|
Sermon
Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – December 20, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church Romans
12:9-18; Luke 1:26-38
Fourth Sunday Of
Advent This morning we have lighted the fourth candle on our Advent Wreath. This candle is symbolic of peace, a state of mind that appears to lie beyond our reach. Because we live in a material world that is constantly making demands on us, feeling peaceful cannot be sustained. These demands come like a thief that can steal our comfort zone of peace without any warning. A woman in my last church came to see me one
morning and disclosed an example how our peace can be stolen.
After having a mammogram that
was negative, she kept examining herself.
She remained disturbed by something that was quite obviously
growing in one of her breasts. When it continued to get larger, she visited her physician and challenged the validity of her mammogram. She persisted to the point where her doctor examined her manually and felt the same lump. He took a biopsy and the result was startling. The tissue sample proved to be a rare highly virulent strain of cancer that the doctors on her team had never encountered. It was a stealth tumor that was invisible on her mammogram. Her lack of peace became a sign that she needed to
focus her attention on what her intuition was telling her. Her peace had
been overwhelmed by her need to have answers. She literally saved her
own life by being alert to a matter that was of great concern for her
health and perhaps to other women. When we celebrate peace as a preferred comfort zone
for us, what are we talking about?
Jesus provided an answer when he told his disciples: Peace is what I leave with you.
It is my own peace that I give to you. I do not give it to you as
the world does. Do not be
worried and upset; do not be afraid of anything
in this world. I will
not be able to talk with you much longer because the ruler of
this world is coming. However, he has no power over me. (John 14:27f) Jesus personalized this ruler as though he
was describing an evil, invisible presence that has the ability to stalk
people. He was speaking in terms that his disciples would understand.
This ruler is real for all of us.
This ruler is always present in our lives. It reminds us
of how temporary our earthly existence is. This ruler is not some evil
being. There is nothing
evil about what comes at the end of our journey here.
The end of our journey is when we join every living thing that
ever existed. The peace
that Jesus was teaching can be summed up in his words, "Do not be
worried and upset; do not be afraid of anything in this world." Every
experience will be left behind when we leave.
If any of us could accurately review how our lives
arrived at the place where we are today, we would realize that each of
us is a living portrait that none of us could have painted.
When we hit an emotional rough
patch, we connect with another angel-in-the-flesh who instills
confidence. Angels
come out of nowhere and our energy-exchange with them can become a
game-changer that gives us more options from which to choose. In our Gospel lesson, Mary could not have
anticipated that she would become pregnant.
Biblical history does not tell us how Mary got pregnant.
The Scriptures only tell us that the Holy Spirit came to Mary and
sustained her during her pregnancy.
Because of this energy-exchange with an angel, her baby
would be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35) Christian tradition has made the assumption that it
was God that caused or allowed Mary to become pregnant. During his
ministry, Jesus never referred to his birth as having any unique
significance. Such an
emphasis grew from the early church fathers who wanted to give Jesus
divine status. The peace that Mary and Joseph developed did
not come by calm and reassuring circumstances that surfaced.
Quite the contrary -- the
couple's journey to Bethlehem to register for the census occurred near
Mary's due date. When they arrived, there was no suitable place for her
to deliver a baby. We can only assume that the inn keeper's wife
gathered other women and together they made the stable a more
comfortable place for the delivery of Mary's baby. The peace that Mary and Joseph experienced came
from a series of future energy-exchanges by angels that
intervened to support their journey. Astrologers came bringing gifts to
honor the baby. The value of those gifts would sustain them during an
unknown event that was about to happen. The Persians had been directed to Bethlehem by an
ancient prophecy (Micah 2:6.) The young family was informed in a dream
that Herod was politically threatened by the possibility that a new
ruler had been born who would one day assume Herod's throne. The family
fled into Egypt when baby boys were being exterminated by Herod's
military. The young family could
use the gifts to sustain themselves. Could any prophet have foreseen such a string of
events? It takes a series of
intervening angels to stitch together a single life that becomes
the hinge on which the doors of history swing.
