“Prepare a Way”  (Luke 3:1-6)

Intro:  In our reading this morning, Luke goes to great lengths to place John the Baptist in a concrete place and time.  From this specific point in history comes an eternal message, as  John says “Prepare, He is coming.”  //

Advent is a season of expectation and waiting.  It is a longing for something that has happened, but it is still not yet.  During this time of waiting for the birth of the Christ Child we do not sit idly by until December 25^th , passing time by saying “Merry Christmas” or Happy Holidays and do nothing else.  This time preceding Christmas, is a time for preparations, we are actively “doing what needs to be done, and getting ready.” 

It is almost cliché and passé to speak about the “busyness of the season”, how crazy schedules get and all the things that can feel like anything but holiday cheer.  Yes, there are cards to write, presents to buy, and fruitcakes to bake.  But this morning I want to look at another side of our preparations for Christmas.  Not the things that we feel are obligations that we perhaps dread, but rather the things we look forward to, the work that is not work. Those things we do as we get ready for Christmas that bring a special joy.  Traditions that still surprise us with the power of the feeling they bring.  I’d like to look at some of those moments that stir us and soften our hearts.

To do this I will ask your help.  I would like to you to reflect on your Christmas preparations and bring to mind the thing you look forward to doing most, and consider what it means to you.  Think for a moment about doing this special thing.   And if you would like, I’d invite you talk with a neighbor for a few minutes and to share them in a minute.  Take just a moment to do that now. 

We have just shared some of those things we do, each very personal, each very real and central to our experience of Christmas.  These are examples of things are done to prepare for the Advent of Christ.  The significance of the good feeling that comes with doing them should not be missed.  That feeling, that sense of warmth, the love and joy and peace that comes, is a road where God comes straight to us.  It is a direct connection. That is what I think John is talking about when he says prepare a way for the Lord.  (It is some of what Paul is speaking of Philippians when he writes of love overflowing and determining what really matters)

Advent is a time for us to do something so that God can come into our lives.  That doing can be any number of things, it could be setting up a village, or hanging a star.  It could be baking or praying.  It may be sitting in a favorite chair and remembering.  We are to repent of hard hearts and hard headedness.  and be open feeling something wonderful as God comes to meet us in human form.  

Last week we heard about Christ’s second Advent on a global scale.  When all will see God at the same time.  Advent happens on an individual scale as well.   Christ comes at those times when we stand in awe saying  “Here is our God”  “Here is my God.” 

The coming of the Lord is a joyous thing, for which we should prepare with gladness and thanks in our hearts.  Luke quotes just a portion of the text from Isaiah that provides the call to make a path for God to come.  I’d like to close by reading the full passage.  It is Isaiah 40: 1-11.

40:1  Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.  A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.  Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.   Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”   See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

 “Anticipation” (Luke 21:25-36 )

Intro:  Today as we enter Advent, we begin the new church year.  The Christian calendar starts with the first Sunday of Advent.  As a curious twist, the first passage of the lectionary each year is usually about the “end of time.”   Our reading this morning comes from Luke, chapter 21. //

This Sunday begins the season of Advent.  It is the time that has been set aside for centuries for people to prepare anew for Christ’s coming at Christmas.  Advent is a Latin word that means “to come.”  The birth of Jesus Christ, the first time that God came to be with us in human form is rightly considered “Advent.”  And we are all familiar with the story of how Jesus came as a child.  But throughout the Bible God speaks of a return visit, a “coming again” of Christ.  The first Sunday in Advent has traditionally been set aside to consider the second coming or “advent” of our Lord.

There’s probably no Christian teaching that’s caused more excitement and confusion than what is often called the “second coming of Christ.”  As Christmas comes closer and the pace of preparation becomes more and more hectic, I can just imagine some saying, “I hope he does come and let’s just get it over with!”   There have been some interesting comparisons between frantic roaring shopping malls and the end of time but I won’t get into that.  

In one of my favorite Peanuts comic strips, Linus and Lucy are standing at the window looking out at the rain falling. Lucy says to Linus, “Boy, look at it  rain…What if it floods the earth?” Linus, the resident biblical scholar, answers, “It will never do that…in the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” With a smile on her face, Lucy replies, “Linus, you’ve taken a great load off my mind.” To which Linus responds, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

“Sound theology,” the teachings of Jesus, will hopefully take a load off our minds about the second coming, but will also put a load on us – a load of discipleship and living in expectation.

This whole idea of Christ’s return, has been troublesome and confusing partly because of the kind of language the Bible uses to describe it. Scholars call passages like this one from Luke “apocalyptic literature”.  We find this style of writing in the Books of Daniel  and Revelation as well. It is a style that uses vivid, striking images to convey a message of hope and faith. It was used especially during times when God’s people were being severely oppressed.

Apocalyptic literature is heavily concerned with the movement from bondage to freedom.  And God’s preoccupation with bondage never ceases.  God is always acting.  But how God acts is never fully understood.  The signs in the stars and sun are hard to make sense of.  But this story brought hope to those who first read it.  The writer of Luke had a good sense of oppression.  He would have seen firsthand the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city.  He would have seen Jews being forced to tear down the Temple with their own hands.  He would have seen all kinds of things that might look like the end of the world in the worst ways and yet he looked forward to the end time with hope, and expectation.   

While we today do not fully understand it.  We too, can still take hope from it.  We can  understand it’s essential message. When you put it all together, it’s saying,  “No matter how bad it looks, don’t give up the faith.  God is in control.  God is coming.”

I think that the church makes two mistakes in regard to the teaching of Christ’s return.

First, some do become obsessed with it. In fact, many claim to know too much about it. It’s not a bit confusing to them. They can pull out their charts, graphs and timetables to give you a very logical explanation about when the exact date is.  There have been a number of religious leaders that have convinced others to sell all they have because the second coming was coming in 1989, or 92, or 2016.  They have all been wrong so far. 

Reinhold Neibuhr, a Christian scholar, once said, “Some people claim to know the temperature of hell and the furniture of heaven.” The thing is we don’t.   Jesus said in Mark, the angels do not know, nor the Son.  And when he was asked in Acts 1 when the end times would take place, he tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or periods  that God has set.  We are not going to know.   But we are to live as though it could happen anytime. 

The other mistake the church makes is in treating this teaching too lightly or dismissing it altogether. Some see it as an outdated doctrine that causes more trouble and confusion than its worth. It’s no longer relevant for us.  To ignore it would be to miss a central truth to our faith.  If God is not coming again, if there is not somewhere, someday a completion of God’s will and work, where does that leave us? 

“Our task, in connection with the second coming, is neither denial on the one hand nor precise dating on the other, but simple obedience to  witness and to work now, doing the tasks which are within our scope.”  That’s the message. We are to live in expectation and anticipation that it could be. 

I do not believe that it was the desire of Jesus that talk of a second advent be frightening, or confusing. To the contrary, it is meant be a source of hope and assurance, a great stimulus to deeper discipleship, if we look at it with new eyes.  Eyes that can see the leaves of summer even in the midst of winter.  The fig tree that Jesus speaks of is a consoling image of God’s garden coming to life, a new creation about to spring forth.  This green and fruitful view of the future is very comforting in the midst of chaos; hope in the midst of chaos is a sign of faith.  We are people of faith. 

There are lots of signs of distress and problems with the world.  But here before us is an invitation to stand with our heads high in the middle of it all, and hold fast to the truth that God will come to meet us.  That “coming” that took place once in Bethlehem, it will take place on a world scale at some point in the future.

It is getting harder and harder to be a Christian these days, especially at Christmas.  If you said to someone at the office Christmas party what do you think about Christ coming again, you’d be standing by yourself pretty soon.   Many people have a hard enough time with the idea of God coming the first time.  It can be hard to see the joy and the wonder.  As we enter this time of advent.  Do we see God at the center of all this and do we see truth in the possibility of God’s coming again?  That is what we face in the reading this morning.  Do we think God will come again?  Do we live that way? 

This Advent season, let us be open to saying maybe.  Maybe it’s possible that God will come again.  It seems impossible to those outside the faith, it sounds impossible to many within the faith as well.  It is a rather “fantastic” idea.  But it is fantastic enough that all across the world there are preachers preaching about this, there are people who could be elsewhere, who are listening to them, hymns are being sung, prayers are being offered and it is fantastic that in a world like ours people still say at least maybe to the possibility of God at all.  But we do.  Thanks be to God who lives and reigns and will come again.   Amen.

“Auto-Pilate”  (John 18:33-38)

Intro:  Our reading this morning tells of Jesus’ encounter with Pilate.  It will be the day of his crucifixion.  When Pilate asks Jesus “are you a king?”  He couldn’t understand the answer Jesus gave us.  ///

Rarely do I feel the need to offer a warning or an explanation in advance of my sermons, today I feel I should mention that I have a pilots license, I used to fly little cessnas and sailplanes.  And I seem to think it is endlessly funny that “Pilate” the Roman governor, and “Pilot” the guy who flys a plane, sound the same. 

(Skit)  “Pilot to copilot, pilot to copilot come in please.  Pilot to copilot, can you read me?  Where is that twin brother of mine?  I guess I’ll just have to fly this plane alone.  I’m used to making all the decisions anyway.  I am the emperor’s representative in the occupied territory of Judea.  That’s where I’m going back to today.  Now Judea is not the most desirable of assignments, I know but I run it.  I’m governor.   I plan to work my way up in time, so I want to do a good job.  I need to be on site for the upcoming Jewish Passover, I’ve found it helps keep the peace if I’m there.  Excuse me, I better check in with ground control.  “Ground, this is Centurion 7913G ready for departure.  Runway 13 right.”  I’ll just get this off the ground and we’ll be on our way.  I’m looking forward to getting back, my wife Claudia is in Judea now.  She says I work too much and that I’m away too often.  But whenever I go away, she leaves a light on.  Although I worry about our relationship, the light she leaves on keeps getting smaller and smaller.  First it was the front porch light, then the living room light.  Now she just leaves the little one on the stove lit.  The pilot light.   Enough about that.  Let’s talk flying.   I love flying.  You pull up, and you go up, you push down and you go down.  Cause, effect.  It’s all rational and understandable.   There is a precision to it.  That’s what I like, things that make sense.  It’s easy to make decisions up here because you know what will happen.

There is no way to overstate the power and drama of our scripture, this moment as Jesus came before Pilate.  Jesus knew what was going to happen, how the world was about to change, Pilate did not.  Here are two men with some things in common, and one huge difference.  They were both about the same age, both of them passionate, committed, opinionated about what they believed.  They could be bullheaded at times, too.  I imagine they were both quite intelligent.  All these things one could suppose they shared in common.  The thing that divided them so far apart, was how they thought.

Jesus was a Jew.  Pilate was a Roman.  And Pilate never understood the Jews.  That must have drove him nuts.  He was sent on assignment to Judea to be the over seer of the Roman occupation and he had to deal with such different culture.  As a Roman he prized reason and logic, straight forward questions with straight forward answers.  Cause and effect, rules and regulation.  Just get the system set up and maintain it.  Ask a question and expect an answer that is to the point. 

The Jews however, would answer questions with stories, or worse yet even more questions.  Think of how Jesus would often teach in parables and how wide open parables are to varying interpretations.  The scribes brought Jesus before Pilate without really answering the question of “what has he done wrong”  They bring him forward and say “kill him, he is blaspheming.” 

Jesus is brought before Pilate, and Pilate wants to do what is appropriate and necessary.  Although Jewish life was seen as having little or no value, he did not want to order an execution with no reason.  Blasphemy was not a Roman crime.    

The high priests then accuse Jesus of leading a revolt against the emperor in Rome.  They said he claimed to be a King.  Kings and emperors.  Pilate knew about those.  And if Jesus was leading a revolt that would be a crime.  But this man did not act like a king or revolutionary.  So Pilate asks Jesus directly.  “Are you the king of the Jews?  Jesus replies “my Kingdom is not of this world.” 

He wasn’t saying that it was a kingdom off in the clouds somewhere, a kingdom literally “out of this world.”  Jesus went on to elaborate the kinds of kingdoms that Pilate knew all about.  Ones that depend on raw power, that are maintained by force. 

If Jesus were an earthly king his followers would have fought to protect him.  In fact, Peter had just tried to do that in the garden.  But Jesus told him to put away his sword.  The kingdom he belonged to was different. 

In that circular, poetic style of his, Jesus was telling Pilate “The kingdom I belong to is not like the kingdoms of this world.  It’s not even a kingdom as humans usually understand kingdoms. 

As long as we think about the kingdom of God in a geographical of territorial way, as we think about the Roman Empire or the country of the United States, we’re always going to think of God’s kingdom as being somewhere or sometime. 

But Jesus said, “my kingdom is not of this world.  If it is not somewhere what can it be?  Every king we know has a kingdom.  Whether it is the king of England, the ring of rock and roll, even the lion king had a particular time and place that defined the kingdom. 

Jesus was at the day of his death.  Throughout his whole life he knew, he believed, that in him the kingdom had come.  Jesus lived on earth, but he lived as no one else ever has, in God’s kingdom.  Everything he did, and said and lived, he revealed the love, the influence and the grace of God. 

Pilate asks “what is truth”  Jesus lived the answer.  God’s kingdom exists in people and God’s Kingdom is most visible in him.  If we can stop thinking of the Kingdom as somewhere, or sometime, and start thinking of it as someone, a whole lot of what Jesus said will make a lot more sense.  If we can get beyond our seeking logical reasoned answers, if we can turn off our “auto-pilots” that guide us though a cause and effect universe.  Then we can begin to see the truth is not “an idea with merit.”  Truth is felt, it is acted out and enacted in life.  Truth in Hebrew means more literally “trustworthy” or “faithful” and it is a term more descriptive of a person than any intellectual proposition. 

Pilate asks what is truth.  Jesus’ word’s are describing who is truth.  Earlier in the Gospel Jesus says “I am the way the truth and the life.” 

In his institutes on religion, John Calvin reminds us “To see the kingdom of God is to inherit it… But those who identify the kingdom of God with heaven are mistaken; the kingdom means rather the spiritual life, which begins in this life by faith, and in which we grow daily as we progress in constant faith.   

As we pushed back from Thanksgiving tables, let us be thankful not for all the things in our lives, but all the blessing, all the signs of the Kingdom that come to us through people, relationships.  Let us be thankful for the truth that is not found out there, but within us.  As God is in us.  Amen.