The Knowledge of Prophets

In the book of Exodus, after the Lord led the people of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness, before they crossed the Red Sea, the LORD said to Moses (in chapter 13), “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” And later in that chapter, Moses said to the people of Israel, “Redeem every firstborn among your sons.” It was to remind everyone of the night of the Passover, when the Angel of Death killed every firstborn of Egypt and of Israel who did not put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and on the lintel over the door. It was a reminder that the lamb had been sacrificed in place of the firstborn of the Israelites. It was a reminder that the LORD had brought the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

The Old Testament Law is clear – a lamb is to be sacrificed for the firstborn, just like at the original Passover when the lamb was killed and its blood put on the doorpost and the lintel over the door. Otherwise, the thought was that the child would die prematurely. The sacrifice of a lamb - unless the parents cannot afford a lamb, in which case, they will sacrifice a pair of doves or two young pigeons.

Luke 2:22-40

When it came time for these redemption rites to be performed, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord and offer the customary sacrifice from the Law – a pair of doves or two young pigeons. The boy was likely about six weeks old, for His mother could not travel until forty days had passed since giving birth. Joseph and Mary did not sacrifice a lamb for their son, for they were not farmers and could not afford a lamb, only the pair of doves or two young pigeons. But the Lamb would be sacrificed for them about thirty years later.

They walked the 5 or 6 miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem – about two hours for those accustomed to walking.

Meanwhile, there was a righteous and devout man who lived in Jerusalem named Simeon. His name means “listening” in Hebrew, and was a common Jewish name of the time. The name also means “flat-nosed” in Greek. Simeon lived up to His name – he listened to the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and he listened to the Holy Spirit and did what the Spirit told Him to do. The Spirit had already told Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. And today, the Spirit told Simeon to go to the Temple.

Imagine that you are at the Temple. You take your newborn son to the Temple and the three of you walk around the Temple, heading toward the altar of sacrifice. It is a bright, sunshining day, with a fair number of people walking about, but nothing like the crush during Passover Week, yet not empty of people. Construction workers are still working on the Temple, putting up gold, silver, and fine gems in various places over the rough limestone blocks that form the walls, for Herod the Great only began construction a couple of years ago and there is more to do to make this Temple one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which it will be in a decade or too.

As you reach the altar area, a kindly devout man comes up to you, smiles at you, and says, “May I hold your child?”

And you hand Him over, because this is in the Temple courts, this is in the godly territory, in the godly city. And the man introduces himself as Simeon as he takes the Babe in his gentle arms.

“Praise God!” Simeon shouts, looking to the sky. “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” And he lifts the child high into the air.

“What did you say?” you are surprised by the man’s song.

“I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.’ The Spirit of God told me I would see the Messiah before I died – and today is the day!” The man’s smile stretches from ear to ear.

“You are too kind!” you respond. The man gently gives back the Child, who has slept through all of this with closed eyes and a slight grin on His face. Simeon then blesses all of you, and turns to the child’s mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” And then the man adds, a bit ominously, but gently: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

About that time, a very, very old woman walks up, famous to all pilgrims for her prophecy, her ability to speak on behalf of God. She is Anna the daughter of Penuel, a woman of the tribe of Asher. It is said that she was married to a man in her mid-teens like most girls of her time. She lived with him for seven years after their marriage, and then had been a widow for eighty-four more years, which would make her over a hundred and five years old, perhaps a hundred and ten years old. She never left the Temple grounds, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying, eating very little which was given to her by pilgrims. Ancient Anna came walking up just as Simeon was ready to take his leave.

“Thanks be to God!” she said as she took your child into her arms. “This child will redeem Jerusalem from all who would destroy her!” And she stared at the child with that toothless grin she was famous for, clearly enjoying every minute of their time together. And as other people walked by – she stopped them and showed off the Babe, telling everyone that this Child would redeem Jerusalem. She must have done this for twenty minutes before she gave you back your Child and left, praising God.

You finally were able to continue to the altar, make the sacrifices, dedicate the Child, and then you began the long, long walk back to Galilee, to Nazareth, to your home. And your Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. God’s grace was upon Him – and through Him, God’s grace was upon you.

Prophets

When Joseph and Mary and Jesus went to the Temple, they encountered a Simeon and Anna, two prophets of God.

Now the image we have of prophets is always fixed in our minds by the image of John the Baptist, a wild, crazy-looking man who yells fire-and-brimstone at those who will not listen to God’s words about the future. But in a more general sense, a prophet is a man or woman who speaks on behalf of God and delivers God’s messages. Those messages may be about the future, but they don’t have to be about the future. They may be about the present, an instruction, a command, or even a revelation about a past event. The prophet sometimes doesn’t even know he or she was speaking on behalf of God at the time.

When we were living in Atlanta, we attended Stone Mountain Community Church, which later moved and became Cornerstone Bible Church. The pastor was Dr Doug Macintosh, who has written several books with Moody Press. One evening, Dr Doug told us the story of the days when him and wife Cheryl lived in a high-rise dormitory in Dallas on the campus of Dallas Seminary. A group of the students would gather most evening to talk, play games, share pizza, talk about early Swiss Reformation leaders like Jean Calvin or Menno Simons, etc. Meanwhile in the last semester, a young man who lived in the room below them was struggling with his calling. Every evening, this young man would pray – loudly – “Lord, what shall I do? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?” And his prayers would come up through the ventilation system.

After about a week of this, it had become annoying to the group upstairs. So one of the men leaned over the vent and shouted back at the young man’s prayers in a deep voice. “Go to Switzerland!”

There was sudden silence. “Lord, what was that? Did you say for me to go to Switzerland?” Upstairs, the group could hardly contain their giggles, for Switzerland was where the Protestant Reformation began in earnest. It was one of the places with the longest tradition of Christianity in the world! The man who had spoken before leaned again over the vent and said loudly, “Yes. Go to Switzerland!” More silence. And peace for the rest of the evening.

The next day in class, the young man announced he was called by God to Switzerland. And at the end of the term, he moved to Switzerland.

And you laugh. But thirty years later, he had a thriving ministry in Switzerland. God speaks through godly people – even if they don’t realize it at the time.

The Old Testament is filled with prophets. Some are famous: Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah. Others are less famous: Joshua, Elisha, Nathan, Micah. The New Testament also has prophets, primarily John the Baptist and the Apostles, but also some others like Simeon and Anna. What joins them all together is that they listened to God’s Holy Spirit and spoke what God asked them to speak.

Modern Prophets

We have modern-day prophets, also.

In 1907, Evengelos Porphyrios Bairaktaris was born in Greece. As a boy he looked after the family sheep and completed first grade. At age 7 he went to work in a nearby town until he was 12, when he snuck off to a large Greek Orthodox monastery. God led him to become servant to two elderly priests who lived as hermits. He became a monk by the time he was 16, and became a Greek Orthodox priest at age 20. In 1940, he became the chaplain of a large hospital in Athens where his reputation spread far and wide in Greece as Elder Porphyrios.

Here is an example story about this man who listened closely to the Holy Spirit and spoke on behalf of God. A young priest was having difficulties. Several people told him he needed to talk to Elder Porphyrios, so he called the Elder’s office. His secretary took a message and that was that. A couple days later, the difficulties eased a bit. About a month later, the secretary called the young man back and told him to be at the office at 9 am the next morning.

The young priest made it to the appointment. Elder Porphyrios walked in, asked him about the problem and gave the young priest about 2 minutes to speak, then interrupted him. “I have been praying for you since two days after you first called.” The Elder said. And the young man remembered that that was when things began to improve. Then, the Elder spoke for over a half an hour, explaining the entire situation, what the motives were of each of the parties involved, showing knowledge that he simply could not have by any normal means. And at the end of the session, it all made perfect sense. The young priest left and the difficulties were gone.

People who knew Elder Porphyrios agreed that the Elder had a special source of knowledge. The Elder simply said that he prayed and listened for the response of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit always spoke truth to the Elder. And so, I think we can say that Elder Porphyrios, who died in 1991, was indeed a prophet of God.

When pastors are in training, we are taught that there are three offices which we hold. We are leaders – this is where we lead or shepherd the flock on behalf of Christ. We are priests – building bridges between people and God through the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism. And we are prophets – speaking on behalf of God through the reading and teaching of scripture and the proclaiming of sermons.

Some misguided pastors believe their prophetic voice must always be harsh. This, unfortunately, is common both to the very conservative fire and brimstone preachers – and to the very liberal social justice preachers. They feel that they are always speaking to King Ahab as Elijah did, or speaking to the Pharisees as John the Baptist did. But being a prophet does not mean we must always proclaim what the people or leaders are doing which is wrong. Much of the time, we must remind the people of what they are doing that is right. Simeon and Anna’s messages were messages of great joy to Joseph and Mary.

The prophet must also remember that it is important to distinguish between “here’s some advice” and “Thus sayeth the Lord God!” Even the Apostle Paul, in his writings, sometimes wrote “I have no command from the Lord, but I say…”such and such. And even when we do have a direct command from the Lord, the Lord has also given us the ability to deliver a message effectively and politely – if we will take the time to put aside our anger and love the person we are talking with.

What About Us?

And now comes the part of this message that will step on toes.

If you have been baptized, you are liable to be called upon by the Lord any day to deliver a godly message to someone – usually yourself. The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to speak to each of us – but we also are constantly trying to cover up that voice, for it is that gentle, quiet whisper of the Holy Spirit that can be most irritating when we want to have pleasures and comforts and do our own thing.

“I wish my child wouldn’t whine!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “I wish you wouldn’t whine!”

“If they’d work harder, they wouldn’t be broke!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “And if you worked a bit harder, you would have money to give away!”

“My spouse is always too busy for me!” we say – and the Spirit whispers in our mind – “And you’re always too busy for Me!”

Being asked to speak on behalf of God is one of the greatest privileges God can grant a person. And the sad thing to say is that we are ready with excuses why we won’t speak.

Moses claimed he stammered – God said, “Okay, tell your brother Aaron what I want said.”

People claim they have stage fright – so did I the first five times I spoke in public.

People claim they don’t know what to say – God promised to always have the words for us.

People claim they are too young – My son Andy began leading a five-church charge at ages 19.

People claim they are too old – My friend Virginia Cunningham led her new roommate to join our church when Virginia was 98 years old and mostly deaf.

People claim they have no education – William Carey was a simple shoe repairman who raised the money, went to India, and translated the Bible into the principal languages of India.

People claim there are no places to preach – John Wesley was locked out of his home church, so he began to speak on street corners and at factories, in cemeteries and at mine shafts. He began the Methodist Church.

People claim they are discriminated against – Harper Lee was a Catholic woman who was not allowed to preach because she was a woman, so she wrote books instead, like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and reached more people than most preachers.

A friend of mine wanted to reach people who don’t like church – he started a “philosophical discussion group” at the Marietta Brewing Company on Sunday evenings – it became the “Pub Church”.

If God has given you a message for people to hear, today there are many ways to be a prophet. Facebook, visual arts, music and lyrics, poetry, books, Twitter, Instagram, email newsletters, comic books, children’s stories, short videos on Youtube, so many different ways to proclaim God’s Word.

But before you begin, take time to pray and listen to what God’s Holy Spirit is saying to you.

Perhaps the Spirit is simply saying to go to that family with the new baby, and, like Simeon and Anna, tell them of the Joy the child will bring. Tell them of the Joy that the Baby Jesus brought to the world when He grew to be thirty-some years old, was crucified, and then brought back to life. Tell people WHY the Babe of Bethlehem grew to be so special.

For being a Christian isn’t just about finding a way to Heaven. Being a Christian is learning, doing, and listening enough so you too can be a prophet of the One True God, speaking on God’s behalf to a world that is broken, torn apart, and dying, with a message of hope from the God who loves us all. Be a prophet of God!

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of the Universe, teach us to speak on Your behalf. Give us the people to speak to, the words to say, and fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we may speak with gentleness and grace, leading people to Your Son, Jesus. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Benediction

May the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit shine upon you. And may you be the hands and voice of Jesus in this world as you go forth to do good and speak the Gospel. Be blessed each day! Amen.

Closing Song: Star of Bethlehem

Chapter Four - Walking Into Bethlehem

Micah 5:2-5a; Psalm 80:1-7; Luke 2:1-7

This week, we continue our Journey to Bethlehem. We left our comfortable home in Nazareth, took the easy road down the Jordan River Valley past the point where John the Baptist will one day preach and baptize, and we climbed the mountainside from Jericho into the high hill country of Judah. And now comes the end of our journey, our arrival as we come walking into Bethlehem.

The cold, windy road we have been following reaches the high hill country of Judah. It is a sparsely populated area, for water is scarce and level farm land is difficult to find. Still, homes are found here and there, 5 homes here, 8 homes over there a mile or two away. The road splits – one branch will go to Bethany and then over the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem – the other branch turns south to Bethlehem.

It is not a far walk once we made it up here – about three hours. The road has ups and downs. The one thing it does not often have is much water, for any rain that falls up here quickly soaks into the ground or runs downhill toward the Jordan Valley far below us. We are about 2500 feet above sea level, 3900 feet above the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death. Fields of barley and buckwheat grow around us, for nothing else can handle the winter’s cold and the lack of water.

Still, birds fly around us – the seeds of thornbush provide enough food for them. The dry smell of dust and what animals have left behind flies into our faces on the cold wind that swirls around us. A couple of snowflakes fly past our head. Joseph and his wife Mary are on the donkey – we are all headed to Bethlehem, because we are all descendants from King David, and a man far away in Rome, a mortal man who arrogantly calls himself the Son of God, the emperor, the “Augustus” – a title that means “worthy of being worshiped” – this mere man has ordered all people to be counted in the city of their ancestors. But he has an army at his command, so we do what he wants. We walk the hundred miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is normally a small town – a few dozen residents. Limestone caves are common in the area. The area is pretty dry, mainly growing barley, so a major industry is sheepherding and has been so for at least a thousand years, since the time a young teenage boy named David was watching his father Jesse’s sheep. You remember the story?

David The King

The great prophet Samuel, the high priest of Israel, had come to town, for the Lord had told Samuel that King Saul’s replacement was a son of Jesse of Bethlehem. Samuel asked Jesse to bring all his sons in front of him. Seven sons, big strapping men were brought before Samuel. But the Lord rejected each of them as they came before Samuel. Finally, Samuel asked Jesse – “The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these. Are these all the sons you have?”

Jesse answered. “There is still the youngest, but right now he’s tending the sheep” And Samuel told Jesse, “Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.”

And when the youngest one, David, arrived, the Lord told Samuel, “Anoint him, for he is the one.” In ancient Israel, anointing, pouring fragrant olive oil on a man’s head, was how the kingship was designated. Crowns came much later. So Samuel anointed David with oil in front of his brothers and the Holy Spirit of God took control of David from then on. And after that, Bethlehem became known as the City of David.

Yes, God doesn’t evaluate men the way we often evaluate men. We tend to pick big, tall men as our leaders. We look for the powerful, the strong, the men who will make us feel tough or safe behind them. But God looks for leaders who are wise, who are smart, who are focused upon what God wants rather than on what the leaders – or the people – want. Read the Psalms David wrote to see David’s heart. It is humbling to think that God wants leaders that focus upon His wants more than God wants leaders that focus upon giving us what we want, isn’t it?

And the second big memory of Bethlehem is that this place is where Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel is buried. Jacob, like Abraham and Isaac, was a wandering herdsman – having sheep and cattle. Jacob was a shepherd – and the people of Israel never forgot that their roots were with the shepherds.

Rachel was special to Jacob – his favorite wife. Rachel found it very difficult to conceive. Eventually, though she gives birth first to Joseph and then to Benjamin.

Joseph, thrown into a hole in the ground, sold to slavers, taken to Egypt.

Joseph becomes a leader of Egypt – indeed is second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, and rescues the clan of Jacob from starvation by inducing them to stay in Egypt. To the rabbis, there would be a future figure, a man known as Mashiach ben Yosef – the Messiah, son of Joseph, who will prepare the way for the kingship of the Mashiach ben David, the Messiah, son of David. The man leading the donkey is a Joseph. The unborn boy who rides in the womb of Mary is descended on both human sides from King David. A coincidence?

And the Messiah? The great savior of Israel, indeed, the savior of the world. The man who will set all things right again, who will return Israel to the importance she once had under King David. The man who will be a fine ruler who dispenses justice as it should be instead of helping his rich friends and punishing the poor. The Messiah, who will bring back the worship of God Almighty into the land and defeat the pagans.

The Followers of Messiah

We focus so much on the Messiah that we forget about the dozen core students who were to follow Messiah – and we forget about the 120 who believed and followed the Messiah – and we forget about the 3000 who believed on that first day when the public news was proclaimed that Messiah had come! We forget about the thousands and tens of thousands and millions who did the day-by-day work of bringing the worship of God Almighty into the land, who even today defeat pagan belief around the world. We forget that we are each called to do that work, like William Carey who worked in a basement in England for years as a repairman of shoes, who dreamed of telling the people of India about the Messiah who had come, who convinced several men in his church to raise some money, who went to India, translated the Bible into the local languages and began the greatest missionary movement in over a thousand years.

We forget about the teenage students in a small town in the southern hills of West Virginia who began a revival that brought hundreds of people to the Messiah just a few years ago. We forget about the young black preacher in the small capital city in the hills who grew his church as large as it could grow in that town, and then persuaded fifty people to follow him 1500 miles to Dallas TX to start a church that now has over 8000 people in worship and has a worldwide television ministry, the Potter’s House. We only focus upon the Messiah – we forget that God can use anyone of us to do great things, for God is God – we only need to be willing. The Spirit of the Messiah can work through any of us, if we listen and truly give permission to that Spirit. God asks YOU to do great things and God will guide you through God’s Spirit – if you will simply say “Yes, I will do what the Spirit asks.” Will you say “Yes?” This is the legacy of Joseph.

