"THIS IS THE DAY"

Rev. Jim Petersen

11-18-07

First Congregational UCC- Great Falls, MT

Text: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Luke 12:22-31

 As I mentioned last week after the choir sang "America the Beautiful" as a part of our Veterans' Day celebration, I believe, as do many of you, this should be our national anthem. 

And as I told the children during my time with them, the author of the lyrics, Katherine Lee Bates, a New Englander born and educated, was lecturing on English religious drama in Colorado Springs the summer of 1893, when one morning she hiked Pike's Peak and watched the sunrise. 

She was so enraptured by the expanse of mountain ranges to the west and the sea-like sweep of the plains to the east, later that evening she wrote the first version of  "America the Beautiful."

By the way, the tune was composed a decade earlier, 1882, by Samuel Ward, organist and choir director of Grace Church in New York City.  He wrote the tune on his shirt cuff while crossing New York harbor after a day's outing at Coney Island.  He wrote the tune for "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem," though the tune came to be affixed to sixty other hymns.  It was not until 1912 this tune was attached to Katherine Bates' "America the Beautiful."

Well, enough history, let's sing some more...

"This is the day...

that the Lord has made...

Let us rejoice...

and be glad in it...

This is the day that the Lord has made,

let us rejoice and be glad in it...

This is the day...

That the Lord has made."

Again we quote the ancient psalmist, 118, now with song, as we should.

Please don't be flummoxed.  Indeed next Sunday is Thanksgiving Weekend.  But here in church we celebrate the Sunday before the national holiday as Thanksgiving Sunday, inasmuch as the Thanksgiving Weekend Sunday is often the First Sunday of Advent and if not it is the always last Sunday of Pentecost, which is Christ the King Sunday. So in either case, we do Thanksgiving the Sunday before, which is today.  OK?

For this Thanksgiving Sunday I thought it would be appropriate to examine the familiar phrase,  "This is the day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24.

Let me begin by suggesting a thesis, or theology, if you will, which is, by the power and generosity of God, we have something to do with the day the Lord hath made, at least in so far as how we receive it and rejoice in it.  Now I have some reluctance in saying this for I neither want to be insensitive nor glib regarding the suffering of others.  Stuff happens.  To all of us.  No one escapes... stuff.  There is much beyond our control, and some of it is bad.

Certainly there are people who are victims, for whom it is difficult to swallow the psalmist's "let us rejoice and be glad in it" outlook.  Such persons deserve our sympathy as well as understanding if their attitude is less than sunny.

Which reminds me of the barber who had a notoriously negative attitude.  You ask him how it is going, and you get a recital of wrong doings, world problems, and personal grievances.

A man came into his shop, sat down for his haircut, and announced he was going to Europe in a few days.  "Where are you going?"  asked the barber.  "Well, first, we are going to London..."   "Oh, you won't like London," interrupted the barber, "too dirty, too noisy, too expensive.   Plus they drive on the wrong side of the road.   You won't like London.  Where else you going?"

"After London we are going over to Paris..."  "Oh, Paris is worse.  The people are rude.  There is a building that looks like an erector set.  And their pancakes are too thin.  You won't like Paris.   Where else are you going?"

"Well, then we are going to fly down to Rome."  "Oh, no!  Rome is worst of all.  The traffic is insane, the women have hairy armpits, and whatever you do, do not visit the Vatican.  The lines are long and the Pope is never in.  Even if he was, you wouldn't understand him, for he never speaks English."

Disregarding his barber's advice, the man took his trip as scheduled.  Upon returning, he went to the barber for another haircut.  "How was your trip?" asked the barber.

Responded our traveler, "London was great.  It was exciting at exceedingly reasonable prices.  Paris was beautiful and the people were charming as well as hospitable.  And Rome was the perfect climax of the trip, especially the visit to the Vatican, where, if you can believe it, I had a private audience with the Pope."

"I don't believe it," gasped the barber.  "What was that like?"

"Well, as I knelt before him, he placed his hand on my head, and offered me a blessing, I suppose in Latin.  Then he leaned further forward, and in perfect English said, ?Who cuts your hair?   You've got a lousy barber.'"

We all know people who, God love them, see life through a lens darkly.  And you wonder, what has happened to shape their attitude, or has their attitude shaped the way they see things?  Or both?  At any rate, for them "it is not a wonderful life," and the Psalmist's advice, that "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," must be downright annoying.

Nevertheless, for the rest of us, if we are able to strip away the layers of hurts, fears, prejudices, and negative experiences, all of which demean and diminish the gift of life, what might it mean to embrace the Psalmist's proclamation?  First, if "this is the day the Lord has made," it means we don't have to.  That is to say, we are not in charge of today, thank you very much.  The world already has a Creator.  So, whether this is a good day or a bad day, it is not up to me.  "This is the day the Lord has made."  Not me!

It is pretty well established that those who burn out do so because they carry too much burden upon themselves.  Their perspective is, "It's all up to me."  So they do not ask for help.  If it is to be done right, as in their way, they must do it themselves, for others are incapable of doing it right.

Which, if those of us who tend to this style were honest, is a form of playing God.  It is my world, and I have to control it.  Guess what?  None of us is up to the role.  We end up toast.

Belief in God helps here a good bit.  If I am willing to accept that God is the Creator, and not me, then I am free to stumble and error, fail and fall, pray tell, relax and enjoy, and the world will not come to an end.  In fact, it might become more human.  For "this is the day the Lord has made," not me. 

Another nice thought about giving the Creator credit, is it means perhaps creation is still evolving.  Maybe we are still moving and changing, as opposed to fixed and pre-determined. 

Now this "God is still speaking" theology has not always been espoused by the church.  The medieval church, remnants of which exist today, felt the world was fixed and unchanging.  At least, the 5% at the top of the human ladder, the kings and patricians, the ruling class and landowners, the ones with the power and the might, they believed God created things as they were, and one must not mess with God's order. Why, they were certain the universe centered upon them, and their purpose was to keep the status quo.

Then along came Copernicus and Galileo, who put forth the theory not only did the universe not center upon the kings and popes, but, in fact, our entire planet revolved around other celestial bodies.  Needless to say, Galileo was not long for the church, for he threatened to upset the royal apple cart.

Credit our Pilgrim forbears, who gave us our Thanksgiving, with the theology which says, "There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God's holy world."  Not only did they believe this, but they sailed forth to a new world to live it.

Genesis says that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day God rested.  It does not say that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day God retired.  It says, rested.  Paused to admire her handiwork.  We can assume that on the eighth day God got back to work.  Certainly God knows creation is not concluded.

The Church offers us the beautiful metaphor of the "eighth day of creation."  Jesus was crucified on a Friday, the 6^th day of the Hebrew week.  He lay in the tomb on Saturday, the 7^th and last day of the week.  It was on the 8^th day, Sunday, that Jesus was resurrected.  So the church gave birth to the concept of the "eighth day of creation," or the Day of Resurrection, where as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation...behold, all things are made new."

God is always and ever will be creating new life.   This is why good can come out of evil, and does.  This is why new life can come out of tragic events, and does.  This is why hope can spring forth from sorrow, and does.  Because God creates out of the stuff of this world.  Now isn't this amazing!

Spring follows winter, every year, because God is creating.  And because God is creating we cannot say, "This is going to be a terrible day." "I am never going to recover from this wrong done me."  "Things are never going to get better."  "I am stuck and my life will never change."  We cannot say this, because we do not know how it will come out.  What we do know is God is always creating.  And if God is always creating, then there are always possibilities."This is the day the Lord has made."

Someone greater than us is in charge.  Which is good news.  It  means, we don't have to be.  And there is hope. 

The other point I appreciate about this verse is what it says about today.  "This is the day the Lord has made."  God has not created tomorrow.  In fact, I suspect God has not even started to worry about tomorrow yet.  So why should we?

Luke in his Sermon on the Plains, as Matthew in his Sermon on the Mount, writes about this, quoting Jesus in his famous "Consider the lilies of the field" passage.  "...do not keep worrying.  For it is the nations of the world that strive after these things...Instead, strive for God's kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Luke gives us this chill out sermon following Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool.  You remember that one, the fellow who keeps building bigger and bigger barns in order to store his stuff.  He promises to throw a big appreciation party tomorrow.  Only tomorrow never comes.  "This is the day the Lord has made."

In 1360, Henry De Vick made a clock for King Charles V of France, which was placed in the Royal Palace of Paris.  This clock is considered to be the first modern time piece.  It was a ponderous 500 pound piece whose accuracy was within two hours a day.  Since then, considerable improvements have been made, and our lives our all but ruled by the curse of the clock.  For the clock outlived the king.

Some people thing clocks are important for preachers.  Why someone snuck in here just the other night and mounted one on that pillar in the back of the sanctuary.  I think Cindy did it.  Though I got my revenge.  I climbed into the organ chamber and created a cipher, which is that annoying high pitch squeal you've been hearing the past couple of Sundays.

Though clocks are capable of getting us out on time, they have in one respect led as astray.  Clocks teach us that time is a progression of minutes, ticking away into infinity.  So we come to think of eternity as an infinite duration of time. 

So when we read in the Bible that Christ has come to give us eternal life, we think of life everlasting.  Which is a comforting part of the promise, but it can miss the mark.  For in Christ eternal life is not so much a matter of duration over time as it is a matter of quality in the moment. Eternal life is what happens when time is suspended.  Those moments of bliss or grace, when time stands still.  Eternal life is when we live free from time, meaning we have no regrets about the past, nor fear or anxiety about the future.  Instead we stand in the fullness of time.  Eternal life.

An American is vacationing along the beautiful undeveloped coast of Mexico.  He happens upon a fisherman coming in with his catch of the day.  One nice sized fish.   he American asks the fisherman how long he was out.  "Oh, not very long," says the Mexican.  "It never takes me very long."

"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"  queries the American.   "Because this is sufficient for my family today," comes the reply.  "What do you do with the rest of your day?"   asks the agitated American.

"I come home and play with my children. Then I take a siesta.  After a lovely meal with my family, my wife and I walk to the village where I sip a little wine, visit with my friends, and play the guitar.  I have a very satisfying life."

"Hmmm," says the American. "I think I can help you.  You know I have an MBA.  If you spend more time fishing, you can catch more fish, sell them in the market, and buy a bigger boat.   Then you could go further out to sea, catch more fish, and eventually buy more boats. 

Then, with enough earnings from your many fishing boats, you could build a cannery on the beach and process your own fish.  In time, you would grow very wealthy."

The Mexican listened politely and asked, "How long would this take?"

"Well, if you worked hard, stuck to your business plan, and did not waste time with vacations,  maybe twenty, twenty-five years."

"What then?" asked the Mexican.

"Then," said the American, "you could retire, move to a beautiful, undeveloped location along the coast, and have time to play with your grandchildren, take siestas, enjoy lovely meals with your family, and in the evening you and your wife could walk to the village to sip a little wine, visit with your friends and play the guitar."

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Happy Thanksgiving.