The Mystery is Disclosed

 

THE MYSTERY IS DISCLOSED

December 20, 2020, Fourth Sunday in Advent

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26; Romans 16:25-27

 

Every Advent, as we put up our Christmas tree, we talk about what we are doing, and we remember fondly those who have been part of our lives, through many Christmases past.  This ornament may remind us of a great grandparent.  Another may remind us of a special friend or neighbor.  Another may clearly show that tiny hands made it many years ago. The ornaments come from all time periods and some are gorgeous and some are very homely to the untrained observer, unless you know their story.

 

Our scripture passage today is about knowing the story. About God disclosing what would otherwise be a mystery. So let us for a moment, look at a few ornaments from God.

 

ONE: AS MUCH AS WE MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW EVERYTHING, IT DOES NOT SEEM TO BE GOD’S WAY TO TELL US EVERYTHING.

 

Maybe we could not handle knowing everything.  Maybe there is a reason that what we are told comes in small doses.  Maybe if we looked at the sweep of joys and sorrows that we were going to experience in life, all at once, it would be too much for us to take in.  I am glad I had no idea that Covid-19 was on the horizon.  Given the realities it brought, I wish it had not appeared at all.  But I am grateful that I was able to live my life up until that time in March of this year, unaware.  I won’t say blissfully unaware, because other challenges were part of life, as they are in every life.  But the very strange unusual times we have been living in were not even a passing thought.  I am glad that God does not show us the whole picture from the get go.

 

It may be that since God created us as rational beings, God likes to give us a chance to problem-solve.  To put our energies toward how we can make the world better than when we came on the scene.  To support others in ways that they need, and that we have the ability to make a difference.  To tell someone new that God loves them, and in so doing, bring them a measure of the hope that is within us.

 

TWO: GOD DOES DISCLOSE THINGS TO US, BUT SOMETIMES, IT IS ONLY AFTER “LONG AGES”.

 

I must say that if we pay attention to the sweep of salvation history, I am impressed by the people who continued to watch, who continued to wait, who continued to trust in God, and who through countless generations, still lived in the time before the mystery was disclosed. At some level I wonder how they managed. And at some level I say, “Great was their faith!”

 

I suppose that every one of us has in our back story an ancestor who hoped and waited and worked for something that they did not live long enough to see.  Who did their best, who used the resources that came their way, who worked very hard – often at jobs that you and I would balk at doing.  Who managed to put their disappointments to one side, and to still find the wherewithal to enjoy the people around them, their families, and what mattered most in life.  All the while they knew that they were working not only for their own wellbeing but for a larger goal, a longer-term goal.  One that they might or might not live long enough to see.

 

Just think of our Old Testament ancestors in the faith, who did just that.  They were forbears of faith and fortitude, even though they did not have the answer to the mystery.  They trusted that the messiah would come in God’s good time.  They may hve become discouraged, from time to time; but they also kept on hoping and believing.  That God would fulfill God’s promises and as a result, all the world would be blessed.

 

Do you have that kind of perseverance?  I believe you do.  You certainly have demonstrated it this year.  As you have been dealing with a worldwide pandemic that has landed on your doorstep and changed what you think of as ordinary day to day living.  You have done your very best through some of the very worst of times.  You have done so, not knowing when it will all be resolved, when we can be back in a manner of living that does not include social distancing or the wearing of masks or working and learning from home.

You are like the people who lived in Israel and Judea in those days before the mystery was disclosed.  In that regard. But not in regard to what Paul is saying.  Because you know the who, and what, and when, and why, and way, that God disclosed the mystery.  You are among the most blessed of people, who know that Jesus is the Messiah  That this little baby whose birth we are soon to remember and celebrate, is the one that the old testament people believed would arrive, but they did not know just when.  That the man who crafted things out of wood and then used those same skills to hone human hearts, was just beyond the horizon.

 

You have seen it happen.  You can tell the story of his arrival by heart.  You can sing the carols about his coming without looking at a book.  You can live as he lived, and love as he loved, not because you imagine that the mystery would one day be disclosed, but rather because God has revealed it to you.  How blessed you are!  And what a blessing you are!

 

THREE: THE DISCLOSURE OF THE MYSTERY IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY.

Is it?

 

This is different from a mystery by Conan Doyle, or Agatha Christie, or Dorothy L Sayers.  Once their mysteries are disclosed, we get to those two little words:  The End.  We close the book. The story is over.

 

Paul in wring to the Romans, understood that although the mystery is disclosed, the story of Christian faith is not over.  Far from it.  No wonder his benediction to the Romans, here at this point in his letter, has an open ended nature to it.   Paul points out that the Romans are being strengthened. God is stringing you is how he says it. They are being given ability and agility, range of motion and stamina, “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow” – as the hymn says.  And we know it is good – because this strength is from God.

 

I mentioned our ancestors earlier.  They knew that their contribution was not the end of the story.  They might be surprised about you, and where you are, and what you have been able to accomplish, that they could only dream about.  And that is good, because they stand as symbols of what you and I are called to do – knowing the disclosed mystery of Jesus Christ.  Wouldn’t they be proud of you?   Yes they would.  They would say, “I am glad I worked so hard in my day, to see what they can do in theirs”.

 

And the Christians who came before us, are like unto the people in our family trees.  Who if we were able to see the vision of their witness, would gather like we ourselves, around that tree that in this season reminds us that we are all sisters and brothers in Christ.  I would like to picture them with us in spirit, as we decorate and place gifts under our Christmas trees.  As we enjoy the light that shines forth from them.  And I would like to think that even when the trees are gone, the lights unstrung, the ornaments carefully packed away, that the light of Christ will continue to glow, from you and yours.  That is what God is strengthening you for.

 

This benediction (this blessing Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome), places the coming of Jesus, the incarnation, which we are about to celebrate, into the broad context of God's ceaseless desire for humanity to live in wholeness.

 

So let the lights and ornaments of Christmas find a treasured place in your heart.  What are those ornaments? (Appear to place each one on a tree…).  God is the One from whom all blessings flow.  God is the One to whom all praise belongs.  God is the One who loves you without limit. God is the One who enters this world quietly, and God is the One who is always changing things for the better. God is the one who invites you to do likewise.  This Advent season, in every time and season, in Christ, may it be so.  Amen

 

 

Magnifying the Lord

 

MAGNIFYING THE LORD

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Psalm 126; Luke 1:46b-55

 

Mary sang…

46 “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Mary – the girl from Nazareth.  What do we know about Nazareth?  It was a small town.  Not much more than a village, really.  About 350 people, living in about 35 homes, spread over about six acres. It stood on its own small hill, 500 feet above the secluded valley. A little north of the great plain. The houses were actually cut into the cliffs. Modest houses, they stood upon the narrow knolls, and steep slopes. The limestone hillsides were like Swiss cheese; caves perforated them. Some of the houses were built over the caves, with the caves serving as the main dwelling—or as storage areas.  Mary’s parents’ home was one of these.  The town looked peaceful.  But there were plenty of troubles.  The name of their town suggested how troubled the times were.  Nazareth.  Some said it meant:  “Send us a Helper!”  Other said, “No it means ‘Send us the Victorious One!’”  But the older inhabitants took it to mean:  “Be careful!” or “Keep a Sharp Lookout!”

 

Whether it was a cry for help, or a caution to be watchful, or both, the town was like the eye of a hurricane.  A deceptive calm was there.  A storm was brewing all around them.  Nazareth was anything but tranquil, in those days.  They lived in an occupied country, where it was hard to say what was worse.  The soldiers who were billeted right there in the village. Or the traitorous neighbors, who spied on everyone and made life miserable.  Or the members of the village council, who cared less for those in need than they did for maintaining the status quo.

 

In another age, would she have looked all around, wondering where the voice might have come from. Trembling, when the Angel of the Lord appeared? If she had lived in a different age, would she have been so filled with grace?  Would Mary have been ready? Ready for the greatest gift of God, soon to be freely given to her?  If she had lived in a different age, would she have heard the news that came to her?  If she had lived in a more skeptical age, or a more enlightened age,

Or a more modern, or even post-modern age, would she have listened to the words of her relative Elizabeth:  “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

 

But Mary did not live in a different age. A young woman of her time, she responded out of the realities of her era.  And she sang a song that magnified the Lord.

 

Professor Rolf Jacobson of Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minn. says:

The Magnificat is “The kind of song that has been sung by countless people of faith through the ages in resistance, in defiance of empires, slavers, terrorists, invaders, and the like.” Out of such things, came a song of wonder and praise.  Out of such things, came news that stirred her to joy and hopefulness.  For what the angel proclaimed stood in direct contrast to all that was cheap and tawdry, all that was cold and cruel, all that the people had suffered.  Magnify the lord with me.  An invitation to us all to take a closer look, a very close look indeed, at who the lord is and what the Lord is doing. Right now.

 

“50 His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation”.

 

 

Mary’s song is a way to fend off what is bad, and focus on what is good.

To reject the things that would limit life, and embrace what will make life whole.

Mary is looking to the joyous arrival of Jesus. And so are we. Mary is sure that because of Jesus, the world is going to be made better.  People who have been forgotten will find a place of honor and thanksgiving.  Places that have moldered in decay will be restored.  Purposes that have been abandoned because they seemed too hard to accomplish, will come to fruition and be the source of blessing, because of Christ the Lord.  Mary speaks as if it has happened already, even before the birth of the child at Christmas.    This is an expression of pure trust and deep faith that can’t be stopped.  She knows he is coming.  It is inevitable that he will.  When he does, his mercy will prevail.  The proud and haughty will be case down.  The hungry will be filled with good things.  And his people will live into his everlasting promise.

 

          You have seen, (and I have as well), many statements and signs of late, saying how glad people will be to be done with 2020.  There is a lot of truth in that.  We are hoping that as we move ahead in time, that God our savior will look with favor on all of his servants, and that blessings will abound.  Can you permit yourself to look at this moment in your life the way Mary looked at her’s?  Can you look with a trust and assurance that is unshakable?  Can you see that because of Jesus, God is even now making things new, and right? 

 

We wish we had Mary’s original tune as well as her words.  Even though we do not, we are keenly aware that her song enlarges our understanding of God.  The fact is, the Magnificat boosts us out of discouragement. It enhances our appreciation of the Almighty.  It maximizes our awareness of God’s mighty deeds.  Our commitment increases as we hear Mary’s words.  Our hope extends.  Our vision expands. Our love is amplified.  Our thankfulness is intensified.  Our senses are heightened.  Our devotion is deepened.  Our belief is broadened.  Our wonder is widened.  Mary’s song moves from being a solo, to being an anthem, sung by Christians in every time and place.  We take up Mary’s song and sing along, in praise and blessing, in worship and adoration.  With Mary, we magnify and extol the Lord.

 

Why is it that you can still sing something you sang as a child?  That you have not sung since.  But given a chance, you know all the words by heart.  Songs are powerful.  Songs find a way into hearts that are otherwise closed.  Songs lodge in the mind like a welcome guest.  Songs become the theme of our day or our life.

Songs persist in our memory.  Even the most prosaic of songs do this.  And Mary’s song is among the most profound.  Mary’s song is about a future vision of the restoration of all humanity.  A song about the fulfilment of God’s intentions.  A song about the advent of wholeness which God has promised to the whole human family.

 

According to the church calendar, the third Sunday of Advent. Is joy Sunday, from the Latin word Gaudete ("Rejoice").  This is a day for us to stop and recognize the joy God brings into our lives, by the arrival of the king of heaven and earth.  It is as John Wesley has said:

 

"And she rejoiced in hope of salvation through faith in him, which is a blessing common to all true believers…”

 

Magnify the Lord.  Whatever your darkness, whatever your despair.

Let Mary’s song provide light and hope for you in the midst of your life this season. AMEN.

While You Are Waiting

 

WHILE YOU ARE WAITING

December 6, 2020 - Communion

Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a

 

The subject of this passage from 2^nd Peter has to do with end times.  About God’s timing and our timing.  We have lived days and years that are like what Peter says here: A day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

 

So, here is a question.  Are you a patient person?  

 

Are you good at waiting?  Do you become impatient the red light is too long when the doctor isn’t on time for your appointment.  When time hangs heavy on your hands?  You are not alone.  I confess that I don’t like to wait but I have gotten better at it than I used to be.  In former days, unless I had someone with me to talk with, or unless I had a book to read, I became impatient much sooner than I do now.  I attribute it to one thing, and it isn’t a spiritual thing. But it may have spiritual application.  Have you guessed what it is?

 

If you said, “You look at your smart phone,” you are correct.  When I am in line in the post office for instance.  Instead of tapping my foot or getting fussy, I get out my phone, check the email, and so forth.  I find that the time passes more pleasantly, and it even seems to pass quickly, until it is my turn.

 

Being occupied, is one thing to do when we are waiting. As Henry Drummond says: “In the meantime, do the next best thing.  Doing God’s will in small things is the best preparation for knowing it in the great things.”

 

And there is another way to wait, in which you put your mind in a calm and meditative place, and you open yourself to what might come your way.  Both are valid ways of waiting.  Spiritually speaking, we may get more from one or from the other.  But both are better than getting worked up about waiting. Let’s consider each, in turn.

 

First, keep busy but not distracted.  It happened not far away, at our sister Presbyterian Church over in Fox Chapel, back when I served there.  We were well into the worship service; the senior pastor had climbed into the pulpit, and launched into his sermon.  It was a message worth hearing.  But no one was paying attention.  In fact, as he gazed out on the gathered congregation, they were uncharacteristically distracted.  He saw them look first to the right, and then a moment later, look to the left.  And so forth, repeatedly. It was like watching fans in the stands at a tennis match.  Finally, the preacher looked over to me, seated as I was on the opposite side of the chancel, and said, “I seem to have lost them…”

And I replied, “That’s because there’s a chipmunk running back and forth on the Chancel steps!”

 

Sometimes our lives are like that.  We have all we need from God, in the way of information and inspiration, but we are distracted by small matters that demand our attention, like chipmunks in the Chancel.  They scamper to and fro in our minds.  Keep us preoccupied in our waking hours.  And restless throughout the long night.  Back and forth, they go.  Over and over again.  This works against God’s plan for us.

 

God does not want to lose us.  God calls us to look above such distractions.

And see God’s wonders, beyond them.  The busy world has much that would send us to the left, or to the right, of the way of Jesus Christ. While you are waiting, keep busy but not distracted.

 

While we are waiting, we also have, the ability to put our minds in a calm and meditative place, in order to open our lives to what God brings our way.  Down through the centuries of church history, believers have called this “Practicing the Presence of God.  Francois Malaval. (1627–1719), the French poet and religious writer, who was blind from early childhood, published devotional works. Here is an observation from him, which I find helpful:

 

”Think of God often…and such thoughts will not disturb or deflect you.  They will, rather, accompany you, go before you, follow you, and generally awaken you.  If someone ordered you to make 25 or 30 respirations every minute, you would repulse such a suggestion; you would think it would impede all your actions.  Yet you breathe every moment without noticing it, and you don’t cease to act with as much liberty as if nothing were going on in you.” 

 

While we are waiting, we have this invitation to focus on God. As we do this more and more, our focus becomes as natural and as beneficial as breathing in and breathing out.

 

          You recall there is a concept call the Breath Prayer, which is taking a very brief passage of scripture and making it your ongoing resting though. A simple prayer, that can be spoken in a aloud or inwardly in the course of a single breath.  For example, this: “Lead me, O Lord in your paths, and I will walk in your truth.”  Praying like this, while we are waiting, will put our minds in a calm and meditative place.

 

Long before I had a driver’s license, my grandmother (who was an excellent driver), would often take me places.  So often, that I came to recognize the challenge of waiting at one particular Pittsburgh intersection.  You may have had to wait there too.  I call it “The longest traffic light in town”.  At that intersection, the drivers could, if they wished, make their waiting time shorter.  But here’s the secret: It didn’t happen on its own.  You had to drive over one of those hidden plates in the road, to trigger the traffic light, so that the light would turn green.  There were way too many drivers who were one car ahead of grandma at the light, who did not drive over that plate.  So there everyone would sit, much longer than necessary.  It may not have been the longest traffic light in town, but it certainly felt that way.

 

Such things bring out one’s ability to be patient or not.  And are small indeed compared with the fulfillment of God’s plan as we find it in our lesson from 2^nd Peter.  So much of what we read there has an overwhelming and even frightening tone.  So I am grateful that Peter says: “You look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”  And also grateful that he says: “We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”  Most of all, I appreciate that there is not a lot for me to do about it, except what he says in summary.  About being patient.  While we are waiting.

 

Keep his words in mind, in this Advent season of waiting.  Because we are waiting for pure goodness and love, in the person of Jesus Christ.  As Peter says: “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation”.  Amen.

 

Keep Awake!

 

KEEP AWAKE!

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh

Sunday, November 29, 2020 – First Sunday in Advent

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Mark 13:24-37

 

If we had lived near our church in the 1880s, then we would have been neighbors with a man named Philander Chase Knox.  He lived around the corner on Ellsworth Avenue.  (Shadyside Lane was once his driveway). Philander Knox was a lawyer of some repute, who began life in Brownsville, PA. He ended up founding a law firm that is well-known in Pittsburgh right down to this day.  Knox and Reed now, Reed Smith…

Knox also served in the US Senate, and as US Attorney General and US Secretary of State – in the Cabinet of several Presidents, including his lifelong friend, William McKinley, as well as Teddy Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft.  It was Philander Knox who came up with the idea of Federal Income Tax. All in all he was an interesting neighbor to have.

He is famous for one thing more. Falling asleep at Cabinet Meetings. Yes.  Some folks say he was working too hard.  Others claim it was due to the brain drain that such meetings cause.  Still others say it was a medical condition.  No matter.  There they would be, gathered round a big table, with weighty matters to discuss, and important decisions to be made.  And Mr. Knox would simply nod off.  He did it so often that his nickname in Washington DC was “Sleepy Phil”.  (The Bookman, Volume 23, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1906; page 309).  And not incidentally, the world’s most famous sleeping groundhog, Puxantauny Phil, was named in his honor.

A dubious distinction, if you ask me.  “Mr. Knox, What are you famous for?”  Answer: “Sleeping.”  Oh then you join the ranks of other famous sleepers.  Sleeping Beauty, for instance.  Rip van Winkle.  Winston Churchill was a proponent of the siesta. He took a 2-hour nap every day at 5 p.m.  Oher illustrious nappers include: Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci.  As well as Napoleon, John F Kennedy, John D Rockefeller, and Salvador Dali.  So you could say that Philander Knox caught his ZZZZs with the best of them.  But I wonder if the dogs here in Shadyside recognized him, when at last he woke up?

Mr. Knox needed his sleep.  We ALL need our sleep.  Bu when it comes to being a Christian.  Jesus wants us to keep awake.  He says so, in the Gospel of Mark. Why?  Because the master may come at any hour.  We are to be awake and alert every hour.  “What I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Short of swallowing too many of those high energy drinks (which by the way are also highly detrimental to your wellbeing), how do we do what Jesus says?  How do we keep awake?

I like the way United Methodist minister and author Robert Schnase puts it.  He calls it “Spiritual Attentiveness”.

“For Jesus to repeat [THE WORDS “KEEP AWAKE”] so emphatically, three times in a row, [in Mark Chapter 13] implies that one of the great hazards of the faith journey is spiritual acquiescence, a kind of grogginess that dulls us to what is true, and truly important. Sleepiness of spirit means we miss out on what God is doing, and perhaps overlook the presence of Christ right in our midst. By simply falling asleep, spiritually speaking, we miss God, and miss out on what God is calling us to be and do.”

 “Spiritual attentiveness” means look for what god is doing.  God is always doing something new.  God is always reminding us about what God did in the past.  God is always prompting us to get busy for the future.  God is bring about eternal plans.  Nearer and nearer draws the time, as the hymn says. How much nearer is known - not to you or to me, but only to God.  Even Jesus doesn’t know.

Advent is a time when we look for what God is doing, specifically, in bringing the Messiah into the world.  So as Advent begins, (as it does today), we LOOK FOR THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN OUR MIDST.  He’s coming.

We help our children pay attention to this when we have an Advent calendar at home and they can count down the days.  We help ourselves pay attention to this when we light our Advent Candles, and one week leads to the next and next, until finally it is Christmas Eve.

Similar to what one might do to stay awake physically, the way of “Spiritual Attentiveness” includes getting up and moving around to be spiritually awake. Throughout the Bible, God called people to get up and move around.  From the days of the Exodus, to the call of the prophets.  Getting up and moving around helped fulfill God’s purpose.  Jesus came on the scene and said to people: Follow Me.  It would have been impossible for them to follow Jesus if they had said, “Sure enough, Lord, I will follow you; but from here in my fishing boat, where I have always been.”  Jesus called them to get up, out of their routine, to move around Galilee and Judea, and to engage in new kinds of relationships that had, at their core, a divinely-driven cause. God is calling us today, to get up, and move around, so we will Keep Awake and be spiritually attentive.  Especially in this Advent season.

Another way to be spiritually attentive is to give our eyes a break, to avoid fatigue. That is: to look and see what we haven’t seen, yet.  If we watch were we are going, we will go where we are watching.  If our eyes have been on something less than the cause of Christ, quite possibly we have been doing the spiritual equivalent of nodding off during Cabinet Meetings. More worn out from that brain drain than is good for us. 

A friend of mine had a neighbor who is a dear soul but who also is a constant presence, she yooo hooos to him whenever he is in his driveway, or doing yardwork; she comes half way across the street and engages him in a conversation that has a James Joycian stream of consciousness about it.  Going from one topic to the next in rapid succession, without coming up for air to allow my friend to get a word in edgewise. He once said to me, that when she starts talking, his eyes roll up into the back of his head and never come out.  That can happen to us – when we have been looking, far too long, where God cannot be seen.  Where the cause of Christ is obscured by demanding minutiae.  Where the tyranny of the immediate fogs-up our view of God’s landscape.  Give Your Eyes a Break – look somewhere new.  To Avoid Spiritual Fatigue.

One more thought about spiritual attentiveness: start a conversation to wake up your mind. A conversation with other believers.  These dear and wise followers of Jesus who are in your life already.  Friends from church.  Friends from church history.  They can bring forth some ideas that will engage you in the development of your beliefs.  Befriend a believer you can talk with about eternal things.

Try this.  Engage in a dialogue with inspirational people, of today and of long ago.  The kind of conversation happens in the heart.  Not aloud. For instance, read a passage from John Knox or John Calvin.  Then, make a note.  Comment on it, as if you were having a conversation with them.  Then listen for an insight that comes back to you. Find a devotional guide, whose words you can read each day during Advent.  The same is true of the conversations you can have today, with fellow Christians.  Reach out to someone who will hear you, and respond in ways to keep you awake in Christ Jesus.

Every night before I go to sleep, I set 2 alarm clocks. They are set to the same time.  So why two?  I do this because one is plugged in to the wall.  But the other is not.  It is a kind of backup plan for being awake.  So that, if one kind of power goes out, the other one will still do its job.  Of waking me up.  In our scripture, Jesus is teaching about the end times.  We are not there yet.  In the in between times, the Lord’s watchword to us is to do more than one thing:

-        Get up and move around.

-        Look to see what we haven’t seen, yet.

-        Start a conversation to wake up our minds.

Don’t be a Sleepy Phil.  Do all that we possibly can, to keep awake.  Amen.

When Did We See You?

 

WHEN DID WE SEE YOU?

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Christ the King / also the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day

Psalm 95:1-7a; Matthew 25:31-46

 

THE FINE ART OF NOTICING.

 

There is so much to see, it would be a pity of we missed it.  If you go to a party, do you look for the person who is off by themselves, who has not yet had someone to engage in conversation?  If you do that, you know that out of such a small but important extra effort, great friendships are born.  That person may change your life for the better, even as you might change there’s for the better.  And even if that does not happen, certainly what will happen is that they will go home from that event thinking: “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  Because somebody noticed me.”

 

Multiply that by the people who have come to the party of life, and who are spending their days off somewhere all alone, and you begin to draw closer to what Jesus is telling us in our scripture message.  Notice, friend.

 

Notice the people who are right there under your nose.

And the people who are just down the block.  And the people who are beside you in line.  Well hopefully socially distanced but in line nonetheless. Notice the people who are crying out, “Have mercy on me”. Notice the people who are so ill they cannot get to where they will find healing. Notice the people who have lost their way. Notice the people who have daily struggles none of us would exchange for our own.

 

Notice, friend.  That is what Jesus did and what Jesus does.  Our Lord turns aside.  Christ draws near.  Jesus looks us in the eyes.  He calls us by name.  Jesus finds those things that bother us most, and finds a way to alleviate those very things.

 

I had a wonderful friend I used to have lunch with from time to time at his favorite restaurant here in Oakland. What I discovered, the first time that we had lunch together, is that small talk soon moved to large talk, with this friend.  He would say. “How are you?”  And then ask one or two more questions.  And before I knew it, I would find myself sharing what was troubling me most at that very point in my life.  He had a gift for the fine art of noticing.  I wish I could have lunch with him one more time.  But I cannot.  He has entered the Church Triumphant.  So, the next best thing for me to do, would be to pass along what I experienced in his presence.  To practice the fine art of noticing.

 

It hurts not to be seen.  You have had this happen and so have I.  You are somewhere a bit out of your ordinary bailiwick.  You see, there, someone you know, either slightly or a bit more.  An acquaintance.  You say hello.  That person more or less ignores you. They don’t really see you.  They glaze over like a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Then, they move on as quickly as they can.  They leave you feeling unnoticed.  And therefore, unvalued.  So it would be fair to ask: Who goes unnoticed in your world?

If you have ever lived in Lancaster County PA, a beautiful part of our state, where I spent my high school years, you will resonate to this. Just like here in Western PA we have our Pittsburgh-ese, in Lancaster, there are some phrases that pop up fairly regularly:  Outen the light.  Don't eat yourself full.  There's cake back yet.  Stop your Grexing.  It’s Spritzing out.  It wonders me.

 

Another one is this: It is said by someone you know, but have not seen for some time.  They say:  “I didn’t RECOGNIZE you!”  Do you hear what that really means?  If you think it means that you have changed, but not for the better, that you have grown older, or balder, or more frail, or whatever else, that is their way of saying, “Gosh, you look like the wreck of the Hesperus”, without saying it directly.  (In the South, they would quickly follow it up with “Bless your heart”).  It is a kind of “oblique critique”.  I fear that all too often we end up saying something like that, or giving that impression, when we are with one or another of God’s children who are simply longing for us to see them. To recognize them. To let them know that they matter.

 

Charles Dickens, who understood the human condition just about as well as anyone anywhere, valued the times when people… “Open their shut-up hearts freely, to think of people as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” We are all on the same journey.

 

Teri Gerdes tells this story, (on her blog 2012)

It’s a simple act. A simple gesture. But it makes a huge difference. There is a sweet, elderly man who attends my church. Though he is getting on in years, he has a handshake and grip that puts many young men to shame. He reminds me so much of my late father-in-law, a man who also grew up in the era where a handshake meant something.

 

I can’t help but find this man at church during the greeting time, just to say “hello,” shake his hand, and chat with him a little bit. I have shared with him and his wife that he reminds me so much of my father-in-law, and being able to talk a little bit with him each Sunday blesses me because it makes me remember the kind, gentle man who accepted me as his daughter 26 years ago.

 

So I was taken aback a little bit this past Sunday when I shook his hand.  And he wouldn’t let go. He stood there holding my hand as we talked and then looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Thank you … for noticing me.”  Amen.