Advent 1 – Jesus Our Hope – November 27, 2011 - Luke 1:26-38
This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas day. Advent is a time to reflect on the reality of the Incarnation, that to us a child is born, and a son is given.
One who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. One whose power brings us peace. One whose Kingdom is of justice and righteousness. One Who will be great and called the Son of the Most High God.
It’s also a time when we can perhaps understand afresh why it is that Jesus is so central to our faith, to who we are as a church and as a mission.
For those here who are wondering what this church-thing is all about, Advent may open some doors to understanding the heart of Christian hope, and just why Christian service to the world expressed through ministries like Yonge Street Mission happens at all.
But first, let me tell you a story
Years ago, there was a very wealthy man who, with his devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together they traveled around the world, adding only the finest art treasures to their collection.
Priceless works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others adorned the walls of the family estate. The widowed father looked on with satisfaction as his only child became an experienced art collector.
But the day came when war engulfed the nation, and the young man left to serve his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram that his beloved son had been killed while carrying a fellow soldier to a medic.
On Christmas morning a knock came at the door of the old man’s home, and as he opened the door, he was greeted by a soldier with a large package in his hand.
He introduced himself to the man by saying, “I was a friend of your son. I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you.” “I’m an artist,” said the soldier, “and I want to give you this.”
As the old man unwrapped the package, the paper gave way to reveal a portrait of his son. Though the art critics would never consider the work a piece of genius, the painting did feature the young man’s face in striking detail, and seemed to capture his personality.
The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. The art world was in anticipation! According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be auctioned.
The day soon arrived, and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world’s most spectacular paintings.
The auction began with a painting that was not on any museum’s list. It was the painting of the man’s son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid. The room was silent. “Who will open the bidding with $100?” he asked. Minutes passed with not a sound from those who came to buy.
From the back of the room someone callously called out, “Who cares about that painting? It’s just a picture of his son. Let’s forget it and go on to the important paintings.”
There were other voices which echoed in agreement. But the auctioneer replied, “No, we have to sell this one first. Now, who will take the son?”
Finally, a friend of the old man spoke. “I knew the boy, so I’d like to have it. I will bid the $100.” “I have a bid for $100,” called the auctioneer. “Will anyone go higher?”
After a long silence, the auctioneer said, “Going once. Going twice. Gone.” The gavel fell. Cheers filled the room and someone was heard to say, “Now we can get on with it!”
But the auctioneer looked at the audience and announced the auction was over. Stunned disbelief quieted the room.
Someone spoke up and asked, “What do you mean it’s over? We didn’t come here for a picture of some old guy’s son. What about all of these paintings? There are millions of dollars worth of art here!
We demand that you explain what’s going on!” The auctioneer replied, “It’s very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son... gets it all.”
That is the essence of the story of Christmas: Whoever takes the Son gets it all. The Bible puts it like this: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life”
Puts things into perspective, doesn't it? Just as those art collectors discovered on that Christmas day, the message is still the same - the love of a Father - a Father whose greatest joy came from his son who went away and gave his life rescuing others.
And because of that Father's love... whoever takes the Son gets it all.
Advent helps us to understand just what we’ve received in Jesus. The themes of Advent are hope, peace, joy and love. What happens when we say yes to Jesus? I want to suggest that our hope begins to change.
The things we hope for start to shift. Things we aspire to take on a Kingdom flavour rather than a selfish or worldly flavour. That’s because Jesus Himself is our hope, our best hope. Why is Jesus our best hope?
Jesus: The Only Perfect Life
Most of us would say that parts of life or much of life can be extremely difficult.
We get into trouble because making good decisions for ourselves and those we love is not easy at all. We experience grief in broken relationships, grief in being misunderstood.
We experience sorrow at our own hand sometimes. Even trying our best, we can self-sabotage, we can lose track of our own sense of dignity or self-worth. Sometimes we struggle as adults because our sense of who we are was traumatized when we were kids.
There are layers and layers of problems and struggles and the way forward is clouded by fear and not knowing.
Now Jesus did not find life a piece of cake. Not at all. Jesus never promised to make anyone’s life an easy journey. Not at all. But when you look at Jesus’ life, you find there an example of how we can choose to live our life.
It’s critical for children and youth to have someone to look up to. Someone to kind of model themselves on. It remains critical for us as adults as well.
By the time you get to be an adult though, you realize that the best person you might know may well have pretty serious downsides. We can still look up to people, but we need to be cautious.
The first pastor I really paid attention to was an impressive speaker and had a deep love for the Scriptures and really brought them alive to me. So I was drawn to want to be like him in many ways.
But as I spent more time at that church and around the members of that church, I realized that probably without knowing it, he was a very controlling person.
Nothing happened at that church unless he said so, and so a lot of things, a lot of good congregationally led plans and initiatives to connect with the community just never manifested.
So at one point in my growth he was very good for me to want to emulate. At a certain point though, what I learned was how not to lead, how not to control. That suggests the limits of one person.
But you know, I’ve never experienced a limit when I look to Jesus for how to live or how to react or how to be. Jesus did in fact live a perfect life.
A life given to God. A life that was blessed in large part because He was so generous. Jesus is our best hope because He lived the only perfect life.
Jesus: The Only Way to the Father
Who here likes to go to the movies? Some movies, even nowadays, have pretty strong Christian symbolism and imagery in them.
In the movie The Poseidon Adventure a luxury liner overturns with predictable mayhem following. The movie follows the efforts of a handful of those passengers seeking to find their way to safety through the bottom of the boat.
At one point there is a fork in the road so to speak for the survivors who have been navigating their way through the upside-down cruiser. The group splits up because one side believes that one direction will take them to the surface of the water, the other side thinks the other direction will take them there. One direction seemed to point upward toward the goal. The other direction pointed downward initially, as far as they could see.
The Christian symbolism is powerful and unmistakable: The world of the passengers is upside down. They are led to salvation by a clergyman who, in turn, was listening to the advice of young 12 year old (or so) boy who said he knew the way out.
But, no one would listen to them (most were especially offended that a child of that age would know anything) preferring instead the expertise of professionals who actually were as lost as they were.
Their way to safety was the exact opposite of what was accepted by all of the other passengers. They clambered to safety by climbing out of a ballroom up (of all things) a Christmas tree - the eternal symbol of the season celebrating Christ’s birth.
And ULTIMATELY their adult leader (Gene Hackman) who was the “man of God” in the movie, died toward the end of the movie by giving his life (as Christ did) to save the lives of his followers.
Prov 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Matthew 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. That’s a problem for those who want to think that any and all ways lead to God.
It seems equitable to imagine that all the routes through the upside-down sinking ship we are on lead home.
But the issue here is not the principle of plurality of religions. The issue is not that every which way SHOULD lead to safety.
There is a condition that impacts all humanity. It is separation from a holy God due to sin. There is an actual path to God. There is a person we can follow to get there. God made a way where there was no way. Through the blood. Through the blood of the Lamb.
There is a way home. That is good news. The way home is the one carved out by the Son of God, it is by His broken body. It is by His lifeblood poured out in loving self-sacrifice for the sin of the world.
There is a way to the Father. As He said, it is through Jesus and Jesus alone.
Jesus: The Only Way to Live the Fullest Life
Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. John 10:10b-22.
Paul said, reflecting on Jesus’ purpose, that: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”. Galatians 5:1
I think often we believe and know that we have been saved from our sin through Christ's death, but we forget that his death also was to provide liberation and freedom from the bondage and slavery caused by sin in our lives. In Col 2 v 13-14 it says “God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sin, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
If I was to put up my hand and ask: “Who here has an area of besetting sin? Who here struggles with knowing that Jesus wants you free, and you believe it, but you are not living in that freedom to the fullest?” I know at least one hand that would go up. Perhaps yours too?
The way of Jesus and the life of the believer following Christ is pregnant with hope. Sometimes it seems the kind of pregnant that’s like a woman asking: “Am I pregnant?”
When Barb and I first thought we were pregnant with Jared, we were full of questions and needing confirmation. We weren’t yet committed to having a baby because we didn’t yet know that one had been conceived.
Sometimes our hope is a little like that. Something’s going on, something has shifted, we’re just not sure what and we’re not sure where it will lead, but there is a glimmer of hope for sure.
Sometimes our hope is like a woman three months into her pregnancy dealing with morning sickness. This is hard. Is this really worth it? It’s uncomfortable and it’s costing me dearly.
There’s a new normal here and it’s not what they said it would be like. Hope still feels far off.
Sometimes it’s like a woman 4 or 5 months into her pregnancy. She gets in her belly little tiny, butterfly feelings, tickly feelings (as Barb described it to me last night). We were remembering. We were remembering that when Barb first noticed Jared first starting to move in her womb.
Every time she would tell me: “Look, the baby is moving!!!”, by the time I reached over to touch her stomach, he stopped moving. Tricky little guy. Still is. Except that he’s this tall now.
Hope has these signs of life, signs of fulfillment, signs of coming joy.
Sometimes hope is like a woman at 7 months pregnant. Barb said that at one point around this time there was something she described as a volcanic eruption in her belly. The baby did a back flip for joy in her belly. No mistaking that there’s life there.
Anticipation grows. Hope grows. I still missed Jared’s prenatal gymnastics that time, but from there on in I had opportunity to catch him at play as he grew more eager to make an entrance into the world.
Sometimes it’s like a pregnant woman at 9 months. Great with child. The baby has taken over. Now the clock is ticking, ticking, ticking. There is just no doubt now. Joy is coming. Life is coming. Hope is about to be fulfilled.
Jesus is the way to living the fullest, most abundant life we could ever live. Jesus’ person and his character so embody his message that He is the message.
The early church realized this. They sought to live life in Jesus’ way. And although they were persecuted and struggled in ways that you and I will likely never experience, they continued to live and proclaim the message that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the life.
That He is great and He is the Son of the Most High God.
{{OPTIONAL:}} And as they did this they met with at least three different responses.
In Acts 17 Paul talked about God with philosophers in Athens, Greece. He ended by saying that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Verse 32 says that when these Greeks heard this that ...
(A) Rejection. First, "some mocked" and rejected the message.
(B) Reluctance. Second, "others said, 'We will hear you again.'" They didn't reject the Gospel but weren't yet ready to believe either.
(C) Reception. Third, "some men joined him and believed." And among these new believers was even one of the leaders of the Athenian religious world, "Dionysius the Areopagite!" Who are you? Are you a believer? Are you a listener? Are you a rejector?}}
Whoever has the Son gets it all - a full life pregnant with hope, lived with Jesus here on earth, a real purpose for living and a full life with Jesus in Heaven forever. What more do you want?
Let’s pray. Father God. You are here by your Spirit leading and instructing us in Your way. I pray that each of us here might embrace the hope that we have in Jesus, that whatever form it takes, wherever we are along the path, we would joyfully look to you to fulfill, to complete your purposes and will in our lives. May we be people of hope. And may our worship go to you and you alone, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
