2012.12.05 - Hope of Deliverance

Hope of Deliverance

Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36

Last week, we enjoyed a Service of the Greens, and I hope that was an edifying experience for you. Because of the special service, though, I didn’t get to talk about last week’s theme … one of the most important topics of Advent: Hope.

So, today, I’d like to combine last week’s theme: Hope and this week’s theme: Peace.

Let’s start with hope:

Several years ago, I was invited to a conference in Fort Lauderdale … in November! It was really a struggle to leave chilly Indiana for the warm shores of Florida, but somebody had do it, right?

One day, I was walking to a local restaurant for lunch and a stranger approached me and asked for directions.

We are on a sidewalk on the beach.

I am not tan at all!

I’m wearing long pants!

Some people just can’t read the room! I gave him the best directions I could and he was greatly relieved that he now had a path and the knowledge of how far he had left to go. I may not have been much for him … but I was a source of hope!

Our scriptures today also speak of hope. They both promise a deliverance. The Old Testament reading speaks of Messiah’s coming, and the New Testament passage speaks of Messiah’s SECOND coming.

The Christian story begins with Creation in Genesis. There are many theories about God and the origins of the universe. Simply put, those who have a firm belief in God are more hopeful than those who do not.

Psalm 25:4–5 (CEB)

4 Make your ways known to me, Yahweh; teach me your paths.

5 Lead me in your truth— teach it to me— because you are the God who saves me. I put my hope in you all day long.

The world doesn’t give much hope for anything positive. We, the Church, stand as a Champion of God’s plans and that gives us reason to hope in the middle of the worst calamity.

Hope of Deliverance

Whether the world believes in a literal 6-day creation, or a figurative 6-days, or even if they believe we evolved from swamp blobs … the world was created with order. How it was created and how long it took may be debatable, but Christianity and science both agree that this world was created with order and intention. The world calls this ‘intelligent design’ … we call it Genesis 1.

Why is that so important?

The Christian story really has four movements … four distinct segments.

We believe God created us and the universe around us.

We believe humanity invited sin into the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command.

We believe that Jesus Christ came as God With Us, lived, died, and was resurrected for our redemption.

We believe that God is in the process of restoring our world through the work of His people and complete restoration will come in Jesus’s returning.

When telling the Christian story, we often misfire in one of two ways.

The Christians we would label liberal or progressive typically err by only telling the bookends of our story.

They tell of the wonder of Creation and our partnership in God’s restoration. These types of believers tell the Truth of the Gospel, but only a portion of it. They are known for only telling the pleasant parts of God’s Truth.

The Christians we would label conservative typically err in the exact opposite way. They tell only the two middle parts of our story. The story begins with the Fall of Man and concludes with Redemption. The story sounds judgmental and unpleasant because it begins in the middle. It is the Truth of the Gospel, but it is an incomplete version of the Christian story.

God created the world with order, created man to have dominion (not domination, but dominion) and we were given the job of tending the created order.

Genesis 2:15 (NASB 2020)

Then Yahweh God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.

God created the world with a purpose and intent. If God created the world with meticulous intentionality, don’t you think He would have the same intentionality with the ending?

Today, we celebrate hope and the byproduct of hope: peace. Genuine hope comes when we embrace the entire Christian story. Hope comes when we realize how meticulous God was in His creation work.

Psalm 139:13 (NASB 2020)

You wove me in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:14 (NASB 2020)

I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

Friends, our society has moved. We’ve lamented and bemoaned the reality, but we haven’t really acknowledged it. People are no longer expected to be Christians in our society. There isn’t a social awkwardness toward those who aren’t involved in a church anywhere. In fact, there’s more of a social awkwardness toward those of us who DO regularly attend worship. We often mourn this shift, and that’s appropriate. However, wallowing in the past has not brought us to the end of the story. We will NOT gain restoration by lamenting the past.

We can only gain God’s restoration when we embrace His design in our world and in our experience.

Today, we celebrate what I consider the ultimate act of hope. In Holy Communion, we don’t just embrace Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

• We embrace the God who designed and created us all.

We embrace the God who sent Jesus so that all who believe would not perish, but have life eternal.

We embrace that our redemption comes through Jesus.

And we embrace that we are partners in God’s restorative work, that will culminate in Jesus’s return!

The Christian story weaves through our sinful choices and Jesus’s sacrifice, but the story is incomplete if we begin at that point. Hope … real hope and the peace that passes understanding … exist only because God began His expression of deep desire for us and for our good in the creation. We were made with a purpose, and part of that purpose was to be made His. But Jesus’s service to humanity was not just a redemptive service. His ultimate goal is restoration.

And that is what we celebrate at this table. Do you remember the mystery of faith that we declare as a part of our liturgy?

Christ has died

> Christ is risen

> Christ will come again

This seems like an appropriate time to dust off one of our Creeds and declare our faith together:

I BELIEVE IN GOD

THE FATHER ALMIGHTY,

MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH;

AND IN JESUS CHRIST

HIS ONLY SON OUR LORD:

WHO WAS CONCEIVED

BY THE HOLY SPIRIT,

BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY,

SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE,

WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED;

THE THIRD DAY

HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD;

HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN,

AND SITS AT THE RIGHT HAND

OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY;

FROM THERE HE WILL COME

TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.

I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT,

THE HOLY UNIVERSAL CHURCH,

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS,

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS,

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY,

AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING.

AMEN.

--

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.

--

[All pray in silence.]

Hear the good news:

Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;

that proves God's love toward us.

--

[Leader to people:]

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

--

[People to leader:]

IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, YOU ARE FORGIVEN!

[All:]

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.

--

You formed us in your image

and breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away,

and our love failed,

your love remained steadfast.

--

You delivered us from captivity,

made covenant to be our sovereign God,

and spoke to us through your prophets.

--

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.

--

Your Spirit anointed him

to preach good news to the poor,

to proclaim release to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

--

to set at liberty

those who are oppressed,

and to announce

that the time had come

when you would save your people.

--

He healed the sick,

fed the hungry,

and ate with sinners.

--

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.

--

When the Lord Jesus ascended,

he promised to be with us always,

in the power of your Word

and Holy Spirit.

--

On the night

in 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 is 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.

--

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 yours,

almighty Father, now and for ever.

AMEN.

--

Because there is one loaf,

we, who are many,

are one body,

for we all partake of the one loaf.

The bread which we break

is a sharing in the body of Christ.

--

The cup over which we give thanks

is a sharing in the blood of Christ.