QUESTION: Do You Make New Year S Resolutions? What Are Some?

December 27, 2015 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. First Sunday of Christmas. Luke 2:41-52. Jesus, age 12 in the temple.

QUESTION: Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? What are some?

In our Gospel lesson today there are phrases that appear throughout all four of the Gospels. The two are; "They were astonished," meaning that something really new, different and amazing was taking place. Something that was difficult if not impossible to understand. The other phrase is; "But they did not understand what he said to them."

They, like all of us, had pre-conceived notions of what was right and what was wrong. They, like us were living under the illusion that just because someone taught us and told us that it was true - made it true! I grew up, like many of you at a time when anyone who was of a different race, language or culture was suspected of being somehow deficient. Not as good. Most especially in 1950’s America African Americans who were for the most part in ghettoes in economically depressed neighborhoods, slums we called them, and the common understanding was that they lived like that because they were lazy and unintelligent.

Or, if they were famous musicians it was because they had something called "rhythm," and if they excelled in sports it was because they had physical rather than mental or intellectual prowess. None of these things are true; in fact we are still trying to move beyond the sin of white privilege in our country today.

And if you think I am overstating things perhaps some of you may remember Professor Arthur Jensen.

Jensen's most controversial work, published in February 1969 in the Harvard Educational Review, was titled "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" It concluded, among other things, that Head Start programs designed to boost African-AmericanIQ scores had failed, and that this was likely never to be remedied, largely because, in Jensen's estimation, 80% of the variance in IQ in the population studied was the result of genetic factors and the remainder was due to environmental influences.[10]

In simple language his research concluded that since Blacks do not have the same level of intelligence they should be taught menial skills such as washing cars and cleaning streets.

In a later article, Jensen argued that his claims had been misunderstood but the damage had been done.

And it was only this past year that our gay sisters and brothers were offered equal treatment under the law regarding marriage. What a travesty. Again, I grew up at a time when homosexuality and same sex attraction was considered the ultimate perversion.

As recently as right now, in some parts of our country and in other parts of the world people are tortured and killed for being born gay. This in spite of the evidence, that fact, that so many gay and lesbian people have been the greatest contributors to the arts.

And almost exclusively this hatred comes right out of the fundamentalist Christian community. Many of us ask the moderate Muslims to speak out against Islamic terrorists, we must ask, are we speaking out against the sin of homophobia in the name of Christ?

If you saw the movie Imitation Game about Alan Turing and the breaking of the Nazi Enigma Code then you also know that Alan Turing took his own life because of his inability to be accepted into a society that he had most like saved from the onslaught of Hitler's mighty military machine which by the way was winning when Turing and 10,000 workers broke that code.

God only knows how different the outcome of that war would have been without his genius. At the very least some speculate that perhaps 2,0000 lives were spared because his machine helped bring that terrible war to an earlier end than otherwise would have been possible.

A little mentioned fact of history is also that of the 10,000 workers 2/3 were women, another group excluded again in Christian circles. Let us remember that it was only in 1921 that women fought for and won the right to vote a mere ten years before working with Turing to crack the code that helped end that devastating war!

The ironies are staggering. Most everyone in this church today has either a smart phone or a tablet of some kind, and if not a computer of some kind at home. Alan Turing is responsible for creating the first ever computer and one wonders what else he may have created had he not died too soon simply for being born who he was.

I long for the day and believe it is coming when we will no longer qualify anyone by saying black, white, straight or gay - but celebrate the common humanity we all share as God's children who, all of us, reflect the very image of God.

These should not be such difficult questions to figure out, as I mentioned with the example of Turing, the long list of Black Scientists and doctors who have contributed to the betterment of human kind, the artists, musicians, dancers, lost to the dustbin of history because of societies and especially the churches inability to understand and embrace the wondrous diversity of the human family.

In today’s Gospel the people in the Temple and the parents of Jesus are all astonished that he was so wise. After all, he was just 12 years old. If you were in church on December 6, this year you may remember my asking what we can do about the horrendous gun violence in America.

There were many good suggestions and I think perhaps the best one came from a 10 year-old girl named Gretchen Gehrke who said:

“People should stop selling guns and bullets. If they didn’t make bullets anymore, then you could not shoot a gun.”

Common sense from the wisdom of a 10 year-old child.

The New Year is upon us, and we will gather here Thursday evening at 7:00PM. For our New Year’s Eve service and fellowship time. Please join us if you can, and meanwhile I will tell you what my New Year’s hope for you is.

While working on my computer the other day Aina walked into my home office and dropped a piece of paper next to me saying; "You should use this as theThought of the Day sometime." In my busyness I glanced at it quickly and managed to mumble a quick "thanks," and after reading it said; "I've seen thatbefore." The next morning a bit more awake than the evening before I read and re-read, and re-read the quote that she had given me. Indeed, I had read it before and if memory serves me it was used by Advent member and my friend PastorPaul Schwann on one of the Sundays that he led worship. The more I read it and the more the words began to embrace me I realized that Aina had given me a real gift. I realized that the words of John Wesley capture the very essence of the teachings of Jesus and the best of the Christian faith and life. Indeed these words, if followed and lived, would create that heaven on earth, or the kingdom of God that Jesus so often spoke about. Not a faraway place somewhere that we go to when we die, but here and now in the way we live, move and have our being.

"Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.

AMEN.