Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · December 3, 2006

First Sunday of Advent

Prayer of the Day

Lord Jesus, in this hour of worship, give us the grace to receive you as you are, not as we would imagine you to be.  Give us the courage to step up, to let go, to move forward, and to become citizens of your reign.  Amen.

Scripture

Luke 21:25-33

Here is a speech Luke remembers Jesus offering.  It goes like this.

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars.  On the earth, there will be anguish, and dismay, and distress among the nations.  Perplexed, helpless, not knowing which way to turn from the roar of the surges of the seas.  People’s courage will fail completely.  They will faint from terror, fear, as they realize, as they become aware of what is coming, what is threatening the world, for the very powers of heaven will be shaken.  And then, they shall see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and great glory.  And when these things begin to happen, you are to stand erect, lift up your eyes, hold your heads high, because your redemption, your salvation, is drawing near.”

He then told them this parable.  He said, “Look.  Notice.  Think of the fig tree, indeed every tree.  When they bud, they leaf out, then you know that the summer is near.  So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

“I tell you, before this generation is passed away, all will have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

This is the Word of the Lord for us this day.

Message

Who Says We Want the World to Change?

Rick Frost

I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.  We had a grand family gathering in southern California.  Shorts, t-shirts, barefoot, Frisbee golf.  Has anybody ever played Frisbee golf?  Yea, there are two of you.  That is good.  It was 75 degrees.  My, how things change. 

Last Sunday was Thanksgiving.  This Sunday it’s time to change.  It’s time to change gears.  This Sunday is the first of four Sundays, as you know, of something called Advent.  It is the first of four Sundays that Christians, not only here, but also around the world prepare themselves for Christ-mass, for Christmas, for the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now you would think, would you not, that the Church universal would have us focus on the birth story, or the beginning stories, like the angel Gabriel coming to visit the young, virgin Mary.  Or Joseph and his pregnant fiancée going to Bethlehem because of a government decree.  You might think the Church would have us start this season by remembering the angels coming down from heaven, or the shepherds there in the fields, and all of the singing that was going on.  You would think this would be the place to begin our preparation.  But, no.  The Church universal asks us to consider a text totally different.  It asks the Christian family of God today to flip over to Luke 21.  That is really very near the end of the book. 

It is, I suggest, as if to say, “Hey, in order to get it, in order for you to get what the birth of Jesus means, you need to know some things.  You need to know some things that are going on.  You need to know what’s really going on behind the scenes.  You need to know what is going on even beyond history.  You need to know what’s happening off stage, the things you can’t see right now.  It is the big picture.

So, the Church asks us to jump from Luke 1, where things sort of start, all the way over to Luke 21, and to do that on the First Sunday of Advent.  It is sort of interesting.  It is where Jesus, as you know, late in his short life gives a speech.  I read it to you just moments ago.  It is a speech like Fred Craddock, and John Howard Yoder, says is an apocalyptic speech.  Now, you’ve heard that word before.

Apocalyptic, in the Bible, means “a revelation.”  What is the last book in the Bible?  It is the “Book of the Apocalypse.”  It’s called the Book of Revelation.  It is something that reveals something.  It discloses something.  It focuses on God’s purposes for God’s creation.  By definition then, I suggest, it means that this is a speech that Jesus gives that focuses on the end of some things: the end of the age, the end of an era, indeed, the end of life as you and I have know it, and, consequently, the beginning of a new age, a new era, a new world.  It is a new way of doing things in ways that we, as the human race, have yet to experience.

The Bible calls this dynamic by an interesting word.  That word is “gospel.”  Everybody in this room knows the word “gospel” means “good news.”  Now, what you may not know – what I want you to see today – is that the gospel in the Bible is not just about any old good news.  It is about very specific news, and about a very specific Savior.  This Savior, whom the Bible speaks of, saves by disrupting the old order.  Isn’t that interesting?

Not because it’s old, but because it is flawed, because it’s limited, because it’s not getting the job done.  It is because it is not serving the purposes of God the way God intended.  It is not doing what it is supposed to do.  The old order is disrupted, and this Savior disrupts that old order and brings in a whole new order – a whole new way of doing. 

According to Scripture, it brings in new life.  It offers new life in every moment, of every day, of every night, of every occasion.  That’s what Christ-mass is all about.  Isn’t that interesting?  Do you get it?

The question today… We have a huge question today.  It’s a big one.  Are you prepared… Are you ready for… Do you really want Christmas to come?  The real Christmas?  The biblical Christmas?  Because, you see, the Bible says the news about Jesus is good news, but before it’s good news, it’s going to be some bad news.  It’s bad news, because some things are going to come to an end.  There’s going to be an ending of your world, of my world, of the whole world the way you and I have known it to be, so that a new beginning of a whole new world that you and I cannot even know, unless we are encountering the Spirit of the Living Christ who has come to live in the flesh of Jesus.

Christmas, in the Bible.  Are you starting to get the picture?  Folks, the Church universal wants you to know from the get-go, on Sunday Number One of four, that Advent, that what you are supposedly preparing for, the Christ- mass, the celebration of the birth of Jesus is nothing less than the birth of a drastic change, a radical alternation, a complete shift.  A rebellious uprising?  I hope not, but maybe.  Something has to give.  Something has to change. 

