"What Then Should We Do?" (Advent 3C, December 13, 2009)

Advent 3C: "What Then Should We Do?"

December 13, 2009

Sermon for Mountain Laurel Moravian Fellowship, Laurel Springs, NC

Luke 3:7-18; Isaiah 12:2-6

         Welcome to the 3rd Sunday in Advent.  Advent is the time of preparation and waiting that proceeds Christmas. It's true, this is a beautiful time of year, and preparations are important.  We are getting ready for God to become flesh and blood in a little baby. But is that all there is to prepare for?  Advent is also a time to be aware of the already-not yet living that we find ourselves in.  Christ has come once as a baby, and left us with the promise to return again. He's already come, and has not yet arrived.  So we wait...

         Advent is a time when many of us want to focus on the good that is among us: lovely lights, gifts galore, decorations, caroling, and cocoa by the fireside.    And then we come to worship today and hear John the Baptizer's words to us.  Ouch.  Probably not the comforting, ohhing and cooing, "a beautiful newborn baby is almost here" message of good news we were expecting to hear.  This is a section of Luke's Gospel that recounts John's preaching just before Jesus is baptized and enters the scene.  It's not a passage that we likely think of when we think about Advent.  But John's words are instructions for living for the coming of the Messiah onto the scene.  They help us to know what life is to look like as we prepare, so these words are part of our Lectionary readings for Advent.   John was sent to prepare the way for Jesus.  John doesn't mince words.  He gets straight to the point and makes sure that everyone hears it--Brood of Vipers and all.  It's a tough passage to hear and a tough passage to preach, but the Lectionary includes it, so in our Advent waiting, we tackle John's words today.

         John's words come as a warning and at the same time a proclamation of Good News, as it says in the last verse of today's section. "So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people." (verse 18).  It so clearly says it's good news, but who finds this to be good?   How could calling folks a "Brood of Vipers" (verse 7) constitute good news?  One commentator I read compared the phrase Brood of Vipers to calling someone in your own family a name--you can do it because you love them.[1]  John loved the people he was baptizing, so he was able to preach words of tough love to them.  He was filled with God's love and the good news is that everyone can be apart of that love too.

         As I read through the passage, one question stuck out to me because it is repeated.  If three different groups asked the same question, it must be important.  The question is, "What then should we do?"  First the crowd asks, then the tax collectors, and third the soldiers.  They hear John's words calling for repentance and actions that demonstrate belief, and they want to know how they should respond. Repentance for John is a 180-degree turn from old ways to new life that puts God first in their life and refocuses their lives on love.  Each time John answers the question in a way that relates to their lives and gives them actions that are to be undertaken. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”  “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”  “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.” (verses 11, 13, 14  NRSV)  John is not just interested in beliefs that should be professed.  John is teaching ethical living as a sign of the change in their lives that is associated with repentance and baptism. At the most basic level, I believe John is telling the folks gathered around him to love each other.  This love is a love that doesn't end with baptism, and doesn't end once Christmas day passes by.  This is a practical, ethical love that lasts throughout the year.  It's a love that repairs homes, feeds the hungry, and visits the lonely.  It's a love that passes out clothing and helps support a camp for children who are ill.

         "What then should we do?"  As I've thought about this question all week, I have been reminded over and over of what is being done in this community.  This faith community is a testament to work that is happening in Ashe and Alleghany counties because the Moravian Church loves people here.  We are willing to put our hands and feet to work and live the ethical, loving life that John calls us to.  I noticed in your bulletin that Mountain Laurel collects food to distribute in the area.  I have heard about the work you all are doing with Camp New Hope for sick children, not to mention all the relationships that are being fostered through Laurel Ridge and Mission Camp.  There are so many examples!  We are all part of God's love that is being manifest in this community.  God loves us all, and we are living out God's call to share that love. 

