An Unlikely Time
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation. But what are we waiting for? When do we expect it to come? Before the birth of Jesus, the Jews were waiting anxiously for a deliverer on par with Moses who would lead them from the bondage of Roman rule back to their glory days. In their minds, they knew exactly what they were expecting in a Messiah. Scott Suskovic reminds us that the Jewish world did not get what they expected. People were looking so hard for their hero in shining armor who would sound the war cry against Rome, that they missed the small cries of a baby in a Bethlehem barn. God's plans and God's timing do not always line up with our expectations. Along with Scott Suskovic's article, there is also a response by Steve McCutchan, illustrations by Barbara Jurgensen, Paul Bresnahan, and Thom Shuman, a worship resource by Thom Shuman, and a children's sermon.
An Unlikely Time
Scott Suskovic
THE WORLD
Every time I look at you I don't understand, Why you let the things you do get so out of hand. You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned. Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you'd come today you would have reached the whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication. Don't you get me wrong.
So asks Judas of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. Why'd you choose this place? Why'd you choose this time? Why'd you choose this way? In the first century, the Jewish world was waiting for a Messiah who would come with trumpets and earthquakes, command a mighty army, expel Roman tyranny, and establish a free, powerful, independent Israel once again. They were ready for a Messiah.
But not for Jesus. He came in such a simple way. Teenage, unwed peasant girl for a mother. A small dot in the desert named Bethlehem for a birthplace. A barn for shelter. A manger for a bed. Cows and sheep and shepherds as his only visitors. He took the whole world by surprise. No one expected Jesus.
"Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?"
Our timing often does not match with God's timing. I was struck this week looking at the pose of President Bush standing between the Palestinian Leader and the Israeli leader shaking hands. How often have I seen that same pose? Jimmy Carter -- Bill Clinton -- George Bush -- different presidents with different leaders in different times but with the same hope that peace will finally come. And yet, how often have we sounded like the Psalmist, "How long, O Lord, how long?"
During this Advent Season, we are called to wait -- wait with hope, wait with expectation, wait with trust even as we pray, "Stir up your power, O Lord, and come."
THE WORD
There is a strong theme in our lessons for December 9 about waiting for God to prepare the stage for the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah prophesizes that a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Jesse. There will come a day in which the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the nursing child shall play over the snake's den. In Matthew, John the Baptist exhorts us to prepare the way of the Lord. The kingdom of heaven is coming near. One who is more powerful than I is coming after me.
The question is, "When?" As we wrestle with our impatience, the answer this Advent focuses on what God's people have spent thousands of years doing--learning how to wait.
In Genesis 3:15, God told the serpent in the Garden of Eden, "Mark my word--there will come one from the seed of Eve whom you will bite his heel but he will crush your ugly head." It didn't happen for 4,000 years.
In Genesis 12:1-4, God told Abraham that he would be blessed in order to be a blessing to the rest of the world. But that wouldn't happen for 1,800 years.
Judah, Jacob's son from whom Jesus' bloodline came, was told in Genesis 49 that he would never lose he supreme reign over all of world. But not for another 1,700 years.
After the Exodus, God said in Deuteronomy that there would come a prophet like Moses, who would rescue God's people from bondage forever. But they would have to wait 1,200 years.
To David, God said, "I will build you a house in which your son will rule forever and ever and ever." But that house would not be build for another 1,000 years.
See the pattern? In Isaiah, God said that the child would come from a virgin and that he would reign as king of kings and Lord of lords but not for another 700 years. In Jeremiah, God said that there will come a day in which he will make a new covenant and write it upon our hearts but not for another 600 years. In Malachi, God said that all this won't take place until Elijah returns but not for another 400 years. (Matthew cleverly depicts John the Baptist as the return of Elijah by describing his clothing and diet. Matthew understood John's role as that of culmination of a long wait.)
How long, O Lord? How long must we wait for you to prepare the stage?
The answer is: until the fullness of time--a phrase that comes from Galatians 4 in which Paul wrote, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father."
The fullness of time. What did Paul see with the birth of Jesus? Paul saw a mighty God purposefully setting the stage, working intimately with the details of human history, to create a window of about fifty years in all of human history when the Messiah could have been born. That's not an exaggeration. That's the fullness of time.
SETTING THE STAGE
From the time of Abraham, the Jews were a tightly knit clan. Together they moved about in the desert. Together they went to Egypt. Together they were slaves. Together they followed Moses to the Promised Land. Together they inhabited Israel and Judah. If they are going to be blessed to be a blessing, God had to break open their borders in order for the world to receive the Christ. How did God do this?
In 722, Assyria in modern day Iraq captured Israel, dragged them north and scattering them around Iraq and into Turkey.
In 587, Babylonia captured Judah, dragged them into bondage and once released, the scattered them further around Asia Minor all the way into Greece and Rome. Suddenly, this tightly knit clan was scattered throughout Asia Minor.
In 333, Alexander the Great came and captured all of Asia Minor and brought Greek philosophy, a common language and openness to new ideas. Now this monolithic Judaism had itching ears for new ideas.
In 167, Syria came in, captured Jerusalem and outlawed Judaism. Some Jews acquiesced. Others fought it and won. This battle split Judaism into four different groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and the Essenes. There differences are not important. What is important is the stage God has prepared. This once tightly knit religion is scattered. They are inquisitive about new philosophical ideas. And this once united religion is now fractured into four splinter groups. See the stage?
Why is this important? Because the Jews would have kept the Messiah all to themselves. If they were independent, autonomous, and prosperous living in their own thriving country with no contact with the outside world, the messiah would not have been shared. In Romans Paul wrote about the necessity of the Jewish rejection of the Messiah in order for the Gentiles to receive Jesus. See the stage?
Now enter Rome in 63 BC -- a behemoth, vicious, dictatorship that kept peace in its vast empire by the sword. They prided themselves with one language, one culture, one religion, many roads (all leading to Rome). The only wildcard in the Roman Empire were the Jews who refused to worship Caesar and refused to accept Roman rule. So Rome granted one exception to their way of life to the Jews--the Jews could keep their laws and worship their own God as long as they paid their taxes and did not revolt. The stage was now set.
Coming silently from stage right was a donkey, carrying a poor, pregnant teenager. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled ... Jesus came hidden in plain view. He lived, he taught, he died, and he rose again in the 30's. For the first twenty years, his followers were primarily Jewish. Messianic Jews, they were called, who worshipped alongside the other four splinter groups. Rome didn't care. Rome didn't even notice. Christians were just another splinter group of Judaism.
In the '50s and '60s Paul traveled extensively around Asia Minor and Turkey and Greece. He has safe travel because of Roman Peace, he communicates clearly because there is one language, he is well received because they are eager for new learning, and he goes to the Jews first, who are scattered throughout Asia Minor. For the past 1,000 years, God has scattered his people like kindling throughout the Middle East, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy so that when Paul lit the match of Christianity, the blaze swept through this region like a California wildfire. Within twenty years, Christianity reached all the way to Rome with such power, with such force, and with such numbers that the Christians were a large enough group in Rome not only to be noticed but to be blamed for the fire that destroyed Rome set by Nero in the '60s. Can you imagine? Within twenty years, there were a couple hundred thousand Christians in a backward land with no mass communication. Such growth could not happen today even with slick marketing, a contemporary service and mass mailings. There is only one reason Christianity sprang up so suddenly. God set the stage and brought forth his Son in the fullness of time.
Then, just as suddenly, the window closes. In 70 AD, Rome destroyed Jerusalem, killed off three of the four sects of Judaism and suddenly notices Christians who, for forty years, lay hidden in the womb of Judaism. By the time Rome noticed them, Christianity had grown so much and was so scattered and so devoted that Rome began its intense persecution of the Christians but could not stop its inevitable spread.
"Why'd you pick such a backward time in such a strange land?"
It seemed like such an unlikely time. But Paul calls it the fullness of time. God was not sitting back passively, hoping for a break in the action to roll the dice, send his Son, and hope things would work out. From the foundations of the world, God was busy setting the stage for the coming of his Son. Matthew describes John in terms of the long awaited return of Elijah, the precursor to the coming of the Messiah. Matthew sees the stage and with great anticipation awaits for the coming of the Lord.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Here you can focus on the waiting theme of the lessons. What are you waiting for? Some people are waiting for the return of Jesus. Others are waiting for peace in the Middle East. Some have pressing concerns of health, relationships, and employment that are not happening according to their timeline. They've been beating their head against the wall, trying to force something to happen. But it's not happening. It's not the right time. Maybe you are being called to do what God's people have always been asked to do, what Isaiah asked God's people to do, what John the Baptist asked God's people to do: Wait.
Wait with expectation that God will make good on his promise
Wait with eagerness to see what surprise God is up to next
Wait with trust that God is a God of his word
Wait with hope that God is setting the stage once again in your life.
This is not a history lesson with dates and places to memorize. This is amazing good news that God is sovereign. This world is not spinning out of control, ruled by chaos. Ours is not a distant God who passively sits back waiting to be found. Ours is a God deeply committed to you, intimately involved somehow in the details of your life, setting the stage perfectly according to his time, not yours.
Maybe you are being called to do what God's people have always been called to do: Wait. Wait for an unlikely time. Which of course, when it happens, you will see that it is actually the fullness of time and that God has once again set the stage to announce his coming in your life so that he might hear from your lips those words he longs to hear, "Abba, Daddy. You are mine. And I am yours. I will trust you even in the most unlikely time. It was well worth the wait."
ANOTHER VIEW
Shooting From the Stump
Steve McCutchan
A recent newspaper headline read: "Mideast talks fail to raise hopes: Residents of region don't see much chance of peace being achieved in one year." One would have to acknowledge an ample basis for skepticism both in this country and around the world with respect to the possibilities for peace in the Middle East. In the early '90s my congregation graciously made it possible for my wife and I to travel to Israel and Egypt and I joked at the time that it was kind of them to have arranged for a new era of peace to have emerged under the Camp David Accords. There was a high degree of optimism at the time that at last, perhaps peace could be achieved. Other attempts have been made in each administration since then with little real success. The current Bush administration virtually ignored the problem for the first seven years but is now making this effort in the final year of the administration. Yet even as they convened what is referred to as the Annapolis Conference there was little optimism for its success. As columnist David Ignatius commented, "In the run-up to Annapolis, expectations were so low that they were sinking into the Chesapeake Bay." The Washington Post reported, "In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis conference prompted little more than wisecracks."
Sometimes low expectations are good because it gets the manipulations of humans out of the way and makes room for God to act. As we enter the Advent season, it is good to remember that no one expected the coming of the messiah. Neither the political nor the religious leaders held any expectation that this year would be any different from any other year. Our culture, today, is equally pessimistic about anything new happening. We may affirm that Jesus the Christ has come but we tend to act as if it were an historic event worthy of celebration but doesn't hold much promise for the future.
Christians are invited to enter the season of Advent with a sense of hope and expectation. Because we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," our hope is not just a personal one but a hope for our world. It is significant that the three major religions that speak most about God's presence in the world all have their origin in one of the most violent corners of the world. God seems to have chosen the very place where peace is most needed to make the divine presence felt. To paraphrase the words of an old song from the '60s, perhaps God is saying, "All I am saying is give peace a chance."
Do we think that peace might break out in the Middle East? What is your hope in this Advent season that the coming of Christ not only changed the world in the past but can change it in the future? If you are cynical, you are not alone. However, God has worked among people with that attitude before. And in the midst of that cynicism, God has looked for a people who would be a sign of hope. "On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious."
The Messiah that was awaited would be from the family line of Jesse. That Messiah would be of benefit to more than just his own Jewish people. He would be a symbol of hope for all the peoples. Now, for us, the Messiah has come, and we have been invited to share the hope he established. The messianic community, or Christians, continue Christ's mission. Advent is an appropriate time for the church to reflect on how it can be a signal of hope for others.
Isaiah's picture of the peaceable kingdom was one of natural enemies living together in harmony and leadership coming from the most vulnerable members of society. Children were normally seen as investments for the future but hardly as leaders. When Jesus said, "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3), he was totally reversing the natural order. We wait for children to become like adults rather than the other way around. An adult would know better than to put his hand on the den of poisonous snakes, but a child might act out of innocent trust. Only a child could picture a wolf and a lamb lying down together or a cow and a bear grazing together. Perhaps only a child-like faith could imagine Jews and Arabs living together in peace.
In our attempt to take control of our lives, we have grown suspicious and wary of all the dangers about us. We are skeptical and cautious about expecting anything unique coming out of Christmas. There is a sense in which our cynicism contributes to its own reality. If you don't expect anything to happen, it reinforces the chance that nothing will happen. A child approaches Christmas with a sense of wonder and hope. Children believe in the impossible. Isaiah's vision is a vision of the impossible that stirs wonder and hope. It is only realistic if we trust in God who can offer us wonder and hope. If a Christian community lives in response to the hope of God, can they not become a signal of hope for the world?
What if a rumor began that peace was really a possibility in this war-torn, violent world? What if it were possible that such an outbreak of peace would begin in the very place in the world that has seemed to be most resistant to any effort to make peace? While it is true that the majority of those captured by the violence of this part of the world are Muslims and Jews, they are often supported in their violence and provided resources to perpetuate their violence by nations that are filled with an abundance of Christians. What if Christians began to spread the rumor that peace was possible and that they would act to support such peace? What if we joined God in singing to the world, "All we are saying is give peace a chance?"
ILLUSTRATIONS
The process of metamorphosis changes the whole being into something entirely new. Every school child knows that this very process changes a grub in a chrysalis into a magnificent butterfly. The Greek word for "repent" is based on the same root word as metamorphosis. That's the kind of change that John is looking for. That's the kind of change we need to make to really know the joy and power of our faith.
* * *
Waiting. It takes time to wait. Like a woman expecting a child, the anticipation of a birth brings with it a period of anxious and eager joy. The joy builds and also knows how vulnerable life is. Things can go dreadfully wrong, but when they go right, and they often do, the joy we know of the birth of a child always far exceeds the pain of childbirth and dispels the doubts we had while we waited. So it is with our expectations of the coming of the kingdom of God. Much can go wrong, but God's reign is breaking in upon us! And when it does, what God finally gives us is like a day of radiant gladness! In the meantime, we wait.
* * *
Peace in the Middle East? That's like thinking that the ancient hatreds between Irish Protestants and Catholics were reconcilable. But the Good Friday agreements were a miracle that has held so far. Peace in the Middle East? What would the Prophet say?
"Shall I not inform you of a better act than fasting, alms, and prayers? Making peace between one another: enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots" -- Muhammad
Isn't it amazing how easily people of faith forget what the Lawgiver, the Prophet and the Savior require?
* * *
As we prepare for the coming of the Christ Child, instead of rushing around frantically, let us instead look around us to see who might need our help. Author Walter Wangerin, Jr. writes:
I fear that the self-satisfying lives of today, our abilities to fulfill even silly and slight desires, are the more benighted ones. They blind us to holier relationships, patience, obedience, faith, and plain kindness.
This Christmas, let what is ageless and durable hold your attentions, not what is present and passing. Look rather to your soul than to your easeful body - and to God rather than to some foolish form of "happiness."
Plow your neighbor's driveway. Bring her food. Sing to him in the nursing home. Kneel down and kiss your children. Love God.
* * *
Martin Luther said something similar in one of his sermons on the birth of Jesus:
There are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves: "If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby! I would have washed his diapers.
"How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!"
Yes, you would! You say that because you know how great Christ is, but if you had been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these! Why don't you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord Christ himself.
* * *
As Christmas approaches, we may feel ourselves held back in some way: by health problems, by financial problems, by family problems or by other difficulties. It might be good to remember what German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was later martyred by the Nazis, wrote to his parents from his prison cell on December 17, 1943:
For a Christian there is nothing particularly difficult about Christmas in a prison cell. I daresay it will have more meaning and will be observed with greater sincerity here in this prison than in places where all that survives of the feast is its name....
