Difference between revisions of "Sermon for November 22nd, 2015"

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Numbers 21:4-9

4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

John 3:11-15

11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The Year In Glass, Part II

I have always been fascinated by windows. This probably goes back to my earliest days as a student, staring out of them, daydreaming about what was outside them, and basically doing anything possible to avoid what was being taught at the front of the classroom. Church windows were even better: They were already full of colorful pictures and symbols, and in any case it never took too much to distract me from the sermon send me on a stained glass flight of imagination.

Ironically, years later I became the one talking at the front of the room--first as a high school teacher, and now as a pastor. So if you're ever tempted to ignore me and just stare at the windows, please know that at the very least, I sympathize with you. And today, we're all going to indulge in that temptation, and let the windows do the preaching.

For those of you who missed last week's sermon, the connection between our two scripture passages today and our stained glass windows comes from the book by Rev. George W. Burroughs about these stained glass windows, entitled, "So Must the Son of Man Be Lifted Up." The symbols and images here in our sanctuary do precisely that: They lift up the story of our faith and our savior, so that those who look upon them and believe might be saved.

This idea, incidentally, is an ancient one. Pope Gregory the Great (the man John Calvin called "the last good pope") recognized as far back as the 6th century that art and images in the church functioned as the poor man's Bible. That was in the days before the printing press, when individual Bibles were rare, and costly to reproduce.

Here in our sanctuary, the entire story of the scriptures is told in beautiful stained glass. The story moves from the entrance of the church to the foot of the cross, much like our own faith journeys. It is interesting to note that as we walk down the path of this journey, there is no single point along the way where all of the windows, all of the images and symbols can be seen at the same time. Rather as we travel, new windows come into focus and others are obscured. This too, is symbolic of our own journeys. God reveals his message to us in different ways at different points along the way, and yet in all the windows there is surpising consistency and connected images.

Last week we walked through the story of the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, which is found on the West wall, beginning with the creation story and ending with the establishment of Priests, Prophets and Kings in Israel--God's messengers to his people.

Today we cross over to the East wall to follow the story of another messenger sent from God--his own son, Jesus Christ, as told by the gospels of the New Testament.

I mentioned last week that there are approximately 40 steps between these two walls, representing 400 years of silence, darkness, and waiting between the two testaments. But after the long night, come the earliest rays of light in the morning.

Our first New Testament window represents the season of Advent (which begins for us next week). Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ, and in this window we see the rising sun, representing the dawn of a new era for God's people, and we see the star of Bethlehem which leads the way to the humble stable where Christ will be born. This window is directly across from the Creation window, and reminds us that Christ is the new Adam, and in Christ we are God's new creation.

The next window is the Christmas window, the nativity window. The rose is an ancient symbol for Christ, the "rose that blooms in the desert." In our own congregation, whenever a baby is born among us, we place a single rose on the communion table to celebrate that birth, and remind us of the birth of our savior. Above the rose in this window is a crown--one of four in our windows--indicating that already at his birth, Jesus was hailed as the king of heaven and earth.

The next window is the Epiphany window. Epiphany is the holy day where we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, and the beginning of his earthly ministry. The word Epiphany comes from two Greek words: ἐπί (over) φαίνω (appear), to appear over. That's because when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river, God spoke from the Heavens and the Spirit of God appeared over Jesus in the image of a dove. Underneath the dove in this window is a sea shell. In ancient times, where there was not enough water to baptize by immersion, a shell was dipped into the waterand poured over the head of the person being baptized. The three drops of water coming out of the shell symbolize the three members of the Trinity all present in that occasion: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They also form bookends with the three nails of the crucifixion that mark the end of Jesus' earthly ministry.

The next window represents the season of Lent. After his baptism, Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and nights, and was tempted by sin. This plant is a thistle, an ancient symbol that represents the thorns and briars of sin. It's also the national flower of Scotland, the birthplace of Presbyterianism. The flaming heart above the thistle represents a zealous faith--the marriage of God's spirit (the flame) with human flesh (the heart). The flaming heart is above the thistle to remind us that by God's spirit, like Jesus we have the power to overcome temptation and sin, though it is a constant struggle throughout our earthly journeys.

There are two lambs in our windows, and they are directly accross from each other. Last week we saw the sacrificial passover lamb in the Western window. In this Eastern window, Jesus himself becomes the sacrificial lamb, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah about the suffering servant who is led "like a lamb to the slaughter" and who "bore the sin of many, making intercession for transgressors." Christ becomes the victorius lamb of God, symbolized by the halo and the banner. Underneath him is a palm branch: This window is the Palm Sunday window, reminding us of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the crowd hailed him as a king, but later offered him up as a sacrifice. How often do we, like that crowd, proclaim Jesus as our king in public, but then turn away from him in our hearts and our actions?

In this window, we see a loaf of bread and a cup, reminding us of Jesus' last supper with his friends and followers. This is the Holy Thursday window, or Maundy Thursday. The cup, or chalice, if you look closely, is the same one that sits on our communion table, and was crafted for our congregation when the sanctuary was built. The three legs that support the chalice represent the three members of the Trinity coming together into one eternal circle. This window is across from the Old Testament window that represents God feeding the children of Israel with Manna and water in the desert, and we are reminded that in every age, God provides nourishment--spiritual and material--for his children.

“People are like stained – glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross