3rd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Sermon Nuggets by Lindy Black
Advent 3B
SCRIPTURES
•Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." Isaiah gives
voice to the mission and work of God's servant — a people who are
anointed with the Spirit of God and who reverse devastation, causing
righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
-This is "rejoicing" Sunday. A time to light the pink candle!
-The Third Sunday of Advent invites us into a world of reversals, a
world where the captives are freed, where the hungry are filled and
where the rich are sent away empty. It is certainly a world where
things are turned upside down. From the point of view of social order,
such reversals could be considered Antipathies. But from God’s point of
view, they are the signs of transformation. In order to appreciate the
strength of today’s message from Isaiah, we must remember that he was
speaking to people who were dispossessed, people in need of a message
of hope, a promise of some kind of economic reversal.
-It was as if Isaiah was answering the question, "Who died and put you
in charge?" He answers, "God did! The spirit of the Lord God is upon
me. God anointed me."
- See Luke 4:14-30.
-The question, however, is: Are we willing to step forward? Or are we
afraid to have our world turned upside down? Are we the poor who will
hear the good news of reversal, or are we the ones responsible for
their poverty? Are we the brokenhearted who will be healed, or have we
broken their hearts? Are we the captives who will be freed, or are we
the captors who have restrained them? On what side of the reversals do
we find ourselves? Dianne Bergant
- It is no accident that Christmas comes just a few days after this
darkest day. Every ancient society had a festival at about this time of
the year. The ancient Greeks and Romans placed lights in their windows
at this time of the year to celebrate that the days were getting longer
again. It is also in December that Judaism has its festival of lights
called Hanukkah. Alex Stevenson
-in the Greek version of the OT, to bring good tidings is rendered
euaggelisasqai euaggelisasthai, to which is related the Greek word
evangelion. Now, anyone guess what an evangelion is? It's a gospel. A
report of good news. Isaiah is empowered by God's spirit to bring a
gospel to an oppressed and downtrodden people. To bring good news.
•Psalm 126
•1 Thessalonians 5:16-24: Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to rejoice
always in constant prayer, never quenching the Spirit, and, by grace,
stay blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.>
•John 1:6-8, 19-28: John tells of John the Baptizer testifying to the
light and of his interrogation by the religious leaders who asked "Who
are you?" and "Why are you baptizing?" The Baptizer, quoting Isaiah,
tells them that among them stands one whom they do not know, the one
who will succeed him.
JOHN SCRIPTURES NOTES
The concern for this Third Sunday in Advent is the relationship
between Jesus and John; and between John and the Jews Stoffregen
-To evangelize--to 'goodnews-ify' the world, proclaiming God's message.
-"advent" is of pagan origin. Feast honoring this god was called
"adventus."
-Jesus (the name) Christ (the title). Christ means "the anointed one,"
and is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, Messiah.
--As John was subordinate to Jesus, so are we. Our wishes, needs,
desires, plans, purposes and intentions are secondary to those of God
in Christ.
-Advent was never meant to be a month-long fa-la-la-la-la. Instead,
Advent is a time to remember just how much the whole world needs
Christ. Safiyah Fosua,
-I think that the gospel writer wants to make it clear that John is not
any type of messianic figure. John's whole purpose is to be a "sign" /
"witness" who points to someone else. He is almost a nobody -- just a
voice who witnesses to the greater one. Stoffregen
-If the "God-sent-ness" of John makes him part of God's divine plan;
then does Jesus make us part of that same plan when he says: "Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent (apostello) me, so I send (pempo)
you." We are intermediaries or signs that are to point the world to
Jesus, and through Jesus to the Father. Stoffregen
-What does it mean for us to declare, "We are not the Christ"? One
implication is that we as individuals and as congregations cannot save
people. If we are to fulfill our proper role of "not being the Christ,"
we need to be voices (and ears and arms and legs) that point others to
Christ. Without such signs, the people will not know Jesus even if he
is standing in their midst Stoffregen
-In Greek, the Word is “logos” from which we receive our word, “logic.”
The translation could have read, “In the beginning was the Logic, and
the Logic was with God and the Logic was God.” “All things were made in
the beginning through this Logic.” Sermons from Seattle
-"In essence, we are not waiting for Jesus; we are waiting on
Jesus. The very word “disciple” suggests that we are the wait
staff in the King’s dining hall. Jesus himself describes us as
such. This was the role of John, to wait upon Jesus. Jerry
Goeble
-The Old Testament lesson also makes this connection for us. It
is the lesson from Isaiah that Jesus reads in the synagogue at the
start of his public ministry. So we have John and his ministry,
Jesus and his ministry, and the description in Isaiah of the ministry
to which we all are called.
-Let all who have eyes, see! Let all who have ears, hear! The One we
await is already with us; Let us rejoice and sing!
-God never intended his Church to be a refrigerator in which to
preserve perishable piety. He intended it to be an incubator in which
to hatch converts. F. Lincicome
-Until Jesus came, John's life was a long Advent! Barbara
Brown Taylor
-Believing that Christ is alive among us, our Christmas preparations
are not for a coming event but rather for clarity of vision to
recognize what is already here
- Christian waiting is an act of hope and a witness to the one who
comes--Jesus, the light that will never go out. Willimon
-The Gospel of John is a book of "signs" -- namely things and people
who point to something or someone else. A sign comes between the looker
and what s/he should be seeing. It is an intermediary, in that it comes
between two things or people. Stoffregen
-Christian hope does not bury its head in yuletide cheer, etc, but like
an Advent wreath glowing stronger and brighter each week, this hope
pushed its way into the brokenness of the world. Willimon
-In the first three gospels, the word, “kingdom,” is used 113 times but
in the Gospel of John, the word, “kingdom,” is used only twice. In
John, the concept of “life” replaces the concept of “the kingdom” which
is repeatedly used in the first three gospels. Near the word, “light,”
write the word, “Jesus.” Jesus shines in the dark world. Darkness could
not overcome Jesus. Sermons from Seattle
-During Jesus’ life, there were two villages by the name of Bethany:
the first Bethany by the Jordan where Jesus was baptizing and the
second Bethany by Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. The second Bethany
was the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
-Advent is preparing for the long view. Not a time to prepare for
Christmas
-During these four weeks, we prepare for what already is.
-We hear, "The present shapes the future." but isn't is also true that
the future shapes the present?
-Jesus was the audible, visible Word who expressed the heart of the
inaudible, invisible God? Jesus Christ is God's great Visual Aid
. Dale Bruner
SERMON
READY OR NOT HERE I COME
In fact....God is
already here. Advent sometimes makes us feel like God and or Jesus
hasn’t come yet. Here’s a chance to remind your congregation
that God is already here.
-You are on a journey of faith....very much a Pilgrims journey.
You don’t know exactly where you are going nor what it will be
like when you arrive.
- A journey where God is a part of you and you are a part of
God.
- A journey when you grab on to that God that already has hold of
you.
- A journey when you see beyond the physical to the spiritual .
- A journey where you see beyond behavior to relationship with
God.
- A journey when you realize it is through you that God will be known
- A journey where one realizes we serve God by by sharing God’s tasks.
- A journey when we realizes that Spirit is the God rising up through
you.
-A journey of faith which enables you to hold on to those larger
visions and never look back to the lesser visions that surround you.
-A journey when you see beyond the building projects and membership
lists of your church to the greater
missions awaiting.
- A journey were we recognize what is already here!
QUOTES
-H. George Anderson, a Lutheran bishop, has said, "People are hungry
for God, yet are settling for spiritual junk food."
-"Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." Franciscan
mantra
-Anyone who wants to make a good beginning, must keep the end in view.
(Schillebeeckx)
-Ready or not here I come
-The greatest difference between people is in what they anticipate.
Kenneth Lamb
-The Church exists by mission, as fire exists by burning. Emil Brunner
-There are two words used a great deal by Jesus in the Gospels. One is
"Come" and the other is "Go." It's no use coming unless you go, and
it's no use going unless you come. Anonymous
HUMOR
-Do you know what the darkest day of the year is? No, it's not April
15th! It's December 21st, the winter solstice.
-Deja vu all over again
-"Get Ready, Get Set...Wait!"
-Someone once asked my wife if she woke up grumpy in the morning. She
replied, "No, I usually just let him sleep." (Advent is a wake up
call)
SERMON TITLES
-"Waiting in an Age of Uncertainty,"
-Witness to the Light
-"Remaining Awake"
-The People Who Walk Upside Down Diane Bergant
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Rabbi Hugo Grynn was sent to Auschwitz as a little boy. In the
midst of the concentration camp, the death and horror many Jews held
onto what ever shreds of their religious observance they could.
