Genesis 22:3-4

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 

Most of us have faced big decisions in life.  In the midst of those decisions, we struggle with a great deal of tension between the moment a decision is presented to us and the moment we make the decision itself.  The reason many of us don’t entertain risky changes in life is because we are extremely uncomfortable with the tension “in between”.  Our natural inclinations want to alleviate tension at all costs.  The problem with trying to get rid of the tension too quickly is we often sacrifice the pull into the future or we ignore our current reality.

I like to think of these moments of struggle as the “between”.  In the “between” moments, things are chaotic and uncertain.  Will we make the right decision?  Will we choose the right path?  Will we choose wrong and have our entire life ruined?  It’s even harder when those decisions involve other people, especially your family.  Sometimes the fear of change is just too much.   We turn back and head home to the comfortable, safe place.

I am wrestling with Genesis 22.  Particularly these seemingly obscure passages about Abraham and Isaac’s journey to Mt. Moriah where God is sending Abraham to present Isaac as a sacrifice.  God comes to Abraham and calls him to present Isaac.  Isaac is his heir.  Ishmael has been sent away.  All the promises God has made now hang in the balance as God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son.  

The whole adventure with Abraham started with a call from God.  Abraham began his original journey with God by venturing out in to the deep – into the unknown.  But Abraham’s original “between” moment (as he headed to Canaan) was filled with the hope that he was headed toward his future – the unfolding future of a new land.  Now as Abraham’s story nears the end, God calls to him again and sends him out.  Abraham is venturing out into the unknown once again.  But unlike his first journey which cut him off from his past, this journey could cut him off from his future.  A lot to process during a three day trip on a mule!

Why did God command Abraham to travel so far for this sacrifice?  Why not go to the altar nearby his encampment and present Isaac there?  I mean, that’s where the sacrifices to God normally took place.  Why a mountain three days away?  

I believe this “between” time was for both Abraham and God.  

For Abraham (and for us), the provision of God must be wrestled with and trusted in the “between” moments in life.  We must take time to think deeply about decisions we face.  Can you imagine the struggle on the three day journey knowing what is asked of Abraham?  Can you imagine how many times Abraham questioned, doubted, and probably considered turning around and going home?  The text doesn’t give us much insight into the journey itself, but I can imagine it was excruciating for Abraham.

But this was also a moment in time for God to see Abraham’s faith.  God sent Abraham to a place he would show him.  God knew the three days would be a “between” time to evaluate Abraham’s commitment to His command.  God wanted to see Abraham wrestle.  God wanted to see how he would respond.  If you read on in Genesis 22, God actually says at the conclusion of the story, “now, I know”…as if God was waiting to see what Abraham would do!  God wasn’t sure of the outcome!

This passage speaks to difficult decisions we all face in life.  Will we stay with the “3 day” journey?  Will we move patiently through the “between” times in life as tension-filled as they may be?  Or will we seek to do away with the tension?  I wonder what God will learn about us if we seek to reconcile things before we’ve journeyed to Mt. Moriah.  The opportunity for second thoughts is always possible.  Only at the end of the journey can God say, “Now I know.”

A final thought…

For those who say, “God already knows everything.  God knows what we will do and not do!”, I say read Genesis 22 again.  How can this actually be a test if Abraham has no choice?  Look again at Jesus’ struggle in the garden as he faced his death.  God does give us freedom to choose!  As Thomas Merton wrote, “A [person] who fears to settle their future by a good act of their own free choice does not understand the love of God.  For our freedom is a gift of God given us in order that He may be able to love us more perfectly, and be loved by us more perfectly in return….He Who loves us means to leave us room for our own freedom so that we may dare to choose for ourselves, with no other certainty than that His love will be pleased by our intention to please Him.”

In 1969, renowned professor of clinical psychology and the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Martin Seligman, coined the term “learned helplessness”. The phrase out of a series of experiments (which I realize are quite horrible and inhumane). He had three groups of dogs which were all put in harnesses where they could not move. The dogs in group one were placed in the harness and then released. The dogs in group two were in the harness and given an electrical shock, but there was a lever they could push and the shock would stop. The dogs in group three were in harnesses and given an electrical shock, they also had a lever in front of them but the lever did not stop the electric shock.

What Seligman first discovered was that dogs from groups 1 and 2 recovered quickly from their ordeals when they returned back to their pens with the other dogs and seemed vibrant and healthy. The dogs from group 3 learned quickly that the shock was inescapable and they had no control over it. When returned to their regular pens with the other dogs, these dogs from group 3, became helpless and manifested symptoms of chronic depression.  (No surprise there!)

But there was more. The first stage of experiments I described took place over a period of time to reinforce the outcome. Later that year, Seligman’s second stage of the experiment put all three groups of dogs in a type of shuttle box, a box with a low divider where the dogs could move from one side to the other if needed. Dogs from group 1 and 2 would quickly a shock by jumping over the low center divider to the other side. The dogs from group 3 were also shocked and what Seligman saw reinforced his suspicion. The dogs from group 3, who had previously “learned” that nothing they did would affect the shocks, simply laid down and whined when shocked. They didn’t try to escape at all. Seligman said the dogs in group 3 had developed “learned helplessness”.

Toward the end of the first year of experiments, Seligman and his team tried to coax the dogs from group3 across the shuttle box to avoid the shock. They used treats, incentives, coaxing, allowed them to watch the other dogs and other methods. The dogs had been so conditioned by learned helplessness that nothing they would do would help the dogs move away from the shock…except for one thing.  Seligman found that only when they went in, physically picked up the dogs and moved their legs to model for them how to move across the shuttle box at least 2 to 3 times would the dogs actually “learn” new behavior and escape the shock.  Threats, rewards, and even watching the other dogs escape did not change their thinking. Only when the scientists reached down, picked them up, and moved their legs did the learn they could change the outcome.

Seligman argued that learned helplessness is wired into our biology. Many of us have been here.  Through significant suffering, grief, or even just getting stuck in the mundane routine of life, we feel we cannot control the outcome.  .  We just take it – whatever life sends us.  We never try to escape.  We never try to combat the powers.  There is nothing we can do…or so we think.  We see others rise above, but that is not enough to call us to rise up.  No, we just resign ourselves to suffering.

Professional poker champion Phil Gordon in his “Little Green Book on Poker”, says at the end, “I’ve disovered there are sick gamblers. We’re talking people who expect to lose. They are actually soothed by losing because it’s the only way they can confirm just how unlucky, undeserving, and cursed they are. I may try to help a sick gambler, but not while I’m playing. They expect to get beaten…while I may feel sorry for them, it is my duty to fulfill their expectations.”

Most of us think we are smarter than a dog and that we would never allow that to happen to us.  I’ve found in my life I’m not. I spend years in a state of learned helplessness after my parents divorce.  I just accepted what was.  I had no control over it.

So, how do we rise above the learned helplessness of life?  Not through talk, Paul says, but power…actions…and God does this through the community of faith. God’s hands are the hands of those who pick us up and move our legs across the walls that stand in our way.

The desert fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries believed there were three ways we gained the mind of Christ and learned to live in unity and love.
1. Prayer and Introspection
2. Participate in the Sacraments
3. Seek out a Spiritual Guide (Abba or Amma) who has the mind of Christ and can teach you.  While all three are vital, the third leg is crucial to overcoming learned helplessness.

