Sunday 12/02/12 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “He is coming twice!”
Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah
33:14-16
Gospel Lesson: Luke
21:25-36
Good morning
brothers and sisters! It’s good to be here with you worshipping this morning,
and I hope that you all have had a blessed week.
This morning,
on this first Sunday of Advent we begin to prepare our hearts and our minds to
reflect upon the coming birth of Jesus Christ. While we all know that Jesus was
born almost 2,000 years ago, this time of the year reminds us that Jesus Christ
came to earth to be amongst us. That He came to heal the sick, to love all
people, to usher in the kingdom of God, and to die that we may all live forever.
That we are called to live out the gospel that Jesus has given us, until he
returns again one day in glory.
Given all of
this, what I want to talk about this morning in part, are the folks who awaited
the birth of Jesus before he was born. These folks I speak of are the Jewish prophets
and Jewish people of old, who had long awaited the coming of the Messiah. The
one foretold who come and save us “from this sinful generation.” The one who
would deliver the captive, give sight to the blind, and offer us eternal
salvation to all who believe in Him. When viewing the scripture reading from this
morning, from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, it says “The days are surely
coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of
Israel and the house of Judah.” Just for reference, The Book of Jeremiah was likely written
according to many experts between the years 630-580 B.C. Most of it is believed
to have been written during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. Given this,
the Jewish people, while living under the harsh realities of being occupied by
the Babylonian empire hoped and awaited the Messiah. It is also interesting to
know that the book of Jeremiah was written almost a full six-hundred years
before Jesus Christ was actually born.
Jeremiah
went on in this scripture to say, “In those days and at that time I will cause
a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness
in the land.” The prophet Jeremiah was saying then, the Messiah will come. He
is coming Jeremiah said! He is coming to deliver us. He is coming to save us all.
The decedent of the mighty King David will come to earth to die for us all. The
prophet Jeremiah went on in the scripture reading to say, “In those days Judah
will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which
it will be called: “The Lord is our righteous.” I would imagine then that in
the time of Jeremiah, that Jeremiah and many were proclaiming that the messiah
will come.
While Jeremiah proclaimed that He is coming, we today live after
the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, in the gospel
reading from Luke this morning is said, “There will be signs in the sun, the
moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the
roaring of the sea and waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of
what is coming upon the work, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
Brothers and sisters, as we enter into this Advent season, I say unto you, the
savior is coming! The messiah will be born to us soon. Yet the gospel reading
this gospel reading goes on to say, “They will see the ‘the Son of Man coming
in a cloud’ with power and great glory.” This is because, for us Jesus Christ
is coming twice. So I say unto you God the Lord of Lords will be born unto us
soon, and then the Lord will die for us, and the Lord will come again in glory.
For Jesus Christ said in the gospel reading this morning that, “Heaven and
earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He is coming twice!
For the Jews of old hoped and prayed for the messiah, and
for us in this Advent season we celebrate His birth, yet we await His return. Jesus
then went on in the gospel to say, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not
weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life,
and that day will catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” While we celebrate the
savior’s coming birth, we can thank God that Jesus has already come. We are
simply then preparing for the birthday party of Jesus. The day the world as we
knew it was changed forever. The day that the living God was born, would walk
amongst, change the world, and die for us all!
In
living in a post-resurrection era, we as believers have already seen the Lord
come, bore witness to His miracles and His power, His death, and His resurrection.
Now as Christians, we await his return. For as Jesus said in the gospel of Luke
reading this morning, “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the
strength to escape all these things that will take place, and stand before the
Son of Man.” For He is coming twice!
In my seminary
studies, some of my pastor classmates and I have debated whether it would have
been better to live before Jesus in anticipation of His birth, or whether it
would be better to live after his resurrection and awaiting His return. The
fact that I have such things debated with my pastor seminary fans probably
displays what a bible nerd I am. To this I say, I resemble that! I also say
that I cannot know for sure what it was like to leave pre-Jesus, but I tend to
think that living post-earthly Jesus is the better of the two. I say this
because in this Advent season, we celebrate the birth of Christ, but a birth
that occurred long ago. He has already come. He has already delivered us, and
all we must do is believe. For we will celebrate His birthday soon and await His
glorious return. For He is coming twice!
I would like to close today with a
Christmas story. This story is about a family that bought a nativity scene.
Here it goes: About a week before Christmas a family bought a new nativity scene. When
they unpacked it they found 2 figures of the Baby Jesus. "Someone must
have packed this wrong," the mother said, counting out the figures.
"We have one Joseph, one Mary, three wise men, three shepherds, two lambs,
a donkey, a cow, an angel and two babies. Oh, dear! I suppose some set down at
the store is missing a Baby Jesus because we have 2." "You two run
back down to the store and tell the manager that we have an extra Jesus. Tell
him to put a sign on the remaining boxes saying that if a set is missing a Baby
Jesus, call 7126. Put on your warm coats, it's freezing cold out there." The
manager of the store copied down mother's message and the next time they were
in the store they saw the cardboard sign that read, "If you're missing
Baby Jesus, call 7126." All week long they waited for someone to call.
Surely, they thought, someone was missing that important figurine. Each time
the phone rang mother would say, "I'll bet that's about Jesus," but
it never was.
Father
tried to explain there are thousands of these scattered over the country and
the figurine could be missing from a set in Florida or Texas or California.
Those packing mistakes happen all the time. He suggested just put the extra
Jesus back in the box and forget about it. "Put Baby Jesus back in the
box! What a terrible thing to do," said the children. "Surely someone
will call," mother said. "We'll just keep the two of them together in
the manger until someone calls." When no call had come by 5:00 on
Christmas Eve, mother insisted that father "just run down to the
store" to see if there were any sets left. "You can see them right
through the window, over on the counter," she said. "If they are all
gone, I'll know someone is bound to call tonight." "Run down to the
store?" father thundered. "It's 15 below zero out there!" "Oh,
Daddy, we'll go with you," Tommy and Mary began to put on their coats.
Father gave a long sigh and headed for the front closet. "I can't believe
I'm doing this," he muttered. Tommy and Mary ran ahead as father
reluctantly walked out in the cold. Mary got to the store first and pressed her
nose up to the store window. "They're all gone, Daddy," she shouted.
"Every set must be sold." "Hooray," Tommy said.
"The mystery will now be solved tonight!" Father heard the news still
a half block away and immediately turned on his heel and headed back home. When
they got back into the house they noticed that mother was gone and so was the
extra Baby Jesus figurine. "Someone must have called and she went out to
deliver the figurine," my father reasoned, pulling off his boots.
"You kids get ready for bed while I wrap mother's present." Then the
phone rang. Father yelled "answer the phone and tell 'em we found a home
for Jesus." But it was mother calling with instructions for us to come to
205 Chestnut Street immediately, and bring three blankets, a box of cookies and
some milk. "Now what has she gotten us into?" my father groaned as we
bundled up again. "205 Chestnut. Why that's across town. Wrap that milk up
good in the blankets or it will turn to ice before we get there. Why can't we
all just get on with Christmas? It's probably 20 below out there now. And the
wind is picking up. Of all the crazy things to do on a night like this." When
they got to the house at 205 Chestnut Street it was the darkest one on the
block. Only one tiny light burned in the living room and, the moment we set
foot on the porch steps, my mother opened the door and shouted, "They're
here, Oh thank God you got here, Ray! You kids take those blankets into the
living room and wrap up the little ones on the couch. I'll take the milk and
cookies." "Would you mind telling me what is going on,
Ethel?" my father asked. "We have just walked through below zero
weather with the wind in our faces all the way." "Never mind all that
now," my mother interrupted. "There isn't any heat in this house and
this young mother is so upset she doesn't know what to do. Her husband walked
out on her and those poor little children will have a very bleak Christmas, so
don't you complain. I told her you could fix that oil furnace in a jiffy."
My mother strode off to the kitchen to warm the milk while my brother and I
wrapped up the five little children who were huddled together on the couch. The
children's mother explained to my father that her husband had run off,
taking bedding, clothing, and almost every piece of furniture, but she had been
doing all right until the furnace broke down. "I been doin' washin' and
ironin' for people and cleanin' the five and dime," she said. "I saw
your number every day there, on those boxes on the counter. When the furnace
went out, that number kept going' through my mind. 7162 7162. Said on the box
that if a person was missin' Jesus, they should call you. That's how I knew you
were good Christian people, willin' to help folks. I figured that maybe you
would help me, too. So I stopped at the grocery store tonight and I called your
misses. I'm not missin' Jesus, mister, because I sure love the Lord. But I am
missin' heat. I have no money to fix that furnace." "Okay,
Okay," said father. "You've come to the right place. Now let's see.
You've got a little oil burner over there in the dining room. Shouldn't be too
hard to fix. Probably just a clogged flue. I'll look it over, see what it
needs." Mother came into the living room carrying a plate of cookies
and warm milk. As she set the cups down on the coffee table, I noticed the
figure of Baby Jesus lying in the center of the table. It was the only sign of
Christmas in the house. The children stared wide-eyed with wonder at the plate
of cookies my mother set before them. Father finally got the oil burner working
but said, "You need more oil. I'll make a few calls tonight and get some
oil. Yes sir, you came to the right place", father grinned. On the way
home father did not complain about the cold weather and had barely set foot
inside the door when he was on the phone. "Ed, hey, how are ya, Ed?" "Yes,
Merry Christmas to you, too. Say Ed, we have kind of an unusual situation here.
I know you've got that pick-up truck. Do you still have some oil in that barrel
on your truck? You do?" By this time the rest of the family were pulling
clothes out of their closets and toys off of their shelves. It was long after
their bedtime when they were wrapping gifts. The pickup came. On it were
chairs, three lamps, blankets and gifts. Even though it was 30 below, father
let them ride along in the back of the truck. No one ever did call about the
missing figure in the nativity set, but as I grow older I realize that it wasn't
a packing mistake at all.
Jesus
saves, that's what He does. He is never lost, for He always finds us. As move
forward in this Advent season may we realize that Jesus is coming. That He is
coming twice! Amen!
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