ADVENT 2A
December 9, 2007
SCRIPTURES
ISAIAH SCRIPTURE (hope)
-The Peaceable Kingdom,” is one of many artistic representations of the oft-quoted passage from Isaiah we hear today. Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom
-The
peaceable kingdom of God for which we long may require that we put an
ax to resentments and biases that are rooted in our hearts. We may have
to winnow our greed and overindulgence; we may have to burn the chaff
of our impatience. Only then will the wolf and the lamb, the leopard
and the kid, the calf and the lion, the child and the cobra find rest
under the widespread branches of a sheltering tree in the peaceable
kingdom. Dianne Bergant
MATTHEW SCRIPTURE
-A speaker at a workshop for ministers said: if we haven't preached the six sermons which would get us fired, we haven't been doing our jobs! I've a feeling that John was "doing his job"! Pastor Brie's sermon, Shoots and Roots
-Emmanuel and Immanuel. One from Latin and one from Greek.
-Why was John the Baptist put here in the Advent lectionary? Advent is a time of preparation
-What is repenting? Literally the Greek (metanoeo) means, "to change one's mind." However, given Matthew's emphasis on "bearing fruit," his idea of "repentance" probably goes back to the Hebrew shuv -- "to change one's ways." It involves more than just thinking in a different way. Stoffregen
-Often we think of repentance as an "I can", (I can change, I can improve, etc.). Better to think of repentance as an "I can't"...(I can't do it alone, only God can give me new life) Idea from Richard Jensen
- The DESIRE to repent....isn't that what we really need? Lindy
-Continually be repentant!" It isn't like a door we pass through once that gets us into the kingdom. Repentance is the ongoing lifestyle of the people in the kingdom. Repent is in the present tense which denote over and over again. Stoffregen
-The kingdom of heaven" is uniquely Matthew's phrase. He often uses it in place of Mark's "kingdom of God."
-What should be our response to the coming of heaven's rule? Surprisingly, it is not worship or praise, but repentance. Perhaps this is the big problem with the coming of the Kingdom or the coming of Jesus at Christmas or Palm Sunday -- we want to celebrate and praise, rather than repent -- to let the coming one change our lives. Stoffregen
-The real beginning of the Gospel is the preaching of John the Baptist.
-The word baptizo literally means "to dip," and secondly, "to wash. Water cleanses only the outside. Being immersed in the Holy Breath also cleanses the inside. Fire refers to judgment
-The biblical meaning of "repentance" is quite different from an apology. In the Jewish Bible, the Christian Old Testament, "repentance" means "to return" - that is, to return from exile, to return to life in the presence of God, to a life centered in God. Borg
-In the Christian New Testament, the word "repentance" carries this meaning, and one more. The roots of the Greek word for "repentance" mean "to go beyond the mind that you have." Borg
-So apology and repentance, forgiveness and repentance, are quite different. Apology and forgiveness do not in themselves imply change. Repentance does. Borg
QUOTES
-"The Spirit of God is something disturbing, driving . . . for he desires to turf us out of our everydayness," Odo Casel
-."Advent is the season of hope awakened not by our changing circumstances and fickle emotions but by the action of God in our lives, igniting the dying embers, setting fire to our passion and searing us in a way that means we are forever changed. Michael Spangler
-"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! " -Isaiah 52:7.
-Frederick Buechner, writer and theologian says, "To repent is to come to your senses."
- Literally repent means “Turn around!” to turn from sin AND to turn towards God
-It isn't our job to judge others. But it is our responsibility to call others to repent, the judgment is between them and God.
-Frederick Buechner in his book titled "Wishful Thinking" p.79 defines repentance this way. "To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens. True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, 'I'm sorry,' than to the future and saying 'Wow!.'" It seems to me that John the Baptist is looking at the future, expecting the "more powerful one," and saying "WOW."
-in the Kingdom is not an elevated
game of gaining favors and avoiding losses.(vii)
- To repent is to come to our senses:
about our priorities; about the things that we allow to draw us away
from worship and the work of the Gospel.
Rev. Lauren J. McFeaters
- We shall have to repent, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked , but for the appalling silence of the good people. M. L. King Jr.
- If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.
-It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit. Josh billing
-Proactive = change from inside out.
-Repent brings the past into the present.
-Repentance is not about the past but about the future.
-Striving to get beyond our vomit. A. Huxley
-Guts to leave the ruts. G. Mann
-He who never changes; never mends.
-The best we can become is redeemed sinners
-You’ve got to get them lost before you can get them saved.
-Not expressing or repressing but confessing.
-Pro-active waiting
-We need more U-turns in our lives.
-Becoming is superior to being.
