Listen! (Matt. 17:1-13) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

A concerned husband went to see the family doctor: "Doctor, I think my wife is deaf. She never hears me the first time I say something.  In fact, I often have to repeat things over and over again. "Well," the doctor replies: "Go home tonight, stand about 15 feet from her, say something and listen carefully.   If she doesn't respond, move about five feet closer and say it again. Keep doing this so we can get an idea of the severity of her deafness.

Returning home, the husband followed the doctors instructions.  He stands about 15 feet from his wife, who is in the kitchen chopping some vegetables. "Honey, what's for dinner?" He gets no response, so he moves about five feet closer and asks again.  "Honey, what's for dinner?"  No reply.  He moves five feet closer and still no reply.  Frustrated, he moves right behind her and asks "Honey, what's for dinner?"  She replies, "For the fourth time dear, I said vegetable stew!"

In this light, let’s turn to our morning story which portrays a profound event in the life of Jesus’ and his disciples: the indescribable, the indefinable, the ineffable moment of Jesus’ transfiguration.  Think now, aren’t there moments in life which are inexpressible?  We have a difficult time putting them into words.  Have you ever experienced such a time?  The joy at the birth of a child is one of those moments.  The loss of a loved one is one of those moments.  A brilliant sunset or sunrise is one of those moments.  Being caught up in uplifting music is one of those moments.  When your child says “I love you” and wraps his or her arms around you is one of those moments. There are mountaintop and valley moments throughout life.  We are often not ready for them.  They arrive unannounced and change us in irreversible ways.  They demand that we be silent and listen.  Such moments touch the depth of our souls and have something to say to us. 

Our story from Matthew's Gospel is one such time.  Jesus is on a mountain with his disciples Peter, James and John.  Jesus is suddenly transfigured before them, his face shines like the sun, his clothes become dazzling white, his appearance is radiant.    Moses and Elijah appear and are talking with Jesus.  Peter is overwhelmed and says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”   Well I should say so.   He was in the company of two Jewish superstars.  Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, the one who brought them God’s 10 Commandments and the prophet Elijah, who with God’s power defeated the false prophets of Baal and who ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire.  These are two giants in Israel’s history.  They were even bigger than Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Peter wanted the magical moment to last forever and offers to build three booths- one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah.   Realizing they are standing on holy ground the disciples fall to their knees in awe.  Then the story says: “A voice said, this is my Son, whom I love.  With him, I am well pleased.  Listen to him.”  

The story of the transfiguration says first, God speaks!   God spoke that day and the undeniable implication is that God continues to speak to believers today.  Do you believe it?  Has God spoken to you?   A young mother said: “My 3-year-old son, Ian, enjoys the Bible story about Samuel hearing God's voice at night.  One evening after reading the story to Ian, I asked him if God had ever spoken to him.  To my surprise, he answered, "Yes."  "What did God say to you?" I asked.  Ian thought and then said in his deepest voice, "Ian! Go to bed!"  That explained why Ian settles down more quickly when I'm outside his room and tell him to go to bed.”  

Scripture tells of how God spoke to Elijah in a cave out in the middle of the wilderness, not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in a still small voice.  Other translations say in a gentle whisper or in the sound of sheer silence.

If we don’t believe God speaks to us today, what does that say about our theology?   That God is mute?  That God doesn’t care to reach out to His people any longer?  That God has nothing left to say to us?  That God has decided to turn His back on us and has left us figure it out on our own?  That God is on an extended vacation to the Caribbean?  The problem is that this is bad theology.

God is either alive or God is dead.  Scripture and our Christian faith says God is alive and God love.  God loves us with a passionate and unconditional love and reaches out and intervenes in our lives.  Scripture says:  “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

A Christian writes:  “I knew that it was God speaking to me because I was in tune with my inner spirit and my spirit suddenly became light.  Years of heaviness were lifted from me.  I heard God’s forgiving and accepting voice.  A new yet wobbly courage started to live in me, and I became comfortable in my own skin, in my own circumstances.  I felt safe and certain and grateful. Nothing around me had changed, but everything was different.  I knew it was God’s voice speaking because I could smile once again.”

Second, the story of the transfiguration says something else – listen!    Why should you and I listen to Jesus?    Jesus is the Word of God.   Jesus is God’s word of life and truth.   Jesus is the path to Life and Eternal Life.  Jesus is the way out of darkness into the light.  Jesus is the way out of despair to peace and joy.  Jesus is the way out of fear to courage.  Jesus is the way to discovering purpose and meaning.  By faith in Christ we are welcomed into God’s kingdom and become children of God.  Jesus is lord over all other rulers and authorities in the world.  Christ is the Head of the Church and is present in both Word and Spirit.    The Risen Lord sent the Holy Spirit to instruct and empower and guide the Church according to His purposes.  Jesus carries out His ministry through you and through me, that is, through our faith and service and witness.

Why should we listen?  Because God commands it: “This is my Son, whom I love.  With him, I am well pleased.  Listen to him.”

How does God speak to us?   It’s a question about which Christians agree and disagree.  It engenders lively discussion and debate.   Both from my spiritual experience over the years, and by my reading of scripture, I believe the answer is God speaks to us in a multitude of ways.  God speaks in different ways at different times in our lives.  God speaks to one believer in one way and to another believer in another way.  Why?  I don’t know.  Perhaps because the hearts and minds of certain believers are more reachable in some ways and closed in others.  It’s a mystery.  It’s God’s prerogative.  

Clearly God speaks through the Bible.  Reading and listening to scripture, in Bible classes or in one’s daily devotions, is essential to our spiritual journey.  We are to listen not only with our ears, but with our hearts.  For instance, say you are experiencing a highly stressful and difficult time, you’re at an emotional low and you read: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” or “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  or “Be not afraid.” And by that word your soul is lifted, your spirit is renewed, you experience an inner strength and peace.      God has spoken.

We hear God in worship.  In faith and trust we listen and the ordinary, humble, human words of a sermon become, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God’s word and you feel like the sermon was meant for you.  God speaks to us through the music of worship, through the choirs, the hymns and songs, through the prayers, through someone’s personal testimony, through the videos and multimedia in worship, and through the sacraments.  We cannot limit God’s passionate desire to speak to our minds and hearts in worship.

God speaks to us in dreams or through our conscience, as we wrestle with a moral decision or through a vision, or through a surprise, or through unexplainable guidance where you feel led to do something, like get in contact with someone and your not sure why.  God speaks when we exclaim it was a “God moment or God thing.”  Faith declares that “coincidences are small miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous.”

I’ve personally had such spiritual experiences. Other believers have shared with me their spiritual experiences as well over the years.  I’ve had people say to me:  “Pastor I would like to tell you about something spiritual that happened to me, I think God was talking, but I’m a little uncomfortable about it, so please listen and don’t think I’m crazy.”     

God speaks through the voice of a trusted friend.  No, not every word that someone else says is God’s word.  We must always be discerning.  We need to test the word, to check it out.  But the Bible is clear that the Holy Spirit does speak through the counsel of others.   

We hear God‘s word in prayer, through continual, expectant, thankful and persevering prayer.  Prayer is a key means I believe in which God speaks to us.  

God's word can come through a call to action.   A call to a job, a call to involvement in the church, a call to getting involved in the community like in Military Outreach Ministry.  You feel convicted to volunteer, to help with some need.  It might have to do with homelessness or raising money for the battle against cancer or with concerns about the environment, or helping with foster care, or serving in the schools or in the military.

Sometimes you just feel a nudge, to just check something out, and later realize after you are fully involved that God spoke to you, that it was a calling from God?  When have you heard a comforting word, a corrective word, an encouraging word, a hopeful word, an insightful word, an inspiring word, a challenging word, a helpful word?  That was the word of God.   I believe the question is not - does God speak today?  The question is – are we listening?  It’s a good question to ponder anytime, especially in this time as we prepare for our journey through the season of Lent.   Amen!

Who is My Neighbor? (Luke 10:25-37) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

Do you know your neighbors?  A mother writes:  “While visiting a neighbor and her five-year-old son Andrew, Andrew pulled out his kindergarten class picture and immediately began describing each classmate. "This is Robert, he hits everyone. This is Stephen, he never listens to the teacher.  This is Sara, she never stops talking.  This is Mark, he chases us and is very noisy." Pointing to his own picture, Andrew commented, "And this is me.  I'm just sitting here minding my own business."

On the long running popular children's television show, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, which aired for over 30 years, at the beginning of every episode, Fred Rogers would enter his house singing: “Won't you be my neighbor?”  Think about neighbors you have had over the years.   Have you had good relations with your neighbors?  Have you made an effort to help your neighbor?    Has your neighbor made an effort to get to know you? 

The parable of the Good Samaritan is about neighbors and arises out of a discussion between Jesus and a Pharisee.  “A lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test - teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus knew he was trained in the law, so he asked the man: “What is written?”   The Pharisee answers: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”   Jesus says: “Do this and you shall live.”   But the man asks a follow up question, “who is my neighbor?”  In other words, whom specifically am I supposed to love?  Where are the boundaries?  It’s a fair question.  In response, like he often did, Jesus tells a story.  

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.   It was called the Jericho road and had a fearful reputation.  It was nicknamed “The Bloody Pass”.   It was a dangerous stretch of rocky mountain road as we learned when our tour group traveled it in 1993.  It is a crooked, lonely, isolated seventeen mile trek dotted of caves.   Since the road was so often traveled by religious pilgrims and merchants, robbers hid in the caves waiting for their next victim.  Jesus would likely have taken this parable from real life events.

Who is my neighbor was a relevant question in Jesus’ day.   Were non-Jews, Gentiles, Greeks, Persians, Syrians, whom Jews were forbidden to associate with by law neighbors?    Were Roman soldiers neighbors?   Were lepers neighbors?  Were Samaritans, who had a long history of enmity with Jews, neighbors?    It’s a relevant question today, don’t you think?   It raises complex issues about borders and immigration, and relationships with Muslims and strangers in need whom we encounter in our lives.  Not to mention the “I don't want to get involved” attitude which permeates our society today.

Jesus' answer is unequivocal, it's not the priest nor the Levite for both pass by the victim of violence who is lying on the side of the road.  It is the despised Samaritan who does the right thing, who stops to help a man who has been beaten by robbers.  The Samaritan proves to be the neighbor.

He shows compassion, kindness and concern.  He shows generosity of money and time.  He shows courage by stopping to help when the robbers could have still been in the area.     Does Jesus say he is a hero?  No, Jesus says he’s a neighbor.  This is what neighbors do; this is what being a neighbor means. 

I can think of at least three ways we too can be a neighbor to others and fulfill God's mandate.  I'm sure there are others that you could think of, but here are three examples.  

One is to be a neighbor indirectly and simply call for help or go and get help.  If you see someone in trouble, if you see someone stranded, rather than passing by, simply call 911 and let the authorities know that a person is in need of assistance.   From our point of view that may seem like a small thing, but from the point of view of someone in trouble, it is an answer to prayer.   I have made such calls at various times over the years as I'm sure you have as well.

Second, we can be a neighbor directly to someone in need or in trouble.  I think of the story about 10 year old Kevin Stephan of Lancaster, New York, who in 1999 was a bat boy for his brother's little-league baseball team.  During one game, a player who was warming up accidentally hit Kevin in the chest with a bat.  Kevin fell to the ground, unconscious.  His heart stopped beating.  Kevin says: "I remember that all of a sudden, I got hit in the chest with something, and I turned around and passed out."

Fortunately, a nurse whose son played on the team was able to revive him.  Kevin and his family later learned that the nurse, Penny Brown, was supposed to be at work that day, but had been given the day off at the last minute.

Seven years later, in January of 2006, the same nurse, Penny Brown, was eating at the Hillview Restaurant in Depew, New York, when she began to choke on her food.  "The food wasn't going anywhere, and I couldn't breathe," said Penny. "It was very frightening."  Patrons began screaming for someone to help. One of the restaurant employees, a volunteer firefighter, ran out from the back.  He wrapped his arms around the woman, applied the Heimlich maneuver, and saved the woman's life.

When the emergency was over, the patron and employee recognized each other. The person who saved Penny's life was 17-year-old Kevin Stephan, the same boy whom Penny had saved seven years earlier.

I also think of the story a couple of years ago of nine-year-old Chiara Rufus.  She had picked up the milk and bread her mother had sent her to buy.  As she left the store, a stranger was waiting outside in his car and asked, "Want a ride?"   Chiara refused and hurried toward home.   But then the stranger pulled up beside her and yelled, "Get in."  Afraid, the little girl climbed into the car.  At just that moment, Monique Williams, 34 years old, was driving home.  As she saw the young girl approach the car, she sensed that something was wrong.  A mother of three daughters, Monique as a little girl had also been approached by strange men who tried to lure her into cars.

Monique asked the man if he knew the little girl.  He said “yes.”  Then she asked Chiara, "Do you know him?"  Trembling, she said, "No."  Monique exploded: "You get out of the car!  Get out now!"  As the little girl jumped out, Monique maneuvered her vehicle in front of the stranger's car.  She began to yell: "You're wrong! You can't take a little girl!"

Within moments, the police arrived.  The same man had previously tried to lure kids into his car.  Police chief Gary Miguel said of Monique, "She saw something wrong and refused to look away."   Perhaps that's why Monique has two plaques in her living room.  One reads, "Civilian Commendation." The other: "To my guardian angel Monique Williams. I love you. Chiara Rufus."  Monique was truly a neighbor.

Third, we can also be a neighbor by acting to correct the underlying social conditions which have caused people to be hurt.  We seek to work against injustice by eliminating the conditions that hurt people's lives in order to bring about social justice.  We think of people like Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights movement and Caesar Chavez and the Farm Worker movement and Nelson Mandela in his fight against apartheid in South Africa. 

Ten years ago, Kirsten and Lee Hildebrand thought they knew where their lives were headed. They had just settled into their first home in a suburban community, where Kirsten practiced labor and employment law and Lee was working on a doctorate in counseling psychology. But when the couple attended Eastbrook Church, a nondenominational, inner-city Milwaukee church, they began to wonder: Did we settle down in the right place?  "Some of our friends thought we were totally nuts, but we felt led to move into an inner-city neighborhood."  Kirsten and Lee sold their suburban home and bought one in inner-city Sherman Park where neighbors take in the world from adjoining porches.   As the couple unpacked boxes, a question hung over them. "We knew we were led here for a purpose, but we didn't know why," says Lee.

Six months later, after they had remodeled their own home, the Hildebrand's noticed a foreclosure sign a few houses down. They tried, along with two of their neighbors to purchase it. The bid was unsuccessful, but their conversations during the process helped them identify a trend in their neighborhood—absentee landlords. "The landlords didn't care about the properties, didn't put the work in, let them deteriorate and then demanded high rent," Kirsten says,  "This isn't fair, everyone deserves a nice place to live. All humans do."

After many late-night conversations they decided to systematically purchase rundown houses, restore the beauty of the buildings, rent them affordably to the residents of their city, and hopefully change the trend. They registered their name as "City Ventures LLC" and brought their business plan to Legacy Bank.  The bank decided to invest and City Ventures bought a single-family house where they spent nights and weekends restoring it. The City Ventures partners juggled full-time jobs with the new worlds of plumbing, electrical work, rent collecting, and the realities of the inner city. The night could bring drug dealers into their construction sites. The morning light might reveal the scrawl of vandals on freshly painted walls or a pile of glass instead of new windows. But neither Kirsten nor Lee saw crime as the neighborhood's defining characteristic. "Ninety percent of the people are people who just want to live their lives."

Today, Sherman Park is a living illustration of the last six years of the Hildebrands' lives.  Seventy restored buildings boast colorful awnings and shutters, new bricks or siding…. "It's really exciting—the way we've started from a dream," Lee says. "We worked hard, and God's grace was at work with us. We give God all the credit. It's amazing how different the neighborhood is from six years ago."

Jesus calls us to broaden our circle of concern and increase our sensitivity and compassion for people in need around us.   It's easy to become emotionally detached, desensitized or callous to the needs of others.   Jesus says there really are no limits as to who is our neighbor in God’s family.    The command to love our neighbor is not to be interpreted in a narrow way.  Our neighbor is any person who is in need of love, any person who is in pain, any person to whom we can give life and hope through our presence or resources.   Jesus radically expanded the concept of neighbor.

A Christian truth is that one of the ways to strengthen our love for God is to love other persons.  When we love others, the love of God can flow in and through us in a free and unimpeded way.  God is able to give us greater wholeness of life, when we're sharing life in an unselfish way with others. 

Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?   The lawyer said: “The one who showed mercy on him.”  Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”  Amen

Come Unto Me (Matthew 11:28-30) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

You open your mail and surprise surprise there's an invitation.  What a joy it is to receive an invitation – to a birthday party, a super bowl party, an anniversary party, a graduation, or to a wedding.

In this morning's text Jesus utters perhaps the most tender and appealing words of his ministry:  “Come unto me!”  It is a gracious invitation.  These words have been immortalized in Handel's Messiah, in the famous aria in which Handel combines these words with others from the prophet Isaiah: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. Come unto him.”

What comes to your mind when you hear Jesus’ words?  How do you respond to Jesus’ invitation?   True, these words might sound hallow, empty to some: “No thanks Jesus, I've got it covered.”  

Pride can stop us cold.  It can shut out our hearing and accepting any offers of help. “A friend says, Hey, I'm sorry about what happened, but I'm here for you, you know that.  And you reply, thanks, but I'm fine, I don't need any help.”  Pride stops us from reaching out to others for support.  We're just too proud to say, "Jesus, I need help, I need you."

But when our hearts are receptive to Jesus words, we open ourselves to a whole new spiritual world.  When we can finally admit: “Lord, I can’t go it alone, I need you,”  Jesus’ words penetrate our hearts, they are a song in our soul, they are the most welcome and comforting and hopeful words in the world.  

Come unto me!   

“All who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens!” To be human is to carry burdens.   The question is not if we carry burdens, but when.  True, we carry different burdens and we handle them in different ways.  Burdens of guilt and shame,  burdens of stress, burdens of pain and hurt, burdens of failure, burdens of fear and anxiety, burdens of addiction, burdens of loneliness, burdens of resentment, jealousy and anger, burdens of low self-worth, burdens of feeling lost and aimless, burdens of a lack of meaning and purpose.  They come with parenting, friendship, marriage, divorce, being single, work, unemployment, illness, money problems, grief, and a crisis of faith.  Are you carrying a burden this morning?

Sometimes, even religion becomes a burden.  This was the context in which Jesus spoke to the people.  From the time the law was given to Moses, where God commanded the Jews to remember the Sabbath and rest from work, Jewish teachers had written hundreds of additional rules and regulations regarding Sabbath observance – the time between sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.  The Hebrew word Sabbath means “rest.”  

But it was difficult to rest when you were worried about not breaking any of the religious rules.  For example on the sabbath you couldn't work: you couldn't carry anything, you could only walk a certain number of steps, you couldn't cook, you couldn't talk about business,  and you couldn’t help people or rescue animals – because that was work and the command was to rest.   Yes, anything, even religion, can become a burden.

Jesus continues: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart."  This morning, right now, Jesus is personally extending an invitation to you.  Jesus who is gentle and humble offers support, encouragement and an opportunity to learn from him.   Do you find it surprising that Jesus offers tired, burdened people a yoke?  When we are burdened we need an escape, a holiday, a party, a vacation, a trip to Disneyland, not a yoke. 

