His Arms Are Still Outstretched; Luke 2:1-20

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It's Almost Time!; Isaiah 66:7-17

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Tired of Being Walked On; Isaiah 55:12-23

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An Answered Prayer for Peace; Isaiah 33:2-24

 

It used to be and maybe still is that when asked what you would like to see in the world was world peace.  And truly, most of the world’s citizens just want to live their lives in peace.  They want to be able to raise their families.  They want safe communities.  We have a President who ran on being a peacemaker, but that certainly hasn’t happened.  I’m angry about Venezuela.  I’m angry about Syria, where historic Christian communities have been wiped out.  I’m angry about Gaza where only 500 Christians and one church building remain.  The Ukraine/Russia conflict continues to rage.  Militias in Sudan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa continue to terrorize citizens.  Myanmar has been in a state of civil war for decades.  Our own cities are riddled with crime and violence.  Children can’t even go to school without wondering if they will go home at the end of the day.  Yes, we need peace!  While some places have been more peaceful than others at various times, we have always lived in a world of violence and conflict.  The devil, whose modus operandi is to kill, steal, and destroy, is very active in the world.  People continuously come up with new ways to harm other people.  And still we pray for peace.  It is not a futile prayer, for it reminds us that there is only One who can bring lasting peace.  And one day, He will. 

            In verses 2-9 of today’s text, we have a prayer for peace.  Verse 2 gives us the specific request:  “O Yahweh, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.  Please be our strength every morning, and also our salvation in the time of distress.”  In this short prayer request is a cry for mercy.  Asking for mercy is sign of repentance.  The request for salvation is also from a people who have come to the realization that no one else and nothing else can save them.  Repentance is a key to answered prayers.  If you are harboring sin, don’t expect God to grant your request.  Self-reliance and trusting in other things or people are blocks to answered prayer.  If you can do it, then you don’t need God’s help.  If someone else can do it, you don’t need God’s help. The truth is without God, we can do NOTHING, but we must acknowledge that fact in order to see God at work.  When we reach the end of ourselves, God says, “Now I can do something!”

            Verses 3-9 provide the confidence in asking this request.  When God gets active, people pay attention!  When God starts to judge the nations, they scatter like, as our text says, “locusts rushing about”.  I would say like cockroaches when you turn on the light!  I think Eugene Peterson missed it when he didn’t use that as his metaphor when he wrote the Message.  He leaves metaphor out altogether.  God is going to collect what is His.  Verses 5-6 are written in present tense.   This is who God is even now.  He is exalted.  He is in control.  He reigns.  He fills Zion with justice and righteousness.  He is our stability.  His wealth is salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, all of which He graciously shares with His people.  And He values when people fear Him.  For us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Knowing who God is we can make our requests confidently. 

            There is debate among scholars as to whether the brave men and peace ambassadors who are crying at their wits end because they have failed belong to Zion or Assyria or the other nations.  I don’t know that it matters who they are.  We all know that peace treaties get broken, negotiations fail, and covenants get broken.  We have seen Israel break them with Qatar, Yemen Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.  We have seen efforts in Ukraine and Russia fail.  We saw our own country fail miserably in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam.  Often sabotage has come from the inside.  We have seen good people die and be permanently wounded in body, spirit, and mind.  We have seen honest people betrayed, people who have dedicated their lives in service to their country.  Only God can bring lasting peace.  If Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is not involved, peace cannot last.  Peace takes trust.  If people prove to be untrustworthy, then the best you can ever have is a temporary truce.  Broken covenants are hard to remake.  What’s so great about the covenants that God makes with us, is that He takes full responsibility if they are broken, even though we do the breaking, and He does not.  He did this in the Garden of Eden, when He promised the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  He did it with Abraham, when He alone passed through the sacrificed animals as a firebrand and smoking pot.  And Jesus Himself did it when, at the Last Supper, He gave us the New Covenant of love of the forgiveness of our sins, by the giving of His own flesh and blood for us and not requiring ours.  He is the repairer of broken covenants because He alone is fully trustworthy.  When we are praying for peace, we must put all of our trust in Jesus, and ask Him to take His rightful reign over the nations, in our communities, and in our relationships.  People will betray our trust, but Jesus is the restorer of covenants.  He is the only One who can make lasting peace. 

            In verses 10-16, we have Yahweh Himself answering the prayer for peace.  Because God’s people have humbled themselves, God declares that He will take action in such as way that His reign is made more evident.  God rightly says that we reap what we sow, and in our case, it’s not good fruit, but that which will be burned up in fire.  Just in case we think God is only talking about the people of the nations, He says in verse 14, “Sinners in Zion are terrified.”  But God tells us how to avoid the fire.  He says in verse 15-16 that the one who walks righteously, speaks with sincerity, rejects unjust gain (doesn’t exploit others and isn’t greedy), who agrees via handshake instead of bribery, who doesn’t engage in evil via gossip or gory fascination will dwell on the heights, will find refuge in the impregnable rock, and will have daily bread.  We heard that Jesus is the Rock in a weary land last week.  We avoid the fire by taking refuge in Jesus.  Paul puts it this way in I Corinthians 3:11-15:

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

  The only way we can be the kind of person Isaiah writes about in 33:15-16 is if Jesus is our foundation.  Then we do not have to fear the fire of God.  It is a purifying fire, not a punishing fire.  The peace we find in Jesus is not just peace between nations and people, it is eternal peace, peace within our own soul, and peace with God. 

            The final part of our text, verses 17-24, is an oracle of God’s ultimate answer to our prayer for peace.  Our eyes will see the King in His beauty.  Everyone will be able to understand everyone else.  There will be no violent people.  Jerusalem will be permanently established in peace.  Yahweh will be there, and He will be for us.  He will save us.  There is no need for boats as there will be no need for trade, because we will have no needs.  Everything will be provided for us by the Lord.  There will be no need for warships because the city cannot be attacked.  There will be no sickness.  The weakest will thrive in abundance.  And the people who will live in this new, peaceful Jerusalem are those whose sins have been forgiven.  Notice the language in verse 22—Yahweh is judge, lawgiver, and king.  These are words used to describe Jesus.  We can see the oneness of God.  Jesus is the same as Yahweh.  Jesus is coming again to reign on earth.  All will be peace. 

            On this second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of peace, we join in the billions who’ve gone before us and around the world who have prayed for peace, knowing that one day soon, that prayer will be answered.  Peace begins with Jesus, not with us.  We can’t make peace without Him.  When we confess our sin, the failures of our efforts, our trying everything but Jesus, then Jesus will bring us peace and transform us into peacemakers, even then, we cannot bring peace on earth, but Jesus will when He comes again as King. 

Get Up, Get Dressed, Get Out, and Get Going with the Gospel of Peace

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The Righteous King; Isaiah 32:1-8

 

    We stand on the edge of Advent where we look forward to Christ’s coming, but today, we celebrate with thanksgiving that Christ has already come, that He is here, and that He is reigning, not that we don’t eagerly await His return.  I know that I hope Christ returns soon, but even with the world crazy out of control, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus is King and is on the throne.  There’s so much bad leadership in our world and in our country that many people struggle with Christ the King Sunday. We do see a lot of corruption.  Our own government is full of it, and it isn’t just in the executive branch, though it’s there as well.  We have seen “No Kings” protests around the country.  People don’t like the idea of being ruled by a king or dictator or an oligarchy, which is what is really is.  As I travel the “conspiracy theory” road, reading books like this one, The Pentegon's Brain by Annie Jacobson, I realize it’s not democrats versus republicans, it’s a handful of interconnected people who have gained power and kept it for decades and aren’t willingly going to give it up any time soon.  Just because your person is in power doesn’t mean things will get a lot better or change all that much.  We don’t get to elect those with the real power, which makes us not so different from the people in Isaiah’s day who didn’t get to choose their leaders.  We are ruled by “foolish nobles,” as our text describes this morning.  Billionaires toss a few dollars our way or to some seemingly good cause, but only to disguise their roguery.  When the poor go hungry and thirsty, fools are in power.  Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”  There’s a lot of groaning going on.  