         I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes that fits well with what John is preaching in the passage.  Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things, just small things with great love.  It is not how much you do,

but how much love you put into doing it."[2]  The things John is preaching may seem radical, but really they are just every-day actions that make a lasting impact on those who are involved.  Sometimes it means just being open to where we can lend a hand.  Last Sunday I went with the youth from Raleigh Moravian to visit the Men's Homeless Shelter in downtown Raleigh.  We go most First Sundays of the Month to deliver clothing, sing with the residents, and share God's love through our presence.  In December the tradition is to take lovefeast buns and hot cider to have an informal lovefeast with the men gathered there.  After they received the gifts of clothing, the youth passed out the lovefeast.  Once we were heading home, we walked outside and one gentleman who hadn't been inside stopped and asked me a question.  He said, "Do you have a Christmas present for me?"  I don't know why he wasn't in the receiving line for clothing, but he hadn't gotten anything from our group and we had passed out everything we had. All I had were the extra buns, so I handed him a bun.  It wasn't a full meal; it wasn't a warm blanket; it was a small, leftover bun.  But afterward as I've thought about the love that went into it, it was a small thing done with great love.  What then should we do?  Pass out Christmas presents of love to everyone we meet, and thus share God's Good News of love.

         What then should we do?  Share God's love. John makes it plain and simple.  The Good News of God's love is shown through the simple gifts of coats and food.  Sharing what we have, not taking more than we need, being content and thankful with the gifts God has provided. This is truly Good News that all of us can hear--not just during Advent, but throughout the year.  The Advent preparations we make are for Christmas for sure, but they also help us throughout the year to life lives prepared to share God's love and Good News with everyone we encounter.   May the preparations we make this Advent season help us to share God's love this Christmas and throughout the year!

 
Benediction: May the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in LOVE this day and always.  In the Name of the Triune God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

---

[1] Frederick Buechner, "Love" in Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC, rev. and expanded (NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993) 65.

[2] Various sources

RMC's Putzing Advent-ure Thursday Night

Thank you to everyone who came out to Raleigh Moravian's Putzing Advent-ure on Thursday!  We had a wonderful visit at Keith and Chancy Kapp's house and also in the church Fellowship Hall.  Here is another slideshow of photos from the event on Thursday!  Thanks again to Gay Sharon Brothers for the idea and help, Chancy Kapp for planning and help, and Carole Martin!  Thanks also to Kristina Leighton for coordinating, setting up and cleaning up the food.  Thanks to the many families who contributed to the Putz (Nativity/Manger/Creche) display--we ended up receiving 47 displays for our event!  If you have ideas for next year, please contact me (Pastor Suzanne)!  I greatly welcome feedback and ideas!!

RMC's Putzing Advent-ure

RMC hosted our first annual Putzing Advent-ure on Wednesday, December 9th (and it continues Thursday, December 10th too!) in our Fellowship Hall.  This event is a chance for our church community to pause for a few minutes and focus on the waiting and preparations of Advent.  We have many folks in our community who collect putz displays (nativities/manger/creche) from different places or have one that is special to their family.  We invited everyone to bring one (or more) that they wanted to share with everyone else as part of this event.  Since this was our first time, we hoped to receive 20-25 sets--well, we were shocked and very excited to receive 46 different sets from ALL OVER THE WORLD!!  We have many from the US, Central and South America, Asia, and Europe.  We also have a number of them that were handmade by people in our community.  It's truly a blessing and joy to be able to share these with each other as we journey through Advent during our Putzing Advent-ure! 

We began the journey at Walt and Gay Sharon Brothers' house to see their elaborate display. Today we are invited to visit with Chancy and Keith Kapp in their home to see their putzen as well!  Join us from 3-6pm at the Kapp's house.  Call the church office for more info 919-787-4034.

If you wern't able to come on Wednesday, please plan to stop by tonight from 6-8pm in the Raleigh Moravian Fellowship Hall to view these putzen, pause for a breath during Advent, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we all prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child.

