Merredin Uniting Church

Kevin Tengvall talks about Ride for Life

Over the past two weeks we have been looking at what Advent means. We have seen that it is a time of preparation – a metaphorical “waiting place”; and we have seen that it prepares us for change, because when Jesus enters in to our lives everything becomes different. Today we look at the kind of change which happens, and what we must expect when it does. Jesus has a radical effect on our lives, He changes our world and He gives us a new future. This change is however, not without its struggle.

For most this struggle is about leaving an old world behind; a world of familiarity and comfort. Sometimes it is the struggle of dealing with our sin; the struggle to confess and actually reach the point of repentance. We find it hard to understand the forgiveness which Christ brings, and we find it even harder to own up to our sin. At times it is the struggle of a crisis which grabs hold of us until we feel almost suffocated; freedom only comes when we grasp out to the saving hand of Christ. And then it is sometimes a struggle to escape a culture and/or a life which is so different to the one which Jesus offers to us.

Our hesitancy to take hold of the unknown is understandable. It requires a launch of faith. A friend of mine always says that faith is spelled r-i-s-k. Faith is a risk endeavour, it requires us to step out of the dark into the light, from the desert into the river, from blindness to sight and for us to leap up from our lameness. Without rising to this challenge we simply remain in the old world and all the promises of God are just “wishes” and “could-have-beens”.

Jesus enters into creation to turn the promise into reality. He came as a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem; He moved through this world, changing, restoring, renovating and healing; and He ended His life with a cruel death at Calvary. In His death He redeems us from the one thing which holds us back – the selfishness of sin. He sets us free in His resurrection and He pours out His Spirit, saying I will never leave you nor forsake you. Everything which Jesus did, He still does. He still restores, He still heals, He still forgives and He still gives us our life back. All He asks is that we come to Him in faith, and He will pour out the grace: “For it is by grace that you are saved, by faith (the “risk” step) – this is not of your own works, it is the gift (freely given) of God, so that no-one can boast (of his own achievements.)”

In this season of preparation for the Advent of our Lord, take the time to reflect on your own struggle (and resistance) and contrast it with His great offer of grace; yield yourself to Him and let Him bring the fullness of life alive in you.

While the year is winding down for most in the world, it has, in fact, already started for those who follow Christ. Our year begins with Advent – the four weeks before Christmas. This is why the season is so important. If we wait for the secular beginning of the year, the promise of new beginnings gets lost in the holidays, new year, new jobs, new budgets and so on. Instead we enter the secular year already prepared to go there with Christ. Advent is a spiritual season; one which we must not neglect. It is easy to get caught up in the cycle of the secular world … schools close, harvest ends, holidays are taken – yes, things do wind down in our secular lives as well but we must nonetheless be winding ourselves up in our spiritual walk with Jesus.

A similar thing happens in the weekly cycle. The world sees Monday as the beginning of the week. For us, it’s Sunday, the celebration of the Resurrection. Our week ends on Saturday, the day of rest and begins on Sunday, the day of worship. We begin with God; not in the workplace. If you begin your week at work rather than at worship then your priorities become misplaced. Your salvation becomes focussed on your effort rather than on the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

So …. our year has started and we are looking forward to all the things which will happen from now on.

Today we have the last opportunity to bring food items for the Christmas Hampers but the opportunity to make donations for the Leprosy Mission via the Christmas Tree Envelopes goes on. Anne Sutherland will give us an update this morning.

On Wednesday we pack Christmas hampers at the SDA Hall for distribution to the less fortunate in Merredin and surrounds. All are welcome to assist.

Next Saturday evening is the Carols by Candlelight Service at the Rec Centre – we are hosting on behalf of the Merredin Churches Fraternal. It is also the Nukarni Christmas Tree event. Carol services will be held in Bruce Rock and Southern Cross next Sunday evening and in Mukinbudin on Christmas Eve.

