Disclaimer: This text serves as the “jumping off point” for the sermon actually preached at Readfield United Methodist Church on 12-14-08 by the Rev. Karen L. Munson © “Prepared to Believe”
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126,1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24, The Gospel According to John 1: 6-8, 19-28
Teaching high school students means accepting a certain amount of cognitive dissonance on a regular basis; it’s the rub that comes from interaction of diverse ideas, practices and generations. Right now the place rubbing me is studying Hinduism while preparing for Christmas. The point I want to pick up from Hindus this morning is the way more and more Hindus are adamantly stating that they practice “Dharma,” not religion.
They’re not the only ones who want to distance themselves from the word, “religion.” The popular term for westerners is “spiritual.” I’m not at all religious, but I’m very spiritual. I think that’s a sign of religion in the process of being reinvented.
It seems like there are several approaches to religion:
1. Attack. A string of recent best sellers blame religion for all that is wrong with the world.
Christopher Hitchens’, “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. … Writes reviewer Michael Kinsley God should be flattered: unlike most of those clamoring for his attention, Hitchens treats him like an adult. (Barnes and Noble review, www.barnesandnoble.com )
Or take Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, “The End Of Faith,” Since the publication of my first book, “The End of Faith,” thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse. (Preface to “The End of Faith”).
2. The flip side, of course, is those who USE religion TO attack, with scripture used as a weapon and doctrine as ideology. The evidence is on the front page of our news sources daily.

3. Another approach is “ignore it and it will go away.” We see this position outside the church, but also inside the church (in the uncritical embrace-wait out the storm). Some examples might be Latin rite worship, “my favorite three hymns,” the only scripture that really counts….any favorite can become “all I need.” The flaw is the “I,”. an inward turn that loses sight of Christ beyond my limits.

4. A fourth approach is to engage-find out what its all about. Practice makes perfect, whether its practice of prayer, understanding scripture, discovering what mission is all about, experiencing the joy of worship. None of these can be thought through. None of these can be understood through observation. All of them come to life when we choose to critically, intentionally enter the practice of faith.
What’s the difference between religion and dharma? What’s the difference between religion and spirituality? I think what speakers want it to mean is the difference between uncritically accepting a set of ideas, ideas that we see rationalizing behavior splashed across front pages, and practicing intentional life formation.
We are in a time of redefining…. a straining against constraints.
Could this be what God is about in the nativity?
Sam Harris is right. Religion can’t solve the world’s problems.
Christopher Hutchins is right. Religion can become spiritual thought and experience reduced to a formula that no longer stimulates wonder or points to a satisfying meaning to life.
But it doesn’t have to.
Religion as a set of principles has no more power than capitalism, Marxism, communism, atheism, or any other ism our best efforts can come up with. God is no ism and no ism can contain God.
Those who call themselves “spiritual” instead of religious, followers of dharma instead of religion, are after a more intentional and critical practice. That’s good.
But if they follow a set of principles, they will eventually recreate the same problem, a certain way a thing must be done, a tradition that must be honored, a due that must be owed.
So we come to the cognitive dissonance of Christmas itself. It makes no sense. Who would believe it?
A baby will set it all right, all the problems of the world…..right.
A baby needs US, doesn’t it? Until the baby becomes a he, becomes a she, and we find ourselves needed to touch him, to smell her, to cradle a soft capped head on our shoulder and say shhhh,
In grand language that may sound a little archaic to our ears, Howard Thurman put it this way,
Oscar Wilde says in his “De Profundis,” There is always room in an ignorant man’s mind for a great idea. It is of profoundest significance to me that the Gospel story, particularly the Book of Luke, reveals that the announcement of the birth of Jesus comes first to simple shepherds who were about their appointed tasks. After theology has done its work, after the reflective judgments of men from the heights and lonely retreats of privilege and security have wrought their perfect patterns, the birth of Jesus remains the symbol of the dignity and the inherent worthfulness of the common man.
Stripped bare of art forms and liturgy, the literal substance of the story remains, Jesus Christ was born in a stable, he was born of humble parentage in surrounding that are the common lot of those who earn their living by the seat of their brows. Nothing can rob the common man of this heritage-when he beholds Jesus, he sees in him the possibilities of life even for the humblest and a dramatic resolution of the meaning of God.
If the theme of the angel’s song is to find fulfillment in the world, it will be through the common man’s becoming aware of his true worthfulness and asserting his generic prerogatives as a child of God. The diplomats, the politicians, the statesmen, the lords of business and religion will never bring peace to the world. Violence is the behavior pattern of Power in the modern world, and violence has its own etiquette and ritual, and its own morality. (Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas, New York: Harper and Row, 1973, page 11.)
So God comes to us irresistibly, In fact, I believe that’s a mark of truly meeting God. We find God utterly irresistible. The only way we can resist God is by dying a little ourselves, suppressing the joyful recognition and response, choosing to be blind rather than letting the light dazzle our eye, cutting off our hand lest it offend us by reaching out and touching something so extraordinary and finding that it is so real we can never touch anything without reverence again.
John announces it, the innocent revolution, where we encounter the unbelievable in our practice of the possible.

It is not enough to hang out with Christians if it means that we fail to see Christ in and between us, or even in and between those who do not call themselves Christian.
It is not enough to be called Christian. In fact, it can be an impediment if it means we stop looking for Christ.
We’ve got to be vulnerable to the presence of God.
In honor of the angels prayer’s placed on our Christmas tree this year, I close with a few more words from Howard Thurman:
There must be always remaining in every [one’s] life some place for the singing of angels-some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and by an inherent prerogative throwing all the rest of life into a new and created relatedness. Something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience form drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright light of penetrating beauty and meaning-then passes. The commonplace is shot through now with new glory-burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear. Despite all of the hardness of life, despite all of the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels. (Thurman page 10.)
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is working through me,
........because the Lord picked me out and commissioned me for the job.

I have been sent to deliver good news
........to all who have been used and abused,
and to tend the wounds
........of those who are brokenhearted.
I have been sent to preach a message;
........a message that means freedom for the detainees,
........a message that will break the shackles and release the people.

I have been sent to announce
........that now is the LORD’s chosen time;
that the date has been set
........for our God to give the enemies of life their just desserts.

I have been sent to bring comfort
........to everyone who is grieving.
I am to provide for those who mourn in the holy city;
........to deck them out in bright flowers
................instead of sombre funeral clothes;
........to hand them glasses of bubbly
................instead of their bitter cup of tears;
........to set them singing and dancing in celebration
................instead of collapsing in despair.

They will be called the pillars of integrity,
........erected by the LORD,
................a magnificent display of what God can do.

They will rebuild what has long laid in ruins,
........they will construct something grand from what is now rubble.
They will restore cities that have been destroyed;
........places that have known generations of devastation.

This is what the LORD has to say:
“I love the way you do the right thing and give everyone a fair go.
........I hate it when people do the wrong thing and rip each other off.
I will be true to my word and reward you well;
........I will make an alliance with you that will stand the test of time.

Your descendants will be famous all over the world;
........your offspring will be talked about by people everywhere.
Everyone who sees them will know without doubt
........that I, the LORD, have set them up for life.”
Because of the LORD, I will sing and dance in celebration;
........everything inside me is bursting with joy over my God.
The LORD has decked me out in the splendour
........of faithfulness and integrity,
................clothes fit to celebrate a dream come true.
I am like a bride and groom dressed for a wedding;
........with flowers and jewels and everything done just right.

Indeed, just as the earth brings forth its vegetation,
........and just as rich soil causes seeds to sprout and grow,
so too the Lord GOD will produce a bumper crop of honesty and integrity,
........and all the world will see it and give due credit to God.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net



* Psalm 126

When you brought us home to Zion from exile, LORD,
........we had to pinch ourselves to be sure it wasn’t a dream.

Laughter and singing kept bubbling up in us;
........we were just over the moon!

Even the nations around us had to admit
........that you must have taken our side, LORD.
Indeed, we could only celebrate and thank you
........for the wonderful things you had done for us.

LORD, we need your help again;
........we are like dry creek-beds in need of rain.

We have worked with sweat and tears;
........let us reap the rewards with celebration.

Let those who laboured with heavy hearts,
........expecting nothing but despair,
come home with pride renewed,
........celebrating unimaginable success.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

* 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24

Whatever is going on, celebrate.
........Always and everywhere, pray.
................Come what may, express your thanks.

Indeed, as people in union with the Messiah Jesus,
........this is how God wants you to live.

The Spirit is working among you, don’t pour cold water on it.
........When you hear a message from God, don’t despise it.
Whatever is presented to you, check up on it:
........- if it proves to be good, hang onto it.
........- if it is corrupt in any way, don’t touch it.

I pray that the God of peace will personally clean you up and form you into people of thoroughgoing integrity. I pray that your whole beings — spirit, soul and body — may remain healthy and uncompromised when our Lord Jesus the Messiah comes. The One who is calling you is unswervingly faithful, and will personally get the job done.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net



* John 1: 6-8, 19-28

........Once there was a man on a mission from God, and his name was John. He gave a first-hand report about the light, spelling it out so that everyone could believe. He wasn’t the light, himself, but he made it his job to draw everyone’s attention to the light.
........©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net