Seeing the Light

  

Text: 2 Peter 1:16-21

Focus: conversion

Function: To see the Spirit moving in our lives

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, ²¹because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Good morning to God’s beloved Children, part of God’s family that is worshiping God across the planet today. It is great to be back together and in community with all the believers everywhere.

I titled the sermon “Seeing the light” because today we celebrate the time when three of the apostles saw the light. They were with Jesus on the mountain when suddenly, Jesus was changed and began to glow like the sun and from heaven, Moses and Elijah came down and met with him.

Read it in Matthew 17:1-9

17^1-3Six days later, three of them saw that glory. Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him.

⁴Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?”

⁵While he was going on like this, babbling, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: “This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.”

^6-8When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death. But Jesus came over and touched them. “Don’t be afraid.” When they opened their eyes and looked around all they saw was Jesus, only Jesus.

⁹Coming down the mountain, Jesus swore them to secrecy. “Don’t breathe a word of what you’ve seen. After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.”

Three of the apostles were chosen to witness this event, Peter, James and John. They were told to keep it a secret, even from the other disciples until Jesus rose from the dead.

We don’t know why it was a secret and we don’t know why it was given to only three of the the apostles.

But it had a profound affect on them. Immediately, Peter wanted to erect three monuments, presumably because there were three apparitions, to record the event, just like Jacob did when he saw the ladder descending from heaven and he build a pillar of stones. Peter knew something spectacular had happened.

But instead of erecting monuments to the occasion, Jesus told them to keep it a secret.

During the event, we read that God interrupted the meeting and declared to the observers, Peter, John and James to listen to Jesus because he is the beloved son of God.

They saw the light of God and were commanded to listen to Christ.

I suppose that is pretty good for us as well.

See the light in Christ and follow him.

What does it mean for us to see the light?

Well, the text points us to the prophecy of scripture.

To prophesy does not mean only to predict the future. As a matter of fact, predicting the future was something that the prophets rarely did but we emphasize them because they give us some sort of hope or promise for the future.

But a prophecy is literally a quickened word. To prophesy, we listen to, and are led by the Holy Spirit to share something important from God that God wants us all to hear. That is what Paul is telling us in this passage when he talks of the Spirit leading the writers of the OT.

It is a word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that is what God has given us in the scripture.

I love reading the scripture because when I do, sometimes I sense the leading of the Holy Spirit helping me to see something that God wants me to see.

So Peter writes this passage about how he is being led by the Holy Spirit and he seems to know it is true because it illuminates his life. Apparently like the transfiguration of Jesus did to him as well when he was enveloped in God’s light.

The scriptures show us the God who loves us and help us find the will of God for us in our lives.

We have to be careful with the scriptures. They are inspired and they sometimes fill us with a connection to God when we are studying them. The Holy Spirit makes a difficult passage clear to us or we see something we have never seen before. God’s Spirit lights our way.

But I say we need to be careful because knowledge of scripture can make us proud of what we know compared to others.

We study not to master the scripture but we study them so that we can be mastered by God.

But God is revealed in more than scripture. As we saw today, Peter saw the majesty of God. He was excited when he saw the transfiguration. He let his spirit see the light.

I find that God connects with us through the Spirit in prayer and contemplation.

The connection to light in the story reminds me of creation and how on the first day, before creating the sun on the 4^th, God created light.

We see the light. Light is the presence of the goodness of God. It is the opposite of evil and it is something for which we can be aware to look for.

And Jesus is the light of the world and he enlightens us through his Spirit. He said that if he leaves us he will come back in the form of the Holy Spirit and we will have the same light inside of us. We get to dig deep and bring it out.

Let us look for the light. We do that here in worship, but I encourage you to do it all week long.

I love our God moments at the beginning of worship and our Higher Power during the service. Both of them remind me to listen to God and to look for God in everything.

