Larry Fry
College Avenue United Methodist Church
ADVENT IS PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS
Christmas is coming so quickly. Have I told Penny what I want? No.
Have I gotten Penny request…not yet.
Have I written our Christmas letter or sent cards. No.
Penny has been baking. We bought
some stocking stuffers yesterday. And
this afternoon we will put up our tree.
For some of you, it means planning for a trip to Arizona for
the Fiesta Bowl. If guests are coming,
we plan out sleeping arrangements.
So, we prepare our homes, gifts, cards, parties, trips….but
what about preparing our hearts, our lives, our families, our church? The Service of Decoration is an example of
what Advent is about…remembering and reclaiming the meanings of Christmas. We come to worship so we don’t lose sight of
the essentials as we get caught up in busyness, or worry. One person in Bible study this week,
helpfully reminded us that we do not need everything. We hope to welcome Jesus into our lives, in
a new way, in order to grow more faithful in our discipleship.
We want to be prepared.
If we were Amish folk this morning we would be worshipping in someone’s
home. The benches might be brought to
your house on a wagon and set up just for the day. There are no clergy. A worship leader is chosen by lot or
last-minute consensus. If you were
coming to worship you might be the one chosen to give the sermon that day. It would be good to have one ready. Wow!
You are selected to read scripture and tell what it means. I would guess that most of you would say that
it is hard enough to gear up to listen to a sermon, let alone be ready to give
one at a moments notice. What would your
message be if you were to give the sermon this day? Would you be prepared?
And even more importantly: Are you, in your relationship
with God, ready for a celebration of Christ’s birth.
One chaplain described the way I write Christmas in my daily
logbook. I put an “X” down and put
“mas.” “Xmas.” The chaplain went on that
it was OK to do that but it was so easy at this time to go into Xhaustion,
Xcesses, Xcuses, Xtravagances, Xasperation, Xhibition, and wordly
Xcitement. And he said some want to
Xcape from it all.
I read that some big box stores give anger management
classes to employees before the shopping season and now keep their top selling
items off the shelves to prevent fights.
They tell customers they are sold out.
And we found out that GPS unites can now be purchased by churches to put
inside their outdoor nativity sets so that when they are stolen they can be
found.
How do we prepare the way of the Lord? How do we open our hearts for Christmas. How do we make smooth the rough places. How do we make more straight our paths for
Christmas. And how do we make the rough
paths that someone else is traveling on, and make them smoother.
In our church family there are many paths to Christmas. Some of you have lost a spouse or a parent
this year. It is really tough road if
you have just gone through a divorce.
Anyone battling depression goes into this season holding on. How can I make it when everyone around me
seems so happy? Certainly for all of
us—happy or sad—it is a time to ponder our priorities regarding time and money
and thing that matter most.
Advent offers to us all an opportunity reflect on where we
are in life and what we need to do to get back on the right road. One woman in a church decided to turn away
from worry. She was facing a biopsy and
she figured out that no amount of worry was going to improve the diagnosis of
her biopsy. She decided it was time to
take a deep breath and figure out how to live more deeply each day. For others it will be a time to set aside a
few minutes each day to turn off all other voices and to listen to the voice of
God.
ADVENT IS PREPARING THE WAY FOR GOD TO ENTER OUR LIVES….
Penny and I enjoy watching an occasional episode of Top
Chef. Chefs battle against each other to
win a cash price and bragging rights.
Chefs receive a short amount of time to prepare a gourmet dish and they
are given some awful secret ingredient like “gummy worms” that must be
highlighted in the final dish. I
remember one show because a man named Lance was competing against a French
woman who wanted to win the prize to visit a grandmother in France. The reason I remember this was the amazing
faith witness Lance made. He said that
before his faith commitment he was a jerk willing to do anything to win. He did not care who he walked over. He edged out the woman in the competition and
then gave the woman enough money to journey back to France. He said, “Life is a journey. None of us are finished products.”
TURN TO THINK OF WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU
Last week Bill Bunyan did the presentation of Saint Nicholas
and passed out potatoes. Bryce
Hutchinson did not get one and his face fell.
So Colin Hohenbary gave him a potato.
And I do not remember who, but a grateful child ran by me at the door,
saying: “This is going to going to be French Fries.” At the end of the pageant last week, Grace
Hutchinson had handed out all of the potatoes.
So as she sat with St. Nick to finish the program, Bill handed her one,
too. You should have seen her smile.
TURN TO MAKE A NEW LIST OF HOW TO EXPRESS YOUR GRATITUDE
TURN TO FIND NEW WAYS TO MAKE ROUGH PLACES SMOOTH
Advent is the time to trash the idea that each of us can
live however we want with no consideration of the consequences of our
actions. We are the ones who write the
stories of God for others to experience.
How are you doing that? How does
Jesus bring peace, joy and love into this world, this year, through you?
Sigmund Freud tells the story of a three-year old boy who
went to bed scared. He called out from a
dark room in the night: “Auntie,” the boy cried, “I am scared, it’s dark.” His aunt answered him, “What good would that
do? You cannot see me.” The boy cried back, “But, when you talk it
gets light!” The world needs your
voice. Your family needs your voice.
In the news, a woman got a surprise. She was eating at a restaurant and two men in
fatigues came in and sat down and ordered.
She responded in gratitude by telling the waitress that she wanted to
take care of their meals. “Are you sure,
asked the waitress?” So as the waitress
headed off with her credit card, a dozen
addition soldiers joined them and headed to the banquet room.
One ten year-old girl just won an award in a Texas school. Some of you know her. Her name is Hope Jeffers. Her mom, Nicole Sherwood Jeffers, grew up in
this church and Hope has been around here a lot too. She was awarded a Medal of Compassion for her
extraordinary care to other students.
When she was presented the medal she thought she was just going to a
regular school assembly and she did not see her family there ready to see her
receive it. She has learned to help
rough places smooth.
GOD COMFORTS AND SO WE COMFORT OTHERS
It is time for you and me to seek a bit of comfort where
comfort is truly found….not in possessions, or wealth, or overflowing
appointment books, or endless self-examination.
Advent is the time to renew our connection God. God is the only One who can truly comfort
us. Isaiah, the ancient prophet, even
more ancient than John the Baptist….here Isaiah: “I have seen their ways, but I will heal
them; I will guide them and restore comfort to them.” (Isaiah 57:18).
There is a time to be comforted and a time to comfort. John calls out to us from 2,000 years ago
that Jesus was coming and did arrive that first Christmas. Thank God John still points us to Jesus.
The world HAS to change.
Christ began the change.
And we have are the ones to make that change.
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