And Rachel’s other son Benjamin? The clan of Jacob multiplied in Egypt and escaped from Egypt, wandered for forty years and then crossed into the Promised Land of Israel. When the tribes cast lots for the land of Israel, the land around Bethlehem was given to the descendants of Benjamin. Once, the other tribes almost wiped out the tribe of Benjamin for a crime committed by the clan.

And it was here that Ruth and Naomi returned after their husbands died in a famine in Moab. And it was here that Ruth – a foreign woman - met Boaz and married him, giving birth to Obed, who was Jesse’s father. Yes, there is much history in Bethlehem. It is a small village, but important in history. In some ways, it might even be more important than mighty Jerusalem, the capital, the location of the Temple of God, just a couple hours walk up the road.

And as we walk along the road, the shepherds are still there even though the snow is beginning to seriously fall on their naked feet. Some are like David – young teenage boys who are helping their families. Others are hired hands, men who don’t have their own flocks, or their own land. They are the poorest of the poor these days – nothing like the proudly independent Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of old. After all, what is the job these days? The lions and bears have mostly been run off, bandits don’t usually operate this close to the garrison in Jerusalem, and so they live without much pay, without shelter, just on the leftover scraps of wool, of ewe’s milk, some occasional mutton. No one expects them to become a king like David was. No one would invite them to visit a king. No one would even invite them into their home for dinner. Do you see the shepherds around you as you walk through your world? Would you invite them to your home as the snow flies? Do you even take time to talk with them?

A Small Town

Yet there is one other thing about Bethlehem that is important. Because seven hundred years earlier, at the time of Isaiah and King Hezekiah of Judah, a man named Micah prophesized the destruction of Jerusalem. And he prophesized more:

Bethlehem Ephrathah,
you are small among the clans of Judah;
One will come from you
to be ruler over Israel for Me.
His origin is from antiquity,
from eternity.
3 Therefore, He will abandon them until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of His brothers will return
to the people of Israel.
4 He will stand and shepherd them
in the strength of Yahweh,
in the majestic name of Yahweh His God.
They will live securely,
for then His greatness will extend
to the ends of the earth.
5 He will be their peace. (HCSB Micah 5:2-5a)

Of this, the wise men who study scripture are agreed: Messiah shall come from Bethlehem, a small town in the hills you might overlook.

Do we turn up our noses at people because everyone we know comes from a small town in the hills? Do we assume that everything good and new must come from a distant great city? Do we assume that all spiritual people must speak with a southern accent? Do we rule ourselves out from doing great things for God because of our prejudice against our own hometowns?

It reminds me of a man named Billy from a small town who was the son of a dairy farmer, a boy who did not believe in God’s love until he was ready to graduate from high school, a boy who God took and did great things with. It reminds me of a man who was educated and did not even believe in the existence of God until he was in his early thirties, who took another ten years to begin to do things for God, who did not begin to preach until his late forties, who now has baptized about fifty people. It reminds me of a woman who heard the call of God as a little girl, but listened to those around her who said she couldn’t lead a church – until finally in her late fifties, she began to lead churches, tripling her first church in size in three years. We so often don’t believe we can do good because we come from small towns in the hills. Yet Messiah shall come from Bethlehem, a small town in the hills you might overlook. What great leader might come from our small town? 

Luke 2:1-7 

And so we walk into the little town following young Mary on the donkey, and Joseph, leading the donkey. The snow is now an inch deep and falling fast. We pull our cloaks tight around us as the cold wind whistles through the little town.

No Room for Us

Where do we look to stay? Unlike Jerusalem, full of guest houses because of the great annual festivals held in that city that triple her size, few people come to Bethlehem. There are few places for guests – only family. We are late, so there are no places left for us. It appears we will have to sleep outside tonight.

So many times, we think in our lives that we will be left out. There are no more jobs at the factory that employed our fathers. There are no good homes left to buy that we can afford. There is something about us that keeps closing doors in our faces. People in our neighborhood feel the same way – they didn’t make a reservation at the inn, there is no room for them because they don’t wear the right clothes, speak the right way, have too many tattoos or not enough tattoos, they don’t understand the code words we speak – Communion, Doxology, Grace. Our fellow travelers in life feel shut out. Do we do this to them with a glance, a roll of the eyes, an impatient gesture? Do we tell them that there is no room at this particular inn? Or do we find them a place in our lives?

In Mary’s case, the local innkeeper takes pity on the poor pregnant girl and says that her and Joseph can stay in the small cave where he keeps his animals. And they gratefully head there among the straw and hay.

It makes us wonder – are we so different from the animals we keep? For we would gladly have our donkey, our cattle, our sheep give birth in such a place, surrounded and protected by warm, insulating straw and hay, surrounded by thick walls of stone. Joseph and Mary are glad for their place that night – it may not be the bedroom of a relative, but compared to God, is there that much different between humans and beasts? Not much, judging from our behavior.

The beasts shove and jostle one another to get close to food and warmth. We push and shove and jostle one another for our paychecks, our entertainment, our groceries. What is the difference? Has God made a difference between us? Does God care for us any more than the beasts? Jesus tells us we are more valuable by far.

And so we bed down for the night on the edge of town, looking out over the fields where the shepherds are watching their flocks this night.

Waiting...

And we wait in the cold, with the wind-driven snow swirling around us. Here at the edge of Bethlehem, we wait for the Messiah, son of Joseph. We wait for the Messiah, son of David. We all wait for there is nothing important in our lives except who will greet the Messiah – and who will not greet Him. We wait like people waiting for the bridegroom to show up at a wedding, on the edge of Bethlehem, snuggled under a blanket as the snow begins to fall in clumps. And we think about the other people we know. Who else needs to be here to greet Messiah when He arrives? We wait here, under the blanket like shepherds, hearing the sheep call in the distance. Other people wait in their homes, people wait at their workplaces, others wait on highways, in airports. Others, like shepherds, wait in open fields, in ditches, under roadway overpasses, in shelters.

Some wait with their families. Some wait alone.

Some have food and are feasting. Some have a crust of barley bread. Some have nothing.

Some are warm – others are cold.

Some are healthy – others are sick and dying.

Some are safe – and others flee at this moment from soldiers or bandits.

Some are looking forward to their lives – and others have given up on this life.

But all wait. All wait.

The world is waiting, decaying, falling apart.

But there is hope. There is hope for all of us, from the shepherds to the kings, from the oldest men and women to the youngest children, there is hope.

For Messiah is coming. God has promised. Our Savior is coming. God has promised and Mary groans in pain. Soon, the hour will be here. Come quickly, O Messiah. Return to this world. Come quickly…

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of the Universe, we wait for the arrival of Your Son, Jesus Christ, in our lives. Some of us have met Him already and await His face to shine amongst us. Other are still walking in the cold and dark, looking for Him in unlikely places. Help all to find Him. Send Him quickly to all of us. This we pray in His name, the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Song: Angels in the Realm of Glory 

Benediction

May the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit shine upon you. And may you be the hands and voice of Jesus in this world as you go forth to do good and speak the Gospel. Be blessed each day! Amen.

Closing Song: King of Kings

Chapter Three – The Mountainside

Our journey to Bethlehem continues this week. We have left the comforts of home behind in Nazareth, we have walked into the Jordan River Valley, past the place where one day a man John will baptize people, and now we are approaching the Sea of Death, about ten miles to the south. Joseph and his young wife Mary, who is riding on the donkey and looking very tired, is still with us. We are over 1300 feet below sea level. Another hundred foot drop in the last part of the River will take us to the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death where fish quickly die because of the salt, the lowest place on the surface of the earth, the end result of all those who refuse to climb the mountainside out of the valley.

But now, with ten miles to go before the Sea of Death, we leave the Jordan River and follow a small stream up the hill a couple miles to the West. We are going to Jericho, perhaps the oldest city in the world. Jericho, the first conquest made by the Israelites in the promised land, the city where the prostitute Rahab lived, an ancestor of David, an ancestor of both Joseph and Mary, a woman who trusted in the God of Israel and was saved from the destruction of Jericho when the walls fell. She is the poster child of God's grace, a woman who had committed many sins, but who trusted in the God of Israel and thus was saved to contribute to the ancestry of Jesus.

Jericho, at 864 feet below sea level, about 400 feet above the valley floor, was founded as a city because of the great spring that lies at the base of the mountain, with a flow of over a thousand gallons a minute. This water was used to irrigate the rich soil brought down the Jordan Valley by the River’s floods. And here, at the time of our journey, Herod the Great was building his palace with the money he collected from Judea and Galilee. Jericho is the lowest city on earth, but is one of the most beautiful, fertile places on the planet. If only King Herod didn’t live here, for he is violent and selfish, a tyrant. But he has provided for travelers with a place to spend the night.

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Luke 1:39-55

We stop for the night. Fruit and vegetables and flour are for sale by the locals. We could stay here. Some have stayed, working for King Herod in his town. We’d gradually become his slaves, though, as many have done when they choose comfort over the journey. We spend a pleasant evening in a pleasant place – but the toughest part of our journey is ahead. We must get on with our journey to Bethlehem, our journey of life.

For we must climb up the mountainside road, the road that leads out of the valley up through the dry, bare mountain walls, up, up, up almost 900 feet just to reach the level of the ocean, then another 2500 feet up to Bethlehem. After the 400 foot climb we made today from the valley floor to Jericho, we must climb another 3400 feet – almost 3800 feet altogether, over four times the height of Seneca Rocks. And we will do it on a rocky path, on foot. Mary will ride a donkey.

Who is this girl, Mary?

She is a cousin of Elizabeth, who is the mother of John, Zechariah’s son. Zechariah is an ordinary priest in the Temple, they live in a small village near Jerusalem. Luke 1:39-55 

Like most women in that day, Mary will have her first child in her middle-teens, at age 15 or 16. But she will not be alone, for she spent several months with Elizabeth, and Joseph and Mary will travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals three or four times a year and probably stay with Elizabeth, for Elizabeth’s home is an easy day-walk from Jerusalem.

The road onward from Jericho is steep, rocky, and dry. Here things get difficult, just as in our lives there are times which are difficult.

Children are born and must be raised. Even the best children cause tremendous stress for their parents, for they are individuals, with the ability to act independently, the ability to think independently, the ability to sin – just as we have that ability and just as we caused stress for our parents.

We look over the cliff edge down to Jericho and it is filled with growing things – trees, flowers, shrubs. It looks something like the Garden of Eden, doesn’t it?

We always want to raise our children in our own Garden of Eden, don’t we? We want them to be safe, to grow, to explore, to learn good. But in the Garden beside the Tree of Life was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the gardens we build for our children, we strive to give our children life – and we want to teach them the difference between good and evil. But the problem with this is that evil is an attractive part of the fruit. We can’t just eat the fruit of the Knowledge of Good, for with that fruit comes the Knowledge of Evil, it’s a single package, one fruit. To know what is Good, we and our children must understand Evil. And to know what is Evil, we and our children must understand what is Good. The serpent will always sneak in to teach about Evil as he did in the original Garden. And remember…he just suggested that knowing the difference between good and evil would give us great power, like God has. For the serpent knew that that power, that knowledge of the difference always leads us to test, to experiment with the difference, tasting both the Good and the Evil, and falling for the sweetness of the Evil, at least for a while…

Will we spend enough time teaching our children what is Good by reading to them from the Bible, by talking about those stories and readings, by helping them see how the Bible stories can apply to their lives? Or will we rely upon Children’s church, a half-hour a week? Sunday school can more than double that time. Kid’s and Parents time at home can add more as adults can take some time at breakfast or lunch or supper to read a half-chapter from the Bible to the family and then all can discuss it. If you want to start this, start now, for it is easier to start the tradition with young children. It’s hard to start when they are 17 and ready to leave home. Start today, for the serpent is even now slithering into your Garden.

We continue up the mountainside, the children turn into teens and the serpent talks to them. He comes into their lives in the disguise of their best friends, their popular classmates, the teacher who has always rebelled against religion. That's why it's important they make friends who are godly - and the way they do this is to spend time in a church when they are young, and when they are teens. But even still, the serpent whispers in to their ears, you come home one day, and they have decided not to listen to you for a season. It is a dry day on the side of the mountain when this happens. For they have entered the Age of Infinite Wisdom, where they are blind and deaf to all advice you give them – and that lasts until their children arrive and sometimes beyond.

But there is comfort in this: You didn’t listen to your parents about everything. There were times you turned away and listened to the serpent. If you have taught them about good and evil, about sin – and most importantly about forgiveness and redemption – they will one day be able to break free, just as you have returned to the God you loved when you were young and living in the green valley of youth.

And God knows where each of those children you love are at, just like God knows where you are this minute.

You look back over the edge and almost fall, for the beauty that you remember of the Valley seems to call to you. You wobble on the path, trying to regain your balance. There is wisdom in the old warning to not look down – or back. And you remember the warning from the angel to Lot’s wife – don’t look back! And far over the valley, on the other side of the River is the mound that is said to be Sodom of old, destroyed in a hail of fire and brimstone.

Yet there is also beauty in looking back. The trick is to accept the beauty of what you came through, and not stop on the trail, leaning over so far to see our old life that we fall back into it. For Bethlehem is not at the bottom of the mountainside in the rich, beautiful, fertile valley, but is in the cool clear air at the top of the mountain of life. There is where we will meet the Babe. Jericho is at the bottom, beautiful to look at and remember, but the home of the tyrant and his slaves.

When we honestly look back, we see that in addition to the pleasant downhill walk that was our time beside the River, there were mudholes, snakes, and fallen trees that blocked our path. Yet, there were also beautiful sights. A mixed bag.

Yet where we are going takes us up, up, up! We must travel up and not look back too much, or we may stumble and fall. And so we take a quick peek from time to time at the view from on high, looking over the Valley as we walk along a mostly flat ledge that slowly climbs up. Knowing where we’ve come from can give us courage for the climb – but focusing on where we’ve come from for too long can trip us up and make us fall. And so we relax for a couple of minutes on the ledge.

But there are other steep places to travel over. And so we look back to the path and walk onward.

The path goes nearly vertical. At least it isn’t completely vertical. Experienced mountain climbers have found that it is absolutely critical to test what they hold onto before putting weight on it, to make sure that the rocks they hold onto are solidly part of the mountain, and not merely loose boulders that will come loose given fifty or a hundred pounds of pull.

You slip on loose stones and almost fall over the edge of the mountain. We all come to places where we lose our footing in life and slide down, down, down and teeter on the edge. Sometimes, it’s because we trusted too much in a job. Sometimes, it’s because a relationship breaks, like a rock slipping from under our feet. Sometimes we lose our footing because of an accident or a sudden illness. And we slip and slide and stumble, trying to find something stable to hold onto. And at that point, the breeze from the East blows hard against us, shoving us back onto the path, giving us a chance to find that stability again. And you remember again that the same word in the ancient languages means wind, breath, and spirit. Was that breeze the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit of God saving us from falling, putting us back on course? Were you listening for a message as that breeze hit you?

Losing our stability from time to time is natural in this world. It happens because we make the wrong choices in our lives, choosing to treat the unstable as stable, the temporary as permanent, the sand as a rock-solid piece of the mountain. We hold onto people, to things, to jobs as though they were the solid Rock of Christ. And then, we are disappointed when they break loose. Think about it, what gives you stability in this life? Is it a job that could be eliminated, a company that could fold, a government program where funding could be cut, a person who could die or leave, a house made of wood that could burn in a night? Or is your stability based upon the solid relationship and faith between you and the Creator of the Universe? We have to remember that sometimes the insubstantial, invisible wind can bring us the most stability if it is the Holy Breath of God, the Holy Spirit speaking to us about the right course, what to hold onto and what to let go. Hold onto God’s Spirit, God’s Breath, God’s Holy Breeze, for it is more stable than earthly rocks.

But it is also wonderful to have good earthly relationships, people who treat us as they treat themselves. For there are many times on the trail to the top of the mountain where we are dry and dusty and thirsty, and someone gives us water, giving us the strength to climb a bit further. Our good friends give us water – yet there are always those who like to make fun of our thirst, pouring perfectly good water in the dust in front of us, laughing at our inability to talk through dry lips, our coughing when the dust hits, people who pour water on the ground in front of us to taunt us.

And there is spiritual water as well as physical water, which takes a dry, dehydrated soul and gives it new energy, new endurance, new life! And, of course, there are people who listen to us and dry us out spiritually even more, making fun of us instead of making fun of the rocks, laughing at us instead of the shared journey, piling on their life problems instead of lifting our spirits with a shared uplifting story. Have you given someone else spiritual water recently, or have you poured it out on the ground in front of them, letting that spiritually boosting water soak into the ground? Have you lifted someone up over a steep part of the journey? Or have you kicked sand in their face? Are your relationships uplifting and supportive to others or do you pull people down, drag them down, threaten to pull them over the edge down into the valley again?

Mary and Joseph and the donkey worked together to climb the path. She rode, the donkey carried, and Joseph guided the donkey. And sometimes Mary got off the donkey and walked. They worked together to climb the mountainside. Perhaps it’s the same in your relationships. Perhaps not. A marriage is part of climbing the mountain. Sometimes it can be steep – other times, it is a relaxing walk along a wide ledge that slowly climbs the mountainside, allowing an easy passage up the mountain.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians Chapter 5 gave good advice. He said for both the husband and wife to submit to each other as if they were submitting to the Lord. And this is important, for each spouse where possible to do for the other, to defer to the other, to submit to the other to help each other.

But there are times traveling up the mountainside when two different paths offer a way to travel. Both look good, but both are risky. Husband and wife talk it out. They hash out the good and bad of both courses. And when they’ve done this, eventually he says go left and she says go right. And, because they have the donkey, they must both go the same way. So they talk more and still can’t figure it out. And so, according to Paul, the wife makes the decision. She goes in the direction that the husband wants, respecting him, knowing that he loves her like Christ loved the church – which means he’s ready to die for her – which is also how Paul says a man should love a woman. As Christ loved the church.

Both the man and woman understand that he makes the final decision. But both the man and the woman understand that she has the holy duty to point out the risks, the advantages of the other course, that she simply must ask him, “Have you considered this?” And he understands that she is not nagging, not causing trouble, but is truly trying to help him make the best decision possible. And then, he makes the decision because he loves her and wants what is best for her. And she goes along because she respects him.

And if it goes wrong and the donkey falls over the hillside, she steps in to tell him that there is no one she’d rather be sitting beside on this hillside than him, no one who could have made a better decision, no one she respects more. And he looks at her, glad she was not on the donkey, because he loves her and she respects him. And he listens a bit more to her the next time, but for now, they keep climbing the hillside. Together.

Good earthly relationships help us climb the mountainside. But those relationships should not define us, like the woman who was completely lost after losing her husband of fifty years. “He did everything for me”, she said. God said back, “It’s time for you to grow and do with Me. Stick with Me, and the three of us will be together again one day soon.” Soon? How many years and decades is “soon”? Does it matter compared to ten thousand years in eternity?

Remember Mary’s reaction to the angel Gabriel when he told her that she would bear the Son of God? “I am the Lord’s slave,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Her relationship with God defined her for all time. It was far more important to her than her relationships with her friends, family, the older women around who said things behind her back. It was even more important to her than her relationship with Joseph – And God rewarded her obedience, for God took care of her relationship with Joseph, making it strong by sending Joseph an angelic dream.

Perspective. We look up at the mountainside above us and it seems like such a long hard climb ahead. And then we turn and look out and down, and we realize that we’ve already covered most of the distance, that the valley is far, far, below us. And this terrible, terrible climb for us - to the eagles who circle above it is nothing. And one day we will soar with the eagles.

Altogether, as we climb from the Jordan River to Bethlehem, we will climb 3800 feet, over three times the height of the Empire State Building. But that is still less than a mile. And the diameter of the earth is about 8000 miles. From space, this part of the earth is smoother than a marble.

Perspective is everything. Our terrible climb on the mountainside of life is 60, 80, a hundred years. But from the point of view of Heaven, it is nothing compared to eternity. Our legs ache now – one day, we will remember the flash that is this life in an easy chair. What will be important about this life ten thousand years from now? Will the fact someone dented your car at Walmart matter? Will it matter if the chicken in the refrigerator spoiled and had to be thrown out? Does the color of your fingernails matter, the exact number of points on that buck you shot, whether you are paid $14 per hour or $15 per hour? None of these things will matter – only the people you brought to an understanding of Christ will matter. It will all boil down to these two questions: Did you climb the mountainside? Who did you lead up the mountainside?

Perspective is everything.

And the clearest perspective is from the top. I have it on good authority that the first 84 years are the toughest. This from a woman who died at 84 ¾ years of age. Perhaps that’s why so many pastors tell people considering becoming pastors that they wish they’d started pastoring 20 years before they started. Perhaps perspective is why so many older Christians move to be with their grandchildren instead of moving away from family. Perhaps that’s why we don’t remember our old pastors and Sunday school teachers by their charge conference forms, their paperwork, the songs they picked, their bulletin boards, the order of their worship service. We remember old pastors and Sunday School teachers by the times when their sermons, their talks, their teaching, their advice helped us climb over those steep, scary patches on the mountainside of life.

Mary had perspective. One day, many years after her journey to Bethlehem, she had to wait at the foot of a cross and hear her favorite son tell her that His student John was now her son, and that John would now take care of her. Because her first son was going to die. Soon.

Another twenty or so years later, she told a kindly man named Luke about everything that happened when that favorite son was born, how she had traveled from Nazareth down the Valley and up the steep mountainside to Bethlehem. But that journey didn’t seem to be nearly as important in the retelling as the visit from Gabriel, the arrival in Bethlehem, the boy’s birth, and the shepherd’s visit. It wasn’t nearly as important as the later visit from the travelers from the East. It wasn’t nearly as important as the day her son died – and the morning He lived again. The climb up the mountainside on a donkey’s back was just about the ordinary struggles of her life, soon forgotten, not important. Her Son’s story was about all of our lives, eternally. Of immense importance.

And so we reach the top and look back. There is the Valley, way back there. There is the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death we would have gone to if we had decided to stay in the Valley by continuing the easy path by the River. But the journey up the steep mountainside to Bethlehem is about avoiding the Sea of Death.

But now? Now that we are at the top, the wind is blowing again, a cold wind that swirls around us. It’s time to head south overland to Bethlehem. For the Babe will be here soon and we don’t want to be wandering, lost on the road when the storm arrives and night falls.

Consider the story I’ve told, for The Holy Spirit has a story to write today – a story in our hearts. What story will the Spirit write in your heart? Take a moment to pray to God and find out...Ask God for the perspective you need to see the truth about your life you’ve lived – and what is to come. And then listen!

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of our lives, you lead us along the path of holiness to the top of the mountain. Write upon our hearts the story of Your Son’s life. Help us to follow in Your Son’s footsteps, climbing the mountain and leading others. Set us free to speak of your love to our friends, neighbors, and family – as well as the strangers we meet along our life’s journey. Help us to see with Your perspective the way we’ve traveled. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song: Go Tell it on the Mountain

Benediction

Now walk into the world on your life’s long, long journey, a journey to Bethlehem, listening to the Holy Spirit, led by the light that is the Star of Christ, declaring the Word of God and speaking of the glory of Jesus our Guide. And our God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Closing Song: Beautiful Star of Bethlehem

Chapter Two - In the Valley

Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Luke 3:1-6

Last week, we began our journey from Nazareth in Galilee and started to take the journey to Bethlehem because an emperor in a far-off city called Rome has ordered that we be counted. And so, we have to return to the town of our ancestors, a little village called Bethlehem. Walk with me this morning as we travel in our minds, in our imagination.

We’ve left our comfortable homes in Nazareth and are beginning the hundred-mile walk to Bethlehem. After walking for a day, about 15 miles, we reach the Jordan River where it spills out of the Sea of Galilee and begins the 500-foot downhill drop to the Dead Sea through fertile farmland. But the descent is slow and the river road meanders back and forth like the river it follows. And we begin to think, “this won’t be such a bad trip!”

The river makes pleasant water sounds, and there is humidity in the air; we can smell it, a welcome change from the dry highlands near Nazareth. And so our journey to Bethlehem begins like our life, a journey that is mostly pleasant and comfortable in the time of our childhood and youth, not understanding what we are missing because we have been mostly comfortable in our lives. We don’t understand that being comfortable means we are missing joys as well as missing hardships. When we are comfortable, we miss joys as well as hardships.

We grow thirsty and take cool water from the river. There are fish in the River that have drifted down from the Galilean lake. Wide farms line the banks of the River – trees are plentiful, unlike anywhere else in our land.

The River in ancient times was much larger than today, with a flow of about 50 times greater than that of the early 21st Century, for much of the water has been diverted for agriculture and the water needs of the modern State of Israel. The ancient flow averaged 25-30,000 cubic feet per second, twice the size of the Big Kanawha River, but now runs between 500 and 600 cubic feet per second, the size of the Little Kanawha on a strong day. Floods were plentiful in ancient times, the River growing tremendously in the late spring with the snowmelt and the rains, but shrinking in the late summer and the fall.

But our journey today is beside the smaller river, for it is very early spring. And so we take our time, enjoying the trip, talking to old friends, making new friends, laughing, for we are teenagers and our life’s journey is ahead of us. We meet young men and women, and begin to chat with them, eventually settling with the most interesting one. And we walk together down life’s valley beside the River, the early spring flowers growing beside us, the birds singing, the water bubbling over some rocks. The leaves are green, the sky is blue, and the sun is bright. This is the beginning of the Jordan Valley; this is the beginning of our lives.

The first days are joy-filled and carefree, for we have left the farm, we have left the workshop, we have left the daily grinding of flour and baking of bread, we have left the fights with our neighbor over the land, we have left far behind the thorns of our field, the dryness of Nazareth hill. Our parents talk to their friends and leave us alone, if our parents are still able to come with us, making the journey on older feet and legs. Life seems like a big, strolling party!

We have even left behind the constant presence of the Enemy, seen in the Romans who walk or ride into Nazareth almost daily. We have forgotten that the enemy would take our lives in a heartbeat if we stood tall to his soldiers. We have forgotten that the Enemy would burn our homes, take our livestock, destroy our crops. For we are on holiday, even though this trip was commanded by the Roman leader himself. We have chosen to make this a holiday, and the beautiful river beside us helps us to forget that we will have to come back to Nazareth and our daily toil someday. Someday soon.

And so we don’t see that the walls of the valley are rising slowly as we walk south, down toward the Sea of Death. We don’t realize that the valley is slowly becoming a prison, the beautiful river of life which is leading us downhill is flowing toward Death. We don’t realize that at the end of the River is a salt sea where even worms die painfully. And so we ignore and forget what is ahead because we are enjoying life, the walk, our friends, the pretty girl or handsome man who walks beside us, the flowers, the green leaves, the River.

Over the centuries, thousands, even millions of people have made this trip. The only thing that makes the trip different this year is that the Emperor far away in Rome has commanded it. Even the man leading his donkey and his very pregnant young lady on the donkey are common sights every time we travel the journey. There is nothing special about him and his beard, his strong muscles, his calloused hands. There is nothing special about her, the weary eyes still smiling after a day and a half on donkey back. There isn’t even anything special about the donkey, walking easily down the road. Even their names are common. Yosef and Miriam. Joseph and Mary.