It is that looking for God, the connection to the divine, the seeing the light and the good in things that keeps us humble and connected to our faith in the love of God.

The Kingdom is Near

Text: Matthew 4:12-23

Focus: Calling

Function: To help people see the urgency of the times.

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles—
¹⁶the people who sat in darkness
    have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
    light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

²³Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Good morning to the beloved Children of God. May Christ’s peace fill your hearts and minds today and always!

I titled this sermon: “The Kingdom of Near” because of verse 17 whereby Jesus starts his ministry with the message that the Kingdom of God has come.

I want to warn you that this sermon is on the politics of love that Jesus taught and I repeat to you as often as I can because loving others is the greatest commandment.

When I say it is the politics of love, I am saying that it is neither left nor right, but instead it is going to focus on the teachings of Jesus.

I don’t want to offend the right, because I don’t want to lose my audience, but at the same time, I believe that these are desperate times and desperate actions need to be taken.

So let us look at the calling of the disciples.

I never noticed that Jesus began his ministry by himself and then called the disciples to his side.

Jesus was the Messiah which means the Anointed one from God who comes to set thing back to the right where they have gone wrong and where people are not being loved by others as Jesus commands.

Because he was anointed he was the one who began the change in human society that was so significant we started year zero to honor him.

And it is important to understand that his anointing came when he was baptized and the Spirit of God descended on him with a physical manifestation that looked like a dove.

The same Spirit that dwelt in Jesus dwells in us.

We have the same power to love others that Jesus had.

Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand.

And again, his first sermon was on how his mission was to fulfill the promise of God from Isaiah 61 to set people free from the people who oppress them.

When he said the Kingdom of God is near, he was telling them God was bringing the change that come by the power of the Holy Spirit to transforming people from selfishness to being loving, kind, generous and full of mercy and living in the beloved community.

So, here is Jesus, on the scene beginning to preach a very radical message. Charles Krabybill one of our theologians calls it the upside down kingdom.

It is upside down because it reversed the social order and took a stand against the way people were being treated by those in power.

Jesus was a revolutionary.

We don’t know how long Jesus carried on his mission single-handedly before this passage and the calling of the apostles. Apparently, it was long enough for him to establish his identity in Capernaum after moving from Nazareth and in those days, that took some time.

And at that time he decides to call his disciples. Now, they were aware of Jesus and we see that from other accounts in the gospels. Some of them had previously followed John who was just murdered when this story takes place.

A cording to the text, it appears that John’s murder influences Jesus deeply.

It is at this point, perhaps realizing he won’t be here forever, that he decides to share the ministry with us and he calls the disciples.

And the thing that is awesome to me is the way they responded immediately.

They gave up their livelihood and decided to follow Christ. They chose to live by faith in God’s provision for them.

And when after Jesus died and rose again and those same people who left everything to follow Christ started the Church by the power of the Spirit of God they asked the same of the new believers.

When people joined the early church, they had a similar economic experience as the apostles who left everything to follow Christ as they then gave up their possessions to share them so that no one lacked.

They worked, they kept their jobs, they kept at their lives, but instead of hoarding as if they were afraid to trust Christ, they shared generously.

It was the Spirit of generosity that Jesus had taught them and they put it to practical use so that no one would lack.

The politics of love changed society and they began to share.

I don’t know what you call it except it was an ancient type of commune which they called “The Way” but the point was that it was completely and radically different from the economic structure of their day, and ours. The politics of love demanded that they share with those who had less.

And the apostles courage to leave everything behind and follow Christ is an example for us. They saw the right thing to do and they did it. And by obeying, when we read through the book of Acts, they were able by the power of the Spirit to do incredible acts because of their courage.

I mentioned at the start of the sermon that we are living in desperate times that contradict the politics of love.

We have Haitian brothers and sisters in the faith who live close enough for us to be involved who are likely facing deportation in an inhumane and that contradict the kingdom of God and the politics of love.

Perhaps God wants us to pray about how God to be involved.

Springfield, Ohio was a city in great decline until 15,000 Haitians, most of them brothers and sisters in Christ came and sparked life into the community. Philip tells me his Haitian workers at F&P are some of his best workers. They have that positive can do attitude.

So, I wonder what I, or even we, can do? I know that we are limited in our physical ability but Jesus told us to deny ourselves and pattern our lives after his model. God is always calling us to take part in Their radical love for the world.

I hope to find a way to be a blessing and a source of light and hope in this midst of this darkness through the politics of love instead of the world’s politics of division.

The Light of Baptism

 

Text: Isaiah 42:1-9

Focus: Jesus

Function: to help us see that we are also the light to God’s creation.

42:¹Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
²He will not cry out or lift up his voice
    or make it heard in the street;
³a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴He will not grow faint or be crushed
    until he has established justice in the earth,
    and the coastlands wait for his teaching.⁵Thus says God, the Lord,

    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
    a light to the nations,
⁷    to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to idols.
⁹See, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
    I tell you of them.

Good morning to the beloved children of the Living and loving God!

The gospel lectionary text for today was on the baptism of Jesus which struck me as profound this year when I pondered just exactly what it means for us that Jesus, who was deemed perfect by nature was baptized since baptism meant that we are giving up selfishness and living for ourselves and are now living for the glory of God to bring about the peace that Jesus gave his life for.

Because of the virgin birth, we assume that Jesus had a divine nature. And then because we hold a belief that God is perfect and Jesus is divine then Jesus must have been perfect as well.

And the whole theology gets deeper when we start thinking of the atonement and Jesus being perfect was the perfect sacrifice. However, I don’t believe in a God of wrath who needed to be appeased by the his own death.

Jesus said that the divine nature that he possessed is also imparted to us by the Holy Spirit when we trust Jesus. He said literally: That they may be one with me and with you just as you and I are one.

At the Baptism of Jesus, we see a symbolic action whereby the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove physically descends on Jesus and this begins his ministry.

Jesus depended on the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit to perform his ministry and that, I believe is why Jesus spent so much time in prayer and contemplation. It is through that quiet time of prayer and contemplation that the Holy Spirit speaks to us and leads us.

And it happens when the Spirit baptizes us with a its cleansing power in our lives.

As I mentioned last week, my prayer for this church is the same as my personal prayer for the year and that is for us to get to know more and more the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Set aside time for prayer and contemplation, it will help you see the love that God has for others.

The Isaiah text that we read this morning goes along with the New Testament Lectionary text on baptism and the creators of the lectionary can see the beautiful correlation between what it means for Jesus when he is filled with the Spirit of God.

It is a prophecy about Jesus, described as the servant of God.

The passage starts out with “I put my Spirit upon him…”

And then the prophecy about tells us what will happen with Jesus when the Spirit of God begins to make this transformation into the Christ, the same transformation that he makes in us.

When you read it, you get a picture of a kind soul who is gentle and does his best through the power of love to lead people towards loving others.

As 1 Peter 4:8 says, Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

And we see listed as a primary mission of this servant who leads people to the good is concerned with bringing justice to the world.

The prophecy says that God gives the servant to the world to open the eyes of the blind and to bring about the justice of God.

We see this illustrated well in Luke 4:18 when Jesus reads the prophecy, again from Isaiah, whereby he declares that his mission is to bring about the justice that “good news” means for those who are dispossessed and struggling.

The prophecy was that Jesus’s mission was to bring about justice and then Jesus gives his first sermon and declares the same thing. God cares about justice for the poor and the dispossessed.

I believe that we are the body of Christ left here on earth. The mission statement of the Church of the Brethren is that we are here to continue the work of Jesus.

We are baptized into the work and the mission of Jesus. We are the Christ, Christ’s body here on earth.

Jesus calls us to take up our own symbolic cross and follow him. That means that the mission of Jesus is transmitted unto us. We are also called to care and advocate for the poor and the dispossessed.

They are what Jesus called his brothers and sisters, the least of these, according to Matthew 25, the refugee, the asylum seeker, the immigrant, the prisoner, the foreigner, sick, the hungry, and the naked. They are all brothers and sisters of Jesus and how we treat them is how we treat Christ.

That reminds me of the introduction and the question as to why Jesus was baptized to wash away his sins when we believe he didn’t have any.

Baptism is more than the washing of the body with water. Look at 1 Peter 3:21: Baptism, which is like that water, now saves you. Baptism doesn't save by removing dirt from the body. Rather, baptism is a request to God for a clear conscience. It saves you through Jesus Christ, who came back from death to life.

And again, we are taught that Jesus didn’t need to have his conscience cleansed, but he did it symbolically for us, as an example.

And Baptism, as we just read is being more than the physical act of using a form of water, but it is the filling of the same Spirit that Jesus has that causes us to love one another.

Let us seek the filling of the Spirit of God.

The Seal of Our Faith

 

Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: Experience the Holy Spirit

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Good morning and Happy New Year to the beloved Children of God!

On the first of the year, I like to remind people to have hope and faith in what God has in store for them in the next year. It is a time for us to pause and consider where we are going.

Personally, I hope this year to grow in my own understanding of the presence of the Spirit of God in my life. I pray the same thing for the Painter Creek Church and the people who seek God together with me in this place.

It is by the power of the Spirit that we are lead to follow Christ in this world. And this passage is ripe with the theology of what has happened to us since we are people who have placed our trust in the Christ Spirit that indwells us.

The text implies that God has destined the entire world to receive God’s love, mercy and grace and I believe that in the end we will all find God’s salvation since Jesus died for the sins of the world entire.

We are the Church, the body of Christ in the world. It is important to remember that the word that we translate as Church literally means “the gathering.” The Church is the gathering of believers and Jesus said when even if just two or three gather, the Spirit of God is present with them in that community. It appears to me that by gathering, we incite the beloved community that Jesus gave his life to foster.

I work hard a making sure everyone is a part of this community because when we gather, we stir up the Holy Spirit.

Now let me take us back to verse 13 from our text: ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

He gives us the course of the salvation God has for us. It starts with hearing “the good news of salvation” that God is here to restore the world to the right and bring justice. And by hearing that word, through the Holy Spirit, we trusted in those words and are now allowing the Spirit of God to lead us.

So, the connection to what it means to be in the church is evident by the leading and moving of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people who identify themselves as members of the gathering of believers, the Church.

Remember also that believers are those trust Jesus and his teachings to lead their lives. To believe literally means to trust.

It is like in marriage. We trust that from then on the person we are now bonded to will live with our best interests at their own heart and commit themselves to care for us. We become partners who value each other.

With God, like marriage, it is a bond of love that God makes with us when we trust in Jesus and his way of living. And that bond of love is given to us by God, simply because we are resting in Their love for us. We partner with God and live by Their values.

Now the the thrust of the passage speaks of the title of the sermon and how we are sealed by God’s Spirit for restoration.

Look at verse 4 ...he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Brother Paul speaks of the majesty of God and God’s ability to know every single person. God has the ability to keep account of all the good that God helps us do through the power of the Spirit. And, God has forgiven all the mistakes we have made.

Paul’s understanding that God knew us before God created the world implies that God exists in the realm of the fourth dimension: outside of time itself. I think that is kind of cool, but that is not why this verse is wonderful.

Through the power of love, God has made us to be holy and blameless. By holy, it means to be a separate people. That is why our early fathers and mothers in the faith dressed in plain clothes because they believed that by their dress they could remind themselves that they live by Jesus’ value system instead of the world’s value system of greed and selfishness.

Holiness means that we are different and gives us the power to live by the leading of the Holy Spirit instead of the revenge and greed orientated systems of this world.

Be Holy, for God is holy is a command from scripture for us to follow. Because it is commanded it is expected and okay for us to be different.

The salient word in verse 4 is the love.

In God, we have the power to love and forgive. And it is our love for others that makes us separate: holy. At the same time, it is God’s love for us that makes us blameless. We are Holy and Blameless in love.

So, forgive, because God forgave you. We forgive even when we are wronged and have no recourse. Forgiveness sets us free from the pain inflicted by someone else upon us. And it works even if they haven’t changed their ways. When we forgive others, the slate between us and God is cleared. Walking in forgiveness is part of that holiness and love.

The Spirit of God seals us in a miraculous way.

In my personal life, I have seen just a few miracles. They remind me to rest in God’s love and to not fear the circumstances.

However, I have seen many miracles in my role as pastor. And they are all the same. It is the miracle of being born from above, according to John 3, and it happens when one places trust in Jesus. One of the greatest joys in my pastoral ministry is to watch the supernatural joy flood into someone who has been forgiven.

We respond to God’s love with love and that moves the Spirit in us. Be loving.

The Light of Life

Text: John 1:1-14

Focus: Christ

Function: Advent 5 (after Christmas)

1:¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Good morning to the beloved children of God!

Today we celebrate the light of life that has come into the world as we have lit the last candle, the Christ candle and it symbolizes how we feel the change in our hearts through the power of the Spirit inside of us as we celebrate the way the Jesus has lit up our lives with the Spirit.

I love this passage of scripture because it describes Jesus as the word of God of God made flesh in our midst.

The fact that God left heaven and became human says a lot about the love that God has for humanity.

Without being political, the bible commands nations to take care of the poor in their land. And I heard about a person who was disabled and was losing their benefits and was going to become homeless who said: “I wish those politicians who don’t seem to care for us knew what it was like to life day by day scratching for survival so that they would care for us.

Well, that is exactly what God did in Jesus. God left the wonder and majesty of heaven to join humanity. And he didn’t come to humanity as a person of power and prestige, but as an innocent, weak and vulnerable baby who had a sentence of death over his head from infancy and had to cross the border illegally in order to survive. Thank God those strangers welcomed the holy family.

When God left heaven for humanity and became Jesus the Nazarene, and incarnated the Christ into the world, God became familiar with all of human suffering.

If Jesus were born into privilege, he possibly wouldn’t have known the burden of the Royal census and the misery the ensuing taxation caused. He possibly would not have experienced the grief of the premature loss of his earthly father, Joseph. And As I mentioned, his family would not have become refugees.

The bible says the Jesus experienced the full range of human suffering and joy that we have. God, the light of the world, wanted to be with us.

He did everything like us and felt everything like us and showed us by his reactions of love, mercy combined with some stern warnings and some significant praises in the community of people he was around what God is all about.

Father Richard Rohr points out that in Jesus the Christ, God anointed creation with the divine presence in order for us to know that God loves humanity enough to share our both our pains and joys in real time.

And the text says that the purpose was for us to become the Children of God.

John the author of this text points out a great tragedy that must have been felt by God. God comes to the people that God has cared for in a special way for generations and those people refuse to receive him.

What does it mean to receive him? The text says those who believe or trust in him. I like to call it resting in God by faith.

It speaks of “The power” to become the children of God. I believe it is speaking of the transformation that happens when the Spirit of God moves in our hearts and gives us the kind of love and mercy that Jesus showed us when Jesus walked among us.

And when that power comes upon us we are born anew. Simply put, the Spirit moves on us with love toward others and directs us to follow Jesus instead of the way of the world around us.

It is the power to be transformed into loving and caring people. Jesus said we will be known by the way we love and care for others.

God’s Spirit, in this passage is the light of life inside of us.

And God has lit the entire world through the birth of a little baby almost 2,000 years ago. Let that light shine through us.