In 1997, I was an associate at St. Luke in Columbus, a 3500 member church. I was not happy and thought, I know God called me to ministry, but I’m not enjoying this. I applied to be a campus minister, thinking…that at least looks fun. Now before I make any big decision in life, I seek out my mentors. I had prayed and sought God, but one of my mentors, Mike McAfee, gave sage wisdom, “John, what has God called you to do?” I replied, he called me to ministry, to preach, to lead people to Christ and discipleship. Are you doing that, he asked? Well, sure, I said. He wisely said something I didn’t want to hear. John, an associate is great, but don’t deceive yourself into thinking you are doing the kind of ministry God has called you to. Here is my advice, leave there, get your own church and see what God does and says. If you still want out, I will support you. I moved that next year to my first appointment as sole pastor and I haven’t had a second thought ONE time since.

Where do you need to submit yourself and allow another to come alongside of you?  Who can lift you up, move your legs and teach you to move out of the limitations of the learned helplessness you are stuck in?

Some of us may be bound up in the mundane, but you can rise above it. You can’t do it alone. You need someone to come alongside of you. The holy spirit does this through others around us as they lead us out of learned helplessness into putting on the mind of Christ.

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, which gives some interesting thoughts on success.  As I was reading it, I thought about how the church is called to be successful in its own way of making disciples and I wondered what we may learn from Gladwell.

One of the first things he makes clear is the importance of hard work and opportunity when it comes to success.  Many of us believe it is simply the amount of talent or intelligence we have but there is more to success than innate abilities and giftedness.  Both are important.  “Achievement is talent plus preparation,” Gladwell writes.  Through a variety of interesting examples, from Canadian hockey players to Korean airline pilots, Gladwell lays out how timing and culture play a large role in our success or failures.  He does not insinuate that success is arbitrary, or “lucky”.  Rather, he argues hard work is integral to success.  He writes, “…the more psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role of innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role of preparation seems to play.”  He goes on to say that people who are the most successful don’t just work harder…they work much, much harder.  Interesting.

Gladwell is the originator of the concept of “10,000 hours is the magic number for greatness – the number of hours required to be an expert.”  If you dedicate to a craft for 20 hours per week, that means you need 10 years to be considered an expert.  You can cut that in half if you double it to 40 hours per week.  That’s still 5 years of doing nothing but honing your craft and skill.  How many of us really do that?

Finally, Gladwell says, “it is not the brightest who succeed.  If so, ordinary geniuses would be up there with Einstein.  Nor is success simply the sum of decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf…it is rather, a gift.”  His seminal quote is this: “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities—and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”

Now that last part is the part I like!  It is a gift.  Success at anything we do is a gift given to us by God (my words, not Gladwell’s).

What does this look like for us at Wesley?  Simply put, we have been given some amazing gifts and some wonderful opportunities.  Just look around at what we have…our intellects…our resources…our influence…we are blessed with innate gifts.  But that isn’t always enough to do all that we could do.  If we are to be all God calls us to be, we must put in the time and energy into making disciples, living righteously, and doing justice.  I truly believe Wesley is poised to break out and move to another level, but it won’t come just because we want it to come.  We must put in the time.  We must put in the energy.  We must put in the hours to help re-create the world around us.

Isaiah 63:7-9
I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, because of all that the LORD has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely”; and he became their savior 9in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

What now?  The Sunday after Christmas is always a low Sunday.  Families are visiting or families are traveling.  People are taking advantage of the opportunity to be off and sleep in.  That’s why this Sunday is typically called “Associate Pastor, or Guest Preacher” Sunday.   Two Senior Ministers were in worship at Wesley this Sunday while their Associates were holding down the fort back home!

The Sunday after Christmas represents what we think about Christmas. It’s over and many of us are glad. My wife and I usually ask each other on Christmas day about 2 pm, “So, when do you want to take down the tree?”  Someone told me this week that they believe we feel this way because our culture starts Christmas in September.  We are just done with it. It’s time to get back to “normalcy”. It’s time to move on. It’s over.

But in that time between Christmas and New Year’s, I want to very briefly remind you that Christmas is not over at all. For Christians, it has all just begun! The birth of Jesus does not represent for us an ending, but rather a beginning. This is why the church calendar year begins with Advent.  For us, the message of Christmas should propel us through the year!  And just what is that message?

Isaiah tells us…
“he became their savior in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them”  My hope an prayer is that you will take this passage of scripture and make it your home screen, put it on an index card on your bathroom mirror, or mark it in your Bible.  The beauty of Christmas is that God did not reach out to us in some abstract, untouchable way.  Christmas is the story of God with us in everything at all times! It is God’s own “presence” that saves us.  God didn’t send a messenger or an angel…God came Himself!  His presence saves us.

How can we carry that forward?  I have a suggestion.  As you clean up your Christmas decorations this year, pick something to leave out.  It could be a shepherd from your nativity or the nativity itself.  It could be an ornament or a Christmas candle.  It doesn’t really matter what it is except that it is something you use during Christmas.  Keep it in a place you will see all year and as you walk by it remember the message of today.  “his presence saves us”…

Jesus continues. He will continue the actions of God our Heavenly Father who sent him to be with his people. He is Immanuel, God with us, and we are His chosen ones. He will care for us and love us in our deepest distress, will redeem us, lift and carry us as his God has done from the beginning.

Isaiah 9:2-7
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

What a beautiful poem Isaiah gives us. It is a poem that follows the historical setting in verse 1, “There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations”  This historical setting is a carryover from Isaiah chapter 8 which describes a time in Israel’s history when God was silent (or at least not listened to).  From Isaiah’s perspective, this poetic message is a sign of hope. The throne of David is reaffirmed. This king referred to will bring the promise of transformation, recreation, and perpetual peace all with justice and righteousness!
The Darkness will become Light – we have seen the power of light on Christmas Eve as the one light of the Christ candle makes the entire sanctuary awash in soft light. We have seen the power of light in the life of Ebenezer Scrooge as he reflects in front of his grave marker of the message of Past, Present and Yet to Come.  Scrooge cries out, “Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”

The bright light from the Ghost of Christmas Past that Scrooge fought hard to snuff out, continued to shine in his life – revealing his true character. The light overcame Scrooge’s darkness and can overcome ours as well, if we will open ourselves to see and hear the message Christ brings.

Isaiah also points to a great celebration – people shout and sing to God as if it were thanksgiving at the end of a great harvest or when war had ended! When our lives are touched by Christ in us, we are not the same. Scrooge was completely transformed.  Dickens shares these final passages from A Christmas Carol – “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”
The poetic celebration of a life transformed.  The celebration of Christ’s redeeming work.

This Isaiah passage also speaks of something deep and universal – perpetual peace. The tramping boots and the bloody uniforms will all be burned. This is God’s desire for his creation and we must do our part to make it a reality – as we shine the light of Christ through our lives every day.

Finally, the scene in Isaiah shows us the future. It moves to the throne room of the King and even beyond! The newborn king is shown to be the true king, seated on the throne of David. This king will administer justice, establish righteousness, and bring a reign of peace.  This is God’s will and this reign will extend forever.

Always be open to the challenge of God’s word! Examine your past and allow Christ to help you overcome the limitations of it. Remember the simplicity and purity of our faith and live in the present – with love for God and those around you every day. Don’t be afraid to let God disturb you from any course of the future that is not in line with his will.

Christ has come. The time for redemption is at hand.

Isaiah 35:1-10
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”   Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

What is more fearful? Death? Or a meaning-less life?

As we look ahead into the future, we hear a voice from long ago – a call from Isaiah of the future Christ ushers in – a future that disturbs.  Disturbing? Really? Many of us read these prophetic passages of Christ’s coming into the world and we like them. They don’t disturb, do they?  The truth is that this passage is deeply disturbing to those of us who are comfortable. God seems to always afflict the comfortable. Look at every story of God’s dealing with humanity in scripture from Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Joseph, to David, to Paul – God’s word causes quite a stir because it always challenges our view of the world.

Isaiah says, “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” That’s not disturbing? This is exactly what happened to Ebenezer Scrooge when he was visited by the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. Confronted with the disturbing truth, Scrooge sees the future of his unchanged life. His grasping, greedy, and relation-less life ends with no fanfare and no compassion. The Spirit takes him to a back alley shop where a woman is selling Scrooge’s bed curtains. Scrooge hears her say, “If he wanted to keep ’em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he’d have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.”

The consequence of an unreflective life lived only for ourselves is highly disturbing.
And this is our danger; most of us are unaware of how selfishly we live our lives. Many of us are so comfortable with how the world works and our place in it, that we have learned to care for only those who are like us!

Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book An Altar to the World, writes, “We have just enough religion to make us hate one another but not enough to make us love one another. Because we are human, which is to say we are essentially self-interested, we are always looking for ways to add a little more authority to our causes, to come up with better reasons to fight for what we want than to just say, “Because I want it, that’s why.” If we can convince ourselves that God wants it too – even if that means we cast God in our own image so we can deny the image of God in those not like us – than we are free to harm others not for our own reasons but in the name of God, which allows us to feel holy about it instead of feeling bad.”

Look again at Isaiah’s word’s – look how he crafts the image of Christ’s coming into the world. Total redemption, total transformation, total reconciliation – not just in the way you and I define it for our self-interested personal spirituality, but for the entire world: Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes, every person, every tribe, every race, in every situation will be redeemed and recreated – the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping… this passage speaks of waters breaking forth into the deserts…a highway of God where the unclean may not travel.
God will reset everything to the original default settings – a total RE-CREATION where the poor and the hungry have a seat at the table with the rich and sated.
This is disturbing because the person we deem least worthy to share a meal with will be seated at God’s table with us. This is disturbing because the person we refuse to forgive will be forgiven. This is disturbing because the person we hate is the person God loves. This is disturbing because our constructed order to the universe will be shattered and God’s order to the universe will be the only image.
This is disturbing because scripture says if we don’t usher in this new reality – if we fight it or limit it or try to sustain it – we will be just like Scrooge staring straight at his own tomb.  Our names will be on the tombstones in front of us if we remain totally self-interested and neglect living in God’s pure love and mercy (and share it with the world).  This is disturbing because Jesus gives many images of what happens to those who don’t get this message and work toward this end – trust me it is not pretty – it is filled with fire, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. But the good news is we can change.

So I ask you once again…What is more fearful? Death? Or a meaning-less life?

For many of us, our own names are on the tombstones of life staring back at us. This is the result of living life in our own self-interest.  How will we respond when we see our names written on the marble in front of us?  What will our response be?  How will we live our lives going forward?
Will we continue the same?  Or will we work with God, ushering in Christ’s Kingdom and be re-created fully in God’s image and live a life of love?

Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

In the continuing struggle to live in this world and figure out life, I am here to declare that it really isn’t as difficult as it seems.  We make it harder than it really is. We are the ones who turn grace into legalism – God doesn’t do that. We are the ones who turn mercy into unforgiveness. We are the ones who take love and turn it into control.

Early in my ministry, I was amazed and often disappointed to find out that for most people and for most churches, that the true heart of Christ’s message, the true heart of our religion was being obfuscated by our own desire and need for control and security. I have found in many churches, religion was much more about law and much less about relationships and grace. One of the reasons I actually considered dropping out of seminary in 1993 and going to law school was because what I found in churches when I began working in them was not what I found in scripture. Isn’t that sad. What does that say about our churches that a young preacher actually thought it would be purer and more real to be a lawyer??

This Advent, we hear the message of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness to get ready! Make way for the coming of the Lord. John was the great illustration of the Old Testament prophet (in the wilderness, crying out, wearing animal skins, living like a hermit) but he was announcing a NEW message. John declares that in the coming of Christ, what you thought was true religion will be dashed on the rocks. Law will be supplanted by grace. Unforgiveness will be supplanted by mercy. And anger, gossip, and pettiness will be supplanted by love.

