A Desert Of News
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This week John the Baptist makes his annual reappearance in the lectionary gospel text when Luke drily introduces him as one who is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah while traveling throughout the "region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3:5). We are used to a more dramatic portrait of John than Luke provides in this week's pericope, though next week's reading brings us the more incendiary John that we're all familiar with. Nevertheless, our passage this week includes John's quotation of Isaiah that we should "prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" and his startling prediction that earthly terrain will be permanently altered. (The imagery of smoothing and straightening out mountains, valleys, and crooked paths is enough to make one think that Isaiah and John ought to work for the West Virginia highway department.)
Yet the tone of John's proclamations is bracing enough to cause a good bit of unease -- after all, he's talking about major changes to everything we've known... and the desperate need to prepare for these coming events. As team member Mary Austin notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, that's a similar dynamic to what we often feel after perusing the headlines. It could be scientists warning us about the consequences of inaction on global climate change, or economists telling us about the dangers of going over the "fiscal cliff." But in a society where so much energy is devoted to persuading others, it can be very difficult for us to discern which warnings are being exploited for their propaganda and/or sales value and which truly demand a response. How do we know what to prepare for? Mary points out that the preparation John calls us to is the most basic (and most fear-inducing) one we can make: cleansing out the dead wood of sin and preparing our hearts for God's coming.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the Malachi text and the insight it offers us about the incarnation. Especially at Christmastime, we tend to celebrate the "nice," non-threatening story of a newborn baby -- but Malachi brings us a heavy dose of reality. His imagery is a stark reminder that Jesus' prime directive is not to make us feel good about ourselves but to offer sometimes harsh processes that will change everything... in other words, "no more Mr. Nice Guy."
A Desert of News
by Mary Austin
Luke 3:1-10
Storm of the century! Snowmaggedon! Superstorm Sandy! If we get tired of weather news, we can turn our attention to other dire warnings. Fiscal cliff! The economy will tank! Wall Street is unhappy!
Prophecies come to us from all sides, a grim chorus of warnings about unmanageable weather, financial catastrophe, voter fraud, child-rearing, and personal health. It's hard to tell what deserves our attention, and what's designed to sell news, get us to buy something, or create a culture of unease. Some warnings are worth hearing and others are part of the cloud of bad news that keeps us riveted to the computer and the television.
John the Baptist has his own advice for us this Advent season, and he forces us to pause and consider what's different about him from all the other warnings around us.
THE WORLD
As December continues, the impending "fiscal cliff" dominates the news. Congress and the president have to agree on cuts to the federal budget and/or ways to increase revenue, or a set of spending cuts and tax hikes will take place. The formula for cuts and increases was the compromise agreed to the last time Congress and the president couldn't come to an agreement about the budget and needed to increase the debt ceiling. Without an agreement this month, automatic spending cuts across the federal budget will begin on January 2, 2013. Also included will be the end of the Bush-era tax cuts, and the deduction for interest on home mortgages is also reportedly under discussion.
President Obama, touring a Pennsylvania factory last week, "warned... of a 'Scrooge' Christmas if Congress does not pass legislation extending tax cuts for 98% of Americans." As CNN reported, the president said: "Let's go ahead and take the fear out for the vast majority of American families so they don't have to worry about $2,000 coming out of their pockets next year." John Boehner, Speaker of the House, also warns about the economic consequences of not reaching a deal. Further, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has warned that the automatic cuts in the fiscal cliff will trigger a recession in 2013.
As reported by Politico's Steve Sloan, the CBO projects that "if Congress and the Obama administration allow scheduled tax increases and spending cuts to occur, the economy will shrink by 0.5% in 2013. The unemployment rate would soar to 9.1% -- up from 7.9% today."
In an already fragile economy, the array of warnings are frightening -- and confusing. It's clear that people expect bad news to come, but the exact measure is yet to be seen.
THE WORD
John the Baptist has a warning too, but his is clear.
He says just one thing: repent, for the kingdom of God is coming near. His message sounds harsh to our ears. There's nothing gentle about it. No benefit of the doubt for some who come -- he compares them to the snakes and scorpions that flee before a desert fire. Even now, John says, the ax is ready to chop down the trees that are dead wood. Everything that's not green and growing goes into the fire.
This is the kind of religion we go out of our way to avoid. It's judgmental, not very welcoming, not very tolerant -- and yet, there's something compelling about John. In a gospel full of strange characters, he's the strangest: way out there in the desert in his unusual clothes, thin as a rail, and burning with this message from God to get people ready. He knows that someone is coming from God and the people need to be ready. The old world is ending, being chopped down, and now is the time for change.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The end of the old is clear in our lives too. We look around and know that the world is changing for us. The ax is at the root of the tree all around us and much that is familiar is ending. Nothing around us sounds like very good news either.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our economic lives. Everyone in our congregations has experienced some economic pain in the past few years and has made some changes. Fewer movies or dinners out, a second job, several part-time jobs, spending money that used to be set aside for retirement, or helping out an adult child -- everyone has had a cut somewhere. The stress of living in this economy, even if we personally are doing okay, takes a toll on us. It takes a toll on our community as talented people move away for jobs elsewhere, or as people struggle to stay afloat. It takes a toll on our church budgets and programs.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our work lives. The world as we know it is shifting, and the hot new summer jobs for business students are no longer on Wall Street, but in China and India. The customer service number for your credit card is answered in New Delhi, and your clothes are made in Micronesia. Your American car has parts manufactured overseas, and the car itself may be assembled in Mexico. I picked up an orange the other day and the tag told me it was grown in South Africa, not Florida.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our personal lives. The end of the world comes in a new diagnosis of ill-health... the death of a marriage and the end of family life, as it has been... the death of a partner, and the end of the life we've known together.
John's advice is only bearable because he sees the new growing out of the old.
John gives us a job to do. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Easy for him to say... but how do you prepare for the end of the world as you've known it? How do you get ready for more change when you've had enough already? How do you prepare for what you don't understand? How do you plan for a future you can't imagine?
In Advent too, the coming of God is far beyond our ability to get ready for it. The immensity of God's coming in human form is beyond our ability to take in, let alone really get ready for.
