A Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas
December 30, 2007
Pastor Laura Gentry
Matthew 2:13-23
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son." When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean.”(NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today, the first Sunday after Christmas, we hear the Gospel lesson known as the flight to Egypt—how the Holy Family had to leave Bethlehem to protect the Christ child. Now this reminds me of the story about the pastor who visited the Sunday school class and saw all the children’s art work up on the wall. The pastor could tell that each one depicteda Biblical scene and he went through and tried to determine what each one was. There was one with a barn and a man and a woman. It was obvious that this was Joseph, Mary, and Jesus at the manger. Another had sheep, men, and angels in the sky. The shepherd scene, he concluded. Another had a caravan with camels and a star in the sky—the wise men seeking the Christ child. They were all quite obvious.
But one puzzled him. It was an airplane with three figures going up the steps boarding the plane and one other figure in the cockpit. He thought and thought until he had to ask what it meant. The young artist spoke up, "It's Jesus' flight to Egypt." Ok said the pastor but who is that up in the cockpit? "Oh, That's Pontius the pilot."
Most of us have finished our Christmas celebrations. This is often a joyous time of year—a time of family, festive meals, gifts, carols and general merriment—certainly not a time of wailing and death. We prefer to rejoice in the birth of Jesus, rather than dwell upon suffering. But Jesus did not come into the safe and joyous setting we see in the art of our Christmas cards. In taking on human flesh, he was subjecting himself to the same risks humans face. Already as an infant, Jesus finds himself in great danger.
The today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew, we hear how God again directed Joseph through dreams—this time, to protect his family. In the first dream, the Lord warned Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. And so Jesus is, thus, spared from an infant death. Others will not be, however. Wailing and loud lamentation are heard as all the children two and under are slaughtered. Scholars estimate that since Bethlehem was a small town, perhaps twenty to thirty children were killed. This event fulfills Jeremiah’s prophesy of Rachel’s lamentation. Jeremiah was referring to Rachel’s sorrow over her descendent being led away from the promised land in the Babylonian exile of 587 B.C. Now, as Matthew uses this prophesy, Rachel’s voice—the voice of Israel’s history—now symbolizes the anguish of these mothers whose children have been lost to the evils of Herod. Rachel’s voice carries with it the all the sorrowful weeping of the world, a world that intimately knows suffering and death.
There has been much art work done of this event, known as the “slaughter of the innocents.” Artists have tried their best to visually portray what this biblical passage presents—the brutal murder of all the babies in Bethlehem. Perhaps even the most masterful artistic depictions, however, fall short of capturing the true horror of this event. It must have been virtually unimaginable.
And yet the slaughter of the innocents wasn’t the worst thing Herod did. When he came to the throne, he assassinated the whole Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews. Later, he slaughtered three hundred court officers out of hand. He murdered his wife, Mariamne, and her mother, Alexandra, his eldest son Antipater, and two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. Even in the hour of his death, he arranged for the slaughter of the notable men of Jerusalem. This was one seriously bad guy—no wonder he wouldn’t stand by and accept the news that a child had been born who was prophesied to be king.
What kind of place has the savior been born into? Is this really the world God has chosen to save? How can it possibly be that this world of callous ambition is the one that God loves so passionately? And why does Matthew have to ruin the beauty of the Christmas story by telling this terrible tale right after the tranquil description of Christ’s birth? This story presents more questions than it does answers.
Then moving on in the scripture lesson, Joseph has a second dream, which tells them that they can return to the land of Israel because Herod has died. Historians tell us Herod’s death happened in 4 B.C. Then, in a third dream Joseph is warned to settle in Galilee rather than in Judea, because Archelaus, the son of Herod, is king of Judea. In every case Joseph follows the Lord's guidance and keeps his family safe. These moves also fulfilled what had been predicted about Jesus by the prophets.
Yet, as I have said, it is strange that the son of God would suffer so much from the very beginning. We’re still singing the Christmas carols in church and Jesus and his family are already on the run. Surely Jesus was what Isaiah prophesied: a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.
This reminds me of Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City. He is very well known For his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Normally doctors remain separate and aloof from their patients. Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He actually places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. Day-to-day, he shares it. He loves them. if they don’t talk, he doesn’t talk either. It is as if he understands what is happening. His being there, being with them, communicates something that they haven’t experienced in years—somebody understands them.
But then he does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable, marginalized people and loves them back into life. Often, the first words they speak are simply, "Thank you."
Christ came into a world of sorrow, suffering and danger—he literally moved into our “ward.” He placed his bed among our beds. He felt the pain of human life—even from the very beginning. He walked with the blind and the lame, he talked with the outcasts. And he stood before Pilate and said nothing in his own defense when he was accused and sentenced to death. Then, he went to the cross and rose from the dead for us. He endured all this in order to love us back to life.
And so this scripture demonstrates that Jesus is here not merely to rejoice with us. He is here not merely to commiserate. He is here to save, to call us into life, and to be irrevocably God-with-us, emmanuael. This Christmas, may we live in the reality of this glorious, good news!
Let us pray:
Oh Holy Child, we praise you that you chose to enter into our world of violence, hatred, and danger—to suffer the things which humans suffer in order to triumph over them. Allow our hearts to embrace you fully, as the God-become-flesh, who has come to save us, to call us to life and to be God with us. Amen.
Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
WHAT TO DO WITH A BLESSING
A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2007
Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 1:47-55
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”(NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This morning, we have come to the fourth Sunday in Advent. Our Advent wreath is all aglow, save the Christ candle in the middle for Christmas eve. It’s light symbolizes how the light of Christ is coming into our world, into our darkness.
We are no stranger to this world’s darkness, are we? The darkness is all around us. It is so obvious this time of year in the over commercialism of the season. I made the mistake of trying to do a wee bit of shopping yesterday and nearly got trompled by the zealous shoppers. I heard on the radio that the number one stress of the Christmas season is finances. Instead of focusing our hearts on the coming Christ child, we worry about how we’re going to pay off the credit card bills incured in the shopping madness.
The second biggest stress of the season, I heard, is grief. People think about the loved ones they have lost and how Christmas just isn’t the same without them. Many people become overwhelmed with loneliness this time of year.
And the carols that fill the air sing of peace on earth, goodwill to all. Yet we look around and say: where is it? Where is the peace? Another Christmas and the military personelle in Iraq and Afghanistan won’t be spending it with their families. The people of the Middle East—on both sides of the conflict—have to live in fear and the constant reality of war. According to WikiPedia—the online encyclopedia, which people from around the world update regularly—there are 30 ongoing wars in the world right now, the oldest of which began in 1948.
With all of these things on top of whatever burdens we’re already bearing, it doesn’t necessarily make us feel in the Christmas Spirit, does it? Quite a few people have mentioned that to me this year. We just can’t seem to get into the Christmas Spirit, they say. We talk of Christmas being a blessing to all of us—that we are blessed with the gift of the Christ child. But how do we rejoice in this gift when we don’t feel like rejoicing?
But what does blessing really mean? Most of us understand blessing, at least on the surface, to be God answering our prayers with what we asked for, and of course we prefer the answers to be given in a timely manner. That’s what we want blessing to be. We pray to God for something, and POOF! Somehow, some way, God provides it, just like we wanted. It’s almost like we want God to be like a big cosmic Santa Claus who rides by on his sleigh showering all the good little Christians with goodies. After all, we’d like to think we’re on God’s “nice” list and so why shouldn’t we be blessed like that?
Yet if we dig into our Gospel text for today, we get a different sense of what blessing is. Mary, the mother of our savior is—we dare not forget—an unmarried pregnant teenager. She didn’t ask God for this. She never prayed to God to get pregnant and bear the Messiah. God chose this for her. This predicament could have gotten her stoned to death. That was the law of her time, and if her fiancé, Joseph, had not believe her angel story and turned her in to the religious authorities, she would have died for what would have been perceived as her sin.
