*OPENING SENTENCES & GREETING Psalm 36:5-7, NCV
Lord, your love reaches to the heavens,
your loyalty to the skies.
Your goodness is as high as the mountains.
Your justice is as deep as the great ocean.
Lord, you protect both people and animals.
God, your love is so precious!
You protect people in the shadow of your wings.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Psalm 113:5-9, CEB
Who could possibly compare to the Lord our God?
God rules from on high;
6 he has to come down to even see heaven and earth!
7 God lifts up the poor from the dirt
and raises up the needy from the garbage pile
8 to seat them with leaders--
with the leaders of his own people!
9 God nests the once barren woman at home--
now a joyful mother with children!
Praise the Lord!
NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 1:18-25, NLT
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
SERMON Radical Renewal
Throughout the Advent season, everyone asks, “Are you ready for Christmas?” By today that becomes a dangerous question, because what most folks mean when they ask are some of the following:
That being the question, my answer is no, but I give myself grace by remembering that there are 12 days of Christmas, and my family doesn’t celebrate until we are halfway through them. I still have time for some of those things and others won’t happen this year. Christmas is almost here, but there may be ideas that have to wait until later or even next year. As you heard in the announcements, we aren’t quite ready as a church for Christmas Eve either. While many things are ready to slide into place, we still have a couple hospitality roles to fill.
I like the decorations, the cookies, the cards and the travel plans. I love our Christmas Eve worship service. They are all a work in progress and so are we. As individuals, as a church, as a society, we are not a finished product. God is still at work in us and through us.
What Advent could ask of a more spiritual nature is this, “Are you ready for Jesus?” That’s a far more serious question. You may or may not have made room in your holiday and your life for Jesus to play a starring role. I may be more in tune with God this Advent than in some seasons past, but I still have a long way to go.
Jesus comes to bring a radical renewal of the way we think and the way we live in this world. You caught some of that in the reading tidbits as we lit the advent candles. In God’s timing, things will change. Empires come and go whether we are talking about Old Testament regimes from Babylon to Persia to Greece and even Rome or equally true of leadership in any sector in our world today. No one holds office forever, though some may stay in one position for a very long time. When we perceive humans leading out of a greedy or arrogant nature, it helps to remember their power to control or coerce, to dominate and even manipulate does not last forever. That baby of Bethlehem still invites us to a radically new way of life based on godly principles at every level: government, economics, health care, community, church, education, commerce, immigration, environment and more. The power structures of society must be transformed, but on a more personal level, the power struggle within our own lives must also be resolved. Our dark sides (and we all have them in some form) cannot continue to control us.
We do not do this alone. We bet on the baby. Brueggemann points out that the king born in “filth & poverty” in Bethlehem (Celebrating Abundance, p. 54) is God keeping God’s promises but with a twist. God is intent on “turning the world back to its sanity,” because society goes insanely overboard in unhealthy, unbalanced ways. For example:
In the midst of this reality, not all that different now than it was back then, God came not as a warrior but as a baby. Think about how people respond to babies. Their innocent look and playful nature can disarm the crankiest among us. God did not threaten us with punishment but invites us to change. God came to build relationships not policies, yet out of those relationships our policies will be more compassionate and realistic.
Psalm 36 used in our opening sentences invites us to trust God’s faithfulness. It is a common theme in the psalms to recite that God’s faithful love endures to all generations. In this psalm God’s love and loyalty reach beyond the skies, God’s goodness, high as the mountains and God’s justice, deep as the sea. It reminds me of a psalm that warns us not to put our trust in princes, (Psalm 146:3) and another that warns not to trust chariots or horses. (Psalm 20:7-8) The things of this world, wonderful as they may be, will ultimately fail us, but not God. God may seem hidden for a while, but God remains; just as the sun is still there behind a cloud or shining on the opposite hemisphere. One day sun and stars may burn out, but even then, God remains.
There are certainly times we want to hide or retreat from concerns and responsibilities, days we can barely drag ourselves out of bed. But it does us no good to run away or bury our head in the sand like an ostrich. We read in Psalms that we take refuge under God’s wing. (Psalm 91:4) or as Luke writes, Jesus wants to gather us like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. (Luke 13:34) I think it means metaphorically to climb into God’s embrace and remember that we are loved.
A significant concept in either of today’s psalms is to begin with affirming who God is. Before we pray, before we begin our day, before the work or the food or the play, let us begin by affirming who God is in our world and in our lives. We are meant to focus on God and not ourselves. As I read one of the devotions this week, I scribbled in the margins, “When you are discouraged, make it a practice to list all the positive attributes of God you can remember. Let that exercise become a prayer and that prayer become a way of life.” So, I challenge you, list out loud, write in your journal or pray quietly that God is good, God is faithful, God is kind, God is just, God is merciful, God is radiant, God is creative, God is… you keep filling in those blanks and see how far you can go. It will add color and texture as you build up your faith.
Another concept for Advent is turning. We think of it in the word repentance more often for Lent, but once upon a time, Advent was also a season of repentance. Think how often in these four weeks I have brought up John the Baptist and his admonition to “Repent!” For radical renewal to come, we must indeed turn. John reminded people of the great prophet Elijah. Malachi ends our Old Testament with these words that in our Christian heritage tie the two men together.
“Look, I am sending Elijah the prophet to you,
before the great and terrifying day of the Lord arrives.
Turn the hearts of the parents to the children
and the hearts of the children to their parents.
Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)
Turning is significant. When we are turned toward the world, we are distracted and led astray. When we turn toward God, we find our focus and our path again. When we turn away from each other we become lonely or self-absorbed, maybe both. When we turn back to those God has put in our lives, we find relationship and sometimes, purpose. When we even turn away from ourselves, we get truly lost and become something we are not until we can’t even recognize the person God created us to be. When the world turns toward greed rather than generosity, to power and control rather than sharing, to violence rather than caring, we are in big trouble. The turning back, as Brueggemann points out, brings healing. It brings reconciliation. He sees that in Malachi’s promise of Messiah, a reconciliation between generations, between states or gender or anything else that divides us. Our world needs that healing.
So, how do we live into God’s Kingdom of radical renewal? We’ve been touching on this all through Advent. I’m reminded of the Ghandi quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I’m reminded of Walter Rauschenbusch whose work on the Social Gospel I read in seminary. In researching his thinking anew I found this quote: “The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God.” I fully believe that, but sadly he goes on to say, that so far this has been a failure.
In order for the radical newness of God’s kingdom to come about we are called to be active participants. That doesn’t necessarily mean letter writing campaigns or protests or bumper stickers and yard signs, although you may be called to such activities for a worthwhile cause. But more importantly living as citizens of God’s kingdom now means many of the basic behaviors called for in Romans 12. Brueggemann points out. generosity, hospitality and forgiveness. Looking further I would add sincerity, empathy, devotion, equality, honesty, compassion, and shalom in the fullest sense of that word. If we live with such integrity and in partnership with God, it will affect the world around us, and in time the world can change.
The world changed when God came in a baby born to an unwed mother named Mary, and a bewildered but righteous man named Joseph became step father to God’s Son. Willing to listen to God’s dream and participate in God’s plan, this couple partnered with God accepting the role God asked each of them to play. Though they surely could not see either the big picture or all the details, they were obedient to their portion of it. You could say that they bet on the baby, because they were willing to believe the tidings of God’s messengers.
We sing about Jesus’ subsequent birth as a silent, holy night where all is calm and bright forgetting that event actually heralds a revolution. Jesus came in humble manner, but he came to turn the world upside down just as he turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the courts of the Temple. Jesus came to upset corrupt systems, unfair practices, and business as usual when that business oppressed, victimized, or excluded any of God’s precious people, and we are ALL precious to God!
Advent invites us, like Joseph, to bet on the baby, to do the right thing rather than the easy thing, to trust the promises of the Old Testament, to believe that God is paying attention and will not let corrupt empires or self-serving leaders last forever. Change is always in the air wherever the Spirit of God is blowing. As much as we may dread change, there are things in our world and in ourselves that we know must be transformed for all God’s children to survive. We anticipate the radical newness Jesus wants to bring. Let us then dare to be yoked with Christ, shoulder our share of the load, and work together without fear or anxiety. Let us celebrate the Christmas that has come, and the Christmases yet to come, and the blessings of God’s presence in our midst. Let us sing the good news of “Glory to God and peace on earth.”
Lord, your love reaches to the heavens,
your loyalty to the skies.
Your goodness is as high as the mountains.
Your justice is as deep as the great ocean.
Lord, you protect both people and animals.
God, your love is so precious!
You protect people in the shadow of your wings.
OLD TESTAMENT READING Psalm 113:5-9, CEB
Who could possibly compare to the Lord our God?
God rules from on high;
6 he has to come down to even see heaven and earth!
7 God lifts up the poor from the dirt
and raises up the needy from the garbage pile
8 to seat them with leaders--
with the leaders of his own people!
9 God nests the once barren woman at home--
now a joyful mother with children!
Praise the Lord!
NEW TESTAMENT READING Matthew 1:18-25, NLT
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
SERMON Radical Renewal
Throughout the Advent season, everyone asks, “Are you ready for Christmas?” By today that becomes a dangerous question, because what most folks mean when they ask are some of the following:
- Have you decorated?
- Have you baked?
- Are your cards in the mail yet?
- Are the gifts purchased and wrapped?
- Is the house ready for company or are you ready to travel?
That being the question, my answer is no, but I give myself grace by remembering that there are 12 days of Christmas, and my family doesn’t celebrate until we are halfway through them. I still have time for some of those things and others won’t happen this year. Christmas is almost here, but there may be ideas that have to wait until later or even next year. As you heard in the announcements, we aren’t quite ready as a church for Christmas Eve either. While many things are ready to slide into place, we still have a couple hospitality roles to fill.
I like the decorations, the cookies, the cards and the travel plans. I love our Christmas Eve worship service. They are all a work in progress and so are we. As individuals, as a church, as a society, we are not a finished product. God is still at work in us and through us.
What Advent could ask of a more spiritual nature is this, “Are you ready for Jesus?” That’s a far more serious question. You may or may not have made room in your holiday and your life for Jesus to play a starring role. I may be more in tune with God this Advent than in some seasons past, but I still have a long way to go.
Jesus comes to bring a radical renewal of the way we think and the way we live in this world. You caught some of that in the reading tidbits as we lit the advent candles. In God’s timing, things will change. Empires come and go whether we are talking about Old Testament regimes from Babylon to Persia to Greece and even Rome or equally true of leadership in any sector in our world today. No one holds office forever, though some may stay in one position for a very long time. When we perceive humans leading out of a greedy or arrogant nature, it helps to remember their power to control or coerce, to dominate and even manipulate does not last forever. That baby of Bethlehem still invites us to a radically new way of life based on godly principles at every level: government, economics, health care, community, church, education, commerce, immigration, environment and more. The power structures of society must be transformed, but on a more personal level, the power struggle within our own lives must also be resolved. Our dark sides (and we all have them in some form) cannot continue to control us.
We do not do this alone. We bet on the baby. Brueggemann points out that the king born in “filth & poverty” in Bethlehem (Celebrating Abundance, p. 54) is God keeping God’s promises but with a twist. God is intent on “turning the world back to its sanity,” because society goes insanely overboard in unhealthy, unbalanced ways. For example:
- We lament a world filled with violence, yet our focus on blame does not resolve it.
- We have economic strategies that fail to anticipate all the consequences.
- We argue over the effects of global warning while hesitating to do what it would take to reverse them.
- We fill our lives with stuff and activities rather than nurturing relationship and reflection.
In the midst of this reality, not all that different now than it was back then, God came not as a warrior but as a baby. Think about how people respond to babies. Their innocent look and playful nature can disarm the crankiest among us. God did not threaten us with punishment but invites us to change. God came to build relationships not policies, yet out of those relationships our policies will be more compassionate and realistic.
Psalm 36 used in our opening sentences invites us to trust God’s faithfulness. It is a common theme in the psalms to recite that God’s faithful love endures to all generations. In this psalm God’s love and loyalty reach beyond the skies, God’s goodness, high as the mountains and God’s justice, deep as the sea. It reminds me of a psalm that warns us not to put our trust in princes, (Psalm 146:3) and another that warns not to trust chariots or horses. (Psalm 20:7-8) The things of this world, wonderful as they may be, will ultimately fail us, but not God. God may seem hidden for a while, but God remains; just as the sun is still there behind a cloud or shining on the opposite hemisphere. One day sun and stars may burn out, but even then, God remains.
There are certainly times we want to hide or retreat from concerns and responsibilities, days we can barely drag ourselves out of bed. But it does us no good to run away or bury our head in the sand like an ostrich. We read in Psalms that we take refuge under God’s wing. (Psalm 91:4) or as Luke writes, Jesus wants to gather us like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. (Luke 13:34) I think it means metaphorically to climb into God’s embrace and remember that we are loved.
A significant concept in either of today’s psalms is to begin with affirming who God is. Before we pray, before we begin our day, before the work or the food or the play, let us begin by affirming who God is in our world and in our lives. We are meant to focus on God and not ourselves. As I read one of the devotions this week, I scribbled in the margins, “When you are discouraged, make it a practice to list all the positive attributes of God you can remember. Let that exercise become a prayer and that prayer become a way of life.” So, I challenge you, list out loud, write in your journal or pray quietly that God is good, God is faithful, God is kind, God is just, God is merciful, God is radiant, God is creative, God is… you keep filling in those blanks and see how far you can go. It will add color and texture as you build up your faith.
Another concept for Advent is turning. We think of it in the word repentance more often for Lent, but once upon a time, Advent was also a season of repentance. Think how often in these four weeks I have brought up John the Baptist and his admonition to “Repent!” For radical renewal to come, we must indeed turn. John reminded people of the great prophet Elijah. Malachi ends our Old Testament with these words that in our Christian heritage tie the two men together.
“Look, I am sending Elijah the prophet to you,
before the great and terrifying day of the Lord arrives.
Turn the hearts of the parents to the children
and the hearts of the children to their parents.
Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)
Turning is significant. When we are turned toward the world, we are distracted and led astray. When we turn toward God, we find our focus and our path again. When we turn away from each other we become lonely or self-absorbed, maybe both. When we turn back to those God has put in our lives, we find relationship and sometimes, purpose. When we even turn away from ourselves, we get truly lost and become something we are not until we can’t even recognize the person God created us to be. When the world turns toward greed rather than generosity, to power and control rather than sharing, to violence rather than caring, we are in big trouble. The turning back, as Brueggemann points out, brings healing. It brings reconciliation. He sees that in Malachi’s promise of Messiah, a reconciliation between generations, between states or gender or anything else that divides us. Our world needs that healing.
So, how do we live into God’s Kingdom of radical renewal? We’ve been touching on this all through Advent. I’m reminded of the Ghandi quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I’m reminded of Walter Rauschenbusch whose work on the Social Gospel I read in seminary. In researching his thinking anew I found this quote: “The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God.” I fully believe that, but sadly he goes on to say, that so far this has been a failure.
In order for the radical newness of God’s kingdom to come about we are called to be active participants. That doesn’t necessarily mean letter writing campaigns or protests or bumper stickers and yard signs, although you may be called to such activities for a worthwhile cause. But more importantly living as citizens of God’s kingdom now means many of the basic behaviors called for in Romans 12. Brueggemann points out. generosity, hospitality and forgiveness. Looking further I would add sincerity, empathy, devotion, equality, honesty, compassion, and shalom in the fullest sense of that word. If we live with such integrity and in partnership with God, it will affect the world around us, and in time the world can change.
The world changed when God came in a baby born to an unwed mother named Mary, and a bewildered but righteous man named Joseph became step father to God’s Son. Willing to listen to God’s dream and participate in God’s plan, this couple partnered with God accepting the role God asked each of them to play. Though they surely could not see either the big picture or all the details, they were obedient to their portion of it. You could say that they bet on the baby, because they were willing to believe the tidings of God’s messengers.
We sing about Jesus’ subsequent birth as a silent, holy night where all is calm and bright forgetting that event actually heralds a revolution. Jesus came in humble manner, but he came to turn the world upside down just as he turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the courts of the Temple. Jesus came to upset corrupt systems, unfair practices, and business as usual when that business oppressed, victimized, or excluded any of God’s precious people, and we are ALL precious to God!
Advent invites us, like Joseph, to bet on the baby, to do the right thing rather than the easy thing, to trust the promises of the Old Testament, to believe that God is paying attention and will not let corrupt empires or self-serving leaders last forever. Change is always in the air wherever the Spirit of God is blowing. As much as we may dread change, there are things in our world and in ourselves that we know must be transformed for all God’s children to survive. We anticipate the radical newness Jesus wants to bring. Let us then dare to be yoked with Christ, shoulder our share of the load, and work together without fear or anxiety. Let us celebrate the Christmas that has come, and the Christmases yet to come, and the blessings of God’s presence in our midst. Let us sing the good news of “Glory to God and peace on earth.”
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