Next Sunday Colin Chapman from the Gideons will share with us at Merredin Church on the activities of the Gideons and their commitment to get the Word of God into every hotel, school and hospital. There will be a Retiring Offering and offers of other means of support for the Gideons. We will also have a special morning tea to farewell John Rutherford who is leaving Merredin to live with his daughter.

We will have a Christmas Service in Merredin on the 25th (conveniently on a Sunday this year) and a New Year’s Service on the 1st (also Sunday). For the rest of January we combine with the other churches (as indicated in this Newsletter). On January 29th we will launch the Alpha Course at a Combined Parish (and town) service in Bruce Rock. The LentEvent program begins on February 22nd and we will start the E100 Bible Reading Challenge on May 13th.

Lots to look forward to as we journey on with the Lord in the wonder of His grace.

 

Shalom

 

Isaiah 35:1-10

Matthew 11:2-11

We started the season of Advent by reminding ourselves that it is a season of preparation – specifically we found that it is “a waiting place” as we await the coming of the Messiah;

He who came that first Christmas,

He who comes to us now in our need,

and He who will come again to gather us unto Him.

 

Last week we saw that “everything is going to different ” because Jesus has come, is coming and will come into our lives.

 

Today, in our windup of this season, as we prepare to celebrate the season of the Christ we will see just how different life really can be, because Christ has entered in.

 

Isaiah paints a picture of a desert which blooms; of strength which comes to the weak and of courage which comes to the fearful.

In his vision of the Messianic Kingdom He says that the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap with joy and the mute tongue will shout for joy.

There will be streams in the desert and the burning sand will bubble with springs.

He describes the Highway of Holiness upon which the ransomed of the Lord will come with singing into Zion.

 

It is a dramatically changed landscape ….

It is a picture of restoration – of hope springing forth, right at the point of hopelessness.

Deserts harbour rivers,

Blind, deaf, lame and mute people have their senses restored.

A path going nowhere becomes a Highway to heaven.

It is a metamorphosis …

The dictionary describes metamorphosis as “a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism”.

Metamorphosis seldom comes without a struggle – when the Kingdom comes amongst us, it does not begin with the singing, or with gladness and joy.

It begins with sorrow and sighing … but once the Kingdom comes … when we enter Zion, according to the prophet, then everlasting joy will be upon our heads and the gladness and joy will overtake us …. and finally the sorrow and sighing will flee away.

 

We want to resist the struggle. We don’t want to repent, we are reluctant to confess our weakness and failure – but these things are necessary if we are to discover the fullness of the life in the Kingdom of God – where Christ reigns in our hearts

Let me tell you a story …

A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shrivelled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.

 

The promise of Advent – the coming of the Messiah – is about the complete change which Jesus brings into our life.

Deserts which bloom, blind people who see, lame people who walk, deaf people who hear and so on …

That’s the promise of Advent … but there is also the journey of Advent. And sometimes that can be quite painful.

 

Did you notice that John was in prison when he sent his disciples to Jesus with the question, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

He had previously known the answer to that question. Just last week we reflected on John’s comments about the Messiah and the baptism of Jesus – He had heard the voice from heaven – “This is my Son. in whom I am well pleased”, he had seen the Spirit descend upon the Lord.

But now he is suffering in jail and he needs reassurance – “Are you the One?”

 

This happens in the midst of our own struggles … we begin to question what we had previously held to be true and firm. Our faith does get shaken in the struggle, we do begin to wonder.

But this is the time to hold fast. Here is the push forward – like the butterfly. This is maturity, when we look beyond the present moment into the hope of God’s promise.

 

Jesus does not respond to John’s question with a simple “yes”. That would be grim comfort for a man in prison.

Instead our Lord points beyond the present, into the promise which is already being realised. He points to the restoration, the metamorphosis, the hope fulfilled.

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the outcast are invited in, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised and the poor are discovering good news – This is the promise of Kingdom come.

