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ADVENT IV "Setting the World Right: Clarity" Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96 A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley December 24, 2006 University Baptist Church Minneapolis, MN It seems odd to have this be both the fourth Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve at the same time. I guess we won’t have to wait very long until Christmas arrives. We’ll tell the nativity stories once again this evening. It promises to be a magical night as it always is on Christmas Eve. But please indulge us for a few moments this morning by doing our last minute preparations. I have news for you, if you are not quite prepared for Christmas, you don’t have much more time. You may now need to focus upon the most important things. Even though our eyes sometimes are red from exhaustion, I hope you can focus this evening and maybe even this morning on what’s really the most important. What that downright vitally important thing is for people is different for different people. Of course I’m not talking about gifts or food or the endless preparations that go into our Christmas celebrations. I mean the really important things. What is really most important for you? For some it might be their family. For others it might be their health, or their recovery or their newfound sense of power or their connection with a miracle story that happened so long ago and yet is as fresh as a new day. The key is to find that point of focus and concentrate on it and celebrate it. It may be the closest thing we see to God in our lives. For the past three weeks we have focused on one pieces of the Christmas story. We have listened to and reflected upon the words of the prophets who called us to pay attention to our need for security, purity and strength. Today, we look at clarity. All of these are needed for us to go about the work of setting the world right. Clarity is that sense of something that you know in the depth of your being. Folks ask how do you know if you’re called by God to do something. The answer is that no matter how hard you fight against it or try to deny it, it comes back to you, invading your thoughts like a splinter in your mind. Only by embracing that which confounds us can we have the clarity that we need to do God’s work of setting the world right. In a confusing world, moments of clarity are indeed holy moments. The 9th chapter of Isaiah put it this way, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light….for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Parent, Prince of Peace." I love all of the descriptors Isaiah uses to describe the Messiah. You can just hear Isaiah bursting with joy. His vision is so clear about what is to come. Isaiah has clarity that this Messiah is going to be a vision from God and that all the world will be set right because of him. We don’t always have moments of clarity, but when we do, we certainly ought to pay attention. Kim says that just before her mother took her last breath, she opened her eyes wide and had a hopeful, happy look on her eyes as she focused on something in the corner. She had clarity in that moment. She was looking at something that made her very happy. Who did she see? Her paretns, her husband, her daughter, Jesus, a bright light? We don’t know, but we are comforted that she had a clear sense of peace as she made that transition from this world to the next. Would that we would all have that sense of clarity and that we would not only have it in our last moments. We need that sense of clarity in order to continue the work of setting the world right. I know when people have experienced a health scare, they often have a clear mind about what is important and what is not. Maybe that’s the kind of clarity we need, without the trauma. I like how Anne Lamont put it: "I don’t think that if I live to be 80 I’ll wish I’d kept my house a lot cleaner, I think I’m going to wish I had swum more unashamedly, made more mistakes, spaced out more, rested. On the day I die, I want to have had dessert. This informs how I live now. I have survived so much loss, as all of us have by; now-my parents, dear friends, my pets. Rubble is the ground on which our deepest friendships are built. If you haven’t already, you will lose someone you can’t live without & your heart will be badly broken. The bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of a beloved person. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly & you learn to dance with a limp. You dance to the absurdities of life; you dance to the minuet of old friendships. When we get to heaven, we will discover that the appearance of our butts & skin was 127th on the list of what mattered on earth. When my friend Pammy was dying at the age of 37, we went shopping at Macy’s. She was in a wheelchair, with a wig & 3 weeks to live. I tried on a short dress & came out to model for Pammy. I asked if she thought it made me look big in the thighs, & she said, so kindly, "Anne, you just don’t have that kind of time." Now, I live by this story. It’s not that I think less of myself, but I think of myself less often. And that feels like heaven to me." Clarity is the antithesis of temptation. It is the force, the power to overcome the temptation to just go along to get along. It is the sense that there is a higher, more beautiful purpose at work in this world of ours. Clarity is the blessed sense that there is a master plan, a purpose for our lives beyond our mundane existence. Finding out what that is is truly exciting and profound. But