Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (01:16):
And sh.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Good morning. Please join me in the callal worship. Rejoice
in the Lord always again. I will say, rejoice. Let
your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.
(05:34):
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally,
Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, honorable, Just if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Rejoice
(05:54):
in the Lord always again. I will say, rejoice.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Not so.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Set speak so to S.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
S S.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
S S S S S S.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
S.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So please pray with me, Oh God, as we await
(08:58):
the birth of your son Jesus Us, let us be
glad and rejoice. And our families, in our schools and
in our lives, help us to share the joy of
Christ's love with others. Now Here are words you, our Savior,
taught us to pray. Our Father, who are in heaven, hallo.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Be thy name, Thy Kingdom Come, that will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Give us stay day prayer, and forgive us our trust passes.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
As we forgive those who trust us against us and.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Lead us long to temptation, But deliver us relief for
the minds, the kingdom, and the po and the glory
of Omen.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
But you, Bethlehem Eprissa, though you are small among the
queans of Judah. Out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are
from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be
abandoned until the time when she who is in labor
gives birth, and the rest of his brothers return to
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join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord of his God, and they
will live securely. For then his greatness will reach to
the ends of the earth, and he will be their peace.
(11:41):
Now is the time of watching and waiting, the time
of pregnant expectation of new life. Now is the season
of joy surprising, the somber winter season, when joy is
ready to be released. Let us come before God with
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receptive and willing hearts. May we rejoice in the name
of Jesus, who comes bringing life enjoy.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Please join me in prayer, Most Holy Father, What an
honor to work alongside you, serving you and your children
around the world and around the corner. We are amazingly
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blessed to worship you with joy. May you take all
of our friends and find them pleasing, allow them to
be used as a blessing in your kingdom. Rejoice, I
say again, rejoice, amense.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You maybe see Our first scripture reading this morning comes
from the Book of Isaiah, the ninth chapter, verses six
and seven. For unto us, a child has been born,
unto us, a son has been given. An authority rests
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on 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.
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The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Let us join together in prayer.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So s sun o sound, oh so so spy so
(17:15):
s side south with and shop so said so.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Our second reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark,
the tenth chapter, beginning with verse thirteen. People were bringing
little children to him in order that he might touch them,
and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus
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saw this, he was indignant and said to them, let
the little children come to me, Do not stop them.
For it is to such as these that the Kingdom
of God belongs. Truly, I tell you, whoever does not
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will
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never enter it.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
And he took the children up in.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
His arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May God
bless it for our hearing and understanding. Hope can be
a encouraging and a maddening thing, in part because of
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what it does to our perception of time. The longest
and the shortest week, depending on your perspective, is soon
to be upon us. Right, because it is exceedingly exciting
and frustratingly forever for children and amazingly brief and hurried
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for adults. Is that we're not correct. We're not even
to the final week, and we're already feeling adults are
feeling hurried.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
Right, But trying to see.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
The world through a child's eye is not a bad idea.
Speaker 8 (21:15):
Especially when it comes to faith.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
We look at Isaiah's prophecy, which I read a few
moments ago. Christians have been.
Speaker 8 (21:25):
Reading that for nearly two thousand years.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
For unto us a child is born, unto us, a
son is given, and he is named Wonderful counselor Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We've read this as an
indicator of Jesus's entrance into the world as a child.
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This leads to a very important question Colin sort of
friends in earlier than the children's time. Why did God
choose to enter the world as a child? Is there
something about childhood that was a key to God deciding
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to come to the world as a baby. Mark's Gospel
which we just read, captures this moment when Jesus is
blessing babies and children, and it turned into a teachable
moment for Jesus. Let the little children come unto me.
Do not stop them, for it is to such as
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them that the Kingdom of God belongs. Truly, I tell you,
whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a
little child will not enter it. Did Jesus too need
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the experience of being a little child In order to
receive the Kingdom of God. The Disciples, according to Mark,
try to keep the children away, right. That's how they
spoke sternly to the parents who were bringing their children
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to them. Jesus was an important person. He had more
important things to do than the pat children on the
heads make smiley faces and cooing sounds and little baby waves.
The Disciples had been with Jesus for some time. They
had seen his amazing miracles, they had heard his teachings,
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they had witnessed the power he had with people. And
he didn't have time to kiss babies. But Jesus as indignant. Indignant.
That's Mark's word, not mine. Jesus was offended by the Disciples.
