1st Sunday of Advent

 I love this day. I love this day because the secular world really doesn't know what to do with it. This day stands in the middle of the high holy days of consumerism like an oasis in the midst of a desert.

It all begins with Black Friday, the "traditional" start of the holiday shopping season that has, in recent years, begun to encroach upon Thanksgiving, with stores opening "early" on Thursday so shoppers can get outstanding deals. Then comes Small Business Saturday, the day we are supposed to eschew the major chains where we spent lots of dollars the day before in favor of the mom and pop shops in our town. After all, 67% of all dollars spent at local small businesses stay in the community.

Then there's today - the first Sunday of Advent. We'll come back to that.

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, a day that grew along with the rise of the internet that offers outstanding online shopping deals for those who haven't yet spent enough money in search of the perfect Christmas gift. Then, after we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ourselves, we have Giving Tuesday. This is a day for "giving back" by donating to various charities that are always in need of funding. What better way to alleviate the guilt we feel for being selfish than by throwing a few dollars towards the need and deserving. 

By the way - don't forget to support UKirk's Giving Tuesday campaign. Here's a link:

Give to Ukirk

Now don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with shopping and there's nothing wrong with gift giving. There's also nothing wrong with supporting worthwhile causes.

It's just that today, the Sunday-without-a-special-name, the Sunday Christians call the 1st Sunday of Advent, flies in the face of the other four days. Why? Because the other four days are built upon a deadly myth that is rampant in our society - the Myth of Scarcity. The Myth of Scarcity says, "There's not enough to go around." 

The prominent Stanford economist, Thomas Sowell, has said, "The first lesson of economics is scarcity. There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it."

The Myth of Scarcity says we'd better get ours before someone else does. It creates a zero sum mindset - the idea that there must be a winner and a loser in every transaction, that for every gain there must be a corresponding loss. People with a mindset of scarcity see life as a finite pie; if someone else gets a big piece of the pie, that means less for others. Less for me.

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and even Giving Tuesday work because of the Myth of Scarcity, because people have bought the lie that there is not enough to go around. We have to get to the sale early or someone else will get a better deal than me. Small Businesses have to convince people of the value of shopping local because it's hard to compete with the big box stores. If we have the right online code or catch just the right flash sale we can win Cyber Monday. Worthwhile charities that do really good work in the world must fight and compete with other worthwhile charities that do really good work for the scraps that fall from the table once gluttonous Americans have satiated their own appetites by being the loudest or the slickest or the most persistent or demonstrating the most need or giving people the most compelling guilt trip.

And right in the middle of all of this is the 1st Sunday of Advent. A day that secular consumerism has not been able to get its hooks into and that most people treat as just a day to rest in between shopping days. And on this day, the 1st Sunday of Advent, we proclaim a message that is in direct opposition to the Myth of Scarcity. 

We proclaim the message of hope - hope in a God of abundance who sends his Son into the world to show the world grace and love and mercy and to let the world know there is more than enough to go around. The scriptures start out with a liturgy of abundance, God promises Abraham and Sarah abundance, God provides abundantly in the wilderness, Israel consistently and constantly celebrates God's abundance in the Promised Land. The people of God give to God and share with others off the top, rather than out of their leftovers, because they trust God to provide more.

When Jesus feeds the 5,000 (the only story to appear in all four of the Gospels), it is the disciples who say, "There is not enough to go around." But when they share what they have, at Jesus' command, there is more than enough for everyone to be fed. That is the counter-cultural message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Grace is not a finite pie. When we share what we have with others, there is more than enough for everyone, especially when we take care of others, rather than ourselves, first.

Our economy, the global economy, oil companies, banks, corporations, retail stores are all based on the Myth of Scarcity. They literally bank on our fear that there won't be enough to go around.

But on this day we stand and shout to the world - WE DO NOT BUY THE LIE OF SCARCITY! WE SERVE A GOD OF ABUNDANCE! WE SERVE THE GOD OF HOPE!

As Pastor Sarah says, "May it be so."

Now Thank We All Our God

Because Thanksgiving is this week, we closed our worship service yesterday with the hymn, Now Thank We All Our God. This is one of my favorite hymns in the hymnal. The first two stanzas were written to be sung as a blessing before mealtime. The third stanza is a Trinitarian doxology. It is an exquisite expression of both thanksgiving and the source to which our thanks is directed. It is even more inspiring when you consider the circumstances in which it was composed.

Martin Rinkart, the author of the text, was a Lutheran pastor who served in his hometown of Eilenburg, Saxony (northern Germany), from his ordination in 1617 until his death in 1649. Those 32 years of ministry included the entirety of the Thirty Years' War, which began in 1618 and ended in 1648.

The Thirty Years' War was primarily a German civil war for the first 16 years, with Emperor Ferdinand II trying to assert Hapsburg authority over the Holy Roman Empire. For reasons too complicated to go into in this space, in 1635 most of the rest of Western Europe got involved, with Sweden and France on one side and Spain and Austria on the other. Estimates are that the total number of deaths during the war, both civilian and military, range between 5 to 8 million, the vast majority from disease or starvation. In some areas of Germany, 60% of the population died.

