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Preparing for Yeshua - November 30, 2008

Preparing for Yeshua

Isaiah 69:1-9, Mark 13:24-37, 1Cor 1:3-9

November 30, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

 

Today is the first Sunday in Advent which makes it the first day of the new church year. So as far as the church is concerned, this is New Year’s Day! I feel like I should be wearing a party hat and fire off some confetti or something. But instead we get to read this Gospel Lesson that is another one of those apparent gloom and doom passages about the end of the world when Jesus comes and everything blows up. That is no way to start off a New Year.

But this Gospel Lesson is chosen because today is also the beginning of the season of Advent. This is the time when we are specially mindful of preparing for the arrival of Jesus. In the Old Testament Lesson, five hundred years before the first Christmas, the prophet Isaiah pleaded with God to tear open the heavens and come down among us with smoke and fire and all kinds of pyrotechnics. So five hundred years God answered that plea and DID come down .... but as a tiny baby in Bethlehem.

This morning we read that same plea and Jesus tells us in the Gospel Lesson that, indeed, the next time He DOES rend open the heavens and come down, it WILL be with all the pyrotechnics that He described in the days following great tribulation. That is why that Gospel Lesson was chosen on this first Sunday in the season of Advent, to prepare us for that SECOND coming.

And should we be so surprised that Jesus will be revealed only after much tribulation? The Bible is brutally honest about the reality of life. It is not a collection of bedtime stories, but deals with life as it truly is. Last night I got a phone call from Annie Rothstein to say that she had given birth to a brand new baby boy. What joy! Can you guess what she and Kevin named this first child born among us in this new church year? They named him Joshua, which in Israel would be pronounced Yeshua. That was Jesus’ name. But this great joy of little Yeshua’s arrival came after a nine month advent of preparing for his arrival: an advent that ended in a massive tribulation to usher in his arrival. They don’t call it labor for nothing.

Tomorrow very special friends of mine will close their business. This will be an extremely painful trial that will usher in the advent preparations for a new life of opportunities. In the prayers you heard me pray for an Orono high school senior who is in her very last hours. She has packed her bags for the joys of eternity. But she also has struggled through a nine month advent of tribulation to get to this point.

It is the reality of life that new life, new beginnings, new opportunities- especially the biggest ones – are often reached only through advents of tribulation just like Jesus described in this morning’s Gospel Lesson. Those who trust in Jesus, however, can weather those tribulations because they know what follows for those who trust Him. Like Jesus said when He heard that His friend Lazarus had died, “This sickness will NOT end in death.” For those tied to Jesus the message is that tribulation will lead to Him.

But while we prepare for His coming among us, God has enriched you with all spiritual gifts to strengthen you and prepare you. That is why the apostle Paul began his first letter to the Corinthians by saying, “.... you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Let me prove to you that this is true, that God really HAS enriched you with every spiritual gift. Remember last week when we each got a recorded phone call from the office saying that the food shelf at our sister church, Maple Plain Community, was desperately needing help? Remember how the very next day you all processed up to the altar with bags and bags of food and free will offerings of cash? Well, guess what? You brought over 330 pounds of food. And the over $1,000 you also gave multiplied into over $12,000! That was with just one day’s notice. See what I mean that God is faith in enriching us with every spiritual gift?

Remember three weeks before that when you were asked to support the fundraiser for the homeless services of Western Communities Action Network? On the very worst weather day of the year with a straight line blizzard and wind chill something like a thousand degrees below zero, Jack and Shawn got the choir to turn out to sing along with the Carpe Diem Choir and a bunch of you walked in that biting wind and others of you supported these walkers with your cash sponsorships. Well, I’m not supposed to brag. But I am so grateful for your faithfulness that I need to tell you that you gave three times more than any other organization in all twelve communities! See what I mean that God is faith in enriching us with every spiritual gift?

And then three days ago you folks also gave $500 for the community Thanksgiving dinner at Independence City Hall.

And over the last two weeks you folks have also purchased over 180 of the 250 new hymnals we need to stock the church. And all this generosity when the economy is tanking and people are scared of their financial futures and everyone else is wondering of people will continue to give. You gave. And you gave and you gave and you gave.

And why? Well because God has enriched us with all spiritual gifts in the Advent of Jesus’ coming. The way Paul concluded his letter and why I will conclude this sermon is to say:

“God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”

God is faithful. And you have given yourselves to be the instruments of His grace.

Amen. Thanks be to God!