Check out some photos from Wednesday's event!

http://www.slide.com/r/9otCP4Tj1j8Rte4Rk1F3-NkWk8IVXlNW?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Hope for the Waiting: Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent (Advent 1C)

Advent 1C

11/29/09

"Hope For The Waiting"

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36

Happy New Year!  Welcome to the First Sunday in Advent, which marks the beginning of the New Church Year.   There aren't the typical new years celebrations: no fireworks or "Auld Lang Syne".  But we do have a lit Advent Wreath and a glowing Star that have appeared since last week's worship.  These signs help to point us in the direction and prepare us for the coming of God-with-us Emmanuel. But we are not there yet, and so we wait.   

Advent is a time for waiting and breathing, not a time to rush too quickly from one thing to the next.[1]  I believe we miss something if we rush too quickly to Christmas.  Advent helps us to pause, take a breath, and prepare, not only our homes and church, but our hearts and minds for what is about to come.   

For some people Advent is a strange practice amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations.  Advent has been compared to the hush that falls over the crowd just as the conductor takes his baton, raises it in the air, and pauses for that o-so brief moment before the symphony pulses with glorious music.[2]  It's that last minute check of costume and make-up before the actress takes the stage and the curtain is raised.  The audience and actors all pause and wait, wondering with anticipation what the future holds.  Observing Christmas without Advent is like celebrating Easter without passing through Lent and Good Friday--it's possible, but the meaning can get lost so easily because our hearts and minds aren't fully prepared.[3]  


We are one of thousands of churches around the world that live into the liturgical church year cycle and welcome the New Year today with Advent.  The tradition of the liturgical church year has developed since the earliest church.  The Lectionary-assigned Scripture readings that help guide our worship are from an evolving process that began in the 4th century and developed into the Revised Common Lectionary in 1992.[4]  The Revised Common Lectionary includes a 3-year cycle of texts that were chosen to highlight different holy-days and events in the life of Christ and the history of the church.  Each Sunday has four texts to choose from--an Old Testament reading, New Testament Letter, Psalm, and Gospel reading.  It also helps us to hear a wide variety of Scripture over the course of the years.  In case you are wondering, we are beginning Year C in the cycle today, and will focus on the Gospel of Luke most of the year in our Gospel readings.  

Advent lasts 4 weeks and is followed by Christmas--a season 12 days long that starts on the eve of December 25th.  But we're not there yet, even though it's hard to tell by looking outside. I have been hyper-aware of Christmas preparations this year.  I found it downright disturbing to see Christmas Trees and decorations for sale during the 2nd week of OCTOBER.  And the wreaths were hung by the shop buildings with care--before Halloween.  It seems that in years past Thanksgiving was overshadowed by Christmas Shopping, but this year, even Halloween got overshadowed.  Really?  Halloween.  Do we need to make the commercialization of Christmas last over 2 months?  Will "Merry New Thanksgive-o-ween!" become the new standard holiday greeting? 

The rampant commercialization of the holiday has almost at times zapped my hope for something different--something simpler.  Now before I go any further, I must first say that I love Christmas--I love the music and decorations and yummy smells that permeate the season.  I love spending time with family and friends and smelling the Beeswax and evergreen that fills the air.  But I have to consciously hold my love of Christmas in tension with the waiting of Advent.

If you came today expecting to hear about Christmas, then you are likely disappointed.  Our assigned Scripture Texts today do not include the birth narrative of Jesus.  It's not yet time to sing Joy to the World or Silent Night.[5]  Today is the day, instead, to begin anew to live into the hope of the waiting and longing for another day as we sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  This morning through our assigned texts we heard the Prophet Jeremiah speak of a promise from God spoken to comfort a people amidst destruction and war, and we heard Luke's Gospel tell of a time to come when Jesus will return again.  These passages, especially when held up together in Advent, help us to see our own lives as part of the ongoing narrative of God's people who live into the already-not yet waiting for Christ.  We know he has come in the flesh and will come again this year at Christmas--and yet he hasn't arrived in the second coming.  We hear the words of hope from Jeremiah's time as they live in the midst of war and impending conquest at the hands of the Babylonians.  Life isn't easy for these people, and things sometimes only look like they will get worse before they get better.  At the same time we hear Luke's recounting of Jesus' words just before his crucifixion about his return to earth in the future.  For the early church in Luke's time, the Resurrection has come and gone, Jesus said he would come back soon, and it's been 2 decades... where is he?  We can almost hear the Gospel writer asking, "Maybe it's time to reframe our thinking about when he'll arrive, and instead wait expectantly."  And so we sit with hope in our hearts and wait.   

