December 11, 2016
Stetson Memorial UMC
3rd Sunday
of Advent
“A Sacred Moment”
Sermon Series
Psalm 146
Psalm 47:2a
Luke 1:39-56
“Birthing Room...”
A prayer of illumination so that God will
speak through me or in-spite of me…
I would ask that you would stand as you are
able for the reading of the Gospel according to Luke Chapter 1, verses 39-56.
Listen to the word of God for His people…you and I… (Read the gospel from the
Common English Bible)
Have
you ever been somewhere and just standing in the place just feels so
holy…almost as if you reached out…you could touch the hand of God…?
·
Talk
about Rolling Ridge and the sacredness of the it…
What
makes a place sacred…and not so sacred? Is there some kind of formula that you
can follow…like a bunch of boxes to be checked off…to know this is the genuine
real deal…?
Over
the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about the sacred. We have talked
about the sacredness of the season we are in…the season of Advent when we
expectantly wait to celebrate Jesus’ birth and wait expectantly for His return.
But at times we can get so busy that we lose that sense of wonder we had and
everything becomes a chore…a box to be checked off…
We,
as people, as Christians need to find a way to slow down, otherwise we are
going to miss the best part of this season of giving that we call Advent. We
are going to miss the best gift that we could ever receive. The gift of God’s
own Son in the form of a baby on a cold and silent night. As we slow down, we
will see the sacredness all around us.
The
word sacred itself means set apart and holy. The sacredness of something should
be revered and respected but the time of reverence and awe of this season seems
to get lost in the lights and glamor. In order for us to see…to feel…to touch
the sacred, we need to slow down our pace and just be for the moment…lest we
miss the awe and wonder of the manger.
This
Advent season, we have begun slowing down…even if for but a moment…to see what
might be missed in the hustle and bustle of the season. I would challenge us…you
and I…to take a spiritual journey to see all things through the
kaleidoscope…the display of beauty within the sacred space of Advent…
Ok…so the places of Sacredness…the moments that can tend to get lost in
the hustle and bustle of the season are:
©
Sacred Time
©
Sacred People
©
Sacred Space
©
Sacred Knowing
©
Sacred Being
©
Sacred Doing
I
would ask that we again would stop for a moment and just breath in the
sacredness of the space we are in right now…this sanctuary where God shows up
to meet us each Sunday…And as I have said…in
order to really enter into the Sacredness of Advent…we need to do it more than
just on Sunday’s so I would ask that each of us would continue to spend some
time each day…even just five minutes and focus on…meditate upon the Sacredness
we talk about each week… Let each build upon each other until we embrace
genuine purpose within this sacred moment…
We
rediscovered that Advent is a sacred time. The time of heaven intersecting the
time of the then and now. The time had come for a heart and life change. We
have even talked about sacred people within the Christmas Adventure…remember…sacred
people…set apart by and for God. We heard Mary and Joseph’s stories and
discovered they were just ordinary people who “showed up” and God did the
extraordinary in and through them…and we too have the same chance of the
extraordinary…but we need to show up…that
is when the extraordinary things happen…
In
today scripture we hear about two women who “showed up” for God, Mary, and
Elizabeth. Their bodies became the sacred places where hope was birthed. This
hope was going to move and transform the world. Both Mary and Elizabeth were
filled with the Holy Spirit…in fact,
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit as Mary…who made the space for the
hope of the world as she was set apart to be sacred within that sacred moment
in time spent with Elizabeth. Within that sacred space…within our sacred
space new hope is birthed. As we go out into the world we can affect the
ordinary with our extraordinary lives for God and joy is birthed, peace is
birthed, hope is birthed. We should be
vessels, set apart for Gods purposes and sent out to be pour out over a world
without hope, without peace, without joy, without love, without a Savior.
The world is one big “birthing room” but we need to choose to be midwifes of
the Master Physician who heals all that is broken.
There
was a sacred knowing within that moment that was shared. Elizabeth shouted
glory to God…she knew that the child Mary was carrying was the Holy One of
Israel. As deep calls out to deep (Psalm
47:2a) sacred calls out to sacred… And Mary sang a song of praise that is
probably the most beautiful awe inspiring, glory to God song I have ever heard…in fact I have kind of adopted it for my own
as I sing that you to God within and with my whole being.
Sacred place…I said earlier…the place we are
sitting right now is a sacred place. We have set apart this place as a holy
place, a place that is sacred because this is where we come to meet with God
each Sunday. This is a place that we have set aside for God…much like the
tabernacle in the wilderness that the Israelite’s had…where they met God. But
here is where there is a difference. Their place to me God…sometimes called the
Tent of the Meeting…was portable. When they moved…God moved with them…God went
before them and they stopped where God stopped.
I want you to think about
this fact for a moment. God went before them as they traveled with their
tabernacle. What if…and I am going out on a limb here…what if we too took our
tabernacle with us...? What if we too followed where God wanted us to go and
brought our sacred place with us. That would mean that where ever we went it
would be a sacred place…where sacred and set apart people would invite others to
enter into the journey…as we enter into a sacred time with and for God…remember
God is Immanuel…God with us… If this is so…If we believe this mind blowing
fact…Every place we go is sacred…we are always sacred people set apart…and our lives
would be spent in the awe and reverence of God…within the veil of time.
As
I have asked before…how are we going to spend this “holiday season”? Are you
and I going for the superficial…or is there something more…is there a better
way? I continue to challenge you and I to take a road far different than the
highway that leads to the Bethlehem Stable. I dare us…you and I…to allow God to
make something sacred out of our ordinary lives. We can live within the veil of
a scared space knowing the time has come to seek what really matters.
Perhaps
as we contemplate of the sacredness of space this week that we would walk in
our own call to be sacred as we usher in the presence of peace. You were all given a safety pin this
morning. The symbolism is this. While we were creating this beautiful vision,
we have in the sanctuary this morning, Sara Hill was wearing a safety pin. When
I asked her about it she said “it was on Facebook. There are so many people who
don’t feel safe anymore in the country they live. The pin is a symbol we wear
to let them know they are safe with us.” I challenge you to wear it and be that
sacred place others can run to.
I
challenge you and I to slow ourselves down and sit within the Sacredness of the
manger where we can see and feel the sacredness of space not only in our
sanctuary but as we take our “tent of the Meeting” out into a world that is in
need of a “sacred, safe place” to be…to see the sacredness of the ordinary…and
bring what we find there to the world through the sacredness of our lives,
within the sacred space…the witness of
what we find there…in and through the manger to the cross of our Risen
Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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