Our Healing Story ~~~ Back then, now Jesus was asking them. is asking you this morning,

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1 Our Healing Story A Holy Way not even fools shall go astray! Isaiah 35: 1-10, Matthew 11: 2-11 December 11, 2016 Third Sunday of Advent The ancient ones knew the past is always before us. To live freely into the present moment, we must move through our past past choices and experiences, and give ourselves a new way of holding the past a new way to tell our own stories that entertains a different ending, re-powers a new ending. In this way, we can change the past! Indeed, a circular (vs. linear) understanding of time. The ancient ones sought, in their own right timing, the healing they most needed in the living of their stories. They sought out Jesus. Jesus challenges us to heal in this moment to see clearly where and how we sit at the pool of possibility, to pick up our own mat what we ve been sitting on, and walk and follow into a new life story! Imagine coming up with a new ending, maybe living life backwards to meet you where you are revealing a new story, a new way through! Jesus says we have the power to heal ourselves as we tell ourselves a new healing story of our lives. This is one of the most precious gifts that flows to us from the Christmas Story! Imagine. God had been waiting such a long time to tell us this Story. And the time had finally come and comes again each year. Advent s timing carries a unique tension between the past and the future, between a time that has already taken place, and a forthcoming re-enlivening of that time. ~~~ Back then, now Jesus was asking them. is asking you this morning, What do expect to see in the wilderness of this world of ours? What did you expect? What are you looking at? What are you looking for? A reed shaken by the wind? another sad news story, or maybe a good luck with that, story? Are you expecting to just keep retelling yourself the same old stories over and over again? Are you expecting to see someone in soft robes, a new ruler? Maybe someone who would fix this world of ours or fix your life for you? Make you feel good about yourself without asking anything of you. What then did you come out to see? Really.what do you expect this morning? What does Jesus want us to expect today? Here s the thing the Advent thing of it. What Jesus wants you to know and expect: Ours is not a problem-solving Christ, not a denominational or cultural Christ, not a Christ domesticated by the Church! Our Christ asks something of us. Did you come here to hear what is asked? Jesus asks us to embody what we know to be true, what we value to embody justice to visibly live in harmony with our faith and bring everyone along with us! He names with his life, His choices he embodies what is asked and there is only thing that matters, that lasts!! That we live and journey on the holy way that will not be shaken in the wind, misshaped by those in soft robes.

2 A way to live that thrives even in wilderness times of life! He says it beyond words! He asks us to do this as he makes it possible to do just this! That is what is meant when he says, I am the way, the truth, the light. Christ holds it all together, models for us how we can hold all parts of our life stories together. How to make meaning of things by connecting all things together! Invites us to put our stories alongside the master story! Christ reveals the redemptive pattern of the many moments of life and death in our lives those times that are life stopping with those times that are life giving. Jesus reveals new life comes from the dead places when we travel along the holy way. Jesus want us to hold the meaning and value of our lives outside of our life s circumstances! Make new meaning by the telling of our story with a new perspective, and so a new ending! You get a do-over a real Christmas! Offered is a new unexpected ending and a new story to tell that heals beyond what you could have imagined for yourself! Hear this: Your life is not about you. You are about life! Remember this: Your life is not about you. You are about life! Our human spiritual longing for Jesus to come, for things to be different is a longing for universal and divine order and meaning and justice! We long to have the dots of life connected! We don t want more mountain top experience as much as we want the desert times to bloom! You can bloom flowers in the desert of your story but not by yourself, doing life alone! Even John the Baptist couldn t connect the dots to make meaning of things all by himself. he began to second guess himself and doubt himself and his own experience when isolated. And, he was the best the world had to offer till that time. Now the world has YOU! You are empowered to make new meaning from your past stories when you live Advent into Christmas into Easter.now that you have us! Our care and support! The Unseen, Sacredly Silent, Provocative, Beyond Words God of Ours, the firstborn of all creation invites you this season to rewrite the story of your life in ways that capture who you are becoming!

3 God holds all things in tension, in unity.because God sees and reconciles our pain and suffering, challenges, joys and blessings with new beginnings, and so new endings. So.What then did you come out to see? Really.Why are you here this morning? What is it you think you are doing as we worship? Please or appease God, to convince God of something? As if God needs convincing to love you? What do you expect in being here, from the Christmas Story? Firstly, I know to expect as we live worshipfully: When we re surrounded by those who believe in us and believe like us we tend to believe.more! And, I expect when hard times come, if we should find ourselves locked out, locked up (as John did), locked away. we may begin to loose clarity to question to doubt our belief and ourselves. We may even stop coming because we can t see a way to a new story! In those times.that s when God wants me you to remember.to listen. for the new justice of love stories? Love in the moment, just the way it is, bringing a new possibility. You hear me say: Not all gifts come gift wrapped. God presents the same unwrapped gifts, the same lessons over and over again until we take advantage of learning them, connect the dots and live a new story. So what are you learning as you contemplate journeying that high way, that Holy Way again this year? This week alone as I have come and gone through this community and our worship, I learned ~When you step back if you only will.someone else will step forward. ~When you loose your voice there are people there, strangers even, who will find their voice while they patiently wait for you to find yours.. and stay with you.and speak truth! ~There are young men and women in this city with integrity and kindness despite the headlines. some of them are standing in line at soup kitchens, some are going to school every day, some have dreams despite all odds,

4 some are volunteering (right here at Tippe!).some live in the hood, in Bay View, in warming rooms and shelters some in the suburbs. What have you learned this week beyond words? Take the time to listen for love and see a new ending for the way things seem. ~This week, I learned that when you take the time to make a friend. When you stop over functioning, let someone in, not only give kindnesses but receive kindness they ll get up off their coach and bring to you and through you what is most needed because they care. ~I learned When you need a laugh to laugh cause like John you ve done the best you can and find it doesn t quite take you all the way text an LOL.. ~When you reach out, others reach in. and remember: your Mom cries a tear for you cause she loves you and wants you to be well not just your Earthly Mom, but, most importantly, your Heavenly Mom Emma. I learned. ~When you re healthy or things seem to be going well, it is easy to take that for granted and when you re not, you get it there is no such thing as well-being and happier endings outside of body-mind-spirit wholeness. This is, these are, some of the learnings leading to that Holy Way.to be alive! What have you learned this week? beyond words? Take the time to listen for love and tell it into your story! ~I have learned. When you ve been foolish enough to think you can do it on your own, try to make it happen and it s not happening, God touches you with living waters and sprouts up delight in desert times and puts you on the Holy Way.if you ll go! You can redeem that which seemed bad or negative or life stopping and use it for good. God is believing in you. thinking about you seeing you and offering you a newly storied life of love. Even when YOU VE been foolish, God s got cha! God s re-deem-ing you. Through Isaiah we come to know God s heart and the heart of the story God wishes us to embody! Our Advent stories reveal a Holy Way.

5 You cannot go astray when you walk on it, live it. Cannot get lost in the noise and shouting of life. May we go forth from this time in fearless freedom, incarnating and radiating the love of God in each of the moments of each of our lives through the daily telling ourselves the our truest story. Friends, don t spend four weeks pretending that Jesus has not yet been born, when we know full well that he has! When we journey to Bethlehem, We may need to let go of parts of the past, or retell our past to ourselves in new ways which welcome God s presence and trusts in God s promise for a new future. it is about allowing the past and the future to amaze us again in the present, as if the arrival of Jesus was happening for the very first time. And we have a brand new story! You are healing.whether you can feel it or not. New endings, new beginnings! New stories to tell! Dealing creatively with past and present pain can help us welcome holy gifts still to come into the now of our lives. We have time, Advent time. and center us on what it is that is life giving, not life stopping.life giving! Maybe when you look into the crèche this season, the baby you see...might just be you being born into a new story of who you are becoming! Image of Holiness. Let us tell that story of the season! The most wondrous gift given: a healing story ours!