Second Sunday of Advent
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
The Second Sunday in Advent is clearly oriented toward preparation for the coming of the Lord. This preparation has two dimensions: to prepare "our hearts" - which God is constantly attempting to do through his Word and Spirit - for the Second Coming of the Lord; and, to "prepare our hearts" for his incarnation, as he comes to us through Word and Spirit at Christmas and every day of our lives. This much ought to be evident to us; that if our hearts are prepared for his eschatological coming, they will certainly be perfectly attuned to his incarnational advent right now. The expectation of the eschaton is, from one perspective, realized eschatology; from a second point of view it is future eschatology, while from a third position it is an exercise in what might be called immediate eschatology; he is constantly coming to us in Word and sacrament.
All elements of the liturgy for the Second Sunday in Advent make it announce or support the theme for this Sunday's worship as preparation for the coming of the Lord. The clue is both eschatological and incarnational. It emerges as eschatological in Isaiah 5: the reading from Isaiah anticipates the future advent of the Messiah and describes his attributes; the psalm acts as a kind of antiphon to Isaiah's description, detailing the nature of his reign and the benefits that will be bestowed upon the earth. The excerpt from Paul's letter to the Roman Church is incarnational, as well as eschatological; it urges the people to read the Old Testament as "Advent preparation," especially those parts - the context implies - that anticipate the coming of Christ as the "root of Jesse" and glorify the crucified and risen Lord who will come again. The Gospel - for the other two years of the lectionary cycle, as well as Year A - brings all of this into sharp focus through John's announcement and exhortation, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Matthew 3 articulates the message in this total context. The bottom line, for the faithful, is one of expectation and hope.
The Prayer of the Day - Another of the Advent "stir up" prayers related to the Lord's advent and, this time, asking God to prepare our hearts to receive him:
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son. By his coming give us strength in our conflicts and shed light on our path through the darkness of this world; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The petition of the original collect points more to God's purpose for our lives, that is, to love and serve him as long as we live: "... so that by his coming we may be enabled to serve thee with pure minds...." The intent of both prayers is initially the same, asking God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves - "to stir up our hearts ... to prepare (make ready) the way for your only begotten son."
The Psalm of the Day (LBW) - Psalm 72:1-14 (15-17) - This psalm enunciates and echoes the themes that emerge from the pericopes appointed for the Second Sunday in Advent, because it is a prayer for a king who will be instructed in the duties of his office by God himself. Scholars contend that it is a prayer for the rulers of the house of David, and also a prayer for the messianic king who is yet to come. That the church sees this as a messianic psalm is rather evident by its selection for this Sunday. As a response to the First Lesson, it is most appropriate, and functions almost as the ancient graduals did in the movement from one lesson to another. The Psalm Prayer ties it into the gospel of the Lord, as well as the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
Almighty God, you gave the kingdom of justice and peace to David and his descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ. Extend this kingdom to every nation, so that through your Son the poor may receive justice, the destitute relief, and the people of the earth peace in the name of him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The readings:
Isaiah 11:1-10
This has been called one of the great messianic prophecies attributed to Isaiah. He paints a picture of the ideal ruler from the line of kings begun by David, noting that he is to be blessed with "the Spirit of the Lord" and other special gifts from God. Isaiah lists these in three pairs, which describe his intellectual gifts, his practical wisdom, and his spiritual relationship with God. The prophet describes the rich benefits of his rule, which never came to realization in an earthly king; fulfillment of the prophesy is realized only in the coming of the Messiah, who comes for all people and to rule over every nation. Note that when Psalm 72 is used as a responsory to the first reading, it provides what might be termed a "natural bridge" from the Old Testament lection to the Pauline pericope and the Gospel for the Day. Most congregations tend to use the Psalm this way.
Romans 15:4-13
Paul's first words in this pericope, "for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction," prompted some American Lutheran bodies (the ULCA, for example) to follow the lead of the Anglican communion and designate the Second Sunday of Advent as "Bible Sunday," a day to promote the regular reading ofthe Bible. This emphasis, which is sorely needed in the contemporary church, is an appropriate exercise as part of the spiritual discipline connected to Advent, but ought to be questioned if only general reading of scripture is involved. By reading the daily lessons from a church year lectionary of the several liturgical churches, the devotions of the faithful are oriented toward the themes of Advent (and the rest of the year). Christians should find their faith renewed by Old Testament passages that give both promise and hope for the coming of the Messiah, and as, in the readings of the New Testament, hope and promise are confirmed in conjunction with the Second Coming of Christ. So Paul writes, quoting Isaiah, "The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope." This theme is omitted in the Roman Lectionary which ends at verse nine.
