Reflections on "Gifts You Can't Buy at the Store" Luke 1: 39-45, 56; Galatians 4: 4-u

Yesterday began the Advent/Christmas preaching series.  I have done quite a bit of brainstorming and work in preparing for the series, which made writing the sermon easier.  In the Sanctuary service, I am preaching without a pulpit during this series, so it is important that I be very familiar with the sermon, so I can minimize my need to look at the notes.  Often when I preach without the pulpit I am on the floor and walk back and forth across the front.  Yesterday, I stood where the pulpit normally is and did not move too much.  I found it  hard to get used to not moving!

I had good feedback on the visual aids.  Kathy W. wrapped a big box to give us a "gift" to look at during the service.  During the Time with Young Disciples, I had one of the kids pull out of the box a poster with the theme for the day, and the put the poster on an easel.  it really focuses the attention on the theme of the day.  Each week, the posters will be mounted in the sanctuary so we will have a visual reminder of where we have been (not sure how we are going to manage that in the chapel).

The sermon series got off to a great start from my perspective. Hopefully, that will carry over into the subsequent sermons and services.

“Gifts You Can't Buy at the Store: Time” 1st Sunday in Advent; FPC, Troy; Luke 1: 39-45; 56; Galatians 4: 4-5; December 2, 2012

Introduction: The holiday season begins with the frenzied rush of Black Friday, which actually begins on Thanksgiving day.

People, maybe even some of us, racing through stores to find gifts or deals. If you want it or even think you might want it, you can probably buy it at one of those stores.

And if you cannot find it in the store, Cyber Monday soon arrives and you can buy it on-line.

Commercials would have you believe that you can buy anything and everything you might want at the store.

But that's not true. Some things you cannot buy at the story. As we prepare for and celebrate Christmas this year, we will reflect on gifts God gives us that we can't buy at the store.

Move 1: We begin with the gift of time.

a. God gives us the gift of life and the days of our lives. The time we have is God's gift to us.

b. Mitch Albom recently wrote The Time Keeper, in which he follows the life of the first person to measure time, the one who becomes known in folklore as Father Time.

1. I won't spoil the book for you, but by the end of the book two of the main characters discover this truth about time – it is not the length of time that matters, but what you do with it.
2. In very different circumstances with very different outcomes, that truth becomes evident to them.

c. Here are a few reflections on how we can use the gift of time God gives us?

Move 2: We can use God's gift of time to grow personally.

a. When Mary agrees to give birth to God's child and becomes pregnant, she quickly realizes that she needs time away.

1. she goes away to the Judean countryside to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant with the one who will grow up to be John the Baptist.
2. Mary stayed for three months.
3. We do not know they talked about – I have lived with my wife through three pregnancies, but I would even suggest that I knew what a pregnant woman was thinking.
4. But I can imagine that as Mary anticipates this incredible change in her life,m she needs time to grow into it, to figure out who she was in all that was taking place in her life.
5. A time-out for personal reasons!

b. God gives us the gift of time so that we can grow personally.

1. A study of 2K students who text noted that they have very little time for reflecting because they are texting immediate responses .
2. And they discovered that "When people have a mobile device and have even the smallest increment of extra time, they will communicate with someone in their life," says Lee Rainie , director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

2. Texting saves us time, but it steals from quiet reflection.
   3. We live in a busy world that continuously makes demands on us.

4 I do not have to tell you that. Your lives testify to that truth.

5. But the time God gives us is not just to be spent in motion, to accomplish one more thing.

God gives us the gift of time for personal growth. How are you using that gift?

Move 2: God also gives us the gift of time to spend on the important relationships in our lives.

a. Same study of student texters found that they liked texted because it allowed them to pass on information in as little time as possible with as little small talk as possible.

1. Think about the implications of that.
2. texting allows us to share information without having to share of ourselves or inviting others to share themselves with us.
3. Not just about people who text, but is symbolic of how our world seems to work these days - Superficial relationships that allow for the sharing of more and more information, but not the development of deep, abiding relationships where love can grow.

b. Over the years I have had numerous conversations with people who were reflecting on their lives.

1. Not the dramatic death bed stories, but stories people tell as they see death looming and look back over their lives.
2. I have heard some some great stories; I have heard some deep regrets. Mostly I have heard people reflect on what they might have done differently as they look back over their lives.
3. I can think of no instance when anyone has told me that they wish they had spent less time with their families; or that they had spent too much time with good friends.
4. usually, they talk about wishing they had spent less time at work; or less time on that hobby; or less time obsessing over this or that.
5. And they wish they had spent more time with their family, particularly when their kids were young;

c. No doubt we have pressures and demands in our lives that make a legitimate claim on us.

1. We have a project at work that has to be completed by the deadline and our son is playing in the championship game or our daughter has a band concert.

2. Our lives are full of conflicting demands that both have important values to us.

3. No easy answers. Lots of times, no exactly right answers.

c. But know this – God gives us the gift of time to develop and deepen relationships.

1. To be present for our kids.
2. To develop meaningful relationship with others.
3. To work on your relationship with Christ.
   How can you use God's gift of time to develop stronger, better relationships.

Move 3: Finally, God gives us the gift of time so we can imagine new possibilities.

a. Remember Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth?

1. Surely it took at least the three months to imagining how she could be mother to the Son of God and the possibilities to which God was calling her.
2. Or remember the Israelites – 40 years in the wilderness. Some scholars suggest that the significance of the forty years was not because 40 was a special number (although it was), but because it took 40 years for Israel to imagine what it would be like as they move from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land; it took 40 years to grow into the possibilities that await them where they will be find themselves in a land of milk and honey.

b. A few years ago Rick Pohlhamus, who lives in Miami County and serves as part of Christian Peacemaking Teams in conflicted areas of the world, met with our local minister group. He told us about a story that had taken place on one of his trip to Israel.

He found himself one morning at a Palestinian elementary school when Israeli soldiers unexpectedly showed up to punish the Palestinian students for throwing rocks at them the day before.

The soldiers put chains on all the exits except the main entrance, where the soldier in charge stood to keep no one from leaving. Then, the Israeli soldiers shot tear gas into the school. Soon students were hanging out the windows begging for help and sucking in fresh air.

Israeli soldier in charge had the principal at gunpoint near a narrow exit blocking them from leaving.

Polhamus describes seeing the danger of what might happen if the principal makes the wrong move or if the gun goes off accidentally. He feared it would set off all the soldiers surrounding the school and many kids would be killed.

Polhamus moves in between the gun barrel and the principal. As he is trying to figure out what to do next, his cell phone rings. He answers (it's a friend calling), and then he says to the soldier, 'it's your mother.” “no, it's not.” 'yes, it is.” “no, it's not.” “if it were your mother, what would you tell her you were doing?” “It's not my mother.” “I know, but if it were, what would you tell her you were doing right now?” Soldier abruptly turns and calls the soldiers off and they leave.

Polhamus describes how he tries to give space in the violence for something else to happen. To give time for the participants to consider the new possibilities that they could have.

Later, he learns that the solider leaves the army and joins a group of former soldiers working for peace.

A time-out that gives space for God's grace to work.

b. One of the ways we can use the gift of time is to step away from the rush of our lives and re-envision what we are doing.

1. To intentionally break away from our routines to and take time to envision new possibilities for what God is doing with our lives.
2. We believe that God has a plan for our lives; that God calls us to particular places at particular times.

3. But what if we are too busy and miss the call?
   How can you use your time to imagine the possibilities to which God is calling you?
   
   
   Conclusion: A watch measures the hours of the day.

A calendar measures the days of the year.

Only you can measure how you use God's gift of time to grow personally, to develop and deepen relationships, to imagine new possibilities for who you are and what you can do.