We are now the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming out to John to proclaim we want this baptism of Jesus – we want to share in this message – yet we cling to old ways. We are the ones who take pure religion and turn it into a farce – a hypocritical institution where the rest of the world refuses to enter in because, they say, “I know those people, I see how they live, how they treat people, how they talk to others, and how they refuse to love those not like themselves. I don’t really want that kind of religion.”  As Thomas Merton reminds us, pure love desires only one thing – the good of the one loved. Yet we have made it a selfish love – many of us love for what it does for US.

For most of our lives, we church folk never realize this great tragedy. We justify, reify, and glorify (ourselves) into believing that the way we do religion is the right way. The way we worship is the right way. The way we live life is justified totally because …. it is how I live it. And that is enough of a rationale and reason to make it right – because it is the way I do it and the way I want it done.  Simply put, we stand in our own way of freedom, grace, love, and mercy.

Now before any more of you think about getting up to walk out this morning, just know that is John’s message – (not John Stephens but John the Baptist) crying out in the wilderness. Are we ready for Christ to really come and be Lord in our life? We are confronted with this question today – what does your religion look like? Is it the true religion of Christ who came to transform, recreate, and make new? Or is it the religion of old – the religion that Jesus came to confront – a religion of rules, control, power, security, – a religion fashioned in our own likeness rather than the likeness of God.

The great contemplative Thomas Merton also wrote, “Every person becomes the image of the God they adore. He whose worship is directed to a dead thing becomes a dead thing. He who loves corruption rots. He who loves a shadow becomes, himself, a shadow. He who loves things that must perish lives in dread of their perishing. The man who leaves the Lord the freedom of the Lord adores the Lord in His freedom and receives the liberty of the sons of God. This man loves like God and is carried away, the captive of the Lord’s invisible freedom. A god who remains immobile within the focus of my own vision is hardly even a trace of the True God’s passing”  And this was exactly the message of the Ghost of Christmas Present to Ebenezer Scrooge; “Let me show you what Christmas really is and not the limited construct humanity has made it.”
Dickens writes of Scrooge’s journey with the spirit , “Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery’s every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.”

Scrooge, believing Christmas to be a farce and an invention of rich men to steal accuses the spirit of all the selfish things done in the name of Christmas and faith, the Spirit replies, “There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”  The Ghost of Christmas Present is similar to John’s voice crying out in the wilderness. “Be careful that you think you have it all understood – it is much simpler and richer than you could ever imagine, but you have to get out of your own way first.”

True and pure love is the simple answer. Not in control, not in legalism, not in unforgiveness, not even in buying stuff!  This lesson is beautifully lifted up as the Spirit of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the Cratchitt’s home. In watching that poor and simple family celebrate the simple essence of love, Scrooge learned that:
• True happiness cannot be bought, that it begins and ends in the heart, and that the fulfillment of our living is found in relationships not in regulations.
• That the value and worth of a person is not found on their net worth, but in the quality of their character.
• And he learned that redemption is found in seeing and caring for the poor.
Not the most profound and intricate of philosophies and theologies. No scripts, no expectations of what religion looks like from you or me or some other overly pious control-ridden Pharisee or Sadducee. True joy and happiness is found in relationships – true religion is rooted in love.

When it is all said and done, the secret to living life fully is not that difficult to figure out.  Let us move beyond control, legalism, and judgment toward to power that can set us free.  Love.  The greatest of these is love.

Romans 13:11-14
Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

I would be lying to you if I said there were never moments when I wish I could journey back to my past and change things. I have this occasional dream of being able to go back in time – knowing all the things I know NOW. I would not want to go back if we were not allowed to take the knowledge I have now.  I think about what I might have done different. I think about relationships that were broken, whether my fault or someone else’s. I think about hurtful words and actions towards others. There are moments and events that we probably all wish we could change, that we wish turned out different.