What does Jesus offer with this invitation? He offers to ease their strain, to lift their burden, to shoulder their load, to give them rest, to release them, to set them free.  Nobody else can do that but Christ, for he is portrayed in the New Testament as the supreme burden-bearer. He bore our burden of sin by His sacrificial death on the cross. " "Behold the Lamb of God who lifts up and bears away the sin of the world."

Jesus offers us a new kind of yoke.  Jesus likens the crowds he was addressing to oxen struggling to move while carrying a crushing load.  Jesus is referring to an agricultural method that was common in the first century. A yoke is the piece of equipment that binds the ox to the plow.  Whenever a young ox needed to be trained, he would be attached to the yoke of an older ox. The older ox would pull the yoke and the younger ox would follow in his footsteps and learn all the steps, even though he wasn't actually pulling any of the load.

Jesus is saying: “Yoke yourself to me.  Let me help you carry the load and I will  lead you and teach you how to live."  "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."   Jesus' words call to mind the poem Footsteps in the Sand.”

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.  Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.  In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. So I said to the Lord, ‘You promised me Lord that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there have only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?’ The Lord replied, ‘The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand, is when I carried you.”

And Jesus concludes his invitation – “I will give you rest.  You will find rest for your souls.”  What a comforting word -  Rest.  Do you get enough rest?  Are you tired – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?   Rest is indispensable.  We need rest in life.  Request is required to live.

Philip Melancthon, a 16th Century Reformed theologian, once said to his friend Martin Luther, “This day you and I will discuss the governance of the universe.” Luther said in response: “This day you and I will go fishing and leave the governance of the universe to God.” 

What does Jesus mean by "rest for your souls"? The Greek word here literally means “an intermission.”  Jesus makes a promise, he says: “If you accept my invitation; you will have an intermission, a respite, a reprieve, a break from the day-to-day struggles of everyday life.  You will experience spiritual renewal, relief, refreshment, a time of peace.”  

It takes humility to say: "Jesus, I' have run out of options, I need your power and your strength.”  When you arrive at that moment, where you can acknowledge your need for Him, Jesus will offer to yoke you to His YOKE and you will find rest.

In 2008 the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl due to a spectacular catch made by Giants receiver David Tyree.  Quarterback Eli Manning threw what looked like a desperate pass. Tyree somehow jumped high above defensive coverage, picked the ball out of the air, pinned it to his helmet, and fell to the ground for a completion. The Giants went on to win the game, 17–14.

In the wake of his new fame, Tyree has talked openly about a troubled past. He started drinking when he was in junior high. By his junior year in high school, he was regularly consuming 40 ounces of malt liquor and a half a pint of Jack Daniel's.  It was not uncommon for him to smoke marijuana in the same sitting. The habits continued throughout his college career.

After Tyree was arrested for selling drugs to pay off a fine he had incurred during his rookie season with the Giants, his pregnant girlfriend threatened to leave him. "I had no peace," Tyree says. "My life was obviously in disarray." When he picked up a Bible and read its message of redemption, he knew things would turn around. He decided to never drink again and started attending church for the first time in a long time. Tyree is now sober, married, and a Super Bowl hero.  Looking back on his life thus far, Tyree says, "It's more than just a feel-good story. It's about destiny and purpose."  I will give you rest, Jesus promises.

I close with Jesus word's from the contemporary language of The Message.  “Come to me.  Get away with me and you'll recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me, watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heave or ill fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Are you trying to live without God's help?   Jesus invitation is before you – “Come unto me.” Let us prepare our hearts to come to the Lord’s Table.  Amen!

They Saw A Star (Matthew 2:1-12) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

Another year is past and a new year has begun!  Good-bye 2013.  Hello 2014.  Can you believe it?  How do you feel about it?  Are you happy or sad or do you have mixed feelings?    I friend of ours said – “I sure hope this year is better than last year.”

Yes, like the multitudes of people in America who run in races, 5 K's, ½ marathons and marathons, our feet have left the starting line and we are off and running.  January marks a new start, a new beginning, a new race!    Get ready.  The question today is: "I wonder where this year will take me."

Its in this context that we turn to the story from Matthew of the Magi or Three Wisemen.  As the story tells us they were guided by a star along their journey until they finally reached their destination.   I think this story captures our imagination because we too are on a journey in this life.     

What is a star?  A star is a fixed luminous point in the night sky composed of burning gas.  It is a large, remote incandescent body like the sun.  It is a celestial body.  

What are stars from a biblical perspective?  Stars are symbolic, symbols of divine guidance.  Don't get too caught up in the literal, like thinking - “I've never seen a star in front of me, a star has never led me anywhere, this story is nothing but fantasy.”  

We need to think figuratively, symbolically, metaphorically.  Stars are signs and symbols of God's guidance, God's calling, God's prompting, God's leading, God's means of grace, God's surprises.

The lesson here is that God sets stars for us to follow.   God may use a real star, like in this story or God may select something entirely different.  Stars are about God's fulfilling His purpose.

Stars  -  people God puts in our lives, a need you feel drawn to respond to,  a light in the darkness, an Ah Hah moment where suddenly it all comes together, signs, miracles, opportunities,  challenges, special events or circumstances, prayers answered, an inner tug or inner-voice, a word from the Bible or a call from the Lord.   God sets stars before us to help guide and direct our lives. 

God does not abandon us to navigate through the vicissitudes of this life alone.    Stars may be calls to serve in the church or in the community, to make a change in your life, to invest in something, to dedicate a period of time in helping your parents or grandparents, to spend more time with your family, to deepen your walk and craw closer to God.  God's stars are about worship and service, faith and obedience.

Even the learned Magi who represent the Gentiles in our story, needed help to first reach Jerusalem and ultimately to reach their destination at Bethlehem and to be in the presence of the Messiah, the Christ child.  Without the star to guide them they would never have reached their goal.  They would have become lost or turned around and headed back home in frustration.  God knows that we need stars in our lives.

The story of the Magi alerts us to a danger, the peril that looking at stars can turn into star gazing.   The scripture says: “Wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem asking: “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews. We saw His star in the east.”  God didn't place that star before them to simply be studied and analyzed and admired.  God didn't place the star in the sky for these sages to write a paper about and submit it to the academic community of astrologers for intellectual discourse.  God put it there for a greater purpose.

The Wisemen could have simply remained in the east and studied stars and entered into intellectual discussions debating about their interpretations of the designs of the stars in the sky.  Great fun right.  Stimulating right.  They didn't, fortunately, but I suspect it was a temptation.    All of us, you and I, are subject to the temptation of star gazing.  That is, standing motionless and staring at stars.