 

I believe that John would have been greatly comforted by Jesus’ response. He would have seen beyond the walls of the prison, beyond his imminent death, into the realised promise of God which had been revealed in Christ Jesus.

John was no weakling – no reed swayed by the wind. This was not a man who sought the comforts and graces of life – fine clothes and king’s palaces.

No, John was the messenger of the Kingdom. And he, perhaps more than we realise, knew about the struggle which was needed for this message to be realised. He knew that it required repentance; he knew that it required the chopping down of fruitless trees and the burning of chaff.

In a sense, John would have known in Jesus’ response that his own end had come. The message he had come to deliver was now realised – now he had nothing more to offer, he was chaff in the wind.

 

Has the Kingdom come upon you this Advent? Are you ready for the coming of the Lord?

Not just for another celebration of Christmas, with all its joyful singing and sharing … Are you ready for Christ to enter your heart and life? Are you ready for Jesus to return? Will he find you expectant and ready to burst forth from the cocoon?

 

Isaiah 11:1-10

Matthew 3:1-12

Advent is the season for the preparation of the coming of the Messiah – He came to us in the Incarnation: we celebrate Christmas;

He enters into our lives every day: we celebrate this in our baptism, at the Communion Table and in worship & prayer;

He will come again: we prepare ourselves in confession and repentance.

 

Because Jesus has entered into our lives we are changed, the world is changed … everything is different!

 

In that document which we call “Merredin’s Creed” but which actually was formulated at a Parish Camp just before I arrived in the Parish we say:

“The thing about Jesus for us is:

We are totally different; it’s who we are now

He is our all, always with us every day

There is nothing else as good

He is our reason for living, our comfort, our peace

He gives our life purpose and hope

He has captured our hearts, we are held

God is a real person in our lives

This is true, with the answers to our questions

Our lives make sense

This is the only way we have spirit communion with God

Oversees our soul, gives us direction.”

 

Because of Jesus, the world can never ever be the same again.

 

In the beginning, Adam walked with God – they shared a sweet communion.

Then sin came …

WHY? Because man wanted to be equal with God; he wanted the wisdom to choose his own way – he chose the way of selfishness.

Adam was separated from God, and mankind, as a whole remained separated. Only a few who chose to submit themselves to the way of God were able to share this sweet communion with the Almighty: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and a few others.

But then came Jesus … and suddenly everything is different.

 

Isaiah, another of those who walked with God, gives us a few pictures:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; and from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

He us telling us that out of the barrenness will come forth new life. He goes on to speak of the Messiah …

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him

He will judge with righteousness

The poor and the needy will get justice

The wicked will  be destroyed

 

The prophet speaks of the radical change which will happen with the coming of the Lord. Then in verses 6-9 he tells us that this change will affect not only our relationship with God – in the case of both believer and non-believer, righteous and wicked – but it affects the whole of creation …

The wolf will live with the lamb

the leopard with the goat

the calf with the lion … and a little child will lead them

All the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.

 

Because of Jesus everything is different …

 

Of course, not everyone believes that.

I didn’t for the first 27 years of my life.

 

We celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world at Christmas. Its a wonderful celebration – we share gifts and Christmas pudding; we put up trees and lights; we send cards to absent friends.

We might comment about the commercialisation of the Christmas Festival but the truth is that all the world stops still – even those who don’t believe. For a little while we forget our antagonisms and we have a taste of the peace and goodwill which marks the season – and the coming of the Messiah.

 

When I came to faith 34 years ago, it was like Christmas in July! My life changed dramatically, everything was different.

But how …

Well, there was the voice – I heard the Lord speak to me audibly. That was a pretty moving experience.

But more than that – there was the repentance.

 

John the Baptiser came, as one preparing the way of the Lord, and he called people to repentance.

And people came from far and wide – they left the cities and the highways to trek out into the desert.

They came because they needed a sea change.

Their lives were going nowhere … oh yes, they were busy with the things of life. They were working hard and making money but life still seemed empty – there was something missing.