Where are they headed to? Bethlehem, The House of Bread, it means in the language of the day. The village was the hometown of King David and had a great history. It was there Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel was buried, where Ruth and Naomi moved to after the famine killed their husbands in Moab, where Ruth married Boaz and had a son Obed, who had a son Jesse, who was the father of King David. The village is over 2500 feet above sea level, and there are many limestone & sandstone caves in the area. David hid out in one of those caves when he was on the run from King Saul, his former friend who wanted to kill him.

Back to the road beside the river...

The next day, during the walk beside the river, we come to a place which is known through history as the place where John baptized people. Of course, this was thirty years after Joseph and Mary’s journey.

John the Baptizer

John was a real character, the original religious hermit. His father was Zechariah, the temple priest who gave us the lovely song from Luke 1:68, our first reading. Did you notice what Zechariah said about his son John?

And child, you will be called
a prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord
to prepare His ways,
to give His people knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins.

Sometimes people get confused, for there are at least two Johns in the New Testament. There is John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah, who baptized people at the Jordan River – including Jesus at the beginning of His ministry. He was just a couple of months older than Jesus. And there is another younger man also named John, who was a student of the older John, and who became one of the chief disciples of Jesus. We call him the Apostle John. This younger man is celebrated as the author of the Gospel of John, and probably also wrote the three letters, I John, II John, and III John, and also likely wrote Revelation when he was a very old man, although some scholars think another man wrote those later documents…

But let’s go back to the older John, John the Baptist, or, more accurately, John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah. This John was the cousin of Jesus.

Zechariah said his son would be called a prophet of the Most High, a prophet of God, for he would go before the Lord and prepare his ways. He would give people a knowledge of salvation, an idea that they needed to be saved and that they could be saved through the forgiveness of their sins. John would not save people, but would teach them that they needed salvation because of their sins.

So many people today who do not regularly attend church fall into one of two categories. First are the people who believe they are good. They don’t understand their need for salvation, for they believe that all people except those who are Hitler types or serial killers end up in Heaven. They believe that they themselves are basically good enough for Heaven, that God looks at people on balance and decides whether they are good enough for Heaven – They think about themselves: "Today, I cussed out a telemarketer, but I also held the door open for an old lady, so that probably balanced out. I smiled at my kids, so I’m ahead for the day."

So many people believe that when we get to the end of our lives, God adds up a ledger of good and bad deeds and decides if the good deeds outweigh the bad to decide who gets to go to Heaven. And most people believe that they are so much better than the murderers and Hitler that God will naturally let them into Heaven – assuming they “believe in God”. And they do. They believe in a god. They even pray occasionally to a god, usually a distant and kind grandfatherly figure who sits on a throne in the clouds. So they don’t worry – in their minds, they don’t need salvation, for they believe they already have it. You may have once thought this yourself. It is just like making money – with good deeds your earnings and bad deeds your expenses. At the end of your life, do you have money in God’s bank account? Isn’t this an ideal religion for Americans?

If you have money in your bank account in heaven – a balance of good deeds, these people think you can go to Heaven. In effect, you buy your way into Heaven with your good deeds – as long as you don’t have too many bad deeds to take away from your heavenly bank account. And so these people walk along the road of life, whistling and singing, secure and comfortable, because they aren’t Hitler.

The second common category is the set of people who look at their lives and are acutely aware of the sins they’ve committed. They realize that Hitler was worse than they are, but they also realize that they have some sins they commit over and over and over again. In their mind, they have done so much bad that God will never forgive them. Sometimes it’s because of a life full of different sins, committed daily…other times it is one BIG sin in their lives. And they believe that God will send them to Hell and there is nothing that can be done about it. You see, they also believe in God’s bank account, and they believe they are so far in debt they think they can’t ever get out from under their sin debt. They know they need salvation, but they don’t see how they can be saved. And they despair, because they know they aren’t good enough. So they avoid anything having to do with God, in a subconscious hope that God won’t notice, like an ostrich putting its head in the ground. "If I don’t talk to God, God won’t notice me." All because they realize they aren’t good enough for Heaven because of their sin.

Which are you? Too good to need salvation because you aren’t Hitler… or too bad for God to save you because of your sins?

John the Baptizer began to speak of the need for salvation. He spoke mainly to the “good people”, the people who believed they were good people, destined for Heaven, doing all the right things, for the "good people" were more difficult to convince. They were the leaders in society. At the top of their “good deeds” list was the fact they made a sacrifice every year. Every year they went to the Temple and did what was asked of them. Still other people simply looked around and concluded that since God had clearly blessed them – they had nice clothes, a nice home, good food, spoke well, were educated, had some money – then this was proof they were good people. They were comfortable and therefore they must be good. To them, God’s blessings meant they were good and going to Heaven.

Do we still do that today? Do we still assume that because we live in a nice house, we mostly pay our bills, we haven’t been convicted of any crime worse than traffic tickets, because we dress well, we speak well, we have a car that we can count upon – Do we assume we are good people? And do we assume that the man begging at the intersection or at the church is "bad" because he doesn't have these material things? Maybe we make that assumption and maybe we don’t, but I’m sure we each have friends who assume this. We all have friends who assume they have no need of salvation because they are already good enough for God. Or if they aren’t good enough for God, they believe that’s because God is mean, hateful, and wrathful, and not good enough for them, and so they choose not to believe in the Christian God, but prefer to believe in a god that behaves more nicely to them, a god they make up.

John spoke directly to these people. He let them have it! He called them out to repent, to re-think their relationship with God. (The Greek word metanoia means to rethink, but we have traditionally translated metanoia as repent.) Hear what John said:

He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!”

Just like the Jewish crowds who thought they would be saved just because they were Jewish, God’s Chosen People, descended from Abraham, don’t we often say to ourselves, “But I am a Christian, descended from Christians. Of course I’m good and I will be saved.”

But John continued: “Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

The trees John talks about are the “good” people John is talking to. What is the fruit he’s talking about? Could it be leading others to the love of God through our piety, our good deeds, our clear love for others? Could the fruit be results, actual results that come from helping others?

“What then should we do?” the crowds were asking him. The crowd understood the danger that their immortal souls were in, they understood that John was telling them that simply living comfortably wasn’t good enough, they understood that they needed to produce the fruit that God wanted. And so they asked John, “What then should we do?”

He replied to them, “The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same.”

And John spoke on and on about what it meant to be a good person, the daily sacrifices that had to be made, the need to stop being so comfortable and selfish and the need to personally help those who did not have those comforts.

John didn’t speak of merely giving away one old shirt out of the dozen or more you owned, John talked about giving away your next-to-last shirt, a real sacrifice, a real chance to depend upon God. John didn’t talk about giving a food pantry a couple of cans of food out of the 50 cans you had, but about giving away half of what you had in the cupboard. John told us that God wants us to look at the people around us as though they are part of our family, sharing as a family does, truly sacrificing food and clothing and every other good thing. John spoke of a radical change in our lives, He spoke of rethinking our lives so we weren’t so focused upon our selves, but on others. This was what God wanted.

And John offered to wash away our sins with the water of baptism. John offered to give people a chance for a clean start, a chance to start over doing what was right instead of living comfortably, a chance to stop assuming we were good because we were comfortable.

Are you comfortable? On the whole, are you comfortable with your life?

Eagles

When a pair of eagles is about to lay eggs, they build a nest. They start with big sticks and then gradually move to smaller and smaller sticks and then twigs. Then, they put in leaves. Finally, the mother eagle takes the soft down hair from her chest and she feathers the nest with it so it will be soft and cozy for the eaglets that will soon be hatched, so they will be comfortable, warm and cozy. Comfort is good for little ones.

Is your nest soft and cozy? Have you ever thought about when your nest is feathered enough? How much feathering of your nest are you going to do? How much feathering is enough?

Then, after the eaglets are hatched, they grow and grow and finally, there comes the time when they need to fly from the nest. So mother eagle begins to pull those soft down feathers out of the nest so the nest bottom will become sharp and poky and uncomfortable for the eaglets. They move up to the edge of the nest and one day they fall over the edge and they must fly.

Perhaps your world has become sharp and poky. Teenagers know when home is uncomfortable Perhaps your world is becoming uncomfortable. Perhaps that’s because God knows that it is time for us to stop hiding in that soft, cozy, comfortable nest. Perhaps God knows that it is time for us to FLY! Perhaps it is time for us to go into the world and achieve the godly goals God has for us! Perhaps we have to share some of that comfort we have with those who are uncomfortable.

John made things uncomfortable that day for his listeners. And many of them chose to rethink their relationship with God. They began to understand that, despite the fact they were good and successful and comfortable by the standards of the world, they needed to change. They needed forgiveness. They needed to grow closer to God. They needed to worry more about others and less about themselves.