One cold winter's night Hugo's father gathered the family in the
barracks. It was the first night of Chanukah...the feast of
Lights. The young child watched in horror as his father took the
family's last pd of butter and made a makeshift candle using a string
from his ragged clothes. He then took a match and lit the
"candle". "Father , no!" Hugo cried. "That butter is our
last bit of food! How shall we live?" "We can live for many days
without food,! We cannot live for single minute without
hope. This is the fire of hope. Never let it go out.
Not here. Not anywhere." Willimon
2. March 31, 1968, at the Washington National Cathedral, Martin Luther
King Jr. preached his final Sunday sermon. Four days later he was dead.
The title of that sermon was on "Remaining Awake" Through a Great
Revolution," and it is a good reminder as we reflect on Jesus'
instruction to "Keep awake." King began by telling the story of Rip Van
Winkle, who went to sleep seeing a sign of King George and awoke to a
sign of George Washington. He had slept through a revolution. The
story, said King, tells us that "one of the great liabilities of life
is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period
of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the
new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up
sleeping through a revolution." During Advent, I urge you to read and
reflect on Dr. King's testimony. He remained awake, and he challenges
us to do the same. Duane Shank, Sojourners
3.Origen, in the third century, had a great analogy. He told of a
village with a huge statue--so immense you couldn't see exactly what it
was supposed to represent. Finally, someone miniaturized the statue so
one could see the person it honored. Origen said, "That is what God did
in his Son." Paul tells us Christ is the self-miniaturization of God,
the visible icon or image of the invisible God (Colossians 1). In
Christ we have God in a comprehensible way. In Christ we have God's own
personal and definitive visit to the planet. Dale Bruner
4.
CHILDREN
- 1. With a flashlight show the difference between luminous and
illuminous. (Luninous object produce their own light; illuminous
objects (most things) shine by reflected light. Then talk about
the fact that John the Baptist regarded himself as illuminous and
Jesus as luminous. In a sense, Jesus was illuminous shining by
God's light.
- 2. I brought a box of bulbs in a box complete with pot and dirt
ready to add water when planted. On the box were the directions on how
to prepare the pot for the bulbs and there was also the estimated time
for blooms - 4 to 5 weeks. We planted the bulbs in church and watered
later; but we are now "waiting" for the prophecy to manifest itself.
Each week we will be able to see the bulbs growing and changing;
preparing to bloom. We WILL have flowers by Christmas.
- 3. Preparing for a Big Event By Lois Parker Edstrom
Objects suggested: Advent calendar, Advent wreath and candles,
Christmas lights, Christmas cookies--share cookies with children if
appropriate. This is the time of year we begin making preparations to
celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ. What are some of the
ways you prepare for Christmas? (Use objects)
Long ago, God sent a man, John the Baptist, to prepare the world for
the arrival of Jesus and this was the biggest event in all of history.
He was sent to tell people about "the light." Jesus is called "the true
light" because his love can light up a person's life and make it
better. John the Baptist spent his life preparing people to hear and
accept the message of God's love through the life of Jesus
Christ. Now, many years later we still prepare for Christmas as a
way to honor God's Son, Jesus. When you prepare for Christmas by baking
cookies, decorating your house and enjoying the lights of Christmas,
think about "the true light" that can fill you with his love.
PRAYER PHRASES
Behold, Lord, empty vessels that need to be filled. Lord, fill them. We
are weak in faith; strengthen us. We are cold in love; warm us and make
us fervent that our love may go out to our neighbors. We may not have a
strong faith. At times we doubt and are unable to trust you altogether.
Lord, help us Rev. Dr. William K. Quick
-set our lives in wider horizons.
-Recenter our lives around faith instead of fear.
-We are tired of our littleness. Out of our littleness and
partialness weave us into the larger life.
ADVENT WORDS: wait, anticipate, prepare, not yet,
hope, remember, great expectations, incubation, Immanuel, birth pangs,
pilgrim, adventure, interim, awake, postponement, evasion, in between
time, vision, parousia, purple, coming, arrival, longing, repair,
coming, repent, rehearse, anticipation, the long view,
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