Expect God's Presence

Part 4: “Expect the Presence of God”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)

Sunday, December 19, 2010 – Fourth Sunday of Advent

Matthew 1:18-25

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid…All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God is with us’.”

When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he expected disgrace…

He expected that Mary had been unfaithful…

He expected to divorce her quietly and go on with his life…

He did not expect to be visited by the Lord’s messenger in a dream…

He did not expect to become the caregiver for the Son of God.

Let us pray:

Emmanuel, God with us, stand with us this morning.

Help us to understand the words of Scripture and hear the lesson you have for us today.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be truly pleasing to you.

Amen

On this 4^th Sunday of Advent we, like Joseph, are challenged to make sense out of the idea that the Virgin Mary could conceive and bear a son through the action of God’s Holy Spirit…

We all know the biology of conception and childbirth…

It’s basic science and this is not the way it works…

Think of it from Joseph’s perspective…

He lives a simple life in a nice little town where everybody knows everybody’s business;

He expects his life to be uncomplicated and his future to be normal and uneventful;

Then he meets Mary and everything changes.

His simple life is suddenly very complicated and the fact that everybody in town knows everybody else’s business makes it really hard to live a normal life…

Suddenly his expectations are turned upside down and, just when he thinks he’s got it all figured out – “I’ll just send her on her way and stay out of this mess.” –

An angel of the Lord visits him in the midst of his restless sleep and tells him this incredible story of how Mary conceived and who this baby really is…

The blinding light of this visitation awakens Joseph’s faith in God and his deep faith rearranges his expectations.

That’s what we are being asked to do today…

Dig deep into our faith and accept that God can do whatever God wants to do;

Dismiss whatever doubts have come with our increased scientific knowledge
and technological innovation;

Push back against a culture that tells us there is no God;

Rearrange our expectations so that we can fully experience God’s presence in our lives;

Throughout this Advent season we have been asked to…

Expect the unexpected;

Expect to be challenged;

Expect miracles;

And now – to expect the presence of God…Emmanuel – God with us

Where do you see and feel God’s presence?

In the eyes of a friend who is nearing the end of this life and
preparing to pass into eternal life with God…

In the smile of a newborn baby just beginning this fantastic journey…

In the face of a foster child whose Christmas was made better
because of the gifts you bought…

In the sounds of singing echoing through the halls of Grace Living Center…

In the steps of someone entering our church for the first time and walking into a room filled with the love of God – love that knows no barriers or boundaries;
love that is welcoming and understanding;
love that points people to Jesus Christ.

Expect God’s presence this Christmas and you will receive exactly what you expect.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen!

Expect a Miracle

Part 3: “Expect a Miracle”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)

Sunday, December 12, 2010 – Third Sunday of Advent

Matthew 11:2-11 (Isaiah 35:1-10)

John’s question doesn’t seem very “Christmassy” now does it?

How many of us would dare to peek into the manger on Christmas morning and ask:
“Is this it? Is this little baby what all the fuss is about?”
This isn’t what we were expecting!

Where’s the Messiah to bring down Herod and release John from prison?

Is somebody better coming along?

Are you sure we’re backing the right guy? Really?

Jesus’ offers an answer that points us to the prophet Isaiah…

In chapter 35, Isaiah says, when the Messiah comes…

“The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again;

The lame will leap; the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb”

Signs and wonders will signal Messiah’s arrival…

Even John has to be reminded of what to watch for…what to expect.

You see, we tend to get exactly what we expect…

Do we expect the miraculous or the mundane?

Let us pray:

We hear the echo of a promise: “The Messiah is coming!”

Are you really the One?

We hear you answer: “I am the One who changes the world.
Are you really ready for me?”

With God’s help, we are ready to follow you. We are ready to greet you!

Lead us now in the study of your Word and help us to prepare the way for you.

Amen

Once again we are confronted by a text that doesn’t seem to fit into the Christmas season…

Instead of celebrating the angel’s promise or Mary’s joy, or Elizabeth’s excitement,
we’re questioning whether Jesus really is the promised Messiah…

And, why not? In today’s story we find John in prison…Not a great place to be…

He’s wondering – If my cousin Jesus is the Messiah, then why doesn’t he bust me out?

We really can’t blame John for being confused…

He’s been out in the desert preaching about the coming Messiah…

He has certain expectations about what this person will do for the people…

He preached about a new Kingdom…

He talked about a baptism of fire…Gathering the good and burning up the bad…

Now he’s rotting in prison because of what he said and Jesus isn’t helping.

I’m not surprised he’s asking this question.

The thing is, Jesus really doesn’t give a straight answer…

He sends the message back to John that the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk…

And there is a very good reason why he answered in such a way…

First, he depends on John – and us – to recall to memory and listen to the traditions of our faith;

He sends us back to the prophet Isaiah…

He’s counting on John to remember the stories of his faith and put two and two together.

The miracles tell the story.

Second, he’s asking us to think about what miracles are really about…

Throughout Scripture miracles are used to point the people toward God…

The miraculous show of power or healing or deliverance has always been about showing people who God really is…

The Pillar of fire showed God as Guide and Protector…

Manna from heaven showed God as Provider…

Daniel saved in the lion’s den showed God’s power over all creatures…

Jesus demonstrated countless healings to show God as Healer…

Jesus’ Resurrection proves God’s dominion over death…

Miracles point us to God and God’s absolute power over everything!

But all that “miracle stuff” is in the past…That stuff doesn’t happen today does it?

I think that depends on what you expect and what you look for…

How do we see miracles in the midst of the harsh realities of life?

Particularly now – during the Christmas season – we tend to regard sickness, tragedy,
and death as somehow being worse.

If we hear that someone died this close to Christmas we immediately think, “What a shame. The family’s holidays will never be the same.”

Matthew’s text this morning reminds us that it is precisely because we live in a world full of sickness, tragedy, death, and sadness that Jesus came into the world in the first place…

If we cannot recall this core truth from the Gospel during Advent, then why are we celebrating this coming of Christ at all?

Christ arrived in the middle of our tragedy
to show us the miracle that is our life with Him.

We must expect God’s miracles of healing and wholeness and hope…

We must look for and recognize God’s miracles,
even when they don’t happen just the way we want them to happen,
at exactly the moment we think they should happen.

We need to realize that the miracle we want may not be the miracle that God knows we need…The miracle points us to a deeper understanding of God; maybe our version of the miracle would lead us away.

Belief in miracles means believing that God knows what we need better than we do…

That is true faith!

As we prepare for Christmas this year, I invite you to expect to see miracles…

Expect God to do the things that God promises…

Expect miracles to happen on God’s schedule…

Expect miracles to point you to a deeper understanding of who God is and
how your relationship with God is supposed to work…

Expect a miracle to lead you to hope and healing this Christmas.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen!

Joy-Avalon.wmv

Expect a Challenge

Part 2: “Expect a Challenge”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)

Sunday, December 5, 2010 – Second Sunday of Advent

Matthew 3:1-12 (Isaiah 11:1-10)

This week we continue to ask: “What do you expect this Christmas?”

It’s part of our Advent journey…Preparing to meet Christ again, what do we expect?

One thing we might not expect is to encounter the adult John the Baptist…

30 years after Christ’s birth…Talking to us right before Christmas…

What is he doing here?

As we look deeper into this familiar story, we begin to see the challenge of the season…

What difference does Jesus make to the world today?

Let us pray:
O come, Emmanuel, God with us, the Expected Savior of all nations,
O come, Wisdom from the mouth of the Most High God,
come and teach us how to face the challenges of this world as we prepare to meet you.
In Jesus’ Name…Amen

Today we circle back in Matthew’s gospel…

Last week we were at the end of Jesus’ ministry; today we return to the beginning…

These texts are unusual for the Christmas season,
but they demonstrate the same kind of expectation…

The expectation that God will or has already begun a new way of relating to the world
and this “new way” is a call for our relationships to change

So, what do we expect?

For me, this text calls me to expect a challenge…

There has long been a debate over how to translate this text with the proper punctuation…

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”

Is different from:

“The voice of one crying out: ‘In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.’”

I think the latter translation makes more sense for us…

It is in the wilderness where the highway for God needs to be paved;

It is in the wilderness of our culture where the real work needs to be done.

Our challenge comes in John’s call to repentance.

One of the big mistakes we make is to hear John’s words as only being directed at this
“brood of vipers” standing by the river – The Pharisees and Sadducees.

It is more important for us to realize who these vipers represent…

John is really talking to people who already believe in the God of the Bible and God’s Word of promise…the Jews…John is not preaching to non-believers here…

For us, then, it is vital that we hear John’s call to repentance, not as a call to conversion, but as a call to radical change…

He is speaking to us – as believers – and telling us that repentance, the Greek metanoia, is more than simply being sorry for past sins or asking for forgiveness;

This metanoia is a radical change in behavior; a turning away from our past way of life and beginning a whole new thing in Christ Jesus…

It’s about new expectations for our relationship with God.