            This isn’t unique to our day.  Jean Calvin noted it as well.  As pastor Dennis Davidson said in a sermon on this text, “Calvin points out that in bad government the covetous are honored because possessions are everything. In every society those who have managed to gain power are treated as great, deserving persons regardless of their true character, because others are afraid of their power.”  Pastor Dennis Davidson also notes, “Fool is one of the strongest negative words in the OT because it depicts the person who has consciously rejected the ways of God, which are the road to life, and has chosen the ways of death. His folly is disastrous because its short-term results may make God’s way and God’s word appear wrong.”  We are surrounded by so many negative examples of people in power, noble fools, that some of my colleagues want to avoid Christ the King Sunday, but I think it’s more important than ever to lift up the true King of Kings and Lord and Lords.  Without it, we can get cynical or we can despair.  There have always been and always will be corrupt and foolish leaders until Christ returns, so we need to be reminded and to know that we have a Righteous Ruler.

            This is the promise that we have in Isaiah 32.  The people of Isaiah’s day had lots of experience with unrighteous kings as well.  But God told them through Isaiah a righteous king is coming!  We know that righteous king has come.  What does a righteous King look like?  A righteous king is one who administers true justice.  A righteous King is generous.  A righteous King defends those who cannot defend themselves.  A righteous King exposes corruption and gets rid of it.  A righteous King is not corrupted, bribed, or compromised.  We can trust in Jesus to do what is right.  Jesus already sees what’s going on.  Jesus cares about it, and Jesus will do what is right.  We might not see it happen in this life, but every single human being will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 

            Many of you know the hymn, “A Shelter in a Time of Storm.”  That hymn is based on Isaiah 32:2. The correct translation of this verse is “A man will be like a refuge from the wind, and a shelter from the storm.”  It’s not each prince who will be like this, but the Righteous King.  Oh, Jesus is the Rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm.  Even the princes take refuge in Him.  When we see all the craziness in our world and how corrupt it is, and people suffering under unrighteous leadership around the world, we can go to Jesus as our Refuge.  We can trust He has the real power, and we can find refreshment in His word and spirit.  He protects us, He provides for us, He gives us strength.  Jesus stands as a refreshing contrast to the powers of this world.  He rules by love. 

            As we look to Advent, we know we still await the day that the princes under Jesus rule justly.  We await the end to the foolish nobility.  That isn’t to say it has never happened.  History tells us that there have been some pretty good leaders.  They haven’t ruled perfectly, but there are some who have understood that their position and authority have been granted to them by God.  They have tried to rule according to God’s principles.  I mentioned King Wenceslas last week.  Some of these hold lesser offices like sheriff, or judge, or mayor, or town councilmember, or boss.  There are many leaders who have dedicated their lives to Jesus who have exercised authority with great care and responsibility.  But power has a tendency to further corrupt corrupt people.  And so, we await the day that all leaders will carry out Jesus’s righteous commands.  But since we have been enlightened by Jesus, since we do know Him as the righteous king, we must use the authority we have been granted by Him to carry out noble plans.  And we have been given authority by Jesus.  He said in Luke 10:19, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.”  We’ve been given the command to be truth-tellers in our world.  We have been commanded to act justly.  We may have been given authority only over little things, but if we steward those little things rightly, Jesus will grant us greater authority, not to “lord it over people,” but so that others will thrive. 