people can be clear about the wrong things, can’t they? How do we know the difference between clarity and just plain stubbornness. It think that lies in how we are connected to God. It has to do with whether we are about the work of setting the world right. That’s the difference between the clarity that comes from God and the clarity that comes from arrogant hubris. If we look at what these Advent candles represent once more, we can find our way toward clarity. We remember that our security comes from God and not from some worldly fallible power. Security is a gift from God given when we feel that we are flailing around in the world with demons attacking us from all over. Security is the good news that Jesus proclaims when he said, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world." When we put our security in God, and not in ourselves, we experience freedom and maybe some clarity about who is in charge. We remember that purity is measured not by how many rules we follow or by how many notches we have in our holiness belt. Purity is measured in our capacity for and our experience of compassion. Jesus said "Be ye merciful or compassionate, as God is compassionate." That’s the kind of purity we seek. We can be clear that if something is not compassionate, it is not of God. Therefore we need to judge our clarity on whether it is compassionate. If what we are clear about is mean or has the impure blemish of vengeance or hatred, then it is not of God. A great example of this clarity and compassion is demonstrated by my friend Jim LaRue. Jim’s daughter Molly, a member of my home church youth group was slain on the Appalachian Trail along with her boyfriend. Her killer was caught and he went to the trial. Throughout his life, Jim and his late wife Connie spoke against the death penalty. He was clear that it was not of God. Here is a portion of his latest letter to the man who killed his daughter: Resentencing Statement for Paul David Crews Paul, early in the morning of September 13, l990, you tortured, raped and murdered my daughter Molly. The hole in my heart from her loss remains. But, I am here today because I am very pleased that your death sentences have been replaced with life imprisonment without chance of parole. However horrible your actions, I do not believe in the death penalty which is an act of vengeance, even if it is state authorized. Vengeance is never an answer to anything. It only breeds more violence and more retribution. And so I am here today in my name, in the name of my son who could not be here, in the name of my wife whom I lost to cancer this summer, and in Molly’s name to offer you forgiveness for what you have done. We wish that you and we can now find peace. What do we ask of you for this offering of forgiveness. Nothing! It is freely given. But we do offer you a suggestion. With the death penalty no longer hanging over you, we hope that you will be able to find significant meaning in your life. Your mind and spirit can never be imprisoned. There are a growing number of serial killers in the country. My family has always believed that discovering the pain and fear that caused the violence could foster understanding and make us all more genuinely human. Consider accepting counsel from those who can help you understand what caused you to commit acts of violence and how you might help other troubled people.
Molly had decided to devote her life to working with troubled children, like you certainly were. She was determined to find out why these kids acted out in terribly violent ways. She was convinced that if you could reach them at an early enough stage of their development, they could find their way through the circumstances that seemed to be driving them to violent ends. She would have wanted that for you. Paul, we think it would be great if you could pick up where Molly left off, starting with yourself. Help the Molly’s of this world learn who you are and try to enlist the help of other inmates to help in this effort. You are a gold mine of critical information that needs to be unearthed. I can assure you Paul, that Molly will be with you every step of the way. Because that is how much she cares!! Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Finally, we have strength. It will take strength to live as God would have us live, setting the world right. We will have to tap on the strength that comes from our Christian community in order to complete the task that is before us. We must act as shepherds for each other to hold the line on setting the world right. And when we see that strength, we have a clear vision of God’s power in the world. So as we find something clear in our next steps, we remember that our clarity is actually God’s vision of us emboldened and committed to setting the world right. We do this best when we remember that our security comes from God, our purity comes from compassion, our strength comes from a transformative community and our clarity comes from God’s true vision of a world set right. When we do that, we can rejoice with prophet and Psalmist alike saying "O sing to YHWH a new song, all the earth. Bless God’s name and tell of God’s salvation from day to day. Declare God’s glory among the nations. For great is God and greatly to be praised. The gods of this world are idols, But YHWH made the heavens, honor and beauty and majesty are in God’s sanctuary." And the redeemer’s name "shall be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting Parent the Prince of Peace." May we see that vision with clarity as we join God in setting the world right. |