WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:01.120 Amen. 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:01.679 Amen. 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:02.799 Good morning. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:05.679 Not rhetorical. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.360 Good morning. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.080 Happy Thanksgiving. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.119 Any Geor you guys. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:16.000 It's like you've never been to church before. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.519 Any Georgia fans here? 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:21.760 Great game. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:22.960 Great game. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:25.519 Eight overtimes. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.039 My yellow jackets fought well. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:31.120 But you guys got the win. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:31.839 It's fine. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:33.119 It's fine. 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:39.039 But it it helps my heart to uh get into the season of Advent as we'll see. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:46.000 As Russ said, this is the first Sunday of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:50.719 And every once in a while, or already this season, I've had a couple people ask me for recommendations. 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.000 So I just want to throw this out there for this year or in the future. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:55.359 This is a great book. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:02.719 It's not a devotional per se, but it's a collection of Advent sermons by Fleming Rutledge, and they're they're brief. 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:07.120 She's an Episcopal priest, and so you know their sermons are shorter than ours. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:08.640 Very readable. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:17.040 And I'm gonna quote her probably three times in this sermon, so I wanted to give her credit and uh point you in that direction if you're interested. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:21.760 A couple weeks ago, driving around Marietta, it was early. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:23.760 I had um my heart was heavy. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:25.200 There were a couple things going on. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:31.200 I was kind of weighed down, I was uh, you might say despondent, just in a bad mood. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:42.159 And I drove close to the square and I noticed, this is the first time I I think it was pretty recent, there the uh Christmas decorations had gone up over the weekend. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.719 And um I just love I love the way Marietta Square is decorated. 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:55.920 It just screams kind of like you know, small town, you know, um just homey, and and I noticed that my heart just lifted. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.959 I just the decorations of Christmas, it said, ah, Christmas is coming. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:07.040 I love Christmas, I love Advent, the festivities, the decorations, the time with family. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:13.439 Um I know Christmas, just like any holiday, can be can be hard for some and and great for others. 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:17.120 I really look forward to this time of year. 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:21.360 Um along with that lifting, I noticed something else. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:26.000 I think I I've as I've gotten older, I've become a little bit more attuned to my own heart. 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:38.960 And there was a little temptation that immediately emerged as I saw those decorations, and it it whispered to me, just take that heavy heart and let's just put it in this little box. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:40.719 Just put it away. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:51.360 Let's just look, let's just let's just jump full throated into kind of a cheap, sentimental uh Christmas. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:56.000 Let's just forget our cares and look to the hopeful things. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:04.960 And this question, whether it was my own or the Holy Spirit's, the question came to mind is Christmas really just an escape from real life? 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:07.439 Something I was pondering. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:12.400 Later that same day, I read our uh sermon passage. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:17.439 And uh for Advent, I asked Russ, you know, what what text should I preach on? 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:19.919 And he said, just look at the liturgical calendar. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:21.120 What are the readings for that day? 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:32.159 They have Psalms and Old Testament, New Testament gospel, and he said, You can pick whatever you want, but try to try to do the gospel passage if um if if that works for you. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:39.840 So I I looked and it's this passage, the one that Russ just read, and I was struck immediately by what's happening in this passage. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:45.680 This is this is what the liturgical calendar for this year, first Sunday of Advent, what it points us towards. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:46.719 And what's it talking about? 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:53.360 It's talking about people fainting with fear and foreboding at what is about to come into the world. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:04:01.280 Now it does talk about the second coming or the coming of the Son of Man, right, which is an Advent theme, Jesus coming into the world. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:04.000 But I was struck by this juxtaposition. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:08.800 The passage takes place near the end of Jesus' ministry. 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:29.839 He's been teaching in the temple, as he was wont to do, and one of his disciples at some point just expresses how beautiful and grand the temple is, which leads Jesus to respond with a prophetic word that not one stone of this temple in a certain period of time will be standing on another. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:33.040 He prophesied the fall of the Jewish temple. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:51.439 And really, if you read the whole of chapter 21 in Luke, he's talking about when Rome would, uh, around AD 60 or 70, one of those numbers, come, they surrounded Jerusalem, they laid siege to it, they finally came in and they destroyed the city, they destroyed the temple. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:05:00.319 Uh this was the um destruction of the center of the Jewish faith and community. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:04.959 This is what Jesus is talking about on the first Sunday of Advent. 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:06.480 Why? 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.439 Well, then I read, started reading in that Fleming Rutledge book, and she wrote this. 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.959 She said, In the church, this is the season of Advent. 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:24.879 It's superficially