So John calls us again to the one change we can control -- and the hardest change of all. Make straight what is crooked, he calls out. Prepare a path for the coming of God. Change yourselves, he calls to us. The only change we can control is here. We can make straight the crooked parts of our hearts. We can make a place for God's coming. We can prepare the way in the places where we don't have room for God. We can clear out the dead wood of our need for control, our lack of trust, our anger. We can prepare in the places where we can't seem to forgive or to let go of the past.
When the ax is ready to cut down the old, the new can be born. All our endings are also hard-won new beginnings. All our painful endings hold beginnings we can't yet see.
A couple years ago I went to Arizona to visit a friend and as we drove up from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon we passed acre after acre of burned land. This was the area where forest fires had raged beyond control. The trees were nothing more than charred spikes and bare stumps jutting up to the sky, leafless and bleak. But there, on the ground, was the bright green of spring -- new sprouts already coming up.
The ax may be at the root of the tree, cutting down all that's familiar but as the old goes into the fire, God is growing something new. These are the warnings with meaning for us. Get ready, John says. Prepare for a mystery, in every way you can.
ANOTHER VIEW
No More Mr. Nice Guy
by Dean Feldmeyer
Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 3:1-6
Jimmy comes by my office about every two weeks, and he is one sad case.
A couple of inches over six feet tall and cadaverously thin, he is what sociologist Tex Sample calls a "hard-living" man. At 61 years old he's the same age as me, but he looks at least 15 years older. Every hard-lived minute of his life is written in the wrinkles and scars on his face.
Jimmy's an alcoholic and he has thrown away more opportunities than most people get.
When he's sober, he is a skilled and accomplished house painter, but he has been known to leave jobs unfinished because he took the down payment someone gave him and went on a bender. He has been fired from dozens of crews for not showing up or showing up drunk. He has alienated his entire family.
When he comes to me for help, he's honest. "Well, I blew it again. I got to partyin' and stayed out too late a couple of times. They canned me. I'm broke as a tame horse. Can you spot me a couple of bucks for a pack of cigarettes?" Then he'll launch into a story about how alcohol has destroyed his life and will probably kill him and how he's start going back to his meetings and blah, blah, blah. I've heard it all before. Usually I listen for a few minutes and then tell him that I have some work to do, and he takes the hint and leaves. Sometimes, when I have the money, I'll pay for a pack of cigarettes. But that's as far as I'll go. I know, I probably shouldn't -- but I figure that pack of cigarettes is about the only grace that Jimmy is going to receive that week.
Jimmy knows that I will not enable his alcoholic self-destruction by giving him cash or paying his rent for him. I drew that line a long time ago.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
In her book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, Kenda Creasy Dean describes how she and other researchers asked teenagers to describe God. The most popular adjective the teens used was "nice."
God, they said, is nice. He's helpful and loving and accepting. He's kind of like their grandfather who shows up from time to time to fix things that aren't working right but doesn't make demands on them. Others described God as kind of like their guidance counselor, someone they could go to when they had a problem, someone who would listen non-judgmentally and then offer solutions.
In fact, the vast majority of these youth believed that the number one attribute of a faithful, obedient Christian was "being nice" even though that word doesn't appear in the scriptures. What does God desire of us? That we be nice to each other? A good person, they believe, is someone who accepts without judgment, fixes what is broken, enables you to feel good about yourself, and doesn't intentionally do or say something that hurts your feelings.
Ms. Dean concludes that our kids didn't just make this up. They learned it from us.
Writing in the November 28, 2012 issue of The Christian Century magazine, Emory Gillespie notes that while Jesus may very well have been a nice guy, it's a rather one-dimensional picture of him. If we see only the nice Jesus, the "gentle Jesus meek and mild," we are guilty, just like the teenagers Dean studied, of "harboring an image of Jesus Christ that looks less like the man from Galilee and more like Christopher Robin from the Hundred Acre Wood."
This version of Jesus is hardly the one who cleared the temple and angered the Pharisees, the scribes, and the chief priests. This is, rather, a "nice little fellow with a pageboy haircut skipping along and rescuing lovable stray creatures such as Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger," usually within the limits of a short children's story.
The real Jesus, the true messiah as described by John the Baptist, has less to do with being nice and building up our self-esteem than with straightening roads and blowing up mountains and cutting down trees that don't bear fruit. The real messiah, as described by Malachi, is not here to make us feel good about ourselves but to purify us by burning away our impurities and scrubbing us with the harsh soap of judgment.
This Jesus who is as hot as a refiner's fire and as harsh as a fuller's lye soap is the very one who is coming to us as a babe in a manger.
It is this three-dimensional Jesus, this fully formed, complex, and hard-to-pin-down Jesus that is coming and for whom we are supposed to be preparing.
With that in mind, we will probably walk, not run, to the stable. And maybe that calm, serious walk is more appropriate after all.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Atlantic's website is hosting a series of op-eds on Lincoln, several of which hone in on what Steven Spielberg's new film says about politics and politicians and the ways they make change. In his piece in this collection, A.O. Scott references a column by his New York Times colleague, David Brooks, who writes that the movie provides this insight about the nature of political life:
It shows that you can do more good in politics than in any other sphere. You can end slavery, open opportunity, and fight poverty. But you can achieve these things only if you are willing to stain your own character in order to serve others -- if you are willing to bamboozle, trim, compromise, and be slippery and hypocritical.
The challenge of politics lies precisely in the marriage of high vision and low cunning. Spielberg's Lincoln gets this point. The hero has a high moral vision, but he also has the courage to take morally hazardous action in order to make that vision a reality.
How does Brooks' vision of the noble politician and her/his game line up with "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" that we hear in this week's reading from Luke 3? How do John's message, tactics, and results compare with the politics that Brooks describes? What does the difference mean for us as citizens surrounded by and entangled in politics, and as followers of a faith tradition whose herald is less about compromise and more about refiner's fire and fullers' soap?
* * *
There are many unlikely and surprising characters driving the narrative that leads us to God's gift at Christmas. Even the gift is surprising -- a helpless infant, carried by a teenage mother and born in a stable. But the one who heralds the coming of the gift might be the most unusual or jarring character of all, particularly if our expectations of Christmas are ones that have to do with comfort, tradition, excess, and celebration.
"Repent!" is John's message -- his recipe for preparation for the coming of the Christ Child. How does that line up with our own preparations?
What might the juxtaposition of John's message and our own Advent-time scurrying, shopping, and all-around excessiveness tell us? How will John's message help us make the way straight?
