Sermon Ideas 4U - Archived Sermons -- BEFORE Advent 2002
Sermon Ideas 4U - Archived Sermons -- AFTER Advent 2002
This page is in honour of the 'pesky, perpetual, predictable and persistent return of the Sabbath'!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The United Church has a great online bookstore and here is the link.
If you live in Canada they will even send you a book display for your event and people who dont get to see that many books at once can have a ball!
Isaiah 40: 21-31
Psalm 147
1 Corinthians 9: 16-23
Mark 1: 29-39
We are all, as far as I know, the children of immigrants. Whether or ancestors came as a result of the highland clearances, or the potato famine, or some other unrest in the places of their birth or just to seek adventure and better opportunity, we are not native to this land. We are here for a reason, either political or economic.
Some families are very good at preserving their family stories and some not so much! Some stories become lost as the generation with the experiences die and the children and their children know nothing other than life in the new country. Some children become easily bored and shut out their parents’ stories wishing afterward that they had listened a little more closely.
When I was in high school a number of people fleeing the turmoil after the communist takeover in Vietnam were granted refugee status and moved here to PEI under the sponsorship of various organizations. Few of these people came to places where there was an established Vietnamese community and most did not speak either French or English. For some reason our bus picked up one such student from a house in Sherwood. I believe her name was Lynn. She would try and talk to us in English but her accent was so thick we could not understand her. Lynn carried a fistful of pencils and pens with her EVERY day. I’m not sure why but perhaps she was not accustomed to having access to so many and wanted to make sure they did not disappear. Most of us could not have cared less about pens and pencils as there were usually “more where they came from”.
Lynn had a story of fear and danger and escape and uncertainty and finally a story of being able to live in freedom. I wonder where she is now and if she has children, did she tell them of her escape to a new life in Canada? Does she long for her homeland, even if it was an existence of poverty, hunger, and fear that drove them to run for their lives. Would she go back if she could?
The people to whom Isaiah was writing in this part of the book, were in exile. They were, to use our term, refugees. Their beloved Jerusalem lay in ruins and others were living in what was left of their houses and farming what land was still useable. They could have been excused for believing that their God had abandoned them. They could have been excused for believing that the gods of the Babylonians were stronger than the God of Israel.
They were in danger of losing their story. Isaiah comes in this passage to remind them of that story and to rekindle their faith based in the story. God, their God, is first and foremost the One who created the heavens and the earth. This God is mighty and powerful and over all. This God is also part of their lives, part of creation itself and this God, who was with them in the past, is still with them and in good time, will restore them to Israel.
The language is rhetorical; the prophet cannot believe they have forgotten this. If they have, Isaiah recites the tenets of the faith in beautiful, poetic prose.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth
Yet, Isaiah emphasizes, God is not just “all powerful and out there, unconcerned for human beings”; God is with them and UNDERSTANDS what they are going through, perhaps better than they can even articulate to themselves.
We are not a people in exile; we are not living in fear of our lives because of an oppressive and cruel military dictator. Yet, it does not take much to translate this passage to life on our “Fair Island of the Sea” The title of a song written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, extolling the virtues of all things “Island” and often called “the Island Hymn.” I hear these concerns voiced on radio and television and in kitchens and living rooms almost every day. We are living in a time of uncertainty and insecurity of a kind we have not known in a very long time. In terms of employment there seems to be nothing but bad news. It seems everyone is moving to Fort MacMurray! We know that extracting useable oil from the Oil Sands is probably harming the environment but we need to heat our homes, generate electricity and get from point A to point B.
Our farmers can’t make a living, yet our stores are full of the kinds of food they used to grow. There are local options but they are more expensive and we wonder if we can pay any more for our food.
Canadian baby-boomers wonder if the pensions they have been counting on will ever be enough to retire or if the Old Age Security and Canada Pension system will survive until they retire. Our young people wonder how many seniors they can support on lower wage jobs.
Environmentalists are telling us that in order for our planet to survive we must make drastic changes in our patterns of consumption. A major part of our dilemma is that it is these patterns of consumption which keep our economy going.
Gloom and doom. I don’t have to go on - you know as well as I do, perhaps better, what kind of dilemmas we face.
There was once a minister who encountered the same homeless man on his walk to the office every morning. One day he took a $20 bill and pressed it into his hands with the quick assurance, “Don’t despair”. A few days later he encountered the same man, just as dishevelled who approached him and handed him an envelope containing $2,000. The minister opened the envelope looking surprised. The man said, “Reverend, Don’t Despair was the long shot in the fifth race at the track on Saturday, he came in first and paid 100/1.” Of course we all should know gambling is usually guaranteed only to lose you money; its not something you can count on!
There is Good News says this one named Isaiah. The good news is that the people of God have been this way before. The good news is that hope will triumph over despair. The good news is that the people will return to a time of life and prosperity and the land will be fruitful once again.
The good news was not that this would happen by magic. The good news was not that all they had to do was to return to Jerusalem and everything would be restored, as if by magic. The good news was that their God would lift up the broken down. The good news was that they would be borne up as if they had wings like the eagles.
My dad used to love watching the Bald Eagles as they scoured the farm for food. When they spotted something good to eat they would swoop down and without breaking their stride would pick it up with their powerful talons and soar back high into the sky. In modern times there is a smaller eagle which breeds in North Africa which can catch animals 5 times its own weight. The larger eagles can have a 7 or 8 foot wingspan! Their size and power would have been very overwhelming so to compare the strength God would give them was an awesome promise indeed.
When they returned they knew that hard work awaited them but Isaiah assures them that the strength would be given to them and that with that strength they would be equal to the task before them.
I talk with people who have been through difficult experiences and in many cases they speak of a strength which got them through but which they did not know they had before the ordeal came upon them. New moms can testify they did not know how little sleep they could get-by on.
The advice is “tell the story”; “remember the past”; “remember the God who was with us in the glory days and even though we don’t know it, is still with us.”
The good news is NOT that God will restore us to the past; how can that really be “good news”? The Good News is that this God who has been with us, WILL be with us into a new future. The good news is that we will receive the strength we need to do the work we need to do and to make the changes we must in order to bring life, health and happiness out of the new situation in which we will find ourselves.
In that time
“those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Amen!
1995- 2012 The Rev. Beth W. Johnston.
For some good stuff go to:
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