Sunday, November 30, 2014

Look Sharp!

1st Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2014
Piney Grove UMC
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

Happy New Year!  That’s right, today is the first Sunday in the Christian calendar, the first Sunday in Advent.  We Christians begin our new year not newly eager to keep resolutions, like lose weight or get out of debt, but with waiting.  And waiting is hard in our culture that likes and prefers instant gratification.  Don’t want to wait for the store to open?  Shop online!  Don’t want to wait til Black Friday to get good deals?  Some stores are now open on Thanksgiving!  Don’t want to wait for the kettle to boil, put the water in the microwave!   Waiting is hard, and we as a people have become more impatient.  These days we don’t even like it when our computers take more than a few seconds to load and we certainly hate waiting in line or waiting in traffic!  But this is a season about waiting, and I think many of you can identify with that.  My first Sunday I asked what season this church was in, and the answers I got had to do with expectation and anticipation: they had to do with the season of Advent.  We have been waiting.  Waiting to see what will happen to our church.  Waiting to see if past mistakes are unforgiveable.  Waiting, with bated breath, to see what God will do next in our midst, or if he will do nothing at all.  And I think that is what we are afraid of.  If we have to wait, if we don’t know what comes next, what if it’s nothing?  What if this year is just like last year and nothing changes?  Or what if we have messed up too bad and our past sins are too great to overcome?  [pause] Will Jesus still come and be in our midst? 
Our first reading this morning is a plea for God to “tear open the sky and come down… to reveal his power and make the nations tremble at his presence.”[1]  O God, make your presence known!  The prophet Isaiah speaks for the people when he acknowledges, “All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through. Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind.  No one turns to you in prayer; no one goes to you for help. You have hidden yourself from us and have abandoned us because of our sins.”[2]  What an upbeat note to begin a season of anticipation, huh?  And yet it’s an honest note.  If we’re waiting, we want to be able to see the front of the line.  We want to be able to see the end of the trip.  And the way to do it is to just give it all to God.  As Isaiah then writes, “Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter.”[3]  God made us, and continues to mold us and form us.  It doesn’t say that God was the potter, and we were the clay and we’ve been hardened in the kiln and are now set.  No, we are the clay, God is still the potter.  He is still shaping us and transforming us to become more like him.  We are still going on to perfection.  The work isn’t over yet.  The waiting isn’t over yet.  And so Isaiah pleads, “do not be too angry with us or hold our sins against us forever!”[4]  Don’t let the state we’re in now be our final state.  Don’t let things end like this.  Don’t let this be the end.  We are still waiting for our salvation.  Surely this is not the end!  Likewise, the psalmist pleads, “restore us, revive us, make your face shine so that we can be saved!”[5]  Advent is a time of waiting, waiting for assurance that this is not the end, but only the beginning.  Waiting in expectation for Jesus to come again. 
            And why do we expect it?  Because God is faithful.  He did not bring us this far to abandon us now.  As our middle hymn says, “Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”[6]  God is faithful, both to his church, and to each one of us.  This is reinforced in our Epistle lesson, where Paul writes that “you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ.”[7]  God gave you everything you need while you wait.  Waiting is not easy, but God has given us everything we need while we wait.  It’s like taking a book to the doctor’s office to read in the waiting room, or taking toys for kids so that they don’t get too bored or antsy while they learn to wait. 
