Text: 2 Peter 3:3-9

It’s a cold, crisp winter Saturday – 8:00 a.m. sharp on the narrow pavement path that is the Piper Glen Greenway. Mark Katibah looks over at the three of us there for Solemates and says, “Let’s go!” “What about so-and-so?” I say. “It’s 8!” he responds, “and I didn’t hear back from them.” “Let’s wait another few minutes… I think they are coming,” I say. And on that particular day, our faces brighten to see one more coming down the path toward us at 8:02!

It’s a different time and place many years ago. We are piling in the car to go to a concert or game or something and one of the kids is still looking for something inside. Another complains, “She is being sooooo sloooow!” “Be patient!” I say back, though I am feeling every bit of that slowness myself. But we want her with us, of course! And when she does finally come out, we are excited and soon the delay is forgotten as we excitedly get closer to the big event.

In our text today, Peter assures us that mockers will come in the last days and say, “Where is the promise of God’s coming?… all continues just as it was from the beginning.”

What is God waiting for? Didn’t Jesus say he would come back? Isn’t there enough pain and suffering in the world? When will it end? When will justice roll down and the evil be called to account?

Peter’s answer to all those questions is this: “The Lord is not slow… but is patient.”

Today we are going to look at what that means and what it teaches us about God and how to live in the world God made and loves.

Mockery, Doubt, and Unbelief

The antagonists in verses 3-4 are the mockers. They make fun of the believers and they make fun of God. They are described as “following after their own lusts” – that is, pursuing their own desires above all else. They see no evidence of God or God at work.

I daresay you know people like this. It may not be as blatant as openly taunting or mocking you personally, but there is definitely a growing attitude towards Christianity (and other faiths) that it’s all a big waste of time. And sometimes the critique of faith can get personal and pointed, especially when the behavior of so-called Christians leaves much to be desired.

Scripture makes connections between mockery, doubt, and unbelief. This is not to say that all doubt is bad. In fact, I’d say that healthy doubt is a key ingredient in growing, maturing faith. But that’s faith seeking understanding – asking questions in order to find answers, not shut down conversation. There is other doubt that is more pessimistic, more harmful, more bias confirmation of unbelief already there. And scripture says that such self-feeding unbelief can blind us to God’s truth and love. In other words, it makes it harder and harder to see and believe.

It’s easy to grow impatient towards such people, to want to move on and find a more receptive or friendly audience. And where Peter goes next just ups the ante.

Did It Escape Your Notice?

I think it fair to say that the tone of vv. 5-8 are impatient and judgy. The phrase “it escapes their notice” has a little edge, a little bite, to it. Those mockers, they’ve missed something important. Fools!

God made the heavens and earth. God made water and has used it to judge the ungodly. And God made fire and is ready to use it to judge the ungodly. How dare anyone mock the God of Heaven and Earth, the God of water and fire, the God of righteous judgment!

You can feel the fire and brimstone sermon heating up to the boiling point, then Peter turns in another direction altogether. He uses the words “escape your notice” a second time: “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved.” Suddenly the sermon has shifted! Suddenly it’s not the ungodly who have missed something important about God; it is Peter’s believing audience… his beloved in Christ!

“Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.”

Um, okay. …? Yeah, I remember “O God

Text: 2 Timothy 2:14-26

There is much in the news right now about winners and losers, but I am struck all the more as I’ve watched the impeachment hearings that it is important how one runs the race, not just what the end result may be. If that is true in politics (it should be true there!), it is all the more so for Christians professing to follow Jesus Christ and live out the teaching in God’s Word. Ultimately we may not be able to affect our various leaders’ behavior other than through our votes, but we can be responsible for how we run our race through our words, actions, and attitudes.

In today’s scripture, the Apostle and Pastor Paul is writing to his student and friend, Timothy. He is encouraging him and the Church to become “approved workers” for Jesus. Along the way Paul highlights several challenges and several remedies that are not only good for Timothy’s time, but I believe for ours as well.

That key encouragement and challenge comes in verse 15, with the surrounding verses serving to explain and unpack what it says:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

I’ll use the parts of that sentence to work through all that Paul had to say in our text today.

A Worker

Let’s start with ‘worker’: we read in verse 19 that “the Lord knows who are His” and “everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” So one baseline is those who claim to be followers, but that is quickly refined by recognizing that God knows our thoughts and all observe our actions. This is consistent with the whole passage: those who truly partner with God for His work in the world are those who align words with thoughts and deeds. That is what the Lord desires, not just of pastors like Timothy, but of all who claim the name. God desires faithful workers and partners for His work in the world.

The phrase “present yourself… as a worker” reminds me of Romans 12:1, which helps amplify the meaning here as well:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And our key verse points to three other characteristics of a worker: he or she is to be true to God’s Word, diligent and approved, and unashamed. We’ll look at each trait in turn.

Accurately Handling the Word

The first trait I want to focus on is at the end of the focus verse. The faithful worker needs to “accurately handle the word of truth.” Again, this is not just a word for pastors and teachers, but to all Christians. In order to do this we have to read, hear, and study the Bible. You can’t apply or interpret something you don’t know. This is why we put such a high value on Bible study, Sunday school, and preaching at Good Shepherd. At the core of faithfully following Jesus Christ is knowing what it means to faithfully follow Jesus Christ. And we discover that through studying his life and teaching and all that God has to say in scripture. That’s also why we teach HOW to read scripture at Good Shepherd. It’s not a collection of fortunes or one-liners, but a grand story of inter-connected history, poetry, preaching, and teaching. We teach and read in context and use other portions of scripture to help us understand what we are reading and hearing.

Paul emphasized this, not only because it is critical in general to being a faithful worker, but because he also recognized the specific danger of false teaching and incorrect handling of God’s Word. He warns Timothy specifically of examples of this in his church in verse 18, where he singles out the false teaching of two men in their community who were teaching falsely about the resurrection.

Whether it’s a prosperity gospel or a works-righteousness or a name-it-and-claim-it theology, there is no shortage of false teaching in our own era. And whether it’s something on the Internet that looks questionable or me preaching here

Text: 2 Corinthians 7:8-11; Hebrews 12:9-11

Picture this: a parent slowly and deliberately walking up the stairs to their child’s room, not to be dramatic but because what is about to unfold will be hard and uncomfortable. But it’s necessary; the child’s choices are harmful to them and to others. The parent doesn’t want to rob them of joy, but to lead them back to safety and a place of thriving and health. I’m not being specific because my hope is that you will plug in the details for yourself. Maybe you are the parent; maybe you are the child. Maybe you remember being the child years ago.

And what comes next? What happens after the parent struggles to speak the difficult words of truth and love? Does the child cheer and say, “What a great thing you’ve said! Thank you for loving me so well!” No, I’m not sure it ever goes down like that. Often there are tears or anger or resistance. But our hope is that words spoken truly and out of love will get through, will sink in, will lay hold of the heart of the child and invite them to a change, a new perspective, a better path. When that happens – and it doesn’t always happen – it’s full of grace and full of God. When it happens that initial emotion and resistance can turn inward and soften the heart and lead to a change, to repentance. There’s no easy or magical way to make that happen, because two people are involved. But when it does happen I am thankful and usually challenged and changed myself through it.

That scenario is described in our texts today. In 2 Corinthians, Paul describes a similar confrontation, but not between parent and child, but between pastor and congregation. In our call to worship in Proverbs and in the Hebrews text, God’s loving truth and our response to it are compared to that encounter between parent and child. So I’d like to look at that situation in Corinthians and consider how God might use loving truth to lead us to life and health. Take note that our initial response may be that of the ‘child’ – a surge of emotion or walls of resistance. But cling to the fact that God loves us and wants the best for us!

