December 1, 1996 Advent 1 Gifts Before Christmas I Corinthians 1:7 "... you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ..." EPISTLE: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 THE HOLY GOSPEL: Mark 13:(24-32)33-37 (The revelation of Christ in glory is) . . . like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home he puts his servants in charge, each with his own work to do, and says, you watch out for each other and do your work. I'll be back!" When you were in second or third grade did you ever-- do you remember-- did you ever have your teacher say, "I have to go down to Mr. Benson's office for two minutes. I'm going to leave the door open and Mrs. Hagen across the hall will be listening. You be good and quiet and do your work. I'll be right back!" I remember. I hated it when they made some teacher's pet the tattle-tale. Still, sometimes we were reasonably quiet. Sometimes maybe we weren't. In high school it was a little different. It could be that when a teacher left the room it would get noisy, or things might be thrown around the room, maybe someone's lunch or a pretty girl's books. Usually when classes changed and students filed into a classroom the teacher would be there waiting, because the class would be in her home room. But sometimes we would have to wait for the teacher to come. It could get very interesting if the teacher's coming was delayed more than a minute or two. We would think, "Maybe she isn't coming at all!" For a little while when I was a junior in Akron North High we had a substitute English teacher, and she was almost always late for our class, which met on the third floor. She usually arrived with her arms full of books and papers, out of breath, scolding us, good-naturedly for the most part, into silence. One awful day she was later than usual, and the class was noisier than usual. Erasers were flying, books were sailing. It probably doesn't do any good to tell you that, truthfully, I usually did not take part in the chaos, although I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Anyway, on this fateful day one boy-- Stanley M__-- produced a cherry bomb from his pocket. The room got very quiet. Stanley lit a match and we held our breaths. The windows were open-- they were the kind that the middle pane swung out from the top. Stanley evidently intended to light the bomb in the classroom and throw it out the window toward the athletic field two stories below. We couldn't believe it-- but Stanley lit the bomb-- and threw it-- and it hit the window pane above the open window and bounced back into the middle of the room, under the desks, hissing. Just at that very moment our teacher came breathlessly into the quiet room-- quiet except for the hissing-- with her arms full of books. But before she had a chance to worry about why we were quiet, or what the hissing sound was ---KA- BOOM!-- the cherry bomb exploded, and instantly the room was full of smoke, and then there was silence again. Our teacher did not drop her armload of books. She did not miss a step. She simply went over to the desk and sat down and put her face on the books and papers she had been carrying. I think it may have been a full five minutes that no one said a word, no one made a sound. I imagine today the police would be called and someone would be expelled from school, and there certainly would be a lawsuit. But her awful silence, and the fact that we were all shocked and stunned was punishment for us all, even Stanley the bomb-thrower. More than forty-five years later I still feel that little woman's pain and disappointment at the chaos that greeted her coming. The Gospel passage is a little like that. We see it from our point of view. It is a little frightening-- these passages about the Lord's Coming. God has said, "I'll be right back-- you be good and do your work!" And he has left the room in charge of the learners. The actual words from the Gospel are: "It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work (to do)..(Mark 13:34)." From the Master's point of view, do you think He ever wonders how faithful we will be? Do you think He has made a mistake to trust us so much? In Luke 18:8 Jesus asks what seems a wistful question, "When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Will we say, "The teacher is late today-- we can do whatever we want!!"? In many ways, it seems that that is exactly what this world IS doing. I've been re-reviewing biographies of John Wesley lately, and I have been impressed again at how much our culture today resembles the early 18th century-- not in terms of modernity or creature comforts, but in spiritual poverty and violence and utter insensitivity to God and kindness. They had rampant gambling, we have rampant gambling, legal and illegal. They had bull-baiting and cock-fighting-- we have Terminators and DOOM and super-heroes that kill and let blood. It almost seems like chaos is going to be reigning when the Master returns. Two statements stand out to me in the Gospel lesson, both statements from the same sentence, (verse 31.) Jesus says, first HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL PASS AWAY! (Isn't that encouraging??) "Heaven and earth will pass away?" You may say, I don't know much about that right now, but my employer has sold out and I don't have a job and I don't have money-- and I do have bills! "Heaven and earth will pass away?" You may say I don't know about that right now but people I really trusted have let me down. I hurt, and I hurt a lot! Where are you when I need You? "Heaven and earth will pass away?" It isn't comforting at first to realize that heaven and earth WILL pass away. Chaos comes. But Jesus