John is challenging us to see ourselves in the faces of the Pharisees and the Sadducees…

It’s not enough to proclaim that we believe; that we accept the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that we believe in the Messiah…

It’s about the fruit that we bear…The ax is waiting to cut down any tree that does not bear good fruit…The Jews don’t want to hear it and neither do we!

John the Baptizer cries out with a sense of real urgency…His message is just as real for us as it was for those standing by the side of the Jordan…

You can’t keep doing things the way you’ve always done them…

You have a limited amount of time before you reach God’s Kingdom…

We must stop living for this world and start living for God’s world…

When we choose to live for God’s world
we will become part of God’s transformation of this world

The challenge in this message is that we have a choice…

We can choose to rock along as if Jesus’ presence in the world makes no difference…

Or we can choose to be part of the transformation…

We can choose to believe that only men can solve the problems that plague our world…

Or we can choose to realize that peace is the miraculous gift of God that we are invited to live into and sustain.

The choice is ours and our choices will be manifest in the fruit we display.

If you ask someone who has overcome an addiction or some other destructive way of life, you will find someone who knows what true repentance is about…

Their former behavior was not sustainable…

Only God’s dramatic action to bring about a radical new thing, along with their willingness to surrender to God’s work, enabled them to move forward –
away from their certain destruction.

The good news was that God handed them exactly what they needed when they needed it AND they made the choice to respond faithfully.

This is true repentance…This is the challenge of expectation…

Surrendering our will to God’s will and choosing to change.

If we expect to meet Christ anew this Christmas, then we must accept the challenge of becoming the person Christ wants to greet…

Not a perfect person, but a repentant person…

Someone who recognizes that it’s not enough to claim to believe;
we must also behave as believers…

You can choose to stand firm as a tree of transformation, sending out branches weighed down with the fruit of a life lived for God…

Or you can slither with the snakes on the river bank, bending to the will of the culture and ultimately writhing on the garbage dump of history…

It’s your choice and your challenge…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen!

Expect the Unexpected

Part 1: “Expect the Unexpected”

(Series: What Do You Expect this Christmas?)
Sunday, November 28, 2010 – First Sunday of Advent
Matthew 24:36-44 (Isaiah 2:1-5)

Vs. 44: “Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

This Advent season I want us to seriously think about what we expect this Christmas.

I’m not talking about your letters to Santa or what you hope to find under the tree on Christmas morning…

I’m talking about what you expect from your relationship with God.

Let us pray:
Lord, I ask that you guide us in our meditation on your Word this morning.
Lead us into Scripture to discover the truth you have for us today.
In Jesus’ Name…Amen

Advent: The arrival of something long-awaited; in church language – the time before the arrival/birth of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah.

We talk about it in terms of being a time to prepare ourselves to greet Jesus;

We talk about it being a time of anticipation, of hope, and of introspection;

This year I want us to focus on the word “expectation”

Matthew’s gospel makes it clear that not even Jesus knows the timing for his return…

He tells us to be ready for the unexpected…

What this really means is that the timing of it isn’t important;
what’s important is the certainty of it

Isn’t that what expectation is? Certainty of what will happen?

If we truly expect something to happen, we must have some degree of certainty.

So, this Advent I want us to really think about what we expect…

Do we expect God to do unexpected things?

Do we expect to be challenged in our walk of faith?

Do we expect miracles to happen?

Do we expect God to be present with us?

Do our expectations lead us to certainty about our relationship with God?

This morning’s reading from Isaiah talks about a time when God’s perfect will is realized…

Swords are beaten into plowshares; spears turned into pruning hooks…
in other words, our weapons are re-purposed for something good

Nation shall not fight against nation and we won’t learn about war anymore

The prophet was certain that this time would one day come…he expected it and
he wanted the people to expect it also.

Our gospel is certain of what Christ will do, even though the timing is uncertain…

Matthew tells us to be ready and expect the unexpected…

He tells us to live faithfully and appropriately, with certainty of our salvation

Isaiah was writing nearly three thousand years ago; Matthew wrote two thousand years ago…

For all their certainty, their expectations have yet to be fulfilled…

We still hold on to our weapons; we still have war all over the world; and
Christ still hasn’t come back.

What’s a good Christian to do?

Give up? Be less certain? Change our expectations? Stop watching and waiting?
Stop living faithfully and appropriately?

That’s exactly what I want us to think about this Advent…
What do we really expect?

If we listen to Isaiah, I wonder if we really expect that the day will ever come when his prophecy will come true…

Can we even visualize a world where there are no weapons and no war?

If we can’t even dream of such a place, how can we expect it to evolve?

What if we visualize Isaiah’s “weapons” as a metaphor for the things that we use/abuse…?

What weapons in your life might be re-purposed into something good for God’s glory?

Words are often used as weapons that might better be turned into tools for healing.

Turning away from someone might be a weapon that could be changed into
an offer of hope.

Maybe Isaiah was expecting humanity to change so that
God’s perfect plan might be realized.

Something to think about…

Maybe Matthew is telling us that we need to be ready for the unexpected because God isn’t going to bother sending Jesus again until we’re living the life we’re expected to live.

Maybe the “unexpected time” is when God’s people can stop bickering long enough to really live the way Jesus called us to live…wouldn’t that be “UNEXPECTED”!

Maybe the gospel is warning us that we need to be doing some unexpected things to prepare for Jesus’ unexpected return.

So I wonder…What do we really expect this Christmas?

Do we expect God to do all the work?

Jesus showed us an unexpected way of living…

He turned conventional wisdom upside down…

He did things that his own people never expected the Messiah to do.

I wonder if we can follow his example.

I also wonder if we can accept the possibility that God can still act in unexpected ways…

Or, have we become too cynical to think that God can still transform lives…

Is it outside the realm of possibility for people to get along with one another…?

Is it too much to expect for nations to stop bombing other nations…

Is there simply no way for people to solve their differences
short of blowing something up?

As faithful Christians, I believe that we must be willing to expect the unexpected…

That means expecting great things from God…

It means giving God the chance to act in amazing ways by being open to him…

It means believing God’s promises in spite of the world’s realities.

I believe it is a great comfort to expect God to do what God says he will do…

That expectation gives me the certainty to trust God for everything.

It takes the pressure off and helps me to be the person God wants me to be.

I expect people to treat each other well. I expect the economy to improve.

I expect terrorists to see the light and change.

I choose to expect the unexpected.

Amen!

Long Live the King!

“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”
Christ the King Sunday – November 21, 2010
Luke 23:33-43

“The King is dead; long live the King!”

In 1272, King Henry III died while his son, Edward I, was off fighting in the Crusades.

To avoid any chance of civil war, the Royal Council proclaimed: “The throne shall never be empty; the country shall never be without a monarch.”

Edward I was declared King of England and the practice of immediate succession was born. “King Henry is dead; long live King Edward!”

Edward I reigned in absentia until the news reached him and he returned to England – two years later.

This morning’s Gospel reading is one we seldom hear except during Holy Week…

The story of Jesus’ death isn’t one we tend to dwell on out of context.

First of all, we prefer more pleasant stories about Jesus;

Secondly, when we think of Christ the King we’d rather visualize him sitting on his throne in heaven rather than hanging on his cross.

What we hear in this story, however, is a powerful acclamation of how God’s Kingdom works…

The chief priests miss the point of God’s reign and resist God’s Messiah King;

The Romans mock Jesus by placing the sign on the cross: “King of the Jews” as they watch this pretender king die – “Your ‘king’ is dead”…

The faithful, however, recognize the truth and proclaim: “Long live the King!”

Let us pray…

Almighty and merciful God,
you break the power of evil and make all things new
in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.
May all in heaven and on earth proclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.

Guide us today as we seek to more fully understand the Kingship of Christ;
help us to overcome the self-centered ideas that keep us from submitting to you.

We ask that you lead us into the Scriptures in Jesus Name. Amen.

Christ the King Sunday is a joyous celebration…

White paraments; white flowers; colorful banners; happy music;

The end of the church year; the beginning of Advent – leading us up to Christmas

Our culture: less government, less authority, self-reliance, rugged individualism,
we can take care of ourselves!

“KING” – an idea we shunned in 1776; kings are oppressive;

We are the authority; “We the People” – That’s democracy!

It’s true…Some monarchies are oppressive; democracy is better; and so forth…

There is a problem when we allow our culture to define our faith…

Some churches, disliking the whole “kingdom” thing, have changed their church language from the Kingdom of God to the Realm of God.

They are letting culture transform Christianity instead of allowing Christianity to transform culture.

Let me be clear…we may be used to democracy where we all have a voice…BUT, that is not Christianity and it is certainly not God.

·         Our faith is not a democracy

·         We did not elect God president and we can’t vote Him out in four years

·         It’s God’s way or no way!

We also need to realize that God is a different kind of king than we’re used to…

All-powerful AND all-loving, all-merciful, and
in a love relationship with his subjects through the Church

This king is about mercy, peace, and forgiveness – not oppression

Today’s Gospel takes us into the palace of Christ the King where Jesus is high and exalted
on his throne…

His palace is a place called The Skull – Golgotha

His throne is a cross where he hangs and calls out to his God: Dad, forgive these who don’t realize…He doesn’t resist his agony; he doesn’t return evil for evil

His “subjects” hang around the palace courtyard…

Some gamble for his clothing

Those who condemned him make fun of him: “If you’re really the king, save yourself!”

The Roman soldiers mock him: “Some king! What a joke! Here, king, have some wine!”

Even one of the criminals about to die next to him gathers enough strength to insult him: “You said you were king; c’mon save yourself and us too!”

Some king indeed…Today the church gathers around the throne to celebrate Christ our King…

We gather at a place called The Skull and we watch a man die…”The King is dead!”

There’s no denying that this scene is hard to watch…

We want our king to wear a crown of gold, not a crown of thorns…

In fact, we’re kind of surprised that this story is told on such a joyous Sunday, right before Christmas, one of the happiest times of the year…

Isn’t it just like Jesus to speak to us in unexpected and surprising ways?

This King of ours was more interested in the poor than in the rich…

More interested in freeing those in bondage than sucking up to those in power

He defied the status quo…

He ate when he was supposed to fast

He worked when he wasn’t supposed to work

He hung around with the wrong crowd and blessed those who most people ignored

He taught us to forgive the unforgivable

He made it clear that his idea of being King meant be a servant and that he expected nothing less from his followers.

This is a truly humble King who rules through love, compassion, and infinite wisdom…

This is a King who knew that, “If you want to save your life, you will lose it.
If you lose your life for my sake you will save it.”

And so, this King willingly gave up his life that day on the cross…
“The King is dead.”

To save our eternal lives when he was raised from the dead…”Long live the King!”

Seems like today may be the perfect time for us to re-visit this Gospel story…

Next Sunday we begin our time of preparation to welcome the Infant King Jesus

It’s good that we remember why he was born; why he died; and that he reigns today.

Jesus is dead; long live Jesus Christ, our King!

Amen!

The Challenge of Christmas

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Christmas can be a challenging holiday for faithful Christians. It is at once the celebration of the present and future kingdom of God, as manifest in the birth of Jesus the Messiah and King. This concept of the Kingdom of God, being both now and in the future, is a difficult theological concept to grasp. Emmanuel – God with us – is a reality many of us struggle with. How can God’s Kingdom be realized both now and in the life to come? Where is God in the midst of economic crisis, job loss, poverty and war? Why isn’t God’s presence obvious when my friend has cancer or my family suffers grief? Isn’t God’s Kingdom about the reign of Christ as King? Then how come Jesus doesn’t take charge and fix everything?

John Dominic Crossan writes in God and Empire: “The Second Coming of Christ is not an event that we should expect to happen soon, violently, or literally. The Second Coming of Christ is what will happen when we Christians finally accept that the First Coming was the Only Coming and start to cooperate with its divine presence.” In other words, the Kingdom of God to which Jesus constantly pointed is as fully available now and always as it was 2,000 years ago. The question is whether we will choose to live as if the One in charge is God and not “Caesar.”

Now, I’m not sure I agree with Crossan’s lack of expectation for Christ’s return. However, he makes a valid point when he challenges us to accept the divine presence of God here and now. That is the once and future kingdom we celebrate – God came to earth in the Christ and remains here in the Spirit. The question is: Will we allow “God with us” to be in charge? Will we seek God’s counsel and ask for God’s advice about everything in our lives? Will we allow our faith to inform our decision-making? Will we bring Jesus into the midst of every conversation and consider His opinions?

God’s Kingdom cannot be realized if we resist God’s authority over all aspects of this world. We will never recognize God in the midst of life until we are willing to take “me” out of the center of everything and focus on God. I believe that, when we allow God to be in charge, we gain clarity of purpose and peace of mind. All at once the pressure of trying to control our circumstances is lifted as we let God do what God does best – control our circumstances.

It’s difficult sometimes to see through the cultural trappings of Christmas to the reality of Christ. It can be a challenge to ask God to take charge of our gift-giving habits. Taking “me” out of the center of self-centered and self-serving advertising that began in October isn’t as easy as it sounds. You may not think that God has an opinion on how we celebrate this holiday; I believe that God does have an opinion and that it is our obligation to seek it and prayerfully consider it as we go about the busy-ness that consumes us this time of year.

Christmas is indeed a joyous time of year for Christians and we have much to celebrate. But even the most joyous celebrations can be filled with solemn meaning and thought-provoking reality. I pray that the joy of the season will prompt a new depth of understanding of your personal relationship with the reason for the season. Our family wishes you the best of everything Christmas has to offer. Merry Christmas!

May “shalom,” God’s peace be with you,
Pastor Don