The Scrappy Sound of Comfort
Children's sermon
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In this week’s lectionary passage from the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Isaiah declares to the exiled Israelites that their “penalty is paid,” and that God will “feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.” It’s a message of comfort to a people wandering in the wilderness -- but it’s also a call to “prepare the way of the Lord, [to] make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” As team member Chris Keating points out in this installment of The Immediate Word, we too yearn for a similar message of comfort and reassurance amidst the world’s never-ending stream of disturbing news. Sometimes that heartening news comes with rough edges that need to be filed down, but if we open our hearts it’s there to be seen all around us. Yet, Chris reminds us, in the context of Advent Isaiah’s prophecy also reminds us of the need to prepare ourselves and our world for the ultimate source of comfort -- the coming into our world of the Christ child.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the enduring appeal of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the story of which reappears every year in popular culture in a variety of guises. Dean theorizes that’s because all of us are like Ebenezer Scrooge -- looking for reassurance and comfort when confronted by scary visions and ghosts. Yet the words of comfort we crave are not to be found in the likes of Jacob Marley but rather in the prophecies of Isaiah... and in the nativity that we are preparing for.
The Scrappy Sound of Comfort
by Chris Keating
Isaiah 40:1-11
There’s an old joke among musicians. A tourist is lost in New York City and asks a musician for directions. “Tell me,” the tourist says, “just how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without breaking stride, the musician keeps walking down the sidewalk as he mutters “Practice, practice, practice.”
That’s something the members of the Dallas Street Choir, whose members are homeless or severely disadvantaged, understand. This past summer, the choir made history by becoming the first group of homeless musicians to perform at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. In a world rippling with ugliness, the ragged yet gritty sound of the choir warmed the hearts of even hardened critics.
It’s a reminder of where practice can lead. But it is also an invitation to discover the promise of Advent. This Sunday as Isaiah takes center stage, he clears his throat, resoundingly declaring “Comfort, O comfort my people.” We yearn for those tidings of comfort and joy.
Isaiah arrives not a moment too soon. Our smartphones bleat out unending stories of crises, scandals, and atrocities. Breaking news has become a metaphor for broken lives, including the cascading downfall of media celebrities, violent shootings, and tensions across the world.
Even the hastily written tax bill might only be somewhat pyrrhic for the Republicans, another reminder of how our nation remains deeply divided.
It’s a year when John the Baptist’s fiery sermons seem tame compared to President Trump’s Twitter storms, and a season when our hearts long for the prophet’s assurance, or even the streetwise sounds of a choir of homeless persons. Isaiah’s pronouncement is a reminder that only God can save us from this mess, and that clinging to Advent hope means now is the time to ready ourselves. It’s time to prepare.
How do you get to Christmas? Practice, practice, practice.
In the News
Members of the Dallas Street Choir understand what practice means. Dedicated efforts propelled the rather rough and tumble ensemble from Texas to Carnegie Hall last summer, becoming the first group of homeless persons to ever perform at the acclaimed venue. For many, it was the first time they had ever been on an airplane, or even out of the state. Like any musical tour, preparations were extensive.
But the obstacles they faced were unique. Getting ready for the tour including scouring for donated clothes, borrowing luggage, and even lining up for free haircuts following rehearsal. Practice for this choir is much more than a rehearsal. It includes lifting homeless persons out of obscure invisibility into the public limelight. It’s a journey, Isaiah might say, which raises them to the highest peaks.
It’s a reminder of the choir’s tagline -- the members may be homeless, but they are certainly not voiceless. Jonathan Palant, an accomplished choral director and music minister, founded the choir in 2014 as a way of connecting with disadvantaged Dallas residents. His enthusiasm, as well as the choir, grew quickly. So far about 1,200 people have participated in more than 8,000 hours of rehearsals.
A video of the group singing Miley Cyrus’ pop hit “The Climb” demonstrates the results of the choir’s efforts. It’s a poignant countermelody to familiar cycle of crass, violent, and typically hopeless news stories clamoring for our attention. Those who have been invisible emerge as empowered, confident leaders.
Videos of the choir provide a healing contrast to the more prominent images splashed across contemporary media. For example, instead of watching a war criminal commit suicide by drinking poison, videos of the choir show eyes filled with hope. Their voices -- rough, raw, and untrained -- announce songs of hope.
According to Palant, what the choir lacks in polished musicianship they more than make up for with passion. Early every Wednesday morning, choir members line up outside the Stewpot, an urban ministry organized by the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. Palant greets every singer with a smile and a fist pump. Clearly, he’s living every choir director’s dream -- leading a choir of members so excited to practice that they are lined up before the doors open.
Essential to the group’s mission is the sort of compassion expressed by Isaiah, a leveling of the rough places, a lifting up of long-ignored valleys, and a reminder of God’s presence with those who have felt abandoned. In a signature video, the choir’s enthusiasm, joy, and confidence is clear.
“I’m in my happy mode when I’m starting to sing,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, who was living on the street and now is in transitional housing. For another member, the choir provides a sense of purpose. “I don’t have to have a roof to be successful,” said Michael Brown.
“It’s a scrappy group,” Palant told a reporter. “I mean, the sound is pretty scrappy, but it’s passionate.” For Palant, the challenge of directing the choir includes teaching rudimentary musicianship skills to people who sleep on sidewalk grates.
He describes it as an electric experience. “You hear the joy in every note that’s sung,” Palant told a reporter. “You hear the street,” he says. “You hear one’s life, you might hear one’s struggle. You hear the hope.”
The struggles, of course, are carried into the rehearsal room. The choir embodies the typical challenges many homeless persons face, including mental illness and substance abuse. But Palant refuses to let those challenges interfere with the choir’s purpose. Individuals who show up to rehearsal intoxicated are not simply shown the door. Instead, they’re approached as individuals, offered a welcome as gracious and comforting as Isaiah’s shepherding of lambs. “Maybe this isn’t your week,” Palant says to them, inviting them to come back the following week. Everyone, he told NBC’s Hoda Kotb, gets not just a second chance, “but a third, and a fourth.”
More than 1,200 homeless persons have been involved with the choir since its inception. Following rehearsal, every participant gets a snack and a bus voucher. Incentives, like McDonald’s gift cards, a new pair of socks, and even two nights in a hotel, encourage attendance. Those aren’t rewards, Palant insists, but are instead earnings that an individual receives in exchange for hard effort and work.
It’s the benefits of practice, practice, practice.
In the Scriptures
Isaiah rushes to the scene like a reporter delivering breaking news. These opening lines from second Isaiah guide us into the hope of Advent, declaring the comfort and forgiveness. Where the first 39 chapters of Isaiah have dictated the judgment that has fallen on Israel, these lines declare a new future. They look beyond the atrocities of exile to a future defined by grace.
The nonstop iteration of bad news has ended. Judgment has been replaced by forgiveness, and a pair of somewhat conflicting images for God. In verses 3-5, God’s glory is manifest by acts of power. Entire landscapes are shifted. Valleys are made into mountains and high places are leveled. The rough and tough streets of the homeless are transformed into the soft and glamourous stage where God’s next act will unfold.
On the other hand, God is a gentle shepherd who tends the sheep with compassion. God draws the sheep near, keeping them safe and carrying them in a protective stance. Hope emerges both with God’s powerful might and in acts of gentleness and vulnerability, perhaps not unlike the birth of child or the rising of a star.
This new thing takes place within the wilderness. The wilderness is a harsh place, a wasteland not widely inhabited. It is place of death, danger, and punishment. Yet the wilderness is a place of refuge. It is in the wilderness that Israel partakes of manna. Later, David will withdraw to the wilderness as he flees from Saul. God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles as a celebration of God’s wilderness provision. The wilderness is, of course, a reminder of homelessness.
Out in the wilderness, a voice of hope emerges. It’s a surprising voice, a scrappy voice, and a voice that has experienced the brutality of life’s raw-edged struggles. Yet this is the voice which brings comfort. This is the voice of Advent, a voice filled with good tidings which dares to sing “Here is your God!”
In the Sermon
There’s little doubt that we are a people walking in deep darkness this Advent. Fears of war, ongoing acts of terrorism, near-nonstop revelations of sexual misconduct, and political scandals and legislative infighting threaten to drown out the good news we proclaim. In comparison, good news stories are relegated to the final moments of newscasts or buried below the fold of the newspaper.
So, like the old threadbare “good news/bad news” jokes, the preacher comes into the pulpit this Sunday looking a bit worn. “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” the preacher declares. “Which do you want to hear first?”
We yearn for good news, and so that’s likely where our preaching instincts will lead us. Listen to the contrasting metaphors and images presented by Deutero-Isaiah, however. This is not some slickly packaged serving of joy. Isaiah’s voice, much like the voices of the Dallas Street Choir, is not finely tuned. It bears the scars of difficulty. It is the voice which has yelled in anguish on the street corner; it is the voice of the mother who has grieved the unjust death of her child; it is the lonely cry of a heroin addict who is afraid. If we listen carefully, Isaiah will empower us to deliver the very scrappy good news of our redemption. It does not arrive with a pretty bow, but instead slips into the world nearly unnoticed. Our hope arrives by way of a mother who found herself inexplicably with child, and a father who is even more puzzled than his betrothed.
A second approach would be to explore how the hope of Isaiah impels our participation in the practices of Advent. To heed John the Baptist’s cry means repenting, turning toward the source of hope. It means elevating the valleys so that all things are visible. What would it be like to lead the church to participate in the lives of homeless persons this Advent? How can we make sure that their voices are heard, so that the breath of the Lord might blow across our lives?
The sermon this Second Sunday of Advent declares the ground of our hope. It arises out of the lived difficulties we have faced in whatever wildernesses we have wandered. It declares the scrappy, and sometimes raw, grace of our God -- saying to us, “Do not fear! Here is your God.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
by Dean Feldmeyer
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
With this year’s debut of the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas, there will be a total of 23 Hollywood films based on Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. I imagine there are at least an equal number of stage versions of the story, and we all have our favorites.
Me, I like the Muppet and the Mister Magoo versions of the story. And I like Scrooge -- the Albert Finney version from 1970, which most people don’t realize garnered a Golden Globe for best actor (Albert Finney) and about a dozen other laurels, including four Oscar nominations.
What can I say? I’m a sucker for musicals.
This year, while I was watching Scrooge and bobbing my foot to the showstopper “Thank You Very Much,” it occurred to me to wonder why we love this story so much. It’s about Christmas, true, but there’s nothing biblical about it in terms of the original Christmas story. There’s no Bethlehem, no star, no wise men or shepherds. And there’s not so much as a mention of Baby Jesus.
Yet for many of us, nothing seems quite as Christmasy as the top hats, longneck scarves, fingerless gloves, and smoggy streets of 19th-century London.
About the time Scrooge woke up with his bedclothes wrapped around his neck and began dancing around and celebrating the fact that it was Christmas Day, it struck me: We love this story -- and truth be told, most Christmas stories -- because we are like Scrooge.
Remember that scene when the ghost of old Jacob Marley comes to visit him? Scrooge is scared out of his wits at the thought of having to carry a huge, heavy chain through eternity as his old business partner must, and then decides that he’s not so scared after all. This experience, he says, might be nothing more than the hallucinations brought on by eating an old potato or a bit of rancid cheese.
Marley erupts into a terrible wailing and moaning that rattles Scrooge to his bones, and the old skinflint falls to the floor at Marley’s feet and the following scene ensues:
Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some 50 or 60 fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.
“Jacob,” he said, imploringly. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”
“I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. “It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.”
And there we have it. We, like Scrooge, want someone to speak comfort to us. We want someone to reassure us and tell us that things are going to be okay. Scrooge implores his old, seven-years-dead business partner to tell him what he wants to hear.
And we, like Scrooge, turn to Charles Dickens to reassure us. We turn to him to speak words of comfort to us.
And no wonder. Look at the world we live in. It’s a mess, right? America has become one giant Jerry Springer show, only the consequences are so much more devastating.
We are on the verge of nuclear war with a country full of starving, disease-ravaged people who are ruled by a lunatic megalomaniac.
Our elected representatives are about to pass a tax bill that will affect virtually every human being in this country for the next ten years, and most of them openly admit that they haven’t read it all.
Men in the government or Hollywood who we have believed and trusted have committed or have been accused of committing sexual improprieties ranging from annoyingly inappropriate behavior to sexual assault and rape.
Surly, mean-spirited, hateful tweets and counter-tweets have replaced civil discourse.
Black Friday registered a record number of single-day gun purchases. Guns and guns and more guns are flooding our country, and the only solution anyone wants to talk about is still more guns so that we can all arm ourselves against each other.
And, as if all that wasn’t sad and serious enough, we need only to recite a list of names to remind us how bad things are: Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. Las Vegas. Aurora, Colorado. Columbine. San Bernardino. Charleston. Orlando. Sutherland Springs, Texas.
We look pleadingly to our government for some kind of assurance, and what we get is chaos. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni says that the daily afternoon White House press briefing typifies what we can expect from the government: “For some 20 minutes every afternoon, down is up, paralysis is progress, enmity is harmony, stupid is smart, villain is victim, disgrace is honor, plutocracy is populism, and Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia.”
We turn to megachurches for some comfort, and what we get is one televangelist telling us that God wants us to be rich and another telling just that God wants us to send our money to him.
We turn to business for words of comfort, and, well, I’ll go back to Dickens for that one:
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
We are famished, strung out, and jonesing for words of reassurance, for tidings of comfort and joy -- so in desperation we turn to Hollywood for a quick celluloid fix.
And it’s fun, for a little while.
It feels good to see that miracle happen on 34th Street. It’s sweet and comforting to spend an hour having a Christmas in Connecticut. It’s rich and filling to hear our favorite country music stars sing “Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Let it Snow.”
But we all know that these are temporary substitutes, hardly the real thing, and we hear Jacob Marley speaking not just to Ebenezer Scrooge but to us as well when we ask Hollywood to speak comfort to us: “I have none to give.... It comes from other regions... and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.”
Perhaps this is Dickens’ nod to scripture. Perhaps this is his subtle reference to the angels bringing words of comfort and assurance to the shepherds on that night of nights:
“Be not afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy for unto you is born, this day, in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
For it is not from the silver screens of Hollywood, nor in the flower-strewn, glittering halls of telechurches, nor in the glass towers of business, nor in the smoke-filled back rooms of politics that our words of comfort and salvation come. They come from God. They come from the Lord God of history who is made known to us in Jesus Christ. They come from that babe -- tiny, defenseless, powerless, dependent, and lovely -- lying in a manger.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Isaiah 40:1-11
Your Penalty Has Been Paid
The prophet Isaiah calls out a word of mercy from God, proclaiming to the people of Israel that they have served their term, that their penalty is paid. A group of investors has been making Isaiah’s words come to life for people who are in jail and can’t pay their bail money. “At any one time in this country, about 450,000 people are behind bars awaiting trial, and the vast majority of these people -- five out of six -- are there simply because they cannot afford the bail a judge has set.”
One of those people was Dorothy Hinton-Adams, who was arrested for allegedly stealing a can of peanuts. The judge set bail at $500. “No bail bond company would help her, so Hinton-Adams, 71, was forced to stay in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta until her court date. ‘After the 15th day, I got kind of panicky,’ Hinton-Adams said. ‘So I asked around how I could find out if I had a court date. There was a lady in there who wrote down my name and booking number.’ That night, a stranger appeared and paid the $500 to bail out Hinton-Adams. Hinton-Adams is among some 60 women across the South freed during Black Mamas Bail-Out, a coordinated, monthlong effort in May by the grassroots group Southerners on New Ground to highlight the injustice of cash bail and its disproportionate impact on women of color and LGBTQ women.”
People who are paying bail money are investing in stability in their communities. Being in jail, awaiting trial, can mean the loss of a job, and that can mean the loss of transportation, your children, and even your home. For people like Ms. Hinton-Adams, “who has felt the sharp end of America’s dependence on cash bail, [a change in the system] can’t come soon enough. Five days after being bailed out of Fulton County Jail, she still didn’t have a court date, so she went down to the county courthouse to inquire. They sent her next door, to the state courthouse. There, Hinton-Adams learned the charges against her had been dismissed; her record expunged. It was proof, she said, of what she’d known all along: ‘I should’ve just been let out.’ ”
People paying bail money for others accused of small crimes are bringing Isaiah’s good news to life in a tangible way.
*****
Isaiah 40:1-11
Reversals in the Classroom
Isaiah promises that, in God’s world, “every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” The Baltimore schools are practicing that kind of reversal. Educator Jay Gillen works with the Baltimore Algebra Project, “which uses math literacy as a way to teach and encourage political organizing. Its immediate aim is to show students that efforts to learn math do serve their interests. One measure of success: Students use math skills developed in Algebra Project classrooms to teach other students. In the past ten years, their student-run tutoring co-op has earned more than $2 million. The Baltimore Algebra Project’s ultimate goal is to serve as a kind of ‘mini-society’ in which students address systemic educational problems. Students begin by putting demands on themselves -- come on time, pay attention, put effort into learning. Then they can make credible demands on their peers, the ‘beginning of political action.’ Thus prepared, students go beyond the classroom to make demands on the larger society.” Math is a tool for intellectual curiosity, discipline, and mastery. “Given freedom to address difference and inequality, young people ‘step into history,’ a concept that links the Baltimore Algebra Project with the organizing tradition of Bob Moses and Ella Baker. Gillen presents the Algebra Project’s students as the latest in an ongoing freedom struggle tracing back to fugitive slaves and to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the civil rights era.”
Algebra teaches the kids to see themselves, and their place in a poor city and a minority community, in new ways, just as Isaiah teaches us to see the world in new ways, taking on God’s vision.
*****
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
Announcements of a Better World
Both the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist announce the news that God is coming into the world to turn things upside-down. The Yes Men make similar topsy-turvy announcements, using modern-day media. In 2005, “Dow Chemical ‘spokesman’ Jude Finisterra appeared on the BBC to make an astonishing announcement: His company, now parent to Union Carbide, would mark the 20th anniversary of the lethal gas leak in Bhopal, India, which killed 20,000 and injured 120,000, by paying out $12 billion to the survivors -- ‘simply because it is the right thing to do.’ Unbelievable? Sure it was. Within a few hours, Finisterra had been unmasked as an impostor, while the real Dow quickly reiterated that it wouldn’t give a single rupee to the people of Bhopal -- cementing its reputation as a corporate grinch.” The Yes Men made the announcement that Isaiah and John the Baptist might have made, and exposed the continuing injustice at the heart of the disaster.
The Yes Men have set up websites that look like corporate sites at first glance. A little digging on the part of the media would reveal the real source -- but they note, with some sympathy, that the people in the media don’t have the time to do thorough research. Corporate views become “news” in the same way. The Yes Men say: “The people of Bhopal have been trying for 20 years to get someone to listen. It was less about it being funny and more about being the only kind of action we could think of that would get into the media. Typically, we haven’t been in the business of suggesting alternatives. In the case of the Dow statement, Andy did suggest an alternative -- paying out $12 billion in damages. That is exactly what Dow should do. Of course, everyone applauded and agreed with it -- except Dow.” Isaiah and John have passed on their legacy of truth-telling to the Yes Men.
*****
Mark 1:1-8
The Genuine Article
Listen for the sound of the genuine, advised theologian Howard Thurman in a commencement address. No one knew that better than John the Baptist, who cuts quite a figure out there in the desert in his camel’s hair garb and his spare diet. Thurman said: “There is something in every one of you that waits, listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself, and if you cannot hear it, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching, and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born.... There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself, and sometimes there is so much traffic going on in your minds, so many different kinds of signals, so many vast impulses floating through your organism that go back thousands of generations, long before you were even a thought in the mind of creation, and you are buffeted by these, and in the midst of all of this you have got to find out what your name is.... The sound of the genuine is flowing through you.”