I've thought a lot about waiting with hope in the past week, as I've wondered where I see hope in our world today.  Sometimes if you are anything like me, we have to be intentional to look for hope because it is so hard to find amidst all the bad news and Christmas consumerism.  Where in the world is God at work giving us signs to wait with hope and, at the same time, fulfilling the promise to be with us forever?  I posed the question of where we find hope to my Facebook page to see what others had to say.  I asked, "Where do you see hope these days?"  One person named watching younger generations volunteer to help those in need--noting the example of the Moravian Youth Fellowship from here that went gleaning a few weeks ago to gather sweet potatoes for the Food Bank.  She said, "Maybe because of the [youth] willing to do that, love still stands a chance in the world."  Another person said, "Love Wins, and God is love."  Yet another person claimed the beauty around her in creation quoting, "I see skies of blue and clouds of white, the bright blessed day and the dark sacred night, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world."  God is indeed at work around us giving us signs of hope to hold on to in the waiting times. 

On my search for hope to help with this waiting of Advent, I began looking around intentionally for signs.  Signs of God's presence and what is about to take place, signs of the breath just before the curtain rises.  Then I woke up one morning this week and saw it--right there in the window--my two Christmas Cacti were blooming.  Not just one bud, but three flowers open, and the rest of the plants about the burst open.  I am always amazed when these plants bloom, given my track record of over or under-watering.  One of these plants is quite old.  The other one is an off-shoot of the first that I rooted years ago, and has become another beautiful plant, so they sit in the window almost like a sign of rebirth and new life.  Seeing these blooming plants led me to look with new eyes again--where else do I see sign's of God's hope in my midst?  Well, the plants I got at the plant sale are still blooming.  My biggest surprise was the Gerber daisy from earlier this year.  It is still alive and blooming now too.  Now if you had seen this a month ago, you would have agreed with me that the daisy had no hope of survival. I had actually given up on it, due to my over abundance of watering, but I just hadn't thrown it in the compost bucket yet.  I'm still amazed it's blooming, especially now.  It's the end of November and I have beautiful plants flowering!  What signs of hope for these damp, dark November days.

Jeremiah's words likely took his listeners by surprise, much like the flowers did me.  During Jeremiah's time, things were tough.  The Babylonians were pressing down about to overtake the city.  Jerusalem was about to be destroyed.  Jeremiah sat in jail because officials were trying to keep him quiet.  He had been the prophet of doom and gloom for quite a while.  If it could be cursed, he had cursed it.[6]  Things were so bad, it seemed as though hope left town and had taken a vacation.[7]  Amid these tough times, we hear Jeremiah's words, "14The 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. 15In 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. 16In 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.”" (Jeremiah 33:14-16).  A new branch will spring up from a dead stump, or a flower will grow from a dead daisy.  These words brought hope and comfort.   

If the new growth from the dead stump wasn't enough, the previous chapter of Jeremiah told of his prophetic sign from God to purchase a plot of land.  Jeremiah declared that some day, "houses and fields and vineyards shall again be brought in this land." (Jeremiah 32:15).  Though it seemed foolish to buy land while an enemy army prepared for battle, God's sign of hope shone bright in those dark days.   Signs of hope for a people longing to hear that God's promise through the covenant with Israel would be fulfilled.  Justice will prevail, and it will be God's justice that reigns supreme.  People will live out God's call to love God with their whole hearts, soul, mind, and strength, and love their neighbors.[8]

So where are your signs of hope to help with this Advent waiting?  What do you see when you look around with new eyes, just waiting for that curtain to rise and the actors to take the stage?  What blooms in your heart to prepare you for the coming dawn?  How is God at work as you take a moment to breathe this Advent?  Do you hear the whispers?  Do you see the signs?  Where do you find hope for the waiting? 

