Peace, Joy, Hope, Love - the Promises of Advent

December 1, 2019 Hope, Peace, Love and Joy First Sunday of Advent Year A Isaiah 2:2-5 Children’s Sermon OBJECT: A Globe LESSON: What do I have here? That's right. It is a globe of the Earth. Where would you say is the most important place on the globe? Some might say Washington, D.C. People in France would probably say Paris. Hundreds of years ago, the prophet Isaiah was given a vision of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. Do you know what a vision is? A vision is something a person sees in a dream. In this case, God showed Isaiah the holy Temple in Jerusalem in his dream. Isaiah had a vision of what Jerusalem would be like someday. It would be the most important place in all the earth and people would come from all over the world to worship there. There would be no more wars or armies. Doesn't that sound wonderful? That hasn't happened yet but it gives us hope. Just like Isaiah saw hope for a better world in the future, Advent and Jesus' birth gives us hope also. PRAYER: Thank You for sending Jesus to give us hope for a better world. AMEN Isaiah 2:1-5 Common English Bible (CEB) The LORD’s mountain 2 This is what Isaiah, Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 In the days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of the mountains. It will be lifted above the hills; peoples will stream to it. 3 Many nations will go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the house of Jacob’s God so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in God’s paths.” Instruction will come from Zion; the LORD’s word from Jerusalem. 4 God will judge between the nations, and settle disputes of mighty nations. Then they will beat their swords into iron plows and their spears into pruning tools. Nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war. 5 Come, house of Jacob, let’s walk by the LORD’s light. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Stewardship moment This is the season of gifts. Give and receive. What is the greatest gift that you ever received? Who gave it to you. Season of giving physical gifts, but they all represent some form of hope, peace, love and joy. Ultimately, that is what we want to give. This season, remember to put God first. Give as God calls us to give – to make a difference not just to our family and friends but to all of the world. A better world for some of us, better world to all. Give to further the mission of the church. Sermon We begin the school year by buying new clothes and school supplies, we start the calendar year with fireworks and parades, we start the fiscal year by looking at the budget. We start the Christian year by turning everything upside down. So that the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning. Afterall that is what Jesus did – turned everything upside down, so that there something new and exciting could begin. The book of Isaiah starts about where our world is – there is devastation, darkness, hopelessness. In chapter 1 of Isaiah – the country is devastated from being taken over by another land. They are at a loss for what to do. For us – there are so many things going on to bring devastation. But Isaiah takes a look at that devastation, hopelessness, darkness and tries to make sense of it. He turns it into hope, peace, love and joy – by getting us to focus on the presence of God in our lives. Every Sunday in advent there is a reading from Isaiah. We are not going to read every one of them this year. But I think this one is important. I remember writing a whole research paper on this one – I wish I could find it. This one speaks to me, because it speaks of the importance of peace. I think the world needs more peace and understanding. In Schaumburg the ministerial alliance decided to have an intentional conversation on the meaning of peace. We were unique because we have muslim, jewish and Christian participation. That was actually unique, because usually if you can get the jewish synagogue to participate, then you wont get the mosque. And if the mosque is present the synagogue wont. We had some very understanding clergy. Interestingly, when we invited the lay people to come – some said no, as long as the other was in the room they would not talk. I taught a workshop on peace, and asked what was the meaning of peace. One of the jewish persons said – peace was the presence of American b1 bomber in his country. As long as it was there, he knew there would be peace in his country. Interesting. We all have our images of what represents peace. And we have different images. But this verse teaches us that there is only one God. When we all look to that God and trust him. Then and only then will we understand peace. One author suggests that children's letters to Santa reflect that same desire to reach out to God. The tiny town of Rovaniemi, Finland, is the official international site for sending letters to Santa Claus. They have an aptly named Santa Claus Village nearby, and they postmark their letters with a Santa Claus postal seal. Each year, the Rovaniemi post office receives hundreds of thousands of letters from over 184 countries. Although form letters are sent out to most of the requests, the most heartrending ones are personally answered by a volunteer team of university students from the surrounding towns. One postal clerk at Rovaniemi says, "We can see everything that is going on in the world through the letters." Children in war-torn areas ask Santa to send them peace on earth. Children whose parents are dying ask for the miracle of healing. One child may ask for a new Power Ranger doll from Santa; another child on the other side of the globe may ask for an artificial limb to replace the hand or leg that was blown off by a land mine. But why do children and adults write to Santa for both tangible and intangible things? One clerk remarks, "People used to have the saints to call on when they felt they couldn't reach God himself. Now some of them think, "˜If God can't help me, maybe Santa can. "˜" (4) There is a universal need to connect with God. At some time in our lives, all of us will look up and say, "Please, God. Listen to my need." There is a universal need for God. Christmas speaks to that need. When we could not reach God, God reached out to us. As someone has written, "Christmas is love tugging us back to God with a powerful clasp of a tiny hand reaching out from a bed of straw." There is a universal need for God and there is a universal need for peace. Isaiah writes, "He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." We are all looking for something beyond ourselves – the divine. And a God of mercy, justice and love takes care of everyone. When our prayers are answered and our needs are taken care of we don’t need to depend on war to get our needs met. We can sit next to each other in peace and unity. Here's an interesting fact: Research has discovered that no two nations with McDonald's restaurants have ever gone to war. The so-called Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention, conceived by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, holds that countries can only support a McDonald's when they have reached a sufficient level of economic prosperity and political stability to make war unattractive to its people. (6) The world is moving away from war one Big Mac at a time. Do you catch the significance of that little fact? One way to reduce conflict in the world is to attack the conditions in the world that make for war--injustice, poverty, and abuse. Even if it doesn't make the world safe for democracy, that is what followers of Jesus are supposed to be doing anyway. Frankly, I really don’t believe that McDonalds has that kind of power. More importantly, McDonalds is not that altruistic. They go where they can make a profit. We have to remember, that the church is the place that Jesus created to be the place of peace. We are the high mountain that everyone will come to learn the ways of God and the ways of peace, hope love and joy. The scripture says that God will judge between the nations and give justice. God does not judge us, God is the intercessor that deals with each of us fairly. We don’t need a b1 bomber to deal with our enemies. The setting is West Africa. The casings from bullets fired during the Liberian civil war in the 1990s are being made into crosses by local artisans. It was George Togba's idea to make these crosses. He is a native of Liberia. At the peak of the country's 17-year civil war, George and his family were among 600 people who sought refuge in St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Monrovia. The military raided the sanctuary, and George saw most of the refuge-seekers killed in front of him, including his mother. They were all unarmed. "I escaped the massacre and joined the war effort," George said. "But I didn't really want to be a soldier." Nonetheless, George made it through the war, and when peace was finally restored to Liberia in 1996, he had to find a way to support his family. "I had a dream," he says, "where I was changing the shell casings into symbols of peace." He gathered up several of the used shells that littered the war-torn countryside and started to work. "I leave the lower part of the round intact," says George, "so that you can see what it was intended to do--destroy life--but above that is the symbol of life," he explained, pointing to the cross. About 30 other artisans and former soldiers have joined George. This creative and meaningful effort provides income for many families in Liberia. The project was sponsored by the Lutheran World Federation. The crosses serve as a reminder to all that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." (7) Friends, that's our job--to transfer symbols of hate into symbols of love, symbols of death into symbols of life, symbols of hopelessness into symbols of God. How do we do that? One small act of love and concern at a time. Those counter productive tools can be turned into productive tooks. Tools to protect us from one another can be turned into tools to share. What would happen if we strove to turn swords into plowshares. To all use those tools of production and sharing. Advent is the beginning of us being the people God called us to be. A little girl named Jana was given a part in her church’s Christmas drama. Jana was so excited about her part that her mother thought she was going to be one of the main characters. Jana, however, would not reveal to her mother the part she was supposed to play. After much anticipation, the big night finally came. The parents were all there eagerly awaiting their children’s participation in this Christmas drama. One by one the children took their places. The shepherds fidgeted in one corner of the stage. Mary and Joseph stood solemnly behind the manger. In the back three young wise men waited impatiently. Meanwhile, Jana sat quietly and confidently. Then the teacher began: “A long time ago, Mary and Joseph had a baby and they named Him Jesus. And when Jesus was born, a bright star appeared over the stable.” This was Jana’s cue. She got up from her chair, picked up a large tin-foil star, walked behind Mary and Joseph and held the star up high for everyone to see. When the teacher told about the shepherds coming to see the baby, the three young shepherds came forward and Jana jiggled the star up and down excitedly to show them where to come. When the wise men responded to their cue, Jana went forward a little to meet them and to lead the way, her face as alight as the real star might have been. The play ended. They had refreshments. On the way home, even though she only had a nonspeaking role, Jana said to her Mother, with great satisfaction, “I had the main part!” “You did?” Her mother asked, wondering why she thought that. “Yes,” she said, “because I showed everybody how to find Jesus!” (1) I guess she did have the main part. She pointed all the other actors toward Jesus. This advent may you strive to be that light to the world. Let us pray……. Additional illustrations I Shall Not Rush Here is a version of the 23rd Psalm that ought to be mandatory reading each day of Advent, and a unison reading each Advent Sunday. The lord is my pace setter . . . I shall not rush He makes me stop for quiet intervals He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and his guidance is peace Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here His timelessness, his all importance will keep me in balance He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility My cup of joyous energy overflows Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours for I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in his house for ever. A version of Psalm 23 from Japan, as reprinted in Mother Teresa, Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, Prayers, ed. Kathryn Spink (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1983), 76-77. We've Done Everything Else "We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God." William Sloan Coffin Never Give Up Hope In Anne Tyler's novel, “The Amateur Marriage,” we witness a sad series of events. The book's main characters are Michael and Pauline, a pair of World War II-era sweethearts who get married and eventually have three children. But then one day their oldest child, Lindy, just disappears. She runs away from home and promptly falls off the face of the earth. For the first days, weeks, and even months, they watch for her return. They seize on any and every clue as to her whereabouts. The pace, they peer out windows, they listen for a key scratching at the front door's lock, they sit bolt upright each time they think they hear footfalls on the driveway. But Lindy does not return. Over the years, her absence becomes just another part of life. They never finally give up on the idea that they'd see her again, but they stop watching for her. At first they were certain she'd be back soon. They would not have been at all surprised had she walked back through that front door. Years later, though, the surprise flipped: after a while, they would have been surprised if she had come back. Lindy does return eventually, although her mother Pauline never lives to see it. When Lindy shows back up, her father says to her, "Your mother never gave up hope, I could tell." Of course, Pauline had gotten on with life. But she just had a way of glancing out the window that let you know the hope was still there. When she had the chance to take a cruise with a group of friends, she refused. She came up with a dozen excuses but everyone knew that deep down the real reason was that she didn't want to be gone in case Lindy came back. We may not live to see our Lord's return. But as we go through our routines in these days of Noah, we certainly want it to be true that as people look at the shape of our lives, they can say of also us, "Those Christians never give up hope. We can tell." Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations The Season of Preparation Today marks the beginning of the season of Advent, a time of preparation, a time of going toward the coming again of the Messiah, a time of great expectation and great anticipation. But exactly what is it that we anticipate? What are we getting ready for? What do we expect to happen? Do we anticipate the end of the world, as some religious cults always do at this time of the year? Are we preparing our hearts and spirits to receive once again the coming of the Christ child into the world? Or are we preparing for yet another month-long shopping spree that some have called "economic first-degree murder" – willfully and with malice aforethought murdering our bank accounts? Or maybe we’re getting ready for the seven to ten pounds the average American will gain during the season (Lord, please let me be an underachiever this year!)? Or are we preparing for the suicidal traffic jams at Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke, or the general atmosphere of surliness and desperation? (A couple of years back I remember hearing on the local news in West Tennessee that shoppers were actually coming to blows for the right to buy a Holiday Barbie doll!) Are we getting ready for the depression, the anxiety, and even the rage that accompanies the secular holiday season? If we allow ourselves to get caught up in the consumer Christmas – and I firmly believe that we in America celebrate two separate events on December 25 – we can easily find that instead of preparing to sing "O Holy Night" we will find ourselves living out one holy nightmare. When the prophet Isaiah thought about the advent of God, he envisioned a world unified in worship of God and committed to peace. Isaiah dreamed of a time when the nations and people of the world would join together in recognizing the sovereignty of God and declare, "Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that God may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths." In the world of Isaiah’s vision, war was a thing of the past, and the nations of the earth lived together in peace. Johnny Dean, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com An event of some significance took place in Wauconda, Illinois, a small town with a population of 6,500. For the past 45 years the town had placed two large illuminated crosses on the city water towers during the Christmas season. Then the town council received a threat. Someone was going to sue the city if the crosses were erected in the coming Christmas season, based on the separation of church and state. The town council grudgingly took