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Third Sunday of Advent
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, December 17, 2017


The Place We Need to Be


Text: John 3:22–30

I recently read an article written in response to the question, “If you were God for one day, what would you do?” The author responded that if he were God, he would prove to everyone that he really did exist (apparently creation wasn’t sufficient) and then he would basically let everyone know how messed up they were, and he would set some simple new rules that everyone could follow. His contention was that God, if he existed, was not doing a very good job, according to the author’s opinion of how gods should act.

It reminded me of the 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Anniston. God (played by Morgan Freeman) was tired of “Bruce” (played by Jim Carrey) criticizing him all the time. His solution was to make Bruce God for a week but only over Buffalo, NY. That way he couldn’t do but so much damage. One evening Bruce sat down to check his God e-mail and there were several hundred thousand requests. He was overwhelmed and decided that he would grant everyone’s request as given. That night hundreds of thousands won the state lottery, and everyone was upset because they each only received a few dollars. Others received “yes” answers that ended up not being what they really needed.

It really is a very funny movie and makes the point that we have no concept of what God really does or the depth of his might, love, and wisdom. It also points out how arrogant men and women can be in feeling they have the right and the wisdom to inform God how it is that he should act and deal with his creation.

I have heard people, who were frustrated about world conditions or tragic events that happened to them or to someone they cared about, make the comment that if they were God the situation would never have been allowed to happen, or if God was truly good and loving he wouldn’t let this sort of thing occur. Again, claiming that in their minds God was not living up to their expectations.

My father had a massive heart attack at 53 years and wasn’t supposed to survive, but did. Several months later he found out that he had a brain tumor. My step-mother, upon finding out that my father had a brain tumor, commented that she would never again set foot in a church because she would not worship a god who would let my father have a brain tumor following a heart attack—especially after all he had done for God. She made it clear that God was not living up to her expectations and was therefore not worthy of her worship. I’ll leave the ending of that story for another time.

After I read the article I considered our passages for this week and how they pointed to God’s readiness and willingness to restore and forgive those who have turned against him. I asked myself the question: “If you were God would you have been willing to forgive those who had so thoroughly rejected your love and provision for them? Would you have been willing to forgive time and again those whom you had loved when you saw them rejecting you and worshipping other gods? Would you have sent your Son, who had been the object of your love and devotion for all eternity, to give his life as payment for the sins of those ungrateful, hateful, selfish, lying, cheating, murderous, and adulterous creatures?”

I knew that I wouldn’t, and if I were God when Adam and Eve chose to follow the advice of my enemy over my command, they would never have made it out of the garden alive.

I am grateful that the writer of the article that I read wasn’t God even for a day, but I’m also very grateful that I’m not either. As I re-read our scripture readings for this week I saw them through the lens of God’s amazing love and patience and it humbled me that I have been so wonderfully blessed by this God. It made me want to know him even better.

We are in the third week of the season of Advent where we remember and celebrate the coming of the Christ child who was born in the humility of a manger and into poverty and social mediocrity. We call it the “incarnation”, God leaving the safety and royalty of the Heavenly throne to come in the flesh to live and die for us that we might be reconciled to God. He did this even though mankind had a solid history of rejecting the God who created and loved them.

During this season we also look with anticipation to the second coming of Jesus who promised to return as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s to restore all things and set up his heavenly kingdom here on earth. It is important that we see this season as a time for our hearts to rejoice as we remember that God came to us out of love and is coming back again for the same reason. Our enemy would have us get caught up in the rush and busyness of the Christmas season and all of its commercialization, but Advent is intended for us to slow down and pay attention and remember the “Reason for the Season”. As the beginning of the church calendar, Advent seeks to set the tempo and focus for the rest of the year. It begins and ends with Jesus as the Lord of all creation and the source of all our hopes and dreams. It’s when we take our eyes off Jesus that we lose our way.