We read in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers, that the Jews of the day expected a star as a sign of the birth of the Messiah.  This was a long held wide-spread belief in Hebrew culture.  Dr. Paul Maier, in his book, In The Fullness of Time writes:  “Eastern astrologers, were acquainted with Hebrew beliefs, since there was a large Jewish community living in the East.  There is nothing improbable about a group of sages being attracted by some astral event and then trying to investigate it more closely.” 

Now star gazing can be enjoyable and inspiring.  No argument.  I recall as a youngster in San Diego going outside at night with my dad and my brother and my dad would point out various constellations, like Orion, the hunter, the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, and Gemini the twins.  It was a thrill to look up into the sky and try to identify these constellations of stars.  How magnificent and majestic is a starlit night. 

Today in our celebrity obsessed world people often watch for other kinds of stars.  I think back about the 17 years that our family lived in Santa Monica when I was pastor of First Presbyterian Church.  I remember people who spent a lot of time searching for celebrities; hoping to catch a glimpse or take a photograph of a movie star. They would eat at certain restaurants in Santa Monica or Beverly Hills, or walk around with cameras in hand or take bus tours, hoping to see a star.

Now while star gazing or celebrity watching can be entertaining, the problem is when it becomes a priority, an end in itself,  a mission for your life, a trivial pursuit.  When this happens, do you go anywhere or accomplish anything?   Turning trivial things, fun things, inconsequential things, into life-time goals or major pursuits can become a waste of one's life.   It can become an escape or distraction.  It can become a way of avoiding or blocking God's call upon our lives.   

However you might define star gazing, it can lead to wasting away precious hours and even years time from your life.  You may become a professional star gazer, but not make any appreciable difference in your life or in the life of another, not contribute to society, not grow and learn and deepen your faith in God, not make any new friendships or deepen any existing friendships, and not take a single step closer on your journey.  God created us to lead positive lives, not to lead unproductive lives.

Like the story of Zeke the turtle.  Now I am not down on turtles.  I had turtles as a boy.  I like turtles.  But the story illustrates a point.  For 31 years Zeke lived in the home of Bob and Debbie Young of Beverly, Massachusetts. But on July 30, 2012 the box turtle made a not-so-quick escape, after the family cat pawed open a screen door on the back deck. For over a month Zeke, the prodigal turtle, was on the lam.  When the Young's realized he was gone, they placed ads in the local paper, put up fliers around town, and used the services of a  search and rescue dog trained to track down reptiles. They even offered a cash reward for Zeke's safe return.  The family loved this turtle.

Finally, their neighbor's golden retriever sniffed out Zeke as he was hiding in some ivy.  Ironically, Zeke was still on the family property.  He never made it off the property.  Zeke's slow but steady month long journey had taken him about 1,000 feet from where he had busted out of his home. The neighbor told reporters, "He hadn't really gone anywhere.  He was just sitting there in the Ivy, just waiting to be found.”  Star gazers and Zeke have a lot in common.

The story of the Magi says God calls us to be star followers.  The Magi said:  “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.  When they had heard the king, they set out and there ahead of them, went the star that they had seen it its rising.”

When the Magi saw the star which they had been searching for, they set out and  followed it.  They acted on what they saw, they took risks, they left familiar surroundings, they made plans and preparations, they sacrificed, they made an investment and set out on a journey.

We too need to be ready to make our journey into this new year.  We too need to set out if  we are to discover the truth and find the answers we seek, or reach our goals, or make a difference in our community, or change things about ourselves that we know need changing, or gain the knowledge we need, or reconcile past relationships which are now broken, or form new relationships or discover and cultivate unused talents and abilities given to us by God.  God calls us to follow the stars He places before our lives.

Like the story about  an outlaw biker.  Pastor Miles McPherson of the Rock church writes:  “I walked out of my office one morning, and a guy I had never met was just getting off the elevator.  He was about six foot four, at least 250 pounds, and he wore cut-off jeans and a sweatshirt. His body was all tatted up …. We talked down the hall together, and he told me he was going to his first ministry meeting, and he was really nervous.  I asked, "Nervous? How come you're nervous?"

"Pastor Miles, you always encourage us to do something, so I figured I got to do something. I want to serve the Lord."  Pastor Miles continued:  “Since our church has over a hundred outreach ministries, I asked him, "What's the ministry you're joining?"  "The knitting ministry," he said.  He added, "Well, actually, I don't knit, I crochet."

Here's this huge guy who looks like he could be an NFL tackle, and he's nervous about joining a ministry that makes blankets and hats for hospitalized children.  Curious, I asked him where he learned how to crochet.  "I was in the Hell's Angels for 12 years," he told me. "I learned to crochet in prison. I know it's the one thing I can do for the Lord." 

Just then the lady who heads up the knitting ministry walked toward us, said a quick hi to me, then asked the former Hell's Angel, "Are you Jim?" She gave him a big grin and took his hand. I watched them go down the hall together.  It may not seem like a unique ability to crochet, but when you package that with his life, the ripple effect can push countless others out of their comfort zone to step up and stand out the way God designed them to.

God's star led an ex-Hell's angel to a knitting ministry.  You never know where God's star might lead you.  I believe God will set a star before you this year.  Watch for it.   Are you going to be a star gazer or a star follower?  Amen!

Advent 2: The Coming Celebration (Hebrews 1:1-14) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

A father writes: “For two months before her third birthday our daughter Sandie said, "I'm going to have a party" countless times a day.  When her birthday was over, Sandie then told everyone, "I had a party countless times a day."  Finally we told her not to talk about the party any more.  For one whole day, no mention was made. But as I tucked her into bed that night she prayed, "Dear God, I can't talk about it, but thank you for my birthday party."  Amen!  Yes, birthdays are joyful occasions.

In the Gospel of Luke the angel announces: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”  Christmas is about joyful news for all people.   Christmas is a time for celebration.  How did the Christmas Holy Day start?  The Bible says: “In the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of woman.”  We don’t know the precise date of Jesus’ birth.  Christmas was first observed by the church as the birthday of Jesus somewhere around A.D. 325 or later.  St. Chrysostom says that Pope Julius I of Rome, was responsible for establishing December 25 as the birth date of Jesus. 

A Roman pagan festival had been held on this date to celebrate the Winter Solstice, when the North Pole is farthest away from the sun.  It was the feast of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, which was starting to turn northward once again.   In a bold action, the Church re-instituted a Christian celebration for a pagan feast.   The church was making the culture conform to the faith and introduced a Christian holy day.    From that time to today, December 25th has honored not the unconquerable sun, but the birthday of the Son of God. 

For centuries Christians have promulgated arguments for and against this historical fact.   One argument is that since the roots of Christmas are pagan, with pagan symbols and trappings still attached to it, like feasts and trees and lights and ornaments representing stars and planets, we should not celebrate it.   The Puritans outlawed Christmas in Boston for 22 years and it wasn’t fully accepted until the mid 1800’s.

The counter argument is that the church was being faithful to the commission of Christ to go out and convert the world, to win the world for Christ.  So it was a good thing to turn a pagan festival into a Christian holy day.  This argument asserts that trees and symbols representing stars or planets are good, God made them; lights on the tree are good, God created light and Jesus is the light of the world; singing is good, the angels sang; giving gifts is good, the Magi brought gifts to Jesus.  So you decide which argument you agree with.

Why are birthdays special?    Birthdays say: “We’re happy you were born.  We are glad you are alive for another year.  You count among us and we want to honor you.”   We don’t commiserate with someone on their birthday, dress in black clothing and say: “Oh no another birthday, I’m so sorry for you, I feel terrible for you and immediately burst into tears; no, we say Happy Birthday!”  We don’t say: “Miserable Christmas; we say Merry Christmas!”   Christmas is about a birthday party, the birthday of Jesus the Savior of the world.   There are some spectacular Christmas celebrations of Jesus around the world in cities like San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rome, Italy, and Rio de Janero, Brazil. 

Yes, Jesus’ birth was forgettable and pedestrian on the one hand, and yet on the other it was an extraordinary birth of historical and cosmic significance.   Remember every time you check your calendar you are using Jesus Christ as your reference point, because history is divided into B.C. and A.D. 

Other holidays recognize but one day; Christmas is celebrated for 12 days.   That seems right to me since it is about the coming Savior of the world.   We celebrate the good news of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds.  It’s good news, no matter who you are or what you have done.  It’s good news, not for a select few, but for all people. 

What is the heart of the good news of Christmas.  It's not –“ Whew, I made it through another year,” or “I'm celebrating that I've finished all my shopping.”   It's not about Rudolph, or Frosty, or Santa, or The Grinch, its this: Emmanuel, God is with you, God is for you, and God loves you.  It’s the good news that God saw that because of sin and evil, the world needed a savior and God sent one.

Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback church writes:  “Christmas reminds us that God is not mad at you.   God is mad about you.”  Jesus said:  “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.” 

Christmas declares that God knew that the best way to communicate with us would be to come in person.  If God had wanted to communicate with birds, he would have become a bird, if God had wanted to communicate with dogs, he would have become a dog, if God had wanted to communicate with cats, he would have become a cat, but God wanted to communicate with human beings, so God became one of us in Jesus.   Like when comedian Billy Crystal’s daughter got a call from him saying there was a birthday present waiting for her on the front porch.  She was on the east coast and thought her father was calling from the west coast.  She walked out and saw a large box on the porch.  When she opened it, out jumped Billy Crystal?  

Listen to how the Gospel writer John speaks of Christmas:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”    

Listen to what the letter of Hebrews says about Christmas:  “Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world.  He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, who sustains all things by his powerful word.” 

Christmas announces that God the creator condescended, bent down and got involved with His creatures.  That the God of the heavens decided to get his hands dirty.  The immortal God took on human mortality.   God stepped out of eternity into our time.  God showed up in our neighborhood.   Christian music like George Frederick Handel’s Messiah, Christian art like the Adoration of the Magi and the Adoration of the Shepherds, and Christmas carols honor and rejoice in the greatest birth the world has ever known.

Christmas celebrates God’s love. God loved us so much, that he came to earth as a human.  Christmas celebrates God’s revelation, God revealed himself to us in Jesus so we could see who God is and what God is like and come to know him and trust him and follow him and worship him and love him.  Christmas celebrates God’s purpose - God sent Jesus as our Savior to save us from our sins, to enlist us in Christ's service, and to instill hope and joy and strength and peace for our lives today and forever.

Christmas declares the truth that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly human.  It affirms the unique unity of God and humanity in this one person.  That is a theological way of saying as scripture does that Jesus was born of a virgin.  Being born accents Jesus’ humanity and being born of a virgin accents his divinity.   Christmas declares that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, the anointed One of Israel, as foretold by the prophets.

A Pastor writes:  “I had to go to church and our 5 year old daughter Lauren remained home with her mother.  When I arrived back home later that day, I saw that our daughter had placed figures of her miniature nativity set at each person's plate.  Apparently shepherds, wise men, cows, and sheep would be joining us for dinner.  Then she raced into the kitchen. "Daddy, Daddy!" "Jesus is missing!  We've looked everywhere and can't find him!"  As I glanced at the supper table, I didn't see baby Jesus anywhere!" We looked high and low.  Then I zeroed in on her backpack which she carries everywhere she goes.  In it she transports her hair bows, her Barbie, her plastic wallet, and gummi bears.  And there, at the bottom of the pack was baby Jesus, ready to go with her to preschool the next day." 

“I later realized that Jesus wasn't "missing in action" at all.  He was in the middle of the action. His place in Lauren's backpack was divinely appropriate.  In the midst of all the symbols of my daughter's interests and activities was the Lord of life.”  “Christmas reminds us that Jesus is right there in the middle of it all.  We are not alone.  God sent Jesus to us and He remains with us in all our days.”   

Don’t let the pressure and stress and preparations of the season, cause you to miss out on the good news, the joy of Christmas.  In the light of this busy season, in closing, listen to a version of the 23rd Psalm that I think is so appropriate for Advent.  “The lord is my pace setter . . . I shall not rush.  He makes me stop for quiet intervals, He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity.  He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and his guidance is peace. Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here, His timelessness, his all importance will keep me in balance.  He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility. My cup of joyous energy overflows. Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours, for I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in his house for ever.  The author is Mother Teresa.

“Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.  He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, who sustains all things by his powerful word.”  This is the one we shall honor in the coming celebration.  Amen!

Advent 1: Maranatha (Revelation 22: 12-13) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

I remember an author who told his story about being adopted.  He barely remembered his birth parents.   He learned as he grew older that his father had abandoned him when he was a baby, leaving him alone with his mother, who gradually descended into the dark world of drugs.   Parents are supposed to care for and protect children, but this didn't happen in his case.  Eventually his plight came to the attention of child protective services.  At age 3 he was removed from his home and became a ward of the state and was placed into the foster care system.   He lived with different families but the situations were less than ideal.   He said it just never seemed to fit.  

He said that from the time he could remember, he had dreamed about a loving family coming to adopt him.  He said he wanted desperately to find someone to belong to and to be able to call them mother and father and to be called son.  He waited and waited and hoped that day would come.  When he was 10 years old, a Christian family came to visit him.  He said the meeting was surreal, it was like they were always meant to be together.  Eventually the family adopted him and raised him with love and guidance and Christian faith.  He said that he was forever grateful to God for sending these people to adopt him after all the years of waiting and hoping to finally belong to a family. 

Yes in life we often find ourselves looking to the future for something.   Sometimes we await with optimism and hope.  Other times we are fearful and anxious about what the future holds, we are pessimistic and gloomy.   How do you look to the future?

Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent and Advent is all about looking to the future.  That the future belongs to God and that God will fulfill His purpose for the world are fundamental truths of our Judeo Christian faith.  The future of this world does not belong to the devil, to sinful human eings, to evil, to any political system, to any nation, to any dictator, or terrorist organization, no, it belongs solely to God. 

What does the Bible say about the future, Christ is coming?  God who created this world has a plan for the consummation of all creation.  At Christ's return, the world as we know it will come to an end, and in its place, a new or transformed universe will be established.  No, the world will not be totally annihilated by God, but rather the world will be restored and set right. This is the Christian Biblical world view. 

The Bible paints different pictures about how God will usher in this future – Armageddon, the final victory of God over evil, the Apocalypse, resurrection, rapture, second coming, universal judgment, and glorification.  

It's ironic that another word which occurs only once in Scripture, has become a popular word in the language of the church and the Christian vocabulary about Advent.   Maranatha!  It is an Aramaic word – and it means “Come Lord,” or Our Lord, Come”.  It expresses a profound desire and hope among Christians down through the ages for the cosmic return of Christ to the world.  It is perhaps the shortest of all Christian prayers.  It is a one word prayer, a petition to God, “Maranatha, come Lord.”   I'm sure you appreciate being able to leave church today knowing how to speak some Aramaic.

You see this word, this prayer, this notion everywhere.  There are Maranatha schools in San Diego and around the country, Maranatha Baptist Bible College, Maranatha music out of the 70's, Maranatha Book stores, Maranatha chapel,  Maranatha Volunteers International and more.

Jesus said: Watch, hope, wait for God’s future!   Yes, Jesus said watch out for false prophets and false messiahs, but he also said watch for the coming of the Son of Man. Jesus also said watch out for wars, famines, pestilences, and natural disasters but he also said wait for the coming Messiah.  Jesus further said watch out for times of persecution, but also watch out for the glorious return of the Lord of Lords.   Jesus always kept the accent on the victory, the triumph, the defeat of evil, the positive outcome, God's fulfilled purpose, the ultimate sovereignty of God. 

And we should too.  Often I hear all about bleak and dire predictions about the future.  We look with fear, with terror, with anxiety, with despair, about tomorrow.   But we as people of faith need to remember who holds the future, who the future belongs to, and whose plans and purpose will ultimately prevail in the future.

I believe with all my soul that Jesus’ is coming again in glory?   Why?  First, I believe it because Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, the Lord, the Savior, the Word incarnate declares it to be so!  Jesus says: “You will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”  “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.  It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.  Keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the hour will come, in the evening, or at midnight or at cockcrow or at dawn.”   

Second, I believe it because this truth is attested to in the Bible and the Bible is the unique, authoritative and inspired Word of God!  Entire chapters and books of the Bible are devoted to this promise about the coming end of the world.   There are 216 chapters and well over 300 references to the return of Christ.    

Third, I believe it because the Biblical and Christian view of history predicts it!   The ancient Greeks believed that the world  was eternal and cyclical, going round and round like an eternal merry-go-round.   According to our Judeo/Christian tradition only God is eternal. Once there was no world, no matter, no life, no organisms, no cells, no atoms.  God created the world.   Our Judeo/Christian tradition describes it as teleological.   The world is moving toward the end time, to the destination which God has appointed when God’s final purpose for His world will be realized.   Life and history are meaningful not meaningless.   There is one divine, far-off event toward which the whole creation is moving; the final triumph of God.   

Fourth, I believe it because the Biblical view of justice declares it.   We see in history and today as well that righteous and innocent people have suffered and been oppressed and persecuted.   The wicked have prospered.  We have seen horrific examples of evil in the rule of dictators and tyrants of countries who have murdered millions.  Yet, the Bible says we are not to despair.  God is holy.  They will be held accountable before the judge.  You reap what you sow.   Justice declares that Christ there will be a divine reckoning.   

Jesus’ judgment will be a universal judgment, all of the living and the dead.  God will judge humanity’s behavior, good and bad, moral and immoral, good deeds and misdeeds.  He will judge how much light humanity has about God and morality and what we have done with that faith and knowledge.  God will judge cruelty, injustice, oppression, disobedience and faithlessness.   And unlike human beings, and our judicial system, which though a good system in many respects, is imperfect and flawed, God’s judgment is perfect.   God will judge with consummate fairness and even handedness.  

Acts 17:31 says:  "God has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Finally, I believe in Christ’s coming because God loves His creation. God is a loving God, a forgiving God; merciful and kind, empathetic and compassionate, patient and slow to anger.  The God we worship is one who brings hope and new life and new beginnings in the future.    God loves the world and the people he created.   And that’s why the Bible is clear – God will judge the world and purge the world, but God will not destroy it, God will not annihilate the world.  I believe contemporary prophets of only doom and gloom are wrong.   God will renew the world. God will restore the world. God will re-create a new and glorious world.

In the mean time we must keep watch, keep awake, and wait, for we don’t know when Jesus will return.  We must look to the future with hope and not hopelessness, with courage and not fear.   Christ is coming and a new indescribable, unimaginable, and spectacular world will be established forever. 

I close with these inspiring words from the Book of Revelation:   “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”  Maranatha!  Amen!

Where are They? (Luke 17:11-19) by Rev. Dr. Alan W. Deuel

Comedian Louis C.K.  whose known for his biting, acerbic and sacrcastic humor, became famous for the following routine.   By November 2011 the clip was burning up the internet and had over 4 million views.  Here's what he said to poke fun at our ingratitude and impatience:

"Everything's amazing right now, but nobody's happy."  In my lifetime the changes in the world have been incredible. When I was a kid, we had a rotary phone. We had a phone you had to stand next to, and you had to dial it.  Do you realize how primitive that was?  And you would actually hate people who had zeroes in their number because it was more work.   And then if you called and they weren't home, the phone would just ring lonely by itself.

