I want you to leave church today, to leave God’s house today, having memorized one sacred verse from our ancient, sacred texts … a single verse from the prophet Micah. Hailing from the 8th century Before the Common Era, Micah was a commoner. He lived out in the countryside.
Micah sums up our job, our occupation, our employment as God’s people with a single verse: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
Walking through life can be a little like walking on a beach. You stroll along, looking, listening, feeling, smelling and every now and again something catches your eye and you turn aside, reach down, pick it up, turn it over, examine it, and decide to hold on to it, to carry it with you.
One of the things I have picked up, hold onto, and carry with me is a single sentence attributed to Frederick Buechner: theologian/writer … a single, sharp, painfully true sentence: “In every small town there is enough grief to freeze your blood.”
A couple of months ago, at one of our meetings, your clergy—John and Anthony and I—agreed together we would preach and teach from Isaiah this month, this Advent. As far as Advent went, it would be All-Isaiah-All-the-Time.
We made this decision some while ago and have been second guessing ourselves ever since. Preaching and teaching Isaiah means we are not preaching and teaching from Luke or Matthew: the familiar Christmas stories we so love this time of year.
I was named after my mother, Nancy. Although, curiously, I am not the first, but the second daughter in my family. My father—of blessed memory called my mother “Big Nance” and called me “Little Nance.” My husband, Peter—also of blessed memory—sporting his elegant English accent, called me Nancy.
My middle name, Sedgwick, is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name. Sedgwick is a “habitational name” which means it was derived from a kind of location. In the case of Sedgwick perhaps an outlying settlement or dairy farm in Cumbria, North West England.
Part I: Prayer as Doxology
“Come”, cries the psalmist, “Come! Let us sing to God. Make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation!”
The Hebrew here, for joyful noise: think, war whoop. Think, David Ortiz hits a game-changing home-run in bottom of the ninth! Think, explode into celebration, no holding back, let it all hang out, give it up for God! The Hebrew word for joyful noise implies an exultant explosion of voice and instruments.