"Tis a Gift To Be Simple"

A Sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
November 28, 2004

Romans 13:11-14

¹¹ Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹² the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³ let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 6:25-33

²⁵ 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,* or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?* ²⁸ And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you - you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" ³² For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But strive first for the kingdom of God* and his* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

IT IS HARD NOT to think of the old adage, "Christmas is for kids," when we see all these brilliant packages piled up here! We took on 40 El Grupo children - and here is the proof of our labor and of our love. Congratulations, church family, and Thank You!

Why do we do this each year? Why do we bother to make sure that there is a special and appropriate gift for each these immigrant children? Is it simply because we feel sorry for them? After all, they are new to this country, generally without English language skills, unaccustomed to American culture, often living at poverty level . Or is it because we are loyal to Beth Abrams, who began this food and advocacy program out of this church? Or is it something more?

And if it is, could that "something more" have to do with this season of Advent? Not Christmas Day itself, but our own process of waiting and watching; of remembering, in the words of Paul, that the time is now to awaken from the slumbers of life.

Paul takes the traditional apocryphal texts of Advert, the ones that say judgment day will come at any time, like a thief in the night; and he turns them from frightening prophesy into beautiful invitation. The daytime is near, he promises, the night is far-gone. Come, prepare yourself. Let those nighttime dreams become daytime realities...

Living love is the best way to welcome the Christ child into your life.

And so, with our Grupo gifts, we begin the Advent journey, the annual challenge to take a good look at the darkness of our lives, the space to prepare for, anticipate, await, something new. Mired in lifestyles that we know to be woefully short of where we want to be, yet always wanting to wait just a little bit longer before allowing a reformation of the soul, we are pulled up short as Advent reminds us, "This is Day One of a new church year. Time is running out. The Messiah is coming ! Get ready!."

And just as we get to the edge of yielding the addition of anxiety, the death grip of despair, we hear Jesus urging us to stop. Life is not about worrying over what you wear or what you eat. Rather, it is about a vision of a world according to God, one that rejects an existence based on anxiety and dread; one that informs the search for security with dependence on God rather than dependence on material goods. Theologian William Barclay was probably correct when he suggested that "worry is essentially distrust of God." "Why are you anxious ?" Jesus asked, knowing that for too many it is because we either carry guilt from the past or borrow trouble from the future.. "Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Live one day at a time. God will take care of the future" If God so clothes the grass of the fields and feeds the birds of the air," "will God not much more take care of you, ones of little faith?".

Advent, my friends, is a time for people who know better to finally do better.

And the way to begin, we are told, is with simplicity: A simplicity that supports the celebration of life but rejects the worship of consumerism; a simplicity that is about letting go as opposed to giving up; a simplicity that is about learning to use power differently, removing obstacles that prevent loving and just relationship, developing a response to life, to its joys and its struggles, that finds its way to deeper relationship with God.

The patron saint of our city, St. Francis of Assisi, is a good model to lead us into Advent. ...the most popular figure in Christianity after Christ... he lived the paradox that springs from the Gospels" "Having nothing yet possessing all things." He. prayed for holy simplicity, "so that he might enjoy the simple things." He preached the primacy of the inner life, and lived in intimate loving communion with Christ. None of us will ever imitate the radical turnaround and uncompromising choices Francis made in his life, but he certainly can be our guide to achieving holy simplicity!

Born about 1181, Francis was the son of a wealthy Assisian cloth merchant. He received some elementary instruction from the priests of St. George's , learned more perhaps in the school of the Troubadours, then became associated with his father in trade.. Handsome, merry, gallant, and courteous, no one loved pleasure and extravagance more than Francis. When about 20, Francis went out to fight the rival township of Perugia, and ended up in prison for more than a year. He suffered a long illness during which he began to feel the stirrings of the spirit . Not long after his return to Assisi, while Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian's below the town, he heard a voice saying: "Go, Francis, and repair my house." His growing piety and his increasing urge to embrace the poor and the outcast, eventually led him to repudiate his family, and reject his inheritance. Indeed, in a public square, Francis stripped himself of the very clothes he wore, threw them at his father's feet, saying: "Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only 'Our Father who art in Heaven...' And then Francis wandered forth into the hills behind Assisi, improvising hymns of praise. He attracted followers, and like children "careless of the day", they wandered from place to place singing in their joy, and calling themselves the Lord's minstrels. The wide world was their cloister; sleeping in haylofts, grottos, or church porches, they toiled with the laborers in the fields, and when none gave them work they would beg.