Remembering the past can be a good thing – if we use those memories to learn how to move forward. After all, the philosopher George Santayana warned that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The past can teach us.  The past can form us in positive ways.  But there are some memories that don’t help. They haunt us. They enslave us and bind us.

Some of us have never been able to live fully in the present (or even have any vision for the future) because our past is so oppressive. These powerful, limiting forces come from haunting memories.  The question for us today has to do with the memories of our disappointing and even sinful actions in the past. The remembrances that form chains around us that enslave us. What chains of the past bind you? How do you need to be set free?

Paul writes in Romans 13, “you know what time it is, this is the moment to wake from sleep. The night is far gone and the day is near. Lay aside the works of the darkness and put on the armor of the light. Live honorably in the day.”  In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the light that shines on our past is reflected in the Ghost of Christmas Past.  While Paul uses the term, “the night is far gone and the day is near,” Charles Dickens uses the powerful image of the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shines light in the corners of our life.  Dickens writes, “But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
The light was so bright issuing from the spirit’s head that Scrooge immediately asked that the spirit put the extinguisher cap over its head to shield the light, to which the spirit replied, “”What!” “would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow!”

Dickens identified the fear in every one of us: When we are confronted with light that shines in the darkness of our lives, our first impulse is to extinguish it. We don’t want to confront the debilitating pains and mistakes of the past. Who does?
We are familiar with Scrooge’s journey into his past. He travels to his boyhood schoolhouse, to his former place of work, and to the moment on Christmas Eve when he chooses gain and success over the love of his life.  Can we imagine being forced to relive the most painful parts of our past? I wonder how we would respond. Would we be moved to act in ways that are redeeming? Or would we want to close our eyes and like Scrooge, beg to see no more?  Unfortunately for many of us, we carry our painful reminders with us all the time. We don’t really need any spirits to take us there, because we relive them regularly.

I remember a young girl in a former church who shared with me that her father had repeatedly told her throughout her childhood that she was worthless. Can you imagine the effect that had on her life? It was no wonder she struggled in so many areas. She did not want to revisit those words, but she needed to hear that her father did not define her – her father had no power over who she was or could be.

I remember a friend whose spouse had violated his trust. For many years, he was a prisoner to mistrust. He just couldn’t bring himself to fully trust another. He needed the light of truth to shine and communicate to him that what one other person does, does not define all the rest. Love is a risk, but the love of God never disappoints and is the only power that can heal.

I remember my own story, struggling with emotional connection and trust, blaming it all on my father and telling myself – this is the way I am. I can’t change this disconnected part of me because that is what my experiences have shaped me to be. I believed for many years that my own experiences defined me in such a way that I couldn’t emotionally connect to another person.

But the truth of the Gospel is we can change. I speak from experience as one who has been changed. Over the past 20 years, God has literally changed my personality. I have become more forgiving, more feeling, more intuitive, and more emotionally connected – I still have a way to go, mind you. That work was God’s work in me – but I also had to face some darkness that I didn’t want to face. It didn’t happen in one night, like Scrooge, but it happened for me – and it can happen for you.  It happened through prayer. It happened through friends who nurtured me. It happened through close friends who would listen and comfort and guide. It happened through the Church. All of these resources of healing gifts of God that help us make sense of the darkness and step into the light. These gifts of church, family, friends, and pastors helped me identify the chains and allow Christ to set this prisoner free.

Paul said to wake from our sleep and face the day. The prophet of Isaiah said it this way in Isaiah 61:1-3, “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion—to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.”

If you want to be set free from your debilitating past then it is time to step into the light and connect with the resources God has given us to set us free!  Let’s not extinguish the light as Scrooge did. Scrooge sought to put out the light, to run away from the truth of who he was.  Dickens writes, “Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head. The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.”

“it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Live honorably in the day.”