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They had been unjustifiably rude, and it was understandable. I mean,
religious people throughout history have been trying to make faith
grown up and a serious thing. The Disciples were doing
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what so many others had done before them, and what
so many others have done after them. It's not surprising
that they wanted to shew the children away. I mean,
let's be honest, we kind of show them away from
our sanctuary, part with through the service, right, in part
for their sakes to learn something at their level. But
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also we think we want service worship to be reverent, right,
we might want to question that sometime. This is what
makes Jesus' statement so surprising and powerful. Whoever does not
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will
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not enter it. What does it mean to receive the
Kingdom of God as a child? You know? The problem
with adults is that we've lived so long, and lived
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in the same place so long, and kept the same
habits so long, and thought the same thoughts so long
that our eyes are glazed over and fixed, so that
we have a hard time of seeing something new, of
seeing something unexpected, of seeing God's joy in the world.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
Because we do the.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Same things over and over again, the wonder of life
passes us by, not because we're old fuddy duddies, but
simply because in our own minds we think we have
most things figured out. There's no need to wonder if
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you already have everything figured out. You want to know.
One of the reasons that children and teenagers seem so
alive when too often adults seem stale. It's not the physical.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
Nature of aging.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
For the most part, it's that kids and teenagers are
always faced with new things.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
It's a part of the nature of growing up.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Right, you learn to ride a bike, you fall, you
skin your knee, you cry, you get back up, you
try it again. You give a speech in class, You
stumble over some words. Some kids laugh at you. You
want to cry and run away, but you don't, and
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you finish. Your parents send you to soccer camp, but
you don't know anybody. Make some new friends that say
as they push you out the door. Right, you love
your third grade teacher, but come August you have to
go to fourth grade and there's a teacher you don't know,
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and you've heard she's mean, and you still have to go.
Your favorite pants or dress or shirt gets too small,
and one day mom sneaks into your bedroom and steals
it and get there another way to some other kid.
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Your body changes in ways that you don't even really
want to talk about. You fall in love, you break up,
your heart is broken, and it mends. Part of which
makes children and youth so alive is that they're always
facing new experiences, new experiences that make them nervous and fail,
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but also teaches them. They gain new insights and it
opens them up to new accomplishments and perspectives, and they
learn resiliency.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
We adults, on the other hand, we.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Often find an equilibrium when everything is balanced, it the
way we like it, and we want to stay right there.
We live in the same house for a couple of decades.
I'm on thirty five years in the same house, same
job for ten years or more. We talk to the
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same people week in and week out. We rarely make
new friends, and you want to know why. Because new
things are a little scary, right, New things make us nervous.
We mess up doing new things. Sometimes people laugh. It's
easier just doing the same things over and over and over.
Speaker 8 (29:29):
And over again.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
We're so busy living lives with our same jobs and
our same friends and the same conversations that we never
see anything new, even when it hits us in the face.
We try to see it in our old ways. That way,
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of course, we don't have to be nervous or challenged
or vulnerable. We got it all figured out. We're safe
and comfortable. Unfortunately, this doesn't provide much growth as a
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human being or for us in this sanctuary as a
disciple of Jesus. What would happen if you would try
something new, risk messing up look like a fool. How
about skating with fifth graders? How about that it's been
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a decade a little bit more than that since I
last skated with some kids. I fell right on my
rear end. Had a really sweet girl in our youth
group skated up to me, put her hand on my shoulder, said,
mister Moore, are you okay? She tried to say with
a straight face. Part of that was she did want
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to know if I was okay. She didn't care for
me enough that she wanted to make sure I was okay.
But if I said I was okay, then she could
bust out laughing like she was dying to do as
some of the other older elementary kids and middle schoolers
were doing behind my back. This is a good thing
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for adults every.
Speaker 8 (31:24):
Now and then.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We just need to fall on our rear ends and
let people laugh at us and let children sometimes be
the experts. Now, I probably need to call time out
for a moment. Okay, let me say this. If you're
eighty years old and you have not skated for fifty years,
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do not go skating with your grandkids. Let me just
say that, I do not need a broken Pelvis on
my conscience. Okay, try something safer like Jinga. You got
a demonstration from Jinga a few weeks ago. Do that
with your grandkids. Okay, if you've never done that, just
the time out quickly. Doing things you have never done
or haven't done for years is a humbling experience. Doing
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even frivolous things like roller skating or bowling and doing
it poorly will give you a new perspective that you
may not have had for a while. Even better, what
if you tried something more serious for the first time.
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What if you, for instance, you had conversations with people
who were different for you in some way. What if
you were born in this country and you had lunch
with an immigrant and had a conversation about what it's
like to come to this country, leave home and start
over here. Or say, what if you had lunch with
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somebody of a different political persuasion from you, what Republican
or Democrat or some other minor perspective, and.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
You tried to understand.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
That person's thoughts and perspectives rather than try to persuade
them to what's right, just understand listen to them. Or
how about this, what if you tried to sit in
a different place in the sanctuary on Sunday morning. I
know I'm talking heresy here, that's heresy, But what if
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you just tried that right a different place, or maybe
sat next to somebody you don't know and had a
conversation with them before the service or after the service.
What if what if the teenagers in our church and
the senior citizens are a church took a trip together
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to Heritage Farms Museum, for instance, and then as they
learned about what it was like to grow up in
Appalachia in the nineteenth century, had a conversation for lunch
afterwards to talk about what it's like, what it was
like to grow up in the twentieth century, and what
it is like growing up in the twenty first century.