John the Baptist understands this better than almost anyone else. The sound of the genuine runs through everything he says and everything he does to point toward Jesus.
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From team member Ron Love:
(The major themes outlined in this week’s lectionary readings are: comfort; proclamation; shepherding; promises/covenant; patience; redemption; restoration/reconciliation; forgiveness; obedience/faithfulness; baptism; Holy Spirit; second coming.)
Proclamation
A former Baptist who now attends my Methodist church was once on the search committee for the local church she attended in her previous denomination. After attending the worship service of a potential candidate, she would tell the committee: “As this pastor was on his way to the seminary he made a wrong turn and went to the cemetery. That was one of the deadest sermons I ever heard.” (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: When we proclaim the gospel message, we are to do it with such enthusiasm that the congregation comes to life.
*****
Proclamation
When I was an Army chaplain representing the United Methodist Church (and more generally Protestants), I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Though I was assigned to a field hospital unit, I did have a several conversations with the instructors at the jump school who trained soldiers to become parachutists. They told me that 30 feet was the height most feared to jump from. Anything below that, you knew you could survive; a height above that and you knew you would perish. But 30 feet was in that gray area of the unknown, making it a fearful height. So to assist the trainees in overcoming their fear, the training began at 30 feet. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: When it comes to sharing the gospel message, we must overcome our fears, our feelings of inadequacy, and jump at the opportunities before us.
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Obedience
When I was an Army chaplain, I participated in winter field maneuvers in the mountains of West Virginia. With snow on the ground, to say it was freezing cold would be an understatement. At night, for sleeping, we were given extraordinarily efficient sleeping bags that looked like a cocoon. You could completely zip your body up in their warmth, but you had to leave your face exposed. In that sub-zero cold you wanted to zip your face inside that bag as well -- but to do so could mean frostbite and even death. If one’s face was zipped inside the bag, water particles formed from one’s breathing would collect inside the bag and on the body, causing a severe drop in body temperature. As difficult as it was, you had to exercise the discipline that you were taught to keep your face exposed. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: It is difficult to remain obedient when disobedience seems much more attractive and comfortable.
*****
Obedience
I recently had lunch with the coach of the track team at our local high school. He said when most students try out for the team they don’t know the difference between running and racing. They don’t realize that racing means being out of breath to the point that your lungs burn, and it means having that awful pain in your side caused by an overworked diaphragm. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: Being obedient to the Lord often requires more than we at first understand.
*****
Shepherding
I recently had lunch with the assistant coach of the football team at our local high school. He said you can immediately tell who is a truly natural athlete with the ability to play the game. Most of the other boys on the team will never be true athletes, and the coach considers it is his responsibility to inform them of that fact. He tells these players that practice will make them better, but that they will never be truly natural athletes. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We will never be the shepherd that Jesus was, but with practice and determination we can emulate Jesus.
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Proclamation
In February, former President George W. Bush said that the media is “indispensable to democracy,” a break from the position of President Donald Trump, who has called the press “the enemy of the American people.” Bush told Matt Lauer, anchor of NBC’s Today show: “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We need the media to hold people like me to account.” Bush went on to say: “I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.” This statement was to chastise Trump and his insistence that newspapers only report “fake news.” But in October 2003, then-President Bush said he does not read newspapers. In an interview with Fox News anchor Brit Hume, Bush was asked how he gets his news. Bush answered that he relied on briefings by chief of staff Andrew Card and national security affairs adviser Condoleeza Rice. He walked into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asked Card: “What’s in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what’s moving,” Bush said, adding that “I rarely read the stories.” Instead, the president continued, he gets “briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves.” Bush went on to say he didn’t read newspapers because he feels the newspapers are tilted in one direction and are not necessarily reliable. One must question how much separation there is between considering newspapers “fake news” and refusing to read newspapers.
Application: When we share the gospel message, we must do so as informed citizens.
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Proclamation
Pope Francis recently visited Myanmar, in what is generally considered to be the most politically difficult foreign visit during his papacy. In Myanmar, the minority Islamic community in the state of Rohingya is being persecuted by the Buddhist majority. The Muslims have been stripped of their citizenship, denying them government services and the ability to travel freely about the country. Many Muslims have fled the country and are now refugees. “Rohingya” is a volatile word in the predominantly Buddhist country. The pope was cautioned not to use the word in his speech, out of fear it would incite violence against the Muslims and also cause a backlash of persecution on the small population of Roman Catholics who reside in the country. The pope agreed to refrain from using the word, only to receive international criticism for doing so. But the pope has a history of respecting his host country. One way he does this is to avoid inflammatory language. But in his speech Francis made it clear, without specifically mentioning the Muslims, that the persecution must cease. Pope Francis said: “The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity.” Francis went on to say that respect for the rule of law and democratic order “enables each individual and every group -- none excluded -- to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good.”
Application: When we proclaim the word of the Lord, at times we may have to be diplomatic -- but that should never impede our speaking of the truth.
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Restoration/Reconciliation
Pope Francis recently visited Myanmar, in what is generally considered to be the most politically difficult foreign visit during his papacy. In a speech Francis made it clear, without specifically mentioning Muslims experiencing discrimination in the state of Rohingya, that the persecution must cease. Pope Francis called for “respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity.” The Russian ambassador to Myanmar, Nikolay Listopadoy, said that criticism coming from the press and human rights organizations is because their expectations were too high. Listopadoy said, “They usually expect some miracles. But even the pope can’t just produce a miracle right now.”
Application: Reconciling communities that harbor hate is a difficult task, but one we are called to be engaged in.
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Proclamation
In an editorial recently published in the Daily Beast, EPA director Scott Pruitt was challenged for misusing the Bible for self-serving purposes. Pruitt declared that any scientist who received a government grant could not sit on an EPA review board. Quoting Joshua 24:15, Pruitt said that “you are going to have to choose either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or you can choose grants, but you cannot do both. That’s the fair and great thing to do.” Unfortunately, according to journalist Jay Michaelson, that means the only scientists that can sit on EPA committee review board are scientists who are employed by industry and manufacturing companies. And the EPA is supposed to protect the public from abuse by these institutions. Pruitt also failed to acknowledge that those who receive government grants are employed by universities that have a strong peer review process.
Application: When we share the biblical message, we must be sure that our interpretation is accurate.
*****
Comfort
Candida Moss is a biblical scholar and a contributing writer to the Daily Beast. In a recent article she outlined the falsehood of Roy Moore’s scriptural attacks on his female accusers. Moore has denounced the women who’ve accused him of sexual harassment and sexual assault as liars who are only putting forth “mere allegations.” Moss said that this defense is generally true for all of society, because “the problem isn’t just that the women of the Bible are generally presented as temptresses, whores, and chattel; it is that they are also depicted as liars.” Moss then went on to discuss Eve, Dalilah and the daughters of Lot. Moss noted that for many prominent men in the Bible, such as Noah, the names of their wives are never even mentioned. Moss concluded that for evangelical Christians this presents a reason to marginalize and dehumanize women, and reinforces the idea that women need the protection and heavy-handed spiritual guidance of men. Moss concluded: “Modern religious communities that cherry-pick the scriptures that support existing systems of power bring the dark chauvinism of the ancient world into the present.”
Application: Women will never know the words “Comfort, O comfort my people” until they are treated with equality.
*****
Shepherding
Solanus Casey, a Detroit priest, has recently been elevated in the Roman Catholic Church as “blessed.” If a second miracle can be attribute to Father Solanus, he is eligible to become a saint. A native of Oak Grove, Wisconsin, Father Solanus joined the Capuchin Franciscan religious order in Detroit in 1897 and was ordained a priest seven years later. But there were conditions: Because of academic struggles, he was prohibited from giving homilies at Mass and couldn’t hear confessions. Father Solanus accepted this restriction because he realized that it would not limit his ministry. He served for 20 years in New York City and nearby Yonkers before the Capuchins transferred him back to the St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit in 1924. Wearing a traditional brown-hooded robe and sandals, Father Solanus worked as a porter or doorkeeper for the next two decades, but his reputation for holiness far exceeded his modest title. The unemployed shared their anxieties with Father Solanus, the parents of wayward kids sought his advice, and the ill and addicted asked him to urge God to heal them. As he listened, he took notes that were later turned into typewritten volumes of his work. Later in life, when Father Solanus was stationed at a seminary in Huntington, Indiana, Detroiters boarded buses for a four-hour ride just to see the man with a wispy white beard. Mail piled up from across the country. In 1929, Father Solanus co-founded the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which serves up to 2,000 meals a day in Detroit.
Application: If we are sincere and dedicated, nothing can prevent us from having a shepherding ministry.
*****
Holy Spirit
In a recent Peanuts comic, the very independent and outspoken Lucy is standing in her living room literally screaming for all to hear: “It’s my life and I’ll do whatever I want with it! I’m my own person! It’s my life, and I’m the one who has to live it!” Then, with a sheepish grin on her face, and in a very small and quiet voice, Lucy says, “With a little help.”
Application: The Holy Spirit is present with us to help us live our lives.
*****
Reconciliation
In the Ziggy comic, the title character is non-descript with a big nose, someone who represents everyone and everybody in their struggles with the daily adversities of life. In a recent comic Ziggy is standing at an open front door saying good-night on a first date. The lady is standing in the doorway, and as Ziggy sheepishly looks on he listens to her say, “It was a wonderful evening, Ziggy, let’s not spoil it by seeing each other again.”
Application: Reconciliation can be a difficult and cumbersome process.
*****
Reconciliation
Pope Francis has always been concerned about the plight of the poor and how we must care for them using all the resources available to us. The pope has also been concerned about the number of countries that have refused to accept refugees, and are passing laws that prevent the acceptance of refugees. The pope said, “Some consider this a threat. For my part, I ask you to view it with confidence as an opportunity to build peace.” He said countries should develop “policies of welcome.” The pope also suggested that less wealthy countries could take in more refugees if the international community provided the necessary funds.
Application: We live in a global community in which everyone must be treated humanely and with respect.
*****
Restoration
Recently Interpol arrested 40 individuals, mostly women, who were involved in human trafficking. During this process the agents were able to rescue 240 minors. The young girls, most of whom came from impoverished African nations, were promised a better life, only to be sold into slavery and prostitution. France, which participated in the operation, issued a statement that the suspected traffickers had “little to no regard for working conditions or human life.”
Application: If we continue our social witness against sin, we can restore the lives of those who have been oppressed.
*****
Restoration
After a 37-year reign in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has been forced out of office. When he first became president in 1980, he was hailed as a hero for ending white-minority rule in the nation. But in the ensuing decades the president became more of a dictator, committing an unending list of human rights violations and accumulating a vast amount of wealth at the expense of helping the citizens he pledged to support. The final act that brought Mugabe down was the firing of his vice-president Emmerson Minangagwa, who had to flee the country so Mugabe’s wife Grace, 45 years his junior, could become the next president. Minangagwa, upon returning to the country and being appointed as the transitional president, said in his inaugural speech: “We dare not squander the moment.” Minangagwa has sought a “new Zimbabwe,” in which he challenged the people: “We must work together. You, me, all of us who make up this nation.”
Application: It can be difficult, but in whatever situation we find ourselves there is the possibility to be a part of a “new Zimbabwe.”
*****
Proclamation
Recently more than 2,000 students got free admission into the Chicago production of Hamilton: An American. The students had been accepted to Northwestern University, and as a part of their college introduction they received tickets to a performance of the play. The purpose for attending the popular musical was to increase the students’ understanding of history, art, drama, culture, and politics. This practice is not being limited to Northwestern; other universities are providing the same opportunity. Some of the colleges and universities are even offering credit and non-credit classes on the play to enforce learning. Nancy Cuniff, a director at Northwestern, said that having all the incoming students share the same theatrical experience creates a common point for discussion in the classroom. Cuniff went on to say: “Our approach has been to find different access points.”
Application: As we preach the gospel message, we are to find as many common access points as possible to facilitate discussion and understanding.
*****
Redemption
Joseph Chamblin was lost, and then he was found. In 2011, Chamblin was lost. He was a staff sergeant in the United States Marines and one of the four snipers court-martialed for urinating on the fresh corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. In 2016, Chamblin was found. He was dating Laura Buckingham, well known for having appeared on the cover of Southern Indiana Living with her son. It was a son whom she wanted sole custody of from her previous relationship with Brad Sutherland. The best way to be assured of having sole custody was to have Sutherland dead. Knowing that Chamblin was a former Marine sniper, she approached her new boyfriend to accomplish the task. At first Chamblin did not think she was serious, but her persistence in the matter convinced him otherwise. That is when he began to secretly tape their conversations. Chamblin then took the tapes to the police. With the cooperation of the police, Chamblin told Buckingham that he would not execute Sutherland but that he would introduce her to someone who would. With her son frolicking in the back of the room, Buckingham paid an undercover police officer $3,000 to murder Sutherland. Buckingham was subsequently arrested. In Tennessee, Deputy Sheriff Tim Phillips applauds the Marine for preventing certain bloodshed. The Roane County sheriff said: “If she had gone to another source, they may have been able to complete this particular mission.” The Washington Post reported that this story might be considered as Chamblin’s act of redemption.
Application: Redemption can restore a life and provide the individual with new meaning and purpose.
*****
Shepherding
Several months ago the New York Times told the story of Vijay Mallya, of New Delhi, India, who called himself the King of Good Times. And the multi-billionaire was. He made his fortune in the beer and airline industries. He hobnobbed with the rich and famous. He had several lavish homes and hosted magnificent parties. He was proud of the swimsuit calendar he published each year. Mallya was the King of Good Times because he used other people’s money. When India faced financial ruin, the banks lowered their requirements for receiving loans. Mallya used this opportunity to transform his Kingfisher Airlines from an economy transport to one of luxury. This resulted in bankruptcy. And the King of Good Times left India with $1.5 billion in unpaid bills.
Application: You must choose to be either the King of Good Times or a shepherd. You cannot be both.
*****
Shepherding
The use of allegory was most common style of preaching in the first four centuries of the church. Allegory is when you take the characters and events in a story and use them to symbolize something else. In the parable of the good Samaritan, many of the church fathers used each character and event in the story that Jesus told to represent the ministry of Jesus himself. The best example we have of this as it relates to the parable of the good Samaritan is a sermon preached by Origen. Origen was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and lived from 185 to 254. He is considered by some the first theologian of stature in the church. He wrote a sermon on almost every verse in the entire Bible. Origen’s exegetical interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan reads as follows: “The man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is paradise, Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers. The priest is the law, the Levite the prophet, and the Samaritan is Christ. The wounds are disobedience. The beast is the Lord’s body. The stable which accepts all who enter is the church. The two denarii mean the Father and the Son. The manager of the stable is the head of the church, to whom care has been entrusted. The fact that the Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior’s second coming.” Origen succinctly summarized that Christ was compassionate, as represented by the Samaritan; took the sins of all people, represented by Adam, to the inn, which is the church; where all will be accepted and forgiven until Christ returns at his final coming. The robbers are representative of the Satanic powers that are conquered by Christ. The priest and Levite are representative of the law and prophets of Judaism, which Christ has fulfilled. This parable, for Origen, chronicles the entire ministry and mission of Jesus.
Application:
Origen clearly saw, as we do today, that Jesus is our shepherd. Let us use that as a calling to be a shepherd unto others.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Leader: Faithfulness will spring up from the ground.
People: Righteousness will look down from the sky.
Leader: God will give what is good.
People: Our land will yield its increase.
OR
Leader: Prepare, for God is coming to us!
People: We wait for God’s advent with joy.
Leader: God is coming to set the world right.
People: We will join God is working for righteousness.
Leader: The whole world waits for God’s entrance.
People: We will prepare the way of our God!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“People, Look East”
found in:
UMH: 202
PH: 12
CH: 142
ELA: 248
W&P: 161
STLT: 226
“Emmanuel, Emmanuel”
found in:
UMH: 204
AAHH: 189
NNBH: 98
CH: 134
W&P: 178
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
“Seek Ye First”
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Savior of the Nations, Come”
found in:
UMH: 214
PH: 14
LBW: 28
ELA: 263
W&P: 168
“Take Time to Be Holy”
found in:
UMH: 395
NNBH: 306
CH: 572
W&P: 483
AMEC: 286
“Open Our Eyes, Lord”
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
“Refiner’s Fire”
found in:
CCB: 79
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who comes to us in surprising ways: Grant us the wisdom to discern your good news
that comes in the very midst of our bad news; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We offer you our praise, O God, for you come to us with good news. You often surprise us in the ways in which you announce what you are doing in our midst. Help us not to be so surprised that we don’t work to help your aims come to fruition. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reluctance to join in God’s works of redemption.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that you are coming to bring heaven down to earth, but we seem to be content to just wait. We fail to use the time to do the works of justice, mercy, and righteousness that you call us to do. We do not offer to the world a sense of expectation of things getting better. We have forsaken your kingdom and have resigned ourselves to life being as it is. Forgive us, and renew us with a sense of joyous expectation for what you are doing in, among, and through us. Amen.
Leader: God is at work and welcomes us into that work. Receive God’s grace and love, and join in the new world God is creating.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are coming to bring redemption to your world. You are not content to allow us to dwell in brokenness, but bring us healing and wholeness.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that you are coming to bring heaven down to earth, but we seem to be content to just wait. We fail to use the time to do the works of justice, mercy, and righteousness that you call us to do. We do not offer to the world a sense of expectation of things getting better. We have forsaken your kingdom and have resigned ourselves to life being as it is. Forgive us, and renew us with a sense of joyous expectation for what you are doing in, among, and through us.
We give you thanks for all the blessings you have bestowed upon us. We thank you for the anticipation of this season, and we await with joy the coming of Jesus into our world once again.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We remember those who have lost hope and do not see a better world ahead of us. We remember those have forgotten or who have never believed in a God who redeems. We pray for those whose hope has been crushed by the cruelty of their lives.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Are you waiting for Christmas? Is it easy to wait. When we just sit and wait, the time seems to go very slowly. When we are busy, the time goes faster. It also helps get things ready for what is coming. God is coming, and we don’t just wait -- we help by being kind and sharing with others.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Ready to Go
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
Items needed:
A small suitcase or bag, with some things in it that are appropriate for taking on a trip and some things that aren’t. (I have a rubber chicken that I bring out from time to time for the children’s message. His name is Curtis, and he would definitely be included as an inappropriate item!)
Good morning. So, are you ready for Christmas? Ready to dive into those presents? Ready to see what Santa brought you?
Yeah, me too. But we have to wait, right?
Waiting is hard, isn’t it? Adults call it “having patience.” I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t have much patience, especially at Christmas. I want it to get here... SO... BAD!
But I have to wait, so I decided to pretend that I’m on a trip, going to meet Jesus at Christmas. This is my suitcase, and I packed it with stuff to take on my trip to Christmas. Would you all help me go through this stuff and tell me if you think it would help me get ready for meeting Jesus at Christmas?
Okay, great. Let’s see what I’ve got here.
Here is a pillow so I can sleep and be well rested when I meet Jesus. Good idea or bad idea?
And here is a book to read when I get bored waiting -- and, oh look, it’s about the first Christmas and baby Jesus. Good choice? Yeah, I think so too.
Let’s see what else I have. CURTIS! What are you doing in here? You can’t go to meet Jesus as Christmas. This is serious and important.
Oh, here’s some soap and a washcloth so I can wash myself and be clean and present my best self when I meet Jesus at Christmas.
You know, the Bible tells us that we are to wait patiently -- but that doesn’t mean we have to be idle, to just sit around and do nothing. In fact, we are supposed to be doing stuff while we wait. We are supposed to present our best selves to Jesus when he comes.