And then if you wanted money you had to go into a real bank—and it was open for like three hours, and you'd stand in line and write a check.  And then if you ran out of money, you'd just say, "Well, I just can't do any more things now."  Now we live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on a generation of spoiled people that don't care. This is what people are like now: they've got their phone, and they go, "Ugh, it won't work fast enough."  Give it a second!  It's going to space. Will you give it a second to get back from space?  Is the speed of light too slow for you?

I was on an airplane, and there was high-speed internet …. And I'm sitting on the plane, and they say, "Open up your laptop, you can go on the internet."  And then the thing breaks down. They apologize, "The internet's not working we apologize." And the guy next to me says, "O, great this stinks." Like how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago.

People come back from flights, and they tell you their story, and it's a horror story …. They say, "It was the worst day of my life.  First of all, we didn't board for twenty minutes.  And then we get on the plane, and they made us sit there on the runway for forty minutes." And I say, "O, really, and what happened next?  Did you fly in the air, incredibly, like a bird?  Did you partake in the miracle of human flight?"  Everybody on every plane should be constantly screaming,"WOW!" We're flying.  We're sitting in a chair in the sky!  Here's the thing: People say there are "delays" on flights. Delays, really? New York to California in five hours!   It used to take thirty years to do that, and a bunch of you would die on the way.”

The season of thanksgiving, of giving thanks, is upon us.  Clearly, the origin of Thanksgiving Day was never meant to be a generic holiday, a day to give thanks in general, but a day to specifically give thanks and praise to God, to seek God’s intervention in ending the civil war which had torn the nation apart and to bring reconciliation and healing between the States.

President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, established a special day called Thanksgiving.  He wrote: “I invite my fellow citizens in every part of the united States to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father.  And I recommend that they fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty’s hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as may be consistent with the Divine purpose to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.”   Inspiring words.

The season of Thanksgiving offers us the opportunity to examine our hearts and attitudes and to honestly reflect on some important questions: Am I a thankful person?  Do I live a thankful life?  Do I have a thankful heart?  What am I truly thankful for?  How do I give thanks?

I assert that being thankful, the trait or quality thankfulness, is not natural to human beings.  It must be taught and caught.  You see it in children – one of the first lessons parents teach their children is to say thank you.  Our Gospel story about lepers further illustrates this  assertion.  Lepers were  feared and loathed in Jesus’ day.  They were despised and repulsive to gaze upon.   Their mere presence horrified people who feared they would become infected with the dreaded disease.  They were socially ostracized, cut off from family, prohibited from entering the temple, and banished to outlying caves or valleys or villages away from the community.  They were literally the zombies, the walking dead of their day.

In our story Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and as he approaches a village, ten lepers confront him.  For the average person meeting one leper one be terrifying enough, let alone being surrounded by ten lepers.  The story says: “Keeping their distance, they cried out in desperation Jesus Master, have mercy on us.”   The law required that lepers keep a distance from people.  For example when the wind was blowing the law said lepers must stand at least 50 yards away.  The law specified that if a leper saw someone approaching, they had to cross to the other side of the road and yell unclean three times, to warn people.        

These lepers knew in their hearts that Jesus was no ordinary rabbi.  They call him master and believed that Jesus had the power to heal.  And out of compassion and by the divine power pulsating within him, Jesus heals them.  

Now if Jesus healed me of a dreaded disease, I would be ecstatic.  How about you? I would fall on my knees and kiss his feet and say thank you God.  And yet though ten lepers were healed, only one leper returned and gave thanks.  “A Samaritan, seeing that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”

Jesus exclaims: “Were not ten made clean?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found to return and give God praise except this foreigner?”  You can hear the sadness and disappointment in Jesus’ words.   Why was Jesus disappointed that only one leper had returned to give thanks?   Were his feelings hurt that they didn't return to thank him and show their appreciation?  No.  Jesus was deeply concerned about their spiritual life, the condition of their soul and heart.   An ungrateful heart, a cold heart, a callous heart is a form of spiritual death.  Jesus healed the lepers so that they would give glory to God.  “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God?”  He had wanted them to come to a living faith in God, to walk with God, to worship God for their miraculous gift of healing.   But alas, only one praised God in a loud voice.

Author Jim Stovall in his book, The Ultimate Gift writes:  “I have always found it ironic that the people in this world who have the most to be thankful for are often the least thankful, and somehow the people who have virtually nothing, many times live lives full of gratitude.”  Do you agree?    Is that your observation?  Have you found that to be true?

Look inside yourself for a moment.  Is your heart thankful, if yes, ask yourself why?  Why are you a thankful person?  Since thankfulness is not intrinsic to human nature, what has formed your heart?   I suspect a growing and maturing faith has something to do with it. 

Or is your heart thankless?  If you have an ungrateful heart, repent, tell God you are sorry, seek God’s forgiveness and ask God to change it.  And God will.  A contemporary praise chorus says:  “Change my heart oh God Make it ever true, Change my heart oh God, May I be likeYou. You are the potter I am the clay, Mold me and make me, This is what I pray.  Change my heart oh God, Make it ever true, Change my heart oh God, May I be like You.”   Yes, a growing, dynamic and genuine faith in God has a way of stimulating and producing a grateful heart.   

The quality of gratitude is key to a healthy life.  First, a thankful heart reduces stress in your life by making you more content with who you are and what you have.  You are able to see something to give thanks for in every situation.  You will discover that God can bring something good out of your situation, and that God can save you from descending into the pit of resentment and bitterness.  Second, a grateful heart can increase joy in your life.  Focusing on blessings, focusing on the positive, rather than the negative, helps to produce joy.  Third, a grateful heart builds positive relationships.  Thank-less, ungrateful people repel; thankful, appreciative people attract.  Exuding a spirit of gratitude draws people closer to you.  And fourth,  giving thanks for the gift of life brings you ever closer to the Giver of life.  Praying steadily to God for a thankful heart, for a thankful spirit, is a good prayer.  It is a prayer God will answer because it is His will for His people, for you and for me.

The closer our walk with God the greater our ability to sincerely give thanks from the heart.  Someone wrote: "What a gift it is to be born with an outlook toward the bright side of things!  And if not so by nature, what a triumph of grace to be made thankful through a renewed heart. It is so much more comfortable and rational to see what we have to be thankful for and to rejoice accordingly, than to have our vision for ever filled with our lacks and our needs. Happy are they who possess this gift! Blessings may fail and fortunes vary, but the thankful heart remains. The Happy Past at least is secure...and heaven is ahead.”

Jesus asked, "Were not all ten healed? Where are they?”  Let us give thanks to the lord with our whole heart, for God's steadfast love and mercy endures forever.  Happy Thanksgiving, Amen!