Speaker 8 (34:11):
That could be fascinating.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
If anybody wants to take that on, I'm sure we
could find some people who would join us with that.
You see, the list of what ifs are endless. Every
day provides us with multiple opportunities.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
To do something new.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
To hear a new perspective from somebody who sees things
from a new way from you. If we are brave enough,
big brave or little brave to try something new, we
tap into the child that is in all of us,
regardless of our age. Children are full of wonder because
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they haven't figured things out. It won't take long, of course,
a few years and their wonder will be shifting over
to figuring things out, and then they'll be like the.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
Rest of us.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
All adults operate as if they have everything figured out,
even when they know they don't. That's how we operate
in the world, right, This is necessary in some part
try to figure out how to operate in the world.
You have to know whom to trust and whom not
to trust. Are there consequences to my actions? Or can
I do whatever I want? Is this universe a universe
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of love and justice? Or a survival of the fittest?
A dog eat dog world? And all the other ideas
that we use to navigate how we live in society.
But here's the thing about hope. Hope breaks through in
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new ways. Hope is not the same thing over and
over again. Hope is always new things, new ways, new
ways that God is breaking into our lives and in
this society. And you're not going to see God's hope
if you're always thinking the same thoughts, talking to the
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same people doing the same things. God's hope is still there,
but we can't see it because all we see is
whatever we've known. To see it, you have to be
ready to unlearn some things you think you've figured out
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so that there's space for God's new hope to jump in.
Since we already think we have the world figured out,
have God figured out? We have to grieve the loss
of one idea to make space for a new idea.
Speaker 8 (37:07):
This is true for a lot of things in life.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I enjoy playing tennis on occasions when my wife and
I are on vacation. If we stay in a resort,
I will oftentimes take a lesson from the resident pro there,
and usually there's a time where you kind of just
warm up, which now that I'm in my sixties, I
need ten to fifteen minutes to warm up right so
I don't break something, pull something, tear something. But the
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tennis pro is using that to watch how I approach
the ball, how I hit the ball, how well do
I reach out, how was my backhanding. He is watching
all of my bad habits and categorizing them, and then
in the lesson, tries to change them. I have to
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unlearn a bad habit before I can learn a new This.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Happens all the time in life. Right.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
If you're a golfer and you take a golf lesson
from a pro, do the same thing. They're going to
try to get you out of bad habits so that
you then can.
Speaker 8 (38:10):
Learn better habits.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
If you're a musician, you maybe played guitar for a while,
but now you've had a chance to take a lesson
from a real pro, somebody who is just a fantastic guitarist,
same thing is going to happen. Children do not have
to do that because their identity is not tied to
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what they believe, to their opinions, to their ideas. They
know they don't know everything in the world, so they're
open to learn. Not knowing creates humility. They know they're
still learning, so they're open to new ideas, new experiences,
new possibilities. When they are the tennis camp, they don't
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have any bad habits to break. They're just learning all
all new stuff.
Speaker 8 (39:03):
Now, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
How many of you would like to grow in your faith?
How many you feel like to grow in your faith?
But here, raise your hand if you want to grow
in your faith? Yep, most of bason to raise your
hand because you're in church, right, You're not gonna raise
your hand, right, Bason, raise your hand. But in your minds,
what do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Now?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
If you really want to grow in your faith, what
are you ready to unlearn so that you can be
open to something new from God? That's a harder question,
isn't it. What are you ready to unlearn so that
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you can be open to God's new thing? For unto us,
a child is born, unto us, a son is given.
Why do you think God decided to come into the
world as a baby that grew up into a child
and became a teenager and finally an adult. I think,
and this is just me thinking. There's no biblical passage
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that talks about this, so we can all think about this.
I think it is because even God wanted to see
the world as this. Everything is new again from the
eyes of a child. Everything is a wonder to be explored,
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Everything is a mystery to be discovered. Where the words
once upon a time can take us to places where
beasts talk and flowers sing. Where closet doors why behind
closet doors lie a whole nother world, where tornadoes winds
can sling a house from Kansas to oz. Fredrick Biekner
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once wrote that every culture, from every age tells fairy tales.
Parents and grandparents pass them on to their children and grandchildren,
who pass them on to another generation decades later. And
we have done this for thousands of years, in every
language spoken in every place across the globe. Even though
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fairy tales don't conform to the reality we've already figured out.
But fairy tales have an enormous level of conformity. They
keep telling us again and again that things aren't what
they seem to be, or said differently. They don't have
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to stay the way they are. The frog is really
a prince, the ugly duckling a swan. Cinderella won't stay
under the harsh rule of her stepmother, but will slip
on the glass slipper and marry the prince. Beasts don't
stay angry and monstrous under the spell cast upon them,
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because love will one day make them princes and princesses again.
The scarecrow gets a brain, the tin man, the heart,
the lion courage. We tell these stories from one generation
to the next because they're all about hope. We tell
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them because there's a part of those stories in us
that we want to believe is true at the base
of reality, even though the world says it's different. To
be a child is to hope because you know you
will not stay childlike forever. You can look at your
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parents and your grandparents, and you know you're going to
get big, and you know you're going to get wisdom,
so you hope you're way into every adventure, every fairy tale,
every new enterprise. To receive the Kingdom of God as
a child is to start doing new things that make
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you nervous and unsure of yourself and force you to
trust yourself and those around you and the God who
believes in you more than you even believe in yourself.
To receive the Kingdom of God as a child is
to start unlearning some things so that you have the
space to learn new things from God. To receive the
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Kingdom of God as a child is to approach the
world as a mystery to be explored, not as a
puzzle that someone has already figured out. It's to hear
the words once upon a time and to begin to
imagine what may happen. The ugly duckling could be a swan,
the beast could really be a prince, the scarecrow really
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could have a brain.
Speaker 8 (44:02):
And maybe the greatest.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Fairy tarial of all is true, namely that God became
a little baby like you and me, like we once were,
and grew to be a child and adult who lived
and died and was resurrected to new life in hopes
that we might also one day be like him. Hope
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is born when we cultivate wonder like a child. Hope,
you see, is looking into the future with the eyes
of a child, a child that is still deep inside
of you, wanting to believe.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
This.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Christmas, let her out, Oh man. We conclude our worship
service with our Baptis's tradition of having a hymn of
commitment when we open our doors of fellowship and we
invite you whatever decision you may have. Maybe you are
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looking for a new church home and you think you
found it with us. We would love to welcome you
and have you be a part of our congregation. Or
maybe you've loved God for some time, but you've never
made a decision to follow Christ as a disciple. We
also hope you would come forward that we may baptize
you in the weeks ahead, whatever decision you may have,
I'll be standing before the communion table while we all
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stand together and sing two seventy three Good Christian Men rejoice.
Speaker 9 (45:40):
Let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
S S S S.
Speaker 6 (46:45):
S S.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
So I do have to apologize my voice is a
little raspy this morning because I was at the soccer
match and uh carry North Carolina on Friday, and I've
gotten to an age now I can't yell at a
ballgame and my voice is okay. It takes several days
to work out. So I will be there on Monday,
So if somebody wants to go with me, maybe it
can stow away you in my suitcase. I won't promise
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how well it feels the right in the luggage compartment.
But I'll be flying into Charlotte tomorrow afternoon, and then
I'll think I'll just drive to Riley from there and
hang out at my son's apartment afterwards, so before I
go back home. So anyways, hope you all will be
watching that on television or join me and Carrie, I'll
find you an extra seat join me with that. Thank
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you all so much for today. What's a great worship service. Right,
I mean, I know Halle went with the children. Please
tell Halle this is so pleased for her leading us
in worship and her prayer was beautiful. Marla, thank you
so much. And to Heather and Kate and Careson, thank
you all for leading us and getting the next candle lit.
And Bailey and Rachel, thank you so much for leading
us in song. And all the choir. I hope you
all are talking to John and Alex and for the
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work that they're doing with the choir and letting the
choir members know we appreciate their work and leading us
in worship each week. Do you also want to say
last week that Rachel had on a peace sweatshirt, right,
she had the peace symbol in her sweatshirt, And today
Susan Diller has the Joy sweatshirt up there. So next
week somebodys have a love sweatshirt.
Speaker 8 (49:15):
Okay, we'll wait for that.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
So who has got one, you can wear it next week.
Jane will be here next with you next week for
Sunday and also Christmas Eve. I will be with my
family down in Charlotte for that, but I will see
you again in a couple of weeks. Let's receive the benediction. Friends,
as you go back out into the world, wait in expectation,
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plant hope in all the reality of the things you're facing,
and receive the blessing of a Manuel God with us.
And as you go, remember the God, the creator of
the universe, has already laying out of week. You're a
week for you and Jesus the Christ is walking beside
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of you, and the Holy Spirit, God's everlasting love of
swirling around you to protect you and to guide you
through all the things you will face this week.
Speaker 10 (50:15):
So, friends, go now in God's peace. Amen sixt
Speaker 1 (55:29):
Still stru
And sh.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Good morning. Please join me in the callal worship. Rejoice
in the Lord always again. I will say, rejoice. Let
your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by
prayer with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.
