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December 11, 2011–We Will Live

Contributed by Jay Gamelin, Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Lexington, SC

Warm-up Question

What do you hope to do with the rest of your day today?  What are you hoping to get or give for Christmas this year?  Do you already have some New Year’s resolutions planned for 2012?  What might those be?

We Will Live

The best part of Christmas isn’t the day itself but the preparation for December 25.  A part of the Christmas season is seeing the decorations go up in the mall and on your neighbor’s gutters.  It is putting together the schedule of Christmas parties and worship services.  Preparing for Christmas means it is time to pull out the manger scene and the artificial tree and grumble about the time it takes to set up.

But of all the preparations perhaps the most fun is the creation of the Christmas wish list.  Once a year young folks (and some older ones as well) get a chance to dream about what may land beneath that tree and hope for the best.  It is an art of dreaming and then ordering the list in such a way that what you really, really want comes out on top.  In the past they may have dreamed of sugar plums.  Today it is Xbox games.

For some adults the list of hoped-for gifts can be expensive and, worse, what can be purchased may never be used.  In this article on thestreet.com (http://www.thestreet.com/story/11230328/1/5-things-you-spend-on-then-never-use.html) a list of the most expensive gifts you never use includes items such as swimming pools and outdoor grills.

When we plan what we want for Christmas, we are often thinking of the life we will have when we have this “thing”.  We imagine spending time by the pool or cooking off the grill or treating ourselves to an afternoon espresso.  When push comes to shove, we may end up getting what we want, but discover the life that comes with it is not exactly what we thought it would be.

Discussion Questions

  • What are you hoping for Christmas this year?  What do you think “life” will become when you have what you want?
  • Think about a gift you want this Christmas.  What does this gift say about you?  What does it say about what is important about you?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, December  11, 2011 (Third Sunday of Advent)

Isaiah 61:1-4

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

 

Gospel Reflection

There was a lot of hope surrounding John.  Clearly he was leading quite a revival movement among the people of Israel.  In John they heard words that reminded them of a greater story.  They thought of Elijah, a prophet who would usher in the messiah.  They wondered if he were a prophet. They had not heard a prophet in more than 400 years!  They even hoped that perhaps he might be the messiah.

John denied it all.  When asked who he was John pointed, not to his own life and witness, but to the one who would come after him.  John pointed to the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit’s fire.  He knew what he wanted was not for him but for those who came after him.

Perhaps John could have been a greater prophet and more of his words would be remembered. John was careful to point people to a bigger, better gift to come.  People may have thought that what they wanted was John, but John knew the better gift was coming.  It would be a gift that would truly change the world.

Like the people who came to see John we often think we know what we want.  We dream and hope for the life we want. We  settle for the lesser and do not realize the greater thing that is beyond the gift we want.  We want a pool but even more we want the community that gathers around the cool relief on a hot day.  We may want the wine cellar but what we really want are the people who gather for a glass and conversation.  We think we want an exercise machine but our real desire is to feel good, feel beautiful, and to be appreciated.  The thing is often not the thing we want!  We long for something beyond “stuff,” something much more beautiful.

As you prepare for the season be sure to look beyond the garland and tinsel, the music and the sweets, and the gifts and cards.  Instead, see that which is coming.  A true gift is on its way.

Discussion Questions

  • Have you ever gotten a gift you really wanted but then were disappointed?  How were you let down?
  • Have you ever been in a situation that felt rotten at the time but came out the other side in a better place? Share this time.

Activity Suggestions

All I want for Christmas. Make a Christmas Wish list, but instead of the usual “things” make a list of intangibles that you are hoping for this season.  For instance you may want a Christmas where the family all gets along or a Christmas that is not so hectic.  Perhaps you want a Christmas where you see good friends you have not seen in awhile.  Put this list down.  When you are done, what are steps you can take to help “get” the things on this list?

PROCESS:

+    What are you hoping for on this list?

+    What does this list say about what you value?  What are your hopes and dreams beyond stuff?

Closing Prayer

Immanuel, you have sent your servant John to point us to you.  While we are thankful for John, it is not John we hope for but you, God-with-us.  Help us to desire the things this season that you desire.  Give us what we need to see you clearly.  All this in your name.  AMEN.

 

April 6-12, 2011–Unspoken Question

Contributed by Bob Chell, University Lutheran Center, Brookings, SD

Warm-up Question

If God is in all places, at all times, how can God stand by while bad things happen?

Unspoken Questions

In 1862 the largest mass hanging in United States history occurred in Mankato, Minnesota. Thirty- eight Dakota men of the Santee nation were executed for taking part in what has been called “Little Crow’s War.”

The Dakota people were promised much but received little in payment for the land taken from them by the U.S. government. Unscrupulous traders and dishonest agents stole food and annuity payments until hunger and hardship drove the Santee to send out a hunting party of four in mid-August. The hunting party encountered white settlers and five settlers died. Things spun out of control and, after order was restored, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the hanging of 38 Santee men.

Jim Miller had a dream. Jim is a member of the Santee Nation. In 2008 he organized what has become an annual trek on horseback from the Crow Creek reservation of South Dakota to the riverbank where the executions took place, a distance of 330 miles.  Jim’s dream was not simply to make the trek, but to bring healing and reconciliation. The ride was commemorated in the film, Dakota 38 Engaging History.

Discussion Questions

  • Does God take an active role in the world?
  • To what degree are greedy Indian agents from the 1850s responsible for widespread poverty on reservations today?
  • Many children of divorced families struggle. Who is to blame?
  • Are retribution and reconciliation compatible?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, April 10, 2011 (Fifth Sunday in Lent)

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Romans 8:6-11

John 11:1-45

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

As a campus pastor, people come to me with hard questions, questions with no easy answers.  I get a call in the middle of the night asking, “If a person commits suicide, do they go to hell?” I’m pretty sure this is more than a disinterested quest for information.  So I want to know if the caller has a term paper due at 8:00 a.m. or if, perhaps, their fiancé broke off their engagement earlier in the evening.  The asked question is theological; the unspoken one is personal.  The first is about God, the second about the person’s deepest pain.

We can ponder the source of monstrously evil people and events in the world. Think Hitler and Holocaust.  We can probe for an explanation of great tragedy arising from nature. Think earthquake and tsunami.  These are theological questions.  Martha says to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” and the unspoken question is, “Why weren’t you here when I needed you most?”   That question comes to our hearts and lips when death darkens our house, when our parent’s divorce, when the person we love does not return our affection. It is a profoundly personal question.  We can discuss the former questions but often only sit in silence in the face of the latter.

I hesitated writing the last of the above discussion questions, knowing that for some it is a deeply personal question.  I kept it because the gospel is deeply personal.  Jesus didn’t come to tell bad people to be good people or to explain away deep, unrelenting pain with soothing words. Jesus did proclaim God’s promises to Martha.  Jesus did raise her brother Lazarus that day but Jesus response first response on seeing the body of his friend was to weep.  Many have memorized John 11:35 because it is the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.”   I contend it is among the most profound. It reminds us that Jesus stands with us in our pain, not over us in judgment when our lives are in turmoil.

Where is Jesus when my parent’s divorce, when a young Native American girl takes her own life, when thousands die in a tsunami or at the hand of evil tyrants? Jesus is there; weeping, standing with all in their deepest pain, their sharpest grief, their greatest regret.

Discussion Questions

  • Can you identify a time in your life when you felt abandoned by God? Looking back, was God with you? If so, how was God present?
  • When your pain has been deep and unrelenting, which words were helpful? Hurtful?
  • Can a person be close to God and far away from God at the same time?
  • Is trusting God different than believing in God?

Activity Suggestion

Make a timeline of your faith history:   Draw a line horizontally in the middle of a sheet of paper and label it with significant events in your life; your birth on one end and today on the other. Write joys and sorrows as they happened; great joys high on the page and deep sorrows near the bottom.  Connect them and you’ll see how your life has ups and downs. Now place a G when your faith was greatest, an A where your faith was absent, and an O where you weren’t thinking about God at all. Connect them and you’ll see the ups and downs of your faith journey.

Share with one other person your greatest joy and your deepest sorrow. Do the ways you felt about God’s presence at those times coincide with what you believe about God’s presence at those times now that you look back?

Closing Prayer

God, you know our deep pain, our secret shames, and the unrelenting pain which threatens us to make us despair. Help us to feel your presence in our hearts and not just in our heads. Give us confidence in your promises, so that we will trust you and cling to your promises when doubt gnaws at our faith.  Amen.