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“Setting the World Right: Confidence”Matthew 2:1-12 Ephesians 3:1-12 A sermon preached by the
Rev. Douglas M. Donley
It’s Epiphany Sunday. It’s the first Sunday of the year and we’re
still in that early stage of New Year’s Resolutions when they are still fresh
and we actually have confidence that we might be able to accomplish at least a
part of them. That’s not necessarily the
kind of confidence I was going to talk about this morning, but I’ll take what I
can get. When I think about confidence I
think of Julie Andrews singing that great piece from the Sound of Music. “I have Confidence”. She’s trying to convince herself that she can
do this thing. That she can be who she
wants to be. But she takes it a bit far
for the nun. She sings, “I have
confidence in confidence alone. I have
confidence in me.” God wasn’t in the
picture. She had developed self-confidence. That’s an important thing. It’s what we all need to get the job done,
our little task and the feeling that we can accomplish our small part of
it. We can do little without that
confidence. I like taking Amanda and Rebecca ice
skating. Last season was our first and we
were all pretty wobbly. And we each got
the hang of it at different speeds. As
Amanda got better and better, she made up a song. “All you need is hope and confidence to succeed
in what you try to do.” I loved
watching her develop that confidence this past year as she not only conquered
ice skating but overcame her fear of heights when we went rock climbing in
Colorado. I remember her convincing
herself to take another step by singing, “All I need is hope and confidence…” Self confidence can help you to
climb mountains and even do the unexpected.
And yet, I don’t think that’s the kind of confidence that will take us
beyond our tasks. The confidence we seek
is bigger than that. It is a confidence
that there is a higher power ordering the world. Or at least there is a power out there that
wants to set the world right. That
power, what we call God, is looking to us to work toward accomplishing our
ultimate task. Under girded by security,
strength, purity and clarity, we finally need confidence to do what needs to be
done. Think about the Magi and their task. The Magi came from the east following a star
in confidence that it would show them a light of revelation. People may well
have thought them crazy, but they were confident that they were led by a higher
power—a light from the heavens that cosmically put things in the right
order. They were encouraged by Herod to
reveal the whereabouts of the Holy Family.
Anyone in their right mind, visiting a foreign country with great
military might, would do well to consider the consequences of defying such an
order. But the Magi gave their gifts to
the holy family and then went on their way, confident that returning to Herod
would be an insult to the holiness they perceived. They must have needed strength, purity,
clarity and a sense of security in God to defy the “invitation” from the King
to betray Jesus’ whereabouts. And yet because of their confidence, the holy family was able to flee
into Because of the confidence in the Magi, we are here and the story
continued. Because of their confidence in God, they helped set in motion an
amazing series of events that we enjoy and are moved and convicted by week
after week, year after year. Another word for this kind of confidence
is faith. Faith is not only the belief
in things unseen—belief in spite of the evidence. Clarence Jordan said that faith is also the
action in spite of the consequences. So where do we get this faith that
manifests itself as confidence? That’s the tall order. That’s the question. That’s the challenge. Here’s what I think. Faith is that portion of our action that goes
beyond ourselves to see a larger picture of the world. Faith is seeing the possibilities
instead of only the stumbling blocks in our way. Faith is seeing not just the
Pollyanna silver lining around each cloud, but realizing that each hardship has
a lesson to teach us. Faith is reading the stories of our
faith and having dialogue with one another and even God and through that
dialogue finding out what is true to you. Faith is believing
that we each have a purpose. Faith is believing
that God loves us and loves all of humanity as well. Faith is choosing to live your life
by a reality that brings good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind,
sets the captives free and establishes the year of God’s favor. Faith is the belief that good people
enter our lives and teach us lessons and leave a bit of their spirit behind in
each of us that sustains us and empowers us. Faith ultimately is the confidence
that we are not alone. That a power
greater than ourselves is constantly working through all of us to restore us to
sanity. Faith and Confidence is what the
Christian walk is all about. Our kids have watched the trailer
for The Pursuit of Happyness
many times on TV. This movie stars Will
Smith and his son who face tremendous odds together. At one point, the son says to the father as
they maneuver yet another roadblock, “I trust you.” When we woke them up before dawn on the day
after Christmas to get in the car and drive to Cleveland, I told Rebecca that
she needed to get up, get dressed and go, she looked up at me and said “Okay
Daddy, I trust you.” She at least had
confidence that someone had her back and that she would be all right and even
be able to relax and go back to sleep. We need to find ways the shore up
our confidence that we are in this together—that we are not alone; that there
is hope in the world, setting things right. It’s hard to believe that sometimes
when things go wrong, and yet here we are.
We are here defying the odds. We
are here because each Sunday we get a bit more confidence. We look at the people around us. We see that we are not alone. We garner strength from each other and from
our common task of setting the world right.
And we do it. So how about you? Do you have confidence that you’ll keep your New Year’s resolution past
this week? Is there a light out there that can lead you? That light doesn’t need to be out there somewhere. It can be as close as these candles burning on this table. It can be as close as the fire that is in your bones. It can be the spark of excitement that makes you sit up and take
notice. But sisters and brothers pay attention to that light. It guided the Magi long ago. It has guided believers across the centuries. It guides people on their journeys.
And it illumines the bleakest corners of the world with the breath of
God that says, look out. The people of God are here to set the world
right. They have security in God the ultimate power. They have purity that is washed clean in the ever-flowing streams of
compassion. They have strength that comes from God and comes from those who have
been their guides along the journey. They have the clarity that their purpose is a holy purpose and their
task is good news indeed. They finally have confidence that is the fruit of faith. With this confidence, we can follow that star into this new day, into
this New Year and set our own agenda for the future, under girded by God’s
power and enlivened and celebrating amongst God’s people, our subversive and
audacious partners on the journey. Remember, you need hope and confidence to succeed in what you want to
do. May it be so with all of us.
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