Francis tramped upon the nobility of birth for the nobility of the soul.

This man deeply felt that material goods were in the way of a spiritual path. He gave up all his possession. Yet Francis never espoused poverty per se. Mere rejection of material comforts was never a blessing, he taught, if you are always craving or actually needing something. No, the simplicity Francis espouses is one which you choose, never that which is forced upon you. Simplicity says you must maintain options, safety, and choices. Simplicity asks that we live close enough to the limits of our resources so that we can rely on God's love for us and appreciate the unadorned wonders of Creation.

The goal of Franciscan simplicity , what today is called simple living, is to encourage us to live in joy! What a concept for us coming off of a weekend of rampant consumerism, the gluttony of waiting at a storefront at 6 AM to be first to buy something.

Simple living is not always simple to do. A driving force of modern society is consumerism, the drive to possess things to such a degree that we become possessed ourselves. We are pressured not to be satisfied with having just enough; Francis asks us to be satisfied with being generous, and warmhearted, enjoying the goodness of people. Considerable thought is required to sort out what is necessary. what is luxury, and what is just plain silly. For in Advent, Francis challenges us to embrace life, not to own it.

Children understand such simplicity. Francis of Assisi often said, along with Jesus, let the little children come to me, for he felt that they were naturals at the ways of "honorable living" that Paul enjoined, that armor of light.

We could learn from our children that simplicity involves vulnerability. To be touched and changed, we must risk being broken, knowing we have nothing to lose. God embraces our brokenness, we do not need to be or even appear to be polished. The more we recognize and reveal ourselves, the more profoundly our faith is vulnerable to the transformation of God's power.

Our children can teach us the importance of humor, pleasure and joy. We can take our faith-shaping too seriously, as if it is all up to us. We become too self-focused, stifled and defeated. Humor lifts us up to a higher reality; freeing us from our oppressive self and the illusion of expecting a complete, perfect life of faith. Humor communicates the sobering truth of our limits and God's unlimited provision.

Children know how to embrace their gifts. Before we teach them to be self-conscious and wary, they recognize a multitude of experiences, gifts and tendencies. They know not to compare themselves to anyone but themselves.

Likewise, a child's questioning is part of Advent simplicity People who are growing in faith ask "why?" Asking questions is the way we think about what is important to us and how we learn. There are no inappropriate questions. If we confine ourselves to what we already understand, we will never take new faith steps. We ask knowing most of our questions have no answers or will have unsettling replies, for God holds all the answers.

Finally. child-like surprise and discovery are inherent in simple living. Openness to surprise and discovery do not entrap God in a box of predictability or limit in believing what God can or cannot do. As a child anticipates Jack, in the Jack-in-the-box, to jump out, so too might we expect, wait, with a bit of trepidation, but mostly glee, and jump for joy with the God of surprises. Surprise leads to discovery -- less of a goal than a serendipitous revelation. Faith is not the transferring of knowledge as much as the personal eagerness to encounter God's reality.

Life is complicated, and following Jesus is not a simple matter. But following him is still fundamentally the same as it has always been. It is a matter of returning again and again to what is truly important to living. It is a matter of a spiritual journey inward and a lifestyle journey outward. It is a matter of trust in the all sufficient grace and mercy of God. It is "basically" a matter of loving God completely and loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

This is not a season of alarm, but a season of gradual awakening, of preparing to embrace a new day. There are gifts under our communion table. Perhaps we could put some gifts under our own inner Christmas tree as well: Advent gifts of love, generosity, calmness, forgiveness, kindness, patience, humor, passion, devotion, commitment. And above all simplicity.