Sunday, December 22, 2013

Waiting on the World to Change: A Sermon Preached at First Baptist Church

Waiting on the World to Change
Advent IV, December 22nd, 2013
Matthew 1:18-25
First Baptist Church West Jefferson

Will you pray with me?
            God of life and love, what do you dream about? What is your dream for us? May we hear that word today. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Do you believe in dreams? It was a few days before Christmas. A woman woke up one morning and told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" "Oh," her husband replied, "you'll know the day after tomorrow." The next morning, she turned to her husband again and said the same thing, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And her husband said, "You'll know tomorrow." On the third morning, the woman woke up and smiled at her husband, "I just dreamed again that you gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. What do you think this dream means?" And he smiled back, "You'll know tonight." That evening, the man came home with a small package and presented it to his wife. She was delighted. She opened it gently. And when she did, she found a book! And the book's title was "The Meaning of Dreams."
            The question returns again, do you believe in dreams? We hear Matthew’s account of a dream and we hear it loud and clear. An angel shows up and says in angelic fashion, “Don’t be afraid.” Now normally when an angel shows up, it’s a good idea to be afraid, because Joseph’s dream changed the course of history. It changed the very reality of our world by Joseph’s obedience to his dream. So the question becomes not do you believe in dreams, but to echo what Michael said last week, what are you waiting for?
            Too many times we find ourselves waiting on the world to change. John Mayer even wrote a Grammy award winning song of the same name. We’re all here warm and cozy in church talking about the most incredible moment of all time and I guarantee some of you are making your last minute shopping lists and grocery plans. We’re waiting on the world to change. Why not be a little more like Joseph and Mary and believe in the dreams that change history.
            What if Dr. King hadn’t believed in his dream? What if Nelson Mandela on Robben Island hadn’t dreamed that apartheid could end? What if Mother Teresa had abandoned her dream that people deserved healthcare on the streets of Calcutta? What if you abandon your dream? What could the world be missing out on as you wait on the world to change without your dreams in place?
            As we approach the culmination of our Advent season I’d like to challenge you to dream again. Dream like you’ve never dreamed before. Because, as Frederick Buechner put it,  If the Christmas tale is true, it is the chief of all truths. What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the Child may be born again in us - in our needing, in our longing for him."
            Friends do you see this truth beyond all truths, we don’t celebrate Advent, we ARE advent. We are the present and real coming of God to earth in our time for as Teresa of Avilla said, “Christ has no body but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world”
            So here we are, sitting on the vast expanse of Christmas about to dive into a world of joy and delight as family draws near and presents opened and candles lit. We stand with great expectations for what is about to happen and it’s time to start dreaming again. It’s like my dog Rusty. You see Rusty loves riding in the car, and whenever I am home in Statesville he hangs out with my dad. When my dad is out in the yard working on chores he will put Rusty in the passenger seat of the car with the car door open. Now my dad doesn’t call Rusty by his name because they both have the same name, so he calls Rusty, Little Man. Little Man sits in the side seat of the car and with anticipation for God knows what wags his tail the entire time he is in the car. He has no idea what, if anything is about to happen but he knows that if it does happen it will be grand.
            Friends like my dog we have no earthly conception of what Christmas might bring this year, but I can assure you when God bursts onto the scene it is grand. So this season of Advent, let expectancy and hope and love and peace and joy envelop you in a world of grace.
            What if God showed up in your dream? Would you have the courage of Joseph to say yes? What if God showed up in your life? Would you have the grace of the Virgin Mother to give your life for the advancement of God’s dream for the world? These answers are life-changing, and yes we are asked the very same questions today.
            You all know this story could have gone terribly wrong, correct? Even if Joseph had dismissed Mary quietly word would have gotten out and during that time in society Mary would have met a not so great ending. We have the hope of Christmas because people were obedient to their dreaming. They were obedient to what God had called them to. They were obedient to the incarnation, to Emmanuel.
            So this year as we light candles, as we sing carols, we dream. We dream of a teenage mother who doesn’t have all the answers but accompanies her fiancĂ© to be taxed in Bethlehem of Judea. We dream of the child who would save us all, and in our dreaming we see that God was with us. God is with us, and God will be with us for the rest of our existence. So may you rest and learn to dream again in the majesty of God’s grace and the hope of all creation.
            If God shows up this year, be prepared for what might happen. One of the lines to John Mayer’s classic Waiting on the World to Change goes something like this: “It’s hard to be persistent when you’re standing at a distance.” Friends I think God realized that long before John Mayer did. God realized that persistence from a heavenly distance wasn’t working with a hard-headed, stubborn people like us. So as St. Iranaeus famously said ‘God became like us so that we might become like God.”
            What does that look like for you? What does God’s dream of persistence and patience for our lives look like for us? Deeper than that how are you living it out? How are you making God’s dream your reality?
            The greatest gift you can give yourself this Advent season is to believe in the dreams that God has given you. Believe in the calling placed on your life, believe in the hope that the incarnation is here to stay and that God has surrounded you with love, joy, hope and peace this season and all the days of your life.
            I must confess that I haven’t always believed in dreams. I’m a skeptic, I don’t buy into people’s dreams easily. But all of that was humbled this past week with none other than my little brother Scott. You see Scott is one of my favorite people in the world, and I want what’s best for him So six months ago when he started voice lessons I thought it would be a passing fad. He had other things he was so much better at that would make colleges notice him. I wanted to cry when he told me that he was going to be auditioning for the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian because I knew that his dream of singing might be crushed by people he would never meet sitting behind a desk. I knew the odds were against him.
            You see Appalachian’s admissions process to the School of Music goes a little like this: You send in a video recording and they call you back if they’d like to hear more from you. Well last night Scott got that call. Scott received the phone call that his dream was alive and well, and that my own ignorance to his dream was only hindering myself. So needless to say today I stand as a proud brother of a kid who will be auditioning at one of the most prestigious music schools in the state.
            Believe in the dreams of the ones you love. God worked 2000 years ago through a young and wonderful woman, and her husband who believed in her and believed in his dreams. That miracle can occur again and again. Believe in dreams this Christmas, and God will appear. Stop waiting on the world to change church, and start dreaming again.