There were many people in that crowd that didn’t take long to make their decision. They walked down to the River and were baptized. They were the people who already understood their sin. They were the people who already knew they needed forgiveness, they needed salvation, they needed a new start. They were humble. They had been waiting for a chance to come back to God and John gave them that way. And they jumped at the chance. Will you jump at the chance to get right with God? Do you want to be baptized? If so, call me or see me at Cedar Grove United Methodist Church.

Others in the crowd made their choice, they walked away and went back to their comfortable homes, to their servants, to their pleasant lives where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at their ancestry, at their inheritance, but at their lives, where no one reminded them that God wasn’t looking at the sacrifices their parents and grandparents had made, but what they had given up, where no one reminded them that God was a jealous God who wanted to be worshiped far more than they worshiped their comforts, their homes, their money.

And those who went home to their comforts…they missed the main event, the big show, the most important part of what happened in that spot there beside the Jordan River in the Valley. For John was just the warm-up act. John was the carnival barker attracting the crowd to the Big Tent. John was the pre-game show, who said He wasn’t even worthy to untie the sandals of the One who would come after Him.

A Vision

Imagine being there that day. Imagine you can see what is happening...

The vision forms...John has been speaking in the heat that morning…and you can smell the sweat from the crowd. The water looks cool and inviting before you. A gentle breeze is blowing from the East and it brings the mixed smell of flowers – and animals. It is the smell of life blowing in. Life always smells both good and bad, sweet and sour, beautiful and ugly.

The wind reminds you that the same word is used for wind, for breath, and for spirit. God’s Holy Spirit, God’s Holy Breath, God’s Holy Breeze.

A fly buzzes near your head, trying to distract you from what John is saying. A group of well-dressed young men from Jerusalem have been asking John what to do and finally, in disgust, they decide to leave. But several ordinary men and women go forward, down into the water for John to baptize them, and they all come up from the water filled with joy! Again, the breeze blows from the East.

And then, as if He came in on that breeze, a taller man walks down to John. They look similar – there is a family resemblance. But where John is roughly dressed, the new man is middle-class, wearing a robe. Where John’s skin looks like leather from many days in bright sunlight, the new man’s hands are rough and calloused from many days using tools. Where John seems like a wild man – the new man seems almost kingly in bearing.

They talk in the water. The man is asking to be baptized. John shakes his head no, almost bowing before the other man as if to say the man doesn’t need to be baptized. The other man insists. And John baptizes the man in the water. As the tall man comes up from the water, a dove descends on his shoulder, and the crowd says “OO!” And you realize something important has happened, you just don’t know what. But you hope you’ll find out. You’d like to talk with that man. Maybe someday. You hear a voice from the crowd say, “That’s John’s cousin Jesus!” And the vision fades away…

But all of this is years in the future. Is that what it is like to be a prophet, to see a vision? It’s something to consider later. For the people who love their comforts won’t see it. Instead, the people who chose to be personally uncomfortable by helping others, by talking to others about Jesus, who share their time and wealth and talents with others for God’s sake – they will begin to spend time and talk with the Man from the vision, for they will learn to walk with Him, for you cannot get close to Him if you leave the river bank, you can’t get close to the star coach if you remain in the stands, you can’t borrow money for a house if you won’t go into the bank to meet the bank manager. Jesus requires us to get uncomfortable if we are to meet Him.

For now, we have to follow Joseph and Mary and that donkey downstream, deeper into the valley, closer to the Sea of Death, having Faith that one day, that new man who seems so kingly will actually come to the River to meet with John. For we have days and many miles to travel until we get to Bethlehem. And the worst part of the road is still to come. We all have to walk into the wilderness in order to escape the Valley and reach Bethlehem.

This week, I ask you to come to prayer with the question of comfort on your mind and on your prayer lips. Come to God and ask what comforts in your life are keeping you from God. For instead of being comforted by STUFF, God wants to be your comfort. Ask God what comforts you need to give up so that you might fly before the Holy Wind of God, the Holy Breath of God, the Holy Spirit of God and work with Jesus at changing the world for the better. What comforts are holding you back, keeping you from being free?

Prayer

Let us pray:

God of freedom, you rescue us from slavery to sin, but you also can free us from our slavery to comforts. Show us how our comforts have become our sin, remove our need for those comforts, break the chains of comfort that keep us from serving you. Set us free to speak of your love to our friends, neighbors, and family – as well as the strangers we meet along our life’s journey. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song: Wild and Lone the Prophet's Voice 

Benediction

Now walk into the world on your life’s long, long journey, listening to the Holy Spirit, declaring the Word of God and speaking of the glory of Jesus our Guide. And our God will be your comfort according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Advent Chapter One - Leaving Home

 Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; Luke 21:25-36 

As many of you know, I once owned an orchard. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, even persimmons grew in my orchard. When a derecho, a horizontal tornado, came through, I lost a small apple tree completely, broken off level with the ground, and a large pie cherry tree went down. I cut that cherry tree off about two feet above the ground, because that was where the trunk broke.

Over the next months, a green shoot grew up from the trunk, using the stored energy from the roots to send out new leaves, for the heart and power of a tree is in the roots. The energy is stored in the roots, the power of life is in the roots. Left by itself, the shoot would develop into an entire tree, as strong as the first one. In fact, every year, to ensure that orchard trees and grapevines continue to bear well, the branches of old wood are pruned off, cut off, and new shoots are encouraged to grow. Most orchard trees are pruned to lose a quarter to a third of their old growth. It is necessary for the tree to bear new fruit consistently.

With many grapevines, it is common to cut off 90% of the old growth and only leave 10% as a basis for the new growth, for it is on the new growth that the fruit grows. And so a spring vineyard looks like it has been attacked by locusts, with only a couple of vertical trunks per vine, and a short stub of horizontal. Yet in the fall, the vine is overwhelmed with new growth, bearing much fruit. And the people of Israel understood grapevines…

In ancient Israel, the greatest the kingdom of Israel ever grew was under the leadership of King David and then his son, King Solomon. Israel’s control extended from the Sinai though modern Israel, the “West Bank”, the area known today as Jordan, most of Lebanon, Damascus in Syria, and even up to the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Israel dominated the Middle East trade routes.

However, after Solomon, Israel became weak and divided because of a civil war (which divided the country into Israel in the north and Judah in the south) – and the fact that the new kings turned away from God. Other kingdoms began to reclaim parts of Israel. Eventually, even Jerusalem was conquered by outsiders and the people were taken into captivity. The kingdom had been cut down – only the root was left – But God was the root. God was the power and heart of Israel. From God, a new shoot, a new branch, a new, living growth would come forth. Jeremiah saw this destruction of Israel, but God spoke to Jeremiah in Chapter 33:

“Look, the days are coming”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“when I will fulfill the good promises
that I have spoken
concerning the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time
I will cause a Righteous Branch
to sprout up for David,
and He will administer justice
and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely,
and this is what she will be named:
Yahweh Our Righteousness. (from Jeremiah Chap 33)

Jeremiah spoke of a branch of the family tree of David sprouting up from the roots like that shoot growing from my cherry tree, like new growth coming from a pruned grapevine. And so the people of Israel began to look forward to a coming Messiah, a Savior, a man who would rescue Israel and make Israel and Judah great again, a place of peace, a place of safety, a place of beauty!

The Land and the Characters

When the Romans conquered the area we know as Israel about 50 BC, during the civil war that started with Julius Caesar, they established several garrisons around the country. One of these was established a short distance from Capernaum, near the village of Nazareth, which was located about two thousand feet above and 15 miles southwest from the Sea of Galilee. This location was defensible, and guarded the road from Galilee to the coast. A few hundred Jews built up the small village of Nazareth, partially to provide goods and services to the Roman garrison, and partially because it was just a good place to live. Among these was a carpenter named Yo’sef ben Yacob – Joseph, son of Jacob.

A carpenter in those days held some prestige. His skills were in demand, much as an engineering degree has some prestige today because of the difficulty in mastering the profession and the resulting above-average pay that an engineer today – and a carpenter back then – received. Joseph was not wealthy – but he was not poverty-stricken either.

He had a fiancée, a woman named Miriam – or Mary. She was a descendent of Aaron, the first High Priest of Israel. Her older cousin Elizabeth was married to an important priest at the Temple in Jerusalem, a man named Zechariah. So she, too, had connections. But neither Joseph nor Mary owned any significant farm land, so Joseph spent his time in his carpentry business. She was in her mid-teens, a normal marrying age for women of that day. We don’t know how old Joseph was.

Around the year 4 BC, the carpenter and his young fiancée began the journey from Nazareth, a village near the Sea of Galilee, to the village of Bethlehem about 3 miles from Jerusalem. (What? Not in the year zero, you ask? No, for the monk who 400 years later would calculate the date made a mistake, but by the time the mistake was discovered, it was over fifteen hundred years too late.)

The entire area was under control of the Roman Emperor, and the rulers of the Empire had decided it was necessary to count the number of people in the different territories, so men had been asked to bring their families to the ancestral homes of their clans. Our carpenter was part of the clan descended from King David’s father, Jesse of Bethlehem, so it was necessary for this man and his family to travel for the counting to Bethlehem.

