1st
Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2014
As I read 1 Corinthians 1, I imagine our church
family. The Apostle Paul traveled around
the Greek-speaking world talking about the Jewish Messiah who he believed was
God in human form, had been resurrected, and was and is the Savior of the
world. Himself a Jew, Paul believed God
had come in the flesh in Jesus. The
Jewish Messiah had come for Israel and for all people. Paul staked his life on this. So he traveled about and churches grew from
groups of people who accepted what he said about Jesus.
After leaving the churches he wrote letters back to
encourage them and keep them on the path of discipleship – the Jesus way. First
Corinthians is one of those letters. Paul
was inspired by the Holy Spirit, so what he said to first century congregations
fits 21st century congregations all around the world.
His
words speak to our church.
“3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give
thanks to my[b] God always
for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in
him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6 just as the testimony of[c] Christ has
been strengthened among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual
gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I
am thankful because I am enriched by being one among you. I thank God because we are a church family
motivated to love people. We hear the
call to go into the world proclaiming good news, and we answer.
As
do the work of God church, we rest in the promise Paul writes in verse 8. “8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so
that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The end of the world is coming and God makes
us ready for it.
Of course we know we are not blameless. We are sinners in a world of sinners. Beth and John read from Isaiah 64. In verse seven the prophet says,
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
When Isaiah says, “We all fade like a
leaf,” he could be describing the American cultural scene at the outset of the
21st century. We are
impressed by our scientific advances. It
is the age of technology and people use the knowledge humans have acquired to
do amazing things in medicine and communication and travel. But, our tendency to sin covers over the good
we do. Before God, humans striving for
greatness fall short and always will.
It is the Spirit of Jesus that lifts us up. Through death and resurrection, Jesus has
removed our sin. Through the continuing
presence of His Holy Spirit, we who continue to be quite fallible and guilty
are indeed blameless. He makes us clean,
innocent, and right. As Paul says, by
His grace, he strengthens us to the end, which is most definitely coming.
During Advent we remember the coming of Jesus, we live by
His Spirit, and we anticipate his return.
The world will be judged, history will end, and all who are in Christ
will live eternally in the Kingdom.
Until that time, He strengthens us, makes us ready. Right now, the Spirit is at work in our
hearts, shaping us in the way of Christ.
Again, in Isaiah 64, we see a world moving further and
further away from God.
There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered[c] us into the hand of our iniquity.
That is the world as it is. Then remember Paul’s encouragement that as
the world sinks deeper and deeper in sin, The Spirit strengthens us. In the next verse Isaiah says it this
way.
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our
Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
A couple of things are clear to me. First, the world is not going to become a
better place by human effort. We should
strive for peace, for health, for love.
We should do our dead-level best to make the world as a good as we can. But we do so as an act of obedience and
appreciation to God. We don’t have
illusions that we will end hunger or find every cure for every disease or
eventually come to a generation in which all mankind has love for each other. We
reach for those things because they are all realities in God’s eternal
kingdom. But we reach knowing sin cannot
be conquered.
The second thing I hold onto is even though we know sin
won’t be conquered by human striving, it has been defeated by Jesus. His Spirit is at work. As the world falls deeper and deeper into
sin, those in Christ are made more and more ready to live in the eternal
Kingdom where death and sin are no more.
Everyone who is in Christ has an assignment from God to invite all who
do not know Him to turn to Jesus; this is a turn away from sin and death and a
step onto the path of everlasting life.
One of the recommended readings for the 1st
Sunday of Advent is the prophecy of Jesus found in Mark 13 and other
places. He speaks of suffering and the
urgency of the hour. Now is the time to
hold tight to our faith and to lovingly, patiently, draw people to Jesus. In our celebration his birth, we rest in the
promise that His Spirit is holding us and guiding us until He returns. We read Mark 13, and we don’t understand
every word of it, but the Spirit helps us.
As we read, we know world is moving toward decay. We also know the Spirit makes us ready for
the day Heaven and Earth will come together in the eternal Kingdom.
*****************************************
Mark 13:24-37
Reader 1: 24 “But in those days, after
that suffering,
the sun will
be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Reader 2: 26 Then they will see ‘the Son
of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.27 Then he will send out the
angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to
the ends of heaven.
Reader 3: 28 “From the fig tree learn
its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you
know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these
things taking place, you know that he[e] is near, at the very
gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this
generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass
away, but my words will not pass away.
Reader 1: 32 “But about that day or hour
no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father. 33 Beware, keep alert;[f] for
you do not know when the time will come.
Reader 2: 34 It is like a man going on a
journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work,
and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.
Reader 3: 35 Therefore, keep awake—for
you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at
midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you
asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say
to all: Keep awake.”
*****************************************
We hear Jesus say, “Truly I tell you, this
generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” Shortly after he spoke these words, he was
crucified and he rose. A few decades
later Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
In the sense that the center of God’s work on earth shifted from the
City of David, Jerusalem, to the person of Jesus, then what he said was
literally true. That generation of
disciples met the risen Christ before any of them died.
In a representative sense, his
continuing presence in the world, the Holy Spirit at work in His Church, has
not passed away. The church will always
be present bearing witness to Jesus until the end. Paul reiterates the promise when he says God
will strengthen us to the end. We can
count on it.
We cannot predict it. Jesus is very clear. The Advent message over and over is “Keep
awake.” We don’t know when the end will
come. We only know, the world is falling
away from God, in Christ we are being made ready to be with God and we are
commissioned to invite the lost, dying world to turn from death by turning to Jesus. We have the promise of eternity and the
mission to live into eternity as we invite others to come along with us.
Paul’s words from the last chapter of
1st Corinthians sum up our stance, how God equips us especially in
Advent. This is how we live as Jesus’
people – people who bear witness to Him in a secular age. This is from 1st Corinthians 16: “Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (v.13-14).
I
pray we will, filled with the Spirit, be examples of God’s patient love as we
show that love and show great patience in waiting for the day of the Lord and
in living among fallen sinners as we wait.
Remember, we are empowered by the Spirit, empowered to love. We have the promises of God to motivate us
and the Spirit of God to uphold us.
Those around us who are mean or short-tempered or foul-mouthed or
insulting need the Spirit that fills us and the promise that gives us
hope. I pray Jesus will be seen in us
and the world around us will be drawn to him through us as we go about our
lives in the hectic but also blessed season that has begun.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment