Listen to Sermon of 28 December.  No printed text, but worth hearing for the illustrations used.

Link to Sermon of 14 December

Listen to the Sermon below

Sermon, 21 December 2008
Reverend Roy Pearson.

Today is the last Sundayin advent,  we have lit the four advent candles.

And I thought, "ho hum, another boring church ritual done for another year, what's the big deal?"  And to be perfectly honest, lighting candles does nothing for me, it means nothing.  It's just another irreverent ritual from a bygone era.  I mean, who uses candles now?  The only time we have candles is on a birthday cake, and then the celebrated part is blowing them out.  

So to stand here week after week and light these candles, means absolutely nothing to me,  it's foreign to my world view, it's a relic from the past.  It means nothing. 

The Roman Catholic Church summarises Advent by saying, "When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present the ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for, by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His Second Coming."

Wow, and this still leave me cold, and so advent is the celebration of an event that happened some 2000 years ago, in the expectation of an event that might not happen in my lifetime.  So what!!

Big deal,  what does this mean for me today?   Nothing.  

And people wonder why the church seems irrelevant.  It is no wonder that people are leaving the church in droves, it is no wonder that the people are finding the church to be a waste of time, a boring and  irrelevant pile of ritual.  Because we are seen to be celebrating events which happened some 2000 years ago, waiting for events that might never happen, using symbols that mean nothing to us. 

I mean we don't even have candles at home (except for the birthday candles),  If there was a power cut, and to be honest we don't get many of those do we?  We use torches, they are safer, and more reliable and give a better light.  Why would you have candles? 

Candles are normally only used by those is extreme poverty,  is this the meaning of Advent?

OK to be fair, a candle-lit dinner is quite romantic, but are our advent candles meant to be romantic?  Is that what we are saying by using candles?  Are there romantic overtones in advent? 

Perhaps there are. 

And so we have lit the candles of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, and in just 4 days we will light the Christ candle.  But what does it mean? 

Yes, we remember the birth of Christ, that has happened.  Yes, we remember the second coming, but hey, who here actually believes they will see Jesus riding a white horse through the clouds, with trumpets blazing?  The great promised second coming. 

Now the point I'm trying to make is that unless our faith, our rituals, our customs, mean something, to us today, unless they affect our behaviour, unless they challenge us, or make us question our lives.  Then they are useless.  Meaningless. 

Now I find it fascinating that CWS have tried to capture a new meaning in their advent appeal, they have matched up the four advent Sundays with four regions that need our support.

 They write about the Christ Candle:

"As we light this candle we bring before God the people of Timor Leste, Darfur, Sri Lanka and El Salvador that in their troubled lives hope may stay alive.  Give them courage in their efforts to bring about positive change in their communities.  In the name of Christ Jesus.
Amen"

Now nothing against CWS, but it is as if they are saying," look, advent means nothing nowdays, so lets re-invent a meaning for it".  In all of their weekly notices, they divert the focus from God to people in need.  Lets read from today's notice "On this last Advent Sunday we think of the many people around the world..." now I think its important to think about the people in need, but is that what advent is about. 

Now as I think about this advent, and its symbolism, I can't help but feel that at best we have filled advent with meaningless ritual, and at worst these rituals are actually diverting our attention from the true meaning. 

Now, I don't think this is limited to the church, Society has long been uncomfortable with the reality of Jesus Christ.  And so Christmas has been filled with alternative rituals, to give people an excuse to avoid thinking about the real meaning of this season. 

You know that we focus on Santa, on giving presents, on counting down the shopping days, on School breakups, work parties, and at best Jesus is some little baby in a nativity scene tucked away in the corner.  Or at worst totally ignored. 

Any yet deep down, in the bottom of our hearts we know Christmas doesn't satisfy.  Most children are bored with their gifts by the new year.  In our House many of the gifts don't even last that long.  And as the focus shifts to the summer holidays, Christ is forgotten. 

I think the Grinch said it best:

 And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came without ribbons! It came without tags!"
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas. . . perhaps. . means a little bit more!"

 Dr. Suess

Randel Prior, the key-note speaker at this year's General Assembly, states

"In attempting to draw all four gospels together, it is possible to assert that the gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially about God's unique and decisive action to break into a broken world with what is God's promised future for the world."

And this is what we celebrate at advent. 

That Jesus Christ came, as God, to a broken world, to bring about the future,  a future available here and now. 

And this future has 3 elements to it,

The past – The Present  and the Future.  And as a church we have often focused on the past, and the future and we have forgotten about the present.   

We celebrate Easter and Christmas, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, great historical events, which have shaped the world we live in.  At Easter we may remember that Christ rose again and that one day we too will live for forever.   But what about the now, what about today. 

Does our faith have anything to say to us today? 

And this is the message for today,  that our faith must impact on the way we live our lives here and now.

We must prove to ourselves and to the rest of the world, that Jesus Christ is relevant.  That Jesus Christ has something to say about how to live, both now this minute and in the future. 

If, as Randel states, the Gospel message is about God breaking into our world, with God's promised future, then this does have an implication here are now.  How is God breaking into your world today?

This week as I was talking with Freda, she told me of how God had broken into her world, and answered her prayers.  And sent a helper for her. 

Freda Dingley tells a story.  See it at the end of this Sermon. 

Now our readings for today,

Turn with me to Page 340,
2^nd Samuel Chapter 7

Now the story goes that King David had built his majesty palace, and had recovered the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines, and brought it to Jerusalem. 