Matthew 3:1-12
Those who conceive of Advent as a time to prepare for Jesus' incarnation, particularly in Jesus' birth at Christmas, will be disappointed with this Gospel as they are with the Matthew 24 reading for the First Sunday in Advent. Matthew presents John the Baptizer as the preacher and prophet described by Isaiah, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John demanded that people "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This included the Pharisees and Sadducees, who apparently were hedging their religious "bets" by coming to John for baptism. He thundered a bold message to the "brood of vipers," as he called the Pharisees and the Sadducees, declaring that the day of God's wrath and judgment was upon them. Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ - now, as well as in the future - by repenting of one's sins and actually changing one's ways of living.
John's proclamation points beyond himself to Jesus Christ, who comes after John but is superior, as the Baptizer admits, to himself. John the Baptizer holds such a high opinion of the Christ that he sees himself as a humble slave who is not even worthy of carrying Jesus' sandals. Jesus will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit, not simply with water for repentance, as John did. And John declares that he will come in judgment and "gather the wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Christ, as John perceives him on the basis of his knowledge of Scripture, is a stern, severe sort of Savior, who doesn't seem to have empathy and compassion for a hurting humanity. There is little or nothing of Isaiah's "Suffering Servant" in John's Messiah, but there is no doubt that, in John's mind, he is the unique and holy one sent by God to save and redeem his people.
In this scene, Matthew reveals the theological stance of John the Baptizer as eschatological; John is still looking for the Coming One, although it is rather evident that he believes that the Messiah's advent is imminent. But his theology is also incarnational, by-passing any mention of Jesus' birth or formative years and dwelling, instead, on his life and ministry as his incarnation. This Gospel, therefore, serves as a corrective to people who limit the incarnation to the nativity story, while reducing the eschatological sweep of Advent to a singular celebration of Christmas. Jesus' incarnation includes all dimensions of his life and ministry
- birth, ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, suffering and death, resurrection and ascension - and, in another perspective, his Second Coming. John's eschatological theology has nothing to do with Christmas, but it has everything to do with the incarnation and with Advent.
A sermon suggested by the Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12)
A contemporary setting for a sermon on Matthew 3: Two young boys were recently expelled from their school in North Carolina because they refused to stop preaching the Gospel as their parents had taught them to do. One of them is about ten years old, the other is five. They stand outside their school, holding up what could be a Bible alongside their faces to act as a megaphone, and they shout verses of Scripture, calling on all who pass by within earshot to repent of their sins before it is too late. When the school principal ordered them to enter the school building and go to their classes, they refused and continued to "preach" their version of the Gospel; their father does the same thing. The story made national news, including several of the prominent news programs.
The five-year-old has received the most publicity, probably because he is so young, and he could pass for a young John the Baptizer. He and the other members of his family could be transported to the church of St. John the Baptist, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and placed alongside the sculpture of the Baptizer, which stands by the baptismal font in the atrium/narthex of the church. The sculpture is stark and severe in every detail, and is completely black; without saying a word, the message the statue symbolizes is transparently clear, "Repent (you who have been baptized in the name of the Lord), for the kingdom of heaven is near. Prepare the way of the Lord." No one is emotionally disturbed or upset by the sculptured figure of John the Baptizer, but they would be if the boys and their father were allowed to speak for him. Even a recorded message, not unlike those in the Hall of the Presidents in Disney World, would move more than a few people to call for the removal of both message and sculpture. John's message continues to move people to hear and repent or reject it and be condemned.
A sermon plan: "Prepare the Way of the Lord - Today."
The setting above - or something similar - could provide, when constructed with imagination, an inductive introduction to the sermon. John has been dead for almost twenty centuries, but his message is critical for all advent, or Christian, people.
1. The "bad news" - "Repent" (all of you who know yourselves to be sinners); the "good news" is "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (in the Messiah, Jesus Christ) right now. Both are meant for everyone, saved and unsaved.
2. The "mightier one" - Jesus the Messiah - has come, is coming constantly, and will come again at the end of the age.
3. No one is exempt from the call to repentance as a changed life that will "bear fruit" appropriate to a Christian life-style. Good works cannot provide people with the assurance of salvation; people are saved by God's grace and initiative in his redeeming action in Jesus Christ.
4. Repent, but rejoice, for Jesus, who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit, is with you now and forever (the central message of Matthew). Believe and hope in him.
A homiletical suggestion for an alternate way of shaping this sermon
Employ Milton Crum's technique (in Manual for Preaching, and employed by Reginald Fuller in The Use of the Bible for Preaching) for developing one type of a biblical story sermon. The three-fold technique finds natural expression in this text: situation, complication, resolution.
1. The situation: John the Baptizer, according to Matthew, comes on the Judean scene more as a preacher than a baptizer; he "does" baptisms, but they seem to be secondary to his preaching in this Gospel.
2. The complication: his message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," is popular to the crowds of people, but offensive to the religious leaders of the people. The tone of the judgment he declares threatens not only their personal sense of worth before God, but also stirs up self-righteous indignation over the threat that he represents to their legalistic religious system of sacrifice and good works.
3. The resolution: John "gets off the hook" with the Pharisees and Sadducees, to some degree, by proclaiming the advent of the "mightier one," the Messiah, who has the very power of God at his disposal to bring judgment upon - and salvation for - the entire human race. "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
A sermon on the First Lesson, Isaiah 11:1-10 - "God's Spirit-Anointed Savior."
1. God's promise: to send a kingly one who shall bring all people to God.
2. His character will be formed by the Spirit of the Lord - wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge of the fear of the Lord, his delight.
3. His actions will take the shape of righteous judgment and compassion for all people.
4. The result: He will restore peace and harmony on the earth and "a little child shall lead them."
5. The reality: The church's prayer, "come, Lord Jesus, come, quickly!"
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 15:4-13 - "Living by the Book."
(Note: this epistle has been in the lectionary of the Holy Catholic Church since A.D. 602,
first on the Third Sunday in Advent, and then on the Second Sunday in Advent since 1570.
Vatican II and non-Roman lectionaries support its use on this Sunday.)
The late and renowned preacher and Brown Professor of Preaching at Union Seminary, New York City, Dr. Paul Scherer, preached on this text not long before he retired. He determined it to be so important that he devoted two sermons, on a Tuesday and a Thursday of the same week, to a single verse of the text, verse 4:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by stead-fastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Jerusalem Bible: And indeed everything that was written long ago in the scriptures was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples scripture gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God.
Inductive introduction: I learned the importance of this pericope from my grandfather, a devout Methodist, who lived in our home for the last fifteen years of his life. He had lost almost everything - his beloved wife, two of his three children, his source of income, his independence; and a crippling fall saw him confined to his bed and a nearby chair for the last three years he lived - but he never lost his faith or his hope in Christ. When he died, I received two of his Bibles, the family Bible, in which he kept the records of births, deaths, baptisms, marriages, and other significant events, and also his personal, devotional Bible. The latter was virtually worn out; the leather cover was worn and rounded at the corners, the gold on the edges had been rubbed off by loving hands, and every page seemed to have something underlined or comments written on the borders - some in pencil, some in black ink, some in blue ink. From him and his Bible, I learned how important the daily reading of scripture can be in the life of a person who seems to be running out of hope. The Bible is a book of hope, a precious gift from God.
One could readily expand this topic of story-experience into a complete textual or thematic
- and narrative - sermon. It might not be any of the expository types of sermons, but it could be very biblical in context. My title might be, "My Grandfather's Bible" and could follow the text very closely.
1. This book - the Bible - makes learners out of those who read it faithfully. Sunday worship, with the reading of Scripture, preaching, and the sacraments, is not sufficient to teach and help us appreciate the Story.
2. Those who truly love God come to love the book, which strengthens their faith, nurtures their love, and kindles the flame of hope in their lives when it is read devotionally and diligently in times of private worship and study, because the Bible tells the whole Story of God and his people.
3. That Story, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, enables the faithful to live by the book - not legalistically or by the letter of the law, but in the freedom that the Good News offers in the culmination of the Story, Jesus Christ. The Bible assures the world that God always keeps his promises to his people.
4. Living by the book assures genuine quality of life to the children of God.
Psalm-series Sermon - Psalm 72:1-14 (15-17) - "Long Live the King's Son!"
1. His reign shall be determined by God's righteousness and shall be marked by justice for the poor and prosperity for the people.
