For the past four weeks, our students have been telling us a story about a family as it prepares for Christmas. And the overriding theme of this story is Peace. In a few days we will light the last candle in our Advent wreath, the candle of peace. Although we will send and receive many wishes for peace and joy this Christmas season, many might say it’s anything BUT. We are all feeling the stress of decorating not quite done, Christmas cards and greetings still to send (I know I’m still working on mine), presents yet to buy, and any number of holiday parties to squeeze into our already busy schedules. Many of us may be asking, where is this peace?

Peace was also the theme for this month’s Faith Journaling class. I expected to hear many of them come with ideas about peace in relation to war. Instead, they all chose Bible verses that spoke of a different kind of peace—a peace that comes when you experience freedom from stress and worry, guilt and fear. Some chose the words of Isaiah: “Each [person] will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.” OR “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” Others chose the words of John: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

In our discussions I asked them to describe moments in their lives when they felt true peace. Their responses reflected two dominant themes—water and candles. They described such moments as walking along the shore at Hamlin Beach, just as the sun was setting, and all was quiet except for the lapping of the waves and a gentle breeze. Others described the overwhelming sense of peace they feel on Christmas Eve when all the lights are turned off and the church is lit solely by candlelight.

I’m reminded of times when I was younger and we would lose our power—in an age before people bought generators. My father would make sure a fire was lit in the fireplace to keep us warm, and our only light was that provided by candles. I remember these moments with great fondness, although I’m sure my mother’s memories of these evenings are a bit different from mine… as she worried over what would happen to all the food in the fridge, how she was going to make dinner or hoping we wouldn’t burn the house down as we ran around with our candles. However, I saw these evenings as gifts—times when we were forced to put all of our distractions aside and be with each other. We couldn’t escape into an evening of television programs, or hide in our rooms reading a good book. Instead, we would gather ‘round the table and play board games, talk, or just sit in silence, watching the flames lick away at a log in the fireplace.

Our world is full of distractions—things that destroy the very peace we so desperately seek. In the past few weeks we’ve listened to stories about letters from Santa asking for safe communities so children may go outside without fear. Our children have told us to lay down our burdens of jealousy, greed, materialism, and distress. And we’ve even heard from John the Baptist and his pleas for REAL change in our lives.

The Bible verse I chose for my Faith Journal comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 4: Verse 6—“Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” It is my understanding (and Jim, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), that it’s believed this particular book was written by a King of Israel who had everything, and yet the dominant theme is one of a wasted life—a meaningless life—a life spent chasing after the wrong things—among them wealth, fame and power. We don’t typically spend a lot of time with this book, and yet American novelist Thomas Wolfe is noted as saying it’s the most important piece of writing ever known; it’s “wisdom lasing and profound.” It is full of life lessons, lessons such as what is wealth without family? I selected this verse for my Faith Journal because I believe I spend a great deal of time chasing after the wrong things. In the story about Mary and Martha, where Jesus chastises Martha for not recognizing what is important, I am Martha—and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to beat the “Martha” out of me. Someone has to cook the meal, or we’d all starve, right? I spend time worrying about the wrong things, such as decorating my home so it’s the PERFECT setting for our holiday celebrations, or selecting just the right foods that everyone will rave about, or trying to find just the right gift, or even worse, picking up something just for the sake of giving a gift. In the end, I am trying so hard to achieve the impossibly perfect life, I forget about the entire “reason for the season.”

To take from John the Baptist, isn’t it time for change? Isn’t it time for new beginnings, a new way of living our lives? How wonderful that we celebrate the birth of Christ, the very symbol of new beginnings, promise and hope. God sent his son so that we would have life—a meaningful life, free from fear and worry—a peaceful life. At His feet we may lay down our burdens. And, as we celebrate His last supper today, do not think of it as a solemn moment of sorrow, but rejoice—His death is not the end, it is a new beginning—like the moment of His birth, it is a moment of hope and promise—a promise of freedom from all that troubles us, it IS peace.

I’d like to close now with a poem titled “True Rest,” written by Margie Casteel.

My dear child, I know you're weary
With nothing left to give.
You've worked long and hard
Now you feel frayed and worn.

Come with Me to a quiet place
Away from all the noise and busyness.
Let Me wrap My arms around you,
Enfold you in My love.

Let Me whisper peace to your heart's storm,
Soothe your troubled brow.
Listen to the love song
I composed just for you.

In Me is true contentment.
In Me you will find what you long for.
Come with Me to a quiet place
And receive rest, strength, and peace.

Let us pray (using the words from “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”):

And ye beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
Oh rest beside the weary load
And hear the angels sing
AMEN!

(This message was offered in conjunction with and to summarize the presentatations of church youth during worship in the Advent season.  Ms. Hillabush-Walker is the chair of the Christian Education Committee.)

            "I don't know what happens, but I will come in, get a bulletin and sit down. The choir will start singing, or you will read a passage of scripture, and the floodgates open. I am in tears. It is embarrassing."

            “Why be embarrassed?” Joanna asks, “Worship is homecoming. It is putting ourselves in the place where it is safe to tell the truth, safe to be who we really are in the presence of the holy and loving God. We come with broken places and unanswered questions. God takes us in, and yes, sometimes it feels so good that we weep from sheer relief.”

            God has created a home here.   I could tell two weeks ago, when I saw Connor climb to the top of that huge Christmas tree.  When so many of you jumped into decorating this place so that you can celebrate.  You are a church that embraces those in pain and exile, knitting shawls to enfold bodies into God's presence, led by God to bring words and actions of hope to Cameron House, to Ronald McDonald House, to those who have no home at all or whose homes are threatened by violence. 

            Even as we lament the ongoing homelessness of our world, may we journey with joy as our accompaniment.  For according to Luke, during the reign of Caesar Augustus all went home to be registered. The pilgrims included Joseph and Mary, who was expecting a child.  And in the city of David called Bethlehem, the baby was born, and as Zephaniah had promised, the exile . . . was over. The Lord our God was here to stay.[2]

            Rejoice!

Guest Preacher:  Rev. Robert Kaiser

Date:  December  6, 2009

Text:  Luke 3: 1-16

            A few weekends ago we were in NJ visiting family.  While there, we went to the Garden State Plaza, the one of largest malls in the state. The place was packed with teenagers lined up to see “New Moon,” the latest “Twilight” movie and mobs of people beginning their Christmas shopping. More so than ever, I was struck by the contrast between our society’s celebration of Christmas and the drama of the Bible. A similar contrast is apparent when we compare the Biblical story with the many holiday movies on TV. Most of them are what I would call “Hallmark films” with Tim Allen-like heroes and happy endings.  Everything is sugarplums and dancing fairies. There is certainly nothing wrong with feeling good at the end of a film but the mood for Advent in the New Testament is quite different. The scripture readings for the first Sunday of Advent spoke of the coming kingdom of God and the need to get ready.  The story, then, moves on to a manger that nobody cared about in an obscured town called Bethlehem.

Nowhere is the difference between  “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” mentality and the Biblical story more striking than in the role of John the Baptist.  John can only be described as a wild man. He lived out in the desert, existing on locust and honey and wearing animal skins.  He stood in a long line of prophets who felt called by God “to tell it like it is” and challenged people to return to their true relationship with their Creator.

John’s message was simple:  “REPENT!  Do a 180 turn and change those thoughts and actions that are displeasing to God.”  Can you imagine one of the Salvation Army bell ringers standing outside Wegman’s or Topp’s clanging his bell and telling people who were entering the store “don’t buy a lot of stuff that will add to your waist line; watch out if you are going to stock up on beer; who is that with you?  It better be your wife.”  It wouldn’t be very long, I suspect, before the Salvation Army found its holiday contributions were way down.

The people who came out into the wilderness to hear John asked him a very dangerous question:  WHAT SHALL WE DO in responding to your message? Some of us have found out just how perilous it can be when we begin to shape our lives around what God wants us to do.  Anne Dillard has written about Christians taking Christmas too casually.  She describes church people in worship as children who assume that they are playing around with a chemistry set, but who are actually mixing up a batch of TNT. It is madness, she maintains, to wear pretty hats when we need crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  It sounds extreme but Ms. Dillard may have been listening to John the Baptist and her comments may be closer to the true spirit of Christmas than most realize.

We say that Christmas is a time for giving.  That is absolutely correct but John provides a yearly reminder that the type of giving that God seeks in response to the birth of His Son may go far beyond what we normally assume when we rush out to the mall to do some more shopping.

Do we dare to ask as we prepare for Christmas this very Biblical question:  WHAT SHALL WE DO? John called for a moral revitalization that begins within one’s self and then spreads out! Interestingly enough, it would appear on the surface that John’s message is “music to the ears” for many Americans.  Aren’t we all fed up with the shooting of policemen who are trying to do their duty, of the news about sexual predators or all the shenanigans that go on in Albany and Washington?  The cry seems to be “Yes, let’s have some changes.”

But do the American people including us want the change to begin where it does in the Bible and that is with our personal habits and lifestyle? John, in a subtle twist, took away part of the comfort zone when he told his listeners not to assume that just because they claimed Abraham as an ancestor that they had no need for repentance.  The warning applies equally well to middle and upper class Christians in our day who often share the same type of complacency. Frequently our trend of thought assumes that change should begin with the “bad” people we see on the TV News. It’s not only John the Baptist warning people about becoming too self satisfied in their faith but Jesus picked up on the same message when he chastised the Pharisees, the most religious people of his day, for assuming they had it made.

John’s approach is challenging if change is to begin with you and me.  He didn’t call for people to leave their jobs or their homes or anything radical in that sense but all are to share generously with the poor and all are to have high ethical principles. The tax collector is challenged to practice his profession with honesty and integrity and the same for the solider. For us this means that our response to Christmas is shaped initially in a very personal manner.  It may look different for the student, the parent, the retiree but all are to take seriously the call to treat others with respect and to seek justice.

Do some of you remember the “Murphy Brown” TV show?  I was not a fan but one time I caught an evening where Jim Diehl, the older announcer, declared that he had a deep, dark secret. Everybody was fascinated and speculation ran rampant in the newsroom.  Finally he decided to go public with the information on his next broadcast. Everybody waited anxiously for his hidden side to be revealed.  He told the public that his secret was that he has been married to the same person for over twenty years, never had sex with another woman, loved his parents and so on. The implication was obvious: such behavior appears quite radical given the content of most TV shows.

That TV segment of “Murphy Brown” came to mind when I was thinking about our morning text and John the Baptist.  Maybe like Jim Diehl we are to proclaim what might seem like odd values but which bring out the best in others and us. That might mean that teenagers don’t just go along with what everyone else is doing at holiday parties; it might mean that people in their 20’s and 30’s don’t deal with life’s difficulties by using alcohol and drugs; it might mean that middle-aged people find ways to use time and money to help others; and in retirement we proclaim that a great gift has been given to us and we will do more than eat our way through all the restaurants in Florida. Does that sound too harsh a judgment especially coming from someone who is a guest?  I suspect it might be close to John’s message if he were to return in 2009.

Do you see why I said at the beginning that the Biblical story doesn’t unfold like the latest Tim Allen Santa Claus movie that is currently available on DVD?  In preparing the sermon, I actually worried that perhaps John’s message is too harsh to be accepted at this time of the year. After all, John the Baptist doesn’t appear in too many Christmas pageants, does he? However, there is an undercurrent to what he was saying that never should be forgotten. SOMEONE IS COMING. SOMEONE IS COMING WHO WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE AND IN THE WORLD. What John was asking was that we prepare the way for the coming Christ by the manner in which we live each day. The closer we get to the true meaning of Bethlehem the better we shall feel about ourselves, the more we will be able to reach out to others and the greater our concern for those who are suffering injustice. Thus there really is a happy ending to the Biblical story but it is different than the cultural trimmings of this season of the year.  There is great joy, love and peace and those gifts unfold when we recognize what December 25 is really all about.

A poet has written

We are willing to celebrate Christmas

Oh, yes!

We can’t wait,

All the decorations are up in our streets and in our homes

     From the beginning of Advent

But who wants to prepare for Christmas by listening to John the Baptist,

And the Christmas hopes he expresses in the name of God.

Asking us to change our style of life?

Would you have come to listen to John, that prophet by the riverside?

Would you go now, if you heard that he returned there?

Would you go?

That’s the real challenge of Christmas 2009.

“WHAT IF...THE POWER OF FAITH”

Rev. Robert Kaiser, Guest Preacher

November 8, 2009                                                                                                    Mark 10: 35-52

            Do some of you like to read mysteries and adventure stories? I do and anything from Ludlum to Mary Higgins Clark to Grafton is a good way to end a day. Have you ever thought of the Bible as similar to a good mystery?  For instance, there was so much material handed down about the life of Jesus:  some of his teaching and events in his life had been written, others came via oral tradition. How and why did the writers pick and choose what they wrote down?

 A good example comes from our morning scripture reading from Mark 10.  The writer had heard two stories, one about  two disciples asking for special favors, the other dealing with a blind man seeking assistance. Why did the writer choose to place them back-to-back? That’s our first mystery.

            Let’s look more closely at the stories in order to get some answers. Jesus in both accounts in Mark 10 asked the same question:  “What do you want me to do for you?”  But notice the difference in the responses. James and John wanted nothing less than to have places of honor at the right and left  hand of Jesus in the coming  Kingdom.  Don’t  lots of people today tend to see Jesus in the same terms as did the disciples?

            Bartimaeus‘  request, on the other hand, was much more humble and basic. The custom in the First Century was that handicapped people were placed by the side of the road each day in order to beg from travelers. Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside simply wanted his sight so that he could get on with daily life.  It’s interesting that the text says that Bartimaeus became a follower of “The Way,” the earliest designation of those who modeled their lives around Christ.  In contrast, James and John along with the rest of the disciples, our Lord’s closest friends, fled as soon as he was arrested.   Mark’s moral is obvious: the Christian faith is not about elitism and grandeur but rather about humility and service. He put the two incidents together in order to point out the true meaning of faith.

            Another part of the mystery emerges as we realize that Mark was written 30-40 years after the death of Jesus. What did the writer intend to be the message for the early Church? Clearly Mark was concerned about the spiritual blindness of the original faith community.  The Church, like James and John, did not fully understand its mission and, of course, the same charge could be leveled today. It’s tempting in talking about discipleship to think in terms of what Jesus can do for us and he can do a great deal, but always there is a component of service in our activities in the Church.  Always there is a cross, a suffering servant, and one person giving his life for many, as a model for all of us.

            Thus, Mark’s hope was that in contrasting the two stories it would help to lead the Christian community out of its limited vision into a new appreciation for its calling.  Looking at the cross as we do every Sunday opens our eyes and removes the blindness so that we truly see life with Christ-colored glasses.

            Now the third part of the mystery concerns 2009. Suppose we, like Bartimaeus, really could SEE and each day became a partnership with our Creator.  What would be the result of gaining such spiritual sight?

            You may know of Dr. Robert Schuler, who is on TV and famous for the Crystal Cathedral in California.  I confess that I have not been a great fan of Dr. Schuler.   His comments often seem far too simplistic. For instance, in one of his books, “Power Thoughts” he writes about the battle between David and Goliath in these terms. He says the Israelites were saying, “He’s so big, we can’t win” while David the shepherd boy said, “He so big, I can’t miss.”  Life is a little more complex than that , but in that same book he keeps making a point about the power of faith and how we need to expect more from trusting in the Almighty.  That got me to thinking about our text and Bartimaeus.

