Welcome
Welcome to Azle Christian Church, I am Pastor Alan, and we are glad you’ve chosen to be with us today. A few quick things. Tonight, at 7 on zoom, our book study continues. Then on Christmas eve, you can tune into Facebook and be present for our celebration of Christ’s birth. As we’ve prepared for it, it has given me chills each time. I think it will be meaningful for you as well.
This Saturday is our monthly food hub, show up at 8 to sort and then distribute. I know it is the day after Christmas, but it is one of the best things you can do for your soul in this season.
During worship this morning, we will celebrate communion, and we would love for you to have something to eat something to drink to do that with us.
Call to Worship
From ancient days we have heard the promise of the messiah. That hope sustained our ancestors through their many hardships. And now we walk this path. It is a path filled with difficulties, and discouragement. We have witnessed the terrible ravages of war and a pandemic and pray for some sign that would rekindle our joy. Let this time be holy time, when we bring to God the people and the circumstances that weigh heavy on our hearts. Let this place be sacred space, where God meets us, looks into our eyes and says, “Welcome, my beloved. Come and find your place at the table of healing, love and grace.”
Pastoral Prayer
Children’s Moment
Scripture
Micah 5:2-5
But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;
and he shall be the one of peace.
Sermon: The one where he brings peace
If you are a fan of the TV series friends, then maybe you would like the title of our sermon today, “The one where he brings peace.” The titles from that show almost exclusively started “The one with …” or “The one where.” The phrase at the end of our scripture suggested this connection: “He shall be … the one who brings peace.
To set the stage a little, Micah lived around 700 years before Jesus was born. He lived at a time when there was plenty of trouble. They shifted from a barter economy to the use of money. “Wait, I give you bread, and you give me these shiny, round metal things? What good are these?” You know that complicated things. Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom, and several cities in the south. It was only a matter of time before Judah itself, would fall, just like Israel. And, according to Micah, just a few chapters before what we heard this morning, corruption and hypocrisy were rampant. “Rulers give judgment for a bribe, priests teach for a price, prophets give oracles for money; (Micah 3:11)
Corruption at the top, invasions from outside forces, money laundering on a grand scale, or what we might call … Tuesday. An average day.
I think all this has to affect Micah’s mood. At first he’s disgusted with the people, how they’ve turned their backs to God. He’s heartbroken that the promised land is being invaded and people are fleeing for safety. Yet, in this chapter, there is a glimmer of hope. He is confident that there will be a new day. He speaks of God who will do a new thing. He’s saying, “Just watch, you’ll see. Things are terrible now, but this, ,,, this death and destruction, this corruption and greed, this anger and anguish. They won’t last forever.” One of my friends used to say his favorite passage in the bible was, “And it came to pass,” meaning that it wasn’t going to stay.
If you read the 4th chapter of Micah, you might think he was a prophet about our own time. Trade wars, actual wars and invasions. Refugees at several borders, and then this little thing called a pandemic. More Americans have died from the pandemic than died in World War II. The layers of discouragement and desperation, continue. Small businesses can’t stay open. People are encouraged to stay home this week. Evictions: I worked with an older couple on Thursday, who have been sleeping in their car for months. They receive benefits, but they just can’t scrape enough together to have a place of their own. How could Micah be so accurate in his prophecy?
I’ll tell you how: Maybe it’s because he knew the hearts of people. What God created in goodness so many millennia ago, has been warped by the evils of greed and the lust for power and control. Maybe it’s not so hard to predict that some will treat others as objects. Some will build their wealth on the backs of the poor, and then make it doubly hard for anyone to raise themselves out of poverty. It is true in every age, … and it could be debilitating, except for this:
Micah says, “You, Bethlehem, you are not the least of all these villages, because God will use you for something greater, … greater even than David, whom you claim as a native son. This one, … This one will feed his flock. This one will lead them to safety and security. This is the one where there will be Peace. …
“You can see that, Micah? You can see that far into the future when that will be true?” How long will we have to wait? And in the immortal words of MLK we hear the call and response:
How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
How long? Not long, you shall reap what you sow.
How long? Not long …
How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
(Martin Luther King, excerpt from his speech on March 25, 1965, after crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge from Selma on the way to Montgomery, Alabama)
In fact, in the very next Chapter, Micah, in essence says, “Don’t wait any longer. You are familiar with his mandate:
“God has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you?
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
It’s almost like Micah is saying: “Yes, things are bad now, and they are about to get worse, but if you are waiting for the birth of the Messiah to make it all better, you aren’t listening close enough. You can bring God’s love, God’s grace, God’s justice to someone, today. Love kindness, do justice, walk humbly, now!
I can just barely hear Micah’s words, bouncing off the stratosphere: But you, Azle Christian Church, are by no means the smallest of the 41 incorporated communities in Tarrant County. You purchased an ark, a literal boat load of animals through Heifer International for a community in a developing country with your quarter tube and faithful givers. For 20 years you have been working on the border with Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries. For 16 years you have held a golf tournament that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. And in a year when we didn’t even play, we raised $11,000 to give to outreach. (we should say, here, that by not playing, some of you improved your average, I’m not naming any names, James). I can’t even count the number of people you have helped year after year, as they have come through these doors, to worship, to find refuge, to receive just a moment of care. You have not waited for the second coming of Christ to make peace and do justice. You are doing it right now.
Maybe it’s the thing you will remember me most about me. My favorite saint, and my favorite quote. Her name is Teresa, she lived in Avila, Spain in the 16th century.
“Christ has no body now but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Go, be the body of Christ for someone. Be the outpouring of God’s love in the world. Be the One for Peace, today.
Communion
I hope you have something nearby prepared for communion.
The very first time I met Alan was at Firehouse Subs in Lake Worth. We had met to discuss ordination partnership with Galileo, but mostly what he asked me about was me and my family. We discussed you, Azle, over sandwiches and chips. And then months later, we met at Dutch’s Burgers by TCU to talk about other ministry things and we could barely get through the conversation because person after person stopped to say hello to Alan or give him a hug. Andrea, Alan, and I have chatted about scripture, the copy machine, our beloved church over baskets of chips, bowls of soup, fruit trays, lots of cake, pizza, and mozzarella sticks. He goes out to eat after church often and has invited me and whoever else happened to be in the office more times that I can count. His favorite ministry event is Holy Guacamole, and I’m sure many of you have broken bread with him.
I think the fact that so much of Alan’s connection has happened at a table is because he embodies the ethic of this table here that we symbolically gather around each week. What this table invites us to do is to slow down, and instead of shoveling food into our mouth as we make our commute or try to meet a work deadline, we instead take time to sit down with friends and family and our beloveds and tell stories and pass the chip basket around, make sure everyone has enough guacamole, and laugh until our cheeks hurt, offer a napkin when someone starts to cry, bounce someone else’s baby on our knee, arguing and then making up, be too loud and too messy and sometimes obnoxious, but bursting at the seams with love and care, knowing we will always meet each other at the table again.
Even when our beloveds leave this space or this world, we trust that this table is very long and we cannot see the end of it, but we know that everyone’s got a place at it.
Words of Institution:
It is with this hope that we tell the story each week that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus broke the bread and said, “This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
And then he took the cup also and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” All are welcome at the Table of Christ.
Join in me prayer.
Generous and Gracious Host of the Table, we are grateful for this practice of sharing a meal with one another and with You each week as a reminder of Your love that crosses distance, time, and the threshold of death. You invite us here not because we are rich or worthy or good, but because we are hungry. May this bread and wine nourish us for our respective journeys. In the name of Christ Jesus we pray, Amen.
Alan’s Blessing
Ashley:
In Acts 13, the church in Antioch sent off Barnabas and Paul to the work that God had called them to, but before they left, the church gathered around them, laid hands on them, and prayed over them.
Katie:
Jesus laid hands on people and blessed them, and in the early church in Acts, the laying on of hands was a moment open to the Holy Spirit’s movement and a gesture of blessing. In the church today, we often lay hands on people as they are ordained to ministry, when they are sick, or like today, when we are saying goodbye.
Ashley:
Since this is Alan’s last Sunday with us, we would like to ask Alan to come to the front of the chancel. Some of our lay leaders are spread out with extended hands, and we encourage you at home to stretch your hand toward the computer screen or comment with a hand emoji as we prayer this prayer of blessing.
Join me in prayer.
Ashley:
Most Holy One of old, You named Yourself, “I AM WHO I AM.” You are a God who can only be known by the way You move in this world and in our lives. Because of your dynamic nature, we confess that though we would like to hold onto You, You elude our grasp. You cannot be contained or owned or pinned down. Even Jesus told Mary as she longed for him to stay, “Don’t hold onto me,” and we have been learning ever since how to keep our hands open.
Katie:
Ever-moving God, just as we cannot hold onto You, we cannot keep our beloveds for always. We are in a perpetual state of saying goodbye and though this ritual becomes familiar over time, it does not get any easier. We enter into the realm of the in-between, where You are pleased to dwell, as we admit our grief.
Ashley:
It is in this space, Beloved God and God of our beloveds, that we thank You for Alan and his faithful ministry to Azle Christian Church. We are so grateful for the gifts he has shared with the church, for the care he has shown all of us, for his peacemaking spirit, for his gentle leadership, and for all the unseen work he has given. We grieve him leaving us, and we rejoice with him and Rush Creek Christian Church where he will lend his gifts.
Katie:
May the silence where his calling dwells foster freedom in all he does, and may this new calling be worthy of the energy of his heart and the light of his thought.
Ashley:
May Alan’s new work excite his heart and kindle in his mind a creativity to bring forth Your reign, and may the work fit the rhythms of Alan’s soul, enabling him to draw from the invisible new ideas and a vision that will inspire.
Katie:
May the sacredness of his work bring light and renewal to those to whom he ministers.
Ashley:
May he find words full of divine warmth to clothe the suffering in the language and newness of dawn.
Katie:
And as Alan breaks bread and pours the cup with Rush Creek and other places, may he be reminded that we are at another end of Your long, long table, raising our glasses with him, to You, our Great Host.
Ashley:
And now we draw on a prayer of our faith ancestors for this final blessing:
May you bless him and keep him, may your face shine upon him and be gracious to him, and may You give him peace.
Katie:
And God of the letting go, may we as a church regard our own grief as a receipt of the love that we have known, as proof that we have shared in Your divine love and communion, and may our hearts remain open to the risk of love evermore.
Ashley:
We pray this prayer of blessing in the name of the one whom we cannot keep but who is our eternal keeper, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sharing our resources
Sometimes people say to me, “God will provide.” They often tell me about a time when there was a great need, and when things seemed most desperate, an answer appeared. I rejoice with them. We celebrate the miracles where God provides. And in my heart, I smile, because I know some of the ways those miracles happen. Through your generosity, the Elders buy gifts, clothing and toys, for some of the poorer families in this community. Through your gifts, the miracle of light illuminates a home; through your gifts, heat fills an apartment; because of the way you share your resources, children and young people grow to understand and sense how beloved they are by God.
As we finish one chapter and look to the next, let us never grow tired of being the miracle someone else needs.
Benediction
May the love of God be born in you this day. May the love of God heal all your broken places. May the love of God guide your in every endeavor. Amen.