also says, BUT MY WORDS - - WHAT I AM TELLING YOU RIGHT NOW - - WILL NOT PASS AWAY! Jesus says, "Trust Me! I am making you a promise! I'm coming back! I won't leave you without resources!" I'm leaving YOU in charge! Each of you has his or her work to do! So stay at the job! Don't give up! I'll be back! SO, WHAT DO WE DO? HOW DO WE APPLY CHRIST'S WORDS? Cry! Cry out to God! Then keep your eyes and ears open! God cares! And also comfort one another-- because God may be using YOU, even as you hurt, to bring His love to someone else. Don't refuse to be God's instrument of healing. Paul says that because of the GRACE of God, we are NOT LACKING IN ANY SPIRITUAL GIFT that we need as we wait for our Lord to reveal Himself. Even though heaven and earth are passing away, God gives us resources to hold steady as we wait Christ's coming. Those gifts include LOVE! Not love in the abstract-- but the tender love of God for YOU! And that love, reflected in the Body. ` Those gifts include STRENGTH! The promise is "As thy day, so shall your strength be!" Those gifts include, best of all, GOD'S SPIRIT! His PRESENCE ! Yes, the Master went away-- but He is very much with us because he has sent us the Presence! CONCLUSION - It seems like a funny way to approach Christmas-- with words about heaven and earth passing away. Is it right to approach the happiest, friendliest time of the year with messages of the end of time, and of the Day of the Lord? I have a more serious question: Is it right to make the Gospel message "fit" the times? (In the 18th century John Wesley did not spend too much time moaning and crying about how wicked his age was-- he preached instead that God LOVED the common and the uncommon, the rich and the poor. He told people they could be saved and they could know it.) Like John Wesley, I don't propose we spend too much time with negatives, crying what's wrong with our times. We are in charge of the Church-- and we each have a job to do. We have the gifts necessary to carry out our jobs faithfully. I don't have any special revelation that a new Wesleyan Revival is on the way, and the world may end in chaos before we know it. But I do have revelation that we are called to be faithful where we are. The results are not for us to determine. God has said, "I'll be right back-- you be good and do your work!" And he has left the room in charge of the learners. The actual words from the Gospel are: "It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work (to do)..(Mark 13:34). #279 It Will Be Worth it All Communion: THE HOLY COMMUNION The Law Read and Confession Made The Lord Jesus Christ has said to us: "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This if the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Shall we pray: Search us, O God, and know our most private thoughts. Try us, and show unto us the deepest motives, the real state of our hearts. Forgive us where we have been selfish, or insensitive, or sinful in any way. We cannot keep the Great Commandment, and truly love You, O God, with all our heart, soul, and mind unless You in mercy grant to us the grace of Your indwelling Spirit. We cannot love each other as we should unless Your love is shed abroad in our hearts. Brothers and sisters, let us search our hearts. In silence let us ask God to draw us near to Himself so that we can come to his table with confidence. We do not presume to come to this table, O God, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your great mercy and grace. Grant us to eat the Bread of heaven, and drink the blood shed for the remission of sins, that we may live in Christ, and Christ may live in us forever. Amen Let us confess our faith: The Nicene Creed (STL # 14) The Informal Invitation ("This is not my table . . . ") Holy and gracious Father; in your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin, and were worthy of death and hell, you, in your mercy sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to You, the God and Father of all. He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world. The Words of Institution: On the night in which he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had give thanks to You he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, "Take eat: THIS IS MY BODY, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. After supper he took the cup and when he had give thanks he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you; THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW COVENANT, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink this, do it in remembrance of me: Amen We praise you for the mystery of our salvation! We truly believe Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again! Bless these emblems, O God, and make them to us the Body and Blood of your Son, spiritual food, and spiritual drink of new and unending life in Jesus Christ. And now, together, we pray, as Jesus taught us: Our Father which art in heaven . . . Now, humbly we receive the Gifts of God for the People of God BENEDICTION 1. PRAYER Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, even though often the world in which we live is dark. Grant us grace to put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. Grant us grace that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, or in that hour when we shall be called to meet Him, we may be found faithful amid the chaos, rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. 2. May the Sun of Righteousness shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path: and the blessing of God Almighty-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- be among you and remain with you always. Amen.