Poet Dom Helder Camara writes, "The Spirit is Breathing/ All those with eyes to see, / women and men with ears for hearing/ detect a coming dawn;/ a reason to go on.// They seem small, these signs of dawn,/ perhaps ridiculous.//   All those with eyes to see/ women and men with ears for hearing/ uncover in the night/ a certain gleam of light/ they see the reason to go on."[9]      May we all wait with hope this Advent.  Amen.

Benediction: May the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in LOVE this day and always.  In the Name of the Triune God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

---

[1] Frederick Buechner, “Advent” in Whistling In The Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary (NY, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988) 3.

[2] Buechner, “Advent” in Whistling In The Dark, 3.

[3] http://www.cresourcei.org/carols.html

[4] http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/index.html  For the Moravian Version of the Revised Common Lectionary, see http://www.mcsp.org/resources/res_wor_res.htm and click on the Lectionary Link for a downloadable PDF version.  There are many great resources on the web about the Lectionary, but one of my favorites is www.textweek.com .

[5] http://www.cresourcei.org/carols.html

[6] Frederick Buechner, “Jeremiah” in Perculiar Treasure: A Biblical Who’s Who (NY, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1979) 66.

[7] Gary Charles, “Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 1 (Advent through Transfiguration), eds. David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2009) 3. 

[8] Deuteronomy 6:4; Leviticus 19:18

[9] Dom Helder Camara, “The Spirit is Breathing” in Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, ed. Kenneth T. Lawrence (Cleveland, OH: United Church Press, 1994) 78.

Advent Preparations

So this year, I have been hyper-aware of Christmas preparations around town, and maybe, just maybe they are coming earlier this year than ever.  Is it just me? 

We were in Lowe's Hardware during the 2nd week of OCTOBER and they already had the Christmas section setup and ready.  The trees were on display and lit--ready to be taken home and set up ASAP!

Then, mid-OCTOBER brought out the Christmas wreaths on the outside of Crabtree Mall. 

In Target during the 3rd week of OCTOBER brought a Target shopping trip that caused me to feel like I was in the Twilight Zone-- I was walking down the aisle looking for something-or-another, and found the Hollow-mas section.  One side of the aisle was filled with candy and costumes, while the other side contained wreaths and ornaments.  It was bothersome on so many emotional levels to mix the aisle--my mind made me just walk away, and I felt I needed to just stop and shake it all off, like a dog after a bath.  I was bathed in this mix of holiday baggage and it was just too much to take.

So NOVEMBER brought ads for 24/7 holiday music on streaming live internet radio, and then today... November 16th, we mark the start of 24/7 music on the regular radio.  On one hand, I'm surprised they waited 16 days into November to start it.  On the other, it's 2 weeks till Advent even starts! 

I said recently, and I don't know if I read this somewhere or what, but reaching Christmas without pausing for Advent is like celebrating Easter without living through Good Friday... the holy-day still arrives, but it means so much more when we live into the preparations in life-giving ways.

All of this preparation just causes me to think more deeply about preparing my heart and home for the real reason for this whole season.  Not to get cliche, but I really do want, more than ever it seems, to put Christ back in "CHRIST-mas".  I am tired of the date for the Christmas season continually being pushed back earlier and earlier.  So this year, I'm trying to think differently about the season.  As I prepare to preach on the First Sunday in Advent to the theme of "Hope and Expectation," I am trying to wait with real hope and expectation to discover anew the reason we have all of this celebration in the first place.  I've been collecting websites and resources to help me refocus, and I thought I would share those with you too.  May these help all of us keep our eyes fixed on the poor, humble child who started the biggest revolution of all--Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  May your preparations be blessed and may you find your heart truly ready to recieve the Christ Child again this year.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/site/

http://www.faith-at-home.com/

http://www.gracecathedral.com/advent/

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

http://www.geezmagazine.org/