And the best way to do that is to do what he told us to do. Love one another. If we do that, it won’t matter what our clothing looks like or how pretty we are -- because to God, we will look beautiful.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 10, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the enduring appeal of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the story of which reappears every year in popular culture in a variety of guises. Dean theorizes that’s because all of us are like Ebenezer Scrooge -- looking for reassurance and comfort when confronted by scary visions and ghosts. Yet the words of comfort we crave are not to be found in the likes of Jacob Marley but rather in the prophecies of Isaiah... and in the nativity that we are preparing for.
The Scrappy Sound of Comfort
by Chris Keating
Isaiah 40:1-11
There’s an old joke among musicians. A tourist is lost in New York City and asks a musician for directions. “Tell me,” the tourist says, “just how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without breaking stride, the musician keeps walking down the sidewalk as he mutters “Practice, practice, practice.”
That’s something the members of the Dallas Street Choir, whose members are homeless or severely disadvantaged, understand. This past summer, the choir made history by becoming the first group of homeless musicians to perform at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. In a world rippling with ugliness, the ragged yet gritty sound of the choir warmed the hearts of even hardened critics.
It’s a reminder of where practice can lead. But it is also an invitation to discover the promise of Advent. This Sunday as Isaiah takes center stage, he clears his throat, resoundingly declaring “Comfort, O comfort my people.” We yearn for those tidings of comfort and joy.
Isaiah arrives not a moment too soon. Our smartphones bleat out unending stories of crises, scandals, and atrocities. Breaking news has become a metaphor for broken lives, including the cascading downfall of media celebrities, violent shootings, and tensions across the world.
Even the hastily written tax bill might only be somewhat pyrrhic for the Republicans, another reminder of how our nation remains deeply divided.
It’s a year when John the Baptist’s fiery sermons seem tame compared to President Trump’s Twitter storms, and a season when our hearts long for the prophet’s assurance, or even the streetwise sounds of a choir of homeless persons. Isaiah’s pronouncement is a reminder that only God can save us from this mess, and that clinging to Advent hope means now is the time to ready ourselves. It’s time to prepare.
How do you get to Christmas? Practice, practice, practice.
In the News
Members of the Dallas Street Choir understand what practice means. Dedicated efforts propelled the rather rough and tumble ensemble from Texas to Carnegie Hall last summer, becoming the first group of homeless persons to ever perform at the acclaimed venue. For many, it was the first time they had ever been on an airplane, or even out of the state. Like any musical tour, preparations were extensive.
But the obstacles they faced were unique. Getting ready for the tour including scouring for donated clothes, borrowing luggage, and even lining up for free haircuts following rehearsal. Practice for this choir is much more than a rehearsal. It includes lifting homeless persons out of obscure invisibility into the public limelight. It’s a journey, Isaiah might say, which raises them to the highest peaks.
It’s a reminder of the choir’s tagline -- the members may be homeless, but they are certainly not voiceless. Jonathan Palant, an accomplished choral director and music minister, founded the choir in 2014 as a way of connecting with disadvantaged Dallas residents. His enthusiasm, as well as the choir, grew quickly. So far about 1,200 people have participated in more than 8,000 hours of rehearsals.
A video of the group singing Miley Cyrus’ pop hit “The Climb” demonstrates the results of the choir’s efforts. It’s a poignant countermelody to familiar cycle of crass, violent, and typically hopeless news stories clamoring for our attention. Those who have been invisible emerge as empowered, confident leaders.
Videos of the choir provide a healing contrast to the more prominent images splashed across contemporary media. For example, instead of watching a war criminal commit suicide by drinking poison, videos of the choir show eyes filled with hope. Their voices -- rough, raw, and untrained -- announce songs of hope.
According to Palant, what the choir lacks in polished musicianship they more than make up for with passion. Early every Wednesday morning, choir members line up outside the Stewpot, an urban ministry organized by the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. Palant greets every singer with a smile and a fist pump. Clearly, he’s living every choir director’s dream -- leading a choir of members so excited to practice that they are lined up before the doors open.
Essential to the group’s mission is the sort of compassion expressed by Isaiah, a leveling of the rough places, a lifting up of long-ignored valleys, and a reminder of God’s presence with those who have felt abandoned. In a signature video, the choir’s enthusiasm, joy, and confidence is clear.
“I’m in my happy mode when I’m starting to sing,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, who was living on the street and now is in transitional housing. For another member, the choir provides a sense of purpose. “I don’t have to have a roof to be successful,” said Michael Brown.
“It’s a scrappy group,” Palant told a reporter. “I mean, the sound is pretty scrappy, but it’s passionate.” For Palant, the challenge of directing the choir includes teaching rudimentary musicianship skills to people who sleep on sidewalk grates.
He describes it as an electric experience. “You hear the joy in every note that’s sung,” Palant told a reporter. “You hear the street,” he says. “You hear one’s life, you might hear one’s struggle. You hear the hope.”
The struggles, of course, are carried into the rehearsal room. The choir embodies the typical challenges many homeless persons face, including mental illness and substance abuse. But Palant refuses to let those challenges interfere with the choir’s purpose. Individuals who show up to rehearsal intoxicated are not simply shown the door. Instead, they’re approached as individuals, offered a welcome as gracious and comforting as Isaiah’s shepherding of lambs. “Maybe this isn’t your week,” Palant says to them, inviting them to come back the following week. Everyone, he told NBC’s Hoda Kotb, gets not just a second chance, “but a third, and a fourth.”
More than 1,200 homeless persons have been involved with the choir since its inception. Following rehearsal, every participant gets a snack and a bus voucher. Incentives, like McDonald’s gift cards, a new pair of socks, and even two nights in a hotel, encourage attendance. Those aren’t rewards, Palant insists, but are instead earnings that an individual receives in exchange for hard effort and work.
It’s the benefits of practice, practice, practice.
In the Scriptures
Isaiah rushes to the scene like a reporter delivering breaking news. These opening lines from second Isaiah guide us into the hope of Advent, declaring the comfort and forgiveness. Where the first 39 chapters of Isaiah have dictated the judgment that has fallen on Israel, these lines declare a new future. They look beyond the atrocities of exile to a future defined by grace.
The nonstop iteration of bad news has ended. Judgment has been replaced by forgiveness, and a pair of somewhat conflicting images for God. In verses 3-5, God’s glory is manifest by acts of power. Entire landscapes are shifted. Valleys are made into mountains and high places are leveled. The rough and tough streets of the homeless are transformed into the soft and glamourous stage where God’s next act will unfold.
On the other hand, God is a gentle shepherd who tends the sheep with compassion. God draws the sheep near, keeping them safe and carrying them in a protective stance. Hope emerges both with God’s powerful might and in acts of gentleness and vulnerability, perhaps not unlike the birth of child or the rising of a star.
This new thing takes place within the wilderness. The wilderness is a harsh place, a wasteland not widely inhabited. It is place of death, danger, and punishment. Yet the wilderness is a place of refuge. It is in the wilderness that Israel partakes of manna. Later, David will withdraw to the wilderness as he flees from Saul. God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles as a celebration of God’s wilderness provision. The wilderness is, of course, a reminder of homelessness.
Out in the wilderness, a voice of hope emerges. It’s a surprising voice, a scrappy voice, and a voice that has experienced the brutality of life’s raw-edged struggles. Yet this is the voice which brings comfort. This is the voice of Advent, a voice filled with good tidings which dares to sing “Here is your God!”
In the Sermon
There’s little doubt that we are a people walking in deep darkness this Advent. Fears of war, ongoing acts of terrorism, near-nonstop revelations of sexual misconduct, and political scandals and legislative infighting threaten to drown out the good news we proclaim. In comparison, good news stories are relegated to the final moments of newscasts or buried below the fold of the newspaper.
So, like the old threadbare “good news/bad news” jokes, the preacher comes into the pulpit this Sunday looking a bit worn. “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” the preacher declares. “Which do you want to hear first?”
We yearn for good news, and so that’s likely where our preaching instincts will lead us. Listen to the contrasting metaphors and images presented by Deutero-Isaiah, however. This is not some slickly packaged serving of joy. Isaiah’s voice, much like the voices of the Dallas Street Choir, is not finely tuned. It bears the scars of difficulty. It is the voice which has yelled in anguish on the street corner; it is the voice of the mother who has grieved the unjust death of her child; it is the lonely cry of a heroin addict who is afraid. If we listen carefully, Isaiah will empower us to deliver the very scrappy good news of our redemption. It does not arrive with a pretty bow, but instead slips into the world nearly unnoticed. Our hope arrives by way of a mother who found herself inexplicably with child, and a father who is even more puzzled than his betrothed.
A second approach would be to explore how the hope of Isaiah impels our participation in the practices of Advent. To heed John the Baptist’s cry means repenting, turning toward the source of hope. It means elevating the valleys so that all things are visible. What would it be like to lead the church to participate in the lives of homeless persons this Advent? How can we make sure that their voices are heard, so that the breath of the Lord might blow across our lives?
The sermon this Second Sunday of Advent declares the ground of our hope. It arises out of the lived difficulties we have faced in whatever wildernesses we have wandered. It declares the scrappy, and sometimes raw, grace of our God -- saying to us, “Do not fear! Here is your God.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
by Dean Feldmeyer
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
With this year’s debut of the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas, there will be a total of 23 Hollywood films based on Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. I imagine there are at least an equal number of stage versions of the story, and we all have our favorites.
Me, I like the Muppet and the Mister Magoo versions of the story. And I like Scrooge -- the Albert Finney version from 1970, which most people don’t realize garnered a Golden Globe for best actor (Albert Finney) and about a dozen other laurels, including four Oscar nominations.
What can I say? I’m a sucker for musicals.
This year, while I was watching Scrooge and bobbing my foot to the showstopper “Thank You Very Much,” it occurred to me to wonder why we love this story so much. It’s about Christmas, true, but there’s nothing biblical about it in terms of the original Christmas story. There’s no Bethlehem, no star, no wise men or shepherds. And there’s not so much as a mention of Baby Jesus.