            Finally, knowing that God is faithful, we wait expectantly for him to act.  In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus said that you know when a tree branch becomes tender, it means that summer is near.[8]  In the same way, there are signs that baby Jesus is near.  Radio stations have started playing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  There are decorations up everywhere, including your neighborhood, if not at your house!  We are all getting ready for Christmas.  The consumerist way to count is to say that there are 24 shopping days left until Christmas.  The Christian way to count is to say there are 3 more Sundays left until the birth of baby Jesus, and we will count each one of them down on our Advent wreath.  This is how we wait.  Expectantly.  Marking the time.  Paying attention to the time.  Staying alert.  Keeping awake.  Looking sharp.  Being aware of what’s going on.  Baby Jesus is coming.  God is becoming incarnate, being made man, to walk and live among us. 
            How do we get ready?  One way is by growing in discipleship.  In January we will start a weekly bible study.  I’d like to have an evening one and a morning one, if there’s enough interest, so please let me know if you are interested.  We keep sharp through regular study of God’s word with fellow Christians as well as through personal devotional time.  How else do we wait for Jesus’ coming?  By keeping Jesus’ commandments.  Whether you talk about the ten commandments; or loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself; or doing unto the least of these as last Sunday’s Gospel lesson described, visiting the sick, caring for the prisoner, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and welcoming the stranger; or whether you talk about the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, to go into all the world, including our community right here, and making disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them about the Good News of baby Jesus; or the mission statement of the United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  However you define it, that’s the result.  The transformation of the world, God’s kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.  We keep sharp by looking for those glimpses of God’s kingdom, celebrating those glimpses, and working towards those glimpses.  We use the gifts God has given us, whatever they are, and join God in his work of bringing his kingdom about here. 
            One glimpse of his kingdom is in this coming baby, a King, who will be born in a meager manger.  We are waiting for God’s kingdom to break through, waiting for him to tear open the heavens and come down!  Waiting for God to restore us.  Waiting, alert, to see what God will do next in our midst.  God is faithful.  He cannot be unfaithful; it’s against his nature.  When he comes, will he find us faithful?  Will he find us urgently working toward bringing about his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?  Will he find us using the gifts he’s given us?  Will he find us awake and ready and looking sharp for signs of his kingdom? 
            The theme for the first Sunday of Advent is hope.  We stay alert because of our hope in Christ and we work to share that hope with others.  We have hope that God will not hold our sins against us forever.  We have hope that God will come down and save us.  We have hope, because God is faithful, and will not let us down.  Has he not already shown that?  Last winter we had some very difficult conversations about the future of this church.  Whether to close.  Whether to change and make room for a new thing in order to remain open.  And it was important enough to stay open, to believe that God wasn’t done with us yet, that we were willing to do whatever it took, including the possibility of welcoming a new faith community to share our building, welcoming the stranger.  This morning at the end of the service, Pastor Leo Rodriguez will share a little bit about the vision God has given him for welcoming the stranger here at Piney Grove.  We’ve been waiting to hear from the Conference, waiting, in Advent, expectantly, for what’s next.  We’ve been waiting, with hope that God isn’t done here yet.  God’s about to do a new thing.  And there will be labor pains, there will be growing pains, it will take hard work.  But those who have been keeping watch know, Jesus is coming!  And he’s about to do a new thing!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.


