This sermon was the first in our Advent series on journey. As I mention in the sermon, it is being done in conjunction with daily Advent items the young disciples will receive and the three/week emails people will receive with special Advent music and a written reflection from members about insights they have had in their faith journeys. The sermons are particularly tied to the items the young disciples will receive each week.
The sermon went ok. I'm not sure I used the Luke passage appropriately - I might have made it fit my point, instead of having a point grow out of the text. Might have done the same thing with the Jeremiah text. one of the challenges (I have mentioned this before) of preaching sermon series is how to avoid using texts as a support to the theme, instead of having the theme grow out of the text.
My conclusion was different than what is written below, although I can't remember what I said!
“Advent Journeys: Cows, Pigs, Donkeys, Oh My!” SAPC, Denton; November 28, 2021; Advent, 2021 series; Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Luke 21: 25-36
Jeremiah 33: 14-16
14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.
Introduction: Michael Lindvall, our Fall Festival of Faith speaker, reminded us about the novelist John Gardner’s comment that there are only two plots to all the stories ever told: a stranger came to town and someone went on a journey.
The Bible, of course, is full of both.
Our lives are full of both.
this Advent, we invite you to take a journey to meet the stranger who comes to town as a babe born in Bethlehem.
As you imagine journey, think not just in terms of a physical journey where you travel from one geographic spot to another, but also your own spiritual journey.
An Advent journey in which you will have an opportunity to explore your own life look around the world to discover signs of the arrival and presence of the baby born in Bethlehem.
To assist you on the journey, each week the sermon will reflect on things we might discover along the way.
you will also receive via email three times a week an Advent musical offering and the written reflections of people in this faith community who will share insights they have discovered along their journeys (if you do not already receive this emails and would like to, please call the church office or email to let us know)
Our children have received their aDvent bags with items to open each week of things they discover on their journey to Bethlehem.
We begin this week by reflecting on what we might see along our journey.
Move 1: Looking for signs
a. the journey is Advent and the destination is Bethlehem, the birth of the Christ-child.
1. But, do not be so preoccupied with the destination that you miss what you can discover along the journey.
2. we will arrive in Bethlehem soon enough. But pay attention to signs along the way.
b. When my kids were younger, most years we would drive through the night on Christmas Eve from first KY than OH to be in TX with grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and cousins on Christmas Day.
Through the years, congregation members would send us on our travels with
one grandmotherly type woman each year would give my girls travel kits for the trip. My kids, like her grandchildren, called her “Dodo,” and they greatly appreciated “Dodo’s” travel kits, primarily because they typically involved games and goodies.
one year, she had multiple bags labels like:
sign for Cincinnati
Or, a horse.
Or, an 18 wheeler
when the girls found the item labeled on the bag, they could open the bag and eat the treats enclosed.
My girls became experts at spotting the signs along the journey that led them to the treats in the bags.
Who knew you could see a spotted cow on the side of the road from the car seat of a van going 75 mph?
c. Advent is more than a four-week trip to Bethlehem.
1. It is about discovering the God who is already at work in the world as we move to meet the Christ-child.
2. Elizabeth Achtemeier, who was a Presbyterian minister and an Old Testament scholar, writes: “If Advent is only expectation of the Christ-child, it is meaningless; what Israel desired was not Christ’s birth, but the consequences of his coming and sovereignty.”
3. Do not look ahead focused on the baby in the manger.
4. Look around to see how the God who comes in Christ has already at work in the world.
2. Open your eyes to see new insights; open your ears to hear good news; open your hearts to be changed.
3. Look out for signs of God’s presence and God’s guidance for you.
4. Look inward for God’s calling for you now.
Move 2: Imagine the possibilities those signs bring to us.
a. One of the Advent themes we encounter in the lectionary texts is staying alert as we wait for Christ to come again.
1. The Luke text we read this morning is one of those texts.
2. “Be on guard,” we are told.