We have seen in the first two weeks of Advent that we can have confidence that Jesus will return because the Word of God reveals that he keeps his promises.

The first week we saw from Isaiah 64:5–9 that Israel appealed to God to forgive and restore them based solely on who they knew him to be. In that passage they called upon God as the potter who had formed them as the clay. They knew that he was a God who forgives and longs to restore his people to fellowship. It was why the potter had fashioned the pot in the first place. I love the analogy of the potter and clay from Jeremiah 18:1–6. God instructed the prophet to go down to the potter’s house and observe him. Let me read to you Jeremiah 18:3–6,

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”

You will notice that the clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand and yet he didn’t throw it away and start over but instead reworked the clay to make it into a vessel of his own delight. God was declaring to Israel that even though they had sinned against him over and over he was still unwilling to give up and start again, but instead wanted to remake them into the people that he had desired them to be. That passage always moves me as I reflect on the truth that God is so patient and loving. Again, I have to admit that if I were God they would have been discarded.

We saw from Psalm 80 that Israel appealed to God as their Shepherd. Even while admitting that they had turned away from God, they had the hope that he would forgive and restore them because he was their Shepherd and they were his sheep. They knew him to be the potter and the shepherd and it was based on who they understood him to be that they appealed to him for mercy. They had shown time after time that they were inclined to ignore God’s word and live like they wanted. Still they would eventually get tired of paying the price of their sin and they would turn and cry out to God for mercy. They knew that God wasn’t like them and they could trust him to be faithful and forgiving. That was their hope and comfort.

Psalm 126 that we read this morning is a song of lament. Those who had been in captivity were returning to Jerusalem and they were acknowledging that it was not coincidence but God’s intervention on their behalf. They were remembering that he had restored them in the past and they are asking that he do it again. They knew that their struggles were far from over and only through God’s mercy could they succeed. So, they offered praise to the God who restores,

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.

Last week we considered the hope found in Isaiah 40:1–5 where the prophet begins with God’s exhortation,

Comfort, comfort my people… Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

God was going to prepare a way for men and women to be restored to himself. He would be the one to make a straight path and remove every obstacle that would prevent them from coming into his loving embrace and enjoying all the joy and peace that he wanted to lavish upon them.

We saw that it was this message in Mark 7 that John the Baptist proclaimed 650 years after Isaiah had first proclaimed it. He announced that the Lord was coming, and the kingdom of God was at hand. After all that men and women had done in turning away from God’s overtures of love, God was sticking to the plan that he had chosen from before the foundations of the earth.

I pointed out last week that Isaiah 40–66 was primarily addressed to the exiles in Babylon encouraging them to flee from their captors and return by faith to the Promised Land. In this section they are called to act in faith in God’s ability and willingness to bring restoration to his people. In this section they are shown how God is going to come to the rescue through the Messiah. In these verses God lays out through the prophet the path of repentance and restoration that Israel had to follow so that they could realize all the blessings and promises that God was offering. It wasn’t going to be easy and it would require that they obey God and became the nation that reflected his power and glory to the other nations. If they would keep their devotion and focus on God, then he would bless them in ways that they couldn’t even imagine. If not, then he promised them judgment.

Throughout the scriptures all of God’s promises are usually given with blessings for obedience or cursings for unfaithfulness. At the beginning of chapter 65, where we read this morning, God is once again appealing to Israel to turn back in repentance and faith,

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 3 a people who provoke me to my face continually

He responds by reminding them that he is a God who repays those who reject him but then immediately points out that he is willing to give them the chance to respond to him. (v.8)

This is what the Lord says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.”

Today’s passages show us what God is promising to those who turn back to him in faithfulness and obedience. He is promising the New Heavens and the New Earth and all the blessings that he had originally offered in Eden. Let’s read again Isaiah 65:17–19,

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping the cry of distress.

The remaining portion of the chapter tells what it would be like if the servants of God would be faithful. His reward was far greater than anything they could hope for. God was promising a radical restoration of all things in the New Heavens and New Earth but if they turned back to God many of these promises could be experienced now. They had lost their houses and lands and lived in calamity because they had turned away. God was offering them a way back that would be glorious now even though there would still be struggles there would be great blessings. He is also pointing them to the day when all things would be restored, and they would know blessings and joy for all eternity in the New creation. However, more than anything else he was offering them himself and the relationship with their creator that would be their greatest joy.

As I reflected on all that God was offering it brought two questions to mind.

1) How could Israel turn away from such an amazing offer of love and protection from God when He had proven to them continually his willingness to bless, protect, and set them apart from all the other nations?

I believe that the reason that they turned away from God is that they allowed their focus to turn to other things that offered immediate gratification and allurement. What God required was commitment and sacrifice but they wanted the immediate lifestyle offered by other nations.

Why do I think that? Because that’s true of us today and it has always been true of man. It started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve turned their focus away from the command of God and focused on the possibilities offered by the serpent. God required that they work the garden and subdue the earth and have dominion over it so that it would become a place where God and men dwelled together. But the serpent promised them that they could be their own gods and skip all the work and struggle. It happens to us all the time when the world offers us a short-cut to joy and happiness through all its pleasures, while God still requires that we are about building his kingdom for his glory.

2) Why didn’t God destroy all things and start over again? That has been a question that I have pondered for a long time. The Bible teaches us that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts and I think that includes that his love is higher and deeper than we can comprehend.

It’s the fact that he does put up with us, offers us salvation in Jesus Christ despite who we’ve been that keeps me pursuing him. I want to know Him more fully and experience him more deeply and that helps me keep my focus on the things of God and it’s why I love his word. God continues to be a mystery that I want to dive into.

We see a perfect example of how a proper Spirit revealed understanding of Jesus changes the perception of what is going on around us in John the Baptist. In our gospel passage this morning we read the story from John 3:22–30. John who was the forerunner foretold in the Book of Isaiah, the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. When people came to him to report that Jesus was also baptizing and now everybody was going over to him. Perhaps they thought that the Baptist would get upset and walk over to the other side of the lake and confront Jesus for stealing his thunder, horning in on his gig. Instead John replies to them,

“You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist saw Jesus for who he was, he saw through the eyes of the Holy Spirit who set him apart even in the womb that Jesus was the promised Messiah foretold by the prophets. He knew that his role was that of the herald, as we talked about last week, the one who was obedient to the call of God to Comfort, Comfort my people.

John wasn’t the Messiah, Jesus was. It wasn’t a competition because it was Jesus who was the one who fulfilled all that God had promised. He had come to restore all things and bring the kingdom of God to earth. John’s role in this process was completed and now he should rightfully point everyone to Jesus, the reason he had come. Did that mean that he would now retire and go on to fulfill all the things he had always wanted to do? No, frankly it meant that he would soon die because of his prophetic voice. Did that mean that God was unjust, unfair and therefore not a God of love and goodness? No, everything was going according to the plan of God and John would receive his reward which was far better than staying in Jerusalem living it up.

John the Baptist shows us where we should be in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We should be longing that our lives would be lived for his glory and would point others to Jesus love and mercy. We should continue with the command of God to be the heralds proclaiming that it’s Jesus who is the way to the Father. That is the Good News and the comfort that is needed for those without hope. Acts 4:12 reveals,

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

This is not the most popular thing to declare but it continues to be the truth that changes the world. Proclaiming this truth may cost us, even our lives but the promise from God is that all who follow him will receive the blessings of the new Heavens and the New Earth. I never would have thought to offer that if I was God, and It makes me want to know and experience him more. This season of Advent is the perfect time to slow down and re-focus on what God has offered us in Christ. It’s an amazing promise and I don’t want to miss out on all that God has for me.

Let’s pray

©2017 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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