[1] Isaiah 64:1-2
[2] Isaiah 64:6-7
[3] 64:8
[4] 64:9
[5] Psalm 80
[6] Great Is Thy Faithfulness, UMH 140
[7] 1 Corinthians 1:7
[8] Mark 13:28
[9] Mark 13:31
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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Pay It Forward: A Thanksgiving Sermonette

Thanksgiving Eve
November 26, 2014
Cowenton UMC
Deuteronomy 8:7-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke 17:11-19

            A movie came out in 2000 called “Pay It Forward.”  It’s a very sweet movie about a 12 year old boy, Trevor, and his social studies class project to change the world.  Trevor comes up with the idea of “pay it forward,” that when someone does you a favor, rather than “pay it back” to that person, you “pay it forward” and do a favor for someone else.  His project is surprisingly successful and not only makes a difference in his community, but ends up spreading to the rest of the country.  Our Scripture readings tonight are in a similar vein.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that “you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous in every way.”[1]  What we receive from God, we pass on to help others.  We pay God back by paying it forward and sharing the gifts he has given us with our brothers and sisters.  This idea goes back to Genesis, when God tells Abram, “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.”[2]  We are blessed to be a blessing.  God gives us blessings so that we can be generous with them and share our blessings. 
            One consequence of our generosity is how it affects us.  As our Old Testament reading tonight reminds us, “when everything you have is thriving and going well, don’t become arrogant and forget the Lord your God.”[3]  Thanksgiving time is about being grateful for what we have, for what God has given us.  When we have a posture of thankfulness, we tend to be more likely to be generous with our possessions.  And when we think about others, then we focus less on ourselves and aren’t as full of ourselves.  When we focus less on ourselves and more on paying forward all of God’s blessings, then we are less likely to forget God, or to delude ourselves into thinking that we don’t need God.  As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “generosity produces thanksgiving.”[4]  If you’re feeling a little Scrooge-like this season, perhaps it’s time to volunteer at Streets of Hope or to donate to the food pantry or make an extra offering to the church.  We are blessed to be a blessing, and when we bless others, we in turn are grateful and gracious with our time, talent, and treasure.
            Another outcome of being generous is that it means everyone will have enough.  Look at verse 8 of that 2 Corinthians passage: “God has the power to provide you with every blessing in abundance.  That way, you will have everything you need always and in everything to provide more than enough for every kind of good work.”  If we share what we have, we will have more than enough for every kind of good work.  That means getting the bills paid at the church, that means getting together the Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, that means making an impact for Christ in our community.  When we use what God has blessed us with to bless others, when we pay it forward, then we will meet some of the physical and spiritual needs in our community.  Our task is to figure out how to better use what God has given us so far – how to use our building to impact our community for Christ, how to use what we do have to bless others.  We may be a small church.  Our average age may be 75.  But that doesn’t mean God has given us nothing.  God has blessed us in many ways and has the power to bless us more.  It’s our job to use wisely what he has given us, and not to use it for ourselves but to reach out to the community.  We are not here in church for ourselves.  We’re here for others.  You’ve probably heard the quote from Abigail Van Buren, otherwise known as Dear Abby, “The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”  We are not here to be a museum.  There are no fossils here; we don’t belong in a museum.  We don’t put our gifts on display for others to look at.  We use them, like at a hospital, in the service of God, to bring others into relationship with him.  This isn’t about us.  It’s about God and what God is calling us to do with the gifts he’s given us. 
            Sharing the gifts God has given us is not just the right thing to do, but it can also bring about healing.  I say it “can,” not that it necessarily does, because it depends on your attitude.  If your attitude is grudging, and you only share because you’re supposed to, that may help the person you share with, but it’s only going to harden your heart.  It’s like the child whose parent makes them share their toy.  It’s not done willingly or cheerfully.  I read a parenting article a while back about the pros and cons of teaching children to share.[5]  It points out that when someone asks for something that is yours, “no” is a perfectly legitimate response.  Granted, it’s seen as a selfish response, but it’s okay to say no when someone asks you for something.  Second, from the other side, from the person asking, if you always get the toy you ask for, the child learns that they should always get whatever it is they ask for, and that’s not how the world works.  We don’t get everything we ask for.  If Isabel asks for another child’s toy, I tell her she needs to wait until that child is done playing with it.  I’m not going to take what belongs to someone to give her.  And if someone asks for her toy, as I’m sure A.J. will soon enough, he’s going to have to wait until she’s done playing with it.  Giving that is done grudgingly or forcefully does not create a spirit of thanksgiving, or gratitude, and it diminishes both the giver and the recipient.  Instead, as Paul writes in this 2 Corinthians passage, “Everyone should give whatever they have decided in their heart.  They shouldn’t give with hesitation or because of pressure.  God loves a cheerful giver.”[6]  If you don’t want to give to the church, then don’t.  If you don’t want to support our ministries, don’t.  But if you do, if you have the faith to step out and you want to share your blessings to bless others, then, as Jesus told the one leper who returned to thank him, “Your faith has healed you.”[7] 
            Giving is healing.  It lessens our attachment to our stuff.  It shows just how little we really need to live.  It makes us grateful for what we do have, however much or little that is.  And God will bless it, when we use what we have to help others, when we use our blessings to bless others, that’s why God gave us our gifts in the first place.  It wasn’t to hoard and shove into a storage room or bury in the ground.  It was to use to further his kingdom, which is the business of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, and visiting the prisoner.  That’s what we are to use our gifts to do.  We were given them to give them away.  And “such generosity produces thanksgiving.”  So… happy Thanksgiving!  Amen.