Certainly that was my story.

 

John comes into each of our lives – perhaps he is there with you today – and he calls us into a new place.

Prepare the way of the Lord … make straight paths for Him.

He calls us to repentance.

You cannot claim the way of self righteousness and still be open to the coming of the Lord into your life. This is the “wall”,  the barrier which Adam erected between mankind and God.

Repentance means that we tear down that “wall” – it is no longer “I” that sits on the “throne” of my life.

Repentance is about submission to God – it is not about weakness but about recognising the One who is the Lord.

When Adam was banished from Eden it was so that he could not find his way back to the Tree of Life and thus live forever in his self-righteousness.

But notice what John the Baptiser says, “The axe is at the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

What is he saying?

First, he is speaking to the Pharisees – challenging their self-righteousness.

But, I believe, he is also speaking of a newness of life for those who choose to acknowledge Jesus in their life. There is only one tree which produces good fruit – and that is the Cross of Christ. All others are distractions and temptations which lead to the deception of self-righteousness.

 

John calls us to the baptism of repentance but tells us that another comes after him who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

It is the promise that Jesus will change our lives forever.

 

In my 34 years of walking with Christ, I have struggled much as  the axe came down on the trees of my self-righteousness. Oh yes, there are still many trees in the forest but I know that each day I can see a little clearer and a little further.

 

And when He comes again – perhaps just to meet me when I die, or perhaps when He comes in the flesh for all mankind, there will be no other trees in the forest – just one – the Cross on which my Saviour died to pay the price of my sin.

 

Everything is different because of Christ.

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist cry announces that the Lord is nigh; come then and hearken, for he brings glad tidings from the King of kings.

 

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36.44

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the start of the church year. This is the season when we begin the preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But it is not simply a preparation for Christmas – that is the celebration of only one way in which Jesus comes to us.

 

He also comes amongst us now, in the every day – most notably in Word and Sacrament, but also in His constant Presence with us, for before His ascension He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We know the Presence of Jesus when we pray, when we need comfort, when we cry out to Him.

 

But Jesus will also come amongst us again, in the flesh, to judge creation and to bring the time of peace and joy which Isaiah so eloquently presents to us today.

“In the last days,” He says, “the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

 

We are in the last days; the end is coming – we can be certain of that. But when will it be?

Its not for us to speculate on the time – even Jesus said that only the Father know the time and hour. But we can be prepared.

 

We have been affected by several tragic deaths in the Wheatbelt in the last few months. Lives suddenly ended on the highway of life. There have also been those who, having lived their lives, long and as well as they were able, passed on from this world into the next.

Last Sunday afternoon a little girl, fell off the tractor her grandfather was driving. Not even four years old, she died under the rear wheel of the machine. It is a family tragedy.

When each of these people were born and growing up, living their lives, they had no idea when that life would end. We do not know, and more than that, we are not going to know.

As Jesus said in our Gospel text, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

 

The desire to know the end is very much part of our society. People spend millions on psychics, tarot cards, fortune tellers and astrologists in order to get a glimpse into the future. I am not sure what the total spend is but a report in the London Telegraph this week (which, incidentally was covering the Eurozone financial crisis) said that Italians spend eight billion dollars a year on fortune telling.

 

If we know what the future holds, if we knew when the end would come, we would pretty much do what we like now, knowing that we could always do the rush at the end to get everything right at the last moment. We would know what to do with our savings, our possessions, our superannuation, our purchases …. Life would be a breeze.

The problem is that not one of us even knows if we will see today’s sunset.

 

In our gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is speaking of the ordinariness of His coming. People will be eating and drinking, getting married, working in the field and in the kitchen.

He came in an ordinary way when He was born in a stable in Bethlehem. He comes in an ordinary way into our lives every single day – perhaps that is why we often do not even comprehend His Presence.

And He will come in an ordinary way when He comes again – two men working in a field, one will be taken and the other left; two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will betaken and the other left.

