How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith?
Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we also do for you. May He make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
Your response last week filled me with joy.
And now we turn to Advent, the time of preparation for the Lord’s arrival. We want to jump ahead to Christmas, but for now, we will wait in Advent, preparing and waiting...
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; Luke 21:25-36
Yes, we will talk about the arrival of Christ on earth as a small baby. But we will also talk about the next arrival of Christ on earth at the head of the greatest army the world has ever seen. And we will also be talking about the arrival of the Lord into the lives of individuals, the time when someone realizes for the first time that Jesus is still alive, that being called Son of God has a meaning that Jesus is also God in the flesh, God walking upon the earth, that Jesus and Holy Spirit are here to bring us into a relationship with God the Father.
As many of you know, I once owned an orchard. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, even persimmons grew in my orchard. When the derecho came through, I lost a small apple tree and a large pie cherry tree went down. I cut that cherry tree off about two feet above the ground, because that was where it 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 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 old wood is pruned off, cut off, and new shoots are encouraged to grow. 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.
In ancient Israel, the greatest the kingdom of Israel ever grew to was under the leadership of King David and his son, King Solomon. After that point, Israel became weak and divided. Eventually, even Jerusalem was conquered and the people taken into captivity. Jeremiah saw this destruction, but God spoke to Jeremiah:
“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.
Jeremiah spoke of a branch of the family tree of David sprouting up from the roots like that shoot growing from that cherry tree. 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 great again, a place of peace, a place of safety, a place of beauty.
Around the year 4 BC, a man and his young wife began the journey from Nazareth, a village near the Sea of Galilee, to Bethlehem, a village 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 man was named Y'osef and his young wife was named Miriam. Later people would Romanize the names to Joseph and Mary. Both were descendants of King David, the king who had lived some 1000 years earlier. Mary was pregnant with her first child, so tradition has it that Joseph put her on a donkey. Their family was still missing something – a child. They had a journey of about a hundred miles to travel on dirt roads that would scarcely hold a single cart.
Galilee is the land around the freshwater Sea of Galilee. The lake is fed by snow melt from the mountains north of the sea, in modern day Syria and Lebanon. But 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 is about 140 ft deep and contains many fish. To the south flows out the lower Jordan River, which leads 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.
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 was comfortable. But the journey down the Jordan Valley would not be comfortable. Mary’s discomfort began the day she realized she was pregnant, for at that time she was not married. And her society was much less tolerant of single mothers than our society, for they blamed the mother for everything, never thinking about the responsibilities of the father. But the Father of Mary’s child would always be with her, even after Joseph accepted her pregnancy. But for now, Mary was not comfortable.
In our lives, we live in comfort. However, just like Josef 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, preparing food for family get-togethers. But what is our purpose?
Joseph and Mary knew they had a purpose. At one level, their journey to Bethlehem was simply following the order of the government, an order to return to the home of your family to be counted, and since Joseph was from King David’s family, he was to return to Bethlehem, the home town of King David. But Joseph and Mary both knew that their baby who was soon to be born was special, perhaps even the promised Messiah, the Savior of Israel. They had a 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 God on the earth.
Each of us needs to journey to Bethlehem from our comforts in Galilee. We need to find our 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.
But there is a purpose 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.
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, suffocating, 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 forever 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 purpose.
As we look forward to the arrival of Christ once more, I ask you to take your Bible out of the bookcase, to open up to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, to read a chapter in each – 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?
As we join in Holy Communion. I ask you to come to 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.
As many of you know, I once owned an orchard. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, even persimmons grew in my orchard. When the derecho came through, I lost a small apple tree and a large pie cherry tree went down. I cut that cherry tree off about two feet above the ground, because that was where it 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 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 old wood is pruned off, cut off, and new shoots are encouraged to grow. 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.
In ancient Israel, the greatest the kingdom of Israel ever grew to was under the leadership of King David and his son, King Solomon. After that point, Israel became weak and divided. Eventually, even Jerusalem was conquered and the people taken into captivity. Jeremiah saw this destruction, but God spoke to Jeremiah:
“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.
Jeremiah spoke of a branch of the family tree of David sprouting up from the roots like that shoot growing from that cherry tree. 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 great again, a place of peace, a place of safety, a place of beauty.
Around the year 4 BC, a man and his young wife began the journey from Nazareth, a village near the Sea of Galilee, to Bethlehem, a village 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 man was named Y'osef and his young wife was named Miriam. Later people would Romanize the names to Joseph and Mary. Both were descendants of King David, the king who had lived some 1000 years earlier. Mary was pregnant with her first child, so tradition has it that Joseph put her on a donkey. Their family was still missing something – a child. They had a journey of about a hundred miles to travel on dirt roads that would scarcely hold a single cart.
Galilee is the land around the freshwater Sea of Galilee. The lake is fed by snow melt from the mountains north of the sea, in modern day Syria and Lebanon. But 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 is about 140 ft deep and contains many fish. To the south flows out the lower Jordan River, which leads 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.
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 was comfortable. But the journey down the Jordan Valley would not be comfortable. Mary’s discomfort began the day she realized she was pregnant, for at that time she was not married. And her society was much less tolerant of single mothers than our society, for they blamed the mother for everything, never thinking about the responsibilities of the father. But the Father of Mary’s child would always be with her, even after Joseph accepted her pregnancy. But for now, Mary was not comfortable.
In our lives, we live in comfort. However, just like Josef 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, preparing food for family get-togethers. But what is our purpose?
Joseph and Mary knew they had a purpose. At one level, their journey to Bethlehem was simply following the order of the government, an order to return to the home of your family to be counted, and since Joseph was from King David’s family, he was to return to Bethlehem, the home town of King David. But Joseph and Mary both knew that their baby who was soon to be born was special, perhaps even the promised Messiah, the Savior of Israel. They had a 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 God on the earth.
Each of us needs to journey to Bethlehem from our comforts in Galilee. We need to find our 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.
But there is a purpose 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.
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, suffocating, 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 forever 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 purpose.
As we look forward to the arrival of Christ once more, I ask you to take your Bible out of the bookcase, to open up to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, to read a chapter in each – 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?
As we join in Holy Communion. I ask you to come to 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.
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