Sermon 7 December 2002 – Are we ready this Christmas??
Today is the second Sunday in Advent. We are celebrating that time when Jesus was born, when he came into the world. If we look around the island we see the preparations for Christmas. There are decorations springing up all over the island. When I leave the service today I’ll be heading to my office to decorate my team’s little corner because everyone else has done theirs and are beginning to mock the one little fake tree someone in my team has brought in. The town is filled with the typical sights and sounds of what Christmas has become, but I’ll touch on this more later.
Presents are being bought. I see people laden with shopping bags, mostly with toys for the children, the lights are up, and by and large everyone seems happy and looking forward to the day when they get to open the presents, carve the turkey and generally have a good time. But have people asked themselves why they are doing this?
We know that Jesus had the most profound effect on the world around him, and on the world he left behind when he died on the cross. Before Jesus came into the world we are told how he was preceeded by John the Baptist.
We read in Isiah 40 3 “ A voice calling “ in the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God”
This foretold the coming and the work that John the Baptist was being called to do, and also talks of how the Lord God is coming. Scholars believe that the passage of Isiah 40 was referring to a time after the exile to Babylon. A time when there was much wrong with the world. When John appeared on the scene, his views and mannerisms were unusual to those around him. He was very different to the Judeans who went to hear him. It is said he dressed in an odd way to those around him. Perhaps today he might join me in the Shorts wearing arm of Les Camps church.
When we need to get an important message across sometimes we have to be different. It’s easier to make people sit up and listen if you can make yourself more noticeable. That is what John was doing. He knew his place was to proclaim the coming of Jesus. In Luke’s gospel he say that the one who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. John, like every person was created for a purpose. John’s purpose was very special. One he could not shirk. John did what was asked of him by God. Indeed Marks gospel begins quoting Isiah 40, and then directly liking that to John.
John was called on by God to announce the arrival of Jesus, and to fortell who he would be and what he would accomplish. This he did with great zeal, despite the risks that came with it. Proclaiming the messiah’s arrival in a world which had degenerated to such a degree that God’s personal intervention was needed was never going to be a picnic. John’s preaching challenged people who had become too tied up in the direction that society seemed to be moving them. He was preparing people to accept that God’s son was Jesus and that he was soon to be among them.
John obeyed God’s wishes and served him with all his might in an increasingly hostile world, Preparing the world for the time when God would reveal himself through Jesus Christ,
So John was proclaiming Jesus’ coming. Then Jesus came. As it had been promised in Isiah. The Old Testament being borne out by the New Testament and proved correct. Now we today have the New Testament promise that Jesus is coming. The books of the New Testament reveal this once again. Maybe on the basis of what went before, we should sit up and take notice! It was right once, it will be right again.
Now I don’t know about you, but I have to confess that one of my favourite things about the modern Christmas is receiving Christmas cards. Now I;m not really dropping hints, you can read into that what you wish! But it reminds me that people love me, remember me at this time of year…..or I guess they have one more card and they can’t bring themselves to throw it away! But knowing that I am cared about in this way is Good News to me.
I also find great joy in sending Christmas cards. I was talking to Sally recently when she was writing her list of who to send cards to and we both commented on how much we enjoy making the list. The chance is there to tell people we care about them and that gives us both happy feelings.
John was giving verbal Christmas cards when he prepared people for Jesus. Certainly the best news there could ever be is God coming to be with us in person, and that he would bring us salvation. He was telling people how much God loved them, in spite of the pig’s breakfast they were making of their lives. Now when I goof up, I don’t expect to receive love in return. True those close to me love me whatever, but it’s normal to get torn off a strip when I do something really daft.
But here is God saying that’s OK, I know. He doesn’t get angry, he doesn’t get frustrated, he just loves. Simple pure love. That is good news. Especially when we do so much that could get up God’s nose. Since day one, we have made mistakes. Even in Eden, we couldn’t get it right. One little temptation, and off we go. God created all the creatures and us as his ultimate creation. But God never has to say to the elephant “don’t climb trees”, he never had to say to the cat “don’t go in the water, you can’t swim.” You know? He never has to say to the mosquito, “Don’t bite the armadillo” But he had to warn us not to eat the fruit. And we didn’t listen. But he loves. He came to the people then, who weren’t listening to him, and he loved. He loves us today and when he comes again he will still love us. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. The amount of love that God has for us that he sent us his son, knowing full well what would happen to him.
We read in Peter that Jesus is coming again. On the face of it, this passage doesn’t seem to be full of cheer. Verse 10, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it laid bare. But when you think about the state of the world when Jesus had to come the first time, I ask myself if the earth is laid bare, would we notice the difference! Not that we wouldn’t notice Jesus’ coming. We would have to have our heads buried in some pretty thick sand for that to happen!
But when we know that Jesus is coming to bring peace and to put the world once again right with God, there is no way we shouldn’t look forward to it. It will be an amazing brilliant day. One we should be ready for.
When we have visitors to our houses, important people, what do we do? We go nuts, we get the polish out, the vacuum cleaner, the duster, and we clean our house from top to bottom. We get rid of all the stains on the tables, the magazines off the floor and generally make everything neat and tidy. Then the visitor doesn’t come. We hear he is coming in 3 weeks. We relax, the dust builds up, plates in the kitchen; the place just gets messy again. Then just before the 3 weeks, we find all the cleaning kit again and whirl around the house once again making it spotless for the visitor.
That’s how we can be in our lives. In our hearts. If we knew when God is coming, you would surely make your life right for his return, so we can say here we are! No dust, no stains. But the problem is we don’t know when that ‘s going to be. Could be in 3 weeks. Could be 3, 30, 300 years. Might be today. We just don’t know. But we are told in 2 Peter to live our lives like it might be NOW. We can’t be taken by surprise. We need to do all we can to make the house in order. And keep it that way for God. We should look at the dust, the stains in our lives. I’ve got so many I need to visit Alliance cash and carry for bulk polish! We should rid ourselves of them and live how he would have us live to his glory. With his help, we can do it.
For those of you still with me, we talked about John the Baptist making sure that the house was ready for Jesus at that time. You see the world once again is changing, and people are getting swept along in the tide of their own feelings and wants. We look around us, and we can all, if we are honest see things that make us uncomfortable. Even down to the lack of Christ in Christmas. Maybe one day people will be saying Merry Mas.
Just as John paved the way for Jesus all those years ago, so should we. In our communities, we should be the John the Baptists. The world is going down the same mistrodden paths as it had before, and God calls his people to tell about the time when Jesus will come again to put the world in order. Like we have said, this is good news to those who believe, but there are too many people who don’t want to see it, and must therefore be shown it.
Last night I had the privilege of singing as part of a choir in the Cantata The Story of Christmas, next and last showing this afternoon! Come one, come all! We sing the story of Christmas is a story the World needs to hear. This was written in 1971, and wow how the values of the world have changed since then. I was born in December 1974, and can’t really remember much before the mid 80’s but even I have noticed a big change in what people see as important. It is a wonderful story, one we should never let the world forget.
There is good news to be told about Christmas, John showed that people will listen. Do we have the guts to do what he did? God call us to, he gives us the strength. All we have to do is listen.
