A Charlie Brown Christmas ~ The Search

50 years ago Charles Schultz and Bill Melendez teamed up to give us the classic story of Charlie Brown’s search for the true meaning of Christmas.  Beyond the iconic images of doghouses and Charlie Brown trees and the familiar music by Vince Guarlidi, what makes this story so powerful is that it speaks to all of us.  How many of us, during the holiday season, will say, I know I should be happy, but I’m not.  I don’t feel what I’m supposed to feel.  I feel let down.  We all feel let down at times.  We think we should be feeling something different or something more during the Christmas season and when we don’t, we search to find it.

In so many ways the season of Advent is a season of searching.  We search for the right gift.  We search for the perfect tree and the best sales.  We search for that old box of ornaments we put away for safe keeping.  We search for a new recipe for cookies or a new theme for the Christmas party.  We will search for ways to make our homes and dinner tables look like what we find on pintrest and see on facebook and after hours of searching and work in all of these areas, we will often end up feeling empty and unfulfilled.  The gifts we want are sold out, the tree isn’t straight, the cookies get burned and our homes never look like the pictures we see on line.  In so many ways Charlie Brown’s Christmas looks just like ours. But the real power of this story is that it is not just the story of our holidays, it is the story of life.

Many of us go through life thinking we should be feeling something more and experiencing something different and even though so many things in our lives are so good and we know we should be happy, we aren’t, we feel let down and so the search begins.  So whether it is to find meaning in Christmas or in life, we need to make this Advent about searching, but the key is to know what we are searching for and where to look.  Advent is not about searching for the perfect gift or tree, it’s not even about searching for the birth of a Savior because that took place more than 2000 years ago in the town of Bethlehem.  Advent is a time to search for the presence of God in our lives and the place to look isn’t in the world but in the God who created us and the Savior who came to be with us.
About 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus there was another man who could relate to Charlie Brown’s feeling of un-fulfillment.  After defeating 450 false prophets in a spectacular display of God’s power and might, this prophet ran away and sat alone in a cave feeling rejected and alone.  From the darkness of the cave I can just hear him say, I know I should be happy, but I am not.  I don’t feel what I’m supposed to feel.  I feel let down.  After one of the biggest success of his life, Elijah is feeling empty.  He feels like he is the only one left in the entire world who loves God.  1 Kings 19:9-10

Charlie Brown shared his dilemma with his closest friends, Linus and Lucy who sent him on a search for the meaning of Christmas.  Elijah shared his dilemma with God who sent him on his own search, not to find the meaning of Christmas but to experience God.
1 Kings 19:11.  So Elijah went out and sat so that he could see God.

What happened first was that a huge wind blew through the mountains and Elijah looked for and listened for God in the wind  It makes sense that God, a spirit, might be present in a mighty rushing wind, but God was not there.  Then the ground shook and the rocks shattered and a great earthquake shook the mountain and Elijah searched for God in the earthquake, but once again, God was not there.  Then a fire swept over the hillside and Elijah searched for God in the fire because several times before God had been seen and heard in the presence of a fire, but God was not there.

After the wind and earthquake and fire came what the bible describes as the sound of a gentle whisper or sheer silence.  It was a sound and a silence so deafening that it caught Elijah by surprise and he searched for God in the silence and in the silence he found Him.  Elijah pulled his cloak up over his face and went out to stand in the presence of God.  What’s interesting about this story is that God didn’t come in the ways that Elijah might have expected.  God didn’t come with power and force and fire, God came in silence.  God didn’t come in ways that would rock the world, God came in the stillness and quiet.

A century after Elijah, the world was again searching for the presence of God, this time in the Messiah, but God didn’t enter the world the way people expected.  There was no wind or earthquake or fire, God simply came to the silence of a small town and into the stillness of an unknown couple.  God didn’t send Jesus to Jerusalem or to a well-known power couple of the day; he came to the little town of Bethlehem and a poor unknown couple named Mary and Joseph.

As an adult, Jesus didn’t act like the Messiah people expected.  Jesus didn’t amass a political force to overthrow a government, he gathered the least and the last and the lost of this world and created an extended family whose power was seen in love and grace.  While the people of Israel had been searching since the days of Elijah for the Messiah, many didn’t see him because He wasn’t what they expected.  Today as we search for meaning and purpose and the presence of God in our lives, we need to make sure we are looking in the right places.  God often comes in unexpected times and places and if we are not paying attention, we will miss God completely.

It’s Elijah who helps us understand how and where to search and the first he thing teaches us is that we have to be willing to start the serach.  Elijah knew he was empty and needed God.  He knew his life was missing something and so he started a search.  Charlie Brown also knew something was missing in his life, or at least in his Christmas, and so he set out to find it.  Sometimes the most important step in any process of growth and discovery is the first one.  Are we willing to start the search?

This Advent, are we willing to start the search for God and for the meaning and purpose God brings to our lives?  Have we gotten to the place where our holiday and our lives just aren’t filling us up so we are willing to start searching for something more?  It’s not easy to say that we are empty or that we need help or that we need God – but confessing our need and desire for more is the first step.  While it’s not easy, it is simple to begin, we just need to ask God to show us His presence.  In the next steps we have included a simple prayer.  if you don’t know where to start but know you need to search, then we invite you to start there.

The second thing Elijah shows us is that we can’t give up the search when God doesn’t appear in the times and places we expected.  God wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire – but Elijah didn’t give up.  Elijah didn’t leave the mountain and call it quits, he waited it out until he heard and experienced God in the stillness and quiet.  Charlie Brown also didn’t give up.  He tried to find meaning by directing a play and he tried to find it in his care for a little tree.  That’s one of the classic character traits we see in Charlie Brown, he never quits.

Whether it’s in baseball,

 kicking that football 

or searching for Christmas,

he never gives up 

and neither can we!

When God doesn’t appear the way we thought he would or reveal himself at the time and place that makes sense for us it is easy to give up on ourselves and God – but we can’t.  We have to keep going.  We need to keep looking for God and if we don’t see or hear him the first time out we need to keep going because God has promised that when we search for Him with our whole heart – we will find him.  It might not be where, when or how we expected it, but we will find him.

So we need to start the search and then keep on our searching but then we need to know where to search and we can’t look for God in the things of this world.  Just as we won’t find the true meaning of Christmas in tinsel, packages and cookies, neither will we find God in the power, popularity and possessions of the world.  Our search needs to take us in a different direction.  In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount he said, seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.  The meaning and fulfillment that will satisfy our holiday as well as our hearts doesn’t come from the kingdoms of this world but from the kingdom of God and the best place to see what that kingdom is like is from the life and teaching of Jesus.

Through his Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows us the values of God’s kingdom and where we can experience God.   We will see God when we are willing to forgive and not hold a grudge, when we will pray for our enemies and give to those in need – not an easy thing when our enemies are Islamic terrorists and those in need are Syrian refugees.  Jesus also tells us that we will experience the fullness of God when we turn to the spiritual disciples of prayer, fasting and tithing and store up treasure in heaven instead of treasure on earth.  The more we can live out this sermon, the more we will be living in God’s kingdom and placing ourselves in God’s presence giving us the opportunity to see and experience God.

As we heard last week, one of the things that is needed if we want to experience the fullness of God and the fullness of life is some quiet time to reflect.  In this busy season we need to quiet our hearts and lives and continue to linger with God.  This isn’t easy with all that we have on our schedules, but it is important.  God isn’t found in the bustle of activities and the craziness of gift giving, God is found in the love and grace and peace we are able to share with one another.  God is found in the silence and stillness that we can create in the middle of the whirlwind of the season.

When Charlie Brown was able to grab hold of the true meaning of Christmas, it didn’t come in the Christmas play or music or tree, it come from the word of God spoken in a silent auditorium.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And when Charlie Brown left the auditorium clutching his little tree he walked out into the stillness of the night where he heard once more the voice of God.    It is still the word of God and the voice of God heard in the stillness and silence of the world that can turn us around and point us in the right direction.  The weeks leading up to Christmas will always be a season of searching and as we search for that perfect gift, perfect tree and perfect cookie, we can’t neglect the greater search, the search for the One who brings purpose to our lives and fills us with perfect peace – Jesus Christ.  Let us search for God in the stillness and silence and let us never give up.


Next Steps
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Charlie Brown ~ The Search

What physical things will you search for this holiday season?
Where will you go to find them?

What spiritual things will you search for this holiday season?
Where will you go to find them?

Read 1 Kings 19:11-18. Elijah was willing to:
• start his search for God and
• continue searching when things didn’t go as expected.

1. Start your search.  Ask God to reveal Himself to you..
Loving God, in this Advent season I find myself empty and unfulfilled so today I begin to search for true meaning and Your presence.  Lead me in this journey and open my eyes and the eyes of my heart so that I may see You and be filled.  AMEN.

2. Continue searching.  It takes time and a quieting of our lives to see God.  Create that time and space and then don’t give up the search.

3. Seek first God’s Kingdom.
• Read Jesus Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7
• Read the Parables of God’s Kingdom in Matthew 13
• Linger and seek God in silence a few minutes each day

Join us this coming weekend for
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Friday ~ 7:00 PM
Saturday ~ 2:30 PM
Sunday ~ 7:00 PM

Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Lingering With God

Three times a year the people of Israel traveled to Jerusalem to worship God and on their way they would use the Psalms of Ascent as a tool to prepare their hearts and lives to give thanks once they got there.  These Psalms reminded them that it was important to listen to others, learn from history and laugh at themselves if they were going to arrive at the Temple with a heart filled with gratitude.  We have also seen the importance of listening, learning and laughing to our own lives of gratitude and today as we come to the end of our journey, we are going learn the most important lesson of all because without this we will not be able to give thanks.  Gratitude requires time and space to reflect and so today we learn from these Psalms the importance of lingering with God.

The word linger means to stay in a certain place longer than is usual or expected.  It means being slow to act and slow to move on from what we are doing.  To really thank God the people of Israel needed to linger in the presence of God.  They needed to spend a few more moments in the Temple, a few more moments in prayer, a few more moments with God’s people singing God’s praise.  If we are going to learn how to give thanks then we also need to learn how to linger in God’s presence because living lives of gratitude requires this kind of unhurried time and space.  Being thankful requires us to reflect on what we have and who we are and how God is working in our lives and this not only takes time but it takes some quiet space so we can focus our minds and center our hearts on God and not us.

Whether it is our worship together on Sundays or time we spend together in small groups and bible studies or just our own personal worship, prayer and study of scripture, we need to learn how to linger.  We need to learn how to be slow to speak, slow to act and slow to move on so that we don’t miss what God has for us.  If we neglect time with God or rush through that time we will miss hearing and seeing what God has done for us which means not seeing all those things that make us thankful.  So gratitude requires time and space to linger but the theologian Thomas Merton said, remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him and being attentive to Him requires a lot of courage and know how.

 It really does take courage to linger because slowing down goes against the pattern of our world.  We are told to go faster and get more accomplished every day which is why we learn to multi-task and create unsustainable schedules for ourselves and our families.  Many people are afraid to say no because we have been told that the only way to get ahead and the only way to get the most out of life is to do it all.  Too many times we buy into the lie that our children need to be involved in some kind of sport and activity in every season of the year.  We teach them to take part in everything which leaves no time and space for reflection and thanksgiving.  Since we are defined by what we do we tell ourselves that the more we do the better we will feel about ourselves, but the more we do the more our focus in life is on us and when we are no longer able to keep it all together we don’t feel good or grateful, just discouraged.  So it takes courage to say no to the pace of our world and to say no to ourselves and linger with God.

It also takes some know-how.  We need to learn how to linger with God and here the Psalms of Ascent have something to teach us.  To learn how to linger we need to learn just one world – SLOW.  To linger means that we go S.L.O.W. - we STAY, we LISTEN, we OBSERVE, we WAIT.

The first thing we have to do is STAY.  We need to stay in the presence of God and stay committed to our connection with God.  Psalm 130:5 begins, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.  The psalmist has placed himself in the presence of God and now waits.  He is staying in place until he receives all that God has for him.  Now staying in God’s presence assumes that we are already connected to God and that we have some kind of worship and prayer life on which to build.  The good news is that we all have this.  You may not think you are connected to God but I am here to tell you that you have a spiritual life on which to build because you are here. You have been courageous and left the world behind for a few moments to listen, learn and even laugh at yourself, or humble yourself before God.  You are here to connect with God so the foundation for all of us has been established.
The people of Israel used the Psalms of Ascents on their yearly trips to Jerusalem and they took those trips to stay connected to God.   Three times a year the people would be courageous and leave their homes to set out on a long and sometimes dangerous journey so that they could stay connected to God through worship and the giving of their offerings.  Staying connected to God was so important to them that they even collected and used these psalms as a way of staying connected to God along the way.   Their commitment to worship teaches us the importance of staying connected to God through worship.

Each week we need to set aside this time to leave the world behind and refocus our hearts and lives on God.  This time is important because it reminds us that life isn’t all about us and what we can do and who we can become, it is about what God can do and who God helps us become.  Each week we need to stay connected to God through worship and as life get’s more hectic and our schedules get full we need to protect this time more and more.  Over the next four weeks the temptation might be to pull away from worship so that we can get everything done that needs to get done – but the truth is that as we get busier we need to work harder at staying connected to God.  The busier we get the more we need to guard this time and commit ourselves to worship and prayer.  So we need to stay with God so that we can see God’s goodness and grace which lead to gratitude.

As we stay we also need to LISTEN.  Look at the end Psalm 130:5, and in his word I put my hope.  As we stay with God we need to place our hope in his word and that only happens if we are willing to listen to God’s word.  The more we listen, the more hope we have and the more we have to be thankful for become because God’s word tells us about everything that God has done for us.  Look at Psalm 130:7-8.  With God there is unfailing love.  With God there is forgiveness of sin and full redemption which means that God’s grace brings us back into a relationship with God.  God’s word is full of messages of love and power and redemption and strength which are given to us by God.  Look at Psalm 121:5-8.
God watches over us which means God is present with us and cares for us no matter what we are going through.  So the more we listen to God’s word the more involved we see God is in our lives and the more gratitude we feel towards God.

Not only do we need to listen but we also need to OBSERVE.  We need to be alert and attentive to what God is doing in our lives and in our world, or as the psalmist says we need to watch, Psalm 130:6.  A night watchman has one job and that is to watch.  They watch for danger and they watch for the morning.  As the people travelled to Jerusalem they went through wilderness areas and the watchman would keep an eye out for any wild animals or attacking armies.  They would also keep watch for the first signs of dawn so they could get the people up and ready so they could travel through the cool of the morning and not the heat of the afternoon.

A night watchman could watch during the night but they really didn’t have much power.  They might be able to drive the animals away once they arrived, but they couldn’t keep them from coming.  They could look for the dawn, but they couldn’t do anything to bring the dawn earlier.  In many ways a watchman doesn’t have a lot of control; they just observe what is going on and then respond to it.  To be truly grateful we need to understand that while we often don’t have a lot of control in our lives, God does and we need to observe all that God is doing.  

How is God at work in our lives?  How is God at work in our hearts and in our minds?  Where can we see God’s grace and mercy working in us?  Where do we see forgiveness at work?  Where do we see healing at work?  Where do we see God giving us strength in relationships and in our families and at work?  In those areas where we don’t feel like we have any control, can we observe ways where God is in control?  And where do we see God at work in our world?    Today it is especially important to see God working in our world because there is so much beyond our control and so many problems that seem to have no answers and so we need to observe how God is at work so that we don’t lose hope and grow bitter.  
The world may be tearing apart around us, but look at what God has done through us this morning.  More than 500 children will have a better life, maybe a life changing experience because of what God is doing.  300 families in our community will have food for Christmas because God has moved in us to help feed them.  If we look around, while the world is at war we also see that families have found peace, people have grown in their faith and children were born and baptized and it’s their lives that give us hope.  The world might be increasingly negative but God’s grace is still giving and forgiving.  And for all of this we can’t do much except say thank you God.  The more we observe the more gratitude we experience.

So as we stay connected to God we listen and observe and then there is one more thing we need to do, once again we need to WAIT.  We need to wait in God’s presence a little longer because there is always more God wants to give us.  We are too quick and too eager to leave God’s presence and when we don’t linger we miss out on what God has for us.  Too often we come here and then can’t wait for worship to be over, we can’t wait for Sunday school to end, we can’t wait to get home.  When we are in such a hurry, we fail to experience the fullness of God.  So after spending time in God’s presence, when we are ready to get up and go let’s try to wait another few moments so that we don’t miss out on anything God has for us.  It takes courage to wait, but we will be rewarded and grateful if we do

I wonder if that is how the people of Israel felt after they arrived in Jerusalem.  After all the worship had taken place, did they want to wait a little longer, stay another day in this holy city to give thanks.  Is this how we will feel this coming week?  Will we want to linger with family and friends to listen and observe?  Will we take a few extra minutes at the table to simply share love and faith?  This week we have the opportunity to go slow and linger.   Can we slow down on Thursday and before we gobble down the turkey take a moment to stay connected to God through prayer?  Can we linger and listen to one another and observe the hand of God that is working in us?  Can we go slow and stay connected to God, listen and observe and then once again simply wait in God’s presence?
This morning we are going to practice this last step of waiting.  You think the sermon is over, but before we go to the final hymn and run out into the busy day and our busy world, we are going to take a few minutes to linger in God’s presence and wait with God and listen for God to speak to us one more time.


Next Steps
Living the life of Gratitude ~ Lingering with God

To give thanks this week of Thanksgiving – Go S.L.O.W.

STAY connected to God.
• Thank God for one thing every day this week.
• Commit to being in worship each Sunday from now through Christmas.
• Thank God before dinner on Thanksgiving Day.

LISTEN to God.
• Listen to God during 5 minutes of quiet each day
• Listen to God by finishing the Psalms of Ascent.  Read  Psalm 121, 130, 134, and then read Psalm 135 & 136.
• Thanksgiving Day take time to listen to family and friends give thanks.

OBSERVE all God is doing.
• Identify 5 things in your life for which you are grateful.
• Identify one way God is at work in your life.
• Identify one way God is at work in the world.
• Identify one way you want God to use you in the world.

WAIT for God to speak and act and love.
• Wait one more minute in prayer and listen for God.
• Wait a few minutes after reading the Bible to listen for God’s personal voice and direction.
• Wait a few moments before leaving worship to feel God’s presence and power.
• Wait at the table on Thanksgiving Day for a few more moments to simply thank God for family and friends.

Give thanks to the LORD for He is good,
His love endures forever.  Psalm 136:1

Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Laughing at Ourselves

About 9:00 Friday night as the events in Paris continued to unfold I began to realize that the message I had for today, laughing at ourselves, might seem inappropriate to the seriousness of the context we see in our world.  While laughter can be healing and helpful in so many difficult situations, understanding when and where to use humor is important, so I went back to Psalm 126 and Psalm 131 to see if there was something else or something more in those psalms that God wanted us to hear today.  So let’s hear what God has to say to us today in light of all that is taking place around us.
Psalm 126:5-6.

Today France and much of the world is going out to sow in tears.  We are going out to live our lives in a world filled with sorrow, fear, doubt, confusion and pain.  Sowing seed was what many in Israel did with their lives – it was their job, their livelihood in an agrarian society.  Sowing here is just people living their lives from day to day and for whatever reason they are weeping.  Now as the people of Israel heard these words they would have know full well what it was causing their tears because many times in their history they had reason to weep.  The people of Israel understood terrorist attacks and battles and I don’t mean Israel today, I mean Israel in the days of the Old Testament.  They knew what it was like to have their fields burned, their homes destroyed, their livestock either slaughtered or stolen and their family, friends and neighbors cut down in the prime of life.  The tragedy we see around us today is nothing knew and the people then didn’t have the luxury of a 3 day period of mourning; every day they had to go out and sow seed and bring in a harvest.  Life had to go on and so they often had to sow in tears and go out weeping.

Today people all over France go out to sow with tears.  With them, many of us will continue to live our lives with weeping and pain because of the violence and evil we see in the world.  Whether it is in the city of Paris, our own schools and streets, or in the ruined cities and countryside of Syria and Iraq, we live in a world that can be dominated by fear and sorrow.  If it isn’t the attacks we see in the world around us, it can be the attacks we see in us that fill our eyes with tears.  The breakup of a marriage, the concern over the decisions of our children and grandchildren, the battle of cancer and heart disease claiming those we love, the problems of mental health in our families and community that seem to have no answers, there are many things in our own lives that cause confusion, doubt, fear and pain and just like Israel we have to go out and sow with tears.  Life goes on and so we go out each day with tears in our eyes to sow and seek a harvest.  

And if this were the end of the story – it would be a pretty sad and dark world, but God is clear here in the Psalms that this is not the end of the story.  As hard as it is for us to see the light in the darkness – the sorrow we feel in the morning does not last forever because those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.  Those who go out weeping will return laughing and singing.  These words reflect another psalm, Psalm 30:5 - weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning.

What we need to do is figure out where this joy comes from because it is this source of this joy that will give us hope.  Now this probably won’t surprise you but the answer to where we find joy is found in the 2nd Psalm of Ascent we were going to look at today, Psalm 131.

Joy comes when we put our hope in the Lord.  Hope and rejoicing comes when we realize that we don’t have the answers and we don’t have the power to change this world but God does.  This is what the psalm is trying to tell us when it says, my heart is not proud and I do not concern myself with great matters or things that are too wonderful for me.  We don’t have the answers and we don’t have the ability to change the world or even at times our own lives but God does so if we can be still and trust God we will find joy.

The psalmist compares this kind of trust to a weaned child and I have to be honest, not being a parent and especially not being a mother, I really didn’t know what this was talking about.  Let me share some of what the theologian Charles Spugeon has said about this:
The weaned babe has given up what it loved. By nature we hang on to this world, and only God’s grace can wean us from it, but when we give up self-righteousness, self-confidence, the love of the world, the desire of self-aggrandizement, when we give up trusting in man, trusting in ceremonies, [trusting in ourselves] and trusting in anything but God, then has our soul become like a weaned child.  A weaned child has given up what nature feeds upon, that it may feed upon the bread of heaven.

So it’s when we stop trusting in ourselves and the world and all its wisdom, authority and governments to have all the answers and start trusting in God alone that we are like a weaned child who can be still and confident that God will change those things that we cannot.  It is when we stop trying to figure it all out and rest in God’s love and power and grace that we find hope and begin to see a light in the darkness.  Part of what this means is that we have to stop thinking too highly of ourselves.  Father Tim Schenck, an Episcopal Priest, said, when we take ourselves too seriously we commit perhaps humanity’s greatest sin; trusting ourselves rather than God.   This is not only the greatest sin it’s the first sin.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of knowledge it was because they wanted to be like God.  They didn’t want to trust God to care for them, they wanted to do it all for themselves.  Just thinking that they could somehow be like God is absurd, but they took themselves that seriously and chose to follow their own path and the end result was a disaster.

One of the ongoing messages of the Bible and of human history is that when we take ourselves too seriously and follow our own way and not God’s way it is a disaster, but when we are willing to humble ourselves and trust God, God will lift us up.  It is only when God lifts us up that we are then able to see all that God has done for us in the past and when we see this it gives us the ability to trust God to be at work in our lives and in the world and into the future.  It is this trust and humility that leads to gratitude and giving thanks.    
This call to humble ourselves and trust God is an ongoing message in the Psalms of the Ascent.

Psalm 123:1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you sits enthroned in heaven.

Psalm 125:1-2  Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and forever.

Psalm 128:1-2  Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.  You will eat the fruit of your labor, blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Humility and the ability to laugh at ourselves lead us to a life of gratitude because it reminds us that we are not the ones who will change the world.  On our own we cannot stop the violence we see around us or the fear and confusion we feel within us.  We do not have the ability to lift the fear, solve the problems and answer the questions that confront us today, but we don’t have to because ultimately that is not our job – it is God’s.  God is the one who wants to provide the world with hope and fill our lives with joy and all this can and will happen if we will stop taking ourselves so seriously and stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting more fully in God.  

This is what Psalm 126 is trying to tell us, Psalm 126:1-3.  What filled their mouths with laughter and their hearts with joy wasn’t looking back and realizing all that they had done to provide for themselves, it was looking back to see all that God had done for them.  They could even laugh because some of the ways God moved among his people were pretty amazing and absurd and yes even filled with humor.  Think about it, when all hope seemed lost and God’s people had the army of Egypt behind them and the water of the Red Sea in front of them, God parted the waters.  Pretty amazing.
When there was no food in the wilderness and no water to drink, God placed bread on the ground every morning and brought water out of a rock.  Pretty absurd when you think about it and once God even used a talking donkey to get his message out to a prophet and as we all know, talking donkeys are just funny.

Donkey's are funny!

So it was all God and the stories the people shared on the way to Jerusalem each year reminded them that it was always God who provided for them and it would always be God who would care for them.  The Psalms of Ascent told the people that they had to stop trusting in themselves and taking themselves too seriously.  The psalms told them they needed to humble themselves and even laugh at themselves and if they could do this, they would be able to see what God had done on their behalf and be filled with hope and joy at what God would do in their future.  When all of this happened, they would be able to stop and give thanks.  

Humility and humor, this ability to not take ourselves too seriously and laugh at ourselves, leads to gratitude and we can never forget that it was Jesus who played the biggest joke on the world.  When Jesus died on the cross the forces of evil believed they had won.  The Son of God was dead and evil believed they had the upper hand in all the world.  Hope seemed to disappear when Jesus was laid in the tomb and three days later the women went out to sow in tears.  They went to the tomb to do the normal work of preparing Jesus body for an eternal grave in tears but instead of death they found life and returned to the disciples with songs of joy.  Satan thought he had won but the joke was on him because God won and Jesus was alive which tells us that in this world the power of evil will never reign supreme.

The power of ISIS and the forces of evil we see in the world today will never ultimately succeed as long as we as the body of Christ can continue to laugh at ourselves and trust God.  We don’t have the answers to the world’s problems and we can’t lift up humanity to see the power of love and grace given to us in Jesus – but God can and if we will let go and trust God, we can even laugh at the days to come.

So now for some laughter, 10 or 12 years ago I was asked to preach at the opening of the West End Fair in Harleton and since County Fairs are supposed to be fun events I decided to preach on the power of laughter and the importance of not taking ourselves too seriously.  Our worship team and I went out early to set up and as we arrived it started to rain.  Instead of setting us up on the main stage where people would have to sit in the rain, they sent us to the largest shelter they had that could accommodate lots of chairs and people – the Sheep Barn.  Everything was going along just fine until I started to speak, it was then that a little lamb came over to the fence to listen and every time I spoke – he spoke.

All through my sermon on how we can’t take ourselves too seriously this cute little lamb stood there and chimed in.  Forget my words, nothing I said that day was remembered.  The message I thought was going to be so good was completely forgotten and God said to me, Andy don’t take yourself so seriously, I have this covered, and God did.  God provided the perfect message and example of what I was trying to say and all we could do was laugh.  And all I could do was give thanks to God.

Today and in the days to come we may be sowing with tears and sorrow, but joy comes in the morning and laughter comes with the harvest because the power of evil and the forces of darkness and destruction will not win because God has won this battle and God has given us the victory through Jesus Christ and for this we give thanks.


Next Steps
Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Laughing at Ourselves


1. Read Psalm 126 and Psalm 131.


2. Identify 3 or 4 funny moments from your own history.  Share those moments with friends and enjoy a good laugh.


3. Read comics, watch funny TV shows or movies, or find some old comedy sketches online that simply make you laugh.


4. Identify 3 or 4 ways you take yourself too seriously.  Why do you find it so hard to let go and trust God in these situations?


5. Humility will lift us up so we can see what God has done and is doing in our lives.  Where have you seen God work in your life in spite of your own pride and need to be in control?


6. How has God moved in your life in amazing, absurd and astounding ways?   Give thanks to God.


7. Share a joke, story or video that will help someone else laugh this week.


8. To read through all the Psalms of Ascent during this series read Psalm 132 this week.

Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Learning from History

This month we are using the Psalms of the Ascent to help teach us about living lives of gratitude.  The Psalms of the Ascent are the 15 psalms between Psalm 120-134 that were used by the people of Israel on their yearly trips to Jerusalem for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.  It was at these 3 religious celebrations that the people gave thanks for God’s deliverance and provision and so the psalms not only encouraged people on their trips but they prepared the hearts and minds of the people to give thanks when they arrived at the Temple.  Today the psalms still have lessons to teach us about giving thanks and one of the lessons they teach is the need we have to learn from our history.

Maybe you have heard this saying, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana), but just remembering our past or our history isn’t going to help us, we have to learn from it.  Learning goes beyond remembering.  When we remember something we are just calling it to mind, but learning means we take the lessons we have learned and apply them to our lives.  Learning from our past means that we take the truth we uncover and use it to think differently and live differently.  Let me give you an example from my own personal history.

After I graduated from High School I moved around quite a bit.  First I travelled from CT to MI to go to college.  After my sophomore year I went from MI to WY for the summer to work in Yellowstone and the next summer I went to CO to work in the Rockies.  During the first three weeks in any new location I would often call my parents and talk about how miserable I was.  I told them how much I hated being where I was and how I wanted to leave.  This continued through Seminary and even into my first church in Altoona and it was actually during my first few weeks in Altoona when my Mom said to me, Andy, do you realize that your first few weeks in any new location is awful,  but after you get through those weeks, things improve and you have ended up loving everywhere you have been.

When I looked at my own personal history, I had to admit, she was right.  I could remember phone calls from MSU, Yellowstone, Colorado and Duke during my first weeks in those locations and talking about how much I hated each place during those early days, but in the end I loved all those places and all my time there.  

After my Mom pointed out this lesson I began to use it to help me live differently.  When I moved to a new location I would tell myself that transition is hard and I don’t always like new places.  It takes me a while to feel confident and comfortable in what I’m doing, but I always survived and thrived, and I could do it again.  The other thing I learned was what helped me during these times of transition.  I had to give myself time, I had to take care of myself physically and spiritually and I had to build a network of support and friends.  My moves since then have been so much better because I now know those first weeks are always going to feel overwhelming. but they will not destroy me.

To put that experience into the words of the Psalmist, I might have said, If the Lord had not been on my side, the flood would have engulfed me, the torrent would have swept over me and the raging waters would have swept me away.  But God was on my side.  God was my strength and shield and support and with God’s help I was able to make it through.  So I didn’t just remember my past, I learned from it; I took the truth and lessons of those situations and applied them to my life.

This is what we see happening with the Psalms of Ascent.  As the people traveled to Jerusalem, they weren’t just telling stories around a campfire at night to entertain; they were passing on the lessons of history.  Look at Psalm 124:1-5.  Israel had a long history of outside nations attacking them and if the Lord had not been on their side they would have been destroyed.  If we read through the books of Joshua and Judges we hear about many of the battles Israel had to fight as they settled into the Promised Land and in those battles God fought with and for His people.  This is the lesson learned in the battle of Jericho.
After Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land they came up against the fortified city of Jericho.  God told the people to march around the city for six days and then on the seventh day they were to march around with trumpets and torches and at the sound of the trumpets the people were to shout and blow their horns.  When they did this, the walls of Jericho came down.  God delivered the city into their hands.  God fought the battle for them.  Truly, if the Lord had not been on their side the people would have been swallowed alive.

In another battle, a man named Gideon was told by God to march out against a large enemy but first he had to cut down the size of his own army.  Instead of marching into battle with 32,000 men, God had Gideon go into battle with 300 men and when he did, the Lord fought with them and they won.  This wasn’t just a great story to share with children on a long journey; this was a lesson to learn from Israel’s history.  The lesson: we can’t trust our own strength and power - we need to trust God.  The lesson: when God is on our side, we can have the strength and confidence to move forward against all odds.  The stories Israel shared through these psalms were history lessons that gave the people truth and faith to apply to their lives so they could be victorious.

So these psalms show the importance of learning from history.  Whether it is our own personal history, the history of our family, community, nation, faith or world, we need to learn the lessons of history and apply its truth to our lives, but learning from history also teaches us to give thanks because as we look back we also see the hand of God with us and the power and grace of God helping us.  Again, look at Psalm 124:6-8.

Praise be to God.  Give thanks to God because God was with us and God helped us.  History often teaches us to be grateful because when we look back we see how God has helped us.  In my own personal history, as I looked back at those difficult times of transition it was God’s hand that saw me through.  It was God who gave me strength to endure and the support I needed.  If it had not been for God, I don’t know where I would have been, so learning from my own history has helped me give thanks.  My personal history has not only shaped how I live but it has taught me to be thankful because God has always been with me and God has always given me what I needed.

The Psalms of Ascent taught history and they helped the people give thanks.  Hearing their message over and over again on the journey not only shaped how they lived, but it shaped their hearts so that when they arrived in Jerusalem they were ready to say, Thanks Be To God.  The more we learn from history the more grateful we become because we can see God’s grace working in our lives.

And this is true for all of us.  If you are here today it is because God has seen you through some challenging times.  If you are here it is because God’s grace has been there for you when we were feeling beaten down and beaten up by life.  Look at Psalm 123:3-4.  This is often how we feel.  We have endured much.  We have endured contempt and ridicule and heartache and pain.  We have been mistreated and misunderstood and suffered injustice but we are here because of God’s grace and mercy and for this we can give thanks.

Learning from history is important so the question is: How can we learn from history?  

#1.  What lessons have we learn?  As we look back at history, as we went through a financial crisis, the break up or a relationship, the loss of a loved one or the shattering of a dream, what lessons did we learn?  Write them down.  Identify and clarify the truth of what we learned so that we can then move forward and answer this question:

#2.   How can I apply this truth to my life today?  How do we take the lesson we learned and use it to help us in whatever situation we may be facing today?  Maybe the lesson is that we found out we are stronger than we thought we were or that we have more support than we thought we did.  That lesson of knowing we have strength and support can give us what we need to make it through our current situation.  Maybe the lesson is that we need to be patient or less controlling or more trusting?  Maybe the lesson is simply that God is on our side so we can keep going.  Those are all important lessons we can use to shape our lives and in every situation we face there are lessons from the past that we can use to help us make wise decisions today.

#3. Where do I see the hand of God?  As we look back, where do we see the hand of God?  This is important because it is this that leads to gratitude.  If we can see the hand of God at work in our lives it is a cause for giving thanks.  Seeing that God is on our side leads us to say what Israel said, Praise be to the Lord.

But we aren’t just grateful for God being with us, we are grateful for all the people and resources God has given to help us.  Learning from history leads us to give thanks for family and friends, it leads us to give thanks for the jobs we have and the communities we live in.  Learning from history even leads us to give thanks for the challenges we face because we know we will learn something through them and they will make us stronger and more faithful.  So it’s not just God we give thanks for as we learn from history it is all the ways God has helped us and provided for us.  Learning from history leads to a life of gratitude and it shapes us for faithful thankful living.


Next Steps
Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Learning from History


Read Psalm 123 and Psalm 124.

Learning from history and giving thanks calls for us to answer these three questions:

1. What important lessons have you learned in life?
• Write them down.
• Clarify them.
• Share them.

2. How can you apply the truth of these lessons to your life today?

3. Where do you see the hand of God at work in the past?
• Thank God for His presence, power and grace.


This week we celebrate Veterans Day (November 11).
• What lessons can you identify from the battles fought by the United States?
• What lessons can we learn from our Veterans and Active Duty Military?
• How can these lessons help us tackle the problems we face today?
• Give thanks for our Veterans.  Send a note to a Veteran you know to simply say “Thank You”.


To read through all the Psalms of the Ascent (Psalms 120-134) during this series, read Psalms 128 and 129 this week.
What lessons of faith and gratitude do you learn from these psalms?  

Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Listening to Others

Today I’m excited because we are beginning a new series that will help prepare us for the forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is being gobbled up by Christmas (no pun intended) and I don’t mean Christmas as in the celebration of Jesus’ birth, I mean the mad rush to buy all our of our Christmas gifts in a few days of crazy sales.  I heard on the radio this week about stores that were not going to be open on Thursday and I thought, wow, that’s great that they weren’t taking part in this black Friday madness, and then realized, oh wait, they are talking about being closed on Thanksgiving Day.  It used to be the big news was if you were going to be open on Thanksgiving but now it is being closed.  Thanksgiving is being taken over by the shopping madness of Christmas and with it goes our focus of giving thanks.

This month we are going to learn once again how to give thanks and we are going to use a series of Psalms which many believe were written to prepare people to give thanks.  The scriptures are the 15 Psalm between Psalm 120 – 134 and they are known as The Psalms of the Ascent.  We believe these psalms were written to be used by the people of Israel as they made yearly trips to Jerusalem.  Three times each year, faithful Jews were to travel to Jerusalem to worship God – they went to give thanks.  They were to go for the feast of the Passover, where they remembered and gave thanks for God’s deliverance of his people from captivity.  They were to go for the festival of Pentecost which came in the spring at the time of the first fruits so they were thanking God for providing them with food and they were to go for the festival of Tabernacles.  This festival had two meanings, the first was to remember and give thanks for how God had led his people through the wilderness where all they had to live in where temporary shelters or tabernacles, and the second was to give thanks for the harvest because this festival came in the fall.

So three times a year the people of Israel were to leave their homes and travel to Jerusalem to gives thanks to God and no matter where they came from, this journey was a climb because the city of Jerusalem is in the mountains.  Jerusalem sits on what is known as Mount Zion and it is surrounded some slightly higher hills like Mt. Scopus and the Mt of Olives, which is where this classic picture of Jerusalem is taken from.  

It doesn’t matter where you traveled from in all of Israel, the trip to Jerusalem involved a climb or an ascent and because these psalms were used by the people to encourage them on their journey they became known as the Psalms of the Ascent.

As we read the psalms we not only find lessons on gratitude, but we can also see the spiritual journey of God’s people.  That journey begins with Psalm 120:1.  This is where they journey starts and it starts before any physical move is made; it starts when people call on the name of the Lord.  Whether it is good times or bad, any spiritual journey begins when we call on God who hears us and welcomes us.

Psalm 121:1-2.  From calling out to God we now turn and look for God and while it says the people looked to the hills for help, or to Jerusalem, they knew their help wasn’t in the hills or in the city but in the God who the people believed in that city.  By looking to Jerusalem they were looking to God for help.

Psalm 122:1.  Here they prepare for the journey and what we learn is that it is not a solitary trip, it is a trip of families, extended families and even entire communities – Let US go up to the house of the Lord.  And then look at 122:2.  OUR feet are standing in your gates.  And again in Psalm 122:4.  This is where the TRIBES or where all the people gather to praise God.  From this psalm we learn our first lesson in living a life of gratitude, we need to listen to others.  The trip Israel made to Jerusalem was made by families and friends and communities who listened to one another as they made their way and in travelling together and listening to one another on the way, they learned to give thanks.

We are losing the ability to listen to one another today.  Studies show that while we spend 60% of our time listening, we only retain 25% of what we hear.  There are several reasons why we don’t listen well.  One reason is that we have become dependant upon other means of communication like writing and audio and video recording.  If we know we can go back and listen to it again, why do we need to really listen the first time?  It’s also hard to listen in the midst of all the noise that takes place in our world today.  We are bombarded by noise everywhere we go and in the midst of it all it becomes difficult to listen to what is ultimately important.

We also have shorter and shorter attention spans so that instead of listening to complete and complex thoughts and ideas we only listen for the sound bites and only read the pull quotes.  We see this at work in all the political debates we see these days.  We don’t give politicians the time they need to state their plans and positions and when it’s over people just analyze the sound bites.  We are also becoming desensitized to what we hear so that to capture anyone’s attention we need to hear things that are more and more shocking or graphic.  What used to shock us doesn’t anymore which means that we pay less attention to it – we stop listening.

So why is listening to others so important?  It’s important because listening creates understanding.  Listening helps create healthier communities.  Listening helps us solve our problems and grow together and this unity and community pleases God and God’s pleasure brings forth God’s blessing.  Look at Psalm 133.

It pleases God when his people live together in unity.  It is good and pleasing to God when we listen to one another, understand one another and help one another.  When we are willing to live in this kind of community it’s like dew falling in Jerusalem (which remember is a very dry region) which is a blessing and God bestows even more blessings than unity and community, he brings life forevermore.

So it honors God when we listen to one another because the respect we show others in listening unites us and listening to others leads us to a life of gratitude.  One of the great privileges of being a pastor is getting to listen to others and hear the life stories of so many diverse people.  While I was in seminary, I was the chaplain for some low income senior housing and I often went to read the Bible to woman who was blind.  After I would read, she would share stories with me about her life.  She was a descendant of slaves and she told me stories about the night her grandparents or great-grandparents were told that they were finally free.  She talked about the joy and fear they experienced as they left plantations and moved to new communities to live as free men and women.  I was in awe in listening to her family’s story and was so appreciative for the opportunity to know her and share with her.  I was also so thankful for the life I had and that I didn’t have to go through the same struggles and I was grateful that while we still have our problems, slavery was overcome in our nation.  

I have listened to many veterans talk about their time of service and just last year was able to hear from John Leiter Sr. talk about storming the beaches of Normandy.  Again, it was in listening to others that I learned to give thanks for what I had and the time in which I grew up.  I have talked to countless people who survived the depression and listened to my own grandparents talk about all they had to do to get through those difficult days.  Listening to others teaches us to appreciate what we have and it moves us to appreciate those around us even more.  When we hear stories of faith and how God helped others through the past it not only strengthens our faith but it moves us to praise and thank God for who God is and what God has done.

This is what I picture taking place on the journey of God’s people to Jerusalem year after year.  They told stories about how God helped them in the past and those stores where shared with each new generation, and think about the stories they could tell.  Abraham was one of the first to make a journey up Mt. Zion to the area that we call Jerusalem and he went because God told him to go and make a sacrifice of his son Isaac.  Abraham went in faith trusting God to provide and at the very last moment God did provide and spared Isaac by provided a lamb.  Can’t you picture that story being told to young children year after year?

Or the story of Jacob who wrestled with God and we believe that was in the area of Mt. Zion, or all the stories of David who made Jerusalem the city of God and moved the ark of the covenant into the city, and then the stories of Solomon who built the Temple.  So many great stories which all pointed to God and all called for the people to give thanks and praise to God.

Listening to others, really listening to the life stories and faith of others leads us to places of deep gratitude not only for God but for those God has placed in our lives and as we make our journey to thanksgiving we need to take time to listen – to really listen.  As we visit with family and friends we need to listen to stories and gain wisdom.  We need to learn from others and share with others and give thanks together.

While it is getting more difficult to listen these days, we are not teaching people how to listen and there are some things we can do to improve our listening skills and I want to share a few with you.  These come from Julian Treasure in a TED Talk from July 2011 that I encourage you to listen to.  The first thing he says we need is silence.  Each day create 3 minutes of silence.  Maybe it’s in the morning when the children are gone, or sitting at your desk before lunch, or a walk around the block in the afternoon.  Simply find 3 minutes of silence because silence helps us listen better.

Second, learn to identify all the sounds in the midst when you are in a noisy place.  Julian Treasure calls this mixing.  If you are taking a walk, listen for the cars, or the airplanes, or the sound of the wind.  If you are at the mall, identify the music on the PA system, listen to the voices of the people around you and the sounds of people moving.  At work, listen and identify all the different sounds you hear as people come and go.  Being able to identify and name one voice or track in a busy place helps you listen more carefully when you are talking to someone in a crowd.

Third, savor the mundane sounds you hear every day.  Maybe it’s the chimes on the clock in the hall, or the laughter of children in the neighborhood or the wind through the trees or the roar of an engine. For me, I’m going to tune into the coffee pot making coffee each morning while I lie in bed waking up because it is an awesome sound.  

And there is what Treasure calls R.A.S.A. which stands for Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask.  These are standard practices used in good listening skills.  We first need to receive the message and then we need to express our appreciation for the message and the messenger.  Then we summarize what they have said and last, we ask questions to get more information and make sure we have heard the message accurately.  This active listening skill will not only draw more information from people but will make them feel more valuable and important which builds unity and community and causes us all to be grateful.  These four skills can help us listen better and in their own way they also open the door for more gratitude and praise.  

Let me close by saying that we not only need to listen to those people God has placed in our lives but we also need to listen to those who have gone before us.  In Hebrews 12 it talks about this great cloud of witnesses who surround us and these are the saints who have gone before us and they can keep encouraging us but only if we will listen to them.  We need to stop and listen to the advice of our parents and grandparents who are no longer with us but whose lives of faith and words of love still shape us.  What kind of things did they share with us through the years?  What was important to them and what lessons have we learned from them?  The more we listen to them the more grateful we become for them and for their love and influence in our lives.  We named the saints this year from Faith Church and I am thankful for the lessons each of them taught me, lessons about dedication, service, family and faith.  I am grateful for their witness and grateful that God has welcomed them home.  They can still teach me about gratitude.

So as it says in James 1:19, let us be quick to listen.  Let us listen to others so that we can live lives of gratitude.



Next Steps
Living the Life of Gratitude ~ Listening to Others

1. On this All Saints Day, who are the saints who have gone before you that you are grateful for?  What are their lessons of life and faith that you need to listen to this week?  Write them down and share them with others.

2. Read Psalm 122 and Psalm 133.  Reflect on how they encourage us to listen to others.  Identify how listening to others can help you live a life of gratitude on your faith journey.

3. To improve your listening, practice these listening skills.  (Taken from the Julian Treasure TED Talk, July, 2011, available at www.TED.com)

     Create 3 minutes of silence (or quiet) every day.
     Learn to identify all the channels or voices that you hear in a noisy place.
     Savor the mundane sounds you hear every day.  List three sounds you will pay attention to and
                    listen to them each day.
     Practice the good listening skills of RASA
          Receive the message someone is giving
          Appreciate the message and the messenger
          Summarize the message
          Ask questions to clarify

4. To read through all the Psalms of the Ascent during this series, read Psalm 125 and 127 this week.
What lessons of life and faith do you learn from these psalms?
How might they have helped people on their journey to worship God in Jerusalem?
How can they help you?