3. The uncertainty of when Christ will return demands vigilance in the moment as we look for signs of his return.
b. the uncertainty is not to make us unsure;
the uncertainty is not to make us wonder if the God who comes in christ will come again;
rather, the uncertainty spurs us on the act in the moment,
1. To bring out our creative spirit.
2. to Imagine the possibilities.
3. The children will open their Advent bags this week a donkey, which makes sense since tradition has it that Mary rode a donkey.
5. later in Advent they will open a bag that will have a cow in it. A cow maybe makes sense for a manger scene. I’ve seen those before.
6. Then, one day their bag will contain a pig.
A pig? I don’t remember hearing anything about squealing pigs at the manger with Jesus.
7. Reminds me of a story Rev. Ken Bailey tells (”A Role for Everyone: Casting the Christmas Pageant” Christian Century, Nov 30, 2012, Rev. Kenneth F. Bailey)
Rev. Ken Bailey tells the story playing one of the characters in a Christmas pageant at the church he served.
Because he grew up in the Quaker church, he never had a chance to be in a Christmas pageant growing up.
When he was in his forties, serving as a minister, the kid playing Joseph got sick a few days before the children's pageant. As the minister who could not say “No,” he was asked at the last minute to fill-in as Joseph.
He was given a costume, a place to stand and curt instructions from the director to “Be quiet. Stay still. Act adoring.” he wondered why they had not just asked another young man in the church to play Joseph.
Then he arrived for the first rehearsal and discovered that the director might have had an ulterior motive for casting him as well
It seems that year a beloved kindergartner had been chosen to be one of the animals around the manger, and she had taken it upon herself to wear a feathery pink swan costume, which stood out in sharp contrast to the traditional gray/brown manger scene. The director expected him to encourage the young pink swan to become one of the accepted animals - a sheep, perhaps.
At a break in the rehearsal, he kneeled down before this fabulous five-year-old and asked if she wouldn’t consider being a donkey or a sheep or a goat. “I’m a swan,” she said.
He explained that there were no swans at Jesus’ cradle. She furrowed her brows and looked him directly in the eye and with calm conviction said, “Don’t you think pink swans could have been there if Jesus wanted them to be there?”He immediately went and told the director that the swan was in.
3. If God can arrive in Bethlehem born as a baby to a virgin Mary, imagine the possibilities for what God can do in our world and is doing.
4. As you take your Advent journey, open yourselves up to the creative possibilities for how God is at work in the world, for how God might be at choosing to be at work through you.
move 3: We also stop along to they to point out to others signs of God’s presence in the world
a. Jeremiah
1. Jeremiah did not tell the Israelites that today everything will be perfect.
2. instead, Jeremiah prophesied about Israel's future hope.
3. Jeremiah told them about the God who will rescue them; the who will save them them; about the God who will one day come in the Christ-child; about the God who will one day come again
3. He told them to look for the brach of righteousness.
b. We join in that search.
1. Look for signs of God’s justice and righteousness in the world. When we find them, we are pointing them out to the world.
2. We proclaim this truth to “an oblivious world.” We announce that “we detect God's presence in our midst” (Journal of Preaching,"Preaching Advent Hope," Joseph Phelps, p. 8).
3. During the pandemic, we have become pretty good at looking around us and saying things like, “in the middle of this dark moment, we see signs of God at work through the health care workers,” or “through the technology that allows us to connect when we are separated physically.”
4. Look for signs of God’s justice and God’s righteousness being played out in our world and point to them for everyone to see.
Conclusion: We travel our Advent journey and look for cows, pigs, donkeys, pink swans, and numerous other sights that who show forth the baby born in Bethlehem.
Look. Notice. Show others.
Luke 21: 25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Exhortation to Watch
34 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Prophet Jeremiah
Nouwen also notes that "waiting is an awful desert between where we are and where we want to be." (John Buchanan, "Awaiting God's Reign” Christian Century,11/28/12).
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