age. And the question we raise as we move into any Christmas season: What kind of world do we want to live in? And how do we realize such a world? If Jesus is the symbol of Divine Creativity in our midst, what Vision might we claim? Three people in a small sailboat fight the wind and battle the waves. Each fussing at the other. Each grumbling to himself. One is named Fear. One is named Despair. One is named Mr. Negativity. Fear, Despair, and Mr. Negativity make their way to a strange island. On this island, amidst lush trees and clear streams, lives Lady Hope. Lady Hope meets them on the shore and welcomes them to her island. "What’s your trouble?" She asks. Fear responds, "Something bad is going to happen to us. We don’t know what it is." Despair responds, "Something bad has already happened to us. And we don’t know what to do about it." Mr. Negativity responds, "It’s neither in the past nor the future. Nothing bad is likely to happen and nothing bad has happened. It’s just that things, right now, aren’t what they could be." "Where are you going?" Lady Hope asks. "We don’t know," they respond in unison. So Lady Hope answers, "If you don’t know where you’re going, you will likely not get there." "Let me introduce you to my daughter," says Lady Hope. "Her name is Vision." "Vision will sail with you. She will guide you, and for you, be a living map." So Vision sails with Fear and Despair and Mr. Negativity. Along the way, Spirit wrestles with each, and changes his name. · Spirit wrestles with Fear and changes his name to Boldness. He is now better able to face his future. · Spirit wrestles with Despair and changes his name to Wisdom. He is now better able to understand his past. · And Spirit wrestles with Mr. Negativity and changes his name to Equanimity. He is now able to make peace in his moments.
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