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Sermon preached on 27. 11. 2005
The American College Chapel.
Please pray with me as we stand. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that we would hear its message to us, your people in exile, that it would shape how we see ourselves, how we think about ourselves, and how we live our lives. And we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
I have two titles for my message tonight:
PREPARING THE WAY FOR OUR LORD
And
JOYFUL EXPECTATION OF CHRIST’S COMING
The Bible verses that I have chosen for my message today are verses 3 and 4 from chapter 40 of the book of the prophet Isaiah:
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.”
While this is a season of joyful expectation, John tells us that there is no Advent, - no expectation—no coming of the Christ child into our lives—without preparation. Advent is about preparation.
Advent begins a new church year. And, of all the liturgical seasons, Advent is perhaps the most counter-cultural. Advent is, calling us to be alert to the coming of Jesus into our world and into our hearts. But it’s not the baby Jesus we put under our Christmas tree or in the crib-set. No, the counter-cultural message of this first Sunday of Advent is that we prepare ourselves to meet Christ when he comes in judgment at the end of the world.
What the church year seems to be telling us at the beginning of Advent is that what began with the birth of a child in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago is not yet finished. What began with our own acceptance of Christ into our lives isn’t a done deal. The work of salvation is still in progress. And we need look no further than our own lives and our own world to see how true this is.
We don’t know when the
Second Coming of Christ will be nor how it will happen. What we do know,
however, is that from time to time we need a wake-up call. And that’s what the
start of the Advent season does for us. Advent is a wake-up call: It’s not
enough to just run around doing
all sorts of things
these next few weeks trying "to get ready" for Christmas!!!
Take time to be still.
Pray.
Be patient.
Listen.
Wait.
Be alert.
Pay attention.
Live each day with an awareness that Christ is coming into your life.
That Christ is born into your life.
Each of us has a heart that longs for things to be better. We want peace, even though we continue to live in the midst of a world marked by violence and terror. We want justice, though we continue to live in the midst of a world where the voices of greed tell us to take advantage of every opportunity to get more, even if it means that others will have less.
The wake-up call of God’s Word this Advent Sunday is to pay closer attention to God’s promise to give us life, an abundant life in all its fullness, if we but live with patient expectation and hope that these promises will yet be fulfilled.
Advent calls us to put our lives in perspective by letting God be God in our lives.
"Prepare the way" sounds the familiar advent theme. Mark's Gospel, starts with this preparation. The Advent season attempts to help the Christian community to set aside preoccupations in order to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ in our lives.
Preparation is because of expectation. The second lesson from the book of Isaiah is about the preparation and the expectation. God tells his people, the Israelites, that her warfare is ended, her sins are pardoned, and now she is to be comforted. Handel’s Oratorio, The Messiah, rightly begins with the tenor recitative “Comfort Ye My People”.
The Christmas story begins with God bringing comfort to His people. It begins with our sins being forgiven; it begins with God intervening into the world of men bringing the Good News of Good will, peace, and joy. Our task is to make way for the hand of God to work His wonders. We have to take our hands off. Prepare the way. Make way. Let God do his work. And what does God do? Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill shall be made low. Every crooked place shall be made straight. Every rough place smooth.
It is not us that fills in every valley and makes low every mountain and hill. It is not us that makes the rough ways smooth. It is God.
When you know that you cannot save yourself, you sing?
"Not the labours of my hands
Can fulfil thy law's demands:
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone:"
and then you are ready to finish the verse by singing?
"Thou must save, and thou alone."
Given time and our willingness to allow God to work in our lives—the way for the Lord is prepared—then the paths are made straight—the valleys are filled—the mountains and the hills are made low—the rough places made smooth.
What does all this mean? It all means, healing—reconciliation—new relationships—new hopes—new dreams—new opportunities. This is the real gift of Christmas—to be born anew—to let go of all those attitudes, behaviors, hurt feelings, grudges, and even the pain and to turn around—and walk in a new way—in a new direction.
The changing——the walking in a new direction is not something we do. It is something God does when we confess our need for His involvement in our lives—admit that there are areas in our lives wherein we are walking the wrong direction—and allow God to work in our lives—to transform us—renew us—and make us whole. This is God’s gift. This is the gift of Christmas.
The Advent season attempts to help the Christian community set aside preoccupations in order to prepare for the celebration of the Birth of Jesus. It is a time of hopefulness and joyful expectation.
If I were rewriting the Christmas story, I would have Jesus be born in a hospital, in a nice cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, Kolkotta or Chennai, or in a prosperous, free country like America. He would have a happy, carefree childhood, go to decent schools, graduate from an excellent University, have a long meaningful, successful career in the Church, enjoy a loving marriage with bright, well-adjusted children and grandchildren and die a peaceful death at a ripe old age, having won the most coveted awards and a noble prize for his views and deeds on world peace and non-violence.
That's what I hope for my own life. That's the kind of life I dream about for my own descendents, so how could I wish any less for Jesus.
However, we all know that this is not how the story of Jesus begins or ends. Jesus is born in a barn, not a hospital. No sooner is he born than jealous, paranoid King Herod tries to kill Him. He and Mary and Joseph escape, but dozen of other children do not. Several years later he returns from exile, grows up to be a carpenter, never marries, has a brief, misunderstood ministry, and dies a premature, lonely, very painful, violent, criminal's death. That is certainly not a life we would want for ourselves or for any of our children.
Yet as strange as this may sound, I find great comfort in the story of the birth, life and death of Jesus. Let's be honest. None of us lives happily ever after. We dream about it; we plan for it; we work for it; we pray for it; but none of us lives happily ever after. All of us experience lots of unpleasant, unhappy things in our lives from the job market to the stock market; from the impending war with neighboring countries; from infertility to rashes; from not getting into the college of our choice and to not being offered job promotion; from divorce to the death of our parents; from cancer to automobile accidents; from chronic depression to lifelong schizophrenia; from being an alcoholic to being a workaholic.
None of us lives happily ever after. All of us experience lots of unpleasant, often undeserved, sometimes tragic things in our lives.
What gives me hope and comfort about Jesus' life is the fact that He survives and overcomes all of the difficult unpleasant experiences in his life. He lives through being born in a barn and King Herod's attempt to kill him. He lives through his exile in Egypt. He lives through not being accepted to the University of Jerusalem and becoming a well respected Rabbi. He lives through being misunderstood and mistreated during his ministry. He even lives through being crucified on Calvary.
He survives it all. In fact, in spite of all that happens to him, he has a full, meaningful, loving life, all because God was with Him, all because He allowed God to guide his life, all because he was more mindful of the values of the Kingdom of God which he made the center of his life and work.
There is a story that goes like this. A man falls into a large, deep hole and can't get out. A doctor passes by, hears his cry for help, stops, looks down, sees the problem, writes a prescription, throws it down into the hole and goes on his way. Later, a minister passes by, hears the same cry, stops, looks down, sees the problem, writes a prayer, throws it down into the hole and goes on his way. Finally, a friend passes by, hears the same cry for help, stops, looks down, and immediately, without even thinking, jumps down into the hole with him.
"Are you crazy?" asks the man stranded in the hole. "Now there are two of us down here."
"Don't worry," says his friend. "I've been down here before and I know how to get out."
This is the message of Christmas. God has been down here before us. God knows what it is like to doubt, to be afraid, to be tempted, to want to give up, to feel betrayed, to be in pain, to be vulnerable, to face death, and God knows the way out. In fact, God is the way out.
There are sorrows and sufferings in this life, but life is not tragic and hopeless because God is our Emmanuel. God came that first Christmas. God comes to us this Christmas to help us to endure, to survive, to overcome, to be faithful, to love and be loved. God makes our paths straight—the valleys are filled—the mountains and the hills in our lives are made low—the rough places in our day to day lives are made smooth. But, but let’s prepare the way for our God.
Thanks be to God!
First Lesson - Isaiah 40: 1-5
Second Lesson - II Corinthians 1: 3 -11
Hymns
8 – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
122 - God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
304 – Rejoice, O People, in the Mounting Years
103 – Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus