Sermon for December 3, 2006

A PROMISE FULFILLED

by

Rev Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14-16      Reading the Good News Translation

¹⁴ The Lord said, "The time is coming when I will fulfill the promise that I made to the people of Israel and Judah. ¹⁵ At that time I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will do what is right and just throughout the land. ¹⁶ The people of Judah and of Jerusalem will be rescued and will live in safety. The city will be called "The Lord Our Salvation.'

Today is an unusual Sunday in the calendar of the Christian year: we should be wishing each other a happy new year because this first Sunday of Advent is the day the liturgical calendar begins all over again!

Advent is from the Latin word for coming and it is the season we prepare for the coming and rebirth of Christ into our world and our lives. It is followed by the season of Christmastide, and then, in January and February, Epiphany from the Greek word which means the revealing or the showing forth of Christ. Lent follows for forty days, then Easter and fifty days of Eastertide. What is the next major day and major season? Do you know? Pentecost, the birth of the Christian movement, which is the longest season of the year—usually from June to late November.

Each of these parts of the liturgical calendar has a theme, and the theme for Advent is preparation of our hearts and lives, cleaning away the clutter, so that there is room for Christ and room for the message of Christ to take root again in us. It is easy for us to be so full of other activities and other THINGS the next four weeks that we wind up repeating the words of the innkeeper about there not being room for the One who is the reason for the season.

There are some familiar scripture readings that we always use in Advent. We usually hear from several of the Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah and Micah and Jeremiah. We often read on the first Sunday one of the gospel passages about the second coming of Christ to remind us that he does come to us regularly and, according to the first Christmas, he comes in people and places we write off and that we least value from surface appearances.

We always will read a passage about Jesus’ cousin John the Baptizer because John himself quotes the verses from Isaiah about preparing a way for the Lord, clearing a path, making a straight path and clearing away the rough parts so God can come to us in Christ. We will meet John again next week.

We usually read the stories of the angel coming to 14 year old Mary with the announcement, and, if we do a good job, we will read about Joseph who had to struggle with going ahead with the marriage when he learned she was pregnant. And of course, we will end our advent readings from the Bible on Christmas Eve when we remind ourselves that the first people who heard the news that the baby had arrived and was lying in a feeding trough—most certainly a stone one because wood was scarce—the first people were not the powerful and high status folks. The first people to learn of the birth and to come breathlessly and wide eyed to the manger were the lowest in the eyes of the elite: they were scraggly, dirty, smelly shepherds. And God was saying, this good news is for all people, starting with the poorest, the people thought to be outcasts.

That is a brief overview of Advent and the usual Bible stories. We just heard from the prophet Jeremiah who lived 600 years before Jesus around the time when the Babylonians had surrounded Jerusalem and laid siege to it and were about to capture it and destroy it and take people away into exile. Let’s look at that setting. The Israelites were at war, they were facing a crisis, they were fearful and discouraged. Look again at who they were fighting! Do you know what modern country Babylon is in? Iraq!

They were at war and they needed to know whether there is a hopeful word from the Lord. Jeremiah gives them hope and the three verses we heard contain some of the most loaded words in all the Bible: justice, righteousness, promise, David’s descendant, salvation. God will deliver you, Jeremiah said. God will do this through a deliverer who is a descendant of the most revered king in all of Israel—flawed and sinful, but also revered. That of course is David. And the word salvation did not mean what it means in so many superficial church conversations today. It did not mean pie in the sky bye and bye. It meant liberation from political oppression. It meant freedom, right relationship with God, life at its best— living with a moral compass and choosing right from wrong, justice and not injustice.

Jeremiah says, if you are fearful, you do not need to fear because God is faithful to God’s promises. Where in your life do you need to let that encouraging message sink in this morning? That message permeates the Advent and Christmas stories. Do not be afraid. When the angel comes to Mary with an announcement, how does she first react? She is deeply troubled!! The angel says, “Do not be afraid.” The same words come to Joseph-do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The same words are spoken one other time to some people who are just terrified. Who are they? The shepherds. Do not be afraid because we have just some great news for you and for all people.

It is good news of a savior, a liberator, one who will set us free. It is good news only if we feel a need to be liberated and saved and set free. Where do you need that liberation? How can you offer that message and live that message to others?

These next few weeks can just get our lives so confused and more cluttered. This can be such a hectic, frazzled time for us. It is so important to keep your focus and make sure the main thing is the main thing and that we don’t forget the reason for the season. Here is how we can do that:

Be sure to be in worship so we hear the stories together. Listen to the music—not only on your Christmas albums but also in the familiar hymns. I use the familiar Advent hymns, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come Emmanuel as prayers during my personal devotional time. Come to the choir concert next Friday or Saturday and let that music fill your soul. Listen to the incredible music from Handel’s Messiah on your CD player or ipod.

Keep first things first by studying the stories of others who live Jesus’ message that it is more blessed to give than to receive; for instance, the story of the secret Santa in Kansas City who for 26 years anonymously gave hundred dollar bills to complete strangers in need and now that he is dying of cancer, is willing to be identified. I put the article about him in one of our wall article holders. He started his practice of anonymous generosity after he had been through some very tough times and people reached out to him—like the restaurant owner who gave him not only a free meal but a twenty dollar bill when he had not eaten for two days. Or perhaps it was the good feeling he got the week before Christmas in 1979 and he had just been fired and was feeling sorry for himself and was at a drive-in restaurant and noticed that the car hop had only a very light jacket and he tipped her twenty dollars, and she cried and told him he had no idea what his gift meant to her. Since then he has, every December given away hundred dollar bills to people who looked like they needed a lift and some help—a total of $1.3 million in all, he estimates.

We will have a great Advent and Christmas season when get the focus off ourselves and  we remember examples like that and like the examples you yourselves set last Sunday when by mid morning all the angel tree families and all the other needy families had been spoken for—by mid morning! This is a very generous community of faith, and we have other opportunities on the giving tree for you to be other focused and not just think about ourselves and our own families.

Let me encourage you to use one more resource to keep yourself centered these next four weeks: the new film on the Nativity has been out since Friday and it reminds us of the humanity of the people in the first Christmas story. Even though the angel had encouraged both Mary and Joseph individually not to be afraid, they each confess that they are afraid—and then they go ahead with their journey to Bethlehem anyway. The film does a very good job of showing the brutal and oppressive power of the Roman rulers.

The Christmas story involves real people with honest feelings and it says that when times are dark and we do not see much hope, that God is able to bring hope and peace and even light into our world and our personal lives. That is what Jeremiah says to us and it is what we count on and trust in and start with on the first Sunday of Advent.

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