sermon advent

Begin with Introduction. Robert Plant.

⁴But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.'

1. When the time had fully come...

A) ripe and ready...pregnant

B) a long wait 430 years

2. God sent forth His Son

A. A meeting of God, Jesus, and the Spirit presided over the gathering and the plan was to come recreate a people.

B. A conspiracy of cooperation...The three together as One

3. Born of a woman...born under the law...in order to redeem (ransom) those under the law

A) Moses and the Exodus...living not as sons but as slaves...and their cry came up to the nostrils of God...and He heard their cry and sent forth a SON...one named Moses...Moses came to set them free...Psalm 102 'cries of help, we are in need'

B) In the same way...God heard...O Come O Come Emmanuel is one of my favorite songs at Christmas...Beth Neilson version...God responded (just like in the first Exodus)

C) The act of God: The Gift of Selflessness: Phillipians 2...God sent a son a baby...His very own

Conclusion:

I hear people talking about being being godly. How can I be more like God? How can I have God's heart? What is it you want me to do Lord? How can I be like you?

It is not so complex. Selflessness. Give. Why? Because you hear a cry.

Close: Joy to the World.

michael

When he first said it I thought it was overkill. Overly dramatic. Artists can be that way. And Michael Pritzl, lead singer for The Violet Burning is an artist. A bit unrestrained, a bit unpredictable.

"I want to be the whore at Jesus feet."

So of all the characters of all time this is who you chose. This is the person you want to be. Ok. Black nails and staged blood baths. Whatever.

Now I know. He was and is 'right'.

ugly

"She carries a pearl in perfect condition

What once was hurt, what once was friction

What left a mark
No longer stings..."--Bono

It had really gotten ugly; this long complicated disaster of a marriage between God and Israel. She had become a splinter in His side. A wound in His story. And He cried out 'I hate divorce' but there seemed no other way. In this fallen world even He could not stop her. How do you live with someone who continually sleeps with other men? All the time. And it left a mark. And it seemed over.

For God and His beloved Israel.

But just then, when the time had fully come, when time was so pregnant, just then, the water burst. And new life came.

Aren't so many stories just like this. At the final moment something turns the tide, changes everything. But it often comes with a price; bloody and broken. Shamed and humiliated. In the end she comes bearing a pearl. She commits herself to him. He to her. So beautiful she comes out. And what once was friction no longer stings. When the two cover one another as One.

A pearl comes from the Oyster. She is born out of a foreign irritation. The instinct of the shell is to 'cover' itself. The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

God the shell. Israel the irritant. Jesus the pearl. It is the way it works.

And the two are one at last. And I swear on the days that are left we will walk in fields of gold. In a place called heaven. It could be Oz. It could be Neverland. It might be the 'walkabout' of Australia or the top of the staircase in The Titanic. It could be named anything. But it represents everything we ever want or need. It is a place that has to be believed to be seen. There is no place like home. And I will 'see it'.

One day. On 'that Day'.

All things will become new among the fields of barley.

Because God never makes promises lightly. And a covenant is a promise, no less. And He makes right all that went wrong along the way. It has already begun. But He could not do it alone.

It is not good to be alone so God created her again.

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley

The west wind moved in Jerusalem after 430 years of silence. God had not spoke. The wind had been silent. But then, you could feel the storm coming, the wind picked up. When John the Baptist entered the scene saying; after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand... the wind began to blow on the fields of barley.

It still moves on those who watch. And with vision they can see the final act of this love story.

On these proverbial 'streets of gold' we will walk together. And they will be there, this pair. This Pearl, this Covering. This beauty; this bravery. And there will be children there. Created by the wind. Playing without any thought of the morrow. With laughter unabated. And I will be one of them. And the children won't remember the pain of the falleness. And either will you. Or Him. Or Her. We won't even know we were orphans once.

All things will become new among the field of barley.

We need this more than anything else ever.

More

written by Brian Doerksen

More than oxygen, I need Your love
More than life-giving food the hungry dream of
More than an eloquent word depends on the tongue
More than a passionate song needs to be sung

More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I need You more than all of these things
Father, I need You more

More than magnet and steel are drawn to unite
More than poets love words to rhyme as they write
More than the comforting warmth of sun in the spring
More than the eagle loves wind under its wings

More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I love You more than all of these things
Father, I love You more

More than a blazing fire on a winter’s night
More than the tall evergreens reach for the light
More than the pounding waves long for the shore
More than these gifts You give, I love You more

song and story

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon a stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. --Shakespeare

Songs sing and movies tell tales. Plays are about the playwright as much as about the play. But one could not exist without the other. Stories give us more truth and fill in the holes that words leave empty. In the end the Bible is like the story, the song, the movie, and the play we've seen over and over again but can never get enough of. I hear the story in nearly every song and story I see. Perhaps it is a blessing, maybe a curse; some might say it is the product of a vivid imagination. Never matter. It hangs around me like an echo, a breath, a voice. We are insatiably made with this hunger for a happy ending. 'A tale told by an idiot' is not what we need or want and it is certainly not our intended finale. We need a better story to finally set our hearts to rest.

Macbeth was wrong. We are made for more than this. Things may fall apart around us. We die. We seem destined to lose. But it is in the losing that we find life. We can rest in a better story. If we look with our soul we will see.

A story that contains all our hope.

One is out there.

The surprise ending of the Story told in scripture is the mystery unveiled by the Christ, spoke of extensively by the Apostle Paul. The revelation of Jesus should be likened unto the opening of a curtain on a stage in the final act of a play. It is revealing, surprising and disorienting to the traditional powers and in the end to ‘power’ and domination itself. The Christ event is clearly the commencement of one way (Christianity) and the conclusion of another (Judaism). It, the Christ event, is the center point of the history of mankind. It is when the way of a man and a woman is unveiled in the most beautiful way. In this we find love. In this we see the glory of God. It is here that we must know what God has been ‘up to’ and how this story goes. I have presided over many weddings. The final act of the processional is the coming out of the bride. It always comes in the end in white.

It is here we see what really was done on that cross.

A new way is unveiled. Naked and unashamed.

We can make the Bible about whatever we want it to be, we have in the past, we do in the present, and we may in the future, but I am convinced of this: The resolution of the dilemma of God, and the release of the cosmos from the tyranny of the fall, is the key question answered in the Bible. It is the purpose of the Bible. All else hinges on this issue...all else falls like so many dominos, once this issue is brought to terms and laid to rest. This is Biblical, Pauline language for the work of God in Christ. The curtain has fallen and the epilogue is being played out. We live in this story and it feels familiar at times. Déjà vu is the feeling that we have been in a present emotion at another time. There is something familiar going on. This story told in scripture being everyman’s story—is just like that.

You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.
Death of a Salesman
Willy Loman, Act 2

slip this skin

Early morning April 4, a shot rings out in the memphis sky, free at last they took your life...they could not take your pride.--U2

And then Jesus breathed his last breath, gave up his spirit, and finally at last this is over, 'it is finished'. And if someone strikes you on your cheek then turn the other cheek; and they might strike you again and again perhaps 40 times or maybe more until you are bruised and battered and unrecognizable.

I was bruised and battered
And I couldn't tell what I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
Saw my reflection in a window
I didn't know my own face

Oh brother are you gonna leave me wasting away
On the streets of Philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Just as black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of Philadelphia

Ain't no angel gonna greet me
It's just you and I my friend
And my clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles just to slip this skin

The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia

They can even kill you in the end; and they might; but they cannot take your pride, your faithfulness, your love. And Jesus bowed his head and said 'into your hands I commend my spirit'

My clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I am free at last

'Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation'

And in the end of the very end Israel did just that. She kept the covenant in the One seed. And in ths way it all came to pass that the covenant was fulfilled and she is truly 'God's special treasure'...and her name will be called Jesus.

In the end these three remain...faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love. But what do we know of love? We will be shown. We will see? What we don't know we can discover in the relationship of Father, Lover, and Spirit...for God who is three is really One in love.