12.04.2022 - Secone Sunday of Advent - Peace

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6 so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name”; 10 and again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; 11 and again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him”; 12 and again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Advent Peace

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Snow

There is something about snow that captures our imagination and fills us with a mysterious sense of peace. I say mysterious because it is never quite predictable. You can either go north to find more of it or south to try to avoid it altogether, but it can be less predictable than the rain. Sometimes it melts before it hits the ground. Other times it piles down in giant flakes. Often it comes as a dusting that either helps or hinders our roads and walkways that are already covered with ice. During the day, it gives us pause and slows us down in our rush from one place to the next. When the sun goes down, it brings an almost muffled sense to our winter world that normally lets sound pass effortlessly through the leafless trees. During our long, cold nights, the snow holds us. It stills us. And sometimes we don't like it. If you remember being a child who loved to run, laugh, and play, the snow may bring you frustration. It is a great equalizer among all people. While those with bigger vehicles may be able to traverse the snow better than others, there is often nowhere to go when it comes down fast and thick. When the snow comes, we are forced home or forced to stop in place. The falling snow may wave in the winds like a white flag, but it makes us surrender to it, and as we do, we find that mysterious sense of peace again as we pause with the rest of the snowy world around us. True peace comes not from snowy winter nights but when we fully surrender instead to Christ.

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Harmony

Paul wrote that the former scriptures were written so that the Jewish people might have hope. Many had given up hope. Those who wanted to live long and comfortable lives in the Roman empire gave up their dreams of a Savior and negotiated their beliefs with a world that was happy to tell them what to think. Pax Romana, or the Peace of Rome, was a phrase used to promise a good economy and wealth for everyone that came at the point of a centurion's spear. This far into His letter to the churches across the Roman empire, Paul has already shared about the Law, the fact that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. He wrote that the sacrifice of Jesus cancels the guilt of our sins, and the Holy Spirit removes the power of it to run our lives. Then that same spirit fills our lives with God's power instead, which is meant to get us back to living life for God's glory rather than our own. Our passage today shows us how the very real ways we live our lives connect to the saving, life-changing work of God across the world. Paul's hope is that God might grant us to live in harmony with one another as we connect in harmony with Christ Jesus. Why? "...so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul uses the concept of a choir, and choirs only exist when everyone sings the same song. While they may sing different parts, they have to follow the directions from the conductor and the music itself. Instruments can improvise together. The human voice is the most intricate and complicated instrument that exists, which makes it far easier to try to improvise and make up your own music. But when the music doesn't line up right, it sounds off, and you miss out on the power that comes from a choir. When people add in or change the words, the message gets lost. Paul tells us the choir that represents the church works when we understand that Jesus is the one who writes the music and He is the one who directs us. When we refuse to follow the directions He gives us, we make more than ourselves look bad. We make Jesus look bad. We experience true Peace when we surrender to Christ's authority and follow His directions in our lives as He leads us all in harmony.

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Jesus Welcomes You

What is the song that we sing together in one voice? It is the same message that Jesus gave to you and me when He called us to follow Him and become His disciples. Some of you followed Jesus into your career, whether that was a professional ministry position or not. Some of you chose your home based on God's direction. Many of you chose spouses, and adopted children, and joined in with families because Jesus led you there. Most of you are here today in person or watching online because God brought you into church family, working together to share Christ's message with the world and bringing God glory. Christ's invitation is not a golden ticket to win real estate in heaven. It is not fire insurance for your soul. It is an invitation to be adopted into Christ's family. The promises that God gave to the patriarchs were twofold: a place and a purpose. The place God promised them was the Promised Land, and the purpose was so that they, as God's people, might bring the whole world into right relationship with Him. As Christians, we are a part of that promise unfolding, with every person, every day, given the opportunity to walk in peace with God or to choose rebellion against Him. When we go our own way, we become the point where the peace of God breaks, and everyone our lives touch is affected by that. But the opposite is true also. When we accept the invitation Christ gives to us to surrender and walk in Peace with Him, we become a point through which the peace of God can pass and lift up every life around us. When we walk with the Lord, we become vessels of His peace.

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Welcome One Another

Unlike the snow, the Peace of God is not something that just happens to us. I have had moments when I suddenly felt overwhelmed with a feeling of peace after hearing someone pray for me or perhaps hearing a song that opened my eyes to the way God was working in my life. Sometimes it even happens in silence after reading a scripture passage or a devotion. Occasionally, it even takes me by surprise. However it happens, there is almost always someone else connected to that feeling of peace, whether they are the person praying, singing, or even from a distance as a person who wrote that devotion or provided that Bible for me to read. The prophecy that Paul quoted in Romans 15 comes from Psalm 18, 2 Samuel 22, and Isaiah 11 - all pointing to a future ruler who will bring in the Gentile nations under God's authority and bring peace. God worked and works through specific people who He knows and plans for, and that includes you and me. That does not make us God's puppets. It makes us His children. And maybe more importantly to us today, in a time with too many things in question... in our own Advent season of waiting for God's direction... it means that none of this happens automatically. God initiates the work, and we respond in faith. He responds to our responses by giving us His Holy Spirit to empower our efforts that line up with His will, and then, when we finally reap the harvest of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, we give all the glory to Him. That is what it means to partner with God, and that is How God has chosen to work all through the scriptures and all across history. To join with Christ in becoming a vessel of God's peace means holding one hand out to welcome in others and holding your other hand in Christ's hand with the goal of bringing them together. It may not happen at once, and you might even make some mistakes in your efforts, but it won't happen if you don't try. Christ's family does not keep back the good food for ourselves and serve out the leftovers to strangers, and I would not want to be caught as the person who called himself a Christian and shared everything except Jesus. Jesus is the best we have, and we don't have anything that will truly last until we surrender to Him. When we have our own moment like the prodigal son in the pigpen when we realize that the richest and most powerful people that ever walked this world have nothing compared to the lowliest slave in heaven, not because God treats everyone exactly the same, but because God treats everyone with truth and love. When we realize Who God is and surrender to Him, we will be on the path of true Peace, and we can extend our hand to welcome in those around us to His family. (Pause and pray a short prayer)

Julie will give us a short time of meditation at the end of our communion liturgy and you we invite you to pray at the altar or in your seat during that time.

Communion – The Great Thanksgiving II

Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another. Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Glory to God. Amen. The Lord be with you And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is right, and a good and joyful thing, Always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And so, With your people on earth And all the company of heaven We praise your name and join their unending hymn: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, And made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. On the night to which he gave himself up for us he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said; “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: “Drink from this, all of you this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” And so, In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.” By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy church, all honor and glory is your, almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen The body of Christ, given for you. Amen. The blood of Christ, given for you. Amen.

Sunday school starts in just a few minutes. We will have our All-Church lunch at 12 pm with MDS, our hispanic congregation. If you do not want to join a Sunday school class, you are welcome to fellowship here or in the Community Center until then.

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