For the prisoner the Christmas story is glad tidings in a very real sense. And that faith gives the prisoner a part in the communion of saints, a fellowship transcending the bounds of time and space.
* * *
"Of St. Paul's trio -- faith, hope, and love -- the greatest, he affirms, is love True; but the most neglected is hope. Yet, in the Bible it is a major theme.
"To a Hebrew, the word conveyed much more than it does to an American today. We have eviscerated hope! A Hebrew thought of it in terms of waiting on, looking to (Psalm 62:1, 5; 130:1-6; Isaiah 40:29-31). Hope is a close cousin of faith. It is confident expectancy in a faithful and loving God."
-- Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1974-80
* * *
"... this is the good new: the hope of the world does not lie in the hopefulness of us Christians and what we can accomplish by our hopeful battle for a new world and a new humanity. The hope of the world lies in the liberating power of God and God's promise through Jesus Christ to overcome the creaturely, sinful, political and economic poverty and oppression that sour and destroy human life in the world... Just when we remember and confess this, we will discover that the faith and hope we cannot give ourselves becomes a reality."
-- Shirley C. Guthrie, "Diversity in Faith -- Unity in Christ"
* * *
"As I was eating breakfast one morning I overheard two oncologists discussing the papers they were to present that day at the national meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. One was complaining bitterly:
'You know, Bob, I just don't understand it. We used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule, and the same entry criteria. Yet I got a 22 percent response rate and you got a 74 percent. That's unheard of for metastatic lung cancer. How do you do it?'
'We're both using Etoposide, Platinol, Oncovin, and hydroxyurea. You call yours EPOH. I tell my patients I am giving them HOPE. Sure, I tell them this is experimental, and we go over the long list of side effects together. But I emphasize that we have a chance. As dismal as the statistics are for non-small cell, there are always a few percent who do really well.' "
-- William Buchholz, M. D., quoted by Norman Cousins in "Head First, the Biology of Hope"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Thom Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: We gather in this comfortable place, to prepare for a new day:
People: a day when the wolf and the lamb will get an apartment together.
Leader: So prepare your hearts for the day
when peace will rule the earth: People: when the leopard and the kid
will share a mat at naptime.
Leader: Prepare the way, the way
where old notions are overturned:
People: when the cow and bear will have coffee,
their children playing in the backyard.
Leader: Get ready! Prepare the way!
Prayer of the Day
God of wonders,
you continually stun us
with your gifts of Advent:
your welcoming hearts
with room for every single person;
your ancient words of hope
which remain as fresh
as the breeze through the trees;
your passion for justice,
so all might be set free.
Root of Jesse,
Branch of righteousness,
you do not judge
by what your eyes see
or your hears might hear.
You look at the poor,
and see your mother and sisters,
you open your heart to the lost,
Wisdom from on high,
as we stand in silence,
pour the transforming waters
of grace and peace over us.
Whisper your Word to us,
lest we rely on ours too much.
Place the shawl of compassion
around our shoulders
that we might be your servants.
God in Community, Holy in One,
listen to our words and to our hearts,
as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
We, who have stood in the refreshing waters
of baptism, often forget our need to be cleansed.
We, who have heard the voice of love, often
speak with anger and meanness to others. God
calls us to be wise enough to change our ways,
so let us answer with our confessions, as we
pray together saying,
Unison Prayer of Confession
We long for you to come to us, Creator of
Goodness. But too often, we do not seem to
share your vision of how the world should be,
or we are to live. You dream of resentful
enemies sitting down together, but we feast
on bitterness. You would have us sing with
one voice, but we prefer to be soloists. You
would have us serve others, but we sit quietly,
expecting you to come and fill our every need.
Forgive us, Approaching God, and help us to
turn to welcome you with open arms. May we
prepare for your coming by opening our hearts
to that healing hope and surprising mercy which
is ours in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon Leader: This is God's word of acceptance and
affirmation: we are forgiven, we are loved,
we are called to be servants to all creation.
People: Forgiveness falls like a gentle shower upon
us, sinking deep into our hearts and souls, so
we might be nourished and nurtured as God's
children. Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
In harmony
Object: use four members of the choir to produce a harmonious sound
Romans 15:4-13
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you like to sing? (let them answer) I also like to sing, but this morning I have asked some members of our choir to help us with the sermon. I have asked four people to sing different notes. After each person sings his/her note, the next person will sing a new note until we have heard four different notes. (let each person sing his/her note) Now we will ask two people to sing their notes, only this time they will sing them together. (let the duet sing) It sounds good when two people sing two different notes at the same time. Let's add one more note by a third person and see how it sounds. (let the trio sing) Finally, we will add the fourth person and see how it sounds. (let them sing all four notes in harmony) Isn't it beautiful? Each person sings a different note and when all four are singing they make a beautiful sound. Does anyone know what we call this when we blend our voices and make one sound? (let them answer) It is called harmony.
Paul told the church at Rome that they should live in harmony. Paul wanted people to get along. He wanted them to blend together so that they could live as Jesus wanted them to live. It takes a lot to be in harmony. The notes cannot fight with each other. It takes work and practice to be able to sing a note and be in harmony. No one can sing too loud or too soft. Everyone has to be on the same pitch.
We want all of the people in our church to live in harmony. Sometimes it means you cannot have your own way. Sometimes you have to do what others want to do and sometimes they need to do what you want to do. But it is a lot easier when we do it the way Jesus wants us to do it. How would Jesus behave in a group of people? What would Jesus say or think? When we act, think, and speak like Jesus, we will be in harmony.
The next time you hear our choir sing, I hope you will listen to the many different notes being sung at the same time but in harmony with one another. Then think about how you live at home, at school, and when you are playing and trying to be in harmony with everyone. It's Jesus' way. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 9, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
An Unlikely Time
Scott Suskovic
THE WORLD
Every time I look at you I don't understand, Why you let the things you do get so out of hand. You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned. Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you'd come today you would have reached the whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication. Don't you get me wrong.
So asks Judas of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. Why'd you choose this place? Why'd you choose this time? Why'd you choose this way? In the first century, the Jewish world was waiting for a Messiah who would come with trumpets and earthquakes, command a mighty army, expel Roman tyranny, and establish a free, powerful, independent Israel once again. They were ready for a Messiah.
But not for Jesus. He came in such a simple way. Teenage, unwed peasant girl for a mother. A small dot in the desert named Bethlehem for a birthplace. A barn for shelter. A manger for a bed. Cows and sheep and shepherds as his only visitors. He took the whole world by surprise. No one expected Jesus.
"Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?"
Our timing often does not match with God's timing. I was struck this week looking at the pose of President Bush standing between the Palestinian Leader and the Israeli leader shaking hands. How often have I seen that same pose? Jimmy Carter -- Bill Clinton -- George Bush -- different presidents with different leaders in different times but with the same hope that peace will finally come. And yet, how often have we sounded like the Psalmist, "How long, O Lord, how long?"
During this Advent Season, we are called to wait -- wait with hope, wait with expectation, wait with trust even as we pray, "Stir up your power, O Lord, and come."
THE WORD
There is a strong theme in our lessons for December 9 about waiting for God to prepare the stage for the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah prophesizes that a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Jesse. There will come a day in which the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the nursing child shall play over the snake's den. In Matthew, John the Baptist exhorts us to prepare the way of the Lord. The kingdom of heaven is coming near. One who is more powerful than I is coming after me.
The question is, "When?" As we wrestle with our impatience, the answer this Advent focuses on what God's people have spent thousands of years doing--learning how to wait.
In Genesis 3:15, God told the serpent in the Garden of Eden, "Mark my word--there will come one from the seed of Eve whom you will bite his heel but he will crush your ugly head." It didn't happen for 4,000 years.
In Genesis 12:1-4, God told Abraham that he would be blessed in order to be a blessing to the rest of the world. But that wouldn't happen for 1,800 years.
Judah, Jacob's son from whom Jesus' bloodline came, was told in Genesis 49 that he would never lose he supreme reign over all of world. But not for another 1,700 years.
After the Exodus, God said in Deuteronomy that there would come a prophet like Moses, who would rescue God's people from bondage forever. But they would have to wait 1,200 years.
To David, God said, "I will build you a house in which your son will rule forever and ever and ever." But that house would not be build for another 1,000 years.
See the pattern? In Isaiah, God said that the child would come from a virgin and that he would reign as king of kings and Lord of lords but not for another 700 years. In Jeremiah, God said that there will come a day in which he will make a new covenant and write it upon our hearts but not for another 600 years. In Malachi, God said that all this won't take place until Elijah returns but not for another 400 years. (Matthew cleverly depicts John the Baptist as the return of Elijah by describing his clothing and diet. Matthew understood John's role as that of culmination of a long wait.)
How long, O Lord? How long must we wait for you to prepare the stage?
The answer is: until the fullness of time--a phrase that comes from Galatians 4 in which Paul wrote, "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father."
The fullness of time. What did Paul see with the birth of Jesus? Paul saw a mighty God purposefully setting the stage, working intimately with the details of human history, to create a window of about fifty years in all of human history when the Messiah could have been born. That's not an exaggeration. That's the fullness of time.
SETTING THE STAGE
From the time of Abraham, the Jews were a tightly knit clan. Together they moved about in the desert. Together they went to Egypt. Together they were slaves. Together they followed Moses to the Promised Land. Together they inhabited Israel and Judah. If they are going to be blessed to be a blessing, God had to break open their borders in order for the world to receive the Christ. How did God do this?
In 722, Assyria in modern day Iraq captured Israel, dragged them north and scattering them around Iraq and into Turkey.
In 587, Babylonia captured Judah, dragged them into bondage and once released, the scattered them further around Asia Minor all the way into Greece and Rome. Suddenly, this tightly knit clan was scattered throughout Asia Minor.
In 333, Alexander the Great came and captured all of Asia Minor and brought Greek philosophy, a common language and openness to new ideas. Now this monolithic Judaism had itching ears for new ideas.
In 167, Syria came in, captured Jerusalem and outlawed Judaism. Some Jews acquiesced. Others fought it and won. This battle split Judaism into four different groups: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and the Essenes. There differences are not important. What is important is the stage God has prepared. This once tightly knit religion is scattered. They are inquisitive about new philosophical ideas. And this once united religion is now fractured into four splinter groups. See the stage?
Why is this important? Because the Jews would have kept the Messiah all to themselves. If they were independent, autonomous, and prosperous living in their own thriving country with no contact with the outside world, the messiah would not have been shared. In Romans Paul wrote about the necessity of the Jewish rejection of the Messiah in order for the Gentiles to receive Jesus. See the stage?
Now enter Rome in 63 BC -- a behemoth, vicious, dictatorship that kept peace in its vast empire by the sword. They prided themselves with one language, one culture, one religion, many roads (all leading to Rome). The only wildcard in the Roman Empire were the Jews who refused to worship Caesar and refused to accept Roman rule. So Rome granted one exception to their way of life to the Jews--the Jews could keep their laws and worship their own God as long as they paid their taxes and did not revolt. The stage was now set.
Coming silently from stage right was a donkey, carrying a poor, pregnant teenager. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled ... Jesus came hidden in plain view. He lived, he taught, he died, and he rose again in the 30's. For the first twenty years, his followers were primarily Jewish. Messianic Jews, they were called, who worshipped alongside the other four splinter groups. Rome didn't care. Rome didn't even notice. Christians were just another splinter group of Judaism.
In the '50s and '60s Paul traveled extensively around Asia Minor and Turkey and Greece. He has safe travel because of Roman Peace, he communicates clearly because there is one language, he is well received because they are eager for new learning, and he goes to the Jews first, who are scattered throughout Asia Minor. For the past 1,000 years, God has scattered his people like kindling throughout the Middle East, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy so that when Paul lit the match of Christianity, the blaze swept through this region like a California wildfire. Within twenty years, Christianity reached all the way to Rome with such power, with such force, and with such numbers that the Christians were a large enough group in Rome not only to be noticed but to be blamed for the fire that destroyed Rome set by Nero in the '60s. Can you imagine? Within twenty years, there were a couple hundred thousand Christians in a backward land with no mass communication. Such growth could not happen today even with slick marketing, a contemporary service and mass mailings. There is only one reason Christianity sprang up so suddenly. God set the stage and brought forth his Son in the fullness of time.
Then, just as suddenly, the window closes. In 70 AD, Rome destroyed Jerusalem, killed off three of the four sects of Judaism and suddenly notices Christians who, for forty years, lay hidden in the womb of Judaism. By the time Rome noticed them, Christianity had grown so much and was so scattered and so devoted that Rome began its intense persecution of the Christians but could not stop its inevitable spread.
"Why'd you pick such a backward time in such a strange land?"
It seemed like such an unlikely time. But Paul calls it the fullness of time. God was not sitting back passively, hoping for a break in the action to roll the dice, send his Son, and hope things would work out. From the foundations of the world, God was busy setting the stage for the coming of his Son. Matthew describes John in terms of the long awaited return of Elijah, the precursor to the coming of the Messiah. Matthew sees the stage and with great anticipation awaits for the coming of the Lord.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Here you can focus on the waiting theme of the lessons. What are you waiting for? Some people are waiting for the return of Jesus. Others are waiting for peace in the Middle East. Some have pressing concerns of health, relationships, and employment that are not happening according to their timeline. They've been beating their head against the wall, trying to force something to happen. But it's not happening. It's not the right time. Maybe you are being called to do what God's people have always been asked to do, what Isaiah asked God's people to do, what John the Baptist asked God's people to do: Wait.
Wait with expectation that God will make good on his promise
Wait with eagerness to see what surprise God is up to next
Wait with trust that God is a God of his word
Wait with hope that God is setting the stage once again in your life.
This is not a history lesson with dates and places to memorize. This is amazing good news that God is sovereign. This world is not spinning out of control, ruled by chaos. Ours is not a distant God who passively sits back waiting to be found. Ours is a God deeply committed to you, intimately involved somehow in the details of your life, setting the stage perfectly according to his time, not yours.
Maybe you are being called to do what God's people have always been called to do: Wait. Wait for an unlikely time. Which of course, when it happens, you will see that it is actually the fullness of time and that God has once again set the stage to announce his coming in your life so that he might hear from your lips those words he longs to hear, "Abba, Daddy. You are mine. And I am yours. I will trust you even in the most unlikely time. It was well worth the wait."
ANOTHER VIEW
Shooting From the Stump
Steve McCutchan
A recent newspaper headline read: "Mideast talks fail to raise hopes: Residents of region don't see much chance of peace being achieved in one year." One would have to acknowledge an ample basis for skepticism both in this country and around the world with respect to the possibilities for peace in the Middle East. In the early '90s my congregation graciously made it possible for my wife and I to travel to Israel and Egypt and I joked at the time that it was kind of them to have arranged for a new era of peace to have emerged under the Camp David Accords. There was a high degree of optimism at the time that at last, perhaps peace could be achieved. Other attempts have been made in each administration since then with little real success. The current Bush administration virtually ignored the problem for the first seven years but is now making this effort in the final year of the administration. Yet even as they convened what is referred to as the Annapolis Conference there was little optimism for its success. As columnist David Ignatius commented, "In the run-up to Annapolis, expectations were so low that they were sinking into the Chesapeake Bay." The Washington Post reported, "In cafes and blogs in the Arab world, the Annapolis conference prompted little more than wisecracks."
Sometimes low expectations are good because it gets the manipulations of humans out of the way and makes room for God to act. As we enter the Advent season, it is good to remember that no one expected the coming of the messiah. Neither the political nor the religious leaders held any expectation that this year would be any different from any other year. Our culture, today, is equally pessimistic about anything new happening. We may affirm that Jesus the Christ has come but we tend to act as if it were an historic event worthy of celebration but doesn't hold much promise for the future.
Christians are invited to enter the season of Advent with a sense of hope and expectation. Because we pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," our hope is not just a personal one but a hope for our world. It is significant that the three major religions that speak most about God's presence in the world all have their origin in one of the most violent corners of the world. God seems to have chosen the very place where peace is most needed to make the divine presence felt. To paraphrase the words of an old song from the '60s, perhaps God is saying, "All I am saying is give peace a chance."
Do we think that peace might break out in the Middle East? What is your hope in this Advent season that the coming of Christ not only changed the world in the past but can change it in the future? If you are cynical, you are not alone. However, God has worked among people with that attitude before. And in the midst of that cynicism, God has looked for a people who would be a sign of hope. "On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious."
The Messiah that was awaited would be from the family line of Jesse. That Messiah would be of benefit to more than just his own Jewish people. He would be a symbol of hope for all the peoples. Now, for us, the Messiah has come, and we have been invited to share the hope he established. The messianic community, or Christians, continue Christ's mission. Advent is an appropriate time for the church to reflect on how it can be a signal of hope for others.
Isaiah's picture of the peaceable kingdom was one of natural enemies living together in harmony and leadership coming from the most vulnerable members of society. Children were normally seen as investments for the future but hardly as leaders. When Jesus said, "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3), he was totally reversing the natural order. We wait for children to become like adults rather than the other way around. An adult would know better than to put his hand on the den of poisonous snakes, but a child might act out of innocent trust. Only a child could picture a wolf and a lamb lying down together or a cow and a bear grazing together. Perhaps only a child-like faith could imagine Jews and Arabs living together in peace.
In our attempt to take control of our lives, we have grown suspicious and wary of all the dangers about us. We are skeptical and cautious about expecting anything unique coming out of Christmas. There is a sense in which our cynicism contributes to its own reality. If you don't expect anything to happen, it reinforces the chance that nothing will happen. A child approaches Christmas with a sense of wonder and hope. Children believe in the impossible. Isaiah's vision is a vision of the impossible that stirs wonder and hope. It is only realistic if we trust in God who can offer us wonder and hope. If a Christian community lives in response to the hope of God, can they not become a signal of hope for the world?
What if a rumor began that peace was really a possibility in this war-torn, violent world? What if it were possible that such an outbreak of peace would begin in the very place in the world that has seemed to be most resistant to any effort to make peace? While it is true that the majority of those captured by the violence of this part of the world are Muslims and Jews, they are often supported in their violence and provided resources to perpetuate their violence by nations that are filled with an abundance of Christians. What if Christians began to spread the rumor that peace was possible and that they would act to support such peace? What if we joined God in singing to the world, "All we are saying is give peace a chance?"
ILLUSTRATIONS
The process of metamorphosis changes the whole being into something entirely new. Every school child knows that this very process changes a grub in a chrysalis into a magnificent butterfly. The Greek word for "repent" is based on the same root word as metamorphosis. That's the kind of change that John is looking for. That's the kind of change we need to make to really know the joy and power of our faith.
* * *
Waiting. It takes time to wait. Like a woman expecting a child, the anticipation of a birth brings with it a period of anxious and eager joy. The joy builds and also knows how vulnerable life is. Things can go dreadfully wrong, but when they go right, and they often do, the joy we know of the birth of a child always far exceeds the pain of childbirth and dispels the doubts we had while we waited. So it is with our expectations of the coming of the kingdom of God. Much can go wrong, but God's reign is breaking in upon us! And when it does, what God finally gives us is like a day of radiant gladness! In the meantime, we wait.
* * *
Peace in the Middle East? That's like thinking that the ancient hatreds between Irish Protestants and Catholics were reconcilable. But the Good Friday agreements were a miracle that has held so far. Peace in the Middle East? What would the Prophet say?
"Shall I not inform you of a better act than fasting, alms, and prayers? Making peace between one another: enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots" -- Muhammad
Isn't it amazing how easily people of faith forget what the Lawgiver, the Prophet and the Savior require?
* * *
As we prepare for the coming of the Christ Child, instead of rushing around frantically, let us instead look around us to see who might need our help. Author Walter Wangerin, Jr. writes:
I fear that the self-satisfying lives of today, our abilities to fulfill even silly and slight desires, are the more benighted ones. They blind us to holier relationships, patience, obedience, faith, and plain kindness.
This Christmas, let what is ageless and durable hold your attentions, not what is present and passing. Look rather to your soul than to your easeful body - and to God rather than to some foolish form of "happiness."
Plow your neighbor's driveway. Bring her food. Sing to him in the nursing home. Kneel down and kiss your children. Love God.
* * *
Martin Luther said something similar in one of his sermons on the birth of Jesus:
There are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves: "If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby! I would have washed his diapers.
"How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!"
Yes, you would! You say that because you know how great Christ is, but if you had been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these! Why don't you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor. You ought to serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need you do to the Lord Christ himself.
* * *
As Christmas approaches, we may feel ourselves held back in some way: by health problems, by financial problems, by family problems or by other difficulties. It might be good to remember what German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was later martyred by the Nazis, wrote to his parents from his prison cell on December 17, 1943:
For a Christian there is nothing particularly difficult about Christmas in a prison cell. I daresay it will have more meaning and will be observed with greater sincerity here in this prison than in places where all that survives of the feast is its name....
For the prisoner the Christmas story is glad tidings in a very real sense. And that faith gives the prisoner a part in the communion of saints, a fellowship transcending the bounds of time and space.
* * *
"Of St. Paul's trio -- faith, hope, and love -- the greatest, he affirms, is love True; but the most neglected is hope. Yet, in the Bible it is a major theme.
"To a Hebrew, the word conveyed much more than it does to an American today. We have eviscerated hope! A Hebrew thought of it in terms of waiting on, looking to (Psalm 62:1, 5; 130:1-6; Isaiah 40:29-31). Hope is a close cousin of faith. It is confident expectancy in a faithful and loving God."
-- Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1974-80
* * *
"... this is the good new: the hope of the world does not lie in the hopefulness of us Christians and what we can accomplish by our hopeful battle for a new world and a new humanity. The hope of the world lies in the liberating power of God and God's promise through Jesus Christ to overcome the creaturely, sinful, political and economic poverty and oppression that sour and destroy human life in the world... Just when we remember and confess this, we will discover that the faith and hope we cannot give ourselves becomes a reality."
-- Shirley C. Guthrie, "Diversity in Faith -- Unity in Christ"
* * *
"As I was eating breakfast one morning I overheard two oncologists discussing the papers they were to present that day at the national meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. One was complaining bitterly:
'You know, Bob, I just don't understand it. We used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule, and the same entry criteria. Yet I got a 22 percent response rate and you got a 74 percent. That's unheard of for metastatic lung cancer. How do you do it?'
'We're both using Etoposide, Platinol, Oncovin, and hydroxyurea. You call yours EPOH. I tell my patients I am giving them HOPE. Sure, I tell them this is experimental, and we go over the long list of side effects together. But I emphasize that we have a chance. As dismal as the statistics are for non-small cell, there are always a few percent who do really well.' "
-- William Buchholz, M. D., quoted by Norman Cousins in "Head First, the Biology of Hope"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Thom Shuman
Call to Worship
Leader: We gather in this comfortable place, to prepare for a new day:
People: a day when the wolf and the lamb will get an apartment together.
Leader: So prepare your hearts for the day
when peace will rule the earth: People: when the leopard and the kid
will share a mat at naptime.
Leader: Prepare the way, the way
where old notions are overturned:
People: when the cow and bear will have coffee,
their children playing in the backyard.
Leader: Get ready! Prepare the way!
Prayer of the Day
God of wonders,
you continually stun us
with your gifts of Advent:
your welcoming hearts
with room for every single person;
your ancient words of hope
which remain as fresh
as the breeze through the trees;
your passion for justice,
so all might be set free.
Root of Jesse,
Branch of righteousness,
you do not judge
by what your eyes see
or your hears might hear.
You look at the poor,
and see your mother and sisters,
you open your heart to the lost,
Wisdom from on high,
as we stand in silence,
pour the transforming waters
of grace and peace over us.
Whisper your Word to us,
lest we rely on ours too much.
Place the shawl of compassion
around our shoulders
that we might be your servants.
God in Community, Holy in One,
listen to our words and to our hearts,
as we pray as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father . . .
Call to Reconciliation
We, who have stood in the refreshing waters
of baptism, often forget our need to be cleansed.
We, who have heard the voice of love, often
speak with anger and meanness to others. God
calls us to be wise enough to change our ways,
so let us answer with our confessions, as we
pray together saying,
Unison Prayer of Confession
We long for you to come to us, Creator of
Goodness. But too often, we do not seem to
share your vision of how the world should be,
or we are to live. You dream of resentful
enemies sitting down together, but we feast
on bitterness. You would have us sing with
one voice, but we prefer to be soloists. You
would have us serve others, but we sit quietly,
expecting you to come and fill our every need.
Forgive us, Approaching God, and help us to
turn to welcome you with open arms. May we
prepare for your coming by opening our hearts
to that healing hope and surprising mercy which
is ours in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon Leader: This is God's word of acceptance and
affirmation: we are forgiven, we are loved,
we are called to be servants to all creation.
People: Forgiveness falls like a gentle shower upon
us, sinking deep into our hearts and souls, so
we might be nourished and nurtured as God's
children. Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
In harmony
Object: use four members of the choir to produce a harmonious sound
Romans 15:4-13
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you like to sing? (let them answer) I also like to sing, but this morning I have asked some members of our choir to help us with the sermon. I have asked four people to sing different notes. After each person sings his/her note, the next person will sing a new note until we have heard four different notes. (let each person sing his/her note) Now we will ask two people to sing their notes, only this time they will sing them together. (let the duet sing) It sounds good when two people sing two different notes at the same time. Let's add one more note by a third person and see how it sounds. (let the trio sing) Finally, we will add the fourth person and see how it sounds. (let them sing all four notes in harmony) Isn't it beautiful? Each person sings a different note and when all four are singing they make a beautiful sound. Does anyone know what we call this when we blend our voices and make one sound? (let them answer) It is called harmony.
Paul told the church at Rome that they should live in harmony. Paul wanted people to get along. He wanted them to blend together so that they could live as Jesus wanted them to live. It takes a lot to be in harmony. The notes cannot fight with each other. It takes work and practice to be able to sing a note and be in harmony. No one can sing too loud or too soft. Everyone has to be on the same pitch.
We want all of the people in our church to live in harmony. Sometimes it means you cannot have your own way. Sometimes you have to do what others want to do and sometimes they need to do what you want to do. But it is a lot easier when we do it the way Jesus wants us to do it. How would Jesus behave in a group of people? What would Jesus say or think? When we act, think, and speak like Jesus, we will be in harmony.
The next time you hear our choir sing, I hope you will listen to the many different notes being sung at the same time but in harmony with one another. Then think about how you live at home, at school, and when you are playing and trying to be in harmony with everyone. It's Jesus' way. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 9, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
