Thank you for reading this sermon. I write my sermons to be spoken more than read, using conversational English, so please ignore any errors in grammar.
My use of Jeremiah 33v7-11, 15 and the illustration involving Richard Stearns was inspired by a sermon by Adam Hamilton entitled “A Conspiracy of Hope” and can be found at http://www.cor.org/worship-sermons/sermon-archives/show/sermons/A-Conspiracy-of-Hope/
Simply Christmas
Week 1- Christmas Hope
[Jeremiah 33v7-11 + 15]
November 28, 2009
Ryan Gear
Introduction (Show “Simply Christmas” Title Slide)
We’re beginning our Advent series today entitled Simply Christmas. Our goal is to simplify the busy Christmas season by looking at what the original Christmas was all about.
It’s hard for Hannah and I to simplify because we’ve been buried in baby shower gifts. We want to thank all of you who have given us gifts. You’re very kind, but now, you have to come over and move our furniture out, so we can have room for the diapers and clothes and stroller, and everything else.
It’s amazing that babies are so small, but they require so much stuff. Some parents here have told me to just get used to it. As the kids get older, they just take up more space, and the space for the parents’ stuff just shrinks over time. But we want to thank you.
Hannah and I went shopping on Black Friday, and I think it’s the first time we ever have. But we only bought one thing. We made an agreement as a family with our in-laws that all of us are only going to be gifts for children in the family, and Hannah and I decided to buy one gift for each other. That should help us simply a lot. So, Hannah and I bought our one gift for each other on Friday, and then we at down in front of the Apple Store at Polaris mall.
I looked at the Apple store, and they had a huge Beatles display because iTunes is selling Beatles music now, and there was a life-sized cardboard photo of the Beatles in the front of the store.
Show Slide with Beatles Image
They were playing Beatles music, and it was the “I get by with a little help from my friends” song. As I looked at the Beatles picture, I thought, “The 1960’s just seem like a simpler time. I wasn’t alive then, but the thought of the past seems comforting to me. It’s comforting to look back to the past, and it just seemed like things were better in the past”.
It seems like there’s this general malaise about America and about our future. Newsweek recently called it “American Angst”. When people talk about how things are and about the future, there’s this gloominess. It’s a blah feeling in their voices. People talk about America’s best days being behind us. The national debt is large, and China and India are gaining economic power, and terrorism is constantly in the backdrop.
Then, as I looked at this picture of the Beatles, I remembered that picture was taken in the late 1969, in what was a horrible time in a lot of ways. The Vietnam War was escalating. Protests were taking place all over the country. The Kent State shootings happened in 1970. Inflation was a problem. It was a time when the future looked really scary for America. No one knew then what the future held. It was a scary and pessimistic time too. We’ve been in difficult times before.
Maybe, more personally, you need hope right now. Maybe you feel stuck in a circumstance you wish you could change. Maybe you feel stuck in a job, or you’ve suffered a loss of some kind. Maybe you’re grieving around the holidays. Maybe you have the winter blahs. Maybe you or someone you love is struggling with a sickness or a crisis. Maybe you’re just not sure about the future.
Listen to this Scripture from the prophet Jeremiah. We think of a prophet as someone who predicts the future. There was some of that, but a prophet was someone who spoke for God about the present as well.
Read Jeremiah 33v7-11, 15 (Show Scripture Slides)
7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. 8 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’ 10 “This is what the LORD says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying, “Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever.” For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the LORD. 15 “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.’”
Jeremiah lived in Judah when it was conquered by the King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire. You can see how small Judah was compared to the empire.
Show Babylonian Empire Slide
Judah had no chance. Jeremiah was under arrest when during this time, and there seemed to be no hope. The future was as scary as the present.
Jerusalem was destroyed, and the most of the people were taken into exile in Babylon from 586 BC to 538, 48 years.
I. Exile (Show Exile Slide)
We don’t know what it’s like to be taken into exile, but what would our exile be? Maybe it’s a loss of control over some event in our lives. Maybe it is financial, a job loss or financial struggles. Maybe it’s sickness or a conflict with someone. It could be disappointment. Maybe you’re waiting for something to change. It’s an ongoing battle.
Jeremiah paints this picture that to be in exile is like a tree that has been cut way back, and it’s missing branches. You prune a tree, but it’s like the tree has been cut drastically back and you wonder, “Will it ever grow again?” There are almost no branches left. Maybe you feel like that. “My life has been cut way back in this area.”
A man named Richard Stearns grew up in poverty. His family was always one paycheck away from ruin. His parents divorced, his father declared bankruptcy, and the bank foreclosed on their home. But he worked hard in school, got a good education, and ended up working for Parker Brothers (the company who makes Monopoly and Clue and other games). Amazingly, he became the president of Parker Brothers at the age of 33. He felt like everything he had touched had turned to gold, and he lived in luxury compared to how he had grown up. Then, Parker Brothers was bought out, and he was told he was no longer needed. He writes, “This was quite a traumatic shock after so many years of unbridled success, and I took the news hard. But I promptly picked myself up and started my search for a new job, trusting that God had something new for us.
Within five months, he had gotten a new job making even more money than he had at Parker Brothers. He moved his family to a new city, and then as he says, “the unthinkable happened”. He got fired after nine months. He said this time, God had his full attention. He spent 14 months unemployed. He said it was a time of humbling and reflecting and more than any other time in his life, putting God first. He said that while he was unemployed, he felt helpless, and the powerlessness was excruciating, but he said he learned that “all we are and all we have comes from God’s hand”. He said that he remembered a question from his catechism as a child in the Presbyterian Church. The question was, “Why did God make me?”, and the answer was “to love, serve, and obey God.
In time, he got a job leading a small division at Lenox, a company that makes fine china. In three years, he became the president and CEO of Lenox. What do you think happened now?
He was sitting in his posh corner office, and he received a phone call. He was not fired this time. He was offered a job, but it would require him to take a huge pay cut, move out of his 10 bedroom house on five acres, give up the Jaguar, and work with the poorest people on the planet. He was offered to be the CEO of World Vision, the largest relief agency in the world.
He took the job. How he struggled with it is funny. He compared taking a pay cut to the ring in Lord of the Rings, you know “My Precious”. He wrote a book called “The Hole in Our Gospel” about the Gospel must include justice for the poor and hurting.
He writes, “The word gospel literally means ‘good news’. What ‘good news’ have God’s people brought to the world’s three billion poor? What ‘gospel’ have millions of Africa’s AIDS orphans seen?”
Richard Stearns was cut way back a couple of times, but that was not the end of the story. You might be feeling the powerlessness and the questioning that Richard Stearns felt.
When the people of Judah had been completely crushed by the Babylonians, it was God who gave them hope.
Show Hope Slide
Listen to verses 10-14 again, 10 “This is what the LORD says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying, “Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever.” For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the LORD.
God says through Jeremiah, “You say” that all is lost. You say there is no hope. You say, everything is ruined, but I say… God says the future will look totally different from the present. Where there is now only destruction and grief and loss of control, there will be the sounds of joy and gladness, wedding, parties. The future will look different than the present because God gives faithful, unrelenting love to His people.
I posted a question on my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago asking how “God’s love has changed you”, and here are some of the responses I received:
A woman who struggled with an illness wrote, “God's enduring love has changed me into a more compassionate person. He has blessed me with empathy. He promised me Exodus 14:14 ‘Be still & I will fight for you.’ And he did. And I am alive & my family whole & now I am changed forever.”
A young woman wrote, “God's love is unconditional, which has taught me to try and love unconditionally as well - even when it seems impossible. I try to especially show it to those who least expect it.”
Another person wrote, “While getting divorced I was so devastated. I felt so alone. Someone pointed out that, not only wasn't I alone, but that God actually celebrated my existence. I was dumbfounded! I forgot that God loved me. Not only loved me but celebrated me. I cried for hours. I can still cry when I think God celebrates me. He feels about me like I feel about my daughters. Wow.”
A man wrote, “The love of God has given me a lasting peace; and has made serving Him and helping others to experience this love my life priority.”
Another person wrote, “God's love has been my existence since I was born, but I didn't receive it until I was 16. His love saved my life twice, once when I was 17 yrs and once when I was 38 with cancer. His love is such a peaceful life in a troubled world. I don't know how others live and love without Him.”
Someone whose marriage was saved wrote, “The change in me produced a ripple effect that changed my marriage, relationships, ministry, and perspective that has never left me wanting something other than what He is.”
God has a dream too. Not only did God say that He would “restore the fortunes of the land”, God said cut that he would cause a new Branch to grow from the cut back tree that was missing limbs. And that new Branch would be a new leader, someone kind of like King David, the greatest king in Israel’s history who had reigned 400 years earlier. But that new Branch, that new leader would be unlike anyone before or after, because he would rule with justice and righteousness, the kind that Richards Stearns writes about in The Hole in Our Gospel. This new Branch would be good news for everyone.
Show Jer. 33v15 Slide
15 “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.’”
A depressed little guy who had a scraggly Christmas tree that was missing some branches discovered who this prophecy was about.
Show Charlie Brown Video
As Christians, we believe that the Branch in verse 15 is Jesus Christ. This is a messianic prophecy about the future Messiah, and Jesus came to do what is just and right. And when we do what is just and right, it creates hope for everyone, not just for us.
That’s why we’re inviting people to join what we’re calling the Simply Christmas movement.
Show “Christmas Eve Offering” Slide
A portion of our Christmas Eve offering will be donated to dig a well in Kenya and help children and single moms right here in Gahanna.
Show “Toy Drive” Slide
The toy drive is meant to give local children some toys to play with that they could not have on their own.
Show “Simply Christmas Title” Slide