Pastor S Notes for 1St Sunday in Advent, a Date: 12/1/13

Pastor’s Notes for 1st Sunday in Advent, A Date: 12/1/13

Theme: The Necessity for Watchfulness

Bible Ref’s: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:[8-10] 11-14; and Matthew 24:[29-31] 36-44.

Prayer of the Day

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection save us from the threatening dangers of our sins, and enlighten our walk in the way of your salvation, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Brief Sermon Outline: “Come for an unexpect…”

Focus Stmnt: If we’re to be urgent re: anything, it is to accompany Christ & invite others to do same.

1. Advent always starts out like this, setting up this theme of being watchful, not just for the Christ child in Bethlehem, but watching out for the end of the age, & it will come at an unexpected hour. When it comes to stuff like heart attacks, car accidents or end of the world, we don’t like surprises.

2. For our family get-together on Thanksgiving, I got into a discussion w/ my mom re: being alert to signs of heart attack/stroke, this in light of a small incident in which my dad had been feeling slight chest pain the week before & thought “Well, maybe I should get this checked out next week?”

3. Of course, my nurse sister lit a fire under that wait-&-see attitude; some symptoms you just don’t mess w/. Stressing out my body on Snowbank Trail, I thought a lot re: giving myself a heart attack.

4. But then with other signs/symptoms there’s less urgency, like w/ Lyme Disease (LD). In fact w/ LD a bit of delay actually helps w/ positive diagnosis/treatment. So I was fortunate in July this yr when after 4 weeks looking at all these persistent, unexpected symptoms & finally consulting w/ friends & family, I began putting the pieces together that maybe this was serious & went to the doctor.

5. So we have these two ways of dealing with unexpected signs/symptoms: one of acting immediately and with urgency (don’t wait!), the other of not being too hasty, allowing the truth to emerge before reacting. Both these responses are appropriate for the unexpected day of the Lord’s coming, but not for the reasons you might expect.

6. Advent always seems to throw us into this quandary of not really knowing why we need to be alert and watchful. Should Advent be more symbolic of looking towards Christmas that comes around every year—nothing to get all that exercised about? Or should we be looking for signs of impend-ing apocalypse, where Christ will suddenly come to judge the living and the dead? If we adopt a wait-and-see attitude, wouldn’t it be too late for us to be saved?

7. If we go w/ urgency, it seems we’re buying too much into the whole rapture theology thing, playing on peoples’ ignorance/fear; but if we wait-&-see, how boring is that! Where’s the passion/fire?

8. As people of faith, we want to affirm that the message of Christ’s return is not meant to frighten us. It is to give us hope. Indeed, the reason the Second Coming gives us hope is b/c of the Christ who loves us now through Word & Sacrament, with us always to the end of the age as he promises us.

9. By the time of Christ’s Second Coming, there will have been this massive in-gathering of every-thing God loves (cf. 24:31); & this loving Gospel promise gives us peace in the meantime… takes the anxiety right out of waiting to see the future God intends for us and all creation.

10.I love what Barbara Rossing writes in “The Rapture Exposed”: “The message to Matthew’s original readers was the same as the message today: Whatever traumas befall us, we are to be urgent in loving our neighbor, urgent in caring for the world that God created, urgent in feeding the hungry and visiting prisoners, urgent in living faithfully as Christ commanded us to live.” (Rossing, p. 181)

11. Many folks know the word advent in Latin means “coming.” What’s not so well known is that the word translated as “coming” in our gospel text (vv. 37, 39) is the Greek word parousia which literally means “being alongside,” or “being with.” So in Advent when we speak re: Christ’s coming, we’re not only referring to some future happening at an unexpected hour, we’re also referring to Emmanuel, God w/ us now. Because not even space & time separates us from God’s love in J.C.

12. If we’re to be urgent re: anything, it is to accompany Christ, to go along w/ him in bringing joy & peace to the earth. That’s the meaning of Advent that carries us all the way through to Christ the King Sunday. Christ invites us to engage his loving Gospel mission through prayer, worship, learning, nurturing, giving & serving. Of course, we want others to experience Christ’s presence, too—eagerly inviting them to come for an unexpected, joyful encounter with Emmanuel, the God who loves them.

13. I hope that comes to you as a bit of a surprise—that the hour of Christ’s 2nd Coming is already come--yes, at this very hour thru Word & Sacrament. God has lit a fire under us & we’re no longer content to wait-&-see. We’re sent from the Lord’s Table eager for others to come for an unexpect..

Hymn of the Day: “Come, thou long-expected Jesus” (ELW #254, LBW #30)

Children’s Sermon

Fred: Oh, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!

Pastor: What’s that, Fred? I just can’t imagine what you’re so excited about.

Fred: It’s almost Christmas! Haven’t you heard all the Christmas carols on the radio and in the shopping malls and on TV?

Pastor: Of course! How silly of me to have forgotten…

Fred: I’ll say!

Pastor: So, have your opened your Christmas presents yet?

Fred: What!? I haven’t even bought Christmas presents yet! And then there’s all the Christmas presents from Santa—those don’t even arrive ‘til Christmas Eve.

Pastor: Well, I just don’t know where my head is today. Of course, it would be silly to open presents before Christmas. But didn’t you just say, “I can’t wait, I can’t wait!”?

Fred: Well, yes, but I didn’t mean it. I mean, I can wait.

Pastor: Actually, the waiting makes opening the presents all the more exciting, doesn’t it?

Fred: Yes, waiting is important—it’s a tradition!

Pastor: I agree, Fred. I think waiting for Christmas is an important tradition. Did you all know that the church has a name for that tradition? Do you know what that is? <take the kids’ answers>

Fred: Does it have something to do with that candle thingy? <pointing to the Advent wreath>

Pastor: Actually, it does! Do you all know what that is called? That’s called an Advent wreath. Advent is a word in Latin that means “coming.” And an Advent wreath helps us count down the days to Christmas—and Christmas is the day we celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth as a little baby!

Fred: Oh, that’s an important day, isn’t it?

Pastor: Oh yes, that’s a high holy day in the church year. But we have the whole season of Advent before Christmas to help us look forward to that day. And people who are faithful to that tradition find that their celebration of Jesus coming on Christmas is made all the more joyful and special by doing that! But so many people are impatient. They don’t want to wait for anything. But some things are worth waiting for, right? In the Bible it says that God waited for just the right time for Jesus to be born. The season of Advent helps us to wait just the right time for Jesus to be born, too.

Let’s pray: Dearest God, we thank you for the birth of your only Son, Jesus, born at just the right time. We thank you for that most special gift to the world. Help us to be patient in waiting for Christmas—confident that Christmas will arrive at just the right time, and that our time of waiting will make Christmas all the more meaningful and special. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Word

(Isaiah 2:1-5)

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In days to come the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

3 Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

(Psalm 122) A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”

2 Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.

4 To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

5 For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.

7 Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.”

8 For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”

9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

(Romans 13:[8-10] 11-14)

[Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.]

11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

(Matthew 24:[29-31] 36-44)

[“Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.]

36 “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

Sermon Notes

Signs and Symptoms of Lyme Disease

If you had a tick bite, live in an area known for Lyme disease or have recently traveled to an area where it occurs, and observe any of these symptoms, you should seek medical attention!

Early localized stage (3-30 days post-tick bite):

• Red, expanding rash called erythema migrans

(EM).

• Fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and

joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes.

Some people may get these general symptoms in addition to an EM rash, but in others, these general symptoms may be the only evidence of infection.