Sheep in pasture

Sheep in pasture
Feed My Sheep, Feed My Lambs, Feed My Sheep

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Show Your Colors

October 13, 2013
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
Worship Theme: Shine For God
Exodus 34:29-30 MSG
Matthew 17:1-2 GWT
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 MSG



A reading from the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verses one through eight. I will be reading from the Message Bible this morning. Listen for a word from God to you and me, the children of God. The Message Bible titles it as “There’s a Time for Everything.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 The Message (MSG)
There’s a Right Time for Everything

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

The other day I was on my way to Howland to visit my mentor. As I crested the hill that you can see Mt. Katahdin, I just had to pull over and take some pictures. It was breath taking. You could see the mountain and just below it was sort of this fog that separated it from the beautiful autumn leaves of the trees below. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it myself…I mean I have seen pictures in magazines but never with my own eyes. As I gazed at the spectacle God created I was again brought back to the thought of those beautiful colors that God had created.

You see…those colors were the true colors of the trees below Katahdin. We, as humanity wait for Spring to arrive and the earth to become resurrected from its winter nap. We wait for the flowers to bloom again…the birds to return with their songs…and for the trees to full again with their green leaves of life. Then, as always, the earth begins to make itself ready for its time of rest…the time when it hibernates with the promise of Spring again. As the change takes place we see the earth…Gods handy work…begin to sing…well…sort of a Swan Song as it shows the beautiful colors that reminds us that the cold winter is just around the corner.

But there is something in those colors that we may not really think about or ponder on. We may hate the fact that the change in the color of the trees signifies that winter is coming but it is within those colors that the trees truly live. You see the green color we see is during their growing season. The trees are drinking in nourishment from the ground and the warmth of the sun. They are making oxygen for the air around them. They are actually waiting for Fall.

Fall is the time when they really shine. It is in Fall that they show their true colors that they were created to show. They need that growing time in order to be as spectacular as they are in the end of their time and the beginning of their rest and restoration only to rise again in the Spring renewed and refreshed. It is their environment that they live in that creates this process. When the weather begins to change to a colder one that has more darkness then sun, it triggers this metamorphous…a transformation…into something that many people come from miles away just to see its brilliance and grandeur.

As I consider the words from Ecclesiastes this morning…the season of Fall has caused me to ponder on what this season means for my own life, for the lives of Christians… There is a time for everything…a time to grow and a time to show the true colors that we are meant to be. I was reading a devotional by Julia Bettencourt about the colors of Fall. The colors themselves have meaning and significance for our walk with God.

Take the color red, it is a color that sticks out in the vast array of the colors of Fall. It is the color of passion. No matter where we are in our faith journey, we can show passion for God and what He is doing in our lives. We need to show that passion for Christ in a world that is dark and grey. WE should show the brilliance of Christ like in the Matthew Scripture this morning. We are to show our light…to shine before men. As we shine, others will see the good works of God and praise Him ever more.

The color orange is beautiful. It is not only found in the trees but in the color of ripe pumpkins that are harvested this time of year. It reminds us of warmth and comfort. This is a virtue…a character trait that we should display. We need to be warm and inviting to others.

We also have the color yellow within the colors of Fall. Now yellow is a happy color. You must all have seen smiley faces. What color are they? That’s right yellow. We need to be that happy, cheerful color. You never know whose life will be changed by our “shiny” outlook on life. As we show the life of joy, even in the tough times, we let our faith shine in each new day. Since we have Christ in our lives we are able to be that shining beacon in a world that is in the dark looking for a light to shine in its darkness. By the way, joy is one of the Fruit of the Spirit that we are studying in our Spirit Study groups.

Now I don’t know how many of you have seen this color but it is a beautiful color none the less…the color purple. Now this is the color of royalty. In Christ…we, as Christians, are royalty…adopted sons and daughters of the most high God. Being royalty we need to reflect royalty. Now I don’t mean that we should look down on others and think of them as peasants…we should be striking as Christians…we should stand out as something beautiful that will attract others to the same royal priesthood we are called…that we are honored…to be part of.

And then there is brown. Now you might think to yourself, “Brown is such an ugly color. It isn’t striking and beautiful. It’s just brown.” But brown has a really important imagery. If there wasn’t any brown in the colors of Fall, the rest might not be a striking as it is. Brown is the color of the earth…the ground on which we walk. It is the color of stability. We are to be grounded in Christ who is our Anchor. Others will see our grounding and want that for their own lives. We show this grounding by our actions and words. If we are not rooted and grounded in Christ, where would the stability be in life? It is not found in the world around us but in the world of eternity which we are promised.

We may feel that the colors we show don’t matter but it is just the opposite. It is within our colors that we live and breathe and have our being. It is within these same colors that others will be attracted to the One who grounds us. When we show our colors we honor God and Christ.

Brothers and sister in and of Christ, we need to be an array of beauty. We, as Christians, need to color our world with the vast array of Godly colors. We, as Christians, are fed by the Spirit within us and now it is time to show our true colors. There people of this world are looking for “brightness” in their otherwise drab life. We need to be that color on the canvas of life. As we show the colors of our God others will be attracted to the creative artwork of the Artisan that puts His brush to the palette of creation. It is within these colors that our witness is found. My question I pose to you and myself is this, “What are the colors that you and I are projecting in and to this world in which we live?” Are they the colors of a rainbow of hope or are they the colors of a life of muck and mire?

I would like to end my sermon with a prayer by Joyce Rupp. It is a poem about the seasons of life. My prayer is that it will be our prayer to the Creator of heaven and earth who splashes the true colors on and for the palette of our lives…

Prayer for Autumn Days By Joyce Rupp
God of the seasons,
there is a time for everything;
there is a time for dying and a time for rising.
We need courage to enter into
the transformation process.

God of autumn,
the trees are saying goodbye to their green,
letting go of what has been.
We, too, have our moments of surrender,
with all their insecurity and risk.
Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves
lying in colored patterns on the ground,
our lives have their own patterns.
As we see the patterns of our own growth,
may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights,
there is always the dimension of mystery
and wonder in our lives.
We always need to recognize your power-filled presence.
May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain,
many gifts of growth lie within the season of our surrender.
We must wait for harvest in faith and hope.
Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of geese going south
for another season, your wisdom enables us
to know what needs to be left behind
and what needs to be carried into the future.
We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers
touched with frost and windows wearing white designs,
may your love keep our hearts
from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life,
you believe in us, you enrich us,
you entrust us with the freedom to choose life.
For all this, we are grateful.
Amen

Amen…amen…and amen!

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