Most of our scriptures are over 2000 years old. Some of the writings contained in the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible could have been written as long ago as 2500 years ago, the time of the Babylonian Exile. Many contain the wonderful stories of God's presence in troubled time, like Daniel in the Lion's den. And Daniel’s voice speaks to us yet today beyond his grave dug 2500 years ago. In today's scripture, he speaks of a vision of a coming Kingdom that will last forever.
The gospel readings come from the voice of Jesus, which describe the hope of the Christian way of life in the language of the Beatitudes. They are 2,000 years old. Blessed are you who are poor, for you shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who mourn now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you who are persecuted, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven The church has a way of being in dialogue with the saints of many ages - known and unknown, living and dead. We read our scriptures each Sunday from this sacred desk and these heard words become a living conversation with the dead. Here is heard “a voice from the dead,” which when read and heard becomes a living word.
In the Bible, from these varied voices of the dead, there is an interesting type of literature called apocalyptic. It refers to esoteric writings, which have come from times of crisis and catastrophic upheavals. The book of Daniel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation in the new are pure examples of apocalyptic literature.
Usually the writers stage their stories in a historical period away from the actual time of the writings. This is done in order to protect themselves and their friends from the judgment of the prevailing powers of the land at the time of their writings who just as soon as not take your life away if you didn't agree with them. In the case of the writings found in the book of Daniel, the author retreats to the past in a personage of the Babylonian Exile period 550 B.C. but the actual times of distress and persecution have now been dated by Biblical scholars to around 168 B.C. and the time of the persecution of the Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanies of Syria. These writings begin around chapter 7 and go through chapter 12. The Book of Daniel is the only Old Testament example of where the Resurrection of the Dead is affirmed. Apocalyptic literature always affirms hope and consolation to those who are persecuted.
In the case of The Revelation, in the New Testament, the author, rather than a retreat to ancient history, springs forward to post history, or a coming, future time that will occur, rather than in the actual historic period of 95 AD which was the time the author lived and wrote during the persecution of the Christian church under the Roman Emperor Domatium. Interestingly enough in both of these times of history, the faithful, Jews and Christians, find themselves in a lion's den and persecuted for their faithfulness.
Apocalyptic writing came from catastrophic times, not unlike those in which we are living. But the beauty of these writings is that there is always hope and movement toward a confident future:
Daniel writes: "These four beasts shall appear from the earth, but, the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever."
And in the Revelation, the Four Horses of the Apocalypse appear on the earth and angelic beings and sepherian and trumpets, but then… (Revelation 20:11 "Then I saw a great white throne and the dead were standing before the throne,
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, ….the sea was no more.
"Then he showed me the river of the water of life…night shall be no more and they shall reign for ever and ever."
Don't get caught up in the details of these esoteric descriptions of the coming end time of the apocalypse. Get caught up in the confidence of being one of God's people who in spite of the events of history, has a history yet to come in the Kingdom which will last forever and ever. . There is always hope, always. Fulfillment comes out of catastrophe.
These are the voices of the dead!
Our worship services are a living link with the members of the Church triumph, and our time spent in divine worship is a dynamic experience of the communion of the saints. And so, our communion service on All Saints Day becomes an experience when the voices of the dead are heard clearest and most dearly than any other day, save maybe the midnight hour of Christmas Eve or the dawning of the day on Easter morning.
Listen and you will hear the testimony of hope and gain comfort from the voices of the dead.
Prayer:
Eternal God, teach us the lessons learned by the saints of old. Free us from enslavement from our time and place and help us to mark the lessons of history and to learn from them. Give us the humility to be instructed by someone other than ourselves. Enable us to learn from the saints. Forgive us for our arrogance in thinking that being a faithful disciple is more difficult in our day than in past days.
Thank you for all the saints, those dear people who have lived the faith before us, who told us the stories of Jesus when we were young, who set good examples of fidelity and steadfastness before us. We are here in this place this Sunday because of their gifts and we praise you for them, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
What You
Pass On
Haggai 1:15-2:9
The Bible tells us that the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple, during the Babylon Exile, was a time of great national tragedy, but that some 70 years later, around 520 BC, the temple and the city was restored in the time of Haggai and Zechariah. This is the setting of the scripture which we read today: Haggai 2:1-9
The Bible affirms,” We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."
Have you ever wondered if this is really true? On Sept. 11, did you wonder if this is true? On September 6, l993, lying in a ditch beside Scenic highway, covered with dirt and blood and with my fibula on the asphalt and my tibia looking like the branch of a tree taken down in a thunderstorm, one of the questions which rushed through my mind in addition to where am I, was the question: "do all things work together for Good…? In the death of a loved one, have you ever wondered, "If all things work together for good…?
Many have observed at how less self-absorbed the American people have been since Sept. 11. Others have been amazed at the outpouring of generosity and goodwill of the American people. Many have observed in churches throughout the United States, that attendance and giving to Christian causes has increased considerably.
My experience has taught me that when the chips are down, when you cut through the smoke, at our heart, the best of us in America are generous, responsible, and committed to that which is good and healthy and righteous and Godly and when the call goes out, our people will respond. When the Temple needs to be rebuilt as it did in 520 BC our people show up with hammers in hand.
When tragic times happen, human beings fall back on some basic truths which hold us together and this has happened to us since September ll. Please allow me to focus on one truth: Our lives are dependent on God. It was God who created us and the possibility of the abundant life here and eternal life in the hereafter, lies completely on the grace of God, which has come to us through the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are prone to forget this basic truth and consequently we experience a great deal of pain and heartache in our lifetime.
The foundations of the earth will from time to time shake and tremble, but the word of God will last forever.
Listen to some of the challenging affirmations of the Bible: Haggai: "I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations…. the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts, and in this place I will give prosperity.” Isaiah 24:18-"The foundations of the earth do shake, Earth breaks to pieces Jeremiah 4:23- “I look out on earth…lo, all is chaos. Thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be desolate…. the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black. The land is all in flight, men taking refuge within woods and caves. Every city shall be abandoned, and not a man dwell therein."
II Peter: "the heavens will vanish with a crackling roar, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up.” Isaiah 54:10 "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that has mercy on thee."
There was a time when we could listen to such words without much feeling and without understanding. There were decades and even centuries when we did not take them seriously. Those days are now gone. Today we must take them seriously. For they describe with visionary power what the majority of human beings in these later days have experienced. "The foundations of the earth do shake". The visions of the prophets have become an actual, physical and historical reality. The phrase, "Earth is split in pieces" is not merely a poetic metaphor for us, but a harsh reality.
In the language of the prophets, it is the Lord who shakes the mountains and melts the rocks. This is a language that modern man cannot understand. It is like the language of Paul who writes: "All things work together for those who love the Lord."
And so in the language of terrorists God has spoken to us. And this is what he has said: "I give to you the power to shake the foundations of the earth. You yourselves have received the power to create or to destroy. How will you use it?"
This is not to be understood that God is the author of Sept. 11, but it is to say that we sometimes hear clearest in the silence after the noise of an explosion, what God is saying to us constantly through nature. In the events of Sept. 11, we have seen how God’s power, this divine power, has been given to us and how it can be used to destroy or to build. We have witnessed the horror, the destruction, and the death of good people. We have witnessed in one single act a return to the chaos of the beginning of time.
We had forgotten about such things as: "the shaking of the foundations. We had gotten self-absorbed, selfish, and begun to believe that our progress was the result of our own efforts, rather than by the grace of God." Even now there are false prophets who would have you believe that our future lies in man's hands, in our hands. If we should decide for construction instead of destruction, we shall continue creation and even improve on it. But the prophets of God have reminded us that "We are not God, and that the future is not ours but is that of Creator's." We are dependant on God. Age after age we have to be reminded "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down and scatters its inhabitants…Towns fall to pieces, each man bolts his door, gladness has gone from the earth and pleasure is no more. The cities are left desolate; their gates are battered down, and few are left, for the earth has been polluted by dwellers that have broken the eternal covenant. Therefore, a curse is crushing the earth, and the guilty people must atone." These Biblical words of the prophets, have been heard in Warsaw, Hiroshima, Berlin, Palestine, Afghanistan. And they will probably be heard again and again, as we get confused as to who God is and the proper use of the gift of power he has given to us.