Letters to Corinth (1-2 Corinthians)

I’ll be brief about the situation in 2 Corinthians 7, partly because verse 8 references a letter to Corinth that has been lost to us. But the basic situation is that in the first letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth (1 Corinthians), he had “the talk”… that is the one where the parent comes up to confront the bad behavior. In the case of the Corinthians there were divisions, immoral behavior, and more ; it was bad and Paul was direct. Apparently – and I think you can imagine this – such a letter didn’t go over well. If we get defensive when challenged about one behavior, just imagine a whole church community being confronted about multiple, major behavioral stuff.

The best we can tell, this missing letter was checking in to ask, “How are things going after the last letter (i.e. 1 Corinthians)?” But Paul heard nothing in response. Paul writes early in 2 Corinthians that he was intending to come back in person (1:15), but then decided that his presence might not be helpful. Finally he runs into Titus, who had visited Corinth in the meantime, and Paul finds out that the Lord has moved hearts and minds in Corinth. And so we read in 2 Corinthians 7:6-7… “God…comforted us by the coming of Titus…as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.” And that gets us to where our text picks up today in verse 8.

Godly Sorrow (vv.8-9)

In vv. 8-9 Paul is acknowledging the difficulty of “the talk” in 1 Corinthians. The Corinthians had initially turned against the messenger (Paul) – how very human and common to our own experience! He had acknowledged his own sorrow and doubts over how the message had been received. But then he also declares his love and confidence in this same chapter. Listen to earlier verses from 2 Corinthians 7…

Make room for us in your hearts… I have said b

Text: Luke 24:13-47

So this all [the communion table, set with three fancy place settings] has been sitting here this morning, hopefully piquing your interest. Imagine if you came by the Austell’s house and we invited you in and you found our dining room table set like this. You asked, “What’s this for?” And we responded, “It’s set for you, come and have a meal with us!” As I read today’s scripture and prepared the sermon, I was struck by just how far ahead and how completely God has gone before us to prepare for us. It can seem like we discover God. A parent takes us to church or we go to a revival meeting or a friend shares with us about Jesus. But then we realize God isn’t surprised to see us, but has been expecting us all along, even sometimes calling out to us or pursuing us before we realized it. I’ll just let you take in this image and I’ll return to it at the end.

Today we are looking at a passage that has always fascinated me. It is the “Road to Emmaus” story where the resurrected Jesus appears to two people leaving Jerusalem after his death. They did not know about the Resurrection, and Jesus reveals himself to them. But he does so by walking them through the scriptures, saying, “all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” That’s the ultimate Sunday school class, right? Jesus is teaching all the key parts of the Old Testament that point to him and what he has just done. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Now we don’t know exactly what parts of the Law, Prophets, and Writings he used, so what I’m going to look at with you is just one set of possibilities. The point I’d like to emphasize, though, is the extent to which God prepared beforehand for welcoming you to His Table of Grace.

The Law

I can think of a number of passages from the Law that Jesus might have spoken about that day. I think of Moses himself, who led God’s people from slavery to freedom in the Exodus, facing the wrath and opposition of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. That same Exodus story contains the first Passover, where God’s people were saved from death by the blood of a lamb identifying them as God’s people and marking their trust in God’s Word and direction.

I think of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. There, in response to questions about being “born again,” Jesus compares what will happen to the Son of Man to the Numbers 21 account of Moses making a bronze serpent – a symbol of the people’s sin – and putting it up on a pole that all who looked upon it in obedience and faith would be healed. Jesus says later in John 5:46, talking about the ways scripture testifies about him: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.”  Clearly, Jesus believes God has been preparing the world – setting the table – for generations as seen through the Torah, the core five books of Moses that make up Hebrew scripture and our Old Testament.

