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Stephen Ministry

Every time I get a new technological gadget that I don’t really want, but need to have to communicate, I feel like I am in the dark. They each come with a manual, sometimes printed and sometimes not, that often demands its own interpreter. Take the cell phone for instance.

Every so often one needs to take it in for an update, renew or end the contract, and if renewed, there is a new phone staring you in the face with alas, another manual. One more breakthrough in technology, they say, designed to make my life easier and save time. However, the reality is additional hours are needed to learn the long list of new features this cell phone can now perform. I know about this because this just happened to me.

To my dismay, shortly after becoming familiar with my new cell phone the iphone came into being making the cell phone obsolete. Honestly, it feels like a conspiracy! But it did have the appealing concept of coordinating many features into one, thus avoiding multiple devices and manuals to decipher. So instead of having a phone, a palm pilot for your appointments; or a computer for accessing the internet, you can now access your email;  restaurant directory, and map connections for anyplace you wanted, a list of movie theaters and what’s showing to and the ability to text message which is an entire other set of directions and pull out keyboard; all in a neat, palm sized device. was now all in one handy piece of equipment. Using this device I could select movie, find a restaurant, answer my email and take a picture, all before I leave my driveway!

When on earth does a working person, with other demands and interests, have time to pore over a thick manual of directions, let alone additional hours spent in practicing them? Yet, if we resist, we will be left behind, disconnected from others.

Being in the dark is not a comfortable place to be. It is a place of isolation and frustration when we are unable to find our way. The Bible can be like this too. There are stories, words, and events that need some interpretation in order to understand, let alone apply it to our lives. Biblical language is often filled with metaphors that represent something other than a clear definition. It can leave us asking is this true, instead of what is the message here for me?

Reading the Bible takes work and time. It takes additional resources or classes to explain what the text means. It takes other people in our lives who can shed some light on the subject for us. It is not just an academic exercise; it is the practice of opening ourselves to God so that the meaning and then the relationship can develop. Like any relationship care about, we need to put our other things down and focus completely on the other person. God will reveal our purpose when we are sincere about the relationship, enough to spend some uninterrupted time together.

Listening to a sermon is like that. God is about the business of translating the words and making the application for those who are listening. The average person does not have the time to research the text, compare it to other sources, and then make the application to their lives, placing it in a relevant context. As the listener, we are expected to stay alert to a phrase, an image, or something that resonates with us. Revelation is not just up to the preacher. It is what gives me the courage to get up here regularly, knowing that God is the translator who seeks out the listening believer. Through the listening and the pondering the personal meaning can be revealed.

Many people see the process of understanding God as hopeless and go about their lives without expending any effort to understand. They think it is up to them to figure it out. They are afraid that others will think they are ignorant, unaware that all of us have only but a glimpse of who God is both historically and in our lives. We do not practice looking for God in a conversation, or processing an event that happens to us; or connecting to a movie or book where God is revealed in subtle ways. We too easily brush off the unexplainable by saying it is coincidence, instead of being alert to God’s all powerful ways of getting our attention. We fall into the worlds’ trap of only being in tune to the world’s ways, shutting off any possible revelation God may be trying to impart. We need to lighten up. For the light of the world is knocking at our door.

In today’s passage the words of John are not easily understood. How could the word have been present before anything was created?  What is the Word? Who or what was the light? And what about being full of grace and truth? We used this passage during Christmas week. It is a proclamation of who Jesus is. Words can keep us in the dark.

You have heard the saying “Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.” But we know better. Words can cut us deeply. They can destroy a relationship. They can shut down feelings or create deep anger in us. Some words can frighten us and others are confusing. But words also have the power to bring us joy, promise and hope.

Because of the Bible’s truth we believe that God can do anything, but not on demand and usually not as we would do it. God will not be put in a box, cleverly defined and predictable in every way. It was the word that brought creation into being. Light broke into the darkness. Such power is beyond our comprehension and why the people do not believe, then or now. God, who wants a relationship with us so much, decided to come to earth in a human form; a visible,  breathing, human being. God came, in Jesus, to bring us grace and truth so that we might believe.

God’s words have the power to bring light into the darkness. It is the process of delivering God’s reality and purposes to us. God has come to lead us out of the darkness and into the light.  Christ was born to deliver a much needed word of truth and grace to all people.

When I was ordained as a minister, over 15 years ago, I accepted the official title of Minister of Word and Sacrament. I took an oath to accept the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments as the unique and authoritative witness to Christ, and God’s word to me personally. I took an oath to proclaim the Good News of Christ in preaching, teaching and caring for God’s people. So too, have you taken vows if you were ordained as a Deacon or Elder or have joined the church. Vows are words that have promises and responsibilities attached. It is in this way that we are all proclaiming the truth and grace of Christ.

But words are not just facts or information. Within our faith context, the grace of God is about transformation. This is why God came to earth in a human form, so that we might know who God is. Without God we stumble and fall in the darkness. We cannot find the light of Christ. We are stuck in our old and destructive ways and we need to lighten up. We need to accept the light offered to us. Unlike our human relationships, God does not force us to believe. We are invited but we do not have to follow. We are free to remain unconnected and never know the joyful plans God has for us. We are free to live in darkness as long as we live, and many people do.

But to all those who believe, are given the power to become followers; to make a difference in our world, our church, even within our families. We are able to stand up for what is right without succumbing to social pressure from those who do not. When we encounter the Word, who is Jesus, and begin to believe, we are changed and so is our world.

So how do we believe in the truth and amazing grace that comes from God? I believe that when we decide to follow the way of Christ we are marked with a grace that is unmatched by any other. When we look back over the journey of our lives we know there have been times of God’s surprising grace in the midst of unanticipated hardship, change, and growth. Make no mistake; the Christian journey does not immunize us from the difficulties of life. Instead the Christian journey is enlightened by the presence of God in every stage of our lives.

I think the beginning of a New Year is an ideal time to take stock of our faith. Instead of making unattainable resolutions every year, why not invest in the One who will never let us down? Instead of running after people we admire, why not follow the One who created us intentionally for a purpose and stands by to help us achieve it?

We are entering a new year, in a new decade. Some of us are thankful the year is over. Some of us are apprehensive of what the New Year might bring, while others of are looking towards the new year with anticipation. The old is past. The new is here. We can put aside our old ways of hopelessness. We can recognize the presence of God in our lives, or refuse to look back over our lives in search of God with us, Emmanuel. We can stop hiding in the darkness and follow the light of Christ, who beckons us.

This first week of the New Year, is also Epiphany, that season of the church year that signals the conclusion of the Christmas season. The word epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation" and is commonly linked with three events that revealed who Jesus really was. One is the visit of the magi to the Christ child, revealing to the gentiles that Jesus was not just any other baby. Then Christ was revealed to the people through his Baptism in the Jordan River, when a dove came down upon him and a voice was heard to say, “This is my Son with whom I am well pleased.” Third, Jesus was revealed to the people in performing his first miracle by turning water into wine at a wedding celebration. All three events pointed towards Jesus who had come to bring grace and truth so that the people might.

This is still true for us today. Epiphany reminds us that God will stop at nothing to reveal himself to us; so that we too might believe. For all who watch and wait and listen, God will be revealed and this is God’s grace. What is the meaning of grace?  One person put it this way: “Grace is what God does for us that we could not do for ourselves.” Ephesians describes grace as a gift from God, not something we can earn or achieve for ourselves. We remember the Prodigal Son, who squandered his inheritance on destructive behavior, but is forgiven and welcomed home. Or how about the Samaritan woman, shunned by her village for her sin, who Jesus welcomes?

Such grace is for us as well; times in our lives when we feel lost and cannot see our way out of the darkness. Then, just when it seems hopeless, we are blinded by a light that is unexplainable. Instead of recognition we often disregard what we cannot explain. We insist on proof before we can say “I believe.”

Divine grace is a mysterious concept. Walter Brueggemann, Biblical scholar, describes grace as God’s “transforming disposition towards the whole world.” That is God’s grace, focused on life and goodness. It is meant to be transforming bringing greater wholeness and fullness of life.

Jesus stands beside a woman who has lived a life of sin and been caught; not to punish her but to transform her through love. God takes a risk in showering us with grace so that we are equipped to change into whom we can become. Once we have been loved when we were not lovable; been forgiven when we have not earned it; been spared when we do not deserve it; we are never the same. Grace invites us to enter new places in our lives; to become more than we thought we could ever be, through the love of Christ for us.

Such grace is a light shining brightly into the darkest parts of our lives. When we receive the grace of God, devastation turns to hope; unsolvable problems have answers; broken relationships are healed; hardened hearts open like the bud of a flower reaching for the sun. It is a new day and we are new people God’s people.

Let this gift of a new year, be a fresh start, be one of allowing God to be revealed to you. Accept God’s grace. Lighten up! After all, God is all about truth and grace for all of us. Amen

Time of Reflection

Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of grace.