Flowers in the Wilderness (Why Don't Flowers Grow in Hell)

Emmanuel United Methodist Church 3rd Sunday of Advent December 15, 1996 Sermon Title: Flowers in the Wilderness None of us have probably ever had the pleasure of having to go to school, work or even church in the middle of a warÐÏ à¡± á ; þÿ þÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ þ'N   ° T› Ð ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ T- Â/ / / / / / /     à=Ð/ Ð 8 d / ÿÿÿÿ Ð ,/ – R- Harriette Cross Emmanuel United Methodist Church 3rd Sunday of Advent December 15, 1996 Sermon Title: Flowers in the Wilderness None of us have probably ever had the pleasure of having to go to school, work or even church in the middle of a war zone. We have been lucky enough not to have experienced the devastation of war for ourselves in our homeland. We have not had the pleasure of trying to live between two parties fighting and and thought to ourselves, no matter what the noble principle that is at stake in this war, it can't possibly be worth the senselessness that continues this fight. We have not had to witness for ourselves things in our community that it took hundreds of years to build, destroyed and taken away by just minutes of fighting. We have not had to read the faces and hear the voices of our neighbors as the meaning of their lives was taken away right in front of their noses. And they are sit left to wonder what is the meaning of this life that I have come so far in one way, and I now have to continue in another. We have not had to walk by and see buildings that were once vibrant with life, empty and boarded up No matter who is involved, no matter what the point, war is a lose/lose situation for all involved. It really doesn't change either parties opinion about anything. And for those people who have experienced loss, it really doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong. But war is one way to get the blood of an organization and certain people in that organization pumping. They can band together for a common cause. Maybe its human nature that we can suddenly find the energy and resources to go forward in times of war, that in times of peace, we would swear on a stack of Holy Bibles that we just don't have Never mind the fact that it takes more resources to fight then it does to make peace. any collateral that we put up in a fight will always ultimately be lost, what we do in times of peace is ours to keep. Never mind that fact that once any war goes on for an extended period of time, the point that we were fighting for will disappear long before our need to fight. I think that the most devastating thing about wartime, is that in order to live in it, you have to loose your conscious. You have to have gotten to the point where no matter how loving and caring person that you were at one time. In order to stay in a war zone you have to get to the point where you just don't care anymore, you have to lose all feeling for what you say, for who you walk over, for who you hurt, for what you destroy in the process, for the innocent people that you have taken down with you in the fight. And once the devastation starts, no matter how hard someone tries to stop it, it will continue. Until there is nothing left. The state of devastation is the state of feeling that there is no hope, no future, no understanding. Wilderness is a state of there being nothing But that is the place where our scripture starts out today, in the wilderness a voice cries out that hope is always on the way. In the midst of our devastation, that is always the starting place of our hope. John 1:6-8, 19-28 says......... John the Baptist came to the countryside of Bethany to give hope to a hopeless generation. He came to bear witness to the light of God in a very dark period of time. verse 5 says that the light has shown in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The light of God was around the people everyday and played out in the lives of those who were faithful to God. But the people were so used to darkness, that the good works of the faithful had no meaning to them. They saw it everyday, but htey didnot see it as a reason to rejoice or a reason to change their lives. We are all human beings, and we all grow to be a part of the atmosphere that we live in. And the world that they lived in in john's time has not changed much even today. It is a world that is full of war, sin, deceit, manipulation, theft and any ohter activity that requires a certain amount of darkness and secrecy in order to be successful. John set out to baptize people, to cleanse them so that they would see that darkness was not a healthy way to live. The water took away their sins, as the people sought to God's forgiveness for whatever they had done. Once they came up from the water clean of the past, they could go forward in a new life. A life reconciled to the one true God. John could give them reconciliation, but he was quick to tell the people that redemption and salvation was to be given by the one who was still to come. John was not the light, he was a witness to the light. And through his witnesss, he brought more witnesses to the light. We are all creatures of habit. And once we get set in a pattern, it can become very hard to do something new. We all lose our conscious, and we become confortable with the way things are. It doesn't matter whether the pattern is destructive to ourselves and to other people, we do it automatically. Therefore, we need someone from out of the wilderness to come into our situation with a fresh outlook and the courage to spell out to us how we have become our own worst enemy, we need someone like John to show us the way to salvation, spiriutal health and hope. As more and more people realized that the did not need the darkness of sin in order to live a complete life, the whole situation changed. People who at one time lived in hopelessness and despair, who felt that it was okay to do and say anything started to see that they could trust life enough to let the Holy Spirit work for them. And where the Holy Spirit is free to work, the coming of Christ is not far behind. There is a story about a wealthy man who wanted to build a church for his village. Once it was finished, everyone was impressed at how beautiful it was. But they noticed that it had one important flaw, it had no lights. So someone asked him where the lights were. and he pointed to the little brackets each seat. He told them that when they came to worhsip that they needed to bring their lamp with them. Each time you are here, he told them, then your seat will be lighted, each time you fail to come and worhsip, them some part of God's house will be dark God has called each and everyone of us to light some part of his kingdom. Christ has called us to be a witness to him and to his power. All the we know to say is how we know that the Holy Spirit works in our lives and our situation. Like John the Baptist, we are witnesses to the light, but whether we shine is totally up to us. There is not a day that goes by, or an event that happens that we are not called to be a witness about something. Reporters call on people to get their witness of the facts, so that they can write a news story. People are called into court to testify about what they saw or heard about a certain incident. It can be very easy to get programmed to be a witness to all of ugliness, hatred and sin around us. Because we see it everyday. It can be very easy to become a witness to the devastation, despair and hopelessness. John came into the world to announce in the midst of all of that, that every soon, the one who would take away all of that would come. Evil is alive and well in the world today and it is not going anywhere anytime soon. The good news is, that we have been called to be witnesses of the light. Even in the midst of hoplessness, we must learn to be witnesses to the goodness, love and grace of the one that we are expecting. It is in our expectation that makes those things come into full bloom into the world. Advent season is the season of expectation. Christ has come, Christ is come and Christ will come again. Two weeks from now, we celebrate the fact that Christ came into the world in the human form to walk with us and to know what we are going through. But sometimes the pain of life can get so deep that we forget that in the midst of our suffering that Christ is not lookng above us, but is beside us going through it too. Every pain we feel, he feels it too. Every minute that we feel hopeless, the Holy Spirit is working in the process to bring us to a new understanding, and its the new understanding that will bring us a new life. Finally, I will tell you a story about a little boy who really did live in a war zone In the Civil War, he used to sit and watch the soldiers come a the field behind his house to fight. During the battles he would see all the people who would gather see who would win. And once it was over, he would go and look at the ground they were fighting over. He would see how empty and detroyed it was. Once the smoke of the cannons cleared, he could see how the earth had been torn up so bad that nothing would ever grow there again. So he planted some grass seeds, hoping that they would grow and erase the memory of the fighting that had taken place there. but nothing happened. He asked his mother, why is it that grass won't grow on the battlefield. Is is because the seeds are weaker than those planted elsewhere? Is it because I dont' water and take care of them enough? Or, Is is because once they are planted, that the soldiers are so caught up in their need to fight that they trample over them and don't give thema chance to really grow? And every time they become rooted and uprooted, it becomes that much harder for a new seed to be planted? And his mother in her wisdom, said nothing, and left the boy to use his situation to ponder an important understanding of life and death. So the boy woke up one morning and decided to plant a row of flowers around the whole battlefield. It took some time for the flowers to come into full bloom. But as the flowers grew stronger and stronger, and they reached out to the light of the sun with their leaves and petals. The boys plan worked. when the soldiers saw the witness of the flowers in the wilderness, a sign of new life in the area. The people no longer thought of the field as a place of emptiness and devastation, but as a symbol of hope of what was possible in the future. John comes to us in scripture today, to tell us that there is hope for the future. When people asked who we was, he said that he was a voice crying out in the wilderness to make straight the way in the Lord. To make the path in our hearts open and straight to expect all of the goodness, mercy and love that his coming will bring us. And no matter what we go through, he promised that he would come to us and bring us a better life. Because Christ is the only one who can give us salvation. But we have to give up the past, we have to acknowledge that we have all sinned and contributed to the devastation,we have to trust that the Holy Spirit is at work, even when we see no sign, we have to expect salvation to come in the midst of devastation. We have to be flowers in the wilderness, witnessing to the light of Christ, growing with our petals pointed up highlighting what Christ has done for us in insurmountable odds, being used to bring life to the border of the wildnerness of the world and sin and death. Baptized not only in forgivenss, but redemption. Always a witness that the Lord is coming to save us all. , work or even church in the middle of a war R- T- yu