Sermon: Look at What Our God Can Do!

Easter Vigil

2007

Genesis 1, Isaiah 55, Romans 6

Luke 24

"Look at What Our God Can Do!"

Look at What Our God Can do! (When I point to my eye you say, "Look at what our God can do!" Are you ready? [point])

Did you hear how great God moved in Creation?

Every 10 years or so science changes how they believe the world was created. In Genesis, it's not that science is refuted (science is the gathering of knowledge, science is a gift from God), it's that science still comes as an understanding of how God worked in creation.

What we believe is that God is the creator of all – not was the creator, is the creator, God creating the world then, is today creating and recreating the world.

A Caterpillar into a Butterfly…how exactly does science explain it?

How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

# This is not easy to explain. One could say that inside the chrysalis the caterpillar changes clothes and turns into a butterfly. Actually, what happens is that the caterpillar structures are broken down chemically and the adult's new structures are formed. To be more blunt, the solids of the caterpillar completely liquify and then form the new solid structures of the butterfly.

Right, a body is broken, transformed, and comes back to life, ascending into the winds?

[point]

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

In Moses God raised up a leader who no organization would have ever hired.

Moses would not have made it through the candidacy process…issues of family of origin…a sense of entitlement, abandonment, and lack of commitment…wondering when he might run away again in avoidance…not to mention his speech impediment, perhaps induced by a childhood lack of confidence along with his lack of identity.

And God used Moses, and those around him, to lead a mass migration of people off the African continent and into (by way of wandering) a land given as a gift of God to God's people.

[point]

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

God did it again in North America a little more than 150 years ago.

When her slave master died in 1849, Harriet Tubman decided to free herself from slavery. With the assistance of the network of the underground railroad Harriet claimed freedom from herself, she became a "conductor" on the underground railroad and freed hundreds through her leadership.

I know in our quick-fix consciences 150 years ago seems like a long time ago…consider the Exodus of North American Slaves, God's beloved, some 15,000 years after the Exodus of Hebrew Slaves, God's beloved.

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

God is still at work in leaders, in freedom marches, in rallies for justice.

Maybe God is working in you, to do justice and love kindness…

Maybe God is working in one of our young people who will become a great leader one day.

We pray that God is at work in Darfur, leading their people to freedom. Maybe God is raising up a young woman, or a young man, who will lead their people forward.

I pray God is working in us, that we too, might be leaders to end the Genocide.

When it comes to Freedom:

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

A year ago this week Dina asked me to visit a friend who was sick, and to gather with the family for prayer.

Today, Dina is here to be baptized.

Our mission is to plant seed of God's love through witness, outreach, and the Word! WOW

God's promise is, when we put that Word on the street, with Acts of Witness, and Works of Love, God does not disappoint, God completes the work through us for the sake of the world.

What God begins today in Dina, and in Noel, what God has begun in us, God will continue until it is complete.

In Baptism today

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

And now the story of Jesus is the story of God's Victory over evil, over suffering, over death.

This Jesus,

Gives sight to the Blind

Allows the Deaf to Hear (sometimes with lips, with signs, with love)

Heals the Sick and the Dead are set Free

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

In Jesus God is a

Father to the fatherless

Mother to the Motherless

Hope to the Hopless

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

Our God is a Path in the Wilderness

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

A great Shelter from the Storm

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

On this night, we celebrate the creation, we give thanks for the freedom, we claim our inheritance and we join the resurrection.

LOOK AT WHAT OUR GOD CAN DO!

AMEN

Sermon: In the Midst of Darkness

Christmas Eve, 2006

Luke 2

"In the Midst of Darkness"

It had bee the longest three days of their lives. This had not been the easiest of pregnancies. The surprise conception would have been enough, Joseph had nearly ended the relationship, they both had relied on their faith to get to this point. But traveling the rough terrain from Nazareth to Bethlehem had not been easy.

When they started the journey they had their spirits up, were ready for the trip to Bethlehem. Singing songs, playing word games with the scenery they passed along the road. But the journey hadn't been easy. They couldn't imagine three days feeling any longer. Mary couldn't imagine that she'd ever be so worried about her child, as she was during these three days for the baby still within her. Until now it always seemed something to be proud of, Joseph being in King David's family line that is, now it seemed like a burden. And when they finally arrived in Bethlehem, the end of that third day, the long shadows of the rough road had given way to a dark, starless night.

In the midst of that darkness. Of the shame Mary felt every time an inn refused. Of the exhaustion the young couple felt, even before labor pangs began, in the midst of this darkness, (pause) the baby kicks, and Mary's cheeks flush, and she remembers the light.

When the angel had come to tell her of God's favor upon her, a bright light had shone all around.

And when Joseph's impulsive anger turned to understanding because the spirit had visited upon him, there was a light, a brightness in Joseph's eyes and smile.

And when they had entered Elizabeth's home, singing out in joy, it seemed the whole house was illuminated with happyness. And Mary remembered what the angel had said, she was carrying the Light.

Chris Gardner's father walked out on him when he was three. He vowed he would never walk out on his son. In the new release "The Pursuit of Happyness" Will Smith takes on a role, playing the life of a real person, which is more meaningful than chasing aliens and playing a person whose real life takes more strength than the Greatest, Mohammed Ali.

Chris Gardner is a man who slowly, loses everything, his wife, his car, his home. Chris' son, Christopher, is his life, and when he was born, he made a vow that he would never leave him.

-In his pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner meets a stock broker on the street, upon seeing his fire red ferrari asks, "what do you do, and what did you have to do to get to where you are." Upon this man's advice Chris applies for an internship, and gets it. But the six month internship doesn't pay, part of what contributes to Chris and his son losing first their apartment, and then a hotel room.

