SERMON ~ 12/15/2013 ~ “Living in the Moment”

12/15/2013 ~ Third Sunday of Advent ~ Sunday in Advent on Which We Commemorate Love ~ Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:5-10 or Luke 1:46b-55; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 ~ Music Sunday Added Readings: Isaiah 40:3-5; Isaiah 11:1-6, 10; Isaiah 9:2b, 6-7; Luke 2:15-17 ~ Music Sunday Canceled Due to Snow!  Rescheduled for 1/5/2014.

Living in the Moment

“A voice cries out: / ‘In the wilderness / prepare the way for Yahweh; / make straight in the desert / a highway for our God.’” — Isaiah 40:3.

The late comedian George Cariln is famous for a lot of ironic but iconic one liners.  I like many of them.

Certainly one of my favorite Carlin quotes is this one: “I went to a bookstore and asked the clerk, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’  In return I got a glowering stare.  ‘If I told you,’ was the response, ‘it would defeat the purpose of self-help, wouldn’t it?’” (Slight pause.)

There is little doubt that one of the slogans of the self-help movement has been to (quote:) “live in the moment.”  One author who wrote about this called it “the power of now.”

Whereas the implication of this current popular way of looking at one’s life and the world is that only now is important— only now, not the past nor the future— I think living in the moment needs to be approached in a different way.  Indeed, I think the idea of living in the moment is an important concept.  I approve of the idea.

Therefore, one of the things I think needs to be brought to the fore when we talk about living in the moment is the thought that it encompasses not just the present but the past and the future as well.  I think when living in the moment, when living in the present, can somehow encompass the past and the future, it really does have the potential to be life changing.

You see, living in the moment while forgetting the past or the future is nothing more than ego-centric— not a good place to be, I think.  That kind of approach insists only our time— not the past— is important.  It insists only our time— not the future— has significant potential.  In short, if only now matters ‘living in the moment’ rejects others— other times, other places, other people.  (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as Isaiah: “A voice cries out: / “In the wilderness / prepare the way for Yahweh; / make straight in the desert / a highway for our God.”  (Slight pause.)

I have said this here before: Biblical prophecy is not about predicting the future.  That Biblical prophecy is about predicting the future is a conceit of the popular culture.  Saying that Biblical prophecy is about predicting the future is, to put it bluntly, an anti-Biblical sentiment.

Biblical prophecy is not about prognostication.  Biblical prophecy concerns speaking truth— a truth— about the Word of God.

I have also said this: in order to begin to understand what we read in Scripture we need to place ourselves in the time and the place of the people who were first hearing the writings.  And, indeed, those who wrote what we now call Scripture and those who first heard what we now call Scripture did not know it as Scripture at that point in time.  What was recorded was, in fact, nothing more than an attempt to understand their own experience of God.

They certainly did not think in terms of making a prediction that would be listened to as if it said about anything concrete or definitive about what might happen in the future.  They were simply trying to address what God might be saying to them, right then.

In fact, it might be said that they were living in that moment.  But in so doing, they were trying to make sense of the places from which they had come and the places to which God might be calling them.  They were looking to the past and to the future but being in the moment.

Therefore, for us to use what we read in Scripture as a prediction of what might happen, is to start in the wrong place.  In short, we always first need to ask what they recorded might have meant to them.

Indeed, I think what we fail to realize in what was recorded in the Fortieth Chapter of Isaiah is the immediacy of it.  Let me repeat it: “A voice cries out: / ‘In the wilderness / prepare the way for Yahweh; / make straight in the desert / a highway for our God.’”

So, if they were living in the moment what was it they might have heard from these words?  What might they have discerned?  (Slight pause.)  Perhaps one thing they might have heard was that God beckoned them to do the work of God, right then— in that place and in that time.

Given that concept, given that idea, we need to put ourselves in their shoes in order to begin to discern what Scripture might be saying to us.  Certainly one question for us is this: ‘can we hear something in these writings about the place to which God calls us?’  (Slight pause.)

 And that brings us to Luke.  (Quote:) “When the angels had left and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this event which has taken place and which God has made known to us.’”  (Slight pause.)

So, is this simply about the birth of the Messiah or is there sometime more being said?  (Slight pause.)  You see, once we understand Isaiah in its own context, on its own terms the words of Isaiah can clearly read as Biblical prophecy— speaking a Word of truth about God.

I say that because the Word which Isaiah speaks addresses God who calls us to do the work of God.  And perhaps we miss this next piece.  the birth of the Messiah also addresses God who calls us to do the work of God.

How so?  It has been often said the birth of the Messiah is about the in-breaking of God into our lives.

Hence, the Biblical prophecy Isaiah addresses is that God beckons us to do the work of God right now in our place and in our time.  And the birth of the Messiah also tells us God beckons us to do the work of God right now in our place and in our time.

And I do not think we have to look too far to find out what that work might be.  We are to feed the hungry, clothe those in tatters, care for and comfort those who are ill, etc., etc., etc.

Last, I want to suggest the real way we can do those things God calls us to do, is by living in the moment.  The real way we can do those things God calls is to do, is by listening to the Word of God and by recognizing what we are to do now and the places to which God continues to call us in the future.  Put differently, this is the call of God: we are to live in the moment— God’s moment— remembering that God forgets neither the past nor the future.  Amen.

12/15/2013
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY

ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “There is no question that living in the moment calls us to remember the past, the history of the relationship of God and humanity, calls us to be aware that what we do today shall effect the future of our race.  We should also be reminded that God calls us to live in the moment by reaching out to those around us as we share the love God offers to us with all people— that’s all people, not just some people.  And perhaps, when we do all that we are, ourselves, fulfilling a prophecy by striving to do the will of God.”

BENEDICTION: Let us go in hope and in joy and in peace, for we find love in the One who has made covenant with us.  And, indeed, God reigns.  And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore.  Amen.