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Standing on the edge of the truth looking out at the view of all you use to believe. From where you are you can see you are far away from home. Echoes of the life you once knew call out at you from across the divide and you know it’s time to step back over the line. But you’re waiting for lightning, a sign that it’s time for a change. And you’re listening for thunder while He quietly whispers your name, whispers your name. Night falls and the curtain goes down. No one’s around it’s just you and the truth as you lie in wait for a feeling to take you by storm. Somewhere in the depths of your heart where it’s empty and dark there’s a flicker of light and the Spirit calls but do you notice at all? Are you waiting for lightning, a sign that it’s time for a change? But the sign and the world have already been given and now it’s by faith we must look and we must listen. Instead of waiting for lightning, a sign that it’s time for change, listening for thunder, are you listening, while he quietly calls your name?
As I listened to these words sang by contemporary Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman, I found myself wondering on this the first Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2007, how many in this world have great expectation and anticipation while they are waiting for lightning, a sign it’s time for a change, while wondering when is Jesus coming again?
How many, instead of preparing for a time of going toward the coming again of the Messiah are living in a time of great expectation and anticipation? Predicting the date of the end of the world and carrying signs telling everyone to get right with Jesus before it is too late. Instead of preparing their hearts and souls they are preparing their wallets and charge cards for the best buys of the season. After all that is why the retailers call the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” as they are hoping the prices get them out of the red and the shopper deep in the red.
How many in this community and the United States of America are entering into Advent lost, searching, seeking for that which they don’t understand? Not understanding Jesus answer when asked when He would return as Jesus warned us against setting a date.
Matthew 24: 36-39
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of the heaven, not the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will it be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man.
What Jesus is saying in Matthew 24:36-39, is just as those who lived in Noah’s time were living life, “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” the ones then are like the ones now, pleasure-oriented and self-gratifying while carrying on life and ignoring the impending judgment.
The picture that is painted here is not of the rapture, of people just disappearing as they ascend into heaven. The picture painted here in Matthew 24:36-39, is a picture of life and our need to not take life for granted, to quote the Boy Scouts, “Be Prepared.” “Be Prepared” and alert at all times so you are not caught off guard.
In the Old Testament of the Bible we find a prophet named Isaiah of Jerusalem. In Isaiah’s lifetime Judah was subject to Assyria who totally destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel and threatened to totally destroy the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Judah had weak leaders who saw it more politically correct to please the empire than God. At the same time the prophet Isaiah envisioned a different reality, a hope for a time when Israel would stop fighting and be faithful and allow God to be God. The prophet Isaiah thought about the advent of God and he pointed the nation of Israel to the future and the people waited with excited anticipation. For Isaiah believed that the Kingdom of God will come upon the earth when all the peoples of the world, including us, are willing to give up our desires to be number one. To give up their desires to be number one and to surrender their wills to God’s good and perfect will for all mankind.
Isaiah was prepared as he knew that the God they served was the same God who had heard the oppressed slaves and answered their cries relieving their oppression. And they dreamed and they knew their God heard them and that the age of peace will follow the judgment of the Lord.
Isaiah 2: 1-5,
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
As I reflected on verse five of Isaiah 2, “ O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord,” I thought of a wise old Rabbi who instructed his students by asking questions. He asked, “How can a person tell when the darkness ends and the day begins?” After thinking for a moment, one student replied, “It is when there is enough light to see an animal in the distance and be able to tell if it is a sheep or a goat.” Another student ventured, “It is when there is enough light to see a tree, and tell if it is a fig tree or an oak tree.” The wise old Rabbi gently said, “No, it is when you can look into a man’s face and recognize him as your brother. For if you cannot recognize in another’s face the face of your brother, the darkness has not yet begun to lift, and the light has not yet to come.”
For God told Abraham that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed, because he trusted and put his hope in God. For hope is like a light shining in a dark place.
A dark place like the one that a Cherokee Indian youth is required to sit on a stump in blindfolded until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for anyone for once he has survived he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of the experience, because each lad must come into their manhood on his own. The boy is terrified sitting there blindfolded in the dark hearing all kinds of sounds while being unsure of his whereabouts. Wild beasts must surely be around him and maybe some human might try to harm him. The wind blew, the rain fell, the young man never yelled out for help, never budged or moved. It would be the only way he would become a man. Finally the sun breaks through his blindfold and upon removing it he is surprised at what he finds. Surprised, as it is the last thing he ever expected. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been sitting there all night watching over, protecting, his son. Just as Our Father Who Art In Heaven watched over His only Son as He sat in the Upper Room with His disciples on the night of His betrayal.
Jesus took the bread, blessed and gave thanks for it and then broke it saying, Take, eat, this is my body broken for you. Eat this often in remembrance of me. Then after supper Jesus took the cup, blessed it and gave thanks and then said, Take, drink, this is my blood of the New Covenant shed for the forgiveness of the sins of many. Drink this often in remembrance of me.
As with the Cherokee Indian boy we too are never alone in this life, as we know life in the sin of the flesh. The problem is so often we become so caught up in the light of the world that we loose sight of the light of HOPE that lead the wise men to the baby Jesus. The light of hope that leads an addict to sobriety, a couple with marital problems to a healthy relationship. The light of hope that led my friend Renee who was only 46 years old to let go of her long fight against a cancer that consumed her body and to find
peace in the arms of God this past week.
Can you hear Jesus speaking on this first Sunday of Advent? Listen… I walked this road so very long ago to show the way, so you would know. I walked the road with holes in my hands and feet to make the way, come follow me. Know you are not alone you will be free indeed the journey begins and ends with me. One million miles it starts with a step or two. What are you waiting for? I’m waiting for you. You run the race thinking you’ve almost won. Then you may fine you have only just begun. You’re on the road thinking you are far from here and soon you find you’re very near. Know you are not alone you will be free indeed the journey begins and ends with me. One million miles it starts with a step or two. What are you waiting for? I’m waiting for you.
Today we light the candle of HOPE, Happiness, Optimism, Perseverance and Endurance that we receive when Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and we have hope for living.
Advent is the season of expectation. Be filled with the excitement of expectation. Prepare your families and your homes. Prepare yourselves. Expect to meet God in unexpected places and unexpected faces. Expect the unexpected and be surprised by the grace of God.
May the light of HOPE shine in your life through Jesus Christ as we enter into prayer.
Father God, thank you that when I committed and trusted my life to you, you will teach me in the way that I should go. Guide me with your wisdom. Thank Father God for the candle of HOPE, Happiness, Optimism, Perseverance, and Endurance that can only come into my life through a personal commitment and walk with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Amen
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