Sunday Video Message – “Mercy and Grace”

Message: “Mercy and Grace” 

Scripture:  Hebrews 4:14-16

For years, decades even, at Christmas time, Folger’s coffee has been using a particular advertisement.  You might know it.   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kNl7cQdcU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR321F72yoD_H2TayvC32Ki6N645wi15XALfQbZT-Oiem-NRgpAnCNV1Q0M) 

As the ad begins, snow falls lightly on a car parked in front of a nice house. Snow-covered shrubs flank the door, and a Christmas wreath hangs on it. A young man, arms full of packages, emerges from a Volkswagen beetle, hefts his backpack onto his shoulder and says, “Thanks a lot.  Merry Christmas!”  He gives the car door a shove and turns toward the house.      

A young girl upstairs, snuggled with stuffed animals under her covers, turns to look out her diamond-paned window.    

The young man comes in the front door and flips a light switch.  A huge Christmas tree, stacked with presents, lights up.   As the young man puts down his packages, the girl runs down the stairs in her pajamas.  

“Peter!” she says and runs to hug him.  

“Merry Christmas,” he whispers.  

“Everyone’s asleep,” she says.  

“I know how to wake them up,” he whispers, and the two of them go hand-in-hand into the kitchen to make, yes, Folger’s coffee.    

Then, as Peter pours the coffee, another sister (a teenager) wakes up smiling, then the mom, then the dad.  “Mmm.”  

As those three come down the stairs in their robes and slippers, Peter brings a coffee tray out of the kitchen into the living room.  He sets it down as his mother exclaims, “Peter!”  

She hurries over to give him a hug and sighs, “Oh, you’re home!”  

The smiling family drinks coffee and opens presents, and the nice people from Folgers offer, “Best wishes for this and all your mornings.” 

The part that gets me every time, every time, is when the mom says, “Peter!”  

My son teases me about it.  Yes, I’m an easy target for sentimental Christmas ads.  

I haven’t seen that ad this year, mostly because I don’t watch much commercial TV these days, and the one channel I do watch tends to advertise for Medicare options, reverse mortgages, and step-in tubs.  😊

Then the other day, I saw an ad I hadn’t seen before.  It might have been on the Microsoft Solitaire Collection.  (https://www.popsugar.com/family/grandma-opening-gift-etsy-holiday-commercial-video-47948172) 

In this one, an older woman with shoulder-length gray hair in a sweater twinset and necklace, holds a snow-globe in her hands.  She smiles wistfully and turns to set the globe down on the coffee table.  A trim older man lounging in high-end sweats on a couch, smart phone in hand, says reassuringly, “We’ll see the kids soon.”  Behind them, we see a Christmas tree in the corner and some cardboard packing boxes on the floor in the doorway to the formal dining room.   

“I know,” she says.   

Next, we see the woman sleeping on her side, facing us, alone in a king-sized bed.  Young voices calling out “Merry Christmas” wake her up, and she rushes downstairs in her robe and slippers.  There she finds her husband, again in high-end sweats, sitting on the floor by the Christmas tree, with his phone, video-chatting with the grandkids.  “Merry Christmas, Grandma!” we hear from multiple voices.   

“Hi!  You’re up so early!”  Grandma joins in.

“Ma, Ma!  Open the blue one!” says a woman’s voice.   

The blue one is kind of floppy, inelegantly wrapped in plain blue paper.  What’s inside?  That’s not exactly clear.  It’s a figure about two feet long, with a misshapen head and skewed face, black hair, red torso and arms, blue legs and feet.  “Oh, look at that,” Grandma whispers.  [Note: That’s a good response for when you get a gift and you’re not sure what it is.]

On the phone screen, a boy of about four holds up a child’s drawing of a figure that has a misshapen head and skewed face, black hair, red torso and arms, blue legs and feet. “Look, the present’s me,” he says.  “You ‘posed to hug it when you can’t see us.  I miss you, Grandma.  See you really soon.”   

Etsy.  Gift like you mean it.   And there I was, a teary mess.  

Yes, my son is probably right.  I’m an easy target for tear-jerker Christmas ads.    

I don’t think I’m the only one who tears up as such ads.  For at least some of us, these ads touch a place of longing in our hearts – we long to be with family at Christmas time.  We want to feel that sense of belonging.  “Peter!”  “Merry Christmas, Grandma!”    

The reality is most of our homes aren’t like the ones in the commercials.  Our families aren’t like the ones in those commercials.  Our Christmases aren’t like the ones in those commercials.   

We kind of wish they were, but they’re not.  We might dismiss those commercials as romantic claptrap, made to get us to buy a particular brand of coffee or spend money for a particular kind of Christmas gift.  But they work, to the extent that they do work, because we have deep yearnings for a place to belong. 

This morning’s Scripture reminds us that we have one who understands our deepest yearnings.    Hebrews 4:14-16, New Revised Standard Version:

¹⁴ Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested^[d] as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Here’s the same passage in The Message:  

^14-16 Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

This notion of a Jesus as a priest who knows what our lives are like connects for me with Romans 8:34:  

… Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, … is at the right hand of God [and] intercedes for us.

Years ago, someone was playing with these images a bit and suggested that we make a mental picture of God on a throne.  Where is Jesus, then?  Jesus is at God’s right hand.  And what is Jesus doing there?   Understanding, interceding, yes.  But imagine that understanding, caring person sitting in a rocking chair at the right hand of God.     

Let us then approach that person in the rocking chair, maybe be so bold as to crawl into his lap, and receive what he has to offer – mercy and grace, forgiveness and compassion, kindness and understanding, comfort and love.  

My friend Melanie is an artist.  Art is her ministry, making spiritual insights visible.  I received one of her marketing emails this week, and it ministered to me.  See what you think.  

“Someone recently ordered two of my art prints at the same time,” Melanie wrote, “one called “Held,” and the other “Earth Holds You.”” 

These two prints are from her series, “Listen for Joy.”  

The one called “Held” is rectangular, wider than it is tall.  A line divides the picture roughly in half lengthwise. On the top is a stormy sky in blues and black, mountains in the far distance, and a row of trees bent way over and losing leaves into the wind.  The bottom part of the picture is brown, revealing the nearest tree’s strong root system, reaching deep and wide.  “Held.”  

The print called “Earth Holds You” is circular. It looks like the original may have been a paper collage or a quilt.  Near the top, a pale blue circle forms the background for four darker blue bird silhouettes that might be peace doves.  A band with evergreen trees and leaves and the suggestion of a stream hugs the blue circle. Three further bands hug the trees – one tan, one a little darker, the third one even darker brown.  The next band has brown and black and wine colors; it suggests rocks and has a curved edge that faces away from the sky.  The next band curving down is gray and black – maybe bedrock.  The next band is red, followed by one that’s orange with red streaks, and the last one is golden with reddish orange swirls.  So the top part of the circle embraces the sky, while the bottom part of the circle embraces the golden heart. “Earth Holds You”

Melanie continues.  

Ever since [someone bought those two prints together], I’ve been noticing just how much we need to know we are held– especially now, in these dark days of winter and pandemic.  

So many of us are grieving deep, deep losses. Take a moment [Melanie suggests] now to remember your own grief and loss during this year. Please take another moment to remember the losses of people you know. Another moment for the griefs of the people, places, animals, communities you know about. Then remember our neighbors for whom injustice has compounded loss.  

When have you felt held or supported in your grief?

How does Love / God / Earth / Life uphold us in dark times? 

How do we hold each other through loss?   

Sometimes [Melanie says] art, music, and poetry help us to feel and show up, so we can engage big, hard things like these. Today I turned back toward those two holding art images for some Presence and guidance. And I gathered some others that felt helpful to me. I offer them to you, here: 

For strength to acknowledge our losses and grief.

For encouragement to engage the systems (like racism) that harm our collective well-being. 

For wisdom to know our part to support others, and conviction to do it.

For trust to remember we are never alone

From Melanie Widener’s email 12/10 (https://listenforjoy.com/collections/all/art-print-standard) 

Strength and courage, wisdom and trust are ours from the one who sits at the right hand of God. 

Open Worship 

Let us enter into a time of waiting worship, communion after the manner of Friends.

Benediction