On Being Safe And Sound
Sermon
Living Between the Advents
Preaching Advent in Year B
Object:
The season is all about being ready when somebody comes. Many of us will be getting ready for family members to come at Christmas. Our young ones are trying to clean up their lives (and maybe even their rooms) so that they will be ready for old Saint Nick.
Yes, we are getting ready for folks to come. Above all others, though, we are getting ready for Jesus to come. It is almost too obvious even to point out that Jesus has already come, all those years ago in Bethlehem. It is also obvious that he has come many times since, as he has come to live in our hearts and lives and to be with us day by day as Savior and Lord. We are also aware that Jesus can and will come to us in our own lives right here and right now in new and challenging ways. The focus of our text, though, is on being ready for the Second Coming of Christ. Perhaps we should all remember that the ways in which we need to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ are also the ways in which we need to prepare for the new and challenging comings of Christ into our lives in the here and now.
We want to be ready for Christ to come. When he returns, we want to be ready to meet him. That desire to be ready can intimidate us. After all, we are deeply aware of our sins. We are deeply aware of our imperfections. We are deeply aware of our failings. We are deeply aware of our prejudices, of our bigotries, of our jealousies, and of our fears. We feel incapable of becoming the kind of people who are truly and fully ready for Jesus to come. We know that when we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps our hands tend to slip. We know that sometimes our best efforts to climb out of a hole just land us deeper in the hole, like in those old movies in which someone tries and tries to get out of a pit but just keeps sliding down the wall. Here is the burning question: If it is beyond our capabilities to be ready, how can we possibly be ready? We want to be safely in the arms of God when Jesus comes, but to be safe we must be sound. That is, we must be people of wholeness and integrity in our relationship with God. How can that be if we are so incapable?
The answer to the question lies in the form of our passage and in a word contained in our passage. Notice that the passage is formed as a prayer: "May the God of peace himself ..." (v. 23). We can be ready for the coming of Jesus only as we are made ready by God himself. Trying to make yourself ready, trying to be good enough, trying to be holy enough, can only lead to two conclusions: either an utter sense of failure or a false sense of pride. Neither conclusion is worthy of a disciple. Only God can work in your life to make you what you ought to be so you have to be open to the work of God in your life. He is called here the "God of peace," which means that he is the God who causes peace and who gives us peace. That peace is wholeness of relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others. Only God can do what needs to be done to bring about peace.
I said that the answer to the question, "How can we possibly be ready when Jesus comes?" lies in the form of the passage and in a word in the passage. That word is "sanctification," a good old word that has been neglected in many Christian circles. "To sanctify" means "to make holy." "To make holy" means to set apart from the common or the profane. It means to be pure in the sense that you are ready for service. Again, only God can do this. Only God can sanctify or make holy because only God is sanctified or holy. We can be sanctified because of what God has done in Christ. Only in relationship with God can we be made holy.
I wonder what such a holy, sanctified (maybe better put "becoming sanctified"), ready for Jesus to come person would look like? I wonder what such a person would be like. With full awareness that we should resist the temptation to attempt to fit people into a "one-size-fits-all" box, I offer two examples from the Bible and one from fiction.
The two biblical examples are drawn from the Gospel of Luke. Luke, alone among the gospel writers, tells us of these two people. I point us to them because they are identified as people who were so ready for the First Coming of Jesus that they immediately recognized him even when he was only about forty days old.
The first is Simeon, who, upon seeing the baby Jesus, said, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples ..." (Luke 2:29-31). The vast majority of people in the first century were not ready to recognize Jesus as Messiah when he was an adult. Why was this man so ready to recognize him when he was just a baby? For one thing, he was "looking forward to the consolation of Israel ..." (v. 25), which means that he was looking for the Messiah to come. For another thing, and this one is crucial for us, "the Holy Spirit rested on him" (v. 25). Indeed, he was in the temple on that crucial day because the Spirit had led him there (v. 27). Here was a man who was being worked on by the Holy Spirit. Here was a man who was being led by the Holy Spirit. Here was someone who was ready for the coming of Jesus because he had been growing and learning and maturing, all under the influence of the Holy Spirit. So, I conclude from that truth that one way in which the Lord will make us ready, whole, and mature is through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Are you open to what the Spirit wants to teach you?
Then there is Anna, the 84-year-old prophetess. A widow for most of her life, we are told that when she saw the baby Jesus "she began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38). What gave her such insight? We are told that "she never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day" (v. 37). Again, this is not about what she was able to do for herself. It is rather about what she was open to God doing through her. God had easy access to her life because she intentionally made herself available to him, and God had her ready because of her continual worshiping, fasting, and praying. The spiritual disciplines are important, you see, as avenues through which God prepares us, changes us, and matures us. We need to be in worship and we need to be constantly in conversation with God. Are you putting yourself in a position to be open to God?
The example I offer from fiction is the character Artaban in Henry van Dyke's little book, The Story of the Other Wise Man.1 Artaban was to join the other three Wise Men on their trek to Israel to see the new king whose birth the strange star signified. He had sold his house and all his possessions in order to acquire his gift for the child, a gift comprised of three jewels: a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl. The agreement he had with his friends was that when the star they had seen appeared again, he would meet them where they were and they would journey together to Israel. He was ten days' journey from his three friends and they made it clear that they would wait no longer than ten days. Sure enough, the star appeared and Artaban set out. On the tenth day of his journey, when he was just a few hours from the rendezvous point, he came across an injured man. What should he do? His conscience told him to help the man, but his schedule told him to press on. His conscience won out and he stopped to aid the injured man. As it happened, the man was a Hebrew who told Artaban that the great king of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Artaban left and reached the place of meeting, but his friends had already left. Artaban had to sell the sapphire to acquire provisions for his own journey to Bethlehem.
When he arrived in Bethlehem, he found no sign of the family he was seeking. He did chance upon a house where a young mother was caring for her small son. She told him that a family such as he sought had been in Bethlehem and that they had attracted much attention. But immediately after being visited by three men much like Artaban, the family had left. She heard that they had gone to Egypt. Disappointed, Artaban prepared to leave, but was stopped by the sound of screaming and crying from the streets of Bethlehem. "They're killing the children," came the cries. Artaban stood in the doorway of the house as it was approached by a soldier wielding a blood-stained sword. Artaban reached into the folds of his robe and took out the ruby. He said that the ruby was for a soldier who understood that there was no one else in the house. The soldier took the ruby and went away.
Artaban then traveled to Egypt in search of the newborn king. There he met a rabbi who told him that the king of the Jews would not be found in the halls of power but with the poor, the needy, and the afflicted. Artaban journeyed all over Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, looking everywhere among the unfortunate and destitute for the king. He never found him. For 33 years he looked, and everywhere he went he helped the poor and sick and needy in every way he could.
An old man then, Artaban traveled one more time to Jerusalem. It was Passover. Hordes of people were moving together in the same direction. Someone told him that a person who some called the king of the Jews was about to be executed. Just then, a young woman who was being sold to satisfy her father's debts broke free from some soldiers who were holding her and threw herself at his feet. Artaban used his last jewel, the pearl, to ransom her. Just then a tremendous earthquake struck and a piece of tile fell from a building, striking Artaban in the head. The ransomed girl held the head of the seriously wounded wise man. She heard something that sounded musical but almost like a voice. Artaban spoke:
Not so, my Lord: For when saw I thee hungered and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw I thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? When saw I thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee? Three-and-thirty years have I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy face, nor ministered to thee, my king.
Then she heard the voice again, only this time the words came through: "Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." And Artaban died, having found the king.
Somehow, Artaban was empowered and led by God to be used as a servant, to help those who needed help, to comfort those who needed comforting. He sought no credit, for he didn't even know he was serving his king. To be sanctified like Artaban is to serve with no thought of reward but only with the desire to serve.
You see, we want to be ready when Jesus comes. We want to be ready to meet the king. To be ready, we have to be sanctified --to be made into holy vessels of service. Only God can do that. Only God can make us safe because only God can make us sound. As the old hymn says:
His power can make you what you ought to be;
His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;
His love can fill your soul, and you will see
'Twas best for him to have his way with thee.2
And when you begin thinking about being ready, remember what Paul said: "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
__________
1. Henry van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man (New York: Ballantine, 1984).
2. Cyrus S. Nusbaum, "His Way With Thee," in public domain.
Yes, we are getting ready for folks to come. Above all others, though, we are getting ready for Jesus to come. It is almost too obvious even to point out that Jesus has already come, all those years ago in Bethlehem. It is also obvious that he has come many times since, as he has come to live in our hearts and lives and to be with us day by day as Savior and Lord. We are also aware that Jesus can and will come to us in our own lives right here and right now in new and challenging ways. The focus of our text, though, is on being ready for the Second Coming of Christ. Perhaps we should all remember that the ways in which we need to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ are also the ways in which we need to prepare for the new and challenging comings of Christ into our lives in the here and now.
We want to be ready for Christ to come. When he returns, we want to be ready to meet him. That desire to be ready can intimidate us. After all, we are deeply aware of our sins. We are deeply aware of our imperfections. We are deeply aware of our failings. We are deeply aware of our prejudices, of our bigotries, of our jealousies, and of our fears. We feel incapable of becoming the kind of people who are truly and fully ready for Jesus to come. We know that when we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps our hands tend to slip. We know that sometimes our best efforts to climb out of a hole just land us deeper in the hole, like in those old movies in which someone tries and tries to get out of a pit but just keeps sliding down the wall. Here is the burning question: If it is beyond our capabilities to be ready, how can we possibly be ready? We want to be safely in the arms of God when Jesus comes, but to be safe we must be sound. That is, we must be people of wholeness and integrity in our relationship with God. How can that be if we are so incapable?
The answer to the question lies in the form of our passage and in a word contained in our passage. Notice that the passage is formed as a prayer: "May the God of peace himself ..." (v. 23). We can be ready for the coming of Jesus only as we are made ready by God himself. Trying to make yourself ready, trying to be good enough, trying to be holy enough, can only lead to two conclusions: either an utter sense of failure or a false sense of pride. Neither conclusion is worthy of a disciple. Only God can work in your life to make you what you ought to be so you have to be open to the work of God in your life. He is called here the "God of peace," which means that he is the God who causes peace and who gives us peace. That peace is wholeness of relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others. Only God can do what needs to be done to bring about peace.
I said that the answer to the question, "How can we possibly be ready when Jesus comes?" lies in the form of the passage and in a word in the passage. That word is "sanctification," a good old word that has been neglected in many Christian circles. "To sanctify" means "to make holy." "To make holy" means to set apart from the common or the profane. It means to be pure in the sense that you are ready for service. Again, only God can do this. Only God can sanctify or make holy because only God is sanctified or holy. We can be sanctified because of what God has done in Christ. Only in relationship with God can we be made holy.
I wonder what such a holy, sanctified (maybe better put "becoming sanctified"), ready for Jesus to come person would look like? I wonder what such a person would be like. With full awareness that we should resist the temptation to attempt to fit people into a "one-size-fits-all" box, I offer two examples from the Bible and one from fiction.
The two biblical examples are drawn from the Gospel of Luke. Luke, alone among the gospel writers, tells us of these two people. I point us to them because they are identified as people who were so ready for the First Coming of Jesus that they immediately recognized him even when he was only about forty days old.
The first is Simeon, who, upon seeing the baby Jesus, said, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples ..." (Luke 2:29-31). The vast majority of people in the first century were not ready to recognize Jesus as Messiah when he was an adult. Why was this man so ready to recognize him when he was just a baby? For one thing, he was "looking forward to the consolation of Israel ..." (v. 25), which means that he was looking for the Messiah to come. For another thing, and this one is crucial for us, "the Holy Spirit rested on him" (v. 25). Indeed, he was in the temple on that crucial day because the Spirit had led him there (v. 27). Here was a man who was being worked on by the Holy Spirit. Here was a man who was being led by the Holy Spirit. Here was someone who was ready for the coming of Jesus because he had been growing and learning and maturing, all under the influence of the Holy Spirit. So, I conclude from that truth that one way in which the Lord will make us ready, whole, and mature is through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Are you open to what the Spirit wants to teach you?
Then there is Anna, the 84-year-old prophetess. A widow for most of her life, we are told that when she saw the baby Jesus "she began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38). What gave her such insight? We are told that "she never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day" (v. 37). Again, this is not about what she was able to do for herself. It is rather about what she was open to God doing through her. God had easy access to her life because she intentionally made herself available to him, and God had her ready because of her continual worshiping, fasting, and praying. The spiritual disciplines are important, you see, as avenues through which God prepares us, changes us, and matures us. We need to be in worship and we need to be constantly in conversation with God. Are you putting yourself in a position to be open to God?
The example I offer from fiction is the character Artaban in Henry van Dyke's little book, The Story of the Other Wise Man.1 Artaban was to join the other three Wise Men on their trek to Israel to see the new king whose birth the strange star signified. He had sold his house and all his possessions in order to acquire his gift for the child, a gift comprised of three jewels: a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl. The agreement he had with his friends was that when the star they had seen appeared again, he would meet them where they were and they would journey together to Israel. He was ten days' journey from his three friends and they made it clear that they would wait no longer than ten days. Sure enough, the star appeared and Artaban set out. On the tenth day of his journey, when he was just a few hours from the rendezvous point, he came across an injured man. What should he do? His conscience told him to help the man, but his schedule told him to press on. His conscience won out and he stopped to aid the injured man. As it happened, the man was a Hebrew who told Artaban that the great king of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Artaban left and reached the place of meeting, but his friends had already left. Artaban had to sell the sapphire to acquire provisions for his own journey to Bethlehem.
When he arrived in Bethlehem, he found no sign of the family he was seeking. He did chance upon a house where a young mother was caring for her small son. She told him that a family such as he sought had been in Bethlehem and that they had attracted much attention. But immediately after being visited by three men much like Artaban, the family had left. She heard that they had gone to Egypt. Disappointed, Artaban prepared to leave, but was stopped by the sound of screaming and crying from the streets of Bethlehem. "They're killing the children," came the cries. Artaban stood in the doorway of the house as it was approached by a soldier wielding a blood-stained sword. Artaban reached into the folds of his robe and took out the ruby. He said that the ruby was for a soldier who understood that there was no one else in the house. The soldier took the ruby and went away.
Artaban then traveled to Egypt in search of the newborn king. There he met a rabbi who told him that the king of the Jews would not be found in the halls of power but with the poor, the needy, and the afflicted. Artaban journeyed all over Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, looking everywhere among the unfortunate and destitute for the king. He never found him. For 33 years he looked, and everywhere he went he helped the poor and sick and needy in every way he could.
An old man then, Artaban traveled one more time to Jerusalem. It was Passover. Hordes of people were moving together in the same direction. Someone told him that a person who some called the king of the Jews was about to be executed. Just then, a young woman who was being sold to satisfy her father's debts broke free from some soldiers who were holding her and threw herself at his feet. Artaban used his last jewel, the pearl, to ransom her. Just then a tremendous earthquake struck and a piece of tile fell from a building, striking Artaban in the head. The ransomed girl held the head of the seriously wounded wise man. She heard something that sounded musical but almost like a voice. Artaban spoke:
Not so, my Lord: For when saw I thee hungered and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw I thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? When saw I thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee? Three-and-thirty years have I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy face, nor ministered to thee, my king.
Then she heard the voice again, only this time the words came through: "Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." And Artaban died, having found the king.
Somehow, Artaban was empowered and led by God to be used as a servant, to help those who needed help, to comfort those who needed comforting. He sought no credit, for he didn't even know he was serving his king. To be sanctified like Artaban is to serve with no thought of reward but only with the desire to serve.
You see, we want to be ready when Jesus comes. We want to be ready to meet the king. To be ready, we have to be sanctified --to be made into holy vessels of service. Only God can do that. Only God can make us safe because only God can make us sound. As the old hymn says:
His power can make you what you ought to be;
His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;
His love can fill your soul, and you will see
'Twas best for him to have his way with thee.2
And when you begin thinking about being ready, remember what Paul said: "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
__________
1. Henry van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man (New York: Ballantine, 1984).
2. Cyrus S. Nusbaum, "His Way With Thee," in public domain.
