Live for the New Day

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Romans 13:8-14

There’s something about sunrises that can be perspective changing with the coming of a “new day”.  My most memorable sunrise was again back in Seminary.  I was on a study tour of the Middle East.  I was on the Sinai Peninsula on Jebul Musa, the Mountain of Moses.  For centuries people have journeyed to the top of Jebul Musa to await the arrival of a new day. I was soon to join their ranks. This mountain as Christian, Islamic, and Jewish tradition has it is the mountain upon which Moses heard God speak from the burning bush; the mountain where God passed by Moses as he hid in a crack among the rocks; and most of all the mountain where Moses received the Law of God, the Ten Commandments. 

The morning started at 3 AM and the procuring of a camel to ride up most of the mountain.  It was not a very comfortable ride.  The camel’s saddle was nothing more than shaped wood covered by a blanket. To top that, the camel stunk and had fleas.  All that discomfort aside, the ride was quite soothing.  You see where the saddle is placed upon the camel’s back is actually a big mass of fat.  As the camel walks that mass of fat sends you forwards and backwards and side to side and around in a circle all at the same time.  All this swaying at three o’clock in the morning can make you sleepy. The only thing which kept me awake was this slight fear that the camel might decide to walk over the edge.  We really had to rely on that camel’s ability to see in the dark and that the man leading it knew the path.

Apart from the discomfort and smell, the mesmerizing sway, the fear, and this building relationship I had with that camel, I soon began to realize that I was on a journey, a pilgrimage along with hundreds of other people on our way to the top of Jebul Musa, to the spot where Moses heard the voice of God and I began to wander if God would in some way speak to me. There I sat on the back of this camel looking up at the stars.  It was very dark.  The only human light was the orange glow of the cigarette of the man leading the camel.  It was “dark as Egypt”, if you’ve heard that phrase actually referring to the Ninth Plague which was Darkness.  Never had I seen so many stars. 

As we bobbled and swayed for some reason I couldn’t get “How Great Thou Art” out of my head.  It was like I knew all the words when I didn’t.  Soon my thoughts turned to how it happened that I, me, was there in Egypt on the back of a camel riding to the top of the Mountain of Moses early in the morning. How did I get there? Why me? I did not deserve to be there. The feeling of awe which encompassed me moments earlier had changed to humble gratitude for I knew that nothing short of God’s special love for me had brought me to that particular point in my life - sitting on the back of a camel in Egypt riding to the top of Jebul Musa to watch the sunrise and to welcome the arrival of a new day.  What a gift!

As he did with Moses and I am sure with everyone else who dares to listen on this mountain, God spoke to me. By showing me the stars God told me that he was the God of all creation and when I took note of where I was, I realized that I was there only because this great God of creation loved me and thought me special. On the same mountain where Moses was overcome with the awesomeness of God and heard the voice of God proclaim God’s love for his people, I too was overcome with God’s awesomeness and his love for me. Where Moses heard the words “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet.’’ I learned the lesson that the ability to love your neighbor as yourself comes from knowing God loves us each and regards us each as special enough to give us good gifts. 

Soon we arrived at the point where the camels could go no further and oddly enough, I found it difficult to leave this newfound friend behind. We then climbed some 1,000 steps to get to the top of the mountain and await the sunrise. There was a snack stand there and I got a candy bar and a cup of hot chocolate which unfortunately tasted like a camel. I huddled up with some friends and we kept warm while we waited for the new day.

As darkness faded and light filled the Sinai more and more people began to arrive. Italians, Germans, French, British, American, Japanese, and Korean - people from all over the world began to gather at the top. Soon the Koreans began to sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and the whole mountain became alive with this song sung in many different languages, a sort of Pentecost. As daylight approached and peoples from all over the world gathered around, I sensed that salvation was nearer to us than when we first believed. God was close to us on that mountain. In all those people from all over the world night was fading and daylight was already near.

There is something about the arrival of daylight, something about the rising of the sun each day that fills all who watch the sun rise with hope. There is no other time such as this when the beauty of creation becomes so evident. As the sun rose on Sinai the colors of the granite rocks blossomed from deep purple and blue to emerald green, to ruby red and blazing orange. All of God’s crown jewels were put there on display so that it might sparkle in the coming sunrise. 

When daylight came, a new day arrived. The experience of the camel ride though just hours passed seemed to be fading. Now that daylight had arrived all who had climbed the mountain in darkness now began to rush towards the pathway down. I was soon caught up in this rush to leave the mountain. Somehow I failed to ask myself this question: would the religious experience of God’s awesomeness and love experienced in the night which had just faded before me have any effect on the new day that was now here? How would I live in this new day having heard the voice of God just hours before? 

Our text this morning asks this same question of us. How are we going to live in this new day? All of us have been in darkness of one form or another. I don’t think that I would be exaggerating to say that all of us at times have been strangely awakened to the awesomeness of God. Nor would it be a lie to say we all have been struck with gratitude at knowing that we are where we are by the grace of God who loves each of us deeply. God has never left us. He has always taken care of us. God has been with us when it was night. How will this affect how we live each new day?

I said a few minutes ago that the arrival of a new day, the rising of the sun, can fill us with hope.  This Cooperative Ministry formed a little over eleven years ago and was a ray of hope.  I can’t imagine what would have happened to each of these four churches had you not listened to the Holy Spirit’s prompting you to join in ministry.  A new day was upon us.  I wondered why more churches in the Presbytery didn’t join with us.  Three years in we went from two ministers to just me and some dedicated pulpit suppliers particularly Joel Jongkind.  We adjusted and then Covid hit.  The churches that made the news during Covid weren’t making it for the myriad of creative ways they came up with to continue to show love for one another and their surrounding communities.  Nevertheless, the Pandemic put a pall of darkness over, a form of mass depression that lasted a couple of years.  Now, just as that pall had begun to lift and life was getting back to normal, we find ourselves facing an inexplicable trade war with our former best neighbour.  We had just begun to recover from the Pandemic induced economic crisis and now we’re wondering how much worse it’s going to get.  And I won’t depress you with the state of the church today especially here in Grey and Bruce Counties.  Where’s the hope?  Where’s the sunrise?

Well, what Paul said to the Roman Christians back then speaks to us still today, especially today.  Paul here focuses hard up front on loving each other, loving neighbour as yourself.  But then he says, “Besides this, y’all know what time it is.  How it is already the hour to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.  The night is far gone.  The day is near.”  We know what time it is.  I apologize for going Greek on you, but the Greek word for time there is not the one for tic-toc on the clock time.  It’s the word for an age, an eon, an epic.  We are in the age when following the Creation changing event of Jesus Christ, his resurrection, and God’s pouring out the Holy Spirit making alive those who follow him.  We are the sunrise.  We are the new day.  

Even though it still looks dark outside with the way things are, our God is the God who deals in resurrection - new life.  The way we always did things as congregations, well there’s only a glimmer that those ways will find their way out of this present darkness.  If God in his great love for each of us has touched us and awakened us to his awesomeness, his faithfulness, his love for us, then we gotta get up and live this new day shining with the good news that God has not abandoned humanity.  When it’s dark out, it’s the worst that humanity has to offer that seems to be running the show.  But the darkness fades, flees from the light of the truth of God’s presence and love. 

We know what the time is.  We know the sun is rising because Jesus the Son has risen.  The night will come to an end as we each take the time daily to sit with God and pray and read some scripture.  Day comes as we each show our loyalty to him by loving our neighbours, our literal neighbours.  We may not be able to get people through the doors of the church for worship, but we can be kind and befriend the person in front of us in the checkout line at the grocery store.  Be kind and someone may eventually ask you why and there’s your chance to give account for the hope you have.  So here and now while darkness lingers, get up and be light.  Live for the new day.  The sun is rising.  Amen.

Hope That Is More Than a Wish

Text: Romans 13:8-14

I was in elementary school in the Seventies, a child growing up in the U.S. during the Cold War. I remember not only having to do bomb drills in case someone made a bomb threat, but also having to do nuclear bomb drills. A catastrophic, fiery, apocalyptic end to the world was a fear constantly on my mind, on the nation’s mind. I don’t know what it was like up here in Canada. I’m sure the same fear had to be at least in the back of your minds because any nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would have occurred by means of Canadian airspace. Yet, besides that menacing fear, life for me growing up was rather hopeful. I looked forward, dreamed of getting a college education, of having a good paying job, a wife and family, and doing financially better than my parents. I had dreams and for the most part I could expect they would come about. That’s hope, real hope, not some wish that life might be good some day. That hope got even better when the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed. Peace seemed a real possibility that is unless space aliens invaded earth. You may have noticed that after the Berlin Wall came down the West no longer had a “common enemy” that Hollywood could vilify, so movies about space aliens began to proliferate.

Life must be a bit different for children in elementary school now. Children today are living in the post-Cold War world amidst what we in the West no longer call a War on Terror. Although it would appear that humanity's current problem with terrorism is driven by religious fanaticism, this post-9/11 world isn’t the product of religion. It is simply the aftermath of the Cold War and its accompanying economic and political imperialism. Israel, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet nations, and the Central American nations were all pawn nations in the Cold War, oppressed pawns. Afghanistan and Central America were the actual battlefields.

At the end of the Cold War everyone thought there would be peace not greater fear. Yet, children now must grow up with the fear of not only a lingering possibility of global nuclear exchange, but also nuclear terrorism; and not just nuclear terrorism, but also simple, random terrorist attacks on public places. Today’s children will also have to live with the effects of global warming, global overpopulation, and pandemics such as HIV-AIDS (which according to the 2007 UNAIDS report appears to have begun to level off and in some places even decline). If current economic trends continue most of our children will not have their share of the pie. Actually, the major disillusion for my generation has been that we are not financially better off than our parents and this trend will continue.

The future for today’s young people does not look hopeful. I don’t think it an exaggeration to say that all they have to look forward to are cooler electronic gadgets, faster computers, extremely life-like video games, and more potent street drugs. Hopelessness defines life today. Our young cannot dream like I did. When they look at the future all they can see is a huge overwhelming mess and the demand for a lot of hard work to clean up after the parties that their parents and grandparents and even great-grandparents have been throwing. It is a twisted world when children have to clean up after their parent’s parties.

Powerlessness defines life today as well. No one seems to believe that we as individuals have control over our lives and can do things that can bring about change. Among ministers we often joke that “there are a few people in that church who need to die before anything will ever change.” Well, there are a few people on this planet who need to die before anything will change, but even when those people die as long as human greed and powerlust are part of the human condition things will not change.

This overwhelming sense of hopelessness and powerlessness is taking its toll on global life. It promotes violence. Fanatics spread the message that if things cannot be changed, then blow something up particularly something that belongs to one of those people who need to die anyway. It also promotes the magical thinking of fundamentalism where if you believe right and live right God will be on your side. Unfortunately, power hungry people with even a little bit of charisma find it very easy to manipulate the hopeless and powerless with fundamentalism whether it be religious, environmental, or political. Materialism and consumerism are also a resulting plague. If there’s nothing in the future to live for, then live for today. Self-destructive and risky adrenalin-inducing behaviours also plague life. In a global culture that is emotionally depressed as we humans are people will do anything to feel pleasure, anything.

But, what about us Christians; we actually claim to have hope. What do we mean by hope? First, we have hope based in the immediacy of God’s presence with us and his intervention in our lives. Second, we have the future of the second coming of Jesus Christ when there will be the resurrection and God makes all things new. Our hope is more than a wish. We do not say I wish God was with me and I wish that he would intervene on my behalf. Anyone who has known the Lord Jesus Christ for any length of time knows certainly that God is personally present with us each and with the congregation where we worship and that God does intervene on our behalf. Our hope is real and if we know the Triune God of grace and his work in our lives now in the present then we know that what he promises for the future will occur. Jesus Christ will come back. He will put his world to rights. Indeed, there will be no more sin and death.

Since our hope is real, based on the fact that God is present and active in our lives; we must ask what difference this hope makes and if we have hope, how then should we live? To answer our first question about what difference our real hope can make in today’s world; well, we know that there is something to this thing called prayer. As far as what we who have this real hope can do; well, first of all pray and then strive to work for the kingdom coming.

There is a street ministry in Hollywood, CA called Youth Link of America. They are located on Hollywood Blvd. which seems to be a Mecca for runaway youth because they have delusional dreams of being or at least meeting a star. On the ministry's website they suggest ways people might assist in their ministry. There is obviously the request that people donate money. Yet, they also give a simple request that people pray for four things: safety for the youth, that they might be able to build relationships with the youth, for the spiritual and emotional strength to reach out to them, and the resources to meet the needs of the young people. I think the prayer request that Youth Link America makes is exactly what is needed for this entire world.

Every person on this planet needs to know safety and it is the work of Christians to pray and to strive for real peace in this world. God has not made himself present to us and intervened in our lives so that we simply continue on like everybody else. We are called to change, to follow. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, not blessed are the money makers. It is our task in this world to make peace by calling evil, evil, and evil doers, evil doers; to call injustice, injustice; to call greed, greed. It is our task to call the offender to honesty and the victim to forgiveness. Real peace, safety is based in honesty and forgiveness.

Every person on this planet needs to have relationships where trust and unconditional love can be found. Friends, this is why there is a church. This is why Jesus commands his followers this one commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The ultimate result of God’s presence in our lives is the creation of human community where love in the image of the Trinity can be found. God has made himself known to us so that we might build relationships with others in which the unconditional love of God, the Trinity himself, can be known and is known.

Every person on this planet needs the emotional and spiritual strength to move forward in life. Everyone needs to know the freedom and healing that comes with knowing Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit; freedom and healing from enslavement to addictions, the pain of childhood neglect and abuse; freedom from bearing grudges; and the freedom and healing that comes from forgiving. The greatest healing came in my life when Christ Jesus showed me that he loved and was gracious to certain people I was bearing a life-time grudge against, even though my grudge was based in the right. You see, there is a fine line between wanting God to avenge the wrongs done to us and bearing a grudge that becomes our life’s major pre-occupation that only results in self destruction and petty retaliation. The church is the only human community where forgiveness (rather than retribution) is the rule of the day, and praise be to God, he gives us the strength to forgive and to move forward.

Finally, it is not only the work of Christians to pray that everybody in the world gets their daily bread; it is also to work for the equal distribution of wealth around the world. This means that we Christians in the West need to put a limit on what honestly is enough and give the rest away. It means that we must simplify our lifestyles. This is more than just reducing our carbon footprint. It is learning to live with and on much less than we are accustomed simply for love of neighbour and love of God. We who know that the future is in God’s hands because we know his presence in the present, simply cannot model to the rest of the world a lifestyle that lives for the present. We must model the lifestyle that respects in love the needs of all peoples and that strives for the end of poverty not only with what we put in our refrigerators, but also for whom we vote.

We’ve been graciously given a real reason to hope, my friends; a very real reason. The Triune God of grace is with us…and we know it. Let us not take his graciousness towards us in vain. Let’s live this hope openly before the world. Amen.