The Prophets

In the prophets, the 17 books of preaching that end the Old Testament, I can think of a number of passages from that anticipate Jesus. We’ve spent some time in Isaiah these past eight weeks or so. Isaiah 53 describes the “suffering servant” that would come: a “man of sorrows acquainted with grief.” (v.3) Jesus quoted from that passage more than once, but especially in Luke 22 at the Last Supper and as they prepared to head to the garden where Jesus would be arrested. Isaiah is also in the forefront in many of the details of Jesus’ birth as well early in his ministry, like when he reads from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue to declare good news, liberty, freedom, and the Year of the Lord.  One of the recurring themes of the prophets is the promise of God’s Messiah, or “anointed one.” These promises helped prepare the world – setting the table – for the coming of that Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Psalms

Finally, Jesus explains how the Psalms point to him. Often we will focus on Psalm 118 on Palm Sunday, but Psalm 22 and 69 are well-known in

Text: Matthew 3:1-6,11-17

I’ve talked any number of times about ‘repentance’ – it is that changing of mind and heart, that turning from THIS way to THAT way to follow God through Jesus Christ. Often we will focus on it particularly in the weeks leading up to Easter in preparation to hear of Christ’s great work on the cross and resurrection on Easter morning.

I’d like to spend the next several weeks talking about what comes BEFORE repentance. Scripture tells us that salvation and even faith are a gift of God. So what precedes repentance? What helps us to repent? While the topic of repentance may seem somber, it need not be. It is serious, but it is not something to grind us down, but to open us up to God’s work in our lives. So I hope this series will do just that – open us up to God’s work around us.

For the next several weeks I have chosen a number of passages that talk about repentance and what comes before it. This morning I want to look with you at the story of Jesus’ baptism, recorded in Matthew 3. I chose it because it begins with John the Baptist, who is challenging people to repent and be baptized. And then Jesus enters the scene and is, himself, baptized. I think you will see that Jesus changes everything, including our own understanding and experience of repentance.

John’s Repentance (vv.1-6)

John was the cousin of Jesus – about six months older and a true prophet of the Lord.  As an adult, and called by God, John went into the wilderness to preach and baptize people for repentance – that they might be prepared for the coming of God’s Messiah and Kingdom.

He baptized with water, a ritual with rich imagery tied to repentance. In the ancient scriptures God had used water to enact JUDGMENT on the unrighteous. Think of the flood or the waters of the Red Sea closing in on Pharaoh’s army. And yet in the midst of those judgments God had provided a way out, deliverance through that judgment with the Ark and with God’s own parting of the Red Sea and the leadership of Moses. Secondly, water is naturally understood to CLEANSE and give LIFE. Just as we bathe with water to wash away dirt, the water of baptism symbolizes the cleansing or forgiveness of sin. We also must drink water to live; if we don’t we will die. Thirdly, in Hebrew scripture (and later in the New Testament), water symbolized the HOLY SPIRIT. In the great Temple ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles, the priest would pour water from a pitcher to symbolize the pouring out of God’s Spirit in the days when His Kingdom would draw near.

All this is the briefest of background to why John used water in his baptism.  Along with this richest of spiritual symbols, John would tell his listeners that God’s Kingdom and Presence was about to break into the world, so the time to repent was at hand.  “Get right before God, because He is coming soon!”  And to signify what God would do, John would baptize people with water – all at once symbolizing:

God’s judgment on our sin… DEATH

    God’s power to make us clean… LIFE

        And God’s promise to pour out His Holy Spirit… HOPE

And so John preached and told people the Kingdom was near and they should repent and turn back to God. And many were coming to him to confess their sins and be baptized with water. But John also said that something greater was coming…

John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (v.11) Said another way; John’s baptism is symbolic, representing something greater; but that greater thing – the real thing – will soon come. I have used the analogy of an engagement ring before to talk about baptism. When I proposed to Heather at Young Life’s Windy Gap Camp many years ago, I gave her a ring as a symbol of the promise to be married. It represented my love and commitment and our intention to marry. Yet it is not the marriage itself; it pointed to that greater reality. So, now that we are married, we still app

Text: Isaiah 61.1-6a,10-11; 1 Peter 2:5,9-10

Today I want to unpack a word a bit for you and that word is ‘salvation’. While it can be used in a non-religious sense, it’s a pretty religious word and people can use it in a number of different ways. It’s also an important word… more than that, a reality. And so I want to look at some of what the Bible has to say about salvation.

First, what it is not. Salvation isn’t a “ticket to heaven” with little other meaning than getting you through the gate to the great theme park in the sky. And while I say that a little tongue-in-cheek, it is what many Christians, including me, have taken it to mean at some point.

What is it, then? The Bible’s answer to that is deep and wide and rich indeed. First of all, the word itself doesn’t mean ‘ticket’ or ‘admission’ but ‘rescue’ or ‘deliverance’. And while in every day terms we might only talk about being rescued from a fire or dangerous situation, the more full-orbed and biblical meaning of this rescue includes three components: FROM what, TO what, and importantly, FOR what.

We could begin answering those questions from a number of places in Scripture, but today we are going to look at Isaiah and 1 Peter, who use several vivid and effective images and metaphors to help us understand salvation. We’ll start in Isaiah.

When God Plants a Tree…

Isaiah writes about the Good News of God’s salvation. It is the same that Jesus read and echoed in his own ministry: to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to comfort all who mourn and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. From that Good News, Isaiah moves to a powerful image to describe the result of that Good News and that salvation. He writes that that we will be called a “planting of the Lord.” Imagine what we would be without that Good News, without God’s intervention. Isaiah tells us: we would remain lost and hopeless: broken-heartedness, captivity, and mourning would remain. Later in the New Testament, we read that it’s even more bleak: we would be dead, lost in our trespasses and sins. That’s the FROM WHAT I described earlier.

But God has intervened to rescue His people! Isaiah describes this death-to-life Good News in this way: God plants us like seeds into the soil of the world. We are given new names and new identities. We are reborn and resurrected with purpose. And Isaiah says that we grow up into “oaks of righteousness.” That imagery brings much to mind. In order to grow and thrive we long for the water of the Holy Spirit, the nurture of the community of faith, the nourishment of God’s Word, and the light of Christ. Isaiah moves from that imagery into a description of the restoration God will bring about. Simply said, God’s salvation is rebirth as a new creation. There is no sin, past or present, that is greater than God’s forgiveness, and there is no devastation or ruin in life that God cannot begin to rebuild and make new. There may be scars – even Christ bears the scars of our sin. But in these verses we may anticipate the words of Christ, “Behold, I make all things new.” That’s the TO WHAT I mentioned: God rescues us for new life.

God heals and makes whole; but the greater consequence of this restoration is pointed out in the text… that God may be glorified. When someone saw the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt, a natural reaction would be to say, “I know how badly that wall was destroyed; who built it back?!” Likewise, people will look at us, particularly people who know us, and say, “Who did that to you? Who put you back together after all you’ve been through? How did you find such peace? What’s your secret?” To God be the glory! That’s the FOR WHAT… to participate in bringing glory to God before all the world.

That glory-giving is described in verses 10-11, which you heard as our call to worship:

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of

Text: Isaiah 60:1-3; Luke 2:25-32

Once upon a time Jesus was walking through a town and saw a man lying on a mat unable to stand and walk. To that man, Jesus said, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk!”

This past month we have talked about the darkness and grief that many face at this time of year. Many of us have been paralyzed by the darkness and confined to our mats, hemmed in and confined narrowly by the shadows closing in around us.

For you who struggle with the darkness – with doubt, depression, sin, sadness, and loneliness – this text is God’s Word for you today. It’s very similar to Jesus’ words to the man on the mat when he said, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” The heart of it is right there in Isaiah 60.

    Arise, shine; for your light has come! (v. 1)

Like the man on the mat, hearing and believing this declaration of God’s reality and power will require faith. Like the man on the mat, we have something to leave behind and something ahead of us. Like the man on the mat, Jesus calls us to light and life. In Jesus, God’s light has come in the midst of our darkness and He calls us to reflect and shine that light for His glory.

Your light has come in Jesus Christ. Let’s consider what it means to arise and to shine.

Darkness, But (Isaiah 60:2)

As we have seen these past few weeks in Isaiah, he and the people of his time knew what it meant to live in darkness. He was writing to a people exiled far from home and cut off from God. In today’s text, he named that reality:

    For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples…

Those were the real consequences for the sin of God’s people, Israel. It also describes the real consequences of human sin in general. We have always struggled with deep darkness, because that is the nature of life cut off from God.

Listen to the rest of verse 2, though:

    For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; BUT!

That’s not the end of the story, for Israel, for the human race, or for you! There is darkness, BUT.

Darkness… BUT the Lord will rise upon you – like the sunrise dawning after a dark night.

Darkness… BUT God’s glory will appear upon you – warming and lighting you like the bright heat of the noonday sun.

That’s the promise kept in Jesus Christ – that God’s glory has dawned on the human race. And that’s the Good News of Christmas for each of us. Though we continue to struggle with the darkness, the glory of God HAS risen upon us and appeared before us through Jesus Christ.

This is the message we heard on Christmas Eve night and celebrated on Christmas day. Now, Isaiah presses us forward. Because of this new reality in Jesus Christ – that God’s light has come, Isaiah challenges, “Arise, shine!” Let’s look first at the story of Simeon in Luke 2, then consider what it means to arise and shine.

My Eyes Have Seen (Luke 2:30)

This is one of my very favorite stories in the Bible. I’m not sure exactly why – whether it is the tenacious faith of this old priest, or the way God gives him what he longs for, or the coming together of so much faith and promise in the arrival and consecration of Jesus. Or maybe it’s the way I picture Simeon bursting into song at the glory of the moment.

Simeon was “righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel.” He lived more than 500 years into the darkness that had covered God’s people after the Exile, and he had such strong faith that he would see the glory of God dawn on the earth. He longed for it; he prayed for it. And he had a sense, a message from God’s Spirit to his, that he WOULD see that glory in his lifetime. And yet, he was old; he had waited a lifetime to see God’s face in this world.

And then Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus in to be consecrated in the Temple. And Simeon knew. I don’t know how he knew other than that God revealed this to him even as He had the knowledge that it would happen in his lifetime.

What is God’s glory? What is the light that has dawned? What is it that Sime

Text: Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 1:26-37; 2:1-20 

Christmas Eve 2019

What is faith made of? How do you get it? How do you experience it?

You’ve heard four substantial scripture readings tonight. And while they do not cover all that makes up faith, they cover a lot of ground. I’d like to suggest that these four parts of God’s story are like the four legs of a stool. They provide the stability, foundation, and support for a living and vital faith that makes a difference. I’d call them building blocks, but they don’t necessarily build on each other so much as inter-relate to one another to create a steady and stable faith. They are named in your bulletin, but let me remind you of what you’ve heard: promises, news, birth, and witness.

PROMISES

The first of these parts of God’s story is truly God’s part because it precedes us. God’s PROMISES reach back before Christ, back to when the world began. God created and it was good. God created us and it was very good. And we messed up… as we are want to do. But God did not abandon us. God came after us out of love. And that’s a good thing because we were not going to be able to undo our mess on our own. And so as you read the pages of the Old Testament you read what God was like. And contrary to the rumor that the Old Testament God is mean and the New Testament God is nice, it’s all the same God. In those pages of Old Testament scripture God is compassionate, patient, long-suffering, merciful, and good. And God promises to do something about the mess that is humanity. Now this isn’t always the first thing we hear about God or Jesus or faith. But at some point it becomes part of the stable foundation of faith, to realize that whatever faith we have or experience or are considering comes after God’s initiative to love us, seek us out, and reconcile us to Himself.

