Patience

After a warm welcome Pastor Brad introduced the service by noting what his theme would be today. "Advent is a time of waiting. What are you waiting for? How does God meet us in our waiting?" He added that even in our times of waiting God is at work.

Brad had the kids come forward to help pass out tamarack branches which we were encouraged to take home and place in a glass of water. We'll report on what we saw happen Christmas eve.

Announcements
~Kurt shared that there will be an abbreviated lock-in Dec 13, 6 p.m. till midnight.
~Dec 17, parents are encouraged to come meet with the youth group.
~There's a pizzas and brats fund raiser at Adolph Store to raise money to send kids to CHIC.

Darlene played a beautiful medley of Christmas music to usher us into worship. The women's chorus led us in a pair of Christmas hymns followed by the taking of the offering and collection of the Covenant World Relief soup cans.

John Vanderscheuren lit the first Advent candle as Christina read a passage from the scriptures. After special music by the women's chorus Brad took the pulpit to deliver the message.

Patience

Brad first read from Isaiah 64:1-9.

He then asked who our favorite superhero was. When Brad was a kid Superman was his hero, and he wanted to be like him.

In Old Testament Israel they were looking for a superhero. Their Messiah was the one they longed for. Their expectation was for an anointed one, who would be a king.

The two things they expected of this hero were that he would defeat their enemies in battle, and he would restore worship in the temple.

The most prominent Messianic title was "Son of David." This was the expectation, that this Son of David would defeat the enemies of Israel. He would be King of the Jews.

When Herod became king he took steps to be identified with this Messiah-expectation. He defeated some enemies in battle. And he managed to acquire the title King of the Jews from the Roman authorities.

When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) This was a very different anointing from the anticipated anointing of a king.

What happens to a lamb of God? In Israel, every year at Passover a lamb was selected for sacrifice, a tradition going back to the days of this people's exile in Egypt and the deliverance wrought by Moses. The expectations of a messiah were tied to deliverance.

But Brad wasn't simply interested in telling us anecdotes from history. His aim was to bring it home to us.

Our problem is not a political problem. Israel's problem was not a Roman problem. Politics or violence will not solve the problem. Love, sacrifice and the way of the Cross are at the center of God's solution.

We all tend to set ourselves up as little messiahs. "I want to rule my world."

Brad interjected a lighter moment with a story about three men with a Messiah complex story. Their psychiatrist puts them in a room to see how they'll get along. The first makes some extravagant statement which leads the second to say, "Who told you that?" He says, "God did." The third replies, "I never told you that."

Jesus was and is the Messiah. He's the one we've been waiting for. But He's more than that. He's the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

Brad noted the passage in Exodus 12 where each household was to select a lamb as a sacrifice for Passover. It is on lamb selection day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem.

When they celebrated Passover they wanted God to do again what He had done when Moses led the historical exodus.

Brad then described Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem...  a near hysterical revelry by a crowd waving palm branches. These palm branches were symbolic of the Maccabean revolt that had occurred approximately 160 years earlier.

Waving of palm branches was a Messianic symbol gone wild.  People were dancing and cheering because they thought He was coming to give them what they want. They expected Jesus to lead a revolt and the Romans would get what was coming to them.

Jesus  "If you'd only known what would bring you peace." Jesus wept over Jerusalem's ignorance.

The cross is what happened to failed Messiahs. The people didn't understand that He came on a very different mission, to serve the world... not to lead armies to overthrow oppressive empires.

Brad noted how we all tend to filter our world through our own messiah-complex. Every human has suffered from a grandiosity-complex... except one. And He was the Messiah.

To the extent that I align myself with Him, I am on the right path.

Ultimately, Jesus puts the question to each of us as He did to His disciples in Matthew 16: "Who do you say that I am?"

A Two Way Transaction

Editor's Note: It would be an understatement to say we regretted missing last Sunday's service due to weather. The Christmas hymns are a meaningful complement to the festiveness of this advent seasons. Likewise we were out of town for the Christmas Eve service... so my apologies for the absence here this past week. It's my understanding that we missed some special moments with our church family, including the sharing of Casie Ecklund's poem which was published in a 2008 poetry collection titled Brilliance. You may read the poem in the "comments" section at the end of this blog entry.

Today's service began with a reminder from Pastor Brad that Christmas is not a day, but a season. Beginning with the wonderful passage from John's Gospel, "We beheld His glory," Pastor then made personal for us the many ways in which Jesus comes to us as highlighted in the Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. (Isaiah 9:6) Jesus, the "wonderful counsellor" can counsel us through hard choices. Jesus the "mighty God" can help us through the things that overwhelm us. Jesus the "everlasting father" is ever watching over us, accepting us as we are, His eyes ever turned toward us with compassion.

Following this warm welcome, the congregation shared in the selecting of Christmas hymns which we sang together. After the offering, Major Florence McArthur of the Salvation Army read the Old and New Testament Scriptures for us today. Isaiah 61:10-62:3 and Luke 2:22-40

A Two Way Transaction

The sermon began with Pastor Brad reading from John 1:1-14 which begins with these beautiful words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The verses Brad built his message around were these:

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

"Can you imagine... being rejected by your own family?" he began. Brad cited a new problem that is occurring in Nebraska due to laws which allow parents to drop off their children, permanently, at hospitals or safe houses with "no questions asked." This past week a father discarded nine children, ages 1 to 17 at an Omaha hospital. Other parents have abandoned their teens.

