"Our
Hope In The BIG PICTURE" Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler
– December 1, 2013 Centenary United
Psalm 122; Isaiah 2:1-5
Each Advent season I try to focus my messages around the themes
represented by each Advent candle.
This morning, our first lighted candle symbolizes Hope. We often
use the word hope to describe
some possibility that we want to happen.
We say things like, “I hope that your family will have a
wonderful 2014!” “I hope
that soon the medical community will find a cure for cancer.”
“I hope that our economy will
improve.” It is very easy for us to grow discouraged when what we hope for
does not occur. However,
our hope has to be much larger than looking forward to the fulfillment
of some dream.
A more meaningful description of
hope is our having total confidence that God’s creation is unfolding as
it was designed to do.
In other words, we trust the BIG PICTURE of creation that began 14
billion years ago. Life will always provide each of us with a number of moments that
evoke uncertainty. However, understanding the BIG PICTURE can help us
get through them. There
have been scores of people during my ministry that had a grasp of the
BIG PICTURE. Each of them
had bypassed getting stuck by holding on to something they could not
change. I once visited a parishioner that had just delivered a baby girl
whose spirit left her young body as soon as she was born.
The woman surprised me with her response.
She said, “Dick, the only way I can get through this is to
understanding that Sarah’s spirit tried to enter our lives through her
new vehicle that she discovered was incapable of being driven out of the
showroom.” She was not
being flip or cavalier when she said this.
It came from her understanding of life where not everything we
hope for happens. This was her way of dealing with something over which she had no
control. She did not overly analyze the event or seek to blame anyone.
In fact, she let go of it almost as soon as she left the hospital.
The 12th century poet Rumi said, “Do not grieve over
what did not happen. The
outcome wished for could have created a path of sustained sadness and
despair.” Another example also came from one of my parishioners.
His company downsized and had eliminated his division from their
core business. Mike was out
of work for eight months.
He did not become trapped by feelings that another job would be
impossible to find. I was returning from the post office one afternoon when the two
of us met. I asked him how he was doing.
He said, “Great!
This break has given me a lot of time to find the right environment
where I can hang my hat. So
far, I haven’t found anything I liked.
Searching for the right place has been fun and very enlightening.
I have learned not to settle for a job just because of the size
of the paycheck but because I know this is something that I will really
enjoy doing.” I must hasten
to add that Mike had invested half his salary for eight years so he had
no immediate financial concerns. In our lesson today, Isaiah knew that he had a vision of a day
that he would never live to see.
His understanding was grounded in the fact that nothing can
prevent God’s will from unfolding.
He had a vision that sustained that hope.
Think of what has happened in more recent years.
How many of us that lived through World War II ever thought that
one day we would be driving Mitsubishi and When Jesus began preaching, he also had knowledge of the BIG
PICTURE. The population of
the world would come and go for twenty centuries before people would
begin in earnest to internalize his thoughts. His message of “love your
neighbor” has not found a home
in everyone, but like a seed that needs time to germinate, it is
happening. Today, very
different cultures are hurtling toward each other with increased
acceleration and the result of this
giant mixing bowl
is beyond human control. With trade, the Internet and
cell phones with language applications, communication with the world’s
population is instantaneous.
For those of us who are people watchers, this process is the
greatest show on earth. It is
exciting to watch what is happening right before our eyes. Wealthy Chinese and Russians are buying properties in This incremental growth of the
Kingdom consciousness is what
Jesus was describing when he said, “The Kingdom of heaven is like this:
A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with a bushel of flour
until the entire batch of dough rises.” (Matthew 13:33)
Jesus also described this same growth pattern when he used the
germination of a tiny mustard seed. (Mark 3:31f)
The BIG PICTURE is dawning from the smallest acts of kindness and
compassion.
We live in a time where religious worship services are dwindling
in popularity. Churches are
fading from the landscape as religious practices increasingly appear
irrelevant to the minds of the younger generations.
While religious authorities worry about this, think again about
the impact of a small packet of
yeast that causes an entire batch of
dough to rise. Nations that were once at war with each other have become allies
that respond immediately when
rogue nations threaten countries that cannot defend themselves. Just
recently, former enemies joined forces to come to the aid of the Critics of this line of thinking may say, “Yes, but people will
forget who Jesus was and is.
At a risk of sounding heretical, does this really matter?
Many Christians believe that our
mission is to enable others to make Jesus central in their lives.
What does this mean beyond
personalizing what he taught by living it?
Jesus told his followers, “Go
make disciples” and that is still happening.
More and more people world-wide have found the value of living what Jesus taught even though the knowledge of its source may remain obscure or even unknown. If people think this interpretation is heresy, they are missing the symbolism of the yeast becoming lost in the dough. They could also be missing the unfolding of God’s will in a way they did not foresee or anticipate. The If there was ever a time to be hopeful, it is right now.
In most areas of our society
major changes in human consciousness continue to take place.
There is little that will turn back the clock on the gains that
have been made in countless areas of human endeavor. We clearly see this
from medicine to a more refined understanding of our role in developing
a world community. In the David Wingate has devoted his life to protecting our national
bird, the cahow. These
birds were once thought to be extinct but David almost singlehandedly
has brought them back. He
once commented, “If you are going to play God, you have to put in the
hours that God does.” There is no question that manipulative, irresponsible and violent
personalities are still among us; but the only place they are growing is
in media headlines.
People will learn either through
joy or pain that there is only one way to live that consistently works.
If they do not, they will be
left behind spiritually, emotionally and economically by those who
understand that compassionate attitudes and behavior are the fundamental
building blocks that will cause life to thrive in the future.
We have to remember that there are over seven billion people in
the world, of which the ignorant and the uninformed make up a miniscule
minority. No matter how difficult life is for us, human consciousness is moving toward the brighter day that the prophetic visionaries knew would come. God created us with only one way to live that will work consistently in every culture. That one way is to serve one another in everything that we do. The Candle of this Hope lights the way to our world’s future. |