Ed Sunday-Winters is a pastor in Knoxville and a writer for Ethics Daily. On December 23, 2009, he wrote in his column on Church and Theology about a friend who was considering a line of Christmas cards based in the message of John the Baptist. They read like this...
Outside card: "From our house to yours this holiday season."
Inside: "Merry Christmas, you brood of vipers."
Outside card: "Let's all pass the cup as we gather round the Yule log."
Inside: "Which burns like the unquenchable fire of hell that is soon going to consume you for all eternity. With love, John."
Outside card: "Season's greeting to you from across the miles."
Inside: "Hey, who told you to flee from the wrath to come?"
How will John's words change how we prepare and how Christmas comes in us?
* * *
In the recently released movie Rise of the Guardians, Jack Frost is called into being by the Man in the Moon. Without knowledge of any real task or purpose, Jack moves mischievously through the centuries, disrupting life with snow days, slick sidewalks, and the like. He lives for the disruption he creates and the fun that ensues, but he is haunted by questions about why he was created and who he really is. When he is tapped to become the next Guardian and join an elite group of characters made up of North (Santa Claus), Sandy (the Sandman), Tooth (the Tooth Fairy), and Bunny (the Easter Bunny), he resists claiming he doesn't want the responsibility of sustaining the belief and wonder of children and protecting them from harm. The audience soon learns, though, that Jack's resistance is more about not understanding himself, what he has been created to do, or what he has to offer. When he finds himself fighting alongside the Guardians to protect the world's children from the fear and despair of Pitch Black (the Bogeyman), Jack discovers he holds a love that guides him and teaches him about his gifts, his purpose, and his capacity to serve and protect others, albeit in a mischievous and fun way. This love "overflow[s] more and more with knowledge and full insight to help [Jack] determine what is best..." (Philippians 1:9-10a).
During this Advent season, how can we grow in knowledge and insight about how to live out our callings in a way that is pleasing to our Creator? How does love guide us on this part of our journey?
* * *
Father John Flynn, who recently passed away, was a Catholic priest who spent a half-century championing the poor, the disadvantaged, and the forgotten people in the neighborhoods around the churches he served in the Bronx.
Those areas had a long history of violence -- drugs, guns, and death were commonplace. But Father Flynn found many ways to reach out with a helping hand, and he became known as "the people's priest." He started a "Save a Generation" program to educate and provide job training for high school dropouts; he tried to make neighborhoods safer by walking the streets offering crucifixes in exchange for guns; and he tirelessly worked to improve life for families by lobbying for more low-cost housing or saving community gardens.
Within the last year, Flynn wrote himself a note that summarized his approach to ministry. It read: "Priest of the people -- To bring my relatives to be lovers of Jesus Christ who prepares us to follow Him into Heaven filled with united love for each other like a family -- Become united and loving God and each other."
Father Flynn was doing just what John the Baptist did -- preparing the way, so that all may see God's salvation.
* * *
John the Baptist's voice crying in the wilderness is an eccentric, mysterious one. He certainly seems to be a curious messenger. His is an inauspicious life without the customary trappings and amenities of social success. His demeanor and deportment are without the conventions and insignias of wealth, power, and privilege -- but the word of God comes to a most unlikely person in a most unlikely place. Why then should we heed his warnings of preparation when he himself is the epitome of disorder and disarray? How can we bring ourselves to believe that God would use a person such as this to proclaim God's word? Why not Tiberius? Why not Pilate? Why not Philip and Lysanius? Would they not be more likely candidates? They are establishment men; men of order and valor. They uphold social traditions and are curators of the status quo. John is everything we would not become -- but the word of God comes to him. He is Robert Bly's "wild man," Dostoevsky's "underground man," Nietzsche's "superman," and Ralph Ellison's "invisible man." Why then should we heed this man who heralds our preparation for Christ? Who is he to tell us and on what authority can he claim to know how and when the Lord will work in these troubled times?
* * *
In warmer weather, road crews are ubiquitous. Sitting in a long line of cars -- motor idling, perhaps running late, maybe with kids hollering -- causes more than a car's temperature to rise! And if we pass over the same stretch of road with regularity and encounter the roadwork for several days running, it becomes even more bothersome. "What takes them so long?" we are apt to ask. In a word, preparation. The actual paving of the road is a fairly quick process; it is the jackhammering and digging and repairing that takes the time. But without the discipline of preparation, the paving would have no more than a band-aid effect. Preparation ensures fulfillment.
No less is this true for the nurturing and growth of faith. Often the work of ministry is the work of John the Baptist: "Get the road ready for the Lord..." (TEV).
* * *
Have you ever traveled through West Virginia turnpike? Veterans of travel years ago share horror stories about trying to get through the treacherous terrain of this "almost heavenly" state -- steep grades, sharp curves, slow-moving trucks, overheated brakes. But a journey on the West Virginia turnpike today is a different story -- four lanes and the possibility of zipping through the state at a posted speed limit, slowing only a few times to throw some quarters in the toll baskets. The mountains have been made low, the valleys filled, the crooked roads made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. If you want to picture the land on which John the Baptist walked, just imagine West Virginia without trees.
* * *
There once was a man who contacted the highway department to complain about the condition of the road in front of his house. He kept calling and calling, complaining about all the potholes and bumps, but the highway department never did anything. Eventually the man became such an irritant by repeatedly calling that the highway department agreed to do something about his road. But instead of coming in and repaving it, the highway department resolved his complaint by putting up a sign that read: "Rough Road Ahead."
Perhaps that's the same thing many people do with their lives. But John the Baptist calls on us not just to put up signs but to "prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
* * *
Each Sunday the New York Times has a column in its business section titled "The Boss," in which a CEO expounds on some of their leadership practices. In a recent piece Donna Carpenter, the president of Burton Snowboards, discussed how she expanded the company's horizons by focusing on both men and women riders.
Carpenter, who took over from her husband and company founder Jake after he became ill with cancer, related that when snowboarding first emerged on the market, men and women participated equally. Then as the sport got the image of being an extreme sport, it took on the image of being a man's adventure only. Realizing that women like herself enjoyed snowboarding, she wanted to return women to the sport. The company developed a website called Burton Girls, and established Learn to Ride centers for women at thirty winter resorts.
