Worship fully: using our bodies, imagination and time to meet Jesus in Advent...

NOTE:  Here are my worship notes for the start of Advent 2012 on Sunday, December 2, 2012.  Throughout this season our faith community is practicing 3 simple commitments:  everyday we will take one minute to be in silence with those we love; every Sunday we will gather at the Lord's Table for Eucharist; and our children will spend more time with us this month in worship.

Introduction
Everybody I know wants something more:  some people want more money, others want more time, some ache for more health while many yearn for more love.  There are lonely people and hungry people, sad ones and angry ones, people who want to understand life better and those who want to get away from it all.  That’s why I say that everyone I know wants something more.

 

·       Do you know what I mean?  I think it is the human condition – how we are deep inside – there is an emptiness that we think we can fill with more:  more stuff, more money, more fun – more, more, more.

·       Which is, of course, why God invites us into the season of Advent:  during the four weeks of Advent that lead up to Christmas we’re encouraged to become a little bit more comfortable with our emptiness.  We’re asked to learn how to wait – and watch – and listen and rediscover the love of God that is already present in our lives so that we don’t get trapped in worry or fear – so that we don’t get caught-up in addictions or actions that hurt others – because those things can never fill our emptiness.

 

You see, at the heart of Advent we’re being trained to meet Jesus in worship – to notice the presence of the Lord in the readings and at Holy Communion – as well as in prayer and acts of ordinary service.  Because Jesus wants to come to us during this season – that’s what Advent literally means – coming.  Jesus wants to bring us comfort and rest and peace.  He wants to share hope with those who are afraid and a way of living that offers meaning to those who wonder what the point of living is all about.  He wants to share with us the gift of God’s grace and the forgiveness of our sins, too.  He wants to meet us – and love us – and heal us.  All of us – children and adults – women and men – rich and poor – tired and lively – all of us…

That’s why God’s people in our tradition begin with Advent – it is a challenge and alternative to our hunger for more, more, more – a living collection of practices and resources that over time fill us with Christ and rub down our rough edges so that we become a little more lovable – maybe even likeable!  And it starts with learning how to… wait. 

·       During Advent there are ways for children to wait, there are also practices that adults can do, too.  And throughout the entirety of the season, the whole Christian community is encouraged to live as a quiet and tender alternative to the craziness going on all around us. 

·       When people go nuts over the latest sale at Wal-Mart, when men and women get trashed at the office party and do stupid and sometimes destructive things, when children beg and whine like dogs for the latest electronic gizmo, when nations beat their chests and rev-up their war machines yet again and the world looks like it is falling apart, most people think the time has come to duck and cover.

·       But what does Jesus tell his disciples – including you and me – in this morning’s reading?  Don't duck and cover.  Rather, "stand up, lift up your heads!" for when the foundations of creation appear to be crumbling this is precisely when God’s people must act with courage, compassion and faith.

 

And here’s the real challenge:  the upside-down wisdom of Jesus says that we best learn how to be courageous, compassionate and faithful when we know how to… wait:  wait with grace – wait with integrity – wait for the child to be born – wait for Good Friday to become Easter – wait for the bread to rise – wait for water to boil – wait to experience what is beyond the obvious.  That is why Advent is a sign of God’s love for each and all of us:  rather than give up in judgment, every year we get another season to practice, right?

 

So this morning we’re going to talk together about learning to wait to meet Jesus in Advent through the ordinary experiences of our lives.  Specifically I want to call your attention what some speak of as the art of worshipping fully – fully alive, fully engaged ad fully connected – to God’s grace that is coming to us all the time if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel, ok?  And there are three parts to this:  using our whole bodies, using our imaginations and using time creatively.  Are you with me so far?

Insights
The first way to learn to wait for Christ – and to worship fully – is with your bodies:  all of your bodies – your heart and hands, you soul and sight, your voices and your feet – as well as your mind.  So, would you please stand up – come on, everybody up – young and old and all of us in-betweeners, too – time to get on your feet!

·       And let’s practice doing three things at the same time:  clapping your hands (or snapping your fingers), singing some words to an Advent song and moving your bodies to the groove of the song. 

·       It is a song I’ve been sharing with you for a few years – “My Lord, He Is a Coming Soon” – and it goes like this… 

·       Now let’s sing and snap and sway to this song all together two times – just the chorus –and try to have some fun with it, ok?

 

To worship fully – and meet Jesus in the celebration – you have to use all your senses.  Music can help us learn to be alive in church if we let it – that’s why I wanted you to do all three things at once – but only if you actually do it playfully.  So, in a playful way, can you say out loud for me some of the ways we use our whole bodies in worship?

·       For example, sometimes we stand during worship, right?  When does that happen?

·       And sometimes we move around, too:  when does that happen?

·       What are some of the other ways we use our bodies in worship – and how does that help awaken us to God’s presence?

So the first practice in worshipping fully is to use everything we’ve got:  how does the old hymn put it?  Now thank we all our God… with heart and hands and voices? 

 

The second way we worship fully is by using our imaginations with the stories of Scripture – we are invited to really listen to them – and figure out where we might meet Jesus in them. Take today’s story from Luke’s gospel:

·       On one level it is totally wild – fantastic – and almost unbelievable:  The world is crashing all around us and Jesus comes down in a cloud. But what’s really going on here?  Why all the bold and challenging images?   

·       I think it has to do with reminding us that God’s love is bigger than anything we can understand.  It is fantastic.  It is beyond our ability to comprehend.  It is in every way out of this world while also being fully within this world in ways that are coming to each of us, too.

 

Does anybody here go to the movies – or watch movies on TV at home – anybody?  Maybe you’ve watched some of the Harry Potter movies?  Or Lord of the Rings? Or the Narnia stories?  Maybe you like Hunger Games or some of the science fiction things, yes?  I love them all – can’t get enough – because they tell us something we all ache to know:  that there is a love bigger than all our mistakes and sins that comes to us with healing and hope from some place way beyond our control.  And if you look carefully at the Bible in a playful way, you can see this, too – and not just in the story from Luke. 

One preacher, David Lose, put it like this:  “While Luke claims in this passage that Jesus will come again to redeem and to save, Genesis claims that God the father of Jesus created heaven and earth in the first place and placed humanity at the center of this world to tend and care for it and each other, and both of these confessions are simultaneously incredible and true.”  And it doesn’t stop here:

Exodus announces that God cares deeply about the way we treat each other – ridiculous, but true. And the prophets promise God’s comfort and mercy, even for those who have run away from God; unlikely, but also true.  In Mary’s song that we’ll listen to in a few weeks we hear that the day will come when the world is turned so that all who are hungry and poor and in need will be satisfied – beyond our experience, but true.

And Galatians proclaims that in Christ there is no distinction between slave or free, male or female, that all are one in the unity of Christ – extraordinary, but true. And Colossians declares that we are more than the sum of our past failures and shortcomings, that God has in fact nailed the record that stands against us to the cross; highly doubtful, but true. And at the end of all this Revelation promises that God will wipe every tear from our eyes and create a new heaven and earth and dwell with all of us in peace – sheer fantasy, but true! Do you see what I mean? From beginning to end the whole Bible makes extraordinary, otherworldly claims and promises about God that are simultaneously too good to be true and so good that when we hear them we just can’t help but believe they’re true, even know they’re true and live our life accordingly.

To worship fully is to listen for the promise of meeting Jesus in the Bible – and then open your hearts and your imagination to the Lord in playful ways – so that Jesus can surprise you with his blessings.  Let’s put it like this: even an old sourpuss like Scrooge was changed by God’s love but it took an enormous amount of imagination for it to happen.  So, don’t be like Scrooge – all serious and sour – use your imaginations and the good news will be yours.

I don’t know where I first heard this but it continues to be true when it comes to time:  “We already have all the time there is, we need to learn how to use it creatively.”  This is the third practice of worshipping fully – using time creatively – so that we come to rest in God’s love and power not our own.  The ancient spiritual masters call this contemplation which is NOT withdrawing from the world or becoming a self-absorbed hermit.  Rather, true contemplation means to take a long, loving look at the world to see where God needs you the most.

·       Let me say that again:  true contemplation is taking a long, loving look at the world to see where God needs you the most.  Needs you to lift up your head, needs you to act with courage, compassion and faith rather than duck and cover, needs you to use the time you have been give creatively and with imagination. 

·       I think that’s what Jesus was getting after when he spoke of the fig tree; it offers signs if you are paying attention.  In the spring it bears leave and in the summer it gives fruit – but only if you are noticing.

 

·       That’s why Advent asks us to periodically be still – to take a long, loving look at what is real – to learn how to see the signs of God’s call that are all around us if we are paying attention.

You see, most of us can’t change the world – but we can touch somebody’s life who needs us – if we notice.  If we are looking for where God wants us to go with love, then we can get there.  But it won’t happen if we’re too busy, too worried or too self-absorbed.  We have to take a long, loving look at what is real.  And that’s why this season we’re trying to claim just 1 minute every day to be silent – with those we love – and listen for what God wants us to hear.
 
Conclusion
That’s also why we’re celebrating Holy Communion – Eucharist which means thanksgiving – every week in worship, too.  So we can practice meeting Jesus at the table, meeting him in our imaginations and meeting him by what is revealed through our creative use of time. 

 

Beloved, Advent teaches us how to live fully – and worship fully – as we wait in life.  This is the good news for those who have ears to hear.