 

And this tells us something about the way in which we should be prepared for the coming of Jesus – we should focus, not on the end times, but on the purpose which God has for us and the world right now.

Martin Luther said that if he knew that the world would end tomorrow he would still plant an apple tree today. Live your life as if it will never end, prepare your heart as if it will end in a few minutes.

 

If we knew when the end was near, the temptation would be to hole up in a bomb shelter and wait. We would create a fortress mentality, guarding ourselves against the enemy – the unbelievers, the homosexuals, the wicked, the drug addicts and alcoholics, the bikies … in fact, everyone who we do not agree with, because we are pretty sure that God doesn’t agree with them either.

Instead, however, God calls us to live in the midst of uncertainty. It is only in that uncertainty that we discover the certainty that Jesus Christ is in the midst of it with us.

When we stop trying to figure out “when”, we will have the energy to listen to “what” God is calling us to do today.

 

Advent preparation is about removing the “noise” from our lives so that we can see and hear the coming of Jesus amongst us today. Jesus spells this out very clearly in the next chapter of Matthew – the text we used last week.

In the Judgement scene of the condemned, they say to Jesus, “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”

 

Jesus often comes to us in the least of our brothers and sisters. In the form of those who we do not, in our assessment of ourselves, consider to be equal with us or deserving of God.

The danger is that we will miss His coming to us in the busy-ness of our religious preparing, or our self-righteous attitude.

If we ignore, or trample, our neighbours today we will not be ready to to welcome Jesus when He does come into the ordinariness of our lives today, or when He returns in all His glory.

We are to live in constant readiness – not in personal righteousness – but in attentiveness to the Holy Spirit who is always with us.

If this were your last day on earth, how would you spend it?

THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MOMENT…

If you aren’t spending it that way, why not?

 

As you know, I have been preparing and working out the plans for next year in our Parish. As I have been doing that I have become much aware of how much of what we are planning is about preparing to know Christ’s Presence with us now, and when He comes again.

Focussing on worship – do you realise how much of our worship is actually focussed on rehearsing our death? Each time we come together, we remind ourselves and encourage each other with the promise and hopes that carry us through the difficult time of death.

“This is a foretaste of the feast to come.”

“The Lord bless you and keep you.”

“The peace of the Lord be with you.”

And so much more!

 

Worship is not only about the adoration of God, it is also about community – these are the things of eternity.

 

We are also focussing on the Scriptures and Prayer. This is the communication of heaven. God speaks to us through His Word; we speak to Him through prayer. We need to know the language of heaven before we get there.

(Our family once flew into Paris from New York. It was a long flight that began in Los Angeles and we had planned to spend a few days resting up and seeing the sights before going on to Johannesburg. The problem was that the travel agent had messed up our hotel booking and it was the Mayday weekend and all of France had descended on the capital. There  was literally “no room at the inn”. And we couldn’t speak the language. We could speak English, Afrikaans and a bit of Zulu but those were all irrelevant to a Frenchman. Its going to be like that for us in heaven, unless we learn the language of heaven now through the Scriptures and prayer.)

 

And we are wanting to be more involved in outreach and mission – to be able to give water and blankets and Christ’s love to the least of these.

 

We are heightening our awareness of Christ’s coming. We are, as Paul says in our text from Romans, “recognising that the night is almost over and the day is nearly here.”

We are “understanding the present time, waking from our slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

 

Yes, we are living in uncertainty, but that uncertainty is about things that really do not matter. Our certainty is built on the One who is with us and who will continue to be with us always.

 

Advent is about refocussing and regrouping. It is a time to take stock of our lives for living it well in the midst of uncertainty.

 

Christ came as a baby and we celebrate. Christ will come again, of that we are assured. Christ comes in our midst today, right where we are living at the moment.

And so we begin Advent – “preparing for the revelation of Jesus in the joy and sorrow, the laughter and the tears, the comedy and the tragedies of our daily lives here and now.” (Edward Peterman)