[1] 2 Corinthians 9:11
[2] Genesis 12:2
[3] Deuteronomy 8:13-14
[4] 2 Corinthians 9:11
[6] 2 Corinthians 9:7
[7] Luke 17:19
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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Checkmate



Christ the King Sunday
November 23, 2014
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, Ephesians 1:15-23, Matthew 25:31-46

            Today is Christ the King Sunday.  It is also the last Sunday of the Christian year.  You see, we don’t keep time the same way society does.  Our year doesn’t begin January 1st, it begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which is next Sunday.  Our timekeeping begins with the anticipation of Christ’s birth at Christmas and it ends with this Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, when we celebrate Christ’s reign as King.  However, to those of us who live in the 21st century, what exactly does that mean?  We live in a time when there are only 26 ruling kings and queens in the entire world, and of those, only 11 actually rule as the sovereign monarch of their country.[1]  I don’t think we understand the term “King” or “Queen” the way it used to be understood.  For most of us, it’s just an abstract idea, or it refers to someone who’s simply a figurehead, like Queen Elizabeth II of England.  It used to be that when a new monarch inherited the throne, the question on the people’s minds was “What kind of King or Queen will this person be?”  Will they be lenient and merciful?  Or will they be harsh and prone to killing people who disobey them?  Will the land prosper under their rule or will they be greedy so that their people starve?  What will life under their rule be like?  Today’s Scripture readings give us a few clues to what life is like under Christ’s rule. 
            First, in the Ezekiel passage, God says no fewer than 15 times some variation of “I will take care of my sheep”: I will search for my flock and seek them out, I will rescue them, I will gather and lead them, I will bring them back, I will feed them, I will bind up the wounded, I will strengthen, and I will tend my sheep.  And that’s just in 11 verses.  God will rescue his flock from all the places where they have scattered to.  God will search for each sheep who has gone missing and seek them out, like the story Jesus tells of the shepherd who left the 99 sheep in the farmyard to go find the one lost sheep.[2]  And God promises to feed them in good pastures, not on junk food and leftovers in the dumpster, but on highlands and in riverbeds, and on green pastures.  God wants the best for us.  Not leftover, not discards, not things that taste good but have no substance and are empty calories, but a good, rich, healthy diet of things that are good for the body and the soul.  God will not only go looking for you when you’re lost, but also bandage those who are hurt, heal those who are sick, and strengthen the weak.  God takes care of you, in all these ways and more, if you will accept his help.  Because, you know, it’s kind of hard for a doctor to take care of you if you never go see her, or for a shepherd to take care of a sheep from a distance.  God can only do so much when you hold him at arm’s length.  He’s not a dictator, he does not force his will on you.  You have to accept it.
            One of the ways God takes care of you is through each of us here.  We help God in his work of tending and feeding and searching and healing.  We do this through inviting folks to church, through Streets of Hope and Thanksgiving baskets, through sometimes simply sitting and listening to folks, through caring for one another.  When you turn down someone’s offer to help, you deny them an opportunity to serve Christ.  Let me repeat that.  When you turn down someone’s offer to help, you deny them an opportunity to serve Christ.  You don’t let them help God in his work of tending the sheep.  It may be a matter of pride to you to say, no, I don’t need help, I can do it myself how I’ve always done it.  But, your refusal means that someone doesn’t get serve.  It is more blessed to give than to receive, but for someone to give, someone else has to receive.  And each one of us is in need of receiving some kind of care.  Whether a phone call or a visit, or an arm to help stand up and walk, this Christian journey doesn’t get done alone; we help each other along the way.  We serve each other, and in so doing, we serve Christ.  That’s what kind of King Christ is, the kind that wants his people to care for and love one another, just as he loves us, without reservation. 
            One of the other features of Christ’s kingship that comes out through our readings this morning is about Christ being judge.  In Ezekiel, God says he will judge between the fat and the lean sheep.  In our Matthew reading, Jesus says he will judge between the sheep and the goats.  Historically, a King has also been a judge, and sat in judgment on cases that were brought before him.  For example, there’s the story in 1 Kings of the first case that King Solomon judged.[3]  Two women came before him, each one had had a baby about the same time and they shared a house.  Well, one woman woke up one morning and her baby had died, so she switched babies with the living baby and the other woman wanted her baby back.  King Solomon said that the living baby was to be cut in half, with half given to each woman.  The woman whose baby had died was ok with that decision, but the woman whose baby was alive cried out, and said no, give the baby to the first woman.  King Solomon then knew that the living baby did indeed belong to the second woman and had the baby given back to her mother.  Judges hear all kinds of crazy cases, don’t they? 
So, what does it mean that God is also a King who judges?  For one, it means that we have a King who is just, who does what is right, who judges the nations with equity.  God makes sure that there will be justice done.  This is both good and terrifying.  We want justice!  We also don’t want to be punished according to our sins; we want mercy, too.  We tend to want those who wrong us to be punished, and when it’s us who are wrong, we’d rather have a “get out of jail free” card.  The writer of the book of Hebrews says, “For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”[4]  “Vengeance is mine” is something God says in the Old Testament.  Paul interprets it in Romans to mean: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”[5]  The work of judging is not something we do with God, but leave that work to him. 
Finally, let’s talk about a King’s power.  Historically, a King was all powerful, an absolute monarch.  His people could put no limits on his power.  This type of ruling only went into decline in the 18th century after the French Revolution, when democracy became more popular.  However, we’re talking about our Bible, which was written about 2,000 years ago when democracy wasn’t really an option, unless you happened to live in Greece.  A king’s power 2,000 years ago was absolute.  And what Paul says in Ephesians about God’s power is that it is “far above every ruler and authority and power and dominion, any power that might be named, not only now but in the future.”[6]  Whatever is the most absolute, strongest power you can imagine, and then go greater than that.  That’s how powerful God is.  He can do far beyond what we can imagine or dream up.  And part of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is that they might know “the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers,” or in another translation, “the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.”[7]  “The immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.”  This is how great a King we serve.  Without measure.  And that power is for us who believe.  That’s enough for me to stand up and say, “Lord, I believe”; how about you?  Immeasurable greatness, beyond what we can imagine, and it’s for us.  I was reminded this past week that the most important thing we can do is pray.  God, in his power, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, and the best way to tap into that power is through prayer.[8]  It’s to approach the throne of grace humbly, not proud, but trusting that he will receive us, that he will hear our prayers and our cries, that he will grant our request to do a new thing in this place.  God can do it.  There is no doubt about that.  He can make a way in the wilderness, in the desert, he can make a way where there seems to be no way.  He can bring it about.  He is that powerful.  If we would only let him use his power, he can do all kinds of things for those who believe.
In the game of chess, if you lose your king, it’s checkmate – game over.  The pawns, the rooks, the knights, even the bishops and the queen, they are all expendable.  But in chess you must protect your king.  We don’t protect God in quite the same way, it’s not up to us to keep him safe.  But it is up to us to make sure we don’t lose him, to make sure we keep his kingship in our lives intact.  If Christ is King and reigns in your heart today, are you helping him in the work of caring for his flock?  Are you leaving the judgment to him?  And are you laying claim to his unimaginable power, not power to do whatever we want, but power to bring about Christ’s kingdom on earth, to catch glimpses of the kingdom, here in White Marsh [Middle River]?  Keep God King in your life.  Join him in humble service.  And see what happens.

[2] Matthew 18:12
[3] 1 Kings 3:16-29
[4] Hebrews 10:30-31
[5] Romans 12:19-21
[6] Ephesians 1:21
[7] Ephesians 1:19
[8] Ephesians 3:20
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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Day People

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
November 16, 2014
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

            There are some people who are morning people.  They’re up at the crack of dawn without having to set an alarm clock, they wake up cheerful, and they’re just glad to face the day.  My mom is one of those people.  A running joke in our house was that she and the Army would have a full day’s work done by 10 a.m.  Do we have any morning people here this morning?  You’re naturally up early and ready for the day without having to work too hard at it?  That’s great!  Unless, of course, you’re a night owl.  Morning people drive night owls crazy.  Any night owls here?  You get your second wind at 8:30-9:00 at night and you could easily stay up til 11:00 or midnight without batting an eye?  You may even be your most productive at this time of day.  Anyone fall in the middle?  You’re not an early morning person but you’re not a late night person, either?  That’s where I fall.  I don’t like to burn the candle on either end of the day.  And that’s ok, because Paul says that we are people who belong to the day, we are children of light.  We are not in darkness and we don’t belong to the darkness, symbolized by the night.  No, we belong to the light, which is another way of saying that we belong to Jesus, since he is the light of the world. 
            Since we are people of the light, and the light is part of who we are, it means we are free from the fear, uncertainty, and insecurity of the night and of darkness.[1]  We may live in uncertain times, but we don’t live with uncertainty.  We know who we are and whose we are, and that makes all the difference.  We don’t need to worry about the “what if’s” because God’s got it all covered.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  He will not abandon you.  You can rest secure in that knowledge, that “blessed assurance [that] Jesus is mine,”[2] to quote the old hymn.  We are free from uncertainty and from insecurity.  There is nothing in this world that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ.[3]  We may not know the day or hour of Christ’s return, or even the day or hour of our own death, but for Christians, this is not a bad surprise.  We are already ready.  Whenever it is that Christ comes in final victory, we are ready.  Whenever it is that Christ calls us home, we are already ready.  We don’t know the day or the hour, but so what?  It doesn’t matter when it happens when you’re ready for it. 
We are free from uncertainty and we are also free from fear.  This includes not being afraid to use what God has given you.  Our Gospel lesson this morning was a parable, often called the parable of the talents, a talent being a unit of money and one talent was worth more than fifteen years’ salary as a worker.[4]  So, we’re talking about a lot of money here.  And this man is going on a trip.  He gives one servant five talents, or 75 years’ worth of salary; the second servant gets 30 years’ salary; and the third servant receives 15 years’ worth of pay.  This man is entrusting his servants with a significant amount of money.  And the first two servants do well, they invest the money and double it.  Pretty good returns.  But the third servant buries the money in the ground.  He hides what was given to him and is afraid to use it.  Have you ever been given such a nice gift that you don’t want to use it?  Such a nice sweater, you’re afraid of getting it dirty.  Or a nice piece of jewelry you’re afraid of wearing in case you lose it.  Or a collector’s item you don’t want to use in case you mess it up.  Were you given that item simply to possess it?  Or to use it?  If you have an item you are afraid to use then I would say that item owns you, rather than you owning it.  Beloved, what God has given you, he does not want you to be afraid to use.  We are not called to bury our time, our abilities, and our treasure in the sand or under a mattress.  What God has given you, which is everything, he gave to you so that you might use it.  If you’re a great singer or love to sing, please join our choir.  If you are a regular handyman or handywoman, I hope you are on our board of trustees.  If you are good with children, please come see me!  God gave you your gifts, God gave you your passions, so that you might use them and act on them to make this world a better place, to make it more like the kingdom of heaven.  If you’re good at feeding people, we need you for Streets of Hope.  If you love to read, we need you to join our liturgists.  What you’re good at, and what you love to do, regardless of whether those overlap, that’s what God’s calling you to do, to share that gift, that passion, with a hurting world that needs you to use what you’ve been given.  As people of the day, we are free from fear.  Don’t be afraid to use what God has given you.  
            Also as people of the day, Paul tells us that we are to “encourage each other and build each other up.”  I’ve been here four and a half months, on maternity leave for two of those months.  I’ve heard some great stories about this church, about things we have done well over the years, of what it was like to grow up in this church.  I’ve also heard some stories of church members tearing each other down, acting decidedly not like Christ.  Those stories are part of how we got to where we are today, which is why they were shared with me.  It’s important to know our history, and to understand what has happened.  However, if we are to move forward from here, then we need to make it a point to encourage each other and build each other up.  No one’s journey is easy, and we’re not always aware of what’s going on in each other’s lives.  If someone’s having a rough day, make sure to allow them a little more grace.  If there’s something you can do to make someone’s day better, then please show them that kindness.  They say “don’t speak ill of the dead,” but let’s not speak ill of anyone.  If you have a problem with someone, share it with that individual.  Just like any family, we’re not all always going to get along and we’re not always going to like each other.  But make sure your words and your actions are about encouragement and hope and help.  Let’s make each other better as we travel this road together. 
It’s interesting, the commentaries I read about the 1 Thessalonians passage were quick to point out the military aspect of body armor, where it says to “wear faithfulness and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”  But what I noticed is that those pieces of military equipment are protective gear, they are not weapons; they are for defense, not offense.  Even in Ephesians where Paul talks about putting on the full armor of God, the only weapon is the sword of the Spirit.[5]  This isn’t a normal soldier’s uniform.  It does not include a gun or a lance or a spear.  With the exception of the sword of the Spirit, it only includes things to protect you, not things with which to hurt others.  Breastplates and helmets are meant to keep you safe, they are not weapons.  The emphasis on armor and not weapons suggests that we, as children of God, have little need for weapons.  Therefore, let us not use words as a weapon, either, and instead use them to protect and encourage each other.   
            As day people, we live for the day, sober, alert, watchful, ready, and with joyful hope.[6]  You know why?  Because the harvest is now.  You may remember Pastor Leo Gonzalez, who was one of the pastors on-call while I was on maternity leave.  I’ve only met him twice in person, and both times that is what he said, “the harvest is now.”  We are not called to plant, our task is not watering, it’s not time to tend the crop.  It is time to reap, it is time to harvest.  As Jesus says earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”[7]  We live for the day, ready, and with joyful hope because we are called to help bring in the harvest.  The harvest is now. 
            And what kind of harvest is it?  The servant who hid his money said that the master was “a hard man; reaping harvests where [he] did not plant, and gathering crops where [he] did not scatter seed.”[8]  And this is true, “This is why and how Jesus values and is present among the sick, the prisoners, the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, and the naked. He did not sow sickness, oppression, hunger, thirst, or poverty.”[9]  But that’s where Jesus goes.  He goes to the hospital, to the prison, to the nursing home, to Streets of Hope, to the food pantry.  That is where we are called to go as well, to shine our light, to let Jesus’ light shine through us, that folks who are cold or lonely or down or sick might see and know God’s love through Christ Jesus, which is what we can share, as people who walk in the light of Christ. 
            We are children of the light, we are people who belong to the day.  As we enter Advent in a couple weeks we will hear the story of the people who walked in darkness who have seen a great light.  We are that people.  We have seen the light and we know the light and we testify to the light.  As children of light, we do not give into the darkness of fear.  We are free from fear and free to use the gifts God has given us.  As part of the body of Christ, we build each other up and encourage one another on our Christian journey.  And we live in joyous hope of tomorrow, because the harvest is plentiful.  Regardless of whether you identify as a morning person or a night owl, Jesus claims each of us as his own, which makes us children of the day, children of the light. 

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