NEWS

The second part of the story is the NEWS. This is the message of Christmas: Jesus is born, God is with us, something holy has happened. It is “good news of great joy for the whole world.” To start considering Christian faith we first must hear the news. And then we have to figure out what to do with it! I appreciate that Mary was ‘perplexed’ but she also “kept pondering.” I will be the first to admit that the story of Jesus can be perplexing when we first encounter it. But it’s worth pondering… and pondering some more! We read together Mary’s response to the news: she praised God and marveled that God would do such a thing. If you read the full account of Mary’s prayerful response, she also recounts God’s promises to those who came before her.

BIRTH (Encounter)

The third part of the story is the BIRTH. The fancy word for it is the “incarnation,” which is just a big word that means “in flesh” or “as a human being.” It may seem like this is the same as the news, but this is the reality the news describes. Faith can begin at believing the news, but it also involves an encounter with Jesus. Just hearing the news without encountering Jesus is like reading poetry about love but not ever being in love. We can believe in it and want it, but the experience is the greater reality. For Mary and Joseph, the birth of Jesus was the reality the angel told them about. The shepherds also heard the news from angels, and then they went to see for themselves. Perhaps another way to talk about this part of the story of faith is as the ENCOUNTER. Faith is hearing about Jesus, but it is also encountering Jesus.

How do you do that? …especially since there is no longer a stable and manger to go visit! Many people experience the power and presence of God in creation… in the mountains, at the seashore, in nature. And scripture says that all nature does reveal God, but only in a general way. The specifics are in scripture and in the community of faith. And like the humble stable and manger, the focus should be on Christ himself. That is our hope when you worship with us, that you will see Jesus and experience the presence of God.

WITNESS (Change)

The fourth par

Text: Isaiah 40:1-5; Matthew 3:1-6

Christmas is Coming! You might not have felt it on Black Friday; you might have dragged your feet getting the decorations out; but we’re getting close now! Christmas is coming and that’s the news in today’s scriptures as well.

I appreciate the service Eric put together last week. For many, the Christmas season is a struggle. And today’s scripture texts don’t gloss over that. In fact, that’s kind of the whole point of the scriptures we heard. Isaiah 40 doesn’t start with “Hey, ring those bells!” Rather, it starts with this: “Comfort, O comfort my people. Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed.” (v.1)

We are going to see today that God has met us in the rough places, made a way for us, and invited us into His presence. And that news of “God with us” is the Christmas message.

I want to share the sermon in a different kind of way this morning. It’s going to be more moving around and visual. (Don’t worry; the pulpit will be back soon!) I want to try to illustrate Isaiah’s message, then John the Baptist’s message, then invite you toward Christmas.

Make Way! (Isaiah 40)

First, Isaiah. (I start walking out into the center aisle and pulling empty chairs out into the aisle.) He starts with this comforting message of God’s compassion and mercy, but then starts offering an illustration like I’m going to try to do. He goes on to describe a journey that is full of hills, rough terrain, broken roads, and more. It’s a pretty vivid description of what it can feel like to try to draw near to God or to stir up holiday happiness that you just don’t feel. There’s all this STUFF that is life – disappointments, suffering, challenges, twists and turns. There is also all the spiritual stuff that gets between us and God – sin, disobedience, stubbornness, pride.

But into that human situation, Isaiah’s message is startling. (As I read the next few sentences, I start moving the obstacles out of the center aisle, leaving an open path once again.) It is, “Make way!… God coming through!” The King is coming and all that is in the way will be cleared away: “Clear the way in the wilderness; make smooth a highway in the desert; let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley.”

Now, that sounds like we are to make the way, because the King is coming. And that is part of how to understand this. We are to prepare ourselves for God. But think about those images. We can clear a rough patch or two in the road. But who can level mountains and fill valleys but God Himself? And that is going to be one of the great implications of Christmas, of the Incarnation. God Himself will make a way through to us so that we can receive Him.

And then… THEN… “the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.” (v.5)

God will make a way that we might behold Him, that we might enter into His presence.

