Prayer begins with his daughters and sons interacting with Their very good Father, being with their very good Father. Imagine if all we did this week, in these in between times is go back to this prayer. And I would encourage this for some of you, if all we did was pray the opening line, “Our Father in heaven”. Our Father, good and loving Father who is right here and right now with me as I go into Raley’s, with me as I search for Buzz and Woody, with me as I do whatever I'm doing. It might surprise some of us how prayer might start to move from being a bore toward being something like a meaningful relationship. 

And so in our life of faith in Jesus, we have a similar choice to make as we did with the hypothetical violin. And if you're not into music, then picture getting a brand new set of golf clubs or a pair of snow skis or a new air fryer or whatever it is that captures that sense of new that goes, "Oh, wow. That'd be cool." Right? But we have the choice to make whether we are going to just pack this new life in Jesus that we've received, put it in a box marked religious stuff, and stuff it up in the closet, or are we going to learn how to live it? 

There's just something about love that feels too overwhelming, feels too vulnerable. It feels too simple, too easy. It feels even too good to be true. But if we do let it in, even just a little, it becomes the truth that gives us hope, that brings us peace, that fills us with mega joy.  

Just the fact that God loves us makes even the hardest things in life filled with light. But we, you and I, have to let it in. We have to allow it to count. We have to live in light of its truth. God has done everything. Not just Christmas, but literally everything that he has ever done. God has done it all out of love. But it is up to us to notice. It's up to us to believe it, to accept it, and let it transform our life. 

 

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase the God of the Bible? What's the demeanor of the God who lives in your head? How does he feel about this world? Maybe more personally, how does he feel about you? Don't polish it up. Don't pretty it up when you think, "What does God think about me? How does God feel about me? Does God think about me? Does God feel anything for me?" If you could see his face and survive, what would his face tell you about how he feels about you? What expression is on his face at the mention of your name? Mad, disappointed, frustrated, pity. What emoji would God use when he hears your name; headshake, eye roll, laughter, frown. What adjectives immediately come to your mind when you hear the word God; maybe some of these: holy, distant, righteous, weak, annular, just, powerful, cheery, sinister, impotent, gracious, loving, kind. Question, how about joyous? Is that on the list? Does he laugh? Does his head, if he has a head, throw back when he laughs hard? Does he delight? Does God delight? Does God ever look upon the world? Does God ever look upon the oceans with some measure of, that was a good day. I delight in that. When he sees his cosmic masterpieces, and we've named only a few of them, but when he sees his cosmic masterpieces, is he bored by them now? Has he gotten tired of them? Is your God joyous? Is my God joyous? 

Jesus incarnated the way of shalom. He taught us about it. He showed us what it does and how it drastically differs from the ways of this world. See, in the way of shalom, in the way of peace, people love their enemies. They confront violence with love. In the way of shalom, the strong care for the weak. The forgotten are included. The marginalized are valued. The poor are fed. Power is used for good. Reconciliation and restoration replace division and discord. Forgiveness instead of payback. Hope instead of despair. Humility in place of pride, gentleness instead of anger. On and on and on we could go. The Sermon on the Mount is the way of shalom. 

 

May this God of hope help us be lanterns of hope, in the world that we live, in the circumstances we are in, with the people we interact with as we go through Advent, that we may be lanterns of hope. That we may be people whose words and lives and attitudes and actions convey to a hurting world that there is hope and his name is Jesus. And this hope is there no matter what we're facing, no matter what is happening in our world or in our nation, no matter how fragile things are, no matter how disoriented the world is, that we might be lanterns of overflowing hope in this hope starved world. 

 

The step to take here is not to try to forget. The step here is not to try not to remember the event. To not remember what that person said or did to you. The step here is to simply forgive, again. You see forgiveness is more than just a singular event. A one-time thing we got through. Forgiveness is more of a posture. More of a perspective that we take on a particular event or towards a person. Where every time we remember the event. Every time it comes to mind and all the feelings around it come again. Every time we’re faced again with this decision either to demand that that person pay for what they did, or we choose once again to forgive. And not just that time but every time. Until eventually yes, you get so used to having this posture of forgiveness towards that person or towards that situation. That the event no longer stirs up feelings of anger or animosity. You see forgiveness is not a onetime set it and forget it thing that we do. It is a posture that we live in every day.  

So you're in the pool and you got a beach ball and it's full of air and you know, so obviously, in in our little example here, the air is our anger, right? So, you’re trying to keep anger under the water. You all can kind of picture what that would feel like. And we spend so much time in life like trying to keep the beach ball under the water, trying to keep our anger from, you know, popping up and showing itself. And you do that, but anybody who's ever tried to keep a beach ball under the water knows that eventually it's impossible to do because eventually, you know, it pops up and there's your anger out there for all to see.  

Unless, of course, you get rid of all kinds of anger, which in our little example would be to let the air out of the beach ball, right? Because you let the air out of the beach ball, well, it's not going to pop up anymore, right? Which is great. Now it stays under the water. The only thing is that all the pressure around you is still there. All the things that caused your anger to want to pop up, they're still there. And now that you don't have any anger in you, what are you supposed to do? Are you just supposed to live like a shriveled up beach ball? 

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.” Ephesians 4:31 

Today’s verse is about pivoting away from whatever degree of anger is in us, whatever form it takes, whatever level it’s at, toward a new Kingdom way of being, responding, reacting that is far more beautiful and good. Today is about the action that you and I can take to open a space for the Holy Spirit and to start transforming the anger within us.  

Life in the kingdom of God is not a life of just not saying unwholesome things, but of saying things that spread God's grace out into the world.