2. He will be an advocate and a deliverer of the poor and oppressed people of the earth, a blessing to the whole world.
3. He will rule as redeemer over the humble and all of the exalted rulers of the nations.
4. He will live forever and all nations will finally call him blessed. Come, Lord Jesus!
The Second Sunday in Advent is clearly oriented toward preparation for the coming of the Lord. This preparation has two dimensions: to prepare "our hearts" - which God is constantly attempting to do through his Word and Spirit - for the Second Coming of the Lord; and, to "prepare our hearts" for his incarnation, as he comes to us through Word and Spirit at Christmas and every day of our lives. This much ought to be evident to us; that if our hearts are prepared for his eschatological coming, they will certainly be perfectly attuned to his incarnational advent right now. The expectation of the eschaton is, from one perspective, realized eschatology; from a second point of view it is future eschatology, while from a third position it is an exercise in what might be called immediate eschatology; he is constantly coming to us in Word and sacrament.
All elements of the liturgy for the Second Sunday in Advent make it announce or support the theme for this Sunday's worship as preparation for the coming of the Lord. The clue is both eschatological and incarnational. It emerges as eschatological in Isaiah 5: the reading from Isaiah anticipates the future advent of the Messiah and describes his attributes; the psalm acts as a kind of antiphon to Isaiah's description, detailing the nature of his reign and the benefits that will be bestowed upon the earth. The excerpt from Paul's letter to the Roman Church is incarnational, as well as eschatological; it urges the people to read the Old Testament as "Advent preparation," especially those parts - the context implies - that anticipate the coming of Christ as the "root of Jesse" and glorify the crucified and risen Lord who will come again. The Gospel - for the other two years of the lectionary cycle, as well as Year A - brings all of this into sharp focus through John's announcement and exhortation, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Matthew 3 articulates the message in this total context. The bottom line, for the faithful, is one of expectation and hope.
The Prayer of the Day - Another of the Advent "stir up" prayers related to the Lord's advent and, this time, asking God to prepare our hearts to receive him:
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way for your only Son. By his coming give us strength in our conflicts and shed light on our path through the darkness of this world; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The petition of the original collect points more to God's purpose for our lives, that is, to love and serve him as long as we live: "... so that by his coming we may be enabled to serve thee with pure minds...." The intent of both prayers is initially the same, asking God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves - "to stir up our hearts ... to prepare (make ready) the way for your only begotten son."
The Psalm of the Day (LBW) - Psalm 72:1-14 (15-17) - This psalm enunciates and echoes the themes that emerge from the pericopes appointed for the Second Sunday in Advent, because it is a prayer for a king who will be instructed in the duties of his office by God himself. Scholars contend that it is a prayer for the rulers of the house of David, and also a prayer for the messianic king who is yet to come. That the church sees this as a messianic psalm is rather evident by its selection for this Sunday. As a response to the First Lesson, it is most appropriate, and functions almost as the ancient graduals did in the movement from one lesson to another. The Psalm Prayer ties it into the gospel of the Lord, as well as the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
Almighty God, you gave the kingdom of justice and peace to David and his descendant, our Lord Jesus Christ. Extend this kingdom to every nation, so that through your Son the poor may receive justice, the destitute relief, and the people of the earth peace in the name of him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The readings:
Isaiah 11:1-10
This has been called one of the great messianic prophecies attributed to Isaiah. He paints a picture of the ideal ruler from the line of kings begun by David, noting that he is to be blessed with "the Spirit of the Lord" and other special gifts from God. Isaiah lists these in three pairs, which describe his intellectual gifts, his practical wisdom, and his spiritual relationship with God. The prophet describes the rich benefits of his rule, which never came to realization in an earthly king; fulfillment of the prophesy is realized only in the coming of the Messiah, who comes for all people and to rule over every nation. Note that when Psalm 72 is used as a responsory to the first reading, it provides what might be termed a "natural bridge" from the Old Testament lection to the Pauline pericope and the Gospel for the Day. Most congregations tend to use the Psalm this way.
Romans 15:4-13
Paul's first words in this pericope, "for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction," prompted some American Lutheran bodies (the ULCA, for example) to follow the lead of the Anglican communion and designate the Second Sunday of Advent as "Bible Sunday," a day to promote the regular reading ofthe Bible. This emphasis, which is sorely needed in the contemporary church, is an appropriate exercise as part of the spiritual discipline connected to Advent, but ought to be questioned if only general reading of scripture is involved. By reading the daily lessons from a church year lectionary of the several liturgical churches, the devotions of the faithful are oriented toward the themes of Advent (and the rest of the year). Christians should find their faith renewed by Old Testament passages that give both promise and hope for the coming of the Messiah, and as, in the readings of the New Testament, hope and promise are confirmed in conjunction with the Second Coming of Christ. So Paul writes, quoting Isaiah, "The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope." This theme is omitted in the Roman Lectionary which ends at verse nine.
