Do you like to look at Christmas lights? We do. Our family loves to go to the Toledo Zoo every year and look at the Christmas lights, they have over one million lights. Every since Cheri was a little girl she loved to get in the car and go drive around and look at Christmas lights. They fill Cheri with wonder. Kurt loves to sit in our darkened living room and see our brightly lit Christmas tree bathe our Nativity sets in light.
There is something magical about those lights. Cheri’s not crazy about the mechanical displays with all the Santa’s and stuff like that. She is more of a purist, cringing at Kurt’s mechanical Bengals player on the lawn (most years) and the various Star Wars, Star Trek & sports ornaments on the tree. Cheri likes the lights in the trees that fill the night sky. The kind that take your breath away. She loves driving along a dark highway in the winter and coming upon a lone farm house that is covered with Christmas lights, proclaiming the joy of the season. It just kind of sneaks up on us both, and brings a big smile to our faces. Even when we’re tired, driving home at the end of a long trip, it brings us such joy. The word awesome truly describes the moment.
Do you have experiences like this, that take your breath away, and fill you with joy? Moments that truly fill you with awe, joy, and reverence and a sense of something way beyond yourself? There are some experiences in this world that are truly awesome. They are the things that take our breath away. They stop us dead in our tracks, and tell us: yes, there is a God.
Can you think of some examples? Seeing the birth of a child, yours or someone else’s. Experiencing generosity or sincere kindness from a stranger or giving it. Being forgiven for something really bad, when we really don’t feel like we deserve to be forgiven . There are experiences that stop us, and tell us, this world is bigger than me. And in those moments, we are grateful that there is a God, who created this world, and whose love is the most powerful force in the world. It is a power that we cannot control, we cannot explain, but we must simply sit and be awed by. We believe that if we are not awed by the power of God in the world, that we really must not be paying attention.
I love the story in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:46-55 for those reading along on the web) of Mary, who would become the mother of Jesus, because Mary pays attention to God. She is a simple young woman. Mary is unmarried, engaged, and supposedly a virgin and yet somehow, she becomes pregnant. And in the text we read today, Mary was filled with awe, not the terror the world says she should be experiencing, because God sent an angel to tell her she would be the mother of God. And Mary choses to pay attention to that Angel. She could have ignored it. She could have decided she was just having a bad dream. But she saw the sign God gave her. And she held that sign deep in her heart, she visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and she gave her life over to that sign.
Her song, recorded here in scripture, is such an amazing one. We hope you will read her song over and over again this week. It is such a wonderful song. She is filled with awe, and wonder and joy. We believe Mary was filled with joy for one simple reason: She was paying attention. She wanted to be awed by God. Do you want to be awed by God? You see, we will not be awed by God, if we are not paying attention. That is the simple truth.
Cheri got a phone call from a friend the other day. We’ll call him Steve. Steve did some work on our building last year when we were getting ready to open. Steve called me one night a couple of weeks ago and said, “Pastor Cheri, I was driving by your church the other day and I saw that sign you have posted outside.” (Steve was paying attention to the signs, like Mary.) The sign says, “Be like Jesus, embrace the wrong people.”
Steve said to her, “Pastor Cheri, there is the guy in my life, a friend, that I’m really mad at. And I want to stay mad at him, but I saw your sign, and I remembered that Jesus loved the wrong people – the people that no one else loved, and I knew it was a sign for me that I have to stop being mad at this guy. So I just had to call and tell you. Your sign, spoke to me, it worked!” Steve and Cheri both laughed.
Cheri knows, because she and Steve have had some conversations, that Steve has seen some hard times in his life. He has overcome some obstacles. He has been one of those “wrong” people that was grateful for Jesus’ love, and so our sign helped him remember that God calls us to have compassion for other folks, even when they do us wrong. He had lost a friend who helped him through these times to suicide this week.
So Cheri took the conversation a little further and asked Steve how he was doing. Because the last time Cheri talked with him she knew he was kind of drifting between a couple of churches. He said he had broken up with his girlfriend, and he said, “You know I just wish God would show me what God wants me to do with my life.” Ah. A pastor loves to hear this. Steve wants a sign! I love it when people are looking for signs, paying attention like Mary. Then he said, “I’ve been really busy though, I’ve been working two jobs. I wanted to buy a new motorcycle so I took on an extra job. And with the extra job I have not been able to go to church anywhere. But I’ve been thinking I need to get back to church. I’ve even been thinking maybe I might visit your church.”
So Cheri said to Steve, “You know, you just told me that you want to know God’s direction for your life, but you are putting your time into making money for a motorcycle, instead of going to church with other folks who are listening to God. Steve, what are you doing to pay attention to the signs God is giving you? How is God going to show you signs if you don’t give God any time or space in your life to speak to you?” He laughed, and said he got Cheri’s point. “You’ve got a really great church where everyone is welcome”, Steve said.
We put a sign on the front of our building, and it got Steve’s attention. Cheri has more stories of this kind of thing. People who have come because of a sign. But God wants more from us. God wants more attention from us, than what God can get as we are driving down the street. God wants us to see all the signs God puts out there.
Mary paid attention to God. When the angel came, Mary paid attention. When we listen to her song, she talks about all the signs she sees of God’s action in the world. “God’s mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before God. God bared an arm and showed strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. God knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. God embraced the chosen child, Israel; God remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It's exactly what God promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
Cheri & Kurt want to be like Mary in this season leading up to Christmas, don’t you? We want to pay attention and see God all around us. There are signs of God’s action. WHEN WE LOOK. But we have to stop, and look. We see God in the compassion of persons who are giving food to the hungry and clothing and blankets to those who really need it. Kurt and Becca saw it this weekend at Food for Thought (a program that gives out food for the homeless on Saturdays at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library’s Main Branch) and at the Christmas Party for Berry’s Landing (a homeless shelter for veterans, sadly very over represented in the community of those without a roof over their heads on a regular basis).
Becca is so moved by the community that has gathered at the Main Branch Library (it’s now a carnival for those without a home and now includes multiple groups giving out food, clothes, hygiene items, etc) that she wants to go down on Christmas morning to help. An 11 year old wants to leave her warm home, her family and new toys and share some joy with those who have none. That’s awe inspiring. Kurt, whose dealing with a lot of stress at work trying to help those who society is casting out these days was feeling pretty down while he was there, but putting on a brave face for those who have real worries. But one of the people in line saw his angst and took the time to check in on Kurt. Now, that's the presence of God. Jen Black, who goes down each week there and gives out hugs was given a Christmas gift by someone who has nothing. That's awe inspiring.
We see God in folks who are making acts of reconciliation with family members and friends that they have been in conflict with, trying to find a way to make peace. Any place where we see hope, and joy, and reconciliation, that is a sign of God’s presence. We can see the signs, if we will pay attention. And then, we can be like Mary, singing and dancing for joy. So, let’s pay attention, let’s sing for joy. Christmas is almost here.
If you want a place where you might find a little job and awe this holiday season, join us here at the Village if you can or any number of our sister churches around this world. There is a gift waiting for you, if you want it, the awe of total love and acceptance by God. Join us Sundays at 10:30 AM & 12:30 AM or Christmas Eve @ 6:30 PM. Come and be part of the joy, even if you don’t feel like you deserve it.
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