Now that’s just not something that happens to us in our personal lives, although it certainly does that.  Many churches in our country focus on that personal transformation, and that’s a good thing.  But what I want you to hear is Christmas is about a lot, lot more.  It’s a radical change that’s global and cosmic in proportions.  Christmas.  Did you know that?

No wonder you don’t hear the words “Merry Christmas” much any more around the stores.  What is it nowadays?  “Happy Holidays.”  “Seasons Greetings.”  One of the reasons may just be that the biblical Christmas is not always good news for everybody.

When Mary, for instance, that teenaged, pregnant mother-to-be, learns the good news about what is about to be produced in her body, she breaks out in a song.  Do you remember that song?  I’ll tell you what.  It wasn’t “Rockabye Baby.”  OK?  It was a song she learned from the Book of Macabees.  It’s in some of your Bibles, but not all of them.  Those were her Jewish ancestors, her roots, her people, that led an epic struggle against the invasion of the Roman world that was coming into their part of the world, wanting to rule it, have dominion over it, on the backs of the people of the Middle East.  Listen to her song.

My soul magnifies the Lord

And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

For God has performed mighty deeds with God’s arm;

He has scattered those who are proud…

He has brought down rulers from their thrones.

He has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things.

He sent the rich away empty.

Does that sound like the Young Mothers Group theme song?  Mother Mary, folks, sings a song when she finds out the good news, and it’s a battle cry.  It’s called the gospel.  Mary thinks it’s good news. 

Are you preparing for Christmas?  The biblical Christmas? 

John, Jesus’ cousin, who was called the Baptizer, when he grew up, he began preaching what he called the gospel – the good news.  What was that good news?  Well, that good news he said, according to Luke, was the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3).  Listen to what he says.  He says, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

I keep waiting to see Hallmark do that one on a Christmas card.  I haven’t seen that one yet.  But there it is, right in Luke.  He says, “Produce fruit in keeping with your repentance… because the ax has already been laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“So, what are we supposed to do?”

“If you have two coats and your friend doesn’t have one, what are you supposed to do?  You share it with them.  If you have food, and your neighbor doesn’t have food, what do you do for them?  You share your food with those who have none.”

No wonder, folks, many in the land aren’t real sure that the biblical Christmas is such good news.

And then, of course, there was Jesus, himself, who proclaimed for all to hear.  You remember what he said.  He stood up and said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, turn, and believe the gospel – the good news.”

What is the good news?  He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to recover sight for the blind, to lift up the oppressed, and let those people go, and to proclaim the Jubilee of the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Do you remember in Luke 4 what that is?  That is a periodic economic leveling of the playing field.  That’s what the Jubilee means.

Do you really want Christmas to come?

Folks, this is not just any old good news.  It is very specific news about a very specific sort of Savior.  It’s the good news you read about in your Bible.  You read about it from Mary.  You hear it from John.  You hear it from Jesus, himself. 

My question for us today is very simply is this your idea of good news?  You see, I suppose that the main difference between good news and bad news is where you happen to be standing when you get the news.  You see? 

I have to tell you.  My life’s good.  As far as the world’s standards, I stand on top a world of nothing but good.  I benefit rather well with the present order.  I am sort of resonating with that insurance ad I saw just this week about how if you buy our insurance, we guarantee we’re going to keep your life just the way it is.  I don’t really know whether I want or need a complete shift, a rebellious uprising, and dramatic change.  Good news? 

According to Luke, folks, when Jesus was born, the powerful people, the political people up in the palaces missed it.  According to Luke, the angels, the heavenly messengers, came to absolutely none of them.  According to Luke, instead the heavens opened up and songs filled the air, and a great company of the heavenly host appeared to a bunch of poor shepherds out in the fields doing the night shift.  Those angels sang, according to Luke, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those with whom God is so well pleased.”

I learned something this week, and I want to tell you about it.  It’s awesome.

I have heard that song, and I’ve read it, and we’ve done it in Christmas Eve services since I can remember, that incredible phrase on the angels’ lips.  Did you know that is almost a direct quote from the decrees from a guy who is known as Augustus Caesar?  He was one of history’s most powerful and ruthless dictators.  That’s right.

The scholars say that when Augustus made some imperial decree to announce his armies were moving into the occupation of the Middle East, he used these opening words, “Glory to the most August Caesar, and peace on earth to whom the god Augustus is well pleased.”  The implication is clear.  There will be hell to pay for anybody in this world with whom Augustus Caesar is not pleased.  Those words, folks, were written and spread out throughout that world to intimidate.  They were written to intimidate any individual or any group of individuals who might create, or even be thinking about creating trouble for the emperor. 

Do you see what’s going on in Luke?  Luke takes the very words of the emperor, Caesar Augustus, and turns them all the way upside down and puts those very words on the lips of the Christmas angels, the ones you and I sing about every year.  Luke says that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a royal decree.  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and singing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will to all with whom God is well pleased.”

Christmas is coming.  There’s a new Lord and a new Savior, and it’s not Caesar Augustus.  It’s not any other person in power. 

Is that your idea of good news?  I suppose it really just depends on where you happen to be standing when you hear that news.

And all the people say… “Amen.”

Benediction

Promised God, we are here, your beloved ones, your people who adore you.  As we enter into this season of Advent, commit us to your hope for the world.  Let our voices, hearts, and hands be reaching up and reaching out to bring your kingdom to the earth.  Amen.