Sermon Notes — December 1, 2024
December 1, 2024
Luke 2:29-33
An Altogether Peace: Jeremiah’s Righteous Branch
Dr. Craig Goff
Mother Teresa did not spend her time writing books. She was far too busy taking care of lepers and others among the most desperately poor of Calcutta, India. She did write thousands of letters, some of which have been compiled into books that people have found very helpful and inspirational. In one of those letters she talked about a time when she came down with a terrible fever. Her temperature spiked so high that she became delirious and had a vision. In the vision she was standing at the gates of heaven. While she was there, St. Peter came out to have a chat with her and she told him that she was ready to pass from this world onto the next. However, St. Peter refused her entry into the high exalted vault of heaven. When she asked why Peter replied, “Because there are no slums in heaven.”
Sort of reminds me of another story about going to heaven. The teacher of a sixth grade Sunday School class asked the students if they wanted to go to heaven. Everyone’s hand went into the air except for one. Little Johnny did not raise his hand. So she tried it again just in case he hadn’t heard her. “Raise your hand,” she said, “if you want to go to heaven.” Little Johnny did not raise his hand. So, she waited until after class and asked Johnny to stay and talk to her. She said, “I noticed that when I asked the class who wanted to go to heaven you did not raise your hand.” He said, “Yes ma’am I didn’t.” She said, “But don’t you want to go to heaven when you die?” He said, “O yes, when I die, but I thought you were getting ready to take a load up right then.”
Maybe he was on to something….
As we are told in the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything — a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to go to heaven and a time to remain on earth. Of course, being at the right place at the right time is pretty important.
This is a beautiful time in the church; probably my most favorite season on the church calendar. Today is Advent Week One. The day we decorate the church with all these meaningful and beautiful symbols. I love it. I love it; but I do have one word of caution. It is easy to trivialize this season and this day.
It isn’t just about beautiful decorations and familiar carols we all love to sing.
Advent is about a deep, deep longing. And it is not just a longing for the next world. It’s not just about the longing to one day get to heaven. It is about bringing heaven and God’s love down here. It is not just about peace we can know in the next world, but peace we can experience now. Peace that can be experienced in little Johnny’s class and in Mother Teresa’s Calcutta.
The symbols we use in this service as we begin our journey to Bethlehem are not just symbols of heaven and the next world. They are symbols of Christ’s reign now. They are non-verbal cries for justice and righteousness just like the texts we heard read.
Let’s look at the text from Jeremiah again.
The days are surely coming says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness. Righteousness and justice in the land.” That is, here in the world.
Our waiting for the Christ Child is best spent working for the cause of Jeremiah’s righteous branch. It is best spent “sharing the feast,” it is best spent “making room in the inn,” it is best spent filling up gifts under an angel tree and sending toys to children around the world.
St. Peter didn’t turn Mother Teresa back from heaven’s gate because she wasn’t worthy to go. He didn’t turn her back because he didn’t want her to be there, but because there was work for her left on earth.
God needed her in the slums of earth and not the glory of heaven.
So this advent and this season of “almost Christmas” I want to caution us against trivializing and “over spiritualizing” the season and the coming of the Jesus.
He didn’t just come to whisk us away to heaven, but to enable us to live on earth with true joy and peace.
Advent is a time of waiting, but it is not a time of inactivity. It is a time to be alert and to pray that the baby who is coming will give us strength not to escape from the world and its troubles, but to love and serve the world until that day when God’s peace is an altogether peace and fills everything in every way.
This advent season, like we always do, we will lift up a different theme each week. Today’s theme is peace, next week’s theme is hope, then joy then love.
The reality is, it is hard to separate them. They all go together, and as Paul says over in 1 Corinthians, the greatest of all the gifts is love, which is maybe why love is always the last theme in advent.
It is hard to know peace if there is somebody you are refusing to love. In fact, it’s impossible. We can’t really know peace if we don’t have love. We can’t know hope or joy without love.
Here at this table is the greatest expression of God’s love. Love that brings us peace and hope and joy.
Love that gives us strength and peace and hope and joy for this Advent journey and beyond.