Maybe that’s why she got it out of town so quickly. She went to spend time with her relative Elizabeth. Her older, wiser family member, who also shared an unexpected pregnancy by the word of God. Maybe together they could come to figure out how in the world to deal with being a “blessed women.” Maybe Elizabeth could help her put this blessing into perspective and perhaps even help her appreciate it.
Now Elizabeth’s blessing wasn’t exactly what we’d expect a blessing to be, either. Yes, God had answered her prayers—finally! From the time she’d gotten married, she had been praying for a child. She even promised to give the child back to God for service in the Temple, if only God would grant her a child. But the years went by and no pregnancies ever happened. Elizabeth must have felt that God was not going to answer her prayers. She must have gotten used to God’s painful silence. And then suddenly, when she was way to old to get excited about a prenancy, she finds herself pregnant. Like Sarah, she found herself in a position of dealing with a blessing that was way too long overdue. So Elizabeth, like Mary, has to cope with an unplanned blessing.
The angel Gabriel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid; you will have joy and gladness; you have found favor with God. For nothing will be impossible for God.”
Stunned by the angelic visitation, stunned by the impossible message spoken by Gabriel; stunned by the absurdity of their predicaments, no doubt Mary and Elizabeth asked what it means to be “blessed.” How can something be a blessing when it raises more questions than it answers? How do you live with a blessing that creates more problems than it solves? Mary and Elizabeth, no doubt, felt contradictory emotions. Pregnancy alone does that to women. But the strangeness of their pregnancies surely flooded them with expectations and apprehension; happiness and depression; confidence and nagging insecurities; hopes and fears. Elizabeth was old enough and wise enough to know (as Luke writes in Ch. 12), those “to whom much is given, much is required.” Together, these two women grappled with the irony of being blessed by God: namely, that behind every blessing there is burden.
Both these women were to learn that the sons they were blessed with, were not their own. Both their sons gave up their lives, literally, in service to God. Both mothers suffered the unimaginable and unspeakable horror of having their sons murdered; Mary, we’re told, witnessed her son’s brutal execution. This is the burden on the other side of blessing.
The blessings these women received had two sides: joy and burden. They had been given much, and much was required of them. For them, the meaning of God’s blessing had much more depth than a “Santa Claus” idea of God tossing happy blessings at us. God’s activity in human lives always is surprising; turning up where we’d least expect it; where we’d never think to look for it. God turns the world upside down, making us think again about what’s important, what’s real, what’s valuable.
So here is the interesting thing: if God’s blessings are two-sided (both joy and burden, requiring much from those to whom they are given) then perhaps the opposite is also true: those burdens that come our way in life have the hidden and surprising potential of becoming blessing. If we struggle with our burdens and refuse to let go of them until we receive a blessing, perhaps our upside-down God will turn our burdens over, in God’s time, and bring good out of them.
I think this is what St. Paul was trying to get at when he wrote, to the Thessalonian church, “rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances.” And to the Roman church: “All things work together for good for those who love God.” This reminds me of a poem by Jan L. Richardson from her book "Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas":
With each of our breakings you break,
and with each of our woundings your own wounds grow deeper.
Yet you hold the pieces together
till we learn to make the new connections,
and you guard each throbbing wound
till we have had enough of pain.
You remind us that it is our delight you seek, not our suffering.
And you tell us it is not the wounds that give us life,
but the tending of them in each other.
And you say it is not the breaking that makes us whole
but the mending of the pieces that brings us life anew.
As the season of Advent comes to a close, we prepare our hearts to receive the blessing of the Christ child. God has blessed us richly in this shocking birth of low estate, turning the world upside down. We must open our eyes and ears to look for God being borne in unexpected places. What is required of us is that we open our hearts and arms to receive the both the burden that comes along with our blessings as well as the blessing that comes along with burdens, laying them all, as Mary and Elizabeth did, in the hands of God.
Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understand, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
December 23, 2007
Pastor Laura Gentry
Luke 1:47-55
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”(NRSV)
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This morning, we have come to the fourth Sunday in Advent. Our Advent wreath is all aglow, save the Christ candle in the middle for Christmas eve. It’s light symbolizes how the light of Christ is coming into our world, into our darkness.
We are no stranger to this world’s darkness, are we? The darkness is all around us. It is so obvious this time of year in the over commercialism of the season. I made the mistake of trying to do a wee bit of shopping yesterday and nearly got trompled by the zealous shoppers. I heard on the radio that the number one stress of the Christmas season is finances. Instead of focusing our hearts on the coming Christ child, we worry about how we’re going to pay off the credit card bills incured in the shopping madness.
The second biggest stress of the season, I heard, is grief. People think about the loved ones they have lost and how Christmas just isn’t the same without them. Many people become overwhelmed with loneliness this time of year.
And the carols that fill the air sing of peace on earth, goodwill to all. Yet we look around and say: where is it? Where is the peace? Another Christmas and the military personelle in Iraq and Afghanistan won’t be spending it with their families. The people of the Middle East—on both sides of the conflict—have to live in fear and the constant reality of war. According to WikiPedia—the online encyclopedia, which people from around the world update regularly—there are 30 ongoing wars in the world right now, the oldest of which began in 1948.
With all of these things on top of whatever burdens we’re already bearing, it doesn’t necessarily make us feel in the Christmas Spirit, does it? Quite a few people have mentioned that to me this year. We just can’t seem to get into the Christmas Spirit, they say. We talk of Christmas being a blessing to all of us—that we are blessed with the gift of the Christ child. But how do we rejoice in this gift when we don’t feel like rejoicing?
But what does blessing really mean? Most of us understand blessing, at least on the surface, to be God answering our prayers with what we asked for, and of course we prefer the answers to be given in a timely manner. That’s what we want blessing to be. We pray to God for something, and POOF! Somehow, some way, God provides it, just like we wanted. It’s almost like we want God to be like a big cosmic Santa Claus who rides by on his sleigh showering all the good little Christians with goodies. After all, we’d like to think we’re on God’s “nice” list and so why shouldn’t we be blessed like that?
Yet if we dig into our Gospel text for today, we get a different sense of what blessing is. Mary, the mother of our savior is—we dare not forget—an unmarried pregnant teenager. She didn’t ask God for this. She never prayed to God to get pregnant and bear the Messiah. God chose this for her. This predicament could have gotten her stoned to death. That was the law of her time, and if her fiancé, Joseph, had not believe her angel story and turned her in to the religious authorities, she would have died for what would have been perceived as her sin.
Maybe that’s why she got it out of town so quickly. She went to spend time with her relative Elizabeth. Her older, wiser family member, who also shared an unexpected pregnancy by the word of God. Maybe together they could come to figure out how in the world to deal with being a “blessed women.” Maybe Elizabeth could help her put this blessing into perspective and perhaps even help her appreciate it.
Now Elizabeth’s blessing wasn’t exactly what we’d expect a blessing to be, either. Yes, God had answered her prayers—finally! From the time she’d gotten married, she had been praying for a child. She even promised to give the child back to God for service in the Temple, if only God would grant her a child. But the years went by and no pregnancies ever happened. Elizabeth must have felt that God was not going to answer her prayers. She must have gotten used to God’s painful silence. And then suddenly, when she was way to old to get excited about a prenancy, she finds herself pregnant. Like Sarah, she found herself in a position of dealing with a blessing that was way too long overdue. So Elizabeth, like Mary, has to cope with an unplanned blessing.
The angel Gabriel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid; you will have joy and gladness; you have found favor with God. For nothing will be impossible for God.”
Stunned by the angelic visitation, stunned by the impossible message spoken by Gabriel; stunned by the absurdity of their predicaments, no doubt Mary and Elizabeth asked what it means to be “blessed.” How can something be a blessing when it raises more questions than it answers? How do you live with a blessing that creates more problems than it solves? Mary and Elizabeth, no doubt, felt contradictory emotions. Pregnancy alone does that to women. But the strangeness of their pregnancies surely flooded them with expectations and apprehension; happiness and depression; confidence and nagging insecurities; hopes and fears. Elizabeth was old enough and wise enough to know (as Luke writes in Ch. 12), those “to whom much is given, much is required.” Together, these two women grappled with the irony of being blessed by God: namely, that behind every blessing there is burden.
Both these women were to learn that the sons they were blessed with, were not their own. Both their sons gave up their lives, literally, in service to God. Both mothers suffered the unimaginable and unspeakable horror of having their sons murdered; Mary, we’re told, witnessed her son’s brutal execution. This is the burden on the other side of blessing.
The blessings these women received had two sides: joy and burden. They had been given much, and much was required of them. For them, the meaning of God’s blessing had much more depth than a “Santa Claus” idea of God tossing happy blessings at us. God’s activity in human lives always is surprising; turning up where we’d least expect it; where we’d never think to look for it. God turns the world upside down, making us think again about what’s important, what’s real, what’s valuable.
So here is the interesting thing: if God’s blessings are two-sided (both joy and burden, requiring much from those to whom they are given) then perhaps the opposite is also true: those burdens that come our way in life have the hidden and surprising potential of becoming blessing. If we struggle with our burdens and refuse to let go of them until we receive a blessing, perhaps our upside-down God will turn our burdens over, in God’s time, and bring good out of them.
I think this is what St. Paul was trying to get at when he wrote, to the Thessalonian church, “rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances.” And to the Roman church: “All things work together for good for those who love God.” This reminds me of a poem by Jan L. Richardson from her book "Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas":
With each of our breakings you break,
and with each of our woundings your own wounds grow deeper.
Yet you hold the pieces together
till we learn to make the new connections,
and you guard each throbbing wound
till we have had enough of pain.
You remind us that it is our delight you seek, not our suffering.
And you tell us it is not the wounds that give us life,
but the tending of them in each other.
And you say it is not the breaking that makes us whole
but the mending of the pieces that brings us life anew.
As the season of Advent comes to a close, we prepare our hearts to receive the blessing of the Christ child. God has blessed us richly in this shocking birth of low estate, turning the world upside down. We must open our eyes and ears to look for God being borne in unexpected places. What is required of us is that we open our hearts and arms to receive the both the burden that comes along with our blessings as well as the blessing that comes along with burdens, laying them all, as Mary and Elizabeth did, in the hands of God.
Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understand, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
Sunday, December 16, 2007
THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER
On Sunday, December 16th at the 9:00 a.m. worship service, the Sunday school students of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lansing presented their annual Christmas program. This year, they acted out the story of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. This is a touching tale, which demonstrates that all of us—even the most hard-hearted with all of the mistakes of our past—can be affected and find renewal in the message of Christmas.
The program was directed by Susan Libke and Pastor Laura Gentry. A solo of “O Come, Little Children” was sung by Samantha Rosas and the entire group sang 5 other songs. Kai Timmerman was baby Jesus 3 years ago and this year, he graduated to the status of an angel.
Pictured are: (back row) Ethan Libke, Matt Endres, Samantha Rosas, Shawna Erickson, (middle row as Mary and Joseph) Mason Libke and Jazmine Rathbun, (around the manger) Emilio Rathbun, Caelin Peters, Kai Timmerman, MaKaya Peters and Shaun Peters
Sunday, December 9, 2007
THE COMING KINGDOM
A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent
December 9, 2006
Pastor Laura Gentry
Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 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.
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Every single Sunday as we worship, we pray the Lord’s prayer. And every time we say it, we recite the lines:
"Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven..."
We ask for God’s kingdom to come here. Now. We know that God is love. Where God is, there is hope and life. There is only light with God—there is no darkness at all. In this light, there is peace for all, just as it is in heaven.
And so we pray urgently for this kingdom to come. We know that when this ultimately happens, all that is wrong will be made right. There will not be random violent shootings like the one in the Nebraska mall last week. Injustice will be a thing of the past. There will be no more spam e-mails tricking vulnerable people into making bogus investments. No one would take advantage of the poor and dispossessed. There would not be a third world or even first world—we one world, united for the good of all God’s people.
In this season of Advent, during the darkest time of the calendar year, we light candles on the wreath to show that we still have hope. We have hope in our hearts that this world’s darkness will give way to God’s glorious light. We long for God’s kingdom to come and we believe that it IS coming!
Today, we heard the voice of John the Baptist in our Gospel reading. He comes with boldness, even rudeness, proclaiming that we all must repent of our ways. We have not been working for God’s kingdom to come as we ought. We have turned away from the hope our faith gives to us and instead embraced hopelessness. This cannot go on! The voice of the Baptizer rings down through the years and calls us again to repent for the kingdom of God is near. Though this is a demanding call, it is an exciting one. It is good news that the kingdom is near and we should be prepared to do anything necessary in order to hasten it.
We also heard from the prophet Isaiah in our Advent scriptures today. He paints a beautiful picture of the peace that Christ brings. Listen once again to the poetry of his words and and let the marvelous implications of the scene speak to your heart and mind:
The wolf shall live with the lamb...
the leopard shall lie down with the kid...
the calf and the lion
and the fatling together...
and a little child shall lead them.
The wolf is a terrifying, mortal enemy of the lamb. The lamb is no match for the wolf. A lamb could never escape the brute power of the leopard and a lion would destroy a calf in no time at all. The thought of a child at the center of these images is horrifying. A child is vulnerable and innocent. How fascinating that there is a child in the center of all this danger, providing the leadership.
And Jesus came to fulfill the prophesy—coming as a little baby, weak like you and me. He came as a child to show us the way and to lead us toward that kingdom God desires, where lion and lamb can lay down together in peace.
Jesus said that if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be like children. I think this means that our inner child is called upon in the business of faith. We must open our hearts as children do to believe—to really believe—that a better world is possible. We are challenged to cast aside our jaded notions, our negative ideas like “there’s always been war, there always will be war, that’s just how it is.” No, we are called upon to use our childlike hopefulness and place our trust in the Christ child.
As we continue our journey through these days of preparation for the celebration of the coming of the babe of Bethlehem, our hearts, along with the hearts of God's people of every time and place long for the time when God will make all things right. We are joined in hope and expectation for the time Isaiah's words express the voice of God, "They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
But here is the catch: We have gathered here today not just to long for the coming of the kingdom of God, not simply to pray for the coming of that kingdom not just to sing the great Advent hymns about that fabulous kingdom to come, we are called to work for it’s appearance. We are the children of God and therefore ambassadors from that kingdom. We live here in this broken world, but our real citizenship is in the kingdom. We must heed John’s call to repentance so that we can turn ourselves around and get busy with the work of turning the world around. That’s our God-given responsibility.
Until Christ comes again to bring about a new and righteous world, we are those who have by faith embraced his coming as the child of Bethlehem and have been formed into the world's visible reminder of the kingdom of God: the Church, the Body of Christ in the world.
We are waiting today for the celebration of the child of Bethlehem. And as the church we wait with Christ to celebrate that day when, as Isaiah prophesied, "The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child will put his hand into the viper's nest." Advent and Christmas are for us, the promise of that God's kingdom will come indeed!
And now, may the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
December 9, 2006
Pastor Laura Gentry
Isaiah 11:1-10
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 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.
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Every single Sunday as we worship, we pray the Lord’s prayer. And every time we say it, we recite the lines:
"Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven..."
We ask for God’s kingdom to come here. Now. We know that God is love. Where God is, there is hope and life. There is only light with God—there is no darkness at all. In this light, there is peace for all, just as it is in heaven.
And so we pray urgently for this kingdom to come. We know that when this ultimately happens, all that is wrong will be made right. There will not be random violent shootings like the one in the Nebraska mall last week. Injustice will be a thing of the past. There will be no more spam e-mails tricking vulnerable people into making bogus investments. No one would take advantage of the poor and dispossessed. There would not be a third world or even first world—we one world, united for the good of all God’s people.
In this season of Advent, during the darkest time of the calendar year, we light candles on the wreath to show that we still have hope. We have hope in our hearts that this world’s darkness will give way to God’s glorious light. We long for God’s kingdom to come and we believe that it IS coming!
Today, we heard the voice of John the Baptist in our Gospel reading. He comes with boldness, even rudeness, proclaiming that we all must repent of our ways. We have not been working for God’s kingdom to come as we ought. We have turned away from the hope our faith gives to us and instead embraced hopelessness. This cannot go on! The voice of the Baptizer rings down through the years and calls us again to repent for the kingdom of God is near. Though this is a demanding call, it is an exciting one. It is good news that the kingdom is near and we should be prepared to do anything necessary in order to hasten it.
We also heard from the prophet Isaiah in our Advent scriptures today. He paints a beautiful picture of the peace that Christ brings. Listen once again to the poetry of his words and and let the marvelous implications of the scene speak to your heart and mind:
The wolf shall live with the lamb...
the leopard shall lie down with the kid...
the calf and the lion
and the fatling together...
and a little child shall lead them.
The wolf is a terrifying, mortal enemy of the lamb. The lamb is no match for the wolf. A lamb could never escape the brute power of the leopard and a lion would destroy a calf in no time at all. The thought of a child at the center of these images is horrifying. A child is vulnerable and innocent. How fascinating that there is a child in the center of all this danger, providing the leadership.
And Jesus came to fulfill the prophesy—coming as a little baby, weak like you and me. He came as a child to show us the way and to lead us toward that kingdom God desires, where lion and lamb can lay down together in peace.
Jesus said that if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be like children. I think this means that our inner child is called upon in the business of faith. We must open our hearts as children do to believe—to really believe—that a better world is possible. We are challenged to cast aside our jaded notions, our negative ideas like “there’s always been war, there always will be war, that’s just how it is.” No, we are called upon to use our childlike hopefulness and place our trust in the Christ child.
As we continue our journey through these days of preparation for the celebration of the coming of the babe of Bethlehem, our hearts, along with the hearts of God's people of every time and place long for the time when God will make all things right. We are joined in hope and expectation for the time Isaiah's words express the voice of God, "They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
But here is the catch: We have gathered here today not just to long for the coming of the kingdom of God, not simply to pray for the coming of that kingdom not just to sing the great Advent hymns about that fabulous kingdom to come, we are called to work for it’s appearance. We are the children of God and therefore ambassadors from that kingdom. We live here in this broken world, but our real citizenship is in the kingdom. We must heed John’s call to repentance so that we can turn ourselves around and get busy with the work of turning the world around. That’s our God-given responsibility.
Until Christ comes again to bring about a new and righteous world, we are those who have by faith embraced his coming as the child of Bethlehem and have been formed into the world's visible reminder of the kingdom of God: the Church, the Body of Christ in the world.
We are waiting today for the celebration of the child of Bethlehem. And as the church we wait with Christ to celebrate that day when, as Isaiah prophesied, "The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child will put his hand into the viper's nest." Advent and Christmas are for us, the promise of that God's kingdom will come indeed!
And now, may the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
© 2007 Laura E. Gentry
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