December 30, 2012 "Gradual Awareness"

I Samuel 2: 18-20, 26 Luke 2: 41-52 This morning we have a RIDDLE: What wears upon us all, but no one ever puts on? What is there none can avoid, yet all search to find? What is there that changes us, yet we can never stop or hold? What is there that defines yesterday, today and tomorrow? What has hands but has no arms? What moves but has no feet? What has a face, but has no smile? The answer to all of these, is TIME. Some years, the church calls for us to share the story of Mary and Joseph presenting the child at the Temple with the Offering of Two Turtledoves, and Simeon and Anna naming Jesus as Destiny's Child. Other years we read of King Herod murdering the children, which this year is far too close with the deaths of children in Connecticut. Instead, this year, we recall in the Old Testament that at the end of the Time of the Judges, in gratitude for the opportunity of giving birth Hannah gave her child to God; and annually she came to witness his growing, to give thanks for him in her life, and to be blessed. That regularly Mary and Joseph and their family had gone to the Temple at Jerusalem, but when he was about twelve, the family had left like everyone else, while Jesus had remained to ask questions and seek wisdom. Christmas Eve someone left their glasses, another left a purse, yet another left their gloves, and yesterday someone left a Cadillac at the church unfortunately they did not leave the keys. What is particular about these Scriptures, is that both the time of Hannah and the time of Mary were times of transition. The Old World was ending and a new era about to begin. In Hannah's time, everyone did what was right in their own heart, often being punished for it. Pharaoh, Moses and Joshua had been dead a long time. The Priest was named Eli and his sons did not follow in his ways, they were corrupt, immoral, abusive, evil. While the priesthood was passed by inheritance, something new had to come. Hannah wanted only one thing in life, not to be a mother, not to see her child graduate and marry and become a grandmother... but only to be able to have a child, at all. She vowed, that if she were to have the gift of having a child, she would give that child to God. Where others had made foolish vows only later to recognize the cost, Hannah meant what she had said, and literally gave her child to God. There is a level of devotion here, that is difficult for our world to identify with. In the Anthem on Christmas Eve and in the Carol “The 12 Days of Christmas,” we refer to OUR TRUE LOVE... Whom do we mean? Is our True Love, our Soul Mate? The one we fell in love with the first day of College, to whom we have been married and devoted to? Is our True Love: HOME, MOM, APPLE PIE, America? Is our True Love: SAFETY and SECURITY? Is our True Love our Self? Could our True Love be GOD? In Education and Career planning, we discuss Aptitude for differing subjects, what you naturally excel at doing, what you enjoy, what you want your career to be; now expecting, that there will be second and third careers. True Love and Devotion, being Given, seem in our world to be like Romance Novels and Children's fairy tales. As your pastor, I agonize and feel guilt at this time each year, not for broken New Year's Resolutions or failed dreams, there are actually very few of those, but for how many have served as Elders and Leaders, who then disappear all together from the Church. As our current Elders and Deacons complete their service in leadership, and the next prepare to be ordained, I wish we as the Church had the faith, the devotion, the love of one another let alone GOD, to express our thanksgiving for what leaders among us have done. It is wonderful every Spring to have those who have retired elsewhere return home, excited recalling that years ago there was no focus to the church, and we got down on our knees to unscrew and move the pews. Hearing the windows rattle and moan, some recalled the bellowing of the old organ. Work in mission has been something unique, making a difference in the world, where faith has been made real! Bible study has not been teaching, but sharing what we each believe and valuing one another's faith and interpretations. Like seeing Grandchildren, those who come home are thankful for change, but our awareness is often different in the day to day. In recent years, I do not think I can name one person who has not struggled with whether they should have resigned from leadership as their life had competing responsibilities, illnesses, job pressures. I fear that one of our most treasured symbols is a hollow one. At Ordinations, we invite and encourage all those who have been ordained, all those who have previously served in leadership to come forward, to stand at the Chancel Steps laying hands upon those being Ordained, passing the Holy Spirit from one to another, and literally standing behind those who currently lead to encourage. My fear is that while in this congregation nearly 95% of the body have served previously, rarely do any of us express “When I was on Session, we faced difficult decisions!” This last year, we installed a restroom in the Narthex that the congregation has been discussing how to accomplish for forty years. We live in an era in human society, in American society where leaders are targeted for blame, for responsibility. We have exceedingly great transparency and availability, yet someone needs to be the recipient of our fears and angers. One of the difficulties with the passage about Samuel, is that the Bible does not say, Hannah gave her child to lead as she wanted, or that Samuel entered leadership to remake the church. But that God blessed Hannah for her devotion, for following through on her vow, and used Samuel as a Gift of God not always as he wanted to be used. Our Parish Associate this last year, described to the Nominating Committee: “Be careful of people volunteering to lead! Often these have their own agenda, their own axe to grind that is not part of working together as the church.” A great deal has been said in the last fifty years about parity among the ordained, that if something is true for Elders and Deacons, it needs to be true for Pastors as well. The fact of the matter is that being Ordained, is different from anything else in life, it has to be because the church is different, faith is different, our relationship with God is a Devotion, a Love, rather than a responsibility or a job. This passage from Luke, with Mary and Joseph standing in the Temple staring at Jesus, represents for me one of the most exciting moments in life. Not the feeding of 5000. Not walking on water. Not even the Incarnation that the Word of God became a Human being, or the Atonement on the Cross. But that first moment that happens to each of us, when we go from being taught, given information to regurgitate, to instead questioning and devoting ourselves to what we Believe. There is a distinction in the Gospels over what is described as “The Messianic Secret” of whether Jesus fully knew, understood and accepted as a human being the cost of being The Messiah. There is the wrestling with the Devil, wrestling with himself, being driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, which comes at Jesus' Baptism. But here as a twelve year old, Jesus is witnessed to be struggling with who he is in relation to God, in relation to his family. Throughout the history of the Church, people have struggled with whether we come to faith through a Cathartic moment or a Slow and Gradual Maturation of Belief. What I see evidence of here, is that about the age of puberty, we have the first of many occasions when we discern by gradual awareness that what we believe matters. Like Jesus born into a time that would be the Fall of Rome, like Samuel born into a time that would be the End of the Judges and rise of the Monarchy of Israel, we are at the end of an era and beginning of something new. I pray, that we are at the end of an era where as quoted by the man in Webster, NY: he only enjoyed killing things. And that a new era is about to dawn when we wrestle with what we are devoted to creating. The difficulty of Dawning Times, is that they do not come all at once, or by evolution but through gradual awareness of something deeper, something we can devote ourselves to Be.