-Like Russiian dolls that stack inside each other. We are the smallest…all others are masks, falsehood, etc. To repent remove outer layers
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.Do you remember the story about the goldsmith who was asked by a child how many times he put the gold back into the fire? When did he know that all of the impurities were gone? Remember the goldsmith’s response? "When I can see my own face in the gold." Christ will not come to refine us until he can see his face in our own faces. In sermon by Rev Tony Lang, St John’s Presbyterian Church
2. Sin is like mud on a window. God's love and mercy is like the sun trying to shine through to us to light our way, cheer us and give us life. But the mud keeps the sun from shining through the window. The mud stops the rays from reaching us. It doesn't stop God from trying to shine on us but it stops us from being able to receive the light of the world. With the tears of repentance we ask forgiveness and the mud is washed away. So the reason repenting is so important is because without it we have obstacles between us and God's grace. Rev. Elizabeth Lee Self
3. Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabush, there is only one way out--a road built by God himself. But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That complete about face is what the Bible calls repentance, and without it, there's no way out of town. BrianWherdon
4.-"I shall be
telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert
Frost
HUMOR
-The Floogie Bird. It was a wooden bird that had a small label around its neck that read, "I fly backwards, I do not care where I'm going. I just want to see where I've been." told by Harry Truman.
-Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways.
-If I repent of anything it is very likely to be my good behavior. Thoreau
- Crossan said that he thinks of guilt on the heart as like gas on the stomach -- something to be gotten rid of, a flatulence of consciousness, if you will. Dominick Crossan
--Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways.
-Guts to leave the ruts. G. Mann
--Too many of the "Born again Christians" were breech births.
CHILDREN
- Using puzzle pieces match up wolf with lamb; lion with calf; and baby with snake. Explain to children that this is a picture of the world as God plans it to be. From here you can go in several directions: (Shalom, peace) (God's gift to us) (Advent, wait, expect, etc.)
-Show picture of Peaceable Kingdom (can download it from link above) discuss.
- Bring in a stuffed or wooden bird and tell story about the Floogie Bird.
-Make a jig saw puzzle (out of card board) with large pieces. have on the back of the puzzle a picture of a man. On the front ..
a picture of the world.. Put puzzle together having children helping if possible. Tell story about a little boy who amazed his father by
putting the puzzle together so quickly. the boy said, "There was a picture of a manon the back; when I put the man together, the world came out alright."
Explain that what ever happens in the world first happens inside people. Repent means to change from within. Lindy. ( An old idea from Fulton Sheene)
PRAYERS
-Recenter our lives around faith instead of fear.
- Center our thought not around our strength but thine.
Grant us wisdom that we may see our way out of our darkness into thy light.
- Steady our spirits , Deepen our faith this day
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
1. Church Should Repent, Not Gays John Shelby Spong: OnFaith on washingtonpost.com
2. I now see that in the Biblical tradition, repentance actually had very little to do with sin and guilt.explore faith : Moving Beyond Self-Judgment by Dr. Marcus Borg
3. What's the difference between repent and renewal? Lindy
ADVENT
-words: “coming”, in between, remember, repent, rehearse , turn, as if, waiting, watching, expecting.
Anticipation, “To come to” , alertness, attentiveness, readiness, patience, receptivity,
-First Purple candle: represents hope. Second Purple Candle: stands for love. Third, pink candle: represents joy. Fourth purple candle: is a symbol of peace.
-Advent is preparing for the long view. Not a time to prepare for Christmas.
-At Advent we should remember that we straddle a paradox. As Christians we live between the already and the not-yet, DeJong
-Expectations are not wrong...it's where we look for them that's wrong.
-Is God really absent, or does God appear so because we are looking for the wrong God? Paul Nuechterlein & Friends
-"Oh come, O come, Emmanuel"
-illustration: church calendar does not portray a circle that has no beginning or end but portrays a spiral...a propeller moving forward through time or like the threads on a screw with each rotation pulling us along toward our final goal. That goal is the kingship of Christ.
-before the good news comes the bad news Buechner
-Thou wouldst not seek me if thou had not already found me. Pascal
-The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed has been planted, that something has begun. Nouwen.
-To have found God is not an end but is itself a beginning. Franz Rosenzweif.
-We prepare for what already is.
- Is it a game of pretending the past is future? …We find ourselves remembering tomorrow and looking forward to yesterday.
-We are preparing for what already is.
-“Back to the future”
-“The end of the world AGAIN?”
-“ Ready or not here I come”
-“ Wake up call”
-"In the meantime"
-In between times
-Great Expectations
-A wake up call
-"waiter", " wait-ress" , "waiting room". (a time of waiting)
-Advent and "adventure" have a common derivation.
-"here I come ready or not" (hide and seek)
home
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