Yet for many of us, nothing seems quite as Christmasy as the top hats, longneck scarves, fingerless gloves, and smoggy streets of 19th-century London.
About the time Scrooge woke up with his bedclothes wrapped around his neck and began dancing around and celebrating the fact that it was Christmas Day, it struck me: We love this story -- and truth be told, most Christmas stories -- because we are like Scrooge.
Remember that scene when the ghost of old Jacob Marley comes to visit him? Scrooge is scared out of his wits at the thought of having to carry a huge, heavy chain through eternity as his old business partner must, and then decides that he’s not so scared after all. This experience, he says, might be nothing more than the hallucinations brought on by eating an old potato or a bit of rancid cheese.
Marley erupts into a terrible wailing and moaning that rattles Scrooge to his bones, and the old skinflint falls to the floor at Marley’s feet and the following scene ensues:
Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some 50 or 60 fathoms of iron cable: but he could see nothing.
“Jacob,” he said, imploringly. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”
“I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. “It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.”
And there we have it. We, like Scrooge, want someone to speak comfort to us. We want someone to reassure us and tell us that things are going to be okay. Scrooge implores his old, seven-years-dead business partner to tell him what he wants to hear.
And we, like Scrooge, turn to Charles Dickens to reassure us. We turn to him to speak words of comfort to us.
And no wonder. Look at the world we live in. It’s a mess, right? America has become one giant Jerry Springer show, only the consequences are so much more devastating.
We are on the verge of nuclear war with a country full of starving, disease-ravaged people who are ruled by a lunatic megalomaniac.
Our elected representatives are about to pass a tax bill that will affect virtually every human being in this country for the next ten years, and most of them openly admit that they haven’t read it all.
Men in the government or Hollywood who we have believed and trusted have committed or have been accused of committing sexual improprieties ranging from annoyingly inappropriate behavior to sexual assault and rape.
Surly, mean-spirited, hateful tweets and counter-tweets have replaced civil discourse.
Black Friday registered a record number of single-day gun purchases. Guns and guns and more guns are flooding our country, and the only solution anyone wants to talk about is still more guns so that we can all arm ourselves against each other.
And, as if all that wasn’t sad and serious enough, we need only to recite a list of names to remind us how bad things are: Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. Las Vegas. Aurora, Colorado. Columbine. San Bernardino. Charleston. Orlando. Sutherland Springs, Texas.
We look pleadingly to our government for some kind of assurance, and what we get is chaos. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni says that the daily afternoon White House press briefing typifies what we can expect from the government: “For some 20 minutes every afternoon, down is up, paralysis is progress, enmity is harmony, stupid is smart, villain is victim, disgrace is honor, plutocracy is populism, and Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia.”
We turn to megachurches for some comfort, and what we get is one televangelist telling us that God wants us to be rich and another telling just that God wants us to send our money to him.
We turn to business for words of comfort, and, well, I’ll go back to Dickens for that one:
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
We are famished, strung out, and jonesing for words of reassurance, for tidings of comfort and joy -- so in desperation we turn to Hollywood for a quick celluloid fix.
And it’s fun, for a little while.
It feels good to see that miracle happen on 34th Street. It’s sweet and comforting to spend an hour having a Christmas in Connecticut. It’s rich and filling to hear our favorite country music stars sing “Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Let it Snow.”
But we all know that these are temporary substitutes, hardly the real thing, and we hear Jacob Marley speaking not just to Ebenezer Scrooge but to us as well when we ask Hollywood to speak comfort to us: “I have none to give.... It comes from other regions... and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.”
Perhaps this is Dickens’ nod to scripture. Perhaps this is his subtle reference to the angels bringing words of comfort and assurance to the shepherds on that night of nights:
“Be not afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy for unto you is born, this day, in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
For it is not from the silver screens of Hollywood, nor in the flower-strewn, glittering halls of telechurches, nor in the glass towers of business, nor in the smoke-filled back rooms of politics that our words of comfort and salvation come. They come from God. They come from the Lord God of history who is made known to us in Jesus Christ. They come from that babe -- tiny, defenseless, powerless, dependent, and lovely -- lying in a manger.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Isaiah 40:1-11
Your Penalty Has Been Paid
The prophet Isaiah calls out a word of mercy from God, proclaiming to the people of Israel that they have served their term, that their penalty is paid. A group of investors has been making Isaiah’s words come to life for people who are in jail and can’t pay their bail money. “At any one time in this country, about 450,000 people are behind bars awaiting trial, and the vast majority of these people -- five out of six -- are there simply because they cannot afford the bail a judge has set.”
One of those people was Dorothy Hinton-Adams, who was arrested for allegedly stealing a can of peanuts. The judge set bail at $500. “No bail bond company would help her, so Hinton-Adams, 71, was forced to stay in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta until her court date. ‘After the 15th day, I got kind of panicky,’ Hinton-Adams said. ‘So I asked around how I could find out if I had a court date. There was a lady in there who wrote down my name and booking number.’ That night, a stranger appeared and paid the $500 to bail out Hinton-Adams. Hinton-Adams is among some 60 women across the South freed during Black Mamas Bail-Out, a coordinated, monthlong effort in May by the grassroots group Southerners on New Ground to highlight the injustice of cash bail and its disproportionate impact on women of color and LGBTQ women.”
People who are paying bail money are investing in stability in their communities. Being in jail, awaiting trial, can mean the loss of a job, and that can mean the loss of transportation, your children, and even your home. For people like Ms. Hinton-Adams, “who has felt the sharp end of America’s dependence on cash bail, [a change in the system] can’t come soon enough. Five days after being bailed out of Fulton County Jail, she still didn’t have a court date, so she went down to the county courthouse to inquire. They sent her next door, to the state courthouse. There, Hinton-Adams learned the charges against her had been dismissed; her record expunged. It was proof, she said, of what she’d known all along: ‘I should’ve just been let out.’ ”
People paying bail money for others accused of small crimes are bringing Isaiah’s good news to life in a tangible way.
*****
Isaiah 40:1-11
Reversals in the Classroom
Isaiah promises that, in God’s world, “every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” The Baltimore schools are practicing that kind of reversal. Educator Jay Gillen works with the Baltimore Algebra Project, “which uses math literacy as a way to teach and encourage political organizing. Its immediate aim is to show students that efforts to learn math do serve their interests. One measure of success: Students use math skills developed in Algebra Project classrooms to teach other students. In the past ten years, their student-run tutoring co-op has earned more than $2 million. The Baltimore Algebra Project’s ultimate goal is to serve as a kind of ‘mini-society’ in which students address systemic educational problems. Students begin by putting demands on themselves -- come on time, pay attention, put effort into learning. Then they can make credible demands on their peers, the ‘beginning of political action.’ Thus prepared, students go beyond the classroom to make demands on the larger society.” Math is a tool for intellectual curiosity, discipline, and mastery. “Given freedom to address difference and inequality, young people ‘step into history,’ a concept that links the Baltimore Algebra Project with the organizing tradition of Bob Moses and Ella Baker. Gillen presents the Algebra Project’s students as the latest in an ongoing freedom struggle tracing back to fugitive slaves and to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the civil rights era.”
Algebra teaches the kids to see themselves, and their place in a poor city and a minority community, in new ways, just as Isaiah teaches us to see the world in new ways, taking on God’s vision.
*****
Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
Announcements of a Better World
Both the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist announce the news that God is coming into the world to turn things upside-down. The Yes Men make similar topsy-turvy announcements, using modern-day media. In 2005, “Dow Chemical ‘spokesman’ Jude Finisterra appeared on the BBC to make an astonishing announcement: His company, now parent to Union Carbide, would mark the 20th anniversary of the lethal gas leak in Bhopal, India, which killed 20,000 and injured 120,000, by paying out $12 billion to the survivors -- ‘simply because it is the right thing to do.’ Unbelievable? Sure it was. Within a few hours, Finisterra had been unmasked as an impostor, while the real Dow quickly reiterated that it wouldn’t give a single rupee to the people of Bhopal -- cementing its reputation as a corporate grinch.” The Yes Men made the announcement that Isaiah and John the Baptist might have made, and exposed the continuing injustice at the heart of the disaster.
The Yes Men have set up websites that look like corporate sites at first glance. A little digging on the part of the media would reveal the real source -- but they note, with some sympathy, that the people in the media don’t have the time to do thorough research. Corporate views become “news” in the same way. The Yes Men say: “The people of Bhopal have been trying for 20 years to get someone to listen. It was less about it being funny and more about being the only kind of action we could think of that would get into the media. Typically, we haven’t been in the business of suggesting alternatives. In the case of the Dow statement, Andy did suggest an alternative -- paying out $12 billion in damages. That is exactly what Dow should do. Of course, everyone applauded and agreed with it -- except Dow.” Isaiah and John have passed on their legacy of truth-telling to the Yes Men.
*****
Mark 1:1-8
The Genuine Article
Listen for the sound of the genuine, advised theologian Howard Thurman in a commencement address. No one knew that better than John the Baptist, who cuts quite a figure out there in the desert in his camel’s hair garb and his spare diet. Thurman said: “There is something in every one of you that waits, listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself, and if you cannot hear it, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching, and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born.... There is in you something that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself, and sometimes there is so much traffic going on in your minds, so many different kinds of signals, so many vast impulses floating through your organism that go back thousands of generations, long before you were even a thought in the mind of creation, and you are buffeted by these, and in the midst of all of this you have got to find out what your name is.... The sound of the genuine is flowing through you.”
John the Baptist understands this better than almost anyone else. The sound of the genuine runs through everything he says and everything he does to point toward Jesus.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
(The major themes outlined in this week’s lectionary readings are: comfort; proclamation; shepherding; promises/covenant; patience; redemption; restoration/reconciliation; forgiveness; obedience/faithfulness; baptism; Holy Spirit; second coming.)
Proclamation
A former Baptist who now attends my Methodist church was once on the search committee for the local church she attended in her previous denomination. After attending the worship service of a potential candidate, she would tell the committee: “As this pastor was on his way to the seminary he made a wrong turn and went to the cemetery. That was one of the deadest sermons I ever heard.” (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: When we proclaim the gospel message, we are to do it with such enthusiasm that the congregation comes to life.
*****
Proclamation
When I was an Army chaplain representing the United Methodist Church (and more generally Protestants), I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Though I was assigned to a field hospital unit, I did have a several conversations with the instructors at the jump school who trained soldiers to become parachutists. They told me that 30 feet was the height most feared to jump from. Anything below that, you knew you could survive; a height above that and you knew you would perish. But 30 feet was in that gray area of the unknown, making it a fearful height. So to assist the trainees in overcoming their fear, the training began at 30 feet. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: When it comes to sharing the gospel message, we must overcome our fears, our feelings of inadequacy, and jump at the opportunities before us.
*****
Obedience
When I was an Army chaplain, I participated in winter field maneuvers in the mountains of West Virginia. With snow on the ground, to say it was freezing cold would be an understatement. At night, for sleeping, we were given extraordinarily efficient sleeping bags that looked like a cocoon. You could completely zip your body up in their warmth, but you had to leave your face exposed. In that sub-zero cold you wanted to zip your face inside that bag as well -- but to do so could mean frostbite and even death. If one’s face was zipped inside the bag, water particles formed from one’s breathing would collect inside the bag and on the body, causing a severe drop in body temperature. As difficult as it was, you had to exercise the discipline that you were taught to keep your face exposed. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: It is difficult to remain obedient when disobedience seems much more attractive and comfortable.
*****
Obedience
I recently had lunch with the coach of the track team at our local high school. He said when most students try out for the team they don’t know the difference between running and racing. They don’t realize that racing means being out of breath to the point that your lungs burn, and it means having that awful pain in your side caused by an overworked diaphragm. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: Being obedient to the Lord often requires more than we at first understand.
*****
Shepherding
I recently had lunch with the assistant coach of the football team at our local high school. He said you can immediately tell who is a truly natural athlete with the ability to play the game. Most of the other boys on the team will never be true athletes, and the coach considers it is his responsibility to inform them of that fact. He tells these players that practice will make them better, but that they will never be truly natural athletes. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We will never be the shepherd that Jesus was, but with practice and determination we can emulate Jesus.
*****
Proclamation
In February, former President George W. Bush said that the media is “indispensable to democracy,” a break from the position of President Donald Trump, who has called the press “the enemy of the American people.” Bush told Matt Lauer, anchor of NBC’s Today show: “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We need the media to hold people like me to account.” Bush went on to say: “I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.” This statement was to chastise Trump and his insistence that newspapers only report “fake news.” But in October 2003, then-President Bush said he does not read newspapers. In an interview with Fox News anchor Brit Hume, Bush was asked how he gets his news. Bush answered that he relied on briefings by chief of staff Andrew Card and national security affairs adviser Condoleeza Rice. He walked into the Oval Office in the morning, Bush said, and asked Card: “What’s in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what’s moving,” Bush said, adding that “I rarely read the stories.” Instead, the president continued, he gets “briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves.” Bush went on to say he didn’t read newspapers because he feels the newspapers are tilted in one direction and are not necessarily reliable. One must question how much separation there is between considering newspapers “fake news” and refusing to read newspapers.
Application: When we share the gospel message, we must do so as informed citizens.
*****
Proclamation
Pope Francis recently visited Myanmar, in what is generally considered to be the most politically difficult foreign visit during his papacy. In Myanmar, the minority Islamic community in the state of Rohingya is being persecuted by the Buddhist majority. The Muslims have been stripped of their citizenship, denying them government services and the ability to travel freely about the country. Many Muslims have fled the country and are now refugees. “Rohingya” is a volatile word in the predominantly Buddhist country. The pope was cautioned not to use the word in his speech, out of fear it would incite violence against the Muslims and also cause a backlash of persecution on the small population of Roman Catholics who reside in the country. The pope agreed to refrain from using the word, only to receive international criticism for doing so. But the pope has a history of respecting his host country. One way he does this is to avoid inflammatory language. But in his speech Francis made it clear, without specifically mentioning the Muslims, that the persecution must cease. Pope Francis said: “The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity.” Francis went on to say that respect for the rule of law and democratic order “enables each individual and every group -- none excluded -- to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good.”
Application: When we proclaim the word of the Lord, at times we may have to be diplomatic -- but that should never impede our speaking of the truth.
*****
Restoration/Reconciliation
Pope Francis recently visited Myanmar, in what is generally considered to be the most politically difficult foreign visit during his papacy. In a speech Francis made it clear, without specifically mentioning Muslims experiencing discrimination in the state of Rohingya, that the persecution must cease. Pope Francis called for “respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity.” The Russian ambassador to Myanmar, Nikolay Listopadoy, said that criticism coming from the press and human rights organizations is because their expectations were too high. Listopadoy said, “They usually expect some miracles. But even the pope can’t just produce a miracle right now.”
Application: Reconciling communities that harbor hate is a difficult task, but one we are called to be engaged in.
*****
Proclamation
In an editorial recently published in the Daily Beast, EPA director Scott Pruitt was challenged for misusing the Bible for self-serving purposes. Pruitt declared that any scientist who received a government grant could not sit on an EPA review board. Quoting Joshua 24:15, Pruitt said that “you are going to have to choose either service on the committee to provide counsel to us in an independent fashion or you can choose grants, but you cannot do both. That’s the fair and great thing to do.” Unfortunately, according to journalist Jay Michaelson, that means the only scientists that can sit on EPA committee review board are scientists who are employed by industry and manufacturing companies. And the EPA is supposed to protect the public from abuse by these institutions. Pruitt also failed to acknowledge that those who receive government grants are employed by universities that have a strong peer review process.
Application: When we share the biblical message, we must be sure that our interpretation is accurate.
*****
Comfort
Candida Moss is a biblical scholar and a contributing writer to the Daily Beast. In a recent article she outlined the falsehood of Roy Moore’s scriptural attacks on his female accusers. Moore has denounced the women who’ve accused him of sexual harassment and sexual assault as liars who are only putting forth “mere allegations.” Moss said that this defense is generally true for all of society, because “the problem isn’t just that the women of the Bible are generally presented as temptresses, whores, and chattel; it is that they are also depicted as liars.” Moss then went on to discuss Eve, Dalilah and the daughters of Lot. Moss noted that for many prominent men in the Bible, such as Noah, the names of their wives are never even mentioned. Moss concluded that for evangelical Christians this presents a reason to marginalize and dehumanize women, and reinforces the idea that women need the protection and heavy-handed spiritual guidance of men. Moss concluded: “Modern religious communities that cherry-pick the scriptures that support existing systems of power bring the dark chauvinism of the ancient world into the present.”
Application: Women will never know the words “Comfort, O comfort my people” until they are treated with equality.
*****
Shepherding
Solanus Casey, a Detroit priest, has recently been elevated in the Roman Catholic Church as “blessed.” If a second miracle can be attribute to Father Solanus, he is eligible to become a saint. A native of Oak Grove, Wisconsin, Father Solanus joined the Capuchin Franciscan religious order in Detroit in 1897 and was ordained a priest seven years later. But there were conditions: Because of academic struggles, he was prohibited from giving homilies at Mass and couldn’t hear confessions. Father Solanus accepted this restriction because he realized that it would not limit his ministry. He served for 20 years in New York City and nearby Yonkers before the Capuchins transferred him back to the St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit in 1924. Wearing a traditional brown-hooded robe and sandals, Father Solanus worked as a porter or doorkeeper for the next two decades, but his reputation for holiness far exceeded his modest title. The unemployed shared their anxieties with Father Solanus, the parents of wayward kids sought his advice, and the ill and addicted asked him to urge God to heal them. As he listened, he took notes that were later turned into typewritten volumes of his work. Later in life, when Father Solanus was stationed at a seminary in Huntington, Indiana, Detroiters boarded buses for a four-hour ride just to see the man with a wispy white beard. Mail piled up from across the country. In 1929, Father Solanus co-founded the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which serves up to 2,000 meals a day in Detroit.
Application: If we are sincere and dedicated, nothing can prevent us from having a shepherding ministry.
*****
Holy Spirit
In a recent Peanuts comic, the very independent and outspoken Lucy is standing in her living room literally screaming for all to hear: “It’s my life and I’ll do whatever I want with it! I’m my own person! It’s my life, and I’m the one who has to live it!” Then, with a sheepish grin on her face, and in a very small and quiet voice, Lucy says, “With a little help.”
Application: The Holy Spirit is present with us to help us live our lives.
*****
Reconciliation
In the Ziggy comic, the title character is non-descript with a big nose, someone who represents everyone and everybody in their struggles with the daily adversities of life. In a recent comic Ziggy is standing at an open front door saying good-night on a first date. The lady is standing in the doorway, and as Ziggy sheepishly looks on he listens to her say, “It was a wonderful evening, Ziggy, let’s not spoil it by seeing each other again.”
Application: Reconciliation can be a difficult and cumbersome process.
*****
Reconciliation
Pope Francis has always been concerned about the plight of the poor and how we must care for them using all the resources available to us. The pope has also been concerned about the number of countries that have refused to accept refugees, and are passing laws that prevent the acceptance of refugees. The pope said, “Some consider this a threat. For my part, I ask you to view it with confidence as an opportunity to build peace.” He said countries should develop “policies of welcome.” The pope also suggested that less wealthy countries could take in more refugees if the international community provided the necessary funds.
Application: We live in a global community in which everyone must be treated humanely and with respect.
*****
Restoration
Recently Interpol arrested 40 individuals, mostly women, who were involved in human trafficking. During this process the agents were able to rescue 240 minors. The young girls, most of whom came from impoverished African nations, were promised a better life, only to be sold into slavery and prostitution. France, which participated in the operation, issued a statement that the suspected traffickers had “little to no regard for working conditions or human life.”
Application: If we continue our social witness against sin, we can restore the lives of those who have been oppressed.
*****
Restoration
After a 37-year reign in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has been forced out of office. When he first became president in 1980, he was hailed as a hero for ending white-minority rule in the nation. But in the ensuing decades the president became more of a dictator, committing an unending list of human rights violations and accumulating a vast amount of wealth at the expense of helping the citizens he pledged to support. The final act that brought Mugabe down was the firing of his vice-president Emmerson Minangagwa, who had to flee the country so Mugabe’s wife Grace, 45 years his junior, could become the next president. Minangagwa, upon returning to the country and being appointed as the transitional president, said in his inaugural speech: “We dare not squander the moment.” Minangagwa has sought a “new Zimbabwe,” in which he challenged the people: “We must work together. You, me, all of us who make up this nation.”
Application: It can be difficult, but in whatever situation we find ourselves there is the possibility to be a part of a “new Zimbabwe.”
*****
Proclamation
Recently more than 2,000 students got free admission into the Chicago production of Hamilton: An American. The students had been accepted to Northwestern University, and as a part of their college introduction they received tickets to a performance of the play. The purpose for attending the popular musical was to increase the students’ understanding of history, art, drama, culture, and politics. This practice is not being limited to Northwestern; other universities are providing the same opportunity. Some of the colleges and universities are even offering credit and non-credit classes on the play to enforce learning. Nancy Cuniff, a director at Northwestern, said that having all the incoming students share the same theatrical experience creates a common point for discussion in the classroom. Cuniff went on to say: “Our approach has been to find different access points.”
Application: As we preach the gospel message, we are to find as many common access points as possible to facilitate discussion and understanding.
*****
Redemption
Joseph Chamblin was lost, and then he was found. In 2011, Chamblin was lost. He was a staff sergeant in the United States Marines and one of the four snipers court-martialed for urinating on the fresh corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. In 2016, Chamblin was found. He was dating Laura Buckingham, well known for having appeared on the cover of Southern Indiana Living with her son. It was a son whom she wanted sole custody of from her previous relationship with Brad Sutherland. The best way to be assured of having sole custody was to have Sutherland dead. Knowing that Chamblin was a former Marine sniper, she approached her new boyfriend to accomplish the task. At first Chamblin did not think she was serious, but her persistence in the matter convinced him otherwise. That is when he began to secretly tape their conversations. Chamblin then took the tapes to the police. With the cooperation of the police, Chamblin told Buckingham that he would not execute Sutherland but that he would introduce her to someone who would. With her son frolicking in the back of the room, Buckingham paid an undercover police officer $3,000 to murder Sutherland. Buckingham was subsequently arrested. In Tennessee, Deputy Sheriff Tim Phillips applauds the Marine for preventing certain bloodshed. The Roane County sheriff said: “If she had gone to another source, they may have been able to complete this particular mission.” The Washington Post reported that this story might be considered as Chamblin’s act of redemption.
Application: Redemption can restore a life and provide the individual with new meaning and purpose.
*****
Shepherding
Several months ago the New York Times told the story of Vijay Mallya, of New Delhi, India, who called himself the King of Good Times. And the multi-billionaire was. He made his fortune in the beer and airline industries. He hobnobbed with the rich and famous. He had several lavish homes and hosted magnificent parties. He was proud of the swimsuit calendar he published each year. Mallya was the King of Good Times because he used other people’s money. When India faced financial ruin, the banks lowered their requirements for receiving loans. Mallya used this opportunity to transform his Kingfisher Airlines from an economy transport to one of luxury. This resulted in bankruptcy. And the King of Good Times left India with $1.5 billion in unpaid bills.
Application: You must choose to be either the King of Good Times or a shepherd. You cannot be both.
*****
Shepherding
The use of allegory was most common style of preaching in the first four centuries of the church. Allegory is when you take the characters and events in a story and use them to symbolize something else. In the parable of the good Samaritan, many of the church fathers used each character and event in the story that Jesus told to represent the ministry of Jesus himself. The best example we have of this as it relates to the parable of the good Samaritan is a sermon preached by Origen. Origen was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and lived from 185 to 254. He is considered by some the first theologian of stature in the church. He wrote a sermon on almost every verse in the entire Bible. Origen’s exegetical interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan reads as follows: “The man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is paradise, Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers. The priest is the law, the Levite the prophet, and the Samaritan is Christ. The wounds are disobedience. The beast is the Lord’s body. The stable which accepts all who enter is the church. The two denarii mean the Father and the Son. The manager of the stable is the head of the church, to whom care has been entrusted. The fact that the Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior’s second coming.” Origen succinctly summarized that Christ was compassionate, as represented by the Samaritan; took the sins of all people, represented by Adam, to the inn, which is the church; where all will be accepted and forgiven until Christ returns at his final coming. The robbers are representative of the Satanic powers that are conquered by Christ. The priest and Levite are representative of the law and prophets of Judaism, which Christ has fulfilled. This parable, for Origen, chronicles the entire ministry and mission of Jesus.
Application:
Origen clearly saw, as we do today, that Jesus is our shepherd. Let us use that as a calling to be a shepherd unto others.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Leader: Faithfulness will spring up from the ground.
People: Righteousness will look down from the sky.
Leader: God will give what is good.
People: Our land will yield its increase.
OR
Leader: Prepare, for God is coming to us!
People: We wait for God’s advent with joy.
Leader: God is coming to set the world right.
People: We will join God is working for righteousness.
Leader: The whole world waits for God’s entrance.
People: We will prepare the way of our God!
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“People, Look East”
found in:
UMH: 202
PH: 12
CH: 142
ELA: 248
W&P: 161
STLT: 226
“Emmanuel, Emmanuel”
found in:
UMH: 204
AAHH: 189
NNBH: 98
CH: 134
W&P: 178
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
“Seek Ye First”
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Savior of the Nations, Come”
found in:
UMH: 214
PH: 14
LBW: 28
ELA: 263
W&P: 168
“Take Time to Be Holy”
found in:
UMH: 395
NNBH: 306
CH: 572
W&P: 483
AMEC: 286
“Open Our Eyes, Lord”
found in:
CCB: 77
Renew: 91
“Refiner’s Fire”
found in:
CCB: 79
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who comes to us in surprising ways: Grant us the wisdom to discern your good news
that comes in the very midst of our bad news; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We offer you our praise, O God, for you come to us with good news. You often surprise us in the ways in which you announce what you are doing in our midst. Help us not to be so surprised that we don’t work to help your aims come to fruition. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reluctance to join in God’s works of redemption.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that you are coming to bring heaven down to earth, but we seem to be content to just wait. We fail to use the time to do the works of justice, mercy, and righteousness that you call us to do. We do not offer to the world a sense of expectation of things getting better. We have forsaken your kingdom and have resigned ourselves to life being as it is. Forgive us, and renew us with a sense of joyous expectation for what you are doing in, among, and through us. Amen.
Leader: God is at work and welcomes us into that work. Receive God’s grace and love, and join in the new world God is creating.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for you are coming to bring redemption to your world. You are not content to allow us to dwell in brokenness, but bring us healing and wholeness.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that you are coming to bring heaven down to earth, but we seem to be content to just wait. We fail to use the time to do the works of justice, mercy, and righteousness that you call us to do. We do not offer to the world a sense of expectation of things getting better. We have forsaken your kingdom and have resigned ourselves to life being as it is. Forgive us, and renew us with a sense of joyous expectation for what you are doing in, among, and through us.
We give you thanks for all the blessings you have bestowed upon us. We thank you for the anticipation of this season, and we await with joy the coming of Jesus into our world once again.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We remember those who have lost hope and do not see a better world ahead of us. We remember those have forgotten or who have never believed in a God who redeems. We pray for those whose hope has been crushed by the cruelty of their lives.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Are you waiting for Christmas? Is it easy to wait. When we just sit and wait, the time seems to go very slowly. When we are busy, the time goes faster. It also helps get things ready for what is coming. God is coming, and we don’t just wait -- we help by being kind and sharing with others.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Ready to Go
by Dean Feldmeyer
2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8
Items needed:
A small suitcase or bag, with some things in it that are appropriate for taking on a trip and some things that aren’t. (I have a rubber chicken that I bring out from time to time for the children’s message. His name is Curtis, and he would definitely be included as an inappropriate item!)
Good morning. So, are you ready for Christmas? Ready to dive into those presents? Ready to see what Santa brought you?
Yeah, me too. But we have to wait, right?
Waiting is hard, isn’t it? Adults call it “having patience.” I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t have much patience, especially at Christmas. I want it to get here... SO... BAD!
But I have to wait, so I decided to pretend that I’m on a trip, going to meet Jesus at Christmas. This is my suitcase, and I packed it with stuff to take on my trip to Christmas. Would you all help me go through this stuff and tell me if you think it would help me get ready for meeting Jesus at Christmas?
Okay, great. Let’s see what I’ve got here.
Here is a pillow so I can sleep and be well rested when I meet Jesus. Good idea or bad idea?
And here is a book to read when I get bored waiting -- and, oh look, it’s about the first Christmas and baby Jesus. Good choice? Yeah, I think so too.
Let’s see what else I have. CURTIS! What are you doing in here? You can’t go to meet Jesus as Christmas. This is serious and important.
Oh, here’s some soap and a washcloth so I can wash myself and be clean and present my best self when I meet Jesus at Christmas.
You know, the Bible tells us that we are to wait patiently -- but that doesn’t mean we have to be idle, to just sit around and do nothing. In fact, we are supposed to be doing stuff while we wait. We are supposed to present our best selves to Jesus when he comes.
And the best way to do that is to do what he told us to do. Love one another. If we do that, it won’t matter what our clothing looks like or how pretty we are -- because to God, we will look beautiful.
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The Immediate Word, December 10, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
