Advent 1 sermon 12/03/06

Heres the sermon for today...on the day I actually preached it. I think it came together okay...
still working on posting my backlog....
-Chrisy

Luke 21:25–36

²⁵There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. ²⁶People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. ²⁸Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
²⁹Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. ³¹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ³²Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
³⁴Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, ³⁵like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Grace and peace to you from the Father, the Holy Spirit and our Lord, Jesus Christ as we begin our journey of waiting for his birth. Amen

Reading this text for today makes me want to quote from a very popular show of the 80’s Different Strokes. I don’t know how many of you have seen it, but Different Strokes was a show about two young kids Arnold and Willis who lived in Harlem and are adopted by Mr. Drummond and gain a new sister Kimberly. One of Arnolds favorite phrases was...Whatchu you talking about Willis? Willis would come up with all these crazy ideas as to what he and Arnold were going to do to have fun or get out of whatever scrap they found themselves in…or when Willis was just talking and not making any sense…whatchu you talking about Willis

This text makes me want to say…whatchu talking about John and whatchu talking about to the people that decide what order the lectionary texts are in. In other words…what in the world were the people that decide which Sunday we are reading certain Bible passages thinking when they started advent with a text that sounds a lot like the second coming of Christ? Aren’t we supposed to be preparing for the birth of Jesus? Aren’t we supposed to be lighting the first candle in the advent wreath and some time during advent singing songs like Oh come Oh come Emmanuel and Light One Candle to watch for Messiah? What in the world are we doing talking about fear, foreboding and guarding our hearts? At the start of Advent…Why are we reading about and talking about the end?

Lots of people seem to be talking about ends these days. It doesn’t take much to find some spiritual leader warning his or her flock that they need to do good thing x, y and z or else when the rapture happens they might not be selected to go to heaven. They in a real sense might be left behind. Speaking of being Left Behind…the Left Behind book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins was a pretty popular set of books a few years ago and in some circles still are. I will admit I have never read any of the books in the left behind series nor do I plan to any time soon but they certainly got a lot of people talking about end times and the rapture. In more recent years, we have Dan Brown; author of both the Davinci code and Angels and Demons that spurned more talk about the rapture and conspiracies and all of that.

Ends are constantly on our mind. We mourned the end of life here in this sanctuary this week. We remembered the life of Linda Mortensen here on Monday. I mourned the end of little 7 year old Maddie Trudel’s battle with cancer this past week when I read of her death this past week in the Detroit free press.

And I am sure some of you were thinking about ends last night…would we end up with enough fruit soup? When would people end their eating and talking and go home? When would the mountain of dishes be washed and put away? When would the days and weeks of preparation for the Scandinavian Dinner end?

In this what are you talking about text this week…we are reminded of endings…or in this case THE ending. Signs in the night sky. Fear and foreboding across the earth. The son of Man coming in a cloud. We are told to be alert and watchful for the end that is coming. To not get caught up in life’s worries….to be watchful and expectant.

That is certainly easier said than done this time of year…worries and wonder of what are we going to do when we have snow…who is going to get up earlier than normal to shovel snow and plow driveways? Is work going to slow down when it snows? Will it pick up? What to do with the kids if we have a snow day. What are we going to have for Christmas dinner? Where are we doing to have dinner? Let’s see….do I have presents for Bear, Rebecca, Ethan, Lisa, Jim and Carol…hmmm…No, some, yes, yes, no and no…got get working on that…holiday concerts, St. Lucia, council meetings, budgets…there’s no time to be watchful and expectant….

Wait… ³⁴Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly…. It all makes sense now…

This is a season of beginnings…a season of watchfulness and expectation in the midst of our endings, business, fear and frustration. This is a time where we get all tied up in our worries, our plans and our stuff. It makes sense that we are reminded to be watchful and expectant…because if we aren’t reminded… Christmas could very easily just become another day… of family, friends and all out craziness. and since we aren't literally expecting Jesus as a baby, we take this time in advent to remember the promises God makes to us...we know that through Jesus we have new beginnings...new life… we all have the new beginning of this world’s end when Jesus will come again... and we have the new beginning each day when we wake up and feel and see the love and care of God through Jesus all around us.

The end that is written about in this text for today is truly a beginning…a beginning of life eternal for all; just as the baby born in a manger 2000 years ago was. We watch, we expect, we wait, we hope. In the midst of our lives, our plans and our craziness. In the midst of not having all the presents we think we need bought or our house not yet looking quite right for Christmas. In the midst of barely being in winter, and barely having snow on the ground. We look ahead to spring and to the new life that we know we will see all around us in trees, flowers and many living things. We watch, we wait…and living in Wisconsin…well we wait longer than others…but know new life is coming. We know in some small way whatchu talking about. Amen

Christ the King sermon

Sermon from Christ the King Sunday. I think I might have driven into what my preaching professor Dr. Loy refered to as my favorite driveway in this sermon...the driveway of Christian doctrine...I leave for your perusal and critique...Chrisy

Gospel: John 18:33-37 33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" 35 Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." 37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

Grace to you and peace from the one who is and who was and who is to come; and from the faithful witness, the ruler of kings on earth. Amen

Misunderstood Titles, conversations and situations can often lead to trouble. I have been doing some reading for fun and stumbled across this book called Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. In it readers learn that the Wicked Witch... well she really wasn’t all that Wicked. She has a name…Elphaba…She had a sister, Nessa, whom she looked out for and took care of…she was best friends with Glinda the Good Witch while they were in school. Elphaba stood up for her principles and thought the wizard wasn’t taking care of OZ well enough while Galinda did whatever the wizard told her to do in a effort to be popular. When Elphaba decided to turn the wizard down on his offer to join him of the ranks of those that were popular…and be independent and defy gravity…then the story began to change…then rumors abounded about Elphaba being mean and scary, and turning people into tin and straw on purpose when in reality she had just been trying to protect her friends. Glinda in an effort to be popular capitalized on the people of oz’s fear… she said all the right things and did all the right things and became more and more popular and it made everyone think that Elphaba was the exact opposite…She even told the people of oz when they asked her about Elphaba that she knew her but she wasn’t friends with her. Was Elphaba really wicked? Was Glinda really good? I can’t answer that…but stories like these really make one think

“Are you the king of the Jews” I really have to feel just as perplexed as Pilate at this moment. At least I imagine him to be very perplexed. Here is this man…Jesus…a man that did nothing wrong to Pilate’s knowledge, yet the Jewish people and all of the chief priests had handed Jesus over to be punished. Pilate had to be perplexed…and because of that Pilate was trying to figure out what Jesus could have done to upset his own people so much that they would hand him over. Perhaps in this conversation that is our text for today Pilate was trying to get Jesus to say he was a king so Pilate would have something to charge him with. In antiquity, only a person elevated to the level of a Caesar would be a position of power and wealth high enough to claim kingship. Jesus was obviously not a Roman official nor a Caesar. If Jesus admitted kingship then Pilate could actually do something. But Jesus did not admit kingship for if he was a King in this earthly world than all of his followers would be trying to save him…instead of denying him three times like we remember Peter doing in the passion story before Easter…

Jesus was not an earthly king…for if he had been surely someone would have stormed the gates of the headquarters on horseback; sword swinging, mounting a rescue…not betraying him to the guards with a kiss like Judas after the last supper

Jesus was not an earthly king… for if he had he would not have been mocked, beaten or offered a sponge of sour wine as he hung from a cross slowly loosing the strength to draw another breath

Nope…Jesus couldn’t be a king… cause that would mean well Jesus was the highest of the high, the be all and end all, the one calling all the shots and making all the decisions…and here he was captured by guards and handed over to Pilate by his own people who were calling for his death.

³⁷ Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

Jesus is and was and will be a King…King of the Jews, King of Creation, King of life everlasting. Jesus came into the world to be called King…and to testify to the truth of his Kingship! It is not of this world. He was not bound to this earth and to its limitations on titles or positions of power. Jesus was so above and beyond that that is not in the realm of our comprehension. Not mine, not yours, not Pilates.

Jesus is the Alpha…the beginning, the firstborn, the savior born in a manger. Jesus is the light and hope we look to and toward when we start our journey of preparation in advent.

Jesus is the Omega… the end…the man standing in front of Pilate knowing exactly what he was facing and facing it in spite of that knowledge. Jesus knowing that the end for him was literally a matter of hours away. Jesus the light that no darkness could over come; even the darkness of death. Jesus is life everlasting.

A question now for us in this time and world is not Are you the king of the Jews? But how will and how are we responding to the Lord’s kingship? How are we are part of the kingdom belonging to the truth and listening to his voice?

I was driving home from Michigan yesterday trying to figure out how to wrap this sermon up… I mean really…I have a sermon with Jesus and Pilate talking about kingship and the wicked witch of the west… that was one of the oddest combinations in a while…I had driven across the Mackinaw bridge and decided to take a break by the water for a bit…stretch my legs, clear my head and just be with God for a moment. Give thanks for the wonderful time I had been able to spend with my family, thanks for the friends and church family I was headed back too…when it hit me…
As I listened to the Wicked soundtrack… I had always thought the Wicked Witch was just that… Wicked… I gave no thought or question to her being anything else…. And Glinda was always the beautiful lady in the pretty pink dress with the wand floating into munchkin land in a bubble…I didn’t question it….and even though I didn’t questions that, at the same time I was just like Pilate…day after day…I had been asking all this week… Jesus are you really a king? Jesus are you really that master and ruler all the earth? If you are king what does that mean that I should be doing….what does that make me? Did you really 2000 years ago die for me even though my sins are part of the reason you died on that cross?

I looked out over the water…I listened to the waves lap at the shore. And all of the sudden…sunlight burst thought the cloudy gray sky and enveloped me in light. Creation all around me…a creation that was beyond my comprehension in how it was made…nature in all its glory showing me that Jesus was, is and will be truly my king…my savior…my beginning and my end. Jesus who is, who was and who always will be King…my King, your King, Pilates King, King of the people condemning him to death….king….forever. Amen

Stop AIDS

Break the Silence

Take Action

Today(12-1-06) and Everyday