The passage in John it says that Jesus came to his own people and they did not receive him. Another translation says "they did not want Him." The original Greek word is a verb meaning "take." They did not take him. They should have received Him into intimate fellowship, but instead rejected Him.

Another translation (Eugene Peterson's The Message) reads this way:

He came to his own people,
but they didn't want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.

Some did want Him, accepted Him, believed... and they became who they were meant to be.

Another passage was noted here as well. "He made His home with us that we could be at home with Him."

The were two key ideas Brad outlined based on these verses. First, our acceptance with God. And second, God not only approves of us but delights in us.

Acceptance with God
Robert Frost, in his poem Death of the Hired Man, gave a definition of home that Brad never forgot. "Home is the place where , when you have to go there, they have to take you in." It is one of the priceless privileges of being in a family. It involves a special kind of acceptance, the kind we find only at home. It is an unconditional acceptance.

Too often, in the world at large we're accept "if"... If we scratch their backs, they will accept us and maybe scratch ours. We're loved not for who we are, but for what we can do.

At home, we experience an unconditional acceptance that is sometimes in spite of ourselves.

Approval from God
Jesus gives us approval from God and actually takes delight in us. Our presence in His presence brings God pleasure.

What especially brings God pleasure is when we want Jesus so much that we will do what He says. It is in this new status as God's children that He takes delight in us.

God is glad to have us in His family. We are a delight to the Lord of the Universe, of incredible worth in God's eyes.

Some of our problems come in part from a misunderstanding of what it means to be "in Christ." To be "in Christ" is a theological term which Paul uses frequently. It has been compared to being a sheet of paper which has been placed inside a book. If you throw the book away, you throw the paper away. But if you place the book in a safe place, the paper is safe as well. And if the paper is stained, splotched, dirty, you don't see the paper, you only see the book. The same is true of our position in Christ. When God looks at us, he sees Christ. He does not see our dirt.

God not only accepts you, God delights in you. Do you believe this? Love Him so much that you'll do what He says, whatever that may be.

Can Captives Be Set Free?

On a cool, but pleasant, August morning we gathered for worship with our pastor absent, on vacation. Chuck Vanderscheuren welcomed us this morning. Darlene was also out of town and Ed Newman filled in on piano. After opening announcements, the Trio led us in worship.

Joanne read today’s Scriptures:
Isaiah 51:1-6
Romans 12:1-8

After a time of giving praise for answered prayers, and hearing of other needs in our extended family, we turned our attention to hearing Leonard preach to us from the Scriptures.

Can Captives Be Set Free?

Leonard Armstrong opened by noting that the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are often overlooked today, but their words are very important, and highly relevant to us in the 21st century. The focus of today’s message is a passage from Isaiah 49:22-26, culminating in the following words:

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors,
or captives rescued from the fierce?
25 But this is what the LORD says:

"Yes, captives will be taken from warriors,

and plunder retrieved from the fierce;

I will contend with those who contend with you,

and your children I will save.

By expanding on the context for these questions, Leonard unveiled their significance for us today.

In ancient times, the peoples of Israel existed as a relatively minor force in the midst of larger political powers. Palestine was a small strip of land that happened to fall along the trade routes between the Fertile Crescent where the Babylonian empire was situated was and Egypt.

At a certain point in Israel’s history, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon smashed the nation of Israel. The Temple was utterly destroyed, and the peoples were taken away as captives back to Babylon.

This style of destruction served a purpose. The state was dismantled, the economy quashed. By removing anyone who could be a potential leader, and by taking the skilled people away, the captured territories would be prevented from rising up in revolt and from creating resistance.

Hence, Isaiah’s words… "Can plunder be taken from warriors or captives rescued from the fierce?" The Babylonians had plundered Israel. And they were the fiercest peoples on earth. It was an apparently hopeless situation. The Babylonians had the best weapons, most powerful army. In addition to its mighty power it was considered the capital of science and learning.

According to Herodotus, often referred to as the father of history, the city of Babylon was an impregnable fortress city with walls 300 feet tall and eighty feet wide that chariots could ride atop of. To make matters even more challenging for attackers, the city was surrounded by a moat fed by the river Euphrates. There was no way even a well equipped army could rescue the captives from Babylon.

Yet, In Isaiah 44:24 -45:3 we read about a man whom God had anointed, chosen before birth, for this very purpose. Not a Jew, but in a very real sense a type of messiah, a Persian king named Cyrus achieved the impossible. Initially ruler of a small nation he gradually increased his power by conquering increasingly larger nation states. It came about that he set his sights on Babylon, the ultimate conquest.

As noted, this seemed an impossible task. Yet by manipulating the waterways, the army of Cyrus achieved a stunning victory, in part because the king and armies of Babylon were overly confident in their defenses, moat and walls.

Thus, at the end of II Chronicles 36 we read:

22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
23 "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.'"

How does this all apply to us today? In Isaiah 49:5-7 we see a passage referencing the Messiah, formed in the womb to be the Redeemer for Israel. Cyrus was a type of the Messiah, but in Jesus we see the true Messiah who has come to set captives free as noted in this significant passage, Isaiah 61:1.

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners…

Today you may be a captive or know someone who is a captive. You may be a Christian but have been re-captured by chains that hold you back. Captive to unforgiveness. Captive to materialism. Captive to a wrong lifestyle. Captive to addictions. Or captive to a self-righteous attitude.

We were all slaves once. We were captives set free. Paul writes to the Galatians saying do not return to your captivity.

Isaiah asked, "Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?"

The answer is yes. The plunder can be taken. Yes, this is what the Lord says.