Do you ever feel like your life is mundane and boring? Maybe you see everyone around you as having an exciting and adventurous life—but not you? Perhaps you’re even silently—or not so silently—suffering? You’re in pain? Are you deeply bothered by the world situation today? You’re not alone if you’re feeling dejected and depressed. Many well-known and “successful” people have apparently felt the same way and recognized it to some extent. Let me share some of their somewhat cynical thoughts:

First, there’s Bob Hope: “I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.”

“Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.” That was Winston Churchill.

“Maybe it’s true that life begins at 50… but everything else starts to wear out, fall out or spread out.” Phyllis Diller.

“Money can’t buy you happiness… but it does bring a more pleasant form of misery.” That’s Spike Milligan.

“Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.” Victor Borge

Rodney Dangerfield said “My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.”

Socrates, that hero of the ancient past, was at least a little more positive about life when he said “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”

Revealing words—all of them!

Yet this past week we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and all that it means in our lives. We’ve looked for all the positive things that surround us and we’ve reminded ourselves that there is so much good in this world and in our lives, and we’ve acknowledged how important that all is to us as we honor, praise and thank our God—and, on top of that, we feasted! For one day—or several days—the present was perfect.

And suddenly now, we’re in that in-between place where Thanksgiving is over and Christmas has not yet come. So what is next? Are our highs and our lows all that we have?

I’m reminded of an exhausted mother who had been Christmas shopping all day with her two young children—who were likewise very tired, and by that time, hungry and fussy. The frantic mother, loaded down with packages, dragged her kids and her stuff into the already loaded elevator, squeezed everything in, then collapsed against the elevator wall. As the doors shut, she just couldn’t take it any more and sputtered out, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up, and shot.” From the back of the car, a quiet, calm voice responded, “Don’t worry; we’ve already crucified him.” How easily we forget!

And how fragile and limited in vision we can become when our life becomes difficult or challenging. In the midst of the scenario that is so close to us, we cannot see the big picture. Like Thomas, we seem to need physical proof of the risen Christ—and it just isn’t there. Our vision limits us to one small piece of the very large puzzle. We are caught in the dead of night, attempting to feel our way through the unfamiliar darkness.

Are we simply not looking? Or is our vision so limited that we are not really seeing? Why do we need to “see” before we can believe? Is our vision so clouded, as Job in the midst of his deepest suffering, who laments (in 9:11) “When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by I cannot perceive him.”

I remember what I would call “the first suffering” in my life. As a young girl, my father worked out of town—a lot. He would be gone for months at a time, over and over. Oh, it was wonderful when he came home. He would give me the biggest hugs and I didn’t have any question of how much he loved me…. But then he would leave again. This was simply beyond my young understanding, if he really loved me; and I would cry myself to sleep at night, night after night, missing him so terribly, wondering when I would see him again… And yet, the Gospel of Mark reminds us “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it,” and “…the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Perhaps we adults have seen too much, particularly when it comes to suffering. This past year has been a year of absolutely terrible news. Murders, rapes, insurgencies, wars, terrorist threats, massacres, horrible tragedies and natural disasters have been constant headlines. Even gasoline prices have had “an arm” and “a leg” posted by them, for their unbelievable prices. How do we find a sense of vision and purpose in a year such as this? How do we catch sight of a perfect moment, a present time that has perfection? Where is the perfect present? We seldom run into visual clues that remind us of God, unless we are looking. That act of looking can make possible the encounter.

We can examine what the Israelites did when at the time they were exiles in Babylon, roughly 600 years before the birth of Christ. Some years before, they and their people had been severely beaten by the Babylonians and either left for dead or chained and shipped off to a strange, new land. The survivors in Babylon were simply miserable. It is at this deepest and lowest point of their exile— that they wonder how to be faithful to the God of Israel while they are so far away from the land of Israel. They struggle to find joy and hope at this time of great despair. In Psalm 137 they lament “there we sat down and there we wept… How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Will things ever get better than they are right now?

And then, it’s in lying in bed, in this desperate state in Babylon, that Daniel has a vision of God, the “ancient One who takes his place on a throne that is blazing with fiery flames.” God’s clothing is as white as snow, the hair of his head is like pure wool, and a stream of fire flows out from his presence. The court around him sits in judgment, and the divine record books are opened. It’s an apocalyptic vision—a revelation of God at the very end of time. But it doesn’t stop there! Daniel, in his dream-vision state, sees a human being appear, and to this son of Man, God gives “dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him… and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.” For Daniel, and for all people of faith in God, for all of us, that moment was the perfect present.