The peace that each of us can
experience comes from placing our confidence and trust in a process made
possible by unseen hands that has woven the tapestry of our
lives. Life is a collaborative effort between our
discovery of various parts of the puzzle and the energy-exchanges from
intervening angels that help us to assemble those parts into a
work of art. Each of us has no idea what part we are playing in life's
drama. If we are playing the role of an intervening
angel-in the flesh, often we have no idea that we are doing so. Few
of us ever understand that more is happening in human history than we
recognize. One man sowed his seeds of influence in just 3
years and died at the age of 33.
He was executed without knowing that he would be the one who
opened the eyes of spiritual awareness that brought an ancient
teaching into the mainstream of human thought. (Leviticus 19:18).
The drama of Jesus' life began after an energy-exchange at his
baptism. (Matthew 3:17) Regardless of how informed people feel they are
about the collective evolution of the human spirit, they will speak in
generalities from hindsight saying, "This is God's will
unfolding." One day a newly ordained pastor was walking with a
much older, very seasoned pastor.
During their walk, the young woman was feeling insecure at being
one of the pioneers in a field that had been previously dominated by
men. Trying to quiet her fears, she asked the older pastor if he knew
what the markers were for being a healing presence to a congregation. Silently and without any explanation, he plucked a
bud from a rose bush and gave it to her.
He invited her to try to open it. She thought to herself, "What
does this have to do with my question?"
She tried to open the rosebud but was unsuccessful in doing so. It was then that he recited a poem he had been
given by a pastor when he was exactly where she was many years ago: It is only a tiny rose bud, a flower of God's
design. But I cannot unfold
the petals with these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers is not known to
such as I. God opens this
flower so easily but in my hands they die.
If I cannot unfold the rosebud, this flower of
God's design, then how can I have the wisdom to unfold this life of
mine?
So, I will trust in God for leading each moment of
my day. I will look to God for guidance in each step of the way.
The path that lies before me only my Lord knows.
I will trust God to unfold my moments just as He unfolds the
rose. Every life is incredibly complicated to us.
At the moment of our conception, each of our lives begins
automatically by accessing a highly unique set of instructions.
One apple contains the instructions of how to create an orchard
of apple trees. We have the same ability, when we allow our lives to
unfold according to the infrastructure given to us at our conception. How
wonderful to realize that when it is time for key changes to happen in
our lives, an energy-exchange will occur with an angel that may
be unaware that they are nourishing our spirits with their
loving-energy. (Matthew
4:11) We maintain our peace by trusting in the process that is unfolding
our lives with unseen hands. Some of us may recall the poem Footprints In The
Sand. The last thought was, "When you saw only one set of
footprints, it was then that I carried you."
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
We are grateful, O
God, that you created us with the ability to live in peace.
When Mary discovered that she was with child, she became very
afraid. Once she was told the meaning of her pregnancy, she exclaimed,
"I am the Lord's servant, may it happen to me as you have said."
How grateful we are that you have equipped us with the
ability to change our worst nightmare into your purpose. Experiences of
hurt can become opportunities to express our love.
Our moments of uncertainty can eventually become sources of our
inner-peace. Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER
Loving God, all of us celebrate on
this fourth Sunday of Advent the marvelous gift that you gave to
humanity in Bethlehem. While humanity remained locked within the
cares of everyday experiences, you gave us a blueprint in the life of
Jesus for the kind of people you created us to be.
We cannot thank you enough for that gift.
As your
seed continues to sprout and evolve within our spirits, so does our
understanding of life's events. Not many people are aware that
true wealth cannot be found in gold or silver. Few people
understand that true power is found in humility and not in political
authority. Few people know
that Moses' Law is useless
in perfecting a spirit that can still troubled-waters. Few people
understand that a mature spirit outcrops when it is seen giving away
kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and friendship. |