This Way! (Matthew 3)

Years later, John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, would pick up these same words. He quoted these same verses from Isaiah and added this message to it: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (v.2)

Let me illustrate what ‘repent’ means with the same props as before. Remember, God has made a way through the hills and valleys, around and through the rough places. And John recalled that. But he noted that people were going their own way (or still trying to make their own way); but they were not going the way God had made. That’s a sense of what ‘repent’ means. It means turn around and go THIS WAY!  Repent doesn’t mean “do better” it means, turn to God.

John was giving Isaiah’s message (make way!) and pointing the way (this way!) to direct people toward God’s Messiah. And that way points right to the manger, right to Immanuel, right to God with us and for us.

Christmas is not only coming; it’s here! (I point at the manger at the f

Text: Isaiah 35:1-10; Matthew 11:2-6

John Lee Hooker was born In Mississippi around 1917, the son of a sharecropper who was also a Baptist preacher. He was the youngest of 11 children. When he was still very young his parents separated and his mother, Minnie, remarried a musician named William Moore, who would introduce John Lee to the guitar and the blues. At the age of 14 John Lee ran away from home; he eventually made his way to Memphis and then to Detroit, where he worked in factories and eventually with the Ford Motor Company. He frequented the bars and blues clubs in Detroit and made a name for himself as a Blues singer. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lee_Hooker)

What is it about blues music that connects with people? I would argue that it is, in large part, having someone identify with and name human suffering. When you hear John Lee Hooker sing, you don’t doubt for a minute that he knows and has lived what he sings about. And if you have known suffering of the kind he describes, you also know you are not alone. There is someone else who has been there – or who IS there. And while that may not give you any solutions or answers, it reminds you that you are not alone. The blues also sets human suffering to music; it turns it into art. In its own way it makes something – if not beautiful, than at least haunting and soulful – out of something that could destroy us. It takes hunger or poverty or loss and says, “I’m gonna sing about that and tell my story” and people hear it and sing along and say “that’s my story.”

I want to play part (:35-2:28) of a John Lee Hooker song for you. I can well imagine it comes from his childhood experiences and perhaps from his own experiences trying to find work and take care of a family. Most of us here today have probably never experienced this, but we can at least recognize a man acquainted with sorrow and with grief, and what his art has contributed to others who have experienced the same. 

“Hard Times” by John Lee Hooker

Lord you know hard timesCan’t you see hard times are here to stayYou know hard times, hard timesIt seems like they here to stayHard times, hard timesOh boy, don’t you know it worry me

I ain’t got no shoes on my feetYou know my clothes are very thinI ain’t got no shoes on my feetYou know my clothes are wearin’ very thin

If I don’t get a job pretty soonI don’t know what I’m going to doHard times, hard timesOh boy, it’s getting me down

He goes on to talk about “no food on my table… no shoes to go on my feet… and my little children cry for mercy… crying for bread.” The blues is naming and identifying with human suffering, and in itself, that is a powerful thing.

The Blues Prophet

Listen to the list of people and situations Isaiah spoke to in our text today:

the exhausted and feeble (v.3)those with anxious heart (v.4)the blind and deaf (v.5)the lame and mute (v.6)the scorched land and thirsty ground (v.7)sorrow and sighing (v.10)

And Isaiah said that God had promised to help. Many years later, John the Baptist sent some of his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you the Expected One?” And Jesus answered with a similar list of people and situations which we heard in Matthew 11:5 today: the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the poor… and even the dead!

Why do I call Isaiah (and Jesus) the “blues prophet”? It is because Isaiah demonstrated that God knows and sees the human condition. And Jesus, all the more, demonstrated that God has entered INTO the human condition through Emmanuel, God with us.

Your human experience may not be that of John Lee Hooker, born a black man to a sharecropper in early 20th century Mississippi. But you have your own human experience to grieve and grapple with. It may be that you relate to the hunger or need of John Lee Hooker’s song. Or perhaps you identify with one or more of the experiences into which Isaiah spoke. And maybe, if you look closely at Jesus’ human experience, you’ll see that he knows of your sorrow, your struggle, your grief. Each one