December 10, 2006
SCRIPTURE
-How does a modern American believer hear the Baptizer's message? Living in a prosperous and powerful nation "under God;' where God's blessings seem everywhere evident, what does an American believer have to convert "from"? And what does this believer have to turn "to"? These questions are not easy to answer, but this week of Advent is an opportune time to think about them. We will hear the Baptizer's suggestions next week. John J. Pilch
-Prepare one's heart
-Advent (the four weeks before Christmas) and Lent (the five weeks before Easter) are two sides of the same coin. In these two consummate liturgical seasons of our faith–birth and death, light and darkness, hope and despair, promise and pain, the last days and the days to come–all exist together in the same breath.
-"There is nobody so dangerous as those who live only in the light and believe that all others live in darkness."
-Nothing can remain the same after he appears.
-"Make a road for the Lord in the depressed areas and make it straight. Every low place shall be filled in. Every hill and high place shall be pushed down. And the curves shall be straightened out and the washboard road scraped smooth." A radical vision of a world dramatically renewed and improved. That’s John’s vision. Clarence Jordan
Cotton Patch version-Make way for Christ-mas.
-Perhaps the best way we can prepare for the birth of Christ in our lives is to do less. Sometimes less is more.
- The Floogie Bird. It was a wooden bird that had a small label around its neck that read, "I fly backwards, I do not care where I'm going. I just want to see where I've been." told by Harry Truman
-According to legend, during the Babylonian Empire, when a king would travel to a less-inhabited region, a cadre of royal engineers would prepare the road for the king to pass. They would smooth out the road so that the king's chariot would not get stuck in a rut. They would level out hills and valleys so the journey would not be so treacherous and the king would have safe passage. The road had to be prepared for the king to come.
-"Our basic problem is not a race problem. Our basic problem is not a poverty problem. Our basic problem is not a war problem. Our basic problem is a heart problem. We need to get the heart changed, the heart transformed." Billy Graham
-The desert is in our hearts
-Baptism is the beginning of a process.
-"The bird who feels the light and sings while it is yet dark." Tagore
-There is an "even when-ness" about faith and hope.
-These readings do not focus on Jesus’ coming to us, but his coming with us. Dianne Bergant
QUOTES
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ILLUSTRATIONS
- Do you remember the story about the goldsmith who was asked by a child how many times he put the gold back into the fire? When did he know that all of the impurities were gone? Remember the goldsmith’s response? "When I can see my own face in the gold." Christ will come to refine us until he can see his face in our own faces.
HUMOR
- Potholes grow larger over time
-In some parts of the country, it seems, there are only two seasons, winter and road construction Dianne Bergant
CHILDREN
PRAYER PHRASES
ADVENT
-Advent is preparing for the long view-What does Advent mean?" I answered that the word "advent" means coming; the Advent season is when we reflect on the coming of Christ
-past, present, and future. Past: when Christ was born at Bethlehem; present: that Christ may be born again in our lives now; future: when Christ will come again. Rev. Dr. David A. Killian
-The message of Advent is future, not past
-* Expectations are not wrong...it's where we look for them that's wrong.
-* Is God really absent, or does God appear so because we are looking for the wrong God? Paul Nuechterlein
-"Oh come, O come, Emmanuel"
-One-sentence parable: Look at the fig tree.
- church calendar does not portray a circle that has no beginning or end but portrays a spiral...a propeller moving forward through time or like the threads on a screw with each rotation pulling us along toward our final goal. That goal is the kingship of Christ.
-We speak throughout Advent of the coming of the light. Let's begin at the beginning then; let's begin as people who are not afraid of the dark.
-before the good news comes the bad news
-Carly Simon’s "Anticipation." It begins: "We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them in many ways.
"-Waiting is never from nothing to something but always from something to something more . Nouwen
-A christian is a pilgrim-"In essence, we are not waiting for Jesus; we are waiting on Jesus. "
-Romans 13: 11-14
- Would like to take a taxi straight to Christmas but must go through the wilderness, the dark days of Advent first. bbtaylor/
-Parachute...will work for awhile keeping us held up but come January we will land on the same ol' landscape. The old world must end some how before the new world can begin
- Can't get well till you admit you are sick.
-There are some things we need to remove from our lives. It's like taking the trash out on a regular basis. If we don't do it, the house begins to stink. If we don't remove some things from our spiritual lives, they begin to stink too.
-Perhaps, in this Advent season, it’s time for us to regain some of that sense of urgency, that sense of anticipation that the early church had as they waited for the return of the Lord. Maybe we need to get our focus off of earthly things and back on heavenly things.
-Advent is preparing for the long view. Not a time to prepare for Christmas.
KEY PHASES
Great Expectations
A wake up call
"waiter", " wait-ress" , "waiting room". (a time of waiting)
"Christmas Marthas"
Advent and "adventure" have a common derivation.
"here I come ready or not" (hide and seek)
"In the meantime"
In between times
Advent words: wait, anticipate, prepare, not yet, hope, remember, great expectations, incubation, Immanuel, birth pangs, pilgrim, adventure, interim, awake, postponement, evasion, in between time, vision, arrival, coming, vigilance