Carpenter said that the reason for the company's success is this: "We've always felt that our success has never been about us; it's about the snowboarding world. We believed we were pioneering something that others loved as much as we did."
When we are instructed to prepare a way for the Lord, we must share the message with the same love that we have received it.
* * *
The Iron Dome -- it's the latest technological advancement in military defense. And it is so successful that countries across the globe are positioning themselves to purchase a similar model.
The Iron Dome is what the nation of Israel has called their anti-missile defense shield against incoming rockets fired by Hamas in the region's latest conflict. More than 400 rockets fired from Gaza were knocked down, with 85% destroyed in the air. The secret to the Iron Dome is its software, which has the ability to determine which rockets are destined for populated areas and which ones are not. Then only the more dangerous foes are destroyed.
But the Iron Dome is effective only to a range of fifty miles. That's why the Iron Dome will soon be supplemented with David's Sling -- a system being developed against medium-range rockets.
Luke 1:71 tells us that "we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us." When we are told that the coming Savior will protect us from our enemies, using a war analogy that is common in the scriptures, it will be as if we are living under an Iron Dome.
* * *
Political violence in South Africa has grown to epidemic proportions. This is because not only are the highest-level offices that one can be elected to being contested, but even the smallest political offices as well.
Every office along the continuum can produce substantial wealth through bribes and corruption. This makes holding a political office synonymous to wealth, as the crimes committed are commonplace and go unenforced. With unemployment just below 50%, individuals see public office as a quick road to riches. Murdering an opponent and other violent deeds are all viewed as a part of political campaigning.
The lowest-level elected office, a seat on the ward council in the most rural area, pays $150 a month. But being a conduit for contracts and other municipal services provides the opportunity for council members to solicit bribes that are many times larger than that sum.
The African National Congress, once the beacon for justice, is now plagued with many young officeholders whose political sights are focused only on personal wealth. The ANC is opposed to the new electorates but seems incapable of stopping it. Zweli Mkhize, the ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal province, said that the ANC can "ill afford the association of political appointment to self-enrichment where ascendency is not linked with capacity, competence, and dedicated service to our people."
When we are told that Jesus is coming to protect us from our enemies, we should remember that just as in South Africa they will be lurking in the most unlikely of all places.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming among us.
People: We have gathered to worship the God who comes to us.
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming within us.
People: We open our hearts and minds to receive our God.
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming through us.
People: We offer ourselves as God's ambassadors to a hurting world.
OR
Leader: God is coming! Let us get ready.
People: We are not ready for God's coming. We need to be made pure.
Leader: Only through the heat and flame of refining will we be ready.
People: We offer ourselves to God's fire that our dross may be consumed.
Leader: Only the soap of God's Spirit can cleanse us.
People: We confess we need to be cleansed by the Spirit of truth.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
"Blessed Be the God of Israel"
found in:
UMH: 209
H82: 444
CH: 135
ELA: 250/552
"I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light"
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
"Prepare the Way of the Lord" (Taizé)
found in:
UMH: 207
CH: 121
"Toda la Tierra" ("All Earth Is Waiting")
found in:
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELA: 266
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 254
"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
"Change My Heart, O God"
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
"Create in Me a Clean Heart"
found in:
CCB: 54
Renew: 181
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who urgently calls us into your cleansing presence: Grant us the faith to trust in your good intentions to refine us and not to consume us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have heard your call, O God, and we have gathered to prepare for your coming. Cleanse us and refine us so that we may shine brightly with your loving grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we cling to our filth.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that we are broken. We know that we are soiled with the dirt of sin. Yet we continually seek to justify ourselves rather than submit to your cleansing, freeing Spirit. We have chosen poorly. Open our eyes so that we may see clearly the wonder of who we can become when we allow you into our lives. Amen.
Leader: God's love is constant and true. God sends the Spirit to make us clean and whole so that we may shine with all God's children.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and worship you, O God, for you are the one who comes among us in all our brokenness. You deign to come and join us in our lives.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that we are broken. We know that we are soiled with the dirt of sin. Yet we continually seek to justify ourselves rather than submit to your cleansing, freeing Spirit. We have chosen poorly. Open our eyes so that we may see clearly the wonder of who we can become when we allow you into our lives.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have made your presence known to us. We thank you that you have called us to prepare a place for you in our lives. We thank you for those faithful ones who have spoken your words of life to us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those around us who have not come to know you as the God who comes in love and grace. We pray for those whose lives are broken to the point where they seemingly cannot believe that they can be made whole.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about how sometimes it isn't much fun to get cleaned up. (I once walked down the road barefoot, bursting tar bubbles. It was fun, but getting it cleaned off wasn't!) But it is a good feeling to be clean and it is healthy. Sometimes it isn't fun to give up doing things we know we shouldn't, but it feels better in the end.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Right Path
Luke 3:1-6
Object: a toy bulldozer
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you have ever watched the workers who build roads? (let the children answer) When we are driving, especially in the summertime, we see the men and all of their big machinery working on the roads. Sometimes they are just repairing a road that is already there but other times they are building a brand-new road. The brand-new road is the one I want to talk about today. I brought along a toy that I think most of you have seen. What do we call this machine? (let them answer) That's right, it's a bulldozer.
What does a bulldozer do? (let them answer) That's right -- it moves dirt, lots of dirt. But how does a bulldozer go? Does the bulldozer go straight when it is pushing the dirt or does it just push the dirt anywhere? (let them answer) You are right again. The big bulldozer pushes the dirt straight ahead, and then another machine comes along and picks up the dirt in a big bucket and dumps it into a truck. The truck takes the dirt away while the bulldozer just keeps pushing the dirt in a pretty straight line.
John the Baptist was like our bulldozer. John the Baptist had a message and the message was this: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John was out in front of Jesus or before Jesus, and John was telling everyone the straight truth. Jesus was coming and John wanted a lot of straight thinking so that the people would recognize Jesus when he came.
This is what we are doing in Advent. We are preparing ourselves with straight thinking so that we will know Jesus when he comes into our lives. Are you ready for Jesus or are you hiding behind a tree off of the road? We hope you are not one of those people who can't make up their minds about Jesus so you are standing on a hill out of the way. We want to be part of the new path that God is making so that we will welcome Jesus into our hearts. He is coming. John tells us what God told him. The Savior is coming and we want to be on the right path.
