Sunday 12/01/13 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “When will the savior arrive?”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Isaiah 2:1-5
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 13:11-14
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 24:36-44
Greetings and
good morning on this the first Sunday of this Advent Season! This is the season
in the Christian Calendar when we symbolically await the birth of Jesus Christ.
While Jesus Christ was born over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, we still
celebrate this miracle every year, as the savior is soon to be born. For
Christians then, the birth of Jesus Christ represents a change in the very
history of this world. It represents new life, new hope, and the reign of God.
Before the
birth of Jesus Christ however, for so long people had walked in darkness, for
so long people had strayed from God. For so long, one prophet after the next prophet
would call people to holiness, and many disregarded these prophets, or just listened
for a little while. I like to think that after hundreds of years of trying to
get humanity to walk in the ways of holiness, faithfulness, and justice that God
finally realized what he had to do.
You see, I think that God realized that
He himself would have to come down to earth to show us something new, something
different, and that He would have to teach us just what love truly is. That to
really show us what love truly is, that He would be born, endure all that this
world hurls upon us every day, and that He would die in love for us.
Yet in the times of the Old Testament
in our Bibles, they didn’t have Jesus Christ yet. In this way, we have the Old
Testament of our Bibles and the New Testament of our Bibles. One way that I like
to think of the Old Testament and the New Testament, is the Old Testament being
pre-Jesus Christ years, and the New Testament is post-Jesus Christ years. This
is why we have long held older historical dates as being B.C. or “Before
Christ,” and A.D. or “Anno Domini,”
which is Latin for “In the year of the Lord.” So we could say in English, that
this “is the year of the Lord, 2013.” Historically speaking then, we have the
B.C. or the Before Christ, and the A.D. or post-Jesus Christ world, and parts
of the Bible.
Interestingly enough, when I led a Bible study
last Sunday afternoon, there was some discussion about what it must have been
like to have lived in Old Testament times before Jesus Christ, and how this might
have compared to living now in the post-Jesus Christ years. In fact, we could
think that people in the B.C. or the Old Testament times, would have often
said, “When will the savior arrive?”
God’s people might have said way back
then, “When will God deliver us.” “When will the Messiah come to set all of the
brokenness of this world right,” the might say. In this way, we already have
Jesus. We already have free salvation, but in the Old Testament days, they didn’t
yet have Jesus Christ. While prophets like Isaiah, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel, back
then were all well and good, the people must have said “when oh when will the true
savior come?”
This season of Advent for us then, is
one of hope, one of anticipation, and one of great joy and love. For so many of
us in our lives we have felt cut off, we have felt like we were wandering in
the desert, and we have felt like that we were just drowning in our lives.
Sometimes, we have felt hopeless.
So while we are living in a post-Jesus
Christ world today, many of us are still saying “When will the savior arrive?”
For in our brokenness, we reach out for Jesus Christ, for his grace, his mercy,
his love, his healing, and his Joy. Yet many of us are still saying “When will
the savior arrive?”
You see way back then, people were
waiting for the messiah to arrive to set them free, and we have indeed been
freed already. I am glad that we live in the post-Jesus Christ era, whereby we
have been set free. Jesus did say however, that he was coming back again one
day. So while the people of the Old Testament awaited the coming of Jesus
Christ, in this Advent Season we not only await symbolically the birth of Jesus
Christ, but also the return of Jesus Christ. This will be that “great getting
up morning” when we all stand before the Lord and we all are held to account.
In this season of Advent then, we ceremonially prepare for the birth of Jesus
Christ, but we also await the return of Christ the King.
In the scripture reading from this
morning from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, the scripture said, “In the days
to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of
the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall
stream to it.” The prophet Isaiah was foretelling the coming of the birth of
the holy one, the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Isaiah goes on to say, “For out of
Zion shall go forth instruction. And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He
shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.” The
prophet Isaiah wrote these words about 700-800-years before the birth of Jesus
Christ.
Even Isaiah
then and many people up until the birth of Jesus Christ, said, “When will the
savior arrive?” “When will we be rescued from the wretchedness and the
lowliness that are trapped in?” “When will we be saved and set free?”
In the Apostle
Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, Italy, or the Book of Romans, from this
morning, the Apostle Paul is encouraging the church. In fact, he tells them to
awake from their spiritual sleep. He says, “the night is far gone, the day is
near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of
light.” The Apostle Paul goes on to say, let us live up-right, holy, and righteous
lives in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul
says, put your full faith in Jesus Christ, for we have been saved, we have been
restored, and we have been forgiven.