Matthew 3:1-12
Those who conceive of Advent as a time to prepare for Jesus' incarnation, particularly in Jesus' birth at Christmas, will be disappointed with this Gospel as they are with the Matthew 24 reading for the First Sunday in Advent. Matthew presents John the Baptizer as the preacher and prophet described by Isaiah, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John demanded that people "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." This included the Pharisees and Sadducees, who apparently were hedging their religious "bets" by coming to John for baptism. He thundered a bold message to the "brood of vipers," as he called the Pharisees and the Sadducees, declaring that the day of God's wrath and judgment was upon them. Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ - now, as well as in the future - by repenting of one's sins and actually changing one's ways of living.
John's proclamation points beyond himself to Jesus Christ, who comes after John but is superior, as the Baptizer admits, to himself. John the Baptizer holds such a high opinion of the Christ that he sees himself as a humble slave who is not even worthy of carrying Jesus' sandals. Jesus will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit, not simply with water for repentance, as John did. And John declares that he will come in judgment and "gather the wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." Christ, as John perceives him on the basis of his knowledge of Scripture, is a stern, severe sort of Savior, who doesn't seem to have empathy and compassion for a hurting humanity. There is little or nothing of Isaiah's "Suffering Servant" in John's Messiah, but there is no doubt that, in John's mind, he is the unique and holy one sent by God to save and redeem his people.
In this scene, Matthew reveals the theological stance of John the Baptizer as eschatological; John is still looking for the Coming One, although it is rather evident that he believes that the Messiah's advent is imminent. But his theology is also incarnational, by-passing any mention of Jesus' birth or formative years and dwelling, instead, on his life and ministry as his incarnation. This Gospel, therefore, serves as a corrective to people who limit the incarnation to the nativity story, while reducing the eschatological sweep of Advent to a singular celebration of Christmas. Jesus' incarnation includes all dimensions of his life and ministry
- birth, ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, suffering and death, resurrection and ascension - and, in another perspective, his Second Coming. John's eschatological theology has nothing to do with Christmas, but it has everything to do with the incarnation and with Advent.
A sermon suggested by the Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12)
A contemporary setting for a sermon on Matthew 3: Two young boys were recently expelled from their school in North Carolina because they refused to stop preaching the Gospel as their parents had taught them to do. One of them is about ten years old, the other is five. They stand outside their school, holding up what could be a Bible alongside their faces to act as a megaphone, and they shout verses of Scripture, calling on all who pass by within earshot to repent of their sins before it is too late. When the school principal ordered them to enter the school building and go to their classes, they refused and continued to "preach" their version of the Gospel; their father does the same thing. The story made national news, including several of the prominent news programs.
The five-year-old has received the most publicity, probably because he is so young, and he could pass for a young John the Baptizer. He and the other members of his family could be transported to the church of St. John the Baptist, St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and placed alongside the sculpture of the Baptizer, which stands by the baptismal font in the atrium/narthex of the church. The sculpture is stark and severe in every detail, and is completely black; without saying a word, the message the statue symbolizes is transparently clear, "Repent (you who have been baptized in the name of the Lord), for the kingdom of heaven is near. Prepare the way of the Lord." No one is emotionally disturbed or upset by the sculptured figure of John the Baptizer, but they would be if the boys and their father were allowed to speak for him. Even a recorded message, not unlike those in the Hall of the Presidents in Disney World, would move more than a few people to call for the removal of both message and sculpture. John's message continues to move people to hear and repent or reject it and be condemned.
A sermon plan: "Prepare the Way of the Lord - Today."
The setting above - or something similar - could provide, when constructed with imagination, an inductive introduction to the sermon. John has been dead for almost twenty centuries, but his message is critical for all advent, or Christian, people.
1. The "bad news" - "Repent" (all of you who know yourselves to be sinners); the "good news" is "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (in the Messiah, Jesus Christ) right now. Both are meant for everyone, saved and unsaved.
2. The "mightier one" - Jesus the Messiah - has come, is coming constantly, and will come again at the end of the age.
3. No one is exempt from the call to repentance as a changed life that will "bear fruit" appropriate to a Christian life-style. Good works cannot provide people with the assurance of salvation; people are saved by God's grace and initiative in his redeeming action in Jesus Christ.
4. Repent, but rejoice, for Jesus, who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit, is with you now and forever (the central message of Matthew). Believe and hope in him.
A homiletical suggestion for an alternate way of shaping this sermon
Employ Milton Crum's technique (in Manual for Preaching, and employed by Reginald Fuller in The Use of the Bible for Preaching) for developing one type of a biblical story sermon. The three-fold technique finds natural expression in this text: situation, complication, resolution.
1. The situation: John the Baptizer, according to Matthew, comes on the Judean scene more as a preacher than a baptizer; he "does" baptisms, but they seem to be secondary to his preaching in this Gospel.
2. The complication: his message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," is popular to the crowds of people, but offensive to the religious leaders of the people. The tone of the judgment he declares threatens not only their personal sense of worth before God, but also stirs up self-righteous indignation over the threat that he represents to their legalistic religious system of sacrifice and good works.
3. The resolution: John "gets off the hook" with the Pharisees and Sadducees, to some degree, by proclaiming the advent of the "mightier one," the Messiah, who has the very power of God at his disposal to bring judgment upon - and salvation for - the entire human race. "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
A sermon on the First Lesson, Isaiah 11:1-10 - "God's Spirit-Anointed Savior."
1. God's promise: to send a kingly one who shall bring all people to God.
2. His character will be formed by the Spirit of the Lord - wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge of the fear of the Lord, his delight.
3. His actions will take the shape of righteous judgment and compassion for all people.
4. The result: He will restore peace and harmony on the earth and "a little child shall lead them."
5. The reality: The church's prayer, "come, Lord Jesus, come, quickly!"
A sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 15:4-13 - "Living by the Book."
(Note: this epistle has been in the lectionary of the Holy Catholic Church since A.D. 602,
first on the Third Sunday in Advent, and then on the Second Sunday in Advent since 1570.
Vatican II and non-Roman lectionaries support its use on this Sunday.)
The late and renowned preacher and Brown Professor of Preaching at Union Seminary, New York City, Dr. Paul Scherer, preached on this text not long before he retired. He determined it to be so important that he devoted two sermons, on a Tuesday and a Thursday of the same week, to a single verse of the text, verse 4:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by stead-fastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Jerusalem Bible: And indeed everything that was written long ago in the scriptures was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples scripture gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God.
Inductive introduction: I learned the importance of this pericope from my grandfather, a devout Methodist, who lived in our home for the last fifteen years of his life. He had lost almost everything - his beloved wife, two of his three children, his source of income, his independence; and a crippling fall saw him confined to his bed and a nearby chair for the last three years he lived - but he never lost his faith or his hope in Christ. When he died, I received two of his Bibles, the family Bible, in which he kept the records of births, deaths, baptisms, marriages, and other significant events, and also his personal, devotional Bible. The latter was virtually worn out; the leather cover was worn and rounded at the corners, the gold on the edges had been rubbed off by loving hands, and every page seemed to have something underlined or comments written on the borders - some in pencil, some in black ink, some in blue ink. From him and his Bible, I learned how important the daily reading of scripture can be in the life of a person who seems to be running out of hope. The Bible is a book of hope, a precious gift from God.
One could readily expand this topic of story-experience into a complete textual or thematic
- and narrative - sermon. It might not be any of the expository types of sermons, but it could be very biblical in context. My title might be, "My Grandfather's Bible" and could follow the text very closely.
1. This book - the Bible - makes learners out of those who read it faithfully. Sunday worship, with the reading of Scripture, preaching, and the sacraments, is not sufficient to teach and help us appreciate the Story.
2. Those who truly love God come to love the book, which strengthens their faith, nurtures their love, and kindles the flame of hope in their lives when it is read devotionally and diligently in times of private worship and study, because the Bible tells the whole Story of God and his people.
3. That Story, accompanied by the Holy Spirit, enables the faithful to live by the book - not legalistically or by the letter of the law, but in the freedom that the Good News offers in the culmination of the Story, Jesus Christ. The Bible assures the world that God always keeps his promises to his people.
4. Living by the book assures genuine quality of life to the children of God.
Psalm-series Sermon - Psalm 72:1-14 (15-17) - "Long Live the King's Son!"
1. His reign shall be determined by God's righteousness and shall be marked by justice for the poor and prosperity for the people.
2. He will be an advocate and a deliverer of the poor and oppressed people of the earth, a blessing to the whole world.
3. He will rule as redeemer over the humble and all of the exalted rulers of the nations.
4. He will live forever and all nations will finally call him blessed. Come, Lord Jesus!