The next time you see a bulldozer making a road, think about John the Baptist going before Jesus and telling the people of his coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 9, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Yet the tone of John's proclamations is bracing enough to cause a good bit of unease -- after all, he's talking about major changes to everything we've known... and the desperate need to prepare for these coming events. As team member Mary Austin notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, that's a similar dynamic to what we often feel after perusing the headlines. It could be scientists warning us about the consequences of inaction on global climate change, or economists telling us about the dangers of going over the "fiscal cliff." But in a society where so much energy is devoted to persuading others, it can be very difficult for us to discern which warnings are being exploited for their propaganda and/or sales value and which truly demand a response. How do we know what to prepare for? Mary points out that the preparation John calls us to is the most basic (and most fear-inducing) one we can make: cleansing out the dead wood of sin and preparing our hearts for God's coming.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer offers some additional thoughts on the Malachi text and the insight it offers us about the incarnation. Especially at Christmastime, we tend to celebrate the "nice," non-threatening story of a newborn baby -- but Malachi brings us a heavy dose of reality. His imagery is a stark reminder that Jesus' prime directive is not to make us feel good about ourselves but to offer sometimes harsh processes that will change everything... in other words, "no more Mr. Nice Guy."
A Desert of News
by Mary Austin
Luke 3:1-10
Storm of the century! Snowmaggedon! Superstorm Sandy! If we get tired of weather news, we can turn our attention to other dire warnings. Fiscal cliff! The economy will tank! Wall Street is unhappy!
Prophecies come to us from all sides, a grim chorus of warnings about unmanageable weather, financial catastrophe, voter fraud, child-rearing, and personal health. It's hard to tell what deserves our attention, and what's designed to sell news, get us to buy something, or create a culture of unease. Some warnings are worth hearing and others are part of the cloud of bad news that keeps us riveted to the computer and the television.
John the Baptist has his own advice for us this Advent season, and he forces us to pause and consider what's different about him from all the other warnings around us.
THE WORLD
As December continues, the impending "fiscal cliff" dominates the news. Congress and the president have to agree on cuts to the federal budget and/or ways to increase revenue, or a set of spending cuts and tax hikes will take place. The formula for cuts and increases was the compromise agreed to the last time Congress and the president couldn't come to an agreement about the budget and needed to increase the debt ceiling. Without an agreement this month, automatic spending cuts across the federal budget will begin on January 2, 2013. Also included will be the end of the Bush-era tax cuts, and the deduction for interest on home mortgages is also reportedly under discussion.
President Obama, touring a Pennsylvania factory last week, "warned... of a 'Scrooge' Christmas if Congress does not pass legislation extending tax cuts for 98% of Americans." As CNN reported, the president said: "Let's go ahead and take the fear out for the vast majority of American families so they don't have to worry about $2,000 coming out of their pockets next year." John Boehner, Speaker of the House, also warns about the economic consequences of not reaching a deal. Further, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has warned that the automatic cuts in the fiscal cliff will trigger a recession in 2013.
As reported by Politico's Steve Sloan, the CBO projects that "if Congress and the Obama administration allow scheduled tax increases and spending cuts to occur, the economy will shrink by 0.5% in 2013. The unemployment rate would soar to 9.1% -- up from 7.9% today."
In an already fragile economy, the array of warnings are frightening -- and confusing. It's clear that people expect bad news to come, but the exact measure is yet to be seen.
THE WORD
John the Baptist has a warning too, but his is clear.
He says just one thing: repent, for the kingdom of God is coming near. His message sounds harsh to our ears. There's nothing gentle about it. No benefit of the doubt for some who come -- he compares them to the snakes and scorpions that flee before a desert fire. Even now, John says, the ax is ready to chop down the trees that are dead wood. Everything that's not green and growing goes into the fire.
This is the kind of religion we go out of our way to avoid. It's judgmental, not very welcoming, not very tolerant -- and yet, there's something compelling about John. In a gospel full of strange characters, he's the strangest: way out there in the desert in his unusual clothes, thin as a rail, and burning with this message from God to get people ready. He knows that someone is coming from God and the people need to be ready. The old world is ending, being chopped down, and now is the time for change.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The end of the old is clear in our lives too. We look around and know that the world is changing for us. The ax is at the root of the tree all around us and much that is familiar is ending. Nothing around us sounds like very good news either.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our economic lives. Everyone in our congregations has experienced some economic pain in the past few years and has made some changes. Fewer movies or dinners out, a second job, several part-time jobs, spending money that used to be set aside for retirement, or helping out an adult child -- everyone has had a cut somewhere. The stress of living in this economy, even if we personally are doing okay, takes a toll on us. It takes a toll on our community as talented people move away for jobs elsewhere, or as people struggle to stay afloat. It takes a toll on our church budgets and programs.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our work lives. The world as we know it is shifting, and the hot new summer jobs for business students are no longer on Wall Street, but in China and India. The customer service number for your credit card is answered in New Delhi, and your clothes are made in Micronesia. Your American car has parts manufactured overseas, and the car itself may be assembled in Mexico. I picked up an orange the other day and the tag told me it was grown in South Africa, not Florida.
The ax is at the root of the tree in our personal lives. The end of the world comes in a new diagnosis of ill-health... the death of a marriage and the end of family life, as it has been... the death of a partner, and the end of the life we've known together.
John's advice is only bearable because he sees the new growing out of the old.
John gives us a job to do. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Easy for him to say... but how do you prepare for the end of the world as you've known it? How do you get ready for more change when you've had enough already? How do you prepare for what you don't understand? How do you plan for a future you can't imagine?
In Advent too, the coming of God is far beyond our ability to get ready for it. The immensity of God's coming in human form is beyond our ability to take in, let alone really get ready for.
So John calls us again to the one change we can control -- and the hardest change of all. Make straight what is crooked, he calls out. Prepare a path for the coming of God. Change yourselves, he calls to us. The only change we can control is here. We can make straight the crooked parts of our hearts. We can make a place for God's coming. We can prepare the way in the places where we don't have room for God. We can clear out the dead wood of our need for control, our lack of trust, our anger. We can prepare in the places where we can't seem to forgive or to let go of the past.
When the ax is ready to cut down the old, the new can be born. All our endings are also hard-won new beginnings. All our painful endings hold beginnings we can't yet see.
A couple years ago I went to Arizona to visit a friend and as we drove up from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon we passed acre after acre of burned land. This was the area where forest fires had raged beyond control. The trees were nothing more than charred spikes and bare stumps jutting up to the sky, leafless and bleak. But there, on the ground, was the bright green of spring -- new sprouts already coming up.
The ax may be at the root of the tree, cutting down all that's familiar but as the old goes into the fire, God is growing something new. These are the warnings with meaning for us. Get ready, John says. Prepare for a mystery, in every way you can.
ANOTHER VIEW
No More Mr. Nice Guy
by Dean Feldmeyer
Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 3:1-6
Jimmy comes by my office about every two weeks, and he is one sad case.
A couple of inches over six feet tall and cadaverously thin, he is what sociologist Tex Sample calls a "hard-living" man. At 61 years old he's the same age as me, but he looks at least 15 years older. Every hard-lived minute of his life is written in the wrinkles and scars on his face.
Jimmy's an alcoholic and he has thrown away more opportunities than most people get.
When he's sober, he is a skilled and accomplished house painter, but he has been known to leave jobs unfinished because he took the down payment someone gave him and went on a bender. He has been fired from dozens of crews for not showing up or showing up drunk. He has alienated his entire family.
When he comes to me for help, he's honest. "Well, I blew it again. I got to partyin' and stayed out too late a couple of times. They canned me. I'm broke as a tame horse. Can you spot me a couple of bucks for a pack of cigarettes?" Then he'll launch into a story about how alcohol has destroyed his life and will probably kill him and how he's start going back to his meetings and blah, blah, blah. I've heard it all before. Usually I listen for a few minutes and then tell him that I have some work to do, and he takes the hint and leaves. Sometimes, when I have the money, I'll pay for a pack of cigarettes. But that's as far as I'll go. I know, I probably shouldn't -- but I figure that pack of cigarettes is about the only grace that Jimmy is going to receive that week.
Jimmy knows that I will not enable his alcoholic self-destruction by giving him cash or paying his rent for him. I drew that line a long time ago.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
In her book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, Kenda Creasy Dean describes how she and other researchers asked teenagers to describe God. The most popular adjective the teens used was "nice."
God, they said, is nice. He's helpful and loving and accepting. He's kind of like their grandfather who shows up from time to time to fix things that aren't working right but doesn't make demands on them. Others described God as kind of like their guidance counselor, someone they could go to when they had a problem, someone who would listen non-judgmentally and then offer solutions.
In fact, the vast majority of these youth believed that the number one attribute of a faithful, obedient Christian was "being nice" even though that word doesn't appear in the scriptures. What does God desire of us? That we be nice to each other? A good person, they believe, is someone who accepts without judgment, fixes what is broken, enables you to feel good about yourself, and doesn't intentionally do or say something that hurts your feelings.
Ms. Dean concludes that our kids didn't just make this up. They learned it from us.
Writing in the November 28, 2012 issue of The Christian Century magazine, Emory Gillespie notes that while Jesus may very well have been a nice guy, it's a rather one-dimensional picture of him. If we see only the nice Jesus, the "gentle Jesus meek and mild," we are guilty, just like the teenagers Dean studied, of "harboring an image of Jesus Christ that looks less like the man from Galilee and more like Christopher Robin from the Hundred Acre Wood."
This version of Jesus is hardly the one who cleared the temple and angered the Pharisees, the scribes, and the chief priests. This is, rather, a "nice little fellow with a pageboy haircut skipping along and rescuing lovable stray creatures such as Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger," usually within the limits of a short children's story.
The real Jesus, the true messiah as described by John the Baptist, has less to do with being nice and building up our self-esteem than with straightening roads and blowing up mountains and cutting down trees that don't bear fruit. The real messiah, as described by Malachi, is not here to make us feel good about ourselves but to purify us by burning away our impurities and scrubbing us with the harsh soap of judgment.
This Jesus who is as hot as a refiner's fire and as harsh as a fuller's lye soap is the very one who is coming to us as a babe in a manger.
It is this three-dimensional Jesus, this fully formed, complex, and hard-to-pin-down Jesus that is coming and for whom we are supposed to be preparing.
With that in mind, we will probably walk, not run, to the stable. And maybe that calm, serious walk is more appropriate after all.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Atlantic's website is hosting a series of op-eds on Lincoln, several of which hone in on what Steven Spielberg's new film says about politics and politicians and the ways they make change. In his piece in this collection, A.O. Scott references a column by his New York Times colleague, David Brooks, who writes that the movie provides this insight about the nature of political life:
It shows that you can do more good in politics than in any other sphere. You can end slavery, open opportunity, and fight poverty. But you can achieve these things only if you are willing to stain your own character in order to serve others -- if you are willing to bamboozle, trim, compromise, and be slippery and hypocritical.
The challenge of politics lies precisely in the marriage of high vision and low cunning. Spielberg's Lincoln gets this point. The hero has a high moral vision, but he also has the courage to take morally hazardous action in order to make that vision a reality.
How does Brooks' vision of the noble politician and her/his game line up with "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness" that we hear in this week's reading from Luke 3? How do John's message, tactics, and results compare with the politics that Brooks describes? What does the difference mean for us as citizens surrounded by and entangled in politics, and as followers of a faith tradition whose herald is less about compromise and more about refiner's fire and fullers' soap?
* * *
There are many unlikely and surprising characters driving the narrative that leads us to God's gift at Christmas. Even the gift is surprising -- a helpless infant, carried by a teenage mother and born in a stable. But the one who heralds the coming of the gift might be the most unusual or jarring character of all, particularly if our expectations of Christmas are ones that have to do with comfort, tradition, excess, and celebration.
"Repent!" is John's message -- his recipe for preparation for the coming of the Christ Child. How does that line up with our own preparations?
What might the juxtaposition of John's message and our own Advent-time scurrying, shopping, and all-around excessiveness tell us? How will John's message help us make the way straight?
Ed Sunday-Winters is a pastor in Knoxville and a writer for Ethics Daily. On December 23, 2009, he wrote in his column on Church and Theology about a friend who was considering a line of Christmas cards based in the message of John the Baptist. They read like this...
Outside card: "From our house to yours this holiday season."
Inside: "Merry Christmas, you brood of vipers."
Outside card: "Let's all pass the cup as we gather round the Yule log."
Inside: "Which burns like the unquenchable fire of hell that is soon going to consume you for all eternity. With love, John."
Outside card: "Season's greeting to you from across the miles."
Inside: "Hey, who told you to flee from the wrath to come?"
How will John's words change how we prepare and how Christmas comes in us?
* * *
In the recently released movie Rise of the Guardians, Jack Frost is called into being by the Man in the Moon. Without knowledge of any real task or purpose, Jack moves mischievously through the centuries, disrupting life with snow days, slick sidewalks, and the like. He lives for the disruption he creates and the fun that ensues, but he is haunted by questions about why he was created and who he really is. When he is tapped to become the next Guardian and join an elite group of characters made up of North (Santa Claus), Sandy (the Sandman), Tooth (the Tooth Fairy), and Bunny (the Easter Bunny), he resists claiming he doesn't want the responsibility of sustaining the belief and wonder of children and protecting them from harm. The audience soon learns, though, that Jack's resistance is more about not understanding himself, what he has been created to do, or what he has to offer. When he finds himself fighting alongside the Guardians to protect the world's children from the fear and despair of Pitch Black (the Bogeyman), Jack discovers he holds a love that guides him and teaches him about his gifts, his purpose, and his capacity to serve and protect others, albeit in a mischievous and fun way. This love "overflow[s] more and more with knowledge and full insight to help [Jack] determine what is best..." (Philippians 1:9-10a).
During this Advent season, how can we grow in knowledge and insight about how to live out our callings in a way that is pleasing to our Creator? How does love guide us on this part of our journey?
* * *
Father John Flynn, who recently passed away, was a Catholic priest who spent a half-century championing the poor, the disadvantaged, and the forgotten people in the neighborhoods around the churches he served in the Bronx.
Those areas had a long history of violence -- drugs, guns, and death were commonplace. But Father Flynn found many ways to reach out with a helping hand, and he became known as "the people's priest." He started a "Save a Generation" program to educate and provide job training for high school dropouts; he tried to make neighborhoods safer by walking the streets offering crucifixes in exchange for guns; and he tirelessly worked to improve life for families by lobbying for more low-cost housing or saving community gardens.
Within the last year, Flynn wrote himself a note that summarized his approach to ministry. It read: "Priest of the people -- To bring my relatives to be lovers of Jesus Christ who prepares us to follow Him into Heaven filled with united love for each other like a family -- Become united and loving God and each other."
Father Flynn was doing just what John the Baptist did -- preparing the way, so that all may see God's salvation.
* * *
John the Baptist's voice crying in the wilderness is an eccentric, mysterious one. He certainly seems to be a curious messenger. His is an inauspicious life without the customary trappings and amenities of social success. His demeanor and deportment are without the conventions and insignias of wealth, power, and privilege -- but the word of God comes to a most unlikely person in a most unlikely place. Why then should we heed his warnings of preparation when he himself is the epitome of disorder and disarray? How can we bring ourselves to believe that God would use a person such as this to proclaim God's word? Why not Tiberius? Why not Pilate? Why not Philip and Lysanius? Would they not be more likely candidates? They are establishment men; men of order and valor. They uphold social traditions and are curators of the status quo. John is everything we would not become -- but the word of God comes to him. He is Robert Bly's "wild man," Dostoevsky's "underground man," Nietzsche's "superman," and Ralph Ellison's "invisible man." Why then should we heed this man who heralds our preparation for Christ? Who is he to tell us and on what authority can he claim to know how and when the Lord will work in these troubled times?
* * *
In warmer weather, road crews are ubiquitous. Sitting in a long line of cars -- motor idling, perhaps running late, maybe with kids hollering -- causes more than a car's temperature to rise! And if we pass over the same stretch of road with regularity and encounter the roadwork for several days running, it becomes even more bothersome. "What takes them so long?" we are apt to ask. In a word, preparation. The actual paving of the road is a fairly quick process; it is the jackhammering and digging and repairing that takes the time. But without the discipline of preparation, the paving would have no more than a band-aid effect. Preparation ensures fulfillment.
No less is this true for the nurturing and growth of faith. Often the work of ministry is the work of John the Baptist: "Get the road ready for the Lord..." (TEV).
* * *
Have you ever traveled through West Virginia turnpike? Veterans of travel years ago share horror stories about trying to get through the treacherous terrain of this "almost heavenly" state -- steep grades, sharp curves, slow-moving trucks, overheated brakes. But a journey on the West Virginia turnpike today is a different story -- four lanes and the possibility of zipping through the state at a posted speed limit, slowing only a few times to throw some quarters in the toll baskets. The mountains have been made low, the valleys filled, the crooked roads made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. If you want to picture the land on which John the Baptist walked, just imagine West Virginia without trees.
* * *
There once was a man who contacted the highway department to complain about the condition of the road in front of his house. He kept calling and calling, complaining about all the potholes and bumps, but the highway department never did anything. Eventually the man became such an irritant by repeatedly calling that the highway department agreed to do something about his road. But instead of coming in and repaving it, the highway department resolved his complaint by putting up a sign that read: "Rough Road Ahead."
Perhaps that's the same thing many people do with their lives. But John the Baptist calls on us not just to put up signs but to "prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
* * *
Each Sunday the New York Times has a column in its business section titled "The Boss," in which a CEO expounds on some of their leadership practices. In a recent piece Donna Carpenter, the president of Burton Snowboards, discussed how she expanded the company's horizons by focusing on both men and women riders.
Carpenter, who took over from her husband and company founder Jake after he became ill with cancer, related that when snowboarding first emerged on the market, men and women participated equally. Then as the sport got the image of being an extreme sport, it took on the image of being a man's adventure only. Realizing that women like herself enjoyed snowboarding, she wanted to return women to the sport. The company developed a website called Burton Girls, and established Learn to Ride centers for women at thirty winter resorts.
Carpenter said that the reason for the company's success is this: "We've always felt that our success has never been about us; it's about the snowboarding world. We believed we were pioneering something that others loved as much as we did."
When we are instructed to prepare a way for the Lord, we must share the message with the same love that we have received it.
* * *
The Iron Dome -- it's the latest technological advancement in military defense. And it is so successful that countries across the globe are positioning themselves to purchase a similar model.
The Iron Dome is what the nation of Israel has called their anti-missile defense shield against incoming rockets fired by Hamas in the region's latest conflict. More than 400 rockets fired from Gaza were knocked down, with 85% destroyed in the air. The secret to the Iron Dome is its software, which has the ability to determine which rockets are destined for populated areas and which ones are not. Then only the more dangerous foes are destroyed.
But the Iron Dome is effective only to a range of fifty miles. That's why the Iron Dome will soon be supplemented with David's Sling -- a system being developed against medium-range rockets.
Luke 1:71 tells us that "we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us." When we are told that the coming Savior will protect us from our enemies, using a war analogy that is common in the scriptures, it will be as if we are living under an Iron Dome.
* * *
Political violence in South Africa has grown to epidemic proportions. This is because not only are the highest-level offices that one can be elected to being contested, but even the smallest political offices as well.
Every office along the continuum can produce substantial wealth through bribes and corruption. This makes holding a political office synonymous to wealth, as the crimes committed are commonplace and go unenforced. With unemployment just below 50%, individuals see public office as a quick road to riches. Murdering an opponent and other violent deeds are all viewed as a part of political campaigning.
The lowest-level elected office, a seat on the ward council in the most rural area, pays $150 a month. But being a conduit for contracts and other municipal services provides the opportunity for council members to solicit bribes that are many times larger than that sum.
The African National Congress, once the beacon for justice, is now plagued with many young officeholders whose political sights are focused only on personal wealth. The ANC is opposed to the new electorates but seems incapable of stopping it. Zweli Mkhize, the ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal province, said that the ANC can "ill afford the association of political appointment to self-enrichment where ascendency is not linked with capacity, competence, and dedicated service to our people."
When we are told that Jesus is coming to protect us from our enemies, we should remember that just as in South Africa they will be lurking in the most unlikely of all places.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming among us.
People: We have gathered to worship the God who comes to us.
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming within us.
People: We open our hearts and minds to receive our God.
Leader: Let us prepare the way for God's coming through us.
People: We offer ourselves as God's ambassadors to a hurting world.
OR
Leader: God is coming! Let us get ready.
People: We are not ready for God's coming. We need to be made pure.
Leader: Only through the heat and flame of refining will we be ready.
People: We offer ourselves to God's fire that our dross may be consumed.
Leader: Only the soap of God's Spirit can cleanse us.
People: We confess we need to be cleansed by the Spirit of truth.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
"Blessed Be the God of Israel"
found in:
UMH: 209
H82: 444
CH: 135
ELA: 250/552
"I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light"
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
"Prepare the Way of the Lord" (Taizé)
found in:
UMH: 207
CH: 121
"Toda la Tierra" ("All Earth Is Waiting")
found in:
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELA: 266
"Seek Ye First"
found in:
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 254
"Breathe on Me, Breath of God"
found in:
UMH: 420
H82: 508
PH: 316
AAHH: 317
NNBH: 126
NCH: 292
CH: 254
LBW: 488
"Change My Heart, O God"
found in:
CCB: 56
Renew: 143
"Create in Me a Clean Heart"
found in:
CCB: 54
Renew: 181
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who urgently calls us into your cleansing presence: Grant us the faith to trust in your good intentions to refine us and not to consume us; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We have heard your call, O God, and we have gathered to prepare for your coming. Cleanse us and refine us so that we may shine brightly with your loving grace. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we cling to our filth.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that we are broken. We know that we are soiled with the dirt of sin. Yet we continually seek to justify ourselves rather than submit to your cleansing, freeing Spirit. We have chosen poorly. Open our eyes so that we may see clearly the wonder of who we can become when we allow you into our lives. Amen.
Leader: God's love is constant and true. God sends the Spirit to make us clean and whole so that we may shine with all God's children.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and worship you, O God, for you are the one who comes among us in all our brokenness. You deign to come and join us in our lives.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We know that we are broken. We know that we are soiled with the dirt of sin. Yet we continually seek to justify ourselves rather than submit to your cleansing, freeing Spirit. We have chosen poorly. Open our eyes so that we may see clearly the wonder of who we can become when we allow you into our lives.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have made your presence known to us. We thank you that you have called us to prepare a place for you in our lives. We thank you for those faithful ones who have spoken your words of life to us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for those around us who have not come to know you as the God who comes in love and grace. We pray for those whose lives are broken to the point where they seemingly cannot believe that they can be made whole.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about how sometimes it isn't much fun to get cleaned up. (I once walked down the road barefoot, bursting tar bubbles. It was fun, but getting it cleaned off wasn't!) But it is a good feeling to be clean and it is healthy. Sometimes it isn't fun to give up doing things we know we shouldn't, but it feels better in the end.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The Right Path
Luke 3:1-6
Object: a toy bulldozer
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you have ever watched the workers who build roads? (let the children answer) When we are driving, especially in the summertime, we see the men and all of their big machinery working on the roads. Sometimes they are just repairing a road that is already there but other times they are building a brand-new road. The brand-new road is the one I want to talk about today. I brought along a toy that I think most of you have seen. What do we call this machine? (let them answer) That's right, it's a bulldozer.
What does a bulldozer do? (let them answer) That's right -- it moves dirt, lots of dirt. But how does a bulldozer go? Does the bulldozer go straight when it is pushing the dirt or does it just push the dirt anywhere? (let them answer) You are right again. The big bulldozer pushes the dirt straight ahead, and then another machine comes along and picks up the dirt in a big bucket and dumps it into a truck. The truck takes the dirt away while the bulldozer just keeps pushing the dirt in a pretty straight line.
John the Baptist was like our bulldozer. John the Baptist had a message and the message was this: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John was out in front of Jesus or before Jesus, and John was telling everyone the straight truth. Jesus was coming and John wanted a lot of straight thinking so that the people would recognize Jesus when he came.
This is what we are doing in Advent. We are preparing ourselves with straight thinking so that we will know Jesus when he comes into our lives. Are you ready for Jesus or are you hiding behind a tree off of the road? We hope you are not one of those people who can't make up their minds about Jesus so you are standing on a hill out of the way. We want to be part of the new path that God is making so that we will welcome Jesus into our hearts. He is coming. John tells us what God told him. The Savior is coming and we want to be on the right path.
The next time you see a bulldozer making a road, think about John the Baptist going before Jesus and telling the people of his coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 9, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