The enduring message of the prophets sprang from the fact that they believed that God sat in the foundations of the earth and that He would from time to time shake them. They did not speak of the doom of the nations as such but of Him who brings doom for the sake of his eternal justice and salvation.
As the 102nd Psalm says: "Thy years are throughout all generations. Of old thou has laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They vanish, but thou shalt endure. They wear out like a robe, but thou art the same and thy years shall have no end."
We live on in an earth whose foundations are from time to time shaken, but God is the foundation on which all foundations are laid and this foundation cannot be shaken. There is something immovable, unchangeable, eternal, unshakeable which becomes manifest in our deaths and in the crumbling of our world. At the boundaries of our finiteness, the infinite becomes visible. In the darkness of temporalness, the light of the Eternal becomes visible.
The Greeks use to call themselves "the mortals" because they experienced that which is immortal. This is why the prophets were able to face the shaking of the foundations. This is the only way I believe we can face the horror of man's evil, which stalks our land. In the face of the ugliness and foul smelliness of evil, we see once again the beauty of goodness and smell it's sweet fragrance. In the pain of our despair, a faith in a power beyond ourselves is born.
We try as best we can to look away from the ugliness of our sin. We turn our eyes away from the horror of what people will do to other people. What terrorists do to us. What our bombers do to others. We spray arousal aromas in the air to take the smell of death out of the air we breathe. But sometimes it is in our face and since Sept. 11, it has been in our face.
The question for us, Is God? Or are you still living under the illusion that you are God? I Have Made Up My Mind and Sooner or Later You Are Going to Have to Make Yours Up.
This week, the residents of the Haven Nursing Home moved to their new home on Summit and 12th. Eighty-Eight persons made the move. It was very disruptive in their lives, and one elderly lady was physically shaking as she walked up to me and I was able to place my arms around her and just hold her a moment. When the foundations of our earth shake, we recognize the great need for God to place his arms around us, to hold us tight as the foundations of the earth tremble.
There are some haunting questions, which we must individually answer now: Who is God in your life? Are you committed to yourself or to Jesus Christ, the human manifestation of the divine mystery? Will you use the power God has given you to destroy or to build? Will you use the creativity God has given you to accumulate or to participate in God's work of His Kingdom.
In summary, I encourage you to realize and affirm your finiteness-God is God and you are not he.
I encourage you to use the days and resources, which are given to you by God to do the work of God, while you have breath. You and I will not last, God will and his work will continue and consequently and all that lasts is what passes through us. What you give away you retain. What you hold on to you lose.
The beauty of this scripture is that it speaks a resounding word of encouragement not only to the Hebrews having suffered a time of national calamity such as the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C. or the capture of Judah by the Babylonians 400 years later, but also to believers of every age and nation; who suffer in their human journey.
The good news is that God opens new doors of opportunity, of prosperity, of faithful service, of growth, of meaning, of new development, a new creation-always has, does and always will!
The God of every age and every people says:
"Behold, I am doing a new thing,
Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
Behold, John in the Revelation testified: "I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem…God will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, for the former things have passed away….Behold, I make all things new." God who was the Creator of the Universe is still the creator and is still creating.
God opens new doors for individuals.
God opens new opportunities for a church.
God opens new possibilities for a nation
1. In Jesus Christ, God gives to you as an individual a second chance.
Patricia Morgan is today studying to be a nurse at PJC. She came to the states five years ago, on the Mercy Ship, which had done one of the surgeries on the facial tumors, which have plagued her all of her life. It was when she was 20 years of age that she linked up in Jamaica with the mercy ship program called "Youth With a Mission". And today her life is different.
I know a lady who lives in Alabama whose life has tasted the bitterness of tragedy. A grandson drowned. A tornado swept through her front yard and dropped an oak tree through her roof and her bedroom. And if that wasn't enough, lightning struck and burned her house down. But she talks about being so blessed.
My life is different because when I was a baby, like Hill, like Caleb, my parents presented me for Baptism and on Sunday, many times over my protests drug me to church kicking and screaming, and I committed my life to Christ when I was 12 when I joined the church and then when I was 17 and offered myself to Christ in full time Christian Service. Jesus Christ has made a difference in my life.
I went back a few years ago to my hometown in Marengo County to a celebration of our old football coach under whom in the late l950's we won the state championship. All these young, slim good looking football players in 1959 were there in the l990's but now they were bald or gray headed, pot bellied, fat, old and ugly, except for me. Two of the old '59 team had been killed in a DUI automobile accident. One of them was in prison. Jesus Christ Made a Difference in My Life and a Lot of Other Guys on That Team In the Good Old Days.
Jesus Christ can make a difference in your life, because he can open a new way for you to live. Visiting in the Juvenile Detention Center not too long ago. This kid said to me, "I want to be different. I don't want to be the class clown. I don't want to be a failure. I want my parents to be proud of me." Listen up—You can be, listen to me, in Jesus Christ you can be different! You can become what you want to be. You can become what God wants you to be.
2. God is doing a new thing! Opening up new doors of opportunity for this old church. Today we celebrate the opening of the doors of a new building, but more important, God is opening for us the door for a new future, to a new tomorrow.
For 180 years, the people called Methodist have been in ministry through this congregation. Although there are many years of effective service behind us, the most exciting are just ahead in this new millennium.
The vision for this youth ministry building was born out of a desire to train and nurture our own children and to send them out as Christian disciples to change the world. There is a violent, hatred syndrome that has crept into the bloodstream of the young, which is evil. Guns in schools and hatred of people because of the color of their skin or the origin of their birth, is not right. A person is not to be judged by the kind of clothes they wear, but by the character of their soul.
And so a vision of the creation of a place where young people can come and laugh and learn together was born. A place that is drug free, with a zero tolerance of alcohol and any other drug.
A few years ago, we were hosting a church pool party at our house and there were cars everywhere and a lot of noise with our church kids. Well my assignment was to man the front door and welcome the kids as they arrived. Just down the street, there was another party that was going on which was, I later discovered, pretty wild with a lot of drinking, sexual promiscuity, etc. Well the doorbell rang at our house and a group of a couple of boys and three girls, all of whom with beer cans in their hands and eyes glazed over, stood there glaring at me. I asked them what were they doing and one said: "We have come to the party." To which I said: "I think not, not this party with beer cans in your hands." Quickly they were moving down the street.
Some things have gotten out of hand among the youth in our land, and this building was envisioned as a place of warm laughter and love where kids can have fun but not endanger themselves or others.
It was envisioned as a place where young people can be nurtured in the Christian Way of life and empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to be the church in the world. The vision encompasses many new faces coming to our family and a seven-day a week operation. Many will take one look at us and shake their heads and go on down the street, and although that is sad, that's the way it is going to be, because we believe in certain standards of behavior, and attitude toward others. The vision embraces the concept of spiritual growth through disciplined living and holiness of thought, word and deed.
In the 18th century, John Wesley who founded the Methodist movement, received a vision from God of a spiritual movement that would encourage a disciplined lifestyle and would spread scriptural holiness throughout the land. The opening of the door of the Youth Ministries Building is but a continuation of that long and venerable story of spreading scriptural holiness of life throughout the land.
3. God opens new doors for the nations of the world.
During the years of George Bush the President spoke of a hope for a nation that would be more gentle and kind. Even in the midst of a war with the evils of terrorism, we have not lost that vision for the nation. That is still our destiny. Our future lies not in the clinched fist of power but in the open hand of helpfulness.
A hand that reaches up to God to praise and worship, and to express gratitude for the new opportunities which he offers to us this and every day.
A hand that reaches deep within to our best self, the kind of person we really want to be.
A hand that reaches out to our neighbor.
“Behold, I make all things new,” and today – a door opens to a new future!
This week, as I considered the various ways in which God has blessed our lives as individuals, and as a part of this congregation, and as a citizen of these United States, a joy filled my heart that was indescribable. I walked on clouds. I smiled to the skies. I gave thanks for the earth beneath my feet. At least for a moment, God was in the heavens and all was right with the world.
I was encouraged as I recalled the statement read some time ago by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, where he wrote: "Joy is the surest sign of the presence of God."
God is with us. It is a message we will hear echoed in our worship these next few weeks as we approach the celebration of Christmas.
1. Consider how God has been and is with you and with us: "Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done." There is liberty, loans, libraries, and lullabies, country music and cornbread, green pastures and greenhouses, lemons and light bulbs, books and brooks and pastry cooks. There is the privilege of expression and the freedom to vote, hospitals and healings, backpacks and backyards, oysters, and oceans, credit cards and violins, hope, soccer and soup, grandparents and grand juries, church and colors of hue, New Youth buildings and big Thanksgiving baskets.
And finally, there is hope for the hopeless and rejoicing in the land, even in a time of national calamity, uncertainty, personal hurt and disappointment. Against the backdrop of the darkness of September 11, we have been given the opportunity to see more clearly the gifts, which are ours in abundance. Against the loss of human life, we can today see more clearly the precious gift of our lives and our family. There are many who do not have the eyes to see beyond the immediate into the beyond, but it is a matter of seeing through the eyes of faith and darkness becomes light.
Our people have always been able to appreciate beauty in the midst of the ugly, light in the midst of darkness, life in the midst of death. For example: In 1621, Gov. William Bradford of the territory of Massachusetts did not have much visible evidence to encourage him: there had been a "great sickness" that had taken in death 13 of the 24 heads of families. Food was scarce, the harsh climate, the never ending work, the fear and the uncertainties of the new country, combined to present a time of challenge for the first Americans. And yet, Bradford set aside a "Solemn Day" for public thanksgiving for the way God had blessed their lives. And so have we. The reason: We know something the world doesn't know and that there is hope in the midst of despair, life in the midst of death, love in the midst of hate.
The win of the Arizona Diamond Backs in the World Series this year was an encouraging gift for American Baseball, although New York Yankee fans might not see it that way. Here was a new, young team who had never been there before and they pulled off the unbelievable. A few years ago I had tickets for the World Series in Chicago. The World Series wasn't in Chicago that year, but I had bought tickets early and at the last minute, the Cubs had lost the last playoff game of the season.
An interesting article in the Chicago Tribune that year, as we sat in Chicago with the World Series being played on the West Coast in Los Angeles, read, "God is a Chicago Cubs fan."
You see the Cubs have gone longer than any other team in professional baseball without winning the World Series. The last time they won the title was in l908. Although the team usually wins fewer games than most every other team in the league, the fans are loyal and faithful to come out. They don't seem to expect the team to win the championship. The team motto is: "There is always next year." So the fans cheer for every win, but take their loses in stride. So expressed one sports writer, the fans give thanks for every win because they never know when the next win might come.
The same challenge for a Cubs' fan is the same challenge that Thanksgiving puts to us - the opportunity to give thanks in the midst of great loss. It's easy to give thanks to God for the major events in our lives when they are successes, for health that is restored, for relationships that are healed, but The Real Challenge is Whether We Can Give Thanks Even in the Hard Times of Life, even for the loses.
The Apostle Paul wrote: "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice, and the peace of God which surpasses every understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." With Paul, suffering, his mind was filled with the joy of thanksgiving. “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
There was Moses with his back up against the Red Sea
Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi.
Jesus on the cross.
Joseph in the bottom of a desert well.
David in a Lion’s den.
And so to rejoice in the Lord is to choose a state of joy, which is not isolated from the sorrows and burdens of this world, but arises out of their spiritual damage. Like the flower, the more it is crushed the sweeter it smells.
We have all had a challenging year this year, some more challenging than others, but through it all, God has been with us. Rejoice and be glad.