All glory, honor and power be to the One who was, who is, and who is to come. Amen.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

My Interview with Stanley Hauerwas






A few years back I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Stanley Hauerwas via email for the Record and Landmark. While the interview was never published I hope to publish it here, I am reminded ever so presently of his influence on my own theological reflection, and I hope you find it meaningful. 


Dear Rob,

Here are my short responses to your questions. These are good questions, by the way.


1. Rob: Dr. Hauerwas, in one of your pieces, The Ethicist as Theologian you speak of humor being is important to theological reflection. How do you feel about the issue of theology and humor? How do they co-exist?

Hauerwas: The relation between theology and humor is very simple: what could be more humorous than theologians thinking they can say something interesting about God. God surely laughs at our efforts. I think it’s probably true that you shouldn’t trust a theologian who doesn’t have a good sense of humor. Theology and humor must co-exist.

2 Rob: How has the church embarrassed you in your beliefs? We all find times when we cringe at what the church has done, how does that pertain to your personal walk of faith?

Hauerwas: I’m not sure I’ve thought of the church embarrassing my beliefs. But I often worry if I embarrass faithful Christians. I do, of course, worry about the accommodated character of the church. But in that same accommodated church I often discover lives that put my own life in perspective. So God is great, able to raise up faithful Christians even in the midst of a severely compromised church.

3. Rob: How can a person or church in a small town truthfully hold fast to theological ethics within the context of the greater community? 
        
      Hauerwas:Well, smallness doesn’t necessarily mean “narrow”. It can mean locality which allows for the development of practical reason and judgment that cannot be known elsewhere. So I say, take advantage of locality.
     
     4. Rob: At Duke, you teach a course on John Howard Yoder's the politics of Jesus. Yoder's work is phenomenal and lays claim to Jesus' response to the social behavior of his disciples. How do you think that Jesus would respond to the social behavior of modern day Christians? 

      Hauerwas: I suspect Jesus would think that those who call ourselves Christians are pretty close to those he identifies in the gospel of Matthew as scribes and Pharisees. It’s a harsh judgment, but it’s one I fear is unavoidable.

      5. Rob: Finally, Dr. Hauerwas, death and dying seem to be on the headlines of news these days. Society is fascinated by it, but how should the church respond to the issues of death and dying? I know you have done significant research in this as an issue of ethical behavior, and I hope this isn't too forward but how do you see death coming for you? How can a Christian live a life ready for death? 
      
      Hauerwas:  I’m not sure if Christians today can live lives such that they are ready to die. We simply no longer know how to do that. We can, however, keep before us that we are a people shaped by martyrdom. That can never be forgotten. Just to the extent that we remember this we continue to have hope that we too will be faithful as we face death.