When looking
at the gospel reading from Saint Mathew from this morning, we pick up with
Jesus telling his disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither
the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” You see Jesus was
saying, that he would return to earth again one day. That no one would know this
day or hour ahead of time. So Jesus the Christ tells us, “Keep awake therefore,
for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Jesus then goes on to say
further, “the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
So you see in
this season of Advent, we symbolically prepare our hearts, our minds, and our
souls for the birth of the savior Jesus Christ, yet this is only symbolic. This
is because, while we rejoice in awaiting the Lord’s birthday, and while this
birthday party is called Christmas, we may still say, “When will the savior
arrive.” When will he return to earth, to set everything right?
There
is a story I want to share with you called “Have a Little Faith.” Here is how it
goes: “Back
a few years ago we had three cars, a company car, my wife’s car and a truck. I
had a job where the company gave me a car every three years, to use for work. I
had purchased a truck for my own personal use. It came in handy because I used
to cut down trees and burn them in our wood stove. Well one day I hurt myself
lifting a large piece, I had cut, into the back of the truck. That ended my
tree cutting days. From that point on the truck just sat in our driveway. My
wife decided that we didn’t need to pay extra for a truck that we weren’t
using. So we put an ad in the paper and it ran its course with no one calling.
Winter was setting in and my wife figured that it would sit in our driveway
until the end of winter. Then maybe in the summer we’d try to sell it again.
Now mind you, the truck was almost new.”
“My wife became concerned
that we’d never get rid of it. I told her that she was putting too much faith
in herself and not letting God work. She looked at me, with this funny look and
said, “Why would God concern HIMSELF about our truck?”
“I told her that we were
Gods’ children and that HE sees our every need and HE will provide, she just
had to have a little faith.”
“The next day a snow
storm hit. Her car had front wheel drive and she was getting ready to go to
work. I had gotten up and made coffee for her and was watching the TV news
about how bad the storm was going to be.”
“As Bobbie got ready for work
she asked me to make a for-sale sign for the truck and she would stick it in
the window of the truck. I did and when she was ready to leave she placed it in
the window.”
“When she got into her
car it wouldn’t start. Her good old reliable car was dead. No lights. Nothing.”
“I told her that the
truck was full of gas and to take it. She didn’t want to but then again she had
to get to work.”
“As she left I told her
that her normal route was going to be a nightmare. I suggested an alternate
route.”
“She started driving to
work and the traffic backed-up. While sitting in traffic the man behind her
started flashing his lights. She didn’t know what he wanted. But then again she
thought something might be wrong with the truck. She pulled over and the man
pulled in behind her. He got out of his car and asked her why she was selling
the truck. She told him we didn’t need it anymore and just wanted to sell it. I
had forgotten to put a phone number on the sign. He asked her for a phone number
and said he’d call about it that night. True to his word he called. I talked to
him and he told me his story about his recent accident, in his truck and how
the insurance company told him if he found one of equal value they’d give him
the money to buy it. He said his truck looked just like ours and he wanted it.
We gave him the price we were asking and he said he’d call back tomorrow and
have a check ready.”
“After the phone call I
looked at Bobbie and said, “This is God working.” She said, “Ya, right. Why would
God bother HIMSELF with something like this?”
“Then I told her
something that made her think. I told her that after she left for work I went
out to her car to see if there was anything I could do before leaving for work.
I thought I’d try to start it and if needed get the battery charger out and
hook it up. I figured that it could charge all day while we were at work. When
I got in and turned the key it started with no problem. That’s God for you,
always doing things for us without asking. What better a Father could we ask
for.”
“Bobbie still had a
little problem believing. She said the insurance company would have a problem
with it and it wouldn’t sell. I just smiled at her and said, “Have a little
faith.”
“The next morning at
around 9 o’clock the man called. He said he had a check for the full amount we
asked for. If we didn’t mind could we drive it over to his apartment and drop
it off. Bobbie was worry that the check might be bad. I told him that wouldn’t
be a problem. I added my wife’s concerns and he said he’d drive to the bank and
have cash when we got there.”
“As he promised, he was
there with cash in hand. I signed over the papers and thanked him and we drove
off. I smiled all the way home knowing that God had done this to show Bobbie
something about faith. No, we didn’t need the money. No, it was a lesson in
letting go and letting God. I looked over at Bobbie and said, “God is Good.”
She replied, “All the Time.”
“So, next time you’re
having doubts. Stop trying to control things and let God work. What He’s done
for me, HE’LL do for you.”
You see my brothers and
sisters, in this season of Advent, we prepare for God to come down to earth, to
take on flesh, and to save us from ourselves. We need only have faith, we need
only to trust in Jesus. For His birth is coming soon, and so is His return. In
bring this message to you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment