by Pastor Kris (Please feel free to email a response or question)
November 29, 2009 
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36 

Note: at the beginning of the sermon, colored pencils were passed through the pews by the ushers. As Pastor Kris reflected on the scripture readings for this first Sunday of Advent, the story of the colored pencils is revealed.

A couple of weeks ago, the youth group, Terry Kiss Frank and I, visited the Treinen Farm corn maze outside Lodi. At the entrance to the farm, we were given a sheet of paper that was blank, except for eight empty boxes. This was our map for the corn maze. Eight empty boxes.

Next we were given one small piece of the map. It was a copy of the first section of the maze. Black and white lines zigzagged across the small square. This was our guide. As the youth took off to explore the maze, Terry and I found ourselves alone. Together, we embarked on our journey through the corn.

With only the first portion of the map in hand, our goal was to find the mailbox in section one. In the mailbox we would find another small square of paper that we could tape onto our map. Then, in each subsequent section, we were to locate another mailbox, which would contain a map of another portion of the maze.

As Terry and I began to collect the various pieces of paper that revealed the pattern of the maze, I found that I got easily confused as to which paths we had already explored. It was difficult to remember which routes led to a dead end, which ones circled around aimlessly, and which paths we had not yet traveled.

I told Terry that I wished that I had a colored pencil or a marker with me to highlight the map and help me to remember where we had been. A colored pencil, or something, that would help guide me through the twists and turns of the maze.

On this First Sunday of Advent, I would like to invite you to embark on a journey with the colored pencil you were given; a journey into the map that we heard revealed to us in the scripture readings this morning.

On the surface, the map seems to point ominously to the end of time, as we hear of roaring seas and a sun and moon that shine upon a mass of people suffering beyond hopelessness. The words echo those moments in our time when all seems hopeless. Listen to the Word again, adapted (albeit loosely) from current events:

“Chaos has broken loose everywhere – the tides are rising and the number of animals nearing extinction is rapidly growing; the number of casualties in Afghanistan escalates as debate around the  war thickens; unemployment surges and reaches its highest rate since the Great Depression; home foreclosures…medical bankruptcies…doom lurks in the headlines.”

The tabloid papers frequently headline signs that seem point to the end of time. The mass media has pointed to frequent signs as well. Remember Y2K? A decade ago we experienced the “threat” of Y2K as the calendar turned from 1999 to 2000. Fears mounted that computers around the world would be unable to process the role-over from one century to the next.

Today, we see trailers for the recently released movie 2012, as the date of December 21, 2012 looms on the Mayan calendar as a potential date of unforeseen changes. For some, the end of the Mayan calendar’s 5125 year cycle marks a day of apocalypse.

Throughout time these end dates seem to come and go, yet we keep looking for signs.

On this first Sunday of Advent, did you come to church expecting to find the Christmas story, a story of Mary and Joseph preparing for the birth of their child? Instead of angels and shepherds, we hear read to us Jesus sharing dire words of the future from the temple in Jerusalem. What are we to do with this talk of chaos? How will we navigate this maze of destruction?

In the tidal wave of this new world, can we grasp the small sprout rooted in our Christian community?

On this first Sunday of Advent, a small candle of Hope has been lit in our presence and new signs take root. I invite you to find the pencil that was passed to you. Focus for a moment on the pencil; hold it. Know that the community around you is pausing to hold their pencils as well. Hold your pencil and hear the Calm shared with us in a moment of musical prayer:

The ensemble plays O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Here we wait for the birth of a small child. A child called Emmanuel – “God with us.” A moment of birth that gives us a chance step back and do something different, something away from the despair and stress of the world. A moment to do something that likely isn’t what you are normally inclined to do in the rush to Christmas.

For example, consider the pencil you are holding. Have you ever watched a young child learn to write their letters and numbers? I remember when my younger brother wrote his name not only backwards, but upside down. This mirror writing is common in children as they learn to write.

Elena Bodrova has found a way to help children move beyond mirror writing. If a child is writing the number six backwards, she does not ask the child to write the number over and over in mechanical repetition until he gets it right.

She simple tells the young boy to do something different.

She tells him, that while he is doing his homework in the evening, to put down his pencil and pick up a red pencil every time he needs to write the number six. That is all she tells him. She does not tell him that he is writing the number six incorrectly. He is not told to do it over and over again until he gets it right.

He is simply told to do something different.

Something that is not an automatic response.

The simple act of putting down the Number 2 pencil and picking up a red pencil causes the child to pause. For us, and for children, it is so hard to wait for anything! The pattern of writing numbers automatically is momentarily broken. The child is suddenly given a moment to wait.

In that moment he has the opportunity to think about what he really needs to do.

He needs to write that six.

In a night or two, the child is no longer writing sixes backwards. His inclination to focus on just the math problems before him has been subtly changed. Putting down his pencil and picking up the red pencil has given him that necessary moment to wait.

Hold your pencil. Take a moment to pause. In the midst of your daily routines, step back from the automatic actions, the chaotic mazes. The undrawn future. Pause to recognize that God is always present and creating something new along your path. Hear again the Calm shared with us in a moment of musical prayer:

The ensemble plays O Come, O Come Emmanuel

In the musical call to God, the pattern of automaticity in our lives is momentarily broken. In today’s Advent readings, we are told by Jesus to take these moments to wait. To see. To prepare. To take that moment to allow the sprout of God’s Hope to be recognized.

Not the end of time, but a new beginning.

In the tidal wave of the Christmas season, can we use a sign, like a simple colored pencil, to reconnect with God? Can we look for a sign in Jesus’ remind us to stay focused on the hope that is sprouting in our midst? Can we use a simple candle flame to grasp God’s Hope?

Now, I know that the child doing math was told to use a red pencil, but I don’t think that God limits us to a red pencil. Pause, look at your pencil. The numbers and letters that you draw on your map of faith are unique, just as God’s love for you is unique. God’s love is unique times the more than 6 billion people that are drawing their own paths as they live in God’s global community –watching, breathing, and nurturing the Light of God’s gracious Hope.

Take your pencil. Draw your own lines this Advent season. As you follow the wandering paths of you life’s map in the greater community, may your colored pencil be that reminder to pause, to break out of the automaticity of your daily routines and recognize the Light of Hope in the chaos.

You might want to carry the pencil with you on your journey each day. Or, you might want to place the pencil in that place in your life where you would like to take time to remember God’s presence in prayer each day.  Maybe using the colored pencil to color will be your prayer each day.

Try tracing your daily routines using the Word of God as your colored pencil. Let the colored pencil provide you with a subtle moment of waiting.

In the waiting God comes to us; in a smile, an attentive listener, a meal.

Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

God with us.

The ensemble plays O Come, O Come Emmanuel