            What if there is a power in our faith that we haven’t taken seriously enough?  Peter Jennings of ABC TV once pointed out that camera crews descend soon after an earthquake, riot, storm or crash so the news can get on TV quickly.  Invariably, he said, a reporter sticks a microphone n a survivor’s face and asks: “How did you get through this terrible experience?”  Often the survivor replies: “I just prayed and without God’s help I don’t think I could have made it.”  Jennings say at that point there usually is an awkward moment of silence and then the reporter asks another question that, even if they don’t come right out and say it goes something like this:  “Now, that’s very nice but what really got you through this ordeal?”

            Jennings suggested that there is a huge gap between what the media presents and the attitudes of people when it comes to the power of faith. Interestingly, ABC subsequently hired a reporter to deal with the religious side of news stories and the D&C has done the same. Can it be that in our secular world we have become inured to the possibilities of our faith?  We hear the story of Bartimaeus on Sunday but do we ever consider that a similar power might run through our lives on Wednesday?

            I’ve been thinking about the possibilities of the power of faith the last few weeks. It has been quite a hectic time:  two friends have been diagnosed with breast cancer, two others have the beginning of Alzheimer’s, and then there was Jim’s terrible accident. The evening after the crash when the congregation gathered for prayer and to discuss how to help, you could sense the anguish surrounding life issues. I have led quite a few retreats for men in AA and perhaps we need to follow their model. All recovering alcoholics have stories about what God has done in their lives.  Indeed, they would say that without a Higher Power they would have been lost forever.  Does it seem strange to say that perhaps we have neglected the power of our faith? As a starting point, we need to give more significance to our time of prayer on Sunday morning. Of course, not all our prayers are answered but still there is a power that radiates out when “two or three” gather to seek God’s help. I always have said in my ministry that the greatest miracles are not people suddenly recovering but rather the strength, hope and courage that God has given to people that has enabled them to move through “the valley of the shadow.”

            What would happen this week if we lived as though the power of Christ were very much a part of our lives?  I’m speaking of more than just prayer but a whole way of life.  Thomas More, a popular writer, certainly was right when he said, “The things, good  Lord, that we pray for, give the grace to labor for.” We definitely have a role in the healing process in whatever circumstances we face in the days ahead. Your commitment  to “be there for Jim and Robin” certainly was evident that night when the congregation gathered. In life situations instead of thinking of all the reasons why something can’t be done, maybe we need to be more aware of the powerful possibilities in our lives that could result from combining faith and action. Maybe we need to pick up on Dr.Schuler’s image of David and Goliath: Instead of thinking, “”this problem is too much for me”, we need to say,  “ the problem’s so big I can at least help a little.” If our efforts don’t work that’s o.k. because God is there to give us new opportunities.

            The Episcopal bishop of the largest diocese in Oklahoma was in Rochester some years ago. He told of his reaction when he received his first pair of glasses at the age of 10. Putting them on, suddenly, the world came into focus for the first time in his life.  He actually could see across the street, read all of the signs, see and recognize people!  He rushed home and began to share his excitement with his parents over his new vision.  Finally his father asked him, “Son, why didn’t you tell us you weren’t able to see very well?”  He answered, “Daddy, nobody ever told me how far I should be able to see.”

            Could it be that we, like Bartimaeus, are not really seeing all that there is to see in life and that our faith in Christ could make much more of a difference?

The Rev. Robert Kaiser until his retirement was the Pastor of the Gates Presbyterian Church.  He has since served a variety of short-term interim positions, most recently at the East Bethany Presbyterian Church.  He has also served a term as Moderator of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley.  Bob and his wife Marilyn live in Chili.  On this particular Sunday he was substituting for Rev, Renfrew, following a recent car accident.