(05:34):
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally,
Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, honorable, Just if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Rejoice
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in the Lord always again. I will say, rejoice.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Not so.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Set speak so to S.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
S S.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
S S S S S S.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
S.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
So please pray with me, Oh God, as we await
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the birth of your son Jesus Us, let us be
glad and rejoice. And our families, in our schools and
in our lives, help us to share the joy of
Christ's love with others. Now Here are words you, our Savior,
taught us to pray. Our Father, who are in heaven, hallo.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Be thy name, Thy Kingdom Come, that will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Give us stay day prayer, and forgive us our trust passes.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
As we forgive those who trust us against us and.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Lead us long to temptation, But deliver us relief for
the minds, the kingdom, and the po and the glory
of Omen.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
But you, Bethlehem Eprissa, though you are small among the
queans of Judah. Out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are
from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be
abandoned until the time when she who is in labor
gives birth, and the rest of his brothers return to
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join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord of his God, and they
will live securely. For then his greatness will reach to
the ends of the earth, and he will be their peace.
(11:41):
Now is the time of watching and waiting, the time
of pregnant expectation of new life. Now is the season
of joy surprising, the somber winter season, when joy is
ready to be released. Let us come before God with
(12:02):
receptive and willing hearts. May we rejoice in the name
of Jesus, who comes bringing life enjoy.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
Please join me in prayer, Most Holy Father, What an
honor to work alongside you, serving you and your children
around the world and around the corner. We are amazingly
(13:53):
blessed to worship you with joy. May you take all
of our friends and find them pleasing, allow them to
be used as a blessing in your kingdom. Rejoice, I
say again, rejoice, amense.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You maybe see Our first scripture reading this morning comes
from the Book of Isaiah, the ninth chapter, verses six
and seven. For unto us, a child has been born,
unto us, a son has been given. An authority rests
(15:20):
on 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.
(15:46):
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Let us join together in prayer.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So s sun o sound, oh so so spy so
(17:15):
s side south with and shop so said so.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Our second reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark,
the tenth chapter, beginning with verse thirteen. People were bringing
little children to him in order that he might touch them,
and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus
(19:39):
saw this, he was indignant and said to them, let
the little children come to me, Do not stop them.
For it is to such as these that the Kingdom
of God belongs. Truly, I tell you, whoever does not
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will
(20:02):
never enter it.
Speaker 8 (20:07):
And he took the children up in.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
His arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May God
bless it for our hearing and understanding. Hope can be
a encouraging and a maddening thing, in part because of
(20:33):
what it does to our perception of time. The longest
and the shortest week, depending on your perspective, is soon
to be upon us. Right, because it is exceedingly exciting
and frustratingly forever for children and amazingly brief and hurried
(20:58):
for adults. Is that we're not correct. We're not even
to the final week, and we're already feeling adults are
feeling hurried.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
Right, But trying to see.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
The world through a child's eye is not a bad idea.
Speaker 8 (21:15):
Especially when it comes to faith.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
We look at Isaiah's prophecy, which I read a few
moments ago. Christians have been.
Speaker 8 (21:25):
Reading that for nearly two thousand years.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
For unto us a child is born, unto us, a
son is given, and he is named Wonderful counselor Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We've read this as an
indicator of Jesus's entrance into the world as a child.
(21:55):
This leads to a very important question Colin sort of
friends in earlier than the children's time. Why did God
choose to enter the world as a child? Is there
something about childhood that was a key to God deciding
(22:19):
to come to the world as a baby. Mark's Gospel
which we just read, captures this moment when Jesus is
blessing babies and children, and it turned into a teachable
moment for Jesus. Let the little children come unto me.
Do not stop them, for it is to such as
(22:42):
them that the Kingdom of God belongs. Truly, I tell you,
whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a
little child will not enter it. Did Jesus too need
(23:04):
the experience of being a little child In order to
receive the Kingdom of God. The Disciples, according to Mark,
try to keep the children away, right. That's how they
spoke sternly to the parents who were bringing their children
(23:26):
to them. Jesus was an important person. He had more
important things to do than the pat children on the
heads make smiley faces and cooing sounds and little baby waves.
The Disciples had been with Jesus for some time. They
had seen his amazing miracles, they had heard his teachings,
(23:50):
they had witnessed the power he had with people. And
he didn't have time to kiss babies. But Jesus as indignant. Indignant.
That's Mark's word, not mine. Jesus was offended by the Disciples.
(24:11):
They had been unjustifiably rude, and it was understandable. I mean,
religious people throughout history have been trying to make faith
grown up and a serious thing. The Disciples were doing
(24:34):
what so many others had done before them, and what
so many others have done after them. It's not surprising
that they wanted to shew the children away. I mean,
let's be honest, we kind of show them away from
our sanctuary, part with through the service, right, in part
for their sakes to learn something at their level. But
(24:54):
also we think we want service worship to be reverent, right,
we might want to question that sometime. This is what
makes Jesus' statement so surprising and powerful. Whoever does not
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will
(25:19):
not enter it. What does it mean to receive the
Kingdom of God as a child? You know? The problem
with adults is that we've lived so long, and lived
(25:41):
in the same place so long, and kept the same
habits so long, and thought the same thoughts so long
that our eyes are glazed over and fixed, so that
we have a hard time of seeing something new, of
seeing something unexpected, of seeing God's joy in the world.
Speaker 8 (26:04):
Because we do the.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Same things over and over again, the wonder of life
passes us by, not because we're old fuddy duddies, but
simply because in our own minds we think we have
most things figured out. There's no need to wonder if
(26:27):
you already have everything figured out. You want to know.
One of the reasons that children and teenagers seem so
alive when too often adults seem stale. It's not the physical.
Speaker 8 (26:46):
Nature of aging.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
For the most part, it's that kids and teenagers are
always faced with new things.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
It's a part of the nature of growing up.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Right, you learn to ride a bike, you fall, you
skin your knee, you cry, you get back up, you
try it again. You give a speech in class, You
stumble over some words. Some kids laugh at you. You
want to cry and run away, but you don't, and
(27:19):
you finish. Your parents send you to soccer camp, but
you don't know anybody. Make some new friends that say
as they push you out the door. Right, you love
your third grade teacher, but come August you have to
go to fourth grade and there's a teacher you don't know,
(27:42):
and you've heard she's mean, and you still have to go.
Your favorite pants or dress or shirt gets too small,
and one day mom sneaks into your bedroom and steals
it and get there another way to some other kid.
(28:05):
Your body changes in ways that you don't even really
want to talk about. You fall in love, you break up,
your heart is broken, and it mends. Part of which
makes children and youth so alive is that they're always
facing new experiences, new experiences that make them nervous and fail,
(28:26):
but also teaches them. They gain new insights and it
opens them up to new accomplishments and perspectives, and they
learn resiliency.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
We adults, on the other hand, we.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Often find an equilibrium when everything is balanced, it the
way we like it, and we want to stay right there.
We live in the same house for a couple of decades.
I'm on thirty five years in the same house, same
job for ten years or more. We talk to the
(29:04):
same people week in and week out. We rarely make
new friends, and you want to know why. Because new
things are a little scary, right, New things make us nervous.
We mess up doing new things. Sometimes people laugh. It's
easier just doing the same things over and over and over.
Speaker 8 (29:29):
And over again.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
We're so busy living lives with our same jobs and
our same friends and the same conversations that we never
see anything new, even when it hits us in the face.
We try to see it in our old ways. That way,
(29:54):
of course, we don't have to be nervous or challenged
or vulnerable. We got it all figured out. We're safe
and comfortable. Unfortunately, this doesn't provide much growth as a
(30:17):
human being or for us in this sanctuary as a
disciple of Jesus. What would happen if you would try
something new, risk messing up look like a fool. How
about skating with fifth graders? How about that it's been
(30:38):
a decade a little bit more than that since I
last skated with some kids. I fell right on my
rear end. Had a really sweet girl in our youth
group skated up to me, put her hand on my shoulder, said,
mister Moore, are you okay? She tried to say with
a straight face. Part of that was she did want
(31:01):
to know if I was okay. She didn't care for
me enough that she wanted to make sure I was okay.
But if I said I was okay, then she could
bust out laughing like she was dying to do as
some of the other older elementary kids and middle schoolers
were doing behind my back. This is a good thing
(31:22):
for adults every.
Speaker 8 (31:24):
Now and then.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
We just need to fall on our rear ends and
let people laugh at us and let children sometimes be
the experts. Now, I probably need to call time out
for a moment. Okay, let me say this. If you're
eighty years old and you have not skated for fifty years,
(31:46):
do not go skating with your grandkids. Let me just
say that, I do not need a broken Pelvis on
my conscience. Okay, try something safer like Jinga. You got
a demonstration from Jinga a few weeks ago. Do that
with your grandkids. Okay, if you've never done that, just
the time out quickly. Doing things you have never done
or haven't done for years is a humbling experience. Doing
(32:12):
even frivolous things like roller skating or bowling and doing
it poorly will give you a new perspective that you
may not have had for a while. Even better, what
if you tried something more serious for the first time.
(32:32):
What if you, for instance, you had conversations with people
who were different for you in some way. What if
you were born in this country and you had lunch
with an immigrant and had a conversation about what it's
like to come to this country, leave home and start
over here. Or say, what if you had lunch with
(32:55):
somebody of a different political persuasion from you, what Republican
or Democrat or some other minor perspective, and.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
You tried to understand.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
That person's thoughts and perspectives rather than try to persuade
them to what's right, just understand listen to them. Or
how about this, what if you tried to sit in
a different place in the sanctuary on Sunday morning. I
know I'm talking heresy here, that's heresy, But what if
(33:27):
you just tried that right a different place, or maybe
sat next to somebody you don't know and had a
conversation with them before the service or after the service.
What if what if the teenagers in our church and
the senior citizens are a church took a trip together
(33:48):
to Heritage Farms Museum, for instance, and then as they
learned about what it was like to grow up in
Appalachia in the nineteenth century, had a conversation for lunch
afterwards to talk about what it's like, what it was
like to grow up in the twentieth century, and what
it is like growing up in the twenty first century.
Speaker 8 (34:11):
That could be fascinating.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
If anybody wants to take that on, I'm sure we
could find some people who would join us with that.
You see, the list of what ifs are endless. Every
day provides us with multiple opportunities.
Speaker 8 (34:24):
To do something new.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
To hear a new perspective from somebody who sees things
from a new way from you. If we are brave enough,
big brave or little brave to try something new, we
tap into the child that is in all of us,
regardless of our age. Children are full of wonder because
(34:54):
they haven't figured things out. It won't take long, of course,
a few years and their wonder will be shifting over
to figuring things out, and then they'll be like the.
Speaker 7 (35:08):
Rest of us.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
All adults operate as if they have everything figured out,
even when they know they don't. That's how we operate
in the world, right, This is necessary in some part
try to figure out how to operate in the world.
You have to know whom to trust and whom not
to trust. Are there consequences to my actions? Or can
I do whatever I want? Is this universe a universe
(35:35):
of love and justice? Or a survival of the fittest?
A dog eat dog world? And all the other ideas
that we use to navigate how we live in society.
But here's the thing about hope. Hope breaks through in
(35:56):
new ways. Hope is not the same thing over and
over again. Hope is always new things, new ways, new
ways that God is breaking into our lives and in
this society. And you're not going to see God's hope
if you're always thinking the same thoughts, talking to the
(36:17):
same people doing the same things. God's hope is still there,
but we can't see it because all we see is
whatever we've known. To see it, you have to be
ready to unlearn some things you think you've figured out
(36:44):
so that there's space for God's new hope to jump in.
Since we already think we have the world figured out,
have God figured out? We have to grieve the loss
of one idea to make space for a new idea.
Speaker 8 (37:07):
This is true for a lot of things in life.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I enjoy playing tennis on occasions when my wife and
I are on vacation. If we stay in a resort,
I will oftentimes take a lesson from the resident pro there,
and usually there's a time where you kind of just
warm up, which now that I'm in my sixties, I
need ten to fifteen minutes to warm up right so
I don't break something, pull something, tear something. But the
(37:30):
tennis pro is using that to watch how I approach
the ball, how I hit the ball, how well do
I reach out, how was my backhanding. He is watching
all of my bad habits and categorizing them, and then
in the lesson, tries to change them. I have to
(37:55):
unlearn a bad habit before I can learn a new This.
Speaker 8 (38:02):
Happens all the time in life. Right.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
If you're a golfer and you take a golf lesson
from a pro, do the same thing. They're going to
try to get you out of bad habits so that
you then can.
Speaker 8 (38:10):
Learn better habits.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
If you're a musician, you maybe played guitar for a while,
but now you've had a chance to take a lesson
from a real pro, somebody who is just a fantastic guitarist,
same thing is going to happen. Children do not have
to do that because their identity is not tied to
(38:33):
what they believe, to their opinions, to their ideas. They
know they don't know everything in the world, so they're
open to learn. Not knowing creates humility. They know they're
still learning, so they're open to new ideas, new experiences,
new possibilities. When they are the tennis camp, they don't
(38:56):
have any bad habits to break. They're just learning all
all new stuff.
Speaker 8 (39:03):
Now, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
How many of you would like to grow in your faith?
How many you feel like to grow in your faith?
But here, raise your hand if you want to grow
in your faith? Yep, most of bason to raise your
hand because you're in church, right, You're not gonna raise
your hand, right, Bason, raise your hand. But in your minds,
what do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (39:24):
Now?
Speaker 3 (39:25):
If you really want to grow in your faith, what
are you ready to unlearn so that you can be
open to something new from God? That's a harder question,
isn't it. What are you ready to unlearn so that
(39:47):
you can be open to God's new thing? For unto us,
a child is born, unto us, a son is given.
Why do you think God decided to come into the
world as a baby that grew up into a child
and became a teenager and finally an adult. I think,
and this is just me thinking. There's no biblical passage
(40:09):
that talks about this, so we can all think about this.
I think it is because even God wanted to see
the world as this. Everything is new again from the
eyes of a child. Everything is a wonder to be explored,
(40:30):
Everything is a mystery to be discovered. Where the words
once upon a time can take us to places where
beasts talk and flowers sing. Where closet doors why behind
closet doors lie a whole nother world, where tornadoes winds
can sling a house from Kansas to oz. Fredrick Biekner
(40:54):
once wrote that every culture, from every age tells fairy tales.
Parents and grandparents pass them on to their children and grandchildren,
who pass them on to another generation decades later. And
we have done this for thousands of years, in every
language spoken in every place across the globe. Even though
(41:21):
fairy tales don't conform to the reality we've already figured out.
