2024.12.1 | Lead Us on to the Light
Scripture reading Luke 2:1 - 5
Today is the first day of Advent and the start of our journey into a new year with Christians around the world. Throughout Advent and Christmas, we here at Eden church will be following a liturgical series created by the Worship Design Studio titled “On the Way to Bethlehem.” On this journey, we will travel from Rome, to Jerusalem, to Nazareth and arrive in Bethlehem in time for the birth of the miracle child, the baby king who is God enfleshed; Emmanuel, God with us.
As we prepare to embark on this journey together, I wanted to frame our collective understanding of why this journey is important by sharing some of Rob Fuquay’s reflections from the book that inspired the series. He writes:
“Any important journey requires preparation. (Careful consideration of such questions as) How will we travel? What will be our route? Will we break up the trip along the way? If so, where will we stay? What kind of weather should we expect? What clothing should we have? Will we need travel documents, other currency, inoculations?
For many people, the anticipation of a journey is half the fun. Doing all this work builds excitement about the places you will see and the experiences you hope to have. Our journeys shape us. We learn from them. We form and deepen relationships along the way. We have unexpected encounters that move us and provide memories that last the rest of our lives. One thing is for certain, we never return from a journey the same. (And) Some journeys even change our lives.
It is no wonder that the word journey is used as a metaphor for the spiritual life. From beginning to end, the Bible is a collection of journeys. God called Abraham to leave his home in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans and make his way to a place God would show him. That call, and his response, set Abraham on a path that led to the land of Canaan and his becoming the father of a nation to be set apart for God. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity trace their histories back to that journey.
Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness where they journeyed for forty years. Those years were fraught with life- threatening obstacles and life-altering decisions, but along the way they came to discover the character of God and God's plans for them.
The residents of Jerusalem journeyed to Babylon defeated and hopeless, but a generation later they would journey back to Jerusalem with new hope and a new desire to live faithfully.
The disciples journeyed with Jesus throughout Israel for three years. During this time, they experienced miracles and heard teachings beyond their understanding. They became a tight-knit community. They gave their lives to continuing the ministry of Jesus.
The apostle Paul journeyed throughout the Mediterranean world starting churches and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. In his lifetime, he traveled roughly ten thousand miles. His journey took the church beyond the boundaries of Judaism and brought hope to people of various nations, races, and languages.
The Bible ends by picturing a new heaven and earth, reminding us that when this life ends, all life doesn't end. The journey continues, and there are more adventures that await.
Many of us associate the Christmas season with traveling, but have you ever thought of Christmas as a journey? The same is true in a spiritual sense. Advent is the first season of the Christian year. We begin the year moving toward Christmas with themes like preparation, getting ready, and waiting as if we're going on a trip. The difference, however, is not to get to a destination but to destinations. We find the meaning of Christmas throughout this journey. As the old saying goes, the journey is the destination. This is the way to Christmas.”
Please pray with me...
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We begin this particular journey in the city of Rome where Cesar Augustus issued a decree that all the world should be registered. What this meant was that all those who were subject to the rule of the Roman empire, not just the Roman citizens, should be counted so that taxes could be collected from every subject in order to finance the building and expansion of the empire itself. Rome ruled supreme and such decisions affect the lives of people far and wide. In order to comply with this decree, people were required to register in their place of origin, compelling families like Mary and Joseph’s to travel back to their home towns.
Most Jews were not allowed to be Roman citizens. They were living under occupation; they were a subjugated people in an occupied land,
in their own land. Local rulers, like King Herod, were installed by the Romans and were obliged to express loyalty and fealty to Cesar Augustus in order to stay in power. They enforced the laws, policies and priorities of Rome, often in stark contrasts to the religious and cultural norms of Judea. Their own people believed they were corrupt, untrustworthy and considered them to be traitors.
Life under Roman rule was tough for non-citizens, especially for those like the Judeans whose legitimate leaders had been deposed and whose governing bodies had been replaced with servants of Rome. They were treated like foreigners in their own land, had no agency and were often mistreated. It is no surprise that they were praying for a messiah who would vanquish Rome and free them. They wanted to regain their autonomy. As time passed, some began to look toward some kind of cataclysmic apocalypse that could bring down the might of the Roman Empire.
Over the last 2 weeks, Pastor Brenda led us through some of the apocalyptic literature germane to this longing for an end to subjugation, for God’s reign to come, and the desire for “justice to roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (1 Amos 5:24).” The Judeans of the 1st century BC did not see signs that it was on its way, had no evidence that it was taking shape even as these events were unfolding. But they had faith. They had hope. Hebrews 11 reminds us that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).” Romans 8 says “in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:24-25).”
They were waiting, standing in the remembrance of God’s faithfulness and God’s goodness. And...they were preparing.
You may recall that in August, I preached about the Exodus story and I recounted how God had told Moses to do miracles so that Pharaoh would believe that God had sent him in response to the cries of the Hebrew people. And then as the newly freed people journeyed through the desert, the people doubted even as Moses did more miracles and God went before them in a pillar of smoke by day and fire by night. The message God gave me for that sermon was “when you are in doubt, remember your own miracles.” Another way to say this might be, “when you can’t see God moving in the world, remind yourself of what you have already seen. And remember that the preparation for those events began long before.”
Each year when Jews celebrate the Passover, there will typically be a Seder meal which involves the re-telling of the Exodus story. This reminds the listener not just of all the miracles Moses performed, the liberation of the Hebrews from bondage, the journey through the desert and eventual arrival at the promised land, but how Moses answered God’s call while in exile, far away in Midian on an isolated mountain side in the presence of a burning bush. None but Moses saw this, but God was moving.
Similarly, even as Cesar Augustus was issuing a decree that would impact Rome’s subjects across the empire, interrupting their lives, bringing hardship and financial burdens, far away in Judea the angel Gabriel was appearing to Zechariah in the Temple, to Mary in Nazareth (Luke 1:5-38) and to Joseph in a dream (Matt 1:20-25). Once again we see God’s deliberative actions beginning with private directives given to unlikely candidates. Like Moses, each of them was accepting a call, agreeing to BE a part of God’s plan and saying YES to a journey they could not possibly comprehend. As Martin Luther King, Jr once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”6 They were taking faithful steps on their own journey while trusting to God’s sagacious wisdom. Of course, Mary could not have known the twists and turns of that journey, that she would be required to travel to Bethlehem at the very end of her pregnancy, that the Christ-Child would be born in a low station in manger with the animals. She would never have imagined that the salvation and everlasting life that Jesus was to bring would be done THROUGH his political execution at the hands of the Roman empire.
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For us in 2024, we know that the Advent journey leads to Bethlehem, to the child king, to the returning of the light and to salvation by yet another unpredictable journey. As Christians we take those journeys willingly, knowing the joy and pain Mary and Jesus will encounter along the way. But we also do so in the context of our own uncertain times.
In our complicated modern metropolitan existence, many of our leaders have lost sight of the aspect of service. Instead, our culture and media seem to reward the power grabbing, self-serving, resource hoarding Herods of our day. Our elected officials in particular seem to have forgotten the meaning of servant leadership. I do not hear my shepherd’s voice in them.
There are politicians who claim to be Christians but are doing all they can to take away our earnings, our rights and gaslighting us in an attempt to steal our sense of right and wrong. They would have us convinced that up is down, wrong is right, right is wrong; that we should not love our neighbors, nor welcome the foreigner into our midst, nor provide for the poor and needy. They would like to have absolute power and absolute immunity while holding all of us accountable to rules that they themselves have no intention of honoring. They would put on airs and be exalted - but their insides are rotten to the core, publicly scheming for revenge and speaking ill of anyone who doesn’t fall into line and nod their heads in sycophantic agreement, enabling their behaviors. They claim to love Jesus but instead bear all the marks of the anti-Christ, decrying everything that Jesus taught was good and mirroring everything Jesus criticized.
Friends, I don’t know about you, but I woke up appalled and heartbroken on November 6th. It was akin to the people choosing not Barabbas, but Herod over Jesus! Now I’m not suggesting that Kamala Harris was divinely appointed, only that she was the candidate that represented decency and empathy, equality and inclusiveness, concern and compassion for others. Forty-seven has shown us who he is: a con man, a pathological liar, a racist, a misogynist, a malignant narcissist, utterly selfish and concerned for no one but himself. And he is a convicted felon and rapist. HOW?! How could this person be the choice of the people?
We are in a time of great tribulation. A new evil empire seems to be taking shape right in front of our eyes. The Christian Nationalists have turned their backs on the teachings of Jesus for being too “weak”. They have lifted up an abomination as their leader and desecrated their faith by declaring him “God sent.” Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. I came that (you) may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).” Do you recognize the voice of your shepherd in any of them?
Like Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the decisions made by our would-be king in his far-off domain promises to disrupt our lives and bring great suffering and upheaval for many who are close to us. But we cannot allow ourselves to become discouraged or despondent. They want us to give up, but we have to push on knowing that God’s new thing is taking shape in this very moment.
Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:4 saying, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
9“Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. But (those) who endure to the end will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Indeed, some say that Trump will be a new Hitler and establish a Fourth Reich. He and his MAGA faithful are already making moves to disempower anyone who is not a cis white male. They are taking action to disempower women and limit choices. Transgender people across the country are in despair. And they are promising to go after non- white emigrants, to round them up, incarcerate and deport them. As in the past, they will not hesitate to destroy families along the way.
We cannot allow ourselves to be passive observers. We have to stand fast and stand up for what is right even when it is uncomfortable to do so. Let us not be like the German citizens who did nothing as the Nazi’s rounded up so-called “undesirables” and sent them off to concentration camps. And yes, they are preparing camps here in the United States even as we speak.
Let us instead be like the Apostles or Harriet Tubman or Mahatmas Gandhi or Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King, Jr, building the Kin- dom of Heaven through acts of loving kindness. This is how we resist and stand with God. We continue to feed the poor, to help our neighbors find and connect with resources to survive.
Because somewhere God IS preparing to do another miraculous and unpredictable thing that will stymie the powers and confound the wise bringing a new thing, a new way out of no way, into being. It will be birthed like that baby born into the world as a meek little child who went on to teach a way of living that we still glorify over two thousand years later. It will arrive in an unexpected form that defies the customs and expectations of the world. Do not be concerned that we cannot yet see it. Have no doubt that God is moving. Take comfort in knowing that Jesus promised to always be with us.
And so beloved, as we journey together to Bethlehem this year, pay attention to how some seemingly simple acts were deemed important enough to remember, how the faith of those who appear impact the story and move it forward. Notice how often God seems to be flipping the script, causing things come in surprising forms or in ways that defy expectation. God’s new thing begins with a quiet and faithful “Yes” within our own hearts.
Amen.
6 Martin Luther King Jr., Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices on Resistance, Reform, and Renewal: An African American Anthology