The man was Y’osef and his young fiancée was Miriam. These were solid, traditional names. Joseph had been the name of one of the sons of Abraham. Joseph had rescued the entire family of Abraham because God had allowed Him to rise to a very high position in the government of Egypt just as a famine hit Israel.

The original Miriam had been Moses’ sister, who rescued Moses with her quick thinking and had him raised by Pharoah’s daughter when Moses was found floating in the Nile River. Joseph – and Miriam, both strong leaders of Israel.

Later English-speaking people would change the names to the more familiar Joseph and Mary. Both man and woman were also descendants of King David, the great king who had lived some 1000 years earlier. Mary was scandalously pregnant with her first child, so tradition has it that Joseph put her on a donkey for the journey rather having her walk.

Their family was still missing something – a child. But the child would arrive soon. Meanwhile, Joseph and Mary had a journey of about a hundred miles to travel on dirt roads that would scarcely hold a single cart. The roads were unpaved, dirt and mud and rock and ruts.

Do you remember when you were young and beginning your life with your husband or wife? Do you remember how difficult things were – and how you did things that were physically demanding, things you wonder how you ever survived, things you simply could not do today? But you were young and you were able – and willing – to work hard to make it, weren’t you?

The Comfort of Nazareth

Nazareth lies above and south west of the land of Galilee. Galilee is the land around the freshwater Sea of Galilee in the north of modern Israel. The Romans called the lake the “Lake of Tiberius”. This lake is mainly fed by snow melt from the mountains north of the sea, in modern day Syria, the disputed territory of the Golan Heights, and the mountains of Lebanon.

Because of the geology of the area, the surface of the lake is almost 700 feet below sea level, about 13 miles long north to south, and about 8 miles wide from east to west. The Sea of Galilee is about 140 ft deep and contains many fish, similar to what Americans commonly would call tilapia. To the south flows out the lower Jordan River, which leads down to the Dead Sea. It is down the Jordan Valley that the road lie to the Jerusalem, because it was down this valley road that people could count on having water and being protected from cold wind and weather. It was to this road that Joseph and Mary walked and rode, about 15 miles from Nazareth.

The land around the lake has long been a farming area. The land is well-watered, and the low elevation means that the area stays warm even in the winter. In ancient Israel, Galilee was considered to have some of the best farmland in the Holy Land. By ancient standards, living in Galilee, even living in Nazareth was comfortable. Very comfortable.

But the journey down the Jordan Valley would not be comfortable for Mary. Mary’s discomfort began the day she realized she was pregnant, for at that time she was not married. Her society was much less tolerant of single mothers than our society, for they blamed the mother for everything that had happened, never thinking about the responsibilities of the father.

But the Father of Mary’s child would always be with her, even before and after Joseph found out and accepted her pregnancy, for her child had been conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, as she explained many years later to a man named Luke, who, in turn wrote about this in the first chapter of his gospel (Luke 1). No man’s flesh had become intimate with her. Yet people still talked. “And SHE says she is pregnant from the Holy Spirit! – SHE says an angel showed up!” For now, Mary was not comfortable. She was not comfortable at all. Falsely accused of doing what she should not do, Mary was not comfortable in that society – and now, nine months later, she was not comfortable on the donkey that Joseph had so kindly provided.

Life was uncomfortable for Joseph, too. The sweet, kind, beautiful girl he had planned to marry had turned up pregnant – and Joseph knew he was not the father, no chance, un-uh, no way! So he thought he might quietly send her off, perhaps with a bit of money, for he had heard – as all men heard – of deadly diseases being passed on from women who had slept around. Plus, she might hurt his business – so he thought. Until he had a dream where an angel appeared to him and told him not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife, confirmed that the child was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, would give a son, and that Joseph should name the boy “Y’shua”, or Joshua, which means “The Lord saves”. The ancient Joshua had been the great Jewish leader who led the people into the Promised Land after Moses died. The boy would do the same. The name was rendered in Greek as “Jesus”. But his neighbors would make Joseph uncomfortable, having to defend Mary’s honor. Yet Joseph stood up and kept Mary with him. You see, a man with character takes care of his family, even if it makes him uncomfortable. For Joseph also wanted a family.

In our lives, we live in comfort. However, just like Joseph and Mary, we often discover that we are missing something in our lives. We have an emptiness in the comfortable lives we live. We work – but why? To make money to keep our comforts? We spend tremendous time and money on leisure activities – watching television, on social media, looking at our phones, crafting, upgrading our homes and property, preparing food for family get-togethers. But what is our purpose in life?

Mary was not comfortable, but she undertook the journey because she had a purpose for this trip. Both Joseph and Mary knew they had a purpose common with many people during this trip. At one level, their journey to Bethlehem was simply for the purpose of following the order of the government, an order to return to the home of their family to be counted, and since Joseph was from King David’s family, he was to return to Bethlehem, the home town of his ancestor, King David. This was their general purpose, common to many people.

But Joseph and Mary both also knew that their baby who was soon to be born was special, conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, and thus was very special, perhaps even the promised Messiah, the Savior of Israel. Mary had received the Holy Spirit inside her. They had each encountered an angel, and God had given them a particular purpose, a purpose they would not fully realize for many years as that son grew and ultimately began his ministry to the world. Their purpose was to protect the child growing within Mary, the boy they would eventually know as God on the earth, allowing Him to grow as an ordinary human boy as much as possible.

Each of us has two purposes as we journey through life. The first purpose, common to all people who have been baptized and received the Holy Spirit inside them, is to gradually let that shoot of God grow in our heart, to let that life of God expand into every fiber of our body, mind, and soul, to help God take over our life so that we can live eternally with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But we each have a particular purpose which we can only find in Bethlehem, as Mary and Joseph did.

Each of us needs to journey to Bethlehem from our comforts in Galilee. We need to find our particular purpose, our calling, our life which God has planned for us. Each of us needs to understand why God is sending us on journeys that are difficult, that take us out of our comfort, that beat us up as we walk over difficult roads.

Joseph knew that no wood ever became a beautiful piece of furniture while remaining on the tree.

But there is a purpose simply to leaving home. No one has ever become great who did not leave the comforts of home. No tool of metal ever became tough without being placed in fire and beaten by the hammer of the blacksmith. No tree ever bore good fruit without being pruned. Joseph knew that no wood ever became a beautiful piece of furniture while remaining on the tree. The hero must undertake a journey if the dragon is to be slain and the princess rescued. Change begins when we walk out our front door, not knowing when – or if - we will return. We leave our comforts and that is when we begin to find our purpose.

I think we instinctively realize this, for many teenagers know that they must move away from home, they must travel to another town to live and learn, to work, to marry. Perhaps this is why our small-town young people who move out generally become independent and successful, while many of those who remain in their home town, living with parents, have a difficult time succeeding in their lives. But this leaving home and beginning the journey was not just the journey of Joseph and Mary. It was not just the journey we each undertake.

Jesus left His comfortable home in Heaven to be vulnerable among us, to be hungry in a cradle, to walk barefoot on the earth, to experience the cruelty of children to each other, to work and sweat and thirst, to be taunted by people, to be beaten, to bleed, to hang upon a cross, to suffocate, and to die. He had a purpose in leaving home – that we could become reconciled with God the Father once more, that we would live eternally in comfort instead of suffer eternally in pain. That’s why Jesus left his comfortable home and came to be with us. That was His particular purpose. He left his comfort in Heaven to ensure our eternal comfort in Heaven.

And so Joseph and Mary packed their bags, loaded Mary on the donkey with their most precious cargo in her womb, and began the walk to Bethlehem. This day, they would travel downhill 1500 feet and walk about 10 miles. It was the beginning of a long journey, for they were leaving home – and would not return for several years. But soon, very soon, they would watch – and Mary would feel – the arrival of God upon the earth, Jesus the Christ.

Many years later, as Luke recorded, Jesus would tell His followers about the day of His return: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars… People will faint from terror…At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

As we look forward to the arrival of Christ once more, I ask you to take your Bible out of the bookcase or from under the coffee table, to open it up to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, to read a chapter in each every day– one every morning, one every evening.

And ask – “Lord, what is here for me this year? What is my purpose over the next twelve months? What shall I do for you, Lord, in this terrible time of waiting?”

As we enter the time waiting that is Advent, as we wait in this time of COVID, I ask you to bow in prayer with those questions:

• “Lord, what is here for me this year?”
• “Lord, what is my purpose over the next twelve months?”
• “Lord, what shall I do for you?”

And listen for the answer in all reverence. Then write down what the Lord whispers back to you. And you will see that the Lord is indeed good. And like Mary, you will feel the arrival of Jesus in your life.

Prayer

Let us pray: Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the lessons about life that you teach us about yourself. Thank you for your consistent, perfect love that was with us even when we did not know you. Thank you for sending your Son, the One who left home for us – Jesus Christ. Show us the next step in our long, long journey to learn about you. Please grow each one of us in Your ways. Help us to Praise your Son to our family, friends, and neighbors. We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Song: O Come, O Come Emmanuel  

Benediction

Now walk into the world on your life’s long, long journey, listening to the Holy Spirit, declaring the Word of God and speaking of the glory of Jesus our Guide. And our God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.