But fairy tales have an enormous level of conformity. They
keep telling us again and again that things aren't what
they seem to be, or said differently. They don't have
(41:45):
to stay the way they are. The frog is really
a prince, the ugly duckling a swan. Cinderella won't stay
under the harsh rule of her stepmother, but will slip
on the glass slipper and marry the prince. Beasts don't
stay angry and monstrous under the spell cast upon them,
(42:08):
because love will one day make them princes and princesses again.
The scarecrow gets a brain, the tin man, the heart,
the lion courage. We tell these stories from one generation
to the next because they're all about hope. We tell
(42:29):
them because there's a part of those stories in us
that we want to believe is true at the base
of reality, even though the world says it's different. To
be a child is to hope because you know you
will not stay childlike forever. You can look at your
(42:51):
parents and your grandparents, and you know you're going to
get big, and you know you're going to get wisdom,
so you hope you're way into every adventure, every fairy tale,
every new enterprise. To receive the Kingdom of God as
a child is to start doing new things that make
(43:12):
you nervous and unsure of yourself and force you to
trust yourself and those around you and the God who
believes in you more than you even believe in yourself.
To receive the Kingdom of God as a child is
to start unlearning some things so that you have the
space to learn new things from God. To receive the
(43:37):
Kingdom of God as a child is to approach the
world as a mystery to be explored, not as a
puzzle that someone has already figured out. It's to hear
the words once upon a time and to begin to
imagine what may happen. The ugly duckling could be a swan,
the beast could really be a prince, the scarecrow really
(43:58):
could have a brain.
Speaker 8 (44:02):
And maybe the greatest.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Fairy tarial of all is true, namely that God became
a little baby like you and me, like we once were,
and grew to be a child and adult who lived
and died and was resurrected to new life in hopes
that we might also one day be like him. Hope
(44:29):
is born when we cultivate wonder like a child. Hope,
you see, is looking into the future with the eyes
of a child, a child that is still deep inside
of you, wanting to believe.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
This.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Christmas, let her out, Oh man. We conclude our worship
service with our Baptis's tradition of having a hymn of
commitment when we open our doors of fellowship and we
invite you whatever decision you may have. Maybe you are
(45:14):
looking for a new church home and you think you
found it with us. We would love to welcome you
and have you be a part of our congregation. Or
maybe you've loved God for some time, but you've never
made a decision to follow Christ as a disciple. We
also hope you would come forward that we may baptize
you in the weeks ahead, whatever decision you may have,
I'll be standing before the communion table while we all
(45:35):
stand together and sing two seventy three Good Christian Men rejoice.
Speaker 9 (45:40):
Let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
S S S S.
Speaker 6 (46:45):
S S.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
So I do have to apologize my voice is a
little raspy this morning because I was at the soccer
match and uh carry North Carolina on Friday, and I've
gotten to an age now I can't yell at a
ballgame and my voice is okay. It takes several days
to work out. So I will be there on Monday,
So if somebody wants to go with me, maybe it
can stow away you in my suitcase. I won't promise
(48:12):
how well it feels the right in the luggage compartment.
But I'll be flying into Charlotte tomorrow afternoon, and then
I'll think I'll just drive to Riley from there and
hang out at my son's apartment afterwards, so before I
go back home. So anyways, hope you all will be
watching that on television or join me and Carrie, I'll
find you an extra seat join me with that. Thank
(48:32):
you all so much for today. What's a great worship service. Right,
I mean, I know Halle went with the children. Please
tell Halle this is so pleased for her leading us
in worship and her prayer was beautiful. Marla, thank you
so much. And to Heather and Kate and Careson, thank
you all for leading us and getting the next candle lit.
And Bailey and Rachel, thank you so much for leading
us in song. And all the choir. I hope you
all are talking to John and Alex and for the
(48:55):
work that they're doing with the choir and letting the
choir members know we appreciate their work and leading us
in worship each week. Do you also want to say
last week that Rachel had on a peace sweatshirt, right,
she had the peace symbol in her sweatshirt, And today
Susan Diller has the Joy sweatshirt up there. So next
week somebodys have a love sweatshirt.
Speaker 8 (49:15):
Okay, we'll wait for that.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
So who has got one, you can wear it next week.
Jane will be here next with you next week for
Sunday and also Christmas Eve. I will be with my
family down in Charlotte for that, but I will see
you again in a couple of weeks. Let's receive the benediction. Friends,
as you go back out into the world, wait in expectation,
(49:42):
plant hope in all the reality of the things you're facing,
and receive the blessing of a Manuel God with us.
And as you go, remember the God, the creator of
the universe, has already laying out of week. You're a
week for you and Jesus the Christ is walking beside
(50:04):
of you, and the Holy Spirit, God's everlasting love of
swirling around you to protect you and to guide you
through all the things you will face this week.
Speaker 10 (50:15):
So, friends, go now in God's peace. Amen sixt
Speaker 1 (55:29):
Still stru
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