November 29, 2009 – First Sunday of Advent
Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor
Luke 1:5-25, 57-66
Zechariah and Elizabeth
Praying for a child
Zechariah’s really big chance: present sacrifice and bless the people
The people waiting outside
Angel: Do not be afraid
John: God is gracious.
You will have joy and gladness
He will do great things
He doubts
Punishment
Can’t speak to the people; he blows his big day
But it’s a big day in another way
Goes home. Can’t speak, but can do something else. E. becomes pregnant.
Issue about the name.
Zechariah takes tablet: “His name is John[!]”
His tongue was freed; he praised God.
All pondered: “What will this child become?”
A new start for them and the world
Advent – time to hear and believe God’s wonderful promises
Sometimes too good wonderful – too good to be true
Sometimes too scary (Who’s going to raise that child of theirs?)
A time to look forward to God’s incredible intervention in Jesus Christ
Advent: time to look forward to God’s intervention in our world
What is God going to do among us?
What is God going to do through us?
Where is God leading us?
What does God want us to learn?
Advent wreath: where is God’s light going to shine where it hasn’t before?
Advent – an “advent-ture”
Life in faith – an “advent-ture”
L
Beginning of the church year
God never wants us to stay where we are, but to be open to the new and wonderful
thing God is going to do.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had a lot to learn – and so do we
About how good God is – and what joy God wants to give us
About how faithful God is in keeping God’s promises
About how we need to participate in God’s promises for them to come true.
About how God sometimes has to drag us (Zechariah) into the future God has
planned.
Friday was National Listening Day.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had a lot to learn – and so do we - about how God just wants us to be quiet (Zechariah) and listen to God’s promise (some believe Zechariah’s inability to speak was not a punishment, but an opportunity for him to listen – and believe – God’s incredible promise)
It took Zechariah nine months to believe.
Elizabeth was pregnant, but so was Zechariah, in a way! She was birthing a baby who would do great things for God and open the way for God’s new message, while Zechariah was birthing belief in this promise.
And the day John was born, it all came true. “God is gracious.”
Is God birthing something new in our midst?
Are we ready to listen to God’s promise? Are we ready to believe it?
If God has something to teach us, are we teachable? Are we ready to learn? Or do we prefer being stuck in the past and ignorant?
Vital congregations are congregations on the move – never satisfied with the way things are, but always moving forward, listening to God’s promise of a better future, and preparing their members to believe them and make them happen.
New music. Truly an “advent-ture”
Sabbatical next summer – fear, but God’s leading us to new learning, and growth. How might I return renewed to you? What new insights might gain to share with you? An “advent-ture”
Constitution and By-Laws Review Committee.
New doors – especially handicapped accessible door on west.
We have a lot to learn about physical barriers in churches, and what we can do to remove them.
This is God’s leading: maybe someday even making our basement accessible – and the chancel!
In projects like this, we may fear the cost, fear the change, fear changing something just to help a few, fear that it can’t be done.
Spiritually, God want us to grow in our capacity to have empathy for others, and this is a great example.
Jesus’ ministry was all about having empathy for others and encouraging his
disciples to develop empathy
Calvin: “When I see a person I must contemplate my own image there, and see and recognize myself in this person.”
“To walk in another person’s shoes”
An “advent-ture,” but we did it!
God is moving among us in another way: ONA.
Explain ONA
How it came to be on Council agenda
This is about the future – God’s future
It’s about learning and growing – maybe changing
It’s about opening even wider the doors of the church.
It’s about developing greater empathy and understanding for God’s lgbt children
It’s about discovering prejudice we never knew was there, and letting God heal it.
It’s about saying clearly who we are, by God’s grace.
It’s about re-discovering the incredible promise of God’s grace for all people.
Fear? Yes.
Remember the words of the angel: “Be not afraid.”
You never move into God’s future without some risk (elderly
You never get rewards if you don’t risk something.
You don’t grow without stretching your muscles – and they might get a little sore in the process.
Listening, like Zechariah, can we believe the incredible promises of God?
Do you think God wants us to stay where we are?
Do you have something to learn about the experiences of glbt people in the church, and how an ONA declaration might make a difference in their lives?
O Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive
Captive. Are we still captive to old prejudices about people with mobility limitations, about glbt people, about people of other faiths, about people who are divorced, about the poor, about Republicans, about Democrats, about children, about people with mental illness, about people with developmental disabilities, about teenagers, about people of other races and nationalities?
We are all captive, but God doesn’t want us to stay that way. God wants us to wake up, move on, and trust God’s promises. And trust that God can use us, even as God used that simple couple Zechariah and Elizabeth from the countryside to help birth God’s promises long ago.
Advent: God smashes into the ordinary events of life and brings new life.
God restores the voice of the unbelieving mute. God turns off the mute button, and encourages us to sing as loudly as we can:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel (God-with-us) shall come to you, O
Don’t be afraid. Rejoice! For we are a people on the move, led by the sure promises of God.
God’s new world is coming. Are you ready for it? Do you believe it? Will you learn it? Will you grow into it? Will you work to uncover it?
Advent: the beginning of the church calendar - time to start over!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O
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