them down. But that’s when the citizens of Wauconda took matters into their own hands. They didn’t counter-sue. Nor did they organize angry protests. Here’s what they did. They decided to honor the missing crosses by placing lighted reminders of Christ on their own property. All over the community, the citizens of Wauconda put up lighted crosses and nativity stars and manger scenes and trees draped in lights. They put up so many lights that you could see Wauconda from the interstate freeway! Wauconda looked like an entirely different town. All night it was as bright as day because the people decided to turn on the lights of Christmas. (6) What is the first thing God created in this world? Light. What is the last thing that will indicate the presence of God is among us? According to the book of Revelation it is light. The Advent season is our chance to remember, to celebrate, to announce to the world that the Messiah has come and that we have been called to walk in the light of the Lord. And as we walk in God’s light, we will choose justice and peace because through Jesus we have been restored to God and restored to one another. For these next four weeks leading up to Christmas, I hope that you will focus on how you can heal any separation between you and God and between you and your brothers and sisters in this world of every race and creed, that you may share more of Jesus’ light and life with a world that needs so badly to know God’s hope and God’s peace. I read something interesting about icebergs some time ago. I read that if you were to fly over the North Atlantic in a blimp and were to stare at a large pack of icebergs, you would begin to notice something. You would notice that all the small icebergs would be moving in one direction, while the large ones would be moving in another. Now why do you think that is? It's because surface winds are moving the little icebergs while the enormous ones are directed and moved by ocean currents deep below the surface. Right in the midst of turmoil and hopelessness, the surface winds of his day, Isaiah was undaunted in his faith. He knew that such things would pass and that the day would come when the mountain of the Lord would be established as the highest of all. He knew that the day would come when, instead of the people of God turning their backs on the Lord who loved them, once again they would be faithful and by their sheer radiance and the power of God, people would flow back up the mountain to be taught the Lord's way of peace. Every Hanukkah, the Markovitz family of Pennsylvania lit a menorah and placed it in the window of their house. It stood out in contrast to all the Christmas decorations in the windows of their neighbors. One year, vandals broke out the front window of the Markovitz home, the window that held the menorah. The whole Markovitz family was shaken by the senseless hatred of this act. After the window had been repaired, they left to spend the day with their family. That evening, the Markovitzes returned home to find almost every house in the neighborhood had a lit menorah in its front window. As Vicky, the Markovitz's daughter said, it was their neighbors' way of saying, "If you break their windows, you will have to break ours." (8) That's where it begins--it begins with us as we seek to be God's people in the world--loving our neighbors as Christ has loved us. The Advent season speaks to our need for God and the world's need for peace, and it shows us a better way--the way of love. The poet Emily Dickinson wrote: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all. Here we are in December. December is not so much another month as it is another mood. We start talking about faith, hope and love just because it’s December. We send greeting cards to people we have seldom seen all year. We decorate our houses with greenery hoping this symbol of life will become real. We string lights around our homes, hoping against hope to chase the dark away. It’s December. I want to spend these December Sundays talking about hope, about real hope, about spiritual hope. Or as Helen Neimast said, “Waiting with hope is an affirmation that God – not you or I – is in charge, and that God is faithful, worthy of our hope.” Maybe it’s time to move to higher ground. The mountain that Isaiah mentioned is Mt. Moriah. It’s where Abraham learned that child sacrifice was not the way of the Lord, it’s where David learned that he could pray for the release of plagues on his people, and it’s where Solomon built the temple. It is where the laws of the Lord were kept and the ways of the Lord were practiced. Let us go up to the mountain, the highest mountain of all. There is no doubt that you will be busy the next 30 days. That is not the question. The question is, are you going to be any better this month? Will you be busy with things that matter? Our problem is that we try to manufacture hope. We trim a tree, we hang some lights, we pack our schedules with things to do and places to go. We take a few trips down memory lane. This is not where hope lies. Hope is not to be found in the things we do. We can even engulf ourselves in religious activities, sing the Messiah, listen to the cantatas, engage in a thousand ways to help the needy, and still wind up feeling hopeless, because we have failed to encounter God, to learn his ways and walk in his paths. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Let us rise up to the place where we may learn God’s ways and walk in his paths. Let me say it plainly: Our hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame But holy lean on Jesus Name. I’m hoping today that God will be exalted in all that we do and all that we say. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and there learn to worship with all of our being. Let him fill our hearts and minds and souls with hope because hope alone lies in God.