Love's Joy

Text: Isaiah 35:1-10

Focus: Love and Joy combined

Function: Advent 4

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus ²it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and shouting.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands
    and make firm the feeble knees.
⁴Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
    “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
    He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
    He will come and save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
⁶then the lame shall leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert;
⁷the burning sand shall become a pool
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
    but it shall be for God’s people;
    no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
⁹No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
¹⁰And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain joy and gladness,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Good morning to the beloved children of God!

May the Spirit of Peace, Love, Joy and Hope from Advent fill your hearts and minds throughout the year.

Today we are continuing with our advent celebration by looking at the themes of Love and Joy.

I hope you don’t think of this as lazy, but during Advent, I like to focus the title of my sermon on the advent theme for the week because those four themes from advent bear reminding.

In 2 Timothy Paul reminds the leaders of the Church to continue to remind the people about the important things.

Advent, or the birth and the meaning of the hope given is one of those important things to keep on remembering.

It has a lot to do with my preaching. I am aware that because of the advertising that is intended to make us unhappy unless we get more more and the news programming that fuels our rage against the other, whether they be left or right, I have a lot of competition in presenting the value system of the Kingdom of God versus the value system of the world that we live in.

The value system of the world is greed, revenge and selfishness.

The value system of the Kingdom of God is the golden rule to treat others as well as we want to be treated. Period. There is no qualifier about what religion they are, what color they are, what nationality they are, what gender they are, and what economic class they are in.

Since everyone we meet is created by Christ, they all bear the image and the likeness of Christ inside of them. Since the atonement of Christ on the cross and the veil of the temple was rent and the Holy Spirit returned after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, every single person has a bit of the Spirit of Christ inside of them to lead and guide them. We are now the family of God, siblings with the entire world.

We are the kingdom of God on earth commissioned to be the light bearers of hope, peace, love and joy.

I mentioned the first week of advent how it is difficult to separate the themes of Advent since they all depend on each other. Faith is the basis for all of them. Love is the basis for our faith. Hope brings us to the point where we are willing to have faith and trust and Joy seems to be the result of what God is doing.

As I mentioned, my competition in preaching is an almost 24/7 bombardment of the idea that everything is about us and we can have it all regardless of how it affects others or the planet.

So, reminding ourselves of these advent themes is spiritually healthy and necessary.

I thought of love and how love is the foundation of the new commandment from Christ to us. And I though of the relationship between the experience of love and the feeling of joy.

Joy is a lot like hope. Hope is something that God gives us but we have control over whether or not we will accept it and let it build our faith.

Joy works the same way. We release it, or we accept it as a result of the way we experience God’s love for us.

Allowing joy to manifest in our lives is an act of worship. The scriptures say that the shepherds rejoiced at what they found when they found Jesus that Christmas night.

We celebrate Christmas to allow Joy to flow and that flowing of Joy is a cycle that reinforces our faith and our hope and that gives us the strength to manifest love for others as a result of our faith in Christ.

I see the expression of joy, or the release of joy, the celebration of the good that God has brought to us as an acceptable act of worship.

And it reminds me of why we give presents. While I am not happy about the consumerist nature of what the incarnation of God into humanity means, I rejoice at the idea of giving because for us, God gave himself at Christmas.

Last week I heard bits of a podcast about the importance of giving because giving brings us to a place of joy. 1 John says that we are to love God, but we cannot see God so we love God by loving others. Giving to others at Christmas is an act of worship that reflects the gift that God gave us.

At Christmas, God bridged the gap between us and Them and Jesus showed us in a very real way the nature of the community, what he called the gathering, what we call the church which is here on earth to continue healing the nations.

God so loved God’s creation so much that God gave of himself for us to bring us back to a place of peace, hope, joy and love.

Let us enjoy, and rejoice at our Christmas celebrations this year as we reflect on the nature of God’s gift to us.