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Sunday, November 29, 2009
Passion FOR the Christ
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
4Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates
Advent is here. But what exactly is it? "Advent" comes from the Latin word adventus, which means "visit" or "coming" or "arrival." The season of Advent is a time to get ready for the coming of Jesus. It can be an amazing time. Operative words: can be.
We have an opportunity to have Christmas mean something different than it does to Hallmark or Toys R Us. As Christians we can celebrate Christmas “Old School style.” And by that I don’t mean Old School like Bing Crosby and old fashioned caroling and eggnog. I mean OLD school like 2,000 years old.
We don’t value old very much anymore. We like new and faster and better and bigger. I do. Old is not always fast or bigger. It sometimes takes longer and the results aren’t always as impressive to the outside eye. We Americans especially don’t do old well. For us, if a computer or cell phone is three years old, well…salesmen laugh at me.
You know who does value the old though? The Holy Land. Just a few weeks ago I sat and listened to our tour guide talk about Jesus teaching on the steps of the temple. I was sitting on those same steps. I stood a few feet where Jesus overturned money changers tables. I went to visit a 1st century tomb, much like the one that Jesus would have been buried in, and went to the Mount of Olives where Jesus went to pray.
Having seen all of these amazing things was not the most memorable take-away from my visit to the Holy Land. What I took with me was the passion I saw for God. I heard a loud speaker in Jerusalem remind our Muslim brothers and sister of Abraham to pray. Five times a day I heard it. I watched our Jewish brothers pray three times a day (women are only required to pray once).
Which brings us to today’s reading. This verse contains part of the verse that I have preached on before about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength (we added “mind” in the New Testament.) Last time I focused on the last part of the verse as it reads in Matthew and Mark, “and love your neighbor as yourself.” As you can see I am doing a sermon series…there are just a few months between the messages.
This time I am focusing on the front end of the passage: Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and might. What I saw in Israel was people with a passion for God.
In at least one case it didn’t even wait till we got over there. It actually happened somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea. On the flight over we were with a number of Orthodox Jews from the United States going to Israel. At one point, a number of them got up, put on their prayer shawls and stood in the aisles and said their prayers.
I saw street vendors selling their wares (“Four for ten dollars!”), and I watched them stop everything, pull out a prayer mat, and get on their knees and pray. When was the last time you watched someone get on their knees to pray? The last time I did was in Civic Center Park last Friday. We hand out communion to the homeless and there is one guy that every time I give him communion he gets on his knees. It is a sobering and humbling moment.
All this got me to thinking, how was my prayer life? I asked myself, “Where is my passion for God?” Did I have a passion for the Christ?
If there is a time of year to ask ourselves this question it is now as we begin Advent. I realized that my prayer life is not great. It is not even as great as it use to be. Before I moved to Colorado and started seminary, I got on my knees every night and prayed. Since God became my job…that fell away. How is your prayer life? I do retort to people that line from Paul, “I pray without ceasing!” and that is true. I talk to God all the time, and I do believe that is what God is looking for, a relationship. Relationships take time and effort – people in a relationship talk to each other.
Having said all that, I still am impressed with the devotion and passion I saw displayed while I was in the Holy Land.
I realized after spending time with this topic over the past three weeks that my time in Colorado has been a lot more about information than about transformation. For this, as one of your spiritual leaders, I apologize. Our job is not to make you more knowledgeable as a means to an end, but to do whatever it takes to help make you and ourselves disciples of Christ. THAT is about transformation.
So here is what I’ve decided to do, and I started this week. It is a blending of our busy 21st century and “Old School” discipline. If you have a blackberry, cell phone or electronic organizer raise your hand. Here is what I propose we try…
I started on Monday, and at 9, noon, and 6 (you can pick your own times) I just scheduled in the word “PRAY”. Let that mean for you what it will. Some people will want to do the Lord’s Prayer. Some will just want to say the words “thank you.” Some may have a much longer dialog. My hope is that by being more intentional this Christmas season, I will rediscover my passion for God and in the process focus more on transformation than information.
When you think about it, transformation is really what this season is all about. God transformed God’s self into human form to be among us. Jesus came among us to be able to say, “I know how you feel.” He came in human form so that he could be happy like we know happiness. So he could know frustration, like we know frustration. So he could know anger the way that we know anger. And so that he could know pain and sorrow and grief like we know pain and sorrow and grief. Jesus’ whole life was Him saying, “I know how you feel.” That solidarity is important. It is like a friend of mine who recently had an operation and said, “It is a pain (the cane, the crutches, the..stuff), but at least it isn’t for too long. I sure do have a new understanding of the challenges for people that have these things longer than I do.” This was this persons way of saying that, for a short while, “I know how you feel.”
I want to try an exercise from an event that I was a part of just recently that left a real impression with me.
Ushers gave you an index card when you came in. Take it out now. I want you to write on the card the words “I know how you feel”. Oh wait, before you do, there is one caveat: write it with your opposite hand. Take a minute to do that now. Now look at it. All broken and twisted. Not pretty.
Now I want us to take a minute to try and connect to each other the way that Jesus tried to connect to us.
Hold up the card…but only hold it up if you qualify with what I am about to say. Hold up your card…if you or someone you love’s life has been affected by cancer. Look around. Now find someone you didn’t come with and exchange cards.
Next, hold up the card…but only if you or someone you love has ever stared at a pile of bills and wondered how you would ever get them paid off. Look around. Now find someone you didn’t come with and exchange cards.
Next hold up the card if you have ever been betrayed at any time in your lifetime. Look around. Now find someone you didn’t come with and exchange cards.
Keep this card. Let it be a reminder that you are not alone in your battles. You might want to pull it out when you pray and just take a glance at it wherever you are.
God knows how you feel. Christ has a passion to get to know you better. Let this be the season when we develop a deeper, stronger and more meaningful love of God. Christ has a passion for us. Let’s use this season to grow our Passion for Christ. Amen.