On the darkest of nights, Chris locks himself in a subway bathroom. With his son, asleep, held tightly against his chest, Chris blocks other patrons from coming in the door with his foot, and can't sleep through the fear and the tears. In this darkest of nights, He holds onto his son. The light for Chris is essential to life. It is by moon lights some nights that he studies for his internship. Without the light in scanner he sells, he would have no money at all. But most of all, his son is his light. Their light for each other, will carry them through the darkest of days. Wherever they go, they go hand in hand, and Chris would make it through his internship, and today, the light shines from him brightly.

Have you come in from the darkness? Do you come tonight out of obligation or tradition, but have grown cold to it's effects? Do you come tonight searching for this holy one to make a difference, to inspire, to fill needs or fulfill your dreams? Do you come tonight lonely or lost, in search of significance? Do you come mourning and grieving the loss of a loved one? Or do you come personally satisfied with those around you and your comfortable Christmas scene, but broken hearted by the violence of our world? Have you come in from the darkness?

For the Shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, darkness was all around them on that hillside that night.

It wasn't just the darkness of the starless sky, it was living life as a lonely, insignificant shepherd.

Often reserved for young men and women – shepherds could have been 12-15 years old.

Because of the nature of this dirty job, and the way a shepherd tends to take on the smell of a wet sheep that sleeps outside, the shepherds were outcast, separated from family, friends, community.

No one was inviting the shepherds over for a holiday party, or taking them out for a cup of coffee or a beer.

No one was inviting them to worship either, they weren't welcome in the temple.

Their darkness was not just the barren sky, it was their search for significance, their desire to be wanted.

Until the darkness was broken with a light from on high. The brightness and glory of the angel startled the shepherds with fear. Some, taken their shifts to sleep awoke with a fright.

But the words for those in the darkness is Fear Not, I bring you good news. To you a Savior is Born, to you the light of the world is given, to you, God comes,

And to the shepherds, and to us, as the angel confirmed the good news, we are given a light, and so we join Chris in the pursuit of Happyness, we join Mary and Joseph in carrying the light. With them we follow that star to Bethlehem

The Shepherds couldn't wait to get there…

And falling on their knees, the manger before them. Here, they were satisfied, here they felt so significant, here they experienced peace, here they received a gift of life, a gift of light! Here was the light, come into the world. Come to live in us. Come to be the bread for the world that gives life, even when we die. Here was the light that gives hope and joy passing all human understanding. And this light began to glow. And that light, the light of the World, the light of Christ, is a gift to each of us, and when released, gives light to the whole world.

Bob Paeglow and his wife had just moved into their new home with their two children. Bob was an x-ray technician, Leanne, Bob's wife a nursing student when Bob felt a call to go to Medical school and serve "many people." It was a pipe dream, they didn't have the money, Bob didn't have the grades. But he got in to Albany Medical College, the only school that would take him.

He graduated at the top of his class, and the hospital hired him, he could have been set. But this hadn't been why he was called.

So he decided to use his gifts to go to Africa for Mission trips, spending personal money and personal time, but wasn't enough, and when he came home, he couldn't help but to think about the poor in his own West Albany neighborhood where Bob grew up, and the mission trips weren't enough.

So Bob gave up his job, sold his house, and open a full service grace station for people in need in Albany.

Koinonia provides primary care and mental health care to the poor in the West Hill neighborhood and beyond. Dr. Bob has worked for 5 years without a salary to make this care possible. Leane has labored beside him as the office nurse and now as a Nurse for the Neighborhood Health Advocate Program, as well as the Neighborhood Association President. This is how Dr. Paeglow, hear the glow in his name, this is how he carries the light, in receiving the Association of American Medical College's 2006 Humanism Award winner, Dr. Paeglow says that, "I've come to the realization that life is not designed for our comfort, or pleasure, but for us to discover our gifts and contribute what we can to make life better for others." Bob's way to carry the light, was to give away what he had. This is how we carry the light too – we give that light to each other

This evening, in from the darkness, we too are witnesses to the light. We can not go home the same, for whatever reasons we came, we go home with light. This is God's gift for us, This is God's gift for the world, this is the gift we have to share with the world. This light of the World, came that we too might be the light, you are the light of the world.

Mary fell asleep that night, pondering all of this in her heart, the brightness of the light was all around.

The Shepherds went back to their fields that night, never to forget what they had experienced, seeing all which God had told them through the angel, and proclaiming praises to God.

Here this Day, in the City of Philadelphia, A Savior is born, Jesus is the light of the World, Carry the Light!

Amen.

What is the Shape of a Christian?

Have you seen the shape of the new light bulbs?

They're funny looking, curly-Q. Expensive too - sometimes up to $4

But these light bulbs could save the world.

No, not like Spiderman or something.

According to EnergyStar.gov

"If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a [compact flourescent bulb], we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars."

Think about that - the shape of one, could change the world.

This is what God does for us in Christ.

God changes our shape.

We are re-shaped, created to give great light - amazing energy - transformational power for the sake of the world.

What is the shape of a Christian?

We are formed and shaped by culture - to follow the trends, to consume all things, to work for the self.

In Christ we are re-formed around the shape of the cross - to be counter-cultural, to give graciously and generously, to serve the other, to welcome the outcast.

This is the light of Christ in us - re-shaping us, re-forming us, centered in sacrificial love.

This kind of light - has the power to change the world.

With this Light, You have the power to change the world - God's light is in you.

Matthew 5:14-16