Eilenberg, the city in which Rinkart ministered, was a walled city. During the war, thousands of people who had lost everything fled there for protection. It became an overcrowded city of sick and hungry people. As if that wasn't enough, in 1637 a disease, most likely the bubonic plague, devastated the city. As many as 8,000 people died. The two other ministers in the city died. Martin Rinkart was left there, alone, to serve the entire city. That one year he performed 4,480 funerals, sometimes 50 in one day. This included the funeral of his wife.

This is the context in which Martin Rinkart spent his entire ministry - all of his preaching, teaching, caring for people, all the hymns and dramas he wrote, were written with this going on around him. And somewhere around 1636-1637, he wrote these words:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices

Who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices

Who, from our mothers' arms, hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today

O may this bounteous God, through all our life be near us

With every joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us

And keep us in his grace, and guide us when perplexed

And free us from all ills, in this world and the next

All praise and thanks to God, who reigns in highest heaven

To Father and to Son and Spirit now be given

The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore

The God who was, and is, and shall be evermore

Rinkart knew that no matter what difficulties we face here on earth, nothing changes the fact that God is good, that God blesses us with love, that God still reigns in heaven, and that, in the end, God's will will be done.

This has been a difficult year for us. I know this week will be difficult for many of us. We aren't able to see our families, to keep and observe long-standing traditions, to be with those we love. We may not see much to be thankful for.

In the midst of this, friends, I pray that we can be the kind of Christians who keep faith, who love and care for others, and who can continue to sing our praise and thanks to God, even under the most difficult circumstances, as Martin Rinkart did. 

Know that I am thankful for each and every one of you. 

Grace and peace...

PT

A Message from Pastor Tim

Greetings friends,

As you are no doubt aware, cases of Covid-19 are rising precipitously in our community. The last three days have seen 950 new Covid cases, with each day setting a single day record. There are currently a record 2,263 active Covid cases in Knox County and it was reported yesterday that 7 Knox County residents died due to Covid in the previous 24 hours, a single-day record. Thirty-three deaths have been recorded thus far in the month of November. We do not have this virus under control.

Experts from Johns Hopkins have advised groups larger than 10 people to refrain from meeting together indoors. The University of Tennessee Medical Center released a statement urging the public to follow the five core actions more aggressively. The director of emergency preparedness for the Knox County Health Department asked Knox County residents to change their behaviors in a press conference yesterday, saying, “This is up to you as a community to decide what this looks like. We need you to invest in it…It’s truly up to the community to decide whether behavior is going to be changed and actions are changed to really make an impact over the next few weeks.”

The Session of 2^nd Presbyterian Church discussed this situation at its regular stated meeting last night. The Session cares deeply about the safety, health, and well-being of everyone who calls 2^nd Presbyterian Church home. We also want to be responsible members of the community and do our part in fulfilling our civic responsibility to not contribute to the further spread of the virus in any way. For this reason, the Session has decided to heed the request of the experts and our civic leaders and change our behavior.

Effective immediately, all in-person worship services are suspended at least through the end of January. The Session will take up this matter again at its next regular stated meeting on January 19^th and make any adjustments or further recommendations at that time. Additionally, the Session has also decided to close the church building for the same period of time. The staff will continue to work from both home and the office, the church phone and emails will be answered during normal office hours, and the regular business of the church will continue uninterrupted. However, other than the preschool, the building will be closed to both groups and individuals until the end of January.

This does not mean that the ministry of the church will come to a stop. We will still be engaged in the ministry and mission to which we have been called by Jesus Christ; we will just not be doing it from the building. Committees will continue to meet electronically and we will continue to serve our community in various ways. Worship will continue, returning to our virtual, streaming-only format. Meals for the homebound will still be prepared and delivered. We will still collect stuffed animals for Judge Irwin’s court and still have a hat/glove/mitten tree for Westview’s clothes closet. The outside door to the vestibule will be unlocked during the week so that you may place collection items in there. You will also be able to pick up hard copies of the newsletter and Advent Devotional in the vestibule, if you prefer not to use the online versions.

I know this is going to be a difficult time for all of us, especially as the holidays approach. Please, I beg you, use caution in the next few weeks. Avoid risky behavior. Avoid gathering indoors with others. If you feel the least bit sick (or even just a little weird), stay home. Please wear your masks, wash your hands, and don’t go anywhere unless you absolutely have a need. Show your love for your neighbor by doing your part to decrease the community spread. I know it’s hard. I know it’s challenging. But it’s only for a little while longer.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. If there is anything you need during this time, please do not hesitate to reach out to Pastor Tim (276.525.5202) or Jan Barber (865.765.0437). Don’t call Pastor Sarah, though, as she is on maternity leave for the next 8 weeks! And remember the words of Psalm 62:

God is my rock and my salvation – my stronghold!

I will not be shaken.

God is my strong rock. My refuge is in God.

Trust in him at all times, all you people!

Pour out your hearts before him!

God is our refuge!

Grace and peace…

 

Pastors Tim and Sarah

Uncertain Times?

I keep reading and hearing this phrase over and over again on television, in the news, in person, and on the radio. It appears in commercials, on talk shows, on social media, and even in sermons. The phrase is: "In these uncertain times..."

We seem to have this need to define this period, to give a name to what we are feeling and seeing, what we are living through, but we are - forgive me - uncertain what to call it. I have heard many attempts. The global pandemic. The age of coronavirus. Covid times. Quarantine period. This time of social distancing. But the one that gets used most often, by a large margin, is uncertain times.

Uncertain times. It certainly seems to capture the essence of the moment. This week, even more so. We are literally uncertain about who has won the Presidential election. It is uncertain and unclear who will be the next leader of our country. We are uncertain when all the votes will be counted, how many legal challenges there will be, when the vote count will be finalized. Last night there were protests by both sides. We are uncertain if they are going to remain peaceful, if there is going to be unrest, rioting, or violence.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more we are uncertain about - a vaccine, the economy, if masks actually work, if we get Covid whether it will be a case of the sniffles or put us in the hospital, when or if things will return to normal, and on and on and on. Which is kind of...reassuring. Hear me out.

Right now we are feeling the intensity of the uncertainty in our country because our sense of security, our sense of normalcy has been upended. However, the reality is that we have always lived in uncertain times. Nothing is ever certain, except maybe, as Benjamin Franklin opined, death and taxes. 

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

            - Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 1789

In normal uncertain times, we delude ourselves into thinking everything is going along as it should be. We buy into the lie that things are secure, that things are certain, that tomorrow we will wake up happy and healthy, that all the people we love will be there with us, that our investments will go up, that interests rates will stay low, that the price of gasoline will remain under $2.00 per gallon, and that the Vols will compete for an SEC title. But none of those things are ever certain. (Especially that last one.)

So when a crisis comes - like a 9/11 or stock market crash or economic recession or contagious virus or an election that doesn't produce a clear winner immediately or a defeat by the Kentucky Wildcats in Neyland Stadium - everybody panics. The reason we panic isn't because unexpected things are happening, because unexpected things happen all the time, every day. The reason everybody panics is that the lie has been exposed; the myth of certainty has been debunked. All of a sudden we are face to face with our vulnerability, with the uncertainty.

Now the reality is that we are always vulnerable and things are always uncertain. However, we usually buy into the illusion that we are safe and secure, that things are predictable, because we live in a very affluent society where many of us are privileged and are able to surround ourselves with comforts that insulate us from the difficulties of day-to-day living, as well as those who live on the edge of uncertainty and insecurity every single day of their lives.

James reminds us of reality when he says:

Come, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there doing business and making money. You do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes."                                                                                               - James 4:13-14

Talk about a reality check! James says we can make all the plans we want, think we know how it's all going to go, and then die on the way out the door. James goes on to say that this is our lot in life - uncertainty, insecurity. So because of this, he says, we must build our lives on something stronger, more secure, more certain.

Jesus talked about the same thing when he told his stories. He told one about one man who built his house on the sand and another who built his house on the rock. When the storm came, the house built on the sand washed away. He told another about an affluent guy who kept building bigger and bigger barns so that he could store more and more stuff. Then the man died and all that stuff was just left there.

Jesus and James were reminding us that true security, true certainty is found in that which never changes. And what never changes is the character of God, the steadfast love of God, the grace and mercy of God. This is the only thing that is truly certain in the entire universe.

Every day the stock market changes. Every day there are new findings about the coronavirus. Every hour the vote count changes. Presidents come and go. Policies are written and rewritten. People delight and disappoint us. Viruses run rampant and then are contained. Housing values rise and fall. Businesses open and close. Financial conditions ebb and flow. We cannot build our life on that stuff.

I said this in a Wednesday night class a couple of years ago, but it bears repeating. If the Kingdom of God had a ticker the way the cable news networks do, here's what that ticker would say:

• God's character today - unchanged
• God's patience today - unchanged
• God's commitment to justice today - unchanged
• God's grace and mercy today - unchanged
• God's steadfast love today - unchanged

How long our lives will be disrupted due to the coronavirus may be uncertain. Whether or not we will be able to spend the holidays with our families may be uncertain. As of right now, the winner of the election is uncertain. These are uncertain times. They always are.

But nothing in heaven has changed. God's love for us is still certain. God is still sovereign. Jesus still sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father. He is our rock, our anchor, and our only hope. He is where security and certainty begins and ends.

And, by the way, that isn't up for a vote. We don't have to wait for ballots to be counted, for congress to act, for Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell to put it on the docket, or for President Trump to sign an executive order. You can be certain of that!

So in the midst of these uncertain times, stop, take a breath, look around us at the beauty of fall in East Tennessee, and remember that our lives are built on sturdier stuff than what we see on the news. It doesn't mean that the election is unimportant or that we should not take precautions against the coronavirus or that we should not worry about justice for the victims of injustice. But it does mean we can put those things in perspective and remember that nothing, not life nor death nor rulers nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Grace and peace...

PT