Now the period of history was that the Israelites had started to settle in their new land, and things were looking good.  Some traditions had been started, and no longer did the people move from place to place.  And King David considers it unseemly that while he lives in a palace of panelled luxury, while the ark of the covenant is still in a tent.

Now the ark of the covenant, you should know, was a very important object. It was essentially a box, carved and decorated, and fitted with long pole-handles so it could be carried about from place to place as the people moved. It was important because it was the prime symbol of the covenant between God and the Israelites. The covenant and the tradition surrounding it dated back to the time of the desert wandering, as Moses was leading the people out from slavery in Egypt.

We can only guess that the ark of the covenant contained some religious artefacts - perhaps writings like the Ten Commandments and others of the laws that governed the people. But most important of all it was the symbol of the agreement between Yahweh and the people whereby God said, "If you will listen to my voice and do my will, then I will be your God, and you shall be my people." Of course there are always two parts to a covenant, and the people agreed, "All that God has said, we will do." Needless to say, then, the ark as a symbol of the identity of the people was very important.

It was a symbol of God breaking into their world. 

But now the people were not going anywhere. They were no longer wanderers. They were settled down in towns and were growing crops. True, the ark of the covenant had been carried into battle, and it was assumed that so long as they kept possession of the ark they would be victorious. But most of the time the ark just sat there in its tent, as though ready to move on to the next place. So David now proposed to build a house for the ark.

Now something very interesting happens here.  God twisted David's words, and applies a new meaning to them.   David plans to build a house, Its unfortunate that the Good news translation uses the word "temple" here, but David plans to build a house to house the Ark, and God replies "No David, it is I that will build you a household."

God's word through Nathan was about something much more important than a building, to the point that God will establish his household - or his dynasty or family line - through the faith of David and his people.   See, David wanted ritual, and God wanted to continue to break into his world.

And so David wanted to settle, to build a solid structure.  But God wanted a tent, a movable structure.  A place of no fixed abode.  The danger lurking in David's good intent was that the institution would harden and that God would have to break through settled traditions and fixed thought and rigid opinions to establish the tent mentality of a pilgrim people once again. The institution did harden. So does the church. And God has to continually break through in the thinking of a new thought, or the enactment of a new idea.

Jesus continually struggled against the aspects of Judaism that were "poured in concrete," but their reason for being had been forgotten.

In this season we celebrate what we regard as the ultimate of break-throughs.

Our reading from Luke tells the story, Mary, a young women, engaged to be married to Joseph. Now this was most likely an arranged marriage. Mary may not have even met Joseph, and he would have been considerably older than Mary.  Yet God does not follow tradition, and here we note that Mary was afraid, but accepting. Notice what she said:  "I am the Lord's servant, may it happen to me as you have said!"

Now Mary could have said, "but what about protocol, what about the ritual, what about the proper order?"  Good Presbyterian do these things decently and in order.

In 4 days, Christmas will be here, and we will remember God breaking into our world.  We will celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ.  Do we block this out with ritual, with tradition, have we built a house to avoid God?  Or are we open to the breaking in of the living God, breaking into our lives with God's promised future?

Possibly the greatest gift we can receive this year is the realization that God has some purposes in mind for each of us and is trying to break through to us.

It is a good season to think about that, for somehow God seems closer and more real to us at this time. And perhaps in the season of Emmanuel, God with us, each of us may discover a new trust within ourselves, and the courage to answer with a young maid named Mary, "Behold, I am the Lord's servant. Let it be done according to your word."

And may God break into your world, with his promised future.
Amen.

Freda Dingley's story.

In Matthew 7 Verse 7 we read, "Ask and it shall be given you." 

There is an interesting story in Matthew 20: 30-34.  While two blind men were sitting by the road side, Jesus passed by and they called to Him.  He replied "What would you have me do?" And they said "Lord, that our eyes be opened."  So Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

I sincerely believe that God hears our every cry for help.  For many years Bruce helped me in the garden but it is now many months since he was fit and well.  Each spring the Dahlia's are planted and six weeks later they need support.  Bruce bought the sticks for me but one year they were too long.  He thought it a waste to cut them shorter so he had a great idea and made a solid stool for us to stand on.

This Spring I found myself with a problem.  I knew the situation was a bit hopeless but I said a prayer that the good Lord would send along someone who could help me.  There had been a few showers of rain lately so the ground would be softer.  Geoff had gone to an appointment in town.  I picked up everything I needed and commenced the job.

The sticks were too tall and I had a hard job to hammer one in the ground but by the time I had finished four I was tired and I went inside.  Now I wondered if the Lord had heard my prayer so I prayed again for help and returned outside.  This time I took shorter sticks for the Dahlias which do not grow so tall, and I was very busy getting a second stick ready when I heard a woman's voice from the footpath "That job is too hard for you at your age." She said.  I looked round and there stood a middle aged woman.  She was tall, well built and looked a picture of health "Would you like me to help you?" she asked, with a smile on her face.  I walked over to her and said I would be most grateful.

A beautiful big black dog was with her and she tied him to the letter box.  It was a pleasure to have her company and I was told she lived in Number 41 Landing Drive which is not far from where we live.  The dog is taken for a walk every Wednesday.  My friend noticed the tall sticks and suggested that I ask Geoff to saw one foot off each stick  "They are far too tall", she said. (I must say at this point that Geoff has done his duty.)

Our work was finished and my new friend left with a smile, she said "See you next week, and we will put in more sticks".

Does God answer prayer?  I think so, and I have also found a new friend who lives in our street.  I do praise the Lord every day for His goodness.