            Friends we have to stop expecting that the government will save us. It can’t and it won’t.  And when it tries, it fails miserably.  It’s clumsy and inefficient and creates more problems than it solves.  But we can trust Jesus to save us, and we must.  Psalm 118:8-9 says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.  It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”  Trusting in the Lord not only means letting Him be our shelter in the time of storm, but it also means taking seriously what He says, not just His promises but also His commands, so we must live out His commission.  We need to be noble workers for justice.  We need to be able to bridge divides of right and left and work for the flourishing all people by loving our neighbors and building healthy communities.  I was at the Small Church Gathering a couple of Saturdays ago.  The pastor at the church in Manteo reminded us that the government wasn’t the one who originally took care of the poor, the homeless, the widows and orphans.  It wasn’t the government that started schools and educated children and built hospitals and took care of the sick.  All of that was done by the Church. And little by little, we outsourced our Christ-given responsibility to an institution that cannot possibly do it well.  We need to reclaim our mission.  The Righteous King is already ruling.  We can help others to see it.  We carry the Kingdom of God in us wherever we go, and we build up the kingdom of God among us, even as we await the fullness of the Kingdom to be revealed.  So even while noble fools govern the world, we can rejoice that the Righteous King is sitting over them all.  They will answer to Him, but so do we.  So let us happily claim Him as our King and strive to the live as He commanded us. 

In Whose Light Are You Walking?; Isaiah 50:10-11, Ephesians 5:8-20

 Both of our passages today are about walking in the light.  We are supposed to walk in the light, but we need to ask ourselves in whose light are we walking?  These two verses from Isaiah 50 are probably not familiar to most of you, but they are to me.  I had a Bible study teacher who would constantly quote them.  He knew that many of us struggle with and even insist on doing things our own way.  We think our way is best.  We want to be in control.  We want others to see what we’ve done.  We like being the boss, even if it is just being the boss of our own lives.  But God tells us in Isaiah 50 that this is not going to end well.   In contrast, we see in our Ephesians passage that we have been made light in the Lord, and that it is in the light that He has given that we are commanded to walk. 

            The metaphor “walk” in the Bible is to live, but it is actively living, not just existing.  To walk is the manner in which you conduct your life.  We all live by a set of values and principles.  Sometimes we are more conscious of those values and principles than at other times.  We acquire these values from a variety of places—our families, media, culture, religion, peers, etc.  We take bits and pieces from these sources and develop our own manner of life.  Most of us don’t live exactly by the same values of our peers, family, culture, etc.  But for followers of Jesus, there should be some commonalities in how we conduct our lives because God has given us some very specific instructions in His Word.  Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s Word, “is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.”  We see some of these instructions in our Ephesians passage today.  Verse 11 tells us we should be exposing deeds of darkness rather than participating in them or even gossiping about them.  We are to speak truth.  We are supposed to be wise.  How do we know what wise living is?  We ask God for wisdom.  We learn wisdom from the Scriptures.  We are to be productive and to use our time wisely.  What does this mean?  It means caring for those God entrusts to us, it means contributing to a healthy society and human flourishing, it means spending time on things that have eternal value, it means sharing the gospel and worshipping God.  We are to discern God’s will.  In verse 18, we are not to get drunk—wine is mentioned, but this would apply to any intoxicating substance.  Instead, we are to be filled with the Spirit.  What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit.  It is to live joyfully.  It is encouraging others.  It is using whatever gifts the Spirit gives us to build up the Body of Christ.  It is being thankful.  It is to be guided daily by the Spirit.  It is not doing things that offend God.  It is in all these things that each of us will have some differences as God leads us, so it means following God. 

            Isaiah 50:10 says that if we fear the Lord, if we are serious about God, we will obey the voice of His servant.  This is a reference to Jesus.  We are called to follow Jesus—to live as he lived.  When we are confused about how to walk, “What would Jesus do?” is a legitimate question, and we can also ask, as was said at presbytery meeting a few weeks ago, “What is Jesus doing?” because He is still very much at work right now.  Sometimes when we are walking in the light of Christ, we don’t get to see very far ahead. We might only get to see the next few steps or even just the next step.  There’s a lot of darkness in our world.  I don’t think I have to elaborate on just how dark it can be.  Sometimes we find ourselves immersed in it.  But because God is everywhere, there will always be light.  As Julie Miller sang in “Love Will Find You,” “When you’re covered by a cloak of sorrow in the night, and all your hope seems lost without a trace, even in the darkness there is still a shining light, you will see on Jesus’s loving face.”  That light might seem like a pinpoint, but as we move in that light, we will be safe and we will know where to go.  If we step in the light of Christ and follow His steps, we won’t be led astray.  We won’t fall off a cliff or step in some mess we would rather not step in.  I think of the story told of Good King Wenceslas, a follower of Jesus, who could say to his servant, “Follow me.”  The story told in the song was that as the king and his servant were taking food and wood to a poor man, the winter storm got so bad that it was hard to see, so King Wenceslas took the lead and told the servant to walk in his footsteps.  His footsteps stayed warm.   How much more can we can trust the Lord to lead us?  Jesus will lead in the right path if we listen to His voice and follow His commands.  In John 8:12, Jesus calls Himself the Light of the World and says, “the one who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  God often uses dark times to strengthen our faith and increase our reliance on Him.   Shortly before her death, Mother Theresa said, “You will never know that Jesus is all you need until all you have is Jesus.”

Sometimes walking in the light may mean that we need to slow down and take one step or a few steps at a time until the way becomes clearer.  We don’t want to try to outpace the Spirit or to pass Jesus on the road.  That is walking by our own sparks. 

            Why is walking by our own light so miserable?  Our Ephesians passage tells us that without Jesus, we weren’t only walking in darkness, we were darkness.  We are incapable of producing our own light.  Any light that is true light comes from God through Jesus who is the true Light who enlightens every person, as John says in his gospel 1:9.  We must be enlightened by Jesus.  He fills us with His light so that we are light.  Any light we think we might produce cannot save us.  We think of good people who bring light to the world by their generosity, kindness, and creativity, but if they do not acknowledge that it is God who has wrought all their works in them, their end will be torment.  We cannot save ourselves.  Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”  This doesn’t sound like lawlessness to me.  When I think of lawlessness, I think of out-of-control people, people who commit crimes, people who are destructive, people who are evil.  But this is not what Jesus says.  Some people may be doing what we think of as good things, but they are not the things Jesus wants them to do.  Others might be doing good things, but doing so pridefully, taking credit for that which they cannot do without the Lord. 

            What about people who claim to followers of Jesus but who aren’t shining.  In that same Matthew passage, Jesus addresses them first:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.”  Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 5 to live as children of light is an emphatic command, and taken with Jesus’s words, can even be an alarm.  If you aren’t showing forth goodness, righteousness, and truth, if you aren’t trying to please Jesus, can you really say that you believe in Him?  Paul commands us to live as children of light because even when we have trusted in Jesus Christ, we can still fall back into the trap of trying to walk by our own fire.  We even have examples of this in the Bible.  Sarah and Abraham walked in the light of their own fire when Sarah gave Hagar to him so they could have a son.  It caused misery between Sarah and Hagar, until Sarah kicked her out for good.  David walked in the light of his own fire when he took a census that God told him not to.  Solomon walked in the light of his own fire when he made alliances through marriages to pagan women.  Peter walked in the light of his own fire when he used a sword to cut of Malchus’s ear.  It’s really easy for us to do.  Can you recognize when you are walking by your own sparks instead of walking in the footsteps of Jesus? 

            Proverbs 3:5-6 sums it up, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”  Don’t get swallowed up by the darkness.  Look for the light of Christ and follow it.  Don’t try to create your own fire to walk by; it will lead you to a dead end.  When you are walking in Jesus’s light, you can invite others to follow you, just like King Wenceslas, just like the apostle Paul, who said, “You be imitators of me, just as I imitate Christ.”