December 04, 2011

Rev. Dr. Steve Poos-Benson

“Let it Go”

Our Scripture reading this morning for the second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Peace, comes to us from Paul’s letter to the Church of Philippines, Philippians 4:4-7. Listen to God’s word as it comes to us today. Paul says “Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean revel in God. Make it as clear as you can and tell all you meet that you’re on their side working with them, and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute. Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” And here the reading ends and may God bless these words as we seek to apply them to our lives.

Letting go. Letting go. For those of you who might not know, there were 21 of us who have just returned from a trip to Israel. Just returned about a month ago. But I’m still working to process everything and what this means for me, for my faith, for our faith together, and the best way to process my thinking is by sharing with you my insights week to week, so I apologize if I bore you with these things, but I’m still working through what it means that we were just in Israel.

So just before we left, this is a picture of the Temple on the Holy Mount right there, with the city of Jerusalem. Before we left, there were many people who said “Are you sure you should be going right now? Isn’t it really dangerous over there right now? Is it really safe for you to be going to the Middle East? I said “I think we’re okay.” And then while we were over there, there were some tensions that developed between Israel and Iran and there was some stuff that was going on and I had many emails from my family and members of the church “are you sure you’re okay, should you guys come home?” And I kept saying “I think we’re good, we feel at peace, we’re very, very safe.” And what strikes me that everybody was worried about us over there in Israel, because it wasn’t until we came home that we felt in danger. If you really should have been worried about me, it should have been on black Friday. [laughter] I’m going to Wal-Mart and the family says “No, don’t go to Wal-Mart, you’ll never come back.” I mean, seriously. Fist fights over two dollar waffle irons? Pepper sprayed because of an Xbox? Someone had to be tazed because they cut in line? Police brutality because a grandpa stuck a CD in his belt to protect his kid? Mob violence because of two dollar towels? Really?

You know, I found myself thinking “I wonder what Yashua of Galilee would have thought about this black Friday event that kicks off - all the festivals that lead up to his birthday. I think the line Jesus wept – says it pretty accurately. You know, we stood in a place across the Kettering Valley where you look down upon the city of Jerusalem and in this place, Jesus looked down upon the city of Jerusalem, and he said “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who that you knew the things that make for peace.” And there’s a part of me that wonders if Jesus were here today he would look out upon us and he would say “Oh Wal-Mart, oh Wal-Mart. Oh if you knew the things that make for peace.”

It makes me wonder, do you know the things that make for peace? Here’s one of the things that chips at my soul a little bit. Is the mayhem on black Friday just the reflection of the mayhem that is going on in the midst of those people’s lives. We act out inside of us – we act out the turmoil that is inside of us. And so what we saw on black Friday was turmoil, inner turmoil expressed. Do you know the things that make for peace? Do you have that inner turmoil? Because one of the things that I feel is that people are so bound up by so much. They’re bound up by angst, anger, fear trepidation. People are bound up by resentments that they have against people that they think have done them wrong. They feel gripped in their hearts and in their souls. What they need to learn how to do if there’s ever going to be peace in their lives, is they need to learn how to let go. Let go. Paul says in this letter to the Church of Philippians, he says “Peace is expressed as God’s perfect harmonies. God’s perfect, excellent harmonies.” Mitch, what does God’s perfect, most excellent harmony sound like? [Mitch plays beautiful, harmonious music]

What would happen if you had that type of most excellent harmonies going through you? You know, most people can’t feel that most excellent harmony because they’re bound up. Those resentments, those angers, those feelings of disappointment are wrapped around their soul. It’s really interesting, if I told you “I want you to be angry. I want you to really be angry and focus on your anger right now, I really want you to be angry for now and forever.” Now some of you do a pretty good job of trying to do that. But you can’t. You can’t hold on to that intensity forever. At the same way if I told you to take the things that you worry about, because many of you – you’re worry-worts. Let’s just be clear. If I told you to take what you worry about and bring it to you and make it your focus of your attention and get into it – I mean worry with sweat beads – you wouldn’t be able to – you can’t hold that kind of tension. You know what happens? That angst hovers right underneath the level of your conscious. So that you’re constantly worrying at some level. You’re constantly being angry on some level, and that hum is not harmonic. That brings peace. It brings discord. And the only way you’re going to find peace is if you find a way to let go. Let go. Let go.

The song that says “Be Still and Know that I am the God”. When was the last time that you were just still? Just still? No thinking, no thoughts, no worries, no fears, just still. I found that most people can be still in their body but they can’t be still in their minds. There’s this chatter. And they can be still maybe for 30 seconds. That’s why learning to be still takes practice, it’s a daily practice. The quieting, breathing, and letting go. We talk about letting go and letting God and we all believe in that, but we all say we need to let to and let God. We try to do that, we kind of let go and then we kind of hold on to it just in case God’s a little too busy. And so we bring it right back into us instead of literally letting go.

We’re going to be installing Justin and being a pastor is one of the craziest things in the whole wide world. Because you’re so concerned about all of your concerns. Pastors get caught up in wanting your approval, wanting to be loved and accepted. And the only way Justin is ever going to be successful is if he too can learn to let go. It’s the same with you. You’re so busy seeking somebody’s approval, somebody’s acceptance, you’re worried. At some point, you’re going to have to let go and when you let go, Paul says “you will find the peace that passes understanding.”

This Advent, one thing – Let Go. Let Go. Let Go. Amen.