This is your light. This is your light. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 1

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "This is your light. This is your light. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 1"

Rolf Williamson
6 years ago
Views:

1 This Is Your Light: Signs on the Road to Gratitude Monsignor Robert J. Jaskot Sermon Given at the Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving Christ Reformed United Church of Christ Middletown, Maryland November 18, 2012 This is your light. Only a little over two years here at Holy Family, I used to serve in Baltimore City. I lived at a church in the northern part of Baltimore, close to University Parkway. University Parkway is a pretty major east-west thoroughfare for the northern part of the city with several cross streets. At one point, there are two cross roads in quick succession, each requiring its own traffic light. Traveling east on University Parkway, it can be confusing as which traffic light corresponds to which cross street. Someone in the Transportation Division of Public Works for Baltimore City had the great idea to put a sign in front of the first traffic light, unseen from the second cross street. This sign very simply and very clearly read: This is your light. It says, in other words, Hey, buddy, pay attention to me and not the other guy. Tune those other lights out. The sign may seem redundant and perhaps should be unnecessary but it helped to clear up a lot of confusion and to reduce traffic accidents on both of those cross streets. This is your light. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 1

2 This evening we prepare prayerfully for the feast of Thanksgiving. What a blessing that we gather together to do so as Christians showing, in our common prayer and worship, a sign of the unity of the Body of Christ that the Lord gave to the Church and which God wants so desperately to restore. I have to admit that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and not simply because it revolves around food - although it's obvious that this would be a valid assumption! It is one of my favorite holidays because it lacks the hype and great expectations of other holidays, but also for its focus: we gather together to celebrate and give thanks to the God Who has created us and who continues to sustain us. Now, one might argue that the celebration of Thanksgiving, like that sign on University Parkway, is redundant or should be unnecessary. After all, as Christian disciples we should live every day in a spirit of gratitude, recognizing that everything that we have and everything that we are is a gift from God. While a feast calling for thanksgiving may be unnecessary in theory, I can tell you that it's not unnecessary for me. In fact there are times when I forget to recognize God's Presence, let alone thank Him for that Presence. This is especially true when I'm challenged by busyness, or difficulty, or obstacles or, even worse, my own weakness and sinfulness and selfishness. Yes, perhaps this celebration should be redundant but I can tell you that it's not for me and I m glad that we have a feast with the very goal to pause and to recognize God's active presence in our lives and in our world. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 2

3 Pope Benedict XVI, spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church, called a Year of Faith to remind us in the Catholic Church of the great gift we received in the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago this month. This Council, which drew bishops and theologians from all over the world and indeed from other churches as well, was called by Pope John XXIII to help the church understand and relate better to the world. One of the most profound calls of the Council was for the Church to recognize, and then help interpret, the "signs of the times." (Gaudium et Spes #4, et. al.). Ultimately the Council took this call to interpret the signs of the times from Jesus Himself and it comes from the challenge Jesus gives to the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew's Gospel (16:2-3) who ask him for sign: In the evening you say, Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red ; and, in the morning, Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times. It was reiterated for us in the Catholic Church just this morning when Jesus, in Mark's Gospel, called his followers to "learn a lesson from the fig tree." His call was for them to recognize and, I would daresay, be convinced, of God s bringing about the kingdom as surely as a fig tree blossoms and bears fruit. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 3

4 Sometimes, we realize, though, that it's not so easy to recognize the signs of the times, to see God's active presence in the world. We live in a time of war and violence. Even today Israelis are bombing the Palestinians and the Palestinians are bombing the Israelis. Iraq, Afghanistan, and the whole Middle East are torn apart by war and violence, much of it even done in the name of God! Our own men and women among the suffering and dying as they seek to promote peace and increase democracy. an age where thousands are starving to death, some of them not too very far from us. an age when greed and selfishness seem at times to be the economic law of the land. And if we re honest, we know that we don't even need to look that far. There is violence in our own hearts, darkness in our own lives, selfishness and greed in the way we approach the world. Sometimes it's so difficult to recognize God s presence when I'm struggling with challenges of health, oftentimes even more difficult when I see sickness in those I love. Or when I'm struggling with difficulties in my own household wayward children, elderly parents, a distant spouse. Or when I ve lost my job, have no health insurance, and am struggling to pay the bills. Yes, it is often difficult to recognize this active presence, to read God s presence in the signs of the times. Left to our own devices, we devolve into fear and confusion unable to see and to know God's presence. But as Christians, as disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, we are not left to our own devices. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 4

5 Instead, we have a God who recognizes how difficult it is to recognize Him and so comes to us to make it easier. We have a God who breaks into human history precisely that we are not left to our own devices. God did it when the Egyptians cried out from their slavery, and again in the desert when feeding and watering them in their isolation, And again offering them the Law on Mount Sinai and again when taking them by the hand and leading them into the promised land. Most profoundly, God sent His Son into the world: Emptying Himself of His omniscience and omnipotence, God limited Himself to our human condition, born into poverty, born into suffering, to leads us by the hand not just to the promised land but to eternal life. God who ate and drank, talked and walked, preached and taught the Good News of the kingdom. God who suffered and died for us on the cross, God who rose from the dead and returned to the right hand of the Father God who sent the Spirit that we might continue to have and to recognize His presence And through that Spirit, God continued that presence in the Church, using the Apostles and other disciples, those fragile and imperfect human beings, to lead and serve the Church. And that same Spirit continues God's active Presence among us, stretching us to remain open, helping us to see where that Presence calls us and then, moving us courageously to follow where God leads us. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 5

6 And throughout that history, God has made sure that we have signs to recognize a Power and a Presence among us: The 10 plagues of Egypt, dry land where the Red Sea was, water from the rock, manna from heaven. A luminous star and a chorus of angels signal the breaking into human history at the birth of Jesus. A Transfiguration of Jesus who took Peter, James, and John up the mountain to witness that the darkness of persecution and suffering could not cover the glory of the Lord. And since signs aren't always enough, God also has a history of making sure that we get the message: Elijah was called three times. Jonah couldn't run far enough, was spared by the whale, and saved from the deserted island. Paul was knocked from his horse. Yes, Our God is a God willing to repeat Himself, to do the redundant, willing to abase Himself that we might come to know that love ever more perfectly, that we might come to know God ever more perfectly. Our call as Christians, then, is both to recognize God's active presence and also to share that presence with the world. We re called to recognize that presence around us in nature as the prophet Joel reminds us in our first reading. When we re challenged, seemingly unable to recognize God's presence in the signs of the times, we re called as Christians to look deeper, to look beyond what the world considers real to see God who lives beneath and behind and around it all. We re called to search out and to proclaim boldly the signs that others miss. And further, we re called to help others to recognize and encounter God as well. Granted, there are new stars in the sky, no choir of angels singing, no glorious apparition on the mountainside. But God is still active and God is still present in our lives in ways that Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 6

7 are no less real, no less profound even if they come in ordinary simplicity. And it may even be inconvenient as it was for the one leper to return to Jesus and recognize and thank him for his goodness. Further, we re called, as Saint Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians, not only to recognize this presence of God that comes to us in Jesus Christ through the Spirit but also to be active in cultivating and deepening that presence. Because when we recognize God s presence in our lives, we are called to bring God to others. To help us understand this, Saint Paul uses the image of getting dressed, as putting on clothes. Put on, then, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, forbearance with one another, forgiveness for one another, letting grievances go. And the topcoat for this outfit? Well, that's love, the bond of perfection. But it can all be summed up with two words: Be Thankful. In fact, were called, even and especially in difficult times, to do more than just be thankful, we re called to build an attitude of gratitude, a deep awareness of God's abiding presence, a reassurance, not that everything will be okay, but that God will be with us in the struggle. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 7

To that end, I go back to the beginning. I started talking about street signs and traffic lights.

signs and traffic lights, I want to offer a suggestion.

Some might consider it ridiculous but a God who reduces Himself to the forms of bread and wine, would not hesitate to resort to the ridiculous to reach

I pull up to a red octagon with a white border and four white letters what activity or sinful inclination is God telling me to stop in my life?

8 To that end, I go back to the beginning. I started talking about street signs and traffic lights. While it may not have been the intent of Jesus in the Gospel or the Second Vatican Council when referencing the signs of the times to refer to street signs and traffic lights, I want to offer a suggestion. I want to encourage you with every road sign, a message placed precisely for you, a reminder of God's active presence for you and through you. Some might consider it ridiculous but a God who reduces Himself to the forms of bread and wine, would not hesitate to resort to the ridiculous to reach out to His people. Some of these messages will be easily recognized. I pull up to a red octagon with a white border and four white letters what activity or sinful inclination is God telling me to stop in my life? I come to a fork in the road and see the red triangle where is God telling me to yield my stubbornness? I see the sign "Stop here on red" what danger is not keeping me from, telling me not even to get close? I see a posted speed limit where is God telling me to slow down and focus more on him? Or speed up and witness for the gospel? Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 8

When I see a do not enter sign what is God telling me to leave behind come back to Him?

When I see a pedestrian crossing sign who is God telling me to help and not just across the

When I see a no stopping anytime sign why is God telling me to continue on and to persevere?

It s simplistic, perhaps, but then again, so am I and I would encourage you to make every road

9 When I see a do not enter sign what is God telling me to leave behind come back to Him? When I see a one-way sign is God affirming that I'm going in the right direction or indicating that I need to change course? When I see a wrong way sign where is God telling me to turn around? When I see a pedestrian crossing sign who is God telling me to help and not just across the street? When I see a school sign where is God calling me to teach and to preach the good news? When I see a no stopping anytime sign why is God telling me to continue on and to persevere? Well, you get the idea. It s simplistic, perhaps, but then again, so am I and I would encourage you to make every road sign, traffic sign, cautionary sign, informational sign, a sign of the times, a sign of God's active presence, a reminder of HIs love for you and his call for you to serve actively in the world. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 9

10 Make it a game with your family in the car to search out and to see how many ways we can recognize, even in the most mundane object of a street sign, God s active presence in our lives and in this world. When we do this, then God will truly be active and present not only in our lives but to us in this world. And then there won't be a need for the feast like Thanksgiving because every day will be Thanksgiving. This is your light. Ecumenical Prayer Service of Thanksgiving November 18, 2012 Page 10

Our Father Who art in Heaven... Hail Mary full of grace... Hail Mary full of grace... Hail Mary full of grace...

Our Father Who art in Heaven... This painting of Jesus' Baptism comes from Korea. It feels like morning with the mist on the Jordan River. There is a little breeze making the riverside grass bend. Musical