Prepare The Way Of The Lord
Sermon
GOD'S GIFT
Sermons for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
Jeannette Clift George, director of the Houston-based A. D. Players, sent me a copy of her book titled Travel Tips from a Reluctant Traveler. It's a delightful book with many helpful tips for the journey of life. In the opening chapter she writes:
'My cousins live in Asheville, North Carolina, where Jesse is a prominent surgeon. He is a fine man, a very gracious man, a very loving man, but a man who doesn't like cats. His wife, Frances, is a delightful person who loves cats.
'One day, a little neighbor girl ran crying to their house. Her cat had climbed up a tall, slender tree and couldn't get down. Jesse thought that was a good place for a cat to be, but following Frances' gentle persuasion, he said, ‘Let's see what we can do to help.'
'The two of them decided that Frances, who is of small stature, would grab the lower part of the tree and work it down until the topmost branches reached Jesse. Then Jesse, who is quite tall, would scoop the frightened cat from the top of the tree to safety. Their plan worked well at first. Frances grabbed the part of the tree within her reach and pulled it toward her. The tree tipped down like a thirsty giraffe, bearing a tiny passenger on its head. The branches were almost to Jesse when Frances lost her grip!
'Whoom! The tree slipped from Frances' hands and sprang away with such great force that the cat was flung into space! Catapulted! Claws out! Eyes wide! Approaching a certain but unknown destiny.
'The little girl was crushed, but the shock of her beloved cat's mode of departure stopped her sobbing. Frances was overcome by guilt because she and Jesse had lost the little girl's cat. Jesse tried not to laugh…
'A few days later, Frances was in the grocery store and noticed a friend pushing a grocery cart with cat food in it. She knew that her friend's husband didn't like cats any more than Jesse did. ‘I see you have cat food. Do you have a cat?' she asked.
'Her friend stopped, looked around to be sure no one else could hear, and said that the strangest thing happened. She said that she and her husband were sitting in the backyard when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a cat landed at their feet! She said that her husband looked at the cat and then at her. He said, ‘Maude, the Lord has sent us a cat!' '3
Jeannette said 'the story gives me insight into the dilemma… and the bewilderments I often find in life. I identify with that cat!' So can we all.
Sometimes we are flung out into unchartered space -- not sure where we're going, but going there very rapidly. There are clashing priorities in our lives. Sometimes we may even look like that cat. Claws out! Eyes wide! Gasping for breath and trying to get our act together before we land.
It can happen to any of us, particularly at this time of year. The pressures of the season can rob you of the meaning of the season. It is easy to take on the coloration of the society in which we find ourselves. There is enormous power in simple things to distract our attention from God. Guard against being swamped by the pressures of this season.
God's Word directs us to make preparations for the coming of the Lord. In Luke chapter 3, verses 1-6 is the voice of the one whom himself was out of unusual birth and a gift from God. John, the son of Zechariah, says: 'prepare the way of the Lord.'
Much of the joy of Christmas is in the preparation and the anticipation of it. It is this dimension that makes Christmas. Rouse a person on a given morning and say, 'It's Christmas!' and even if it is, to that person it is not. They have not anticipated.
In a sense everybody makes preparation for Christmas. We prepare our homes, hang a wreath, put up a tree. We buy gifts and wrap them in beautiful colors. Plan parties, prepare for family gathering, do extra cooking. All of these are important preparations. One of the joys of the season is sharing it with friends and family.
I have no desire or intent to put any of these down -- to make you feel guilty about them. They're important preparations that touch our attitudes and our basic emotions.
However, let's not forget to stay with the main event. The main event features a baby in the manger. The Christ Child. Focus on the meaning of his birth for your life and for our world. Let the voice in the wilderness of old speak to us in our wilderness.
The spiritual needs to invade our materialism. Our earthly warrings must be challenged by the Prince of Peace. The sacred needs to penetrate our secularism. The joy of the birth can echo in our despairing hearts.
In the East when a king proposed to visit a part of his kingdom he would send a messenger ahead to tell the people to prepare the roads. John is the messenger of the King. 'The King is coming,' he announced.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Mend not your roads but your heart. Get ready to receive the good gifts of life. Prepare, anticipate receiving all that makes your life rich and colorful and joyous.
Harold Kushner reminds us it is not dying that most of us are afraid of. It's something more unsettling and more tragic than dying that frightens us. We're afraid of never having really lived. It's possible to come to the end with a sense we never figured out what life is for.4
Jesus Christ is God's birth to his creation. It is the fulfillment of prophecy. Luke sets the preparation for the advent of Jesus in the context of world history and the universal purpose of God. Christmas is by grace. It could never have happened otherwise. Our gospel is the gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel and to all people.
The gospel encounters all -- everything and everyone. Nothing or no one needs to be outside of the salvation of Jesus Christ. The universality of salvation was in the heart of God always.
God loves us -- not because we have deserved his love. He has chosen to love us. Before we loved him, he loved us, as children, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's the good news of Christmas! Through Christ one is related to God, the everlasting Father, in an altogether new way, in a way that is similar to adoption. Under the Roman law the old life of an adopted child was completely wiped out. Legally all debts were cancelled; wiped out as if they never existed… the adopted person was regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.
An adopted child is a chosen child. Isn't that wonderful! Paul's use of the word shows God's choosing of us. We are his children by his deliberate will. God in his amazing grace and mercy has taken the lost, helpless and weak -- adopted them into his own family. The debts are cancelled. The unearned love and glory inherited.
John Killinger has taken some of the parables of Jesus and retold them in the language of Christmas.
What person among you, taking 100 children to the theater for a performance of A Christmas Carol, if you lose one of them, does not stand the other ninety and nine in the theater lobby and go in search of the one that is lost? And when you have found the little tyke, you take it in your arms with rejoicing.
And when you get back to the lobby, you say to the others, 'Whee, everybody, I have found the lamb who was lost.' I tell you, there is more hanging of evergreens in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance.5
Prepare the way of the Lord,… No threat. Not a grim warning. A gracious invitation! An invitation to prepare for Christ to be born anew in your heart. I invite you to receive Jesus Christ into your life. To live your life in his love through his church.
'… and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room.
'My cousins live in Asheville, North Carolina, where Jesse is a prominent surgeon. He is a fine man, a very gracious man, a very loving man, but a man who doesn't like cats. His wife, Frances, is a delightful person who loves cats.
'One day, a little neighbor girl ran crying to their house. Her cat had climbed up a tall, slender tree and couldn't get down. Jesse thought that was a good place for a cat to be, but following Frances' gentle persuasion, he said, ‘Let's see what we can do to help.'
'The two of them decided that Frances, who is of small stature, would grab the lower part of the tree and work it down until the topmost branches reached Jesse. Then Jesse, who is quite tall, would scoop the frightened cat from the top of the tree to safety. Their plan worked well at first. Frances grabbed the part of the tree within her reach and pulled it toward her. The tree tipped down like a thirsty giraffe, bearing a tiny passenger on its head. The branches were almost to Jesse when Frances lost her grip!
'Whoom! The tree slipped from Frances' hands and sprang away with such great force that the cat was flung into space! Catapulted! Claws out! Eyes wide! Approaching a certain but unknown destiny.
'The little girl was crushed, but the shock of her beloved cat's mode of departure stopped her sobbing. Frances was overcome by guilt because she and Jesse had lost the little girl's cat. Jesse tried not to laugh…
'A few days later, Frances was in the grocery store and noticed a friend pushing a grocery cart with cat food in it. She knew that her friend's husband didn't like cats any more than Jesse did. ‘I see you have cat food. Do you have a cat?' she asked.
'Her friend stopped, looked around to be sure no one else could hear, and said that the strangest thing happened. She said that she and her husband were sitting in the backyard when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a cat landed at their feet! She said that her husband looked at the cat and then at her. He said, ‘Maude, the Lord has sent us a cat!' '3
Jeannette said 'the story gives me insight into the dilemma… and the bewilderments I often find in life. I identify with that cat!' So can we all.
Sometimes we are flung out into unchartered space -- not sure where we're going, but going there very rapidly. There are clashing priorities in our lives. Sometimes we may even look like that cat. Claws out! Eyes wide! Gasping for breath and trying to get our act together before we land.
It can happen to any of us, particularly at this time of year. The pressures of the season can rob you of the meaning of the season. It is easy to take on the coloration of the society in which we find ourselves. There is enormous power in simple things to distract our attention from God. Guard against being swamped by the pressures of this season.
God's Word directs us to make preparations for the coming of the Lord. In Luke chapter 3, verses 1-6 is the voice of the one whom himself was out of unusual birth and a gift from God. John, the son of Zechariah, says: 'prepare the way of the Lord.'
Much of the joy of Christmas is in the preparation and the anticipation of it. It is this dimension that makes Christmas. Rouse a person on a given morning and say, 'It's Christmas!' and even if it is, to that person it is not. They have not anticipated.
In a sense everybody makes preparation for Christmas. We prepare our homes, hang a wreath, put up a tree. We buy gifts and wrap them in beautiful colors. Plan parties, prepare for family gathering, do extra cooking. All of these are important preparations. One of the joys of the season is sharing it with friends and family.
I have no desire or intent to put any of these down -- to make you feel guilty about them. They're important preparations that touch our attitudes and our basic emotions.
However, let's not forget to stay with the main event. The main event features a baby in the manger. The Christ Child. Focus on the meaning of his birth for your life and for our world. Let the voice in the wilderness of old speak to us in our wilderness.
The spiritual needs to invade our materialism. Our earthly warrings must be challenged by the Prince of Peace. The sacred needs to penetrate our secularism. The joy of the birth can echo in our despairing hearts.
In the East when a king proposed to visit a part of his kingdom he would send a messenger ahead to tell the people to prepare the roads. John is the messenger of the King. 'The King is coming,' he announced.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Mend not your roads but your heart. Get ready to receive the good gifts of life. Prepare, anticipate receiving all that makes your life rich and colorful and joyous.
Harold Kushner reminds us it is not dying that most of us are afraid of. It's something more unsettling and more tragic than dying that frightens us. We're afraid of never having really lived. It's possible to come to the end with a sense we never figured out what life is for.4
Jesus Christ is God's birth to his creation. It is the fulfillment of prophecy. Luke sets the preparation for the advent of Jesus in the context of world history and the universal purpose of God. Christmas is by grace. It could never have happened otherwise. Our gospel is the gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel and to all people.
The gospel encounters all -- everything and everyone. Nothing or no one needs to be outside of the salvation of Jesus Christ. The universality of salvation was in the heart of God always.
God loves us -- not because we have deserved his love. He has chosen to love us. Before we loved him, he loved us, as children, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's the good news of Christmas! Through Christ one is related to God, the everlasting Father, in an altogether new way, in a way that is similar to adoption. Under the Roman law the old life of an adopted child was completely wiped out. Legally all debts were cancelled; wiped out as if they never existed… the adopted person was regarded as a new person entering into a new life with which the past had nothing to do.
An adopted child is a chosen child. Isn't that wonderful! Paul's use of the word shows God's choosing of us. We are his children by his deliberate will. God in his amazing grace and mercy has taken the lost, helpless and weak -- adopted them into his own family. The debts are cancelled. The unearned love and glory inherited.
John Killinger has taken some of the parables of Jesus and retold them in the language of Christmas.
What person among you, taking 100 children to the theater for a performance of A Christmas Carol, if you lose one of them, does not stand the other ninety and nine in the theater lobby and go in search of the one that is lost? And when you have found the little tyke, you take it in your arms with rejoicing.
And when you get back to the lobby, you say to the others, 'Whee, everybody, I have found the lamb who was lost.' I tell you, there is more hanging of evergreens in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance.5
Prepare the way of the Lord,… No threat. Not a grim warning. A gracious invitation! An invitation to prepare for Christ to be born anew in your heart. I invite you to receive Jesus Christ into your life. To live your life in his love through his church.
'… and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room.
