Sermons in Glass 12. Spirit

Sermons in Glass: 12. Spirit

The Church of the Wayfarer

Norm Mowery, Pastor

November 24, 2013

Isaiah 6:1-3; 6-8; Acts 2:1-4

          One Hundred and fifty years ago this past Tuesday, President Abraham Lincoln gave the historic Gettysburg Address.

          I found the news last week to be fascinating. It strikes me that it was only one hundred years from the time Lincoln gave his famous speech till President John F. Kennedy was killed in Texas fifty years ago.

          Yesterday, Linda and I drove through Gettysburg on our way home from my mother’s funeral. We stopped for a few moments at the site where Lincoln gave the infamous speech and Linda took this picture.

          As we paused, hoping we wouldn’t get too carried away and miss our flight out of Washington Dulles Airport, we watched people in uniform gathering to reenact the terrible battle.

          I was once again struck with awe at the terribleness of that war and the eloquence of Lincoln’s Address. As I looked at the site where he stood I tried to feel his feelings. Thousands of men lay dead in unmarked graves. What did Lincoln feel as he gave that eloquent speech?

         

          All war is terrible but….. THAT war…….?

          Many years ago I memorized the Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I am sure many of you did as well.  Let’s see how much we remember as we read it together:

          Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

          Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

          We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

          We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

          It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

          But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

          The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

          The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

          It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

          It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

          There are many sermons that I could give from the Gettysburg Address but this morning I conclude the series I have titled, “Sermons in Glass.” These are messages based on the pictures in our stained glass windows.

          Today we turn to the twelfth and final lancet.

            At Pentecost the Holy Spirit of the risen Christ descended upon the disciples as tongues of fire. The dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

          On the day of Pentecost, a holy hurricane, or tornado, or typhoon whipped through Jerusalem and blew away the expectations of all who were gathered there.

          The descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost has traditionally been understood as the birth of the Christian church.

          We may never know precisely what happened on the Day of Pentecost but we know that on that day the Holy Spirit came to the church in a special way.

          On that day the Holy Spirit became the dominant reality in the life of the early Church.

·        The spirit was the source of all guidance.

The early church was a spirit-guided community.

·        All the leaders of the Church were people of the spirit.

·        The spirit was the source of day-to-day courage and power.

          I ask.

                    Where is the spirit in our lives?

                    Where is the spirit in our church?

                    Where is the spirit in our world?

          Let’s sing together:

Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.

Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the living God, fall a-fresh on me.

          A young man was apprenticed to a master artist who produced the most beautiful stained glass windows anywhere.

          The apprentice could not approach the master's genius, so he borrowed his master's tools, thinking that was the answer.

          After several weeks, the young man said to his teacher, "I'm not doing any better with your tools than I did with mine."

          The teacher replied, "So, it's not the tools of the master you need; it's the spirit of the master you need."

          We have the tools to do our work as a church.

          It is the spirit of Jesus that we need.

          Today at our Church Conference next year’s leaders will be elected. May they be filled with the Spirit!

          When was the last time something totally unexpected happened in your spiritual life?
          Where do you experience spirit—the living spirit of God—in your life?

          St. Francis of Assisi who gave up all worldly goods to live in poverty and founded the Franciscan Order, was such a lover of nature and animals he was said

to speak with them—even the wolf  was calmed by his quiet spirit.

         

          Francis was canonized in 1228. After a care free youth, he turned his back on inherited wealth and committed himself to God. He lived a very simple life of poverty and gained a reputation of being the friend of animals. 

          He established the Order of St. Francis.

          He died at age 44.

          He is the patron saint for ecologists.

          He is probably most famous for the Prayer of St. Francis. Let’s see if we remember it as we say it together. It is found on page 481 in our hymnals.

          Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

                   Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

                   where there is injury, pardon;

                   where there is doubt, faith;

                   where there is despair, hope;

                   where there is darkness, light;

                   where there is sadness, joy;

          O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

                   to be understood as to understand;

                   to be loved as to love.

          For it is in giving that we receive;

                   it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

                   and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

          Isaiah, the Royal Prophet, described his prophetic summons in the temple at Jerusalem. In an awesome vision he sees the Almighty God and is overcome by a sense of his sinfulness. Absolution is given when a seraph holding in tongs a live coal from the altar touches it to his lips.

          The call of the prophet Isaiah is one of the great literary insights into the realm of the divine. Among the most famous of the world’s mystical visions, it broadens the concept of vision to include not only sight, but also sound, smell, touch and, possibly, taste.

          It was for the prophet a truly experience of the divine.

          Worship happens wherever God is radically present, and the result is unplanned, unrehearsed and uncontrollable.

          Soren Kierkegaard tells a parable of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher.

          The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.

          With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go;

                   there was no God-given task the ducks could not accomplish.

          With those wings they could soar into the presence of God himself.

          Shouts of "Amen" were quacked throughout the duck congregation.

          At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left, commenting on what a wonderful message they had heard -- and waddled back home.

          Too often, worshipers waddle away from worship as they waddled in -- unchallenged and unchanged.

           Occasionally, though, something happens.

                   A serendipity.

                   Unplanned.

                   Unrehearsed.

          Someone's eyes are opened to a deeper awareness of the grandeur of God by the majesty of the music.

          Someone recognizes his or her life's story as the Scripture lesson is read, and a new believer is born.

          Someone hears in the sermon, as if for the first time, the forgiving love of Jesus, and a new hope is born.

         

          Isaiah’s call to prophetic service was for him an encounter with God so profound that afterward he could no longer see himself or his people in quite the same way.

          To Isaiah it seemed that the entire building shook with the presence of God.

         

          The Church of the Wayfarer, Carmel-by-the-Sea’s first Church, was founded in 1904 and has been on its present site since then.

          California redwoods appear in the corners.

          So, where are we as a church today? Our mission statement says:

Discover the wonder of life

Through Carmel’s Church of the Wayfarer by:

Reaching up to God

Reaching in to ourselves

Reaching out to others

          Our Vision statement reads:

                   The Church of the Wayfarer is a vibrant Christian community with                             dynamic worship and enriching ministries having the mission of                        bringing love and wholeness to our world.

          The Lackey Family Window above the front entrance was to add light and cheerfulness to the choir loft. It is simply spectacular at night—that is when the bulb is not burned out!

         

          The Arlen Lackey Family chose to help fund this addition in memory of Arlen’s parents.

          The church wanted a remembrance for people whose ashes are scattered and have no graveside markers remembering them.

          Marian Clemens says, “I think of it as "a remembering" of very special people and as a guardian angel.

          On this Sunday before Thanksgiving

                   Let us give thanks for the spirit of God among us.

                    Let us give thanks along with St. Francis for God’s creation.

                   Let us give thanks for worship of a holy God

                   Let us give thanks for our church and our guardian angel.

Prayer

          Some of us have too much.

          And others have too little.

          And your sure intention is that we each have all that we need. That we learn not to want what others cannot have. That instead we learn to want what we do have.
          Deepen the everyday grace at our table this Thanksgiving.

          Let us know our daily food as a miracle, as abundance.

          Let us remember each member of our family as a beautiful facet of
your creation, even those from whom we are estranged.
          Hear our thanks for our church, our leaders—all who let us worship together and who keep things working here.
          And finally, O God, hear our prayer for those who don't have enough.

          Let us play our part in the return of their abundance.

          In Jesus' name. Amen.