Second Sunday in Advent
Sunday, 7, December 2005
(Baptism of Brennan Michael Patterson)
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Psalm 126
Sermon: (Frank Eberhardt)
In Mexico, 9 workers came to Devil's Highway and their car broke. They tried to repair it, and accidentally knocked their water over. So they had no water. There was no town for miles. They walked, dehydrated, then ran to a mirage. The men ate sand, thinking it was water. Only two people survived. Have you survived your desert?
In life we have our deserts of pain, our job, stress, being tired of school, emotional scars, sin, our wondering if we can conquer our sin. The wilderness varies. Will you survive to tell the story? It depends if you listen to the voice in the wilderness. Advent is the wilderness. Advent reminds you that you can't live up to people's expectations, and that you will buy people things they don't need. It's a wilderness.
A journalist went to Tokyo on Christmas and interviewed people about its meaning. In Japan, Christmas is a commercial celebration, but few are Christian. One woman interviewed said that Christmas "was the day that Jesus died." It's a wilderness.
A girl, a day beofre Christmas, kept trying to talk to her mother and father. Neither one said they had time to talk to her. Her dad said, "Later, go play with your toys." And so she prayed, "Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us."
An officer in an army once was so overwhelmed by worry that his troops wouldn't survive that a general said, "You! Panic! The rest of you, follow me!"
A wilderness is when your integrity is being tried, when you're in a time of spiritual dryness. Maybe it's not a bad thing. Maybe our wilderness is like a refiner's fire. A refiner puts material in a huge oven that melts ore, filters it, and burns off impurities. With lye soap, you beat a cloth and scrape it with shards until it is clean. It is tough to make things pure that way.
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan river, to the land of milk and honey, they sent spies in. They found out there were giants there. The people panicked. So God sent them into the desert for 40 years, and God provided their only source of nutrition. 40 years of wearing the same clothes. They learned to trust God. They came to the Jordan again. There were still giants there. God pushed them over.
Isaiah looks at the impossible path. Every valley will be lifted up. (Quotes the passage). At church, some people come because they want to share Christ. Others just show up. There's always work to do, and it's easy to lose sight of the goal.
The church shouldn't say "we're finished." When we get to a point where we say that, it is only the wilderness.
At age 34, a young man saw his pastor. He said that eleven, his father drove him out into the country, threw him out, and said, "I never want to see you again." He drove off and the boy never saw his father again. "How could God let that happen?" he asked the pastor. The pastor said, "Look at Christ in Gesthemane. He was abandoned, but did he deserve that? Did he deserve the cross? Do you think that pain was real? Did he deserve it?" The boy replied, "No." The pastor said, "You didn't deserve to be dumped, either, but that's not the end of the story. God raised Jesus." And so God helped the young man when the pastor said, "See yourself in the power of Christ's resurrection."