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"What's New?!"Happy New Year! This is the beginning of the church year -which begins with the season of Advent - filled with the anticipation of thearrival of Christ into the world. He came and He comes again - wheneverwe invite Him. Even the saints like to have an invitation - a welcome.But Jesus was rejected while still in the womb - the Inn was fullyou remember - and his mother delivered him in the stable - among thefriendly animals. Animals know so much more than we give them creditfor - witness the animals who went to higher ground before the gigantictsunami. How does my god know to go which day to go the door to waitfor the maid to come - whom she loves dearly because Elsa stays homeand keeps her company all day, whereas I run off to church. How do theswallows find Capistrano? How do pengins know where to march to?In this world of ours, there's a miracle around every corner -something new to be discovered - something different to understand.Jesus was something new - something different - we've neverquite gotten used to him. That's because He was none other than Godwalking among us - God with us - Emanuel! - which is what Emanualmeans - God with us! Because we as mankind never got ourselves toGod, there was only one solution - God had to come to us.We tried to be faithful. We tried our best to follow God's laws aswe understood them, but we failed.We poured over the sacred books seeking a better understandingof God, but things there seemed so strange and incomprehensible.We built a grand temple in the hope of containing God, a housegrand enough for God to reside in, but following the rituals of the templewas a pale substitute for the living God.We listened to the prophets and nodded in assent to their demands.But agreeing with them was one thing: obeying them was another.So many of our attempts to get close to God, to walk with God,to obey God only seemed to drive us further from God. What could wedo?The answer is that we could do nothing. Something had to bedone for us. We could not come to God, so God came to us.Advent means, that caught in our old ways, following ouraccustomed scripts, going through the motions, God came to us. Godreached out to us, despite the futility of our groping toward him, Godembraced us, stood beside us, and became one with us.It's that closeness that Communion accomplishes for us if we havethe eye to see the miracle in the common place.Before His physical departure from the Earth, Jesus chose elementsby which we could remember him - two things that were at every meal -bread and wine. He gave symbolic meaning to each - a symbol of hisPresence.Shortly after my father died, I found my mother sitting sadly in achair, holding my father's shoes. They weren't his dress shoes - but hiswork shoes which didn't smell all that great from years of sweaty use - butstill they were the perfect symbol of the dedicated, hardworking husbandand father he was - who was up before light and finishing after dark tosupport a family of nine children.What would symbolize you? What is the essence of who you arethat could be capsulized into a symbol?And how does that essence relate to the fierce directions given usin the Scripture today "We should prepare ourselves to fight evil withthe weapons that belong to the light."The weapons that belong to the light are the principles of Jesusthat are the only things powerful enough make it possible for our world tosurvive - for the earth to be preserved and for wars to cease that couldcause the end of civilization. God doesn't have to bring the end of time,we're doing a very good job of heading for it entirely on our own.When I was a kid, we were always crying wolf - saying there wasa crisis when there was none. Once such day, my next older brothershouted out from the old swimmin' hole that he was drowning. His criesof "Help - Help, I'm drowning" didn't fool any of us. He went under. Wewaited eagerly for him to come back up. The only problem - He didn't!He WAS drowning - whereupon a family member dived in, found himbelow the surface, and dragged him to shore - where he coughed up a lotof water, came to and continued on in the land of the living.But he had been through quite an experience. Thinking he wasgoing to meet his Maker, he said that every mean and terrible thing thathe had ever done passed through his mind in an instant. God didn't haveto judge him, he had already judged himself.God doesn't have to bring an end to things...we're doing a fine jobof that ourselves....thinking we can war our way to piece - totally oppositeto what Jesus said - totally foreign to the way He was in the world.As we come to the communion table today, our task is simple, toexamine ourselves to see how like the Christ we have become or need tobecome - to ask how concerned we are about His Church, His Kingdom,His reign as King of Kings - how involved are we in the things of theSpirit.It is likely that instead, we have fallen prey to what our culturecalls us to become. A recent church of England report puts it this way:"Where previous generations found their identity in what theyproduced, we now find our identity in what we consume. "Never at any funeral have I said, He consumed four luxury cars,to luxury homes and half of the Forge's wine list. Spiritually, those thingswon't get us anywhere - they certainly don't stop wars or produce peace.Jesus gives us the bread and wine to remember him by, but for thepurpose of remembering that we are his hands and feet in the world toaccomplish His tasks. He walks beside us hoping to see us doing thingsthat will make a difference.The Church just sent a thousand dollars from our BenevolenceBudget to help keep the Interfaith Worker Justice organization going -giving them money to help others who earn very little to get a living wage- pressuring Burger King, Taco Bell and others on behalf of the tomatopickers who earn very little - or pressuring universities and housingcommunities to pay their groundskeepers a living wage. They know intheir hearts to help these people is to make a difference where it countsmost - with whom it counts most.So what is the symbol by which you will be remembered ? -perhaps a sweaty shirt from the latest march for worker's wages: or fromserving on the food line at the church's luncheon for the homeless, or aparking stub from one of the many committee meetings you have attendedto further the work of your church, your service club or arts organization."I say this because you know that we live in an important time,Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvationis nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almostfinished." (Romans 13:11.)Into the darkness, the Christ of Light appears - again this advent.Showing us how Life is to be done and won. - to give us anothr chance.He came not to consume but to give - to love - to share. That's why we'rehere - to learn to walk in that light, to live in that light.The animals in the stable intuitively understood that. So must we.In closing, I'd like to share A Dog's Purpose, from a 4 year old.Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten year-oldIrish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa,and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they werehoping for a miracle.I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told thefamily we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform theeuthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.As we made the arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thoughtit would be goof for four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. Theyfelt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker'sfamily surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for thelast time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The littleboy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion.We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloudabout the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunnedme. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to livea good life - like loving everybody all the time and being nice right?"The four year old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to dothat, so they don't have to stay as long."LIVE SIMPLY. LOVE GENEROUSLY. CARE DEEPLY.SPEAK KINDLY. LEAVE THE REST TO GOD. MAKE YOUR LIFEA SYMBOL OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Now.....Come, dance in delight because love has comeand the wine of celebration is being pouredCome, lift up your heartsto receive the abundance that waits for usfor the Christ is present.and we touch the life of God.Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but becauseyou may..... .Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)December 2, 2007 10:30 a, m.May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.http://feeds.feedburner.com/MiamiBeachCommunityChurch