Why is it that we are destined to live life forward, yet we can only understand it backward? Friends, that moment was the great revelation that both they and we live in a kingdom that is both “now” and “not yet.” God’s purposes are for this very moment… and they are eternal! God was and is working to bring order out of chaos and victory out of defeat. No matter how much horror confronts us nightly on the news that reaches us, oh so easily, no matter how much shouting there is on the talk shows of today, God is actively working with God’s people, as God did with Daniel, that God’s will might be done “on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Bingo! Suddenly there is a revelation, that in Daniel’s vision, we who know Jesus can see him as the Son of Man, the one who comes at the end of time as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” a rider on a white horse who judges in righteousness and makes war with evil, as described in the book of Revelation. He is the “ruler of the kings of the earth, and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail… (Rev. 1:4-7).

Today, at this moment, in this very ordinary time between Thanksgiving and Christmas—not quite the first day of Advent—we have a glimpse of Christ the King! Jesus’ favorite description for himself was “one like a son of man.” The small child, whose coming is prophesied in Daniel’s vision, will be birthed into a little known place in the town of Bethlehem, to become Christ the King. It is in this realization that this present time has become perfect. We know of the King, we know he has risen, we know he is with us in this very moment, and we have been promised he will come again.

We remember how, when he was here on this earth with our ancestors, he preached and healed and taught and cared and forgave and saved, and died and rose in love. We remember this and we know this, for the scriptures are full of it and we have heard those stories and believed.

Philip Yancey reminds us how “In one body, Christ brought the two worlds together, joining spirit and matter at long last, unifying creation in a way that had not been seen since Eden.”

Yet how hard it is for us to detect the more subtle, yet also extraordinary movements, that God makes every day in the very ordinary moments of our lives? The perfect present is all around us. Lord, give us eyes to see.

The Amish people of Pennsylvania gave us a very vivid illustration recently when they forgave after their children had been killed. Living out their faith, they went beyond forgiveness to reach out and comfort and care for the family of the murderer, even inviting them to the memorial service for their children. What a tremendous witness for the faithful and to the world! What a link between heaven and earth!

Corrie Ten Boom did it during the holocaust. She rescued those who were not of her faith—the Jewish—and helped them escape the Nazi terrorism.

Dr. Beverly Rose, a professional woman of today, has done it, as she wrote a book for all to read about her story: trapped in an “unforgiving” body, severely afflicted with a rare neuromuscular disease, to the point that she can “rise only by the power of God’s grace.”

I’m reminded of times, in my worst pain, when I saw tree branches as arms reaching up to praise God, iris flowers as beautiful little angels massed together, birds that seemed to appear and sing just for me, clouds that came together to form a perfect cross in the sky, and Jesus entered my presence…

Richard Foster, in his book “Prayer,” shares a note found by a child in the holocaust area of Ravensbruck: “Faith is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes can see.”

These people of faith—people in “thin places” where somehow God is present for us--like others throughout the centuries, went beyond what the eyes could see, as did the prophet Daniel, and Jesus, our savior, Christ the King, most certainly. To quote Abraham Herschel: “There are moments in which… heaven and earth kiss each other; in which there is a lifting of the veil at the horizon of the known, opening a vision of what is eternal in time…” What could be more perfect than touching God in the moment?

There’s the story of a little 5 year old girl who was punished by her mother for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. The family was quite poor, so money was scarce. The mother became even more upset when she discovered the small girl had used the paper to cover a box and then put that box under the Christmas tree. It surprised her, however, when, the next day, the little girl went to her mother and said “This is for you, Mama.” When the mother opened the box and found it was empty, she became very upset. Her words were sharp and harsh. “Don’t you know there’s supposed to be a present inside a box when it’s wrapped? The little girl was in tears, “It’s not empty, Momma! I blew kisses in it until it was full!” The mother begged her forgiveness…

Friends, we’ve all been given a golden box full of unconditional love and kisses, from our children, family, friends, and God. It’s the perfect present for any time and it’s eternal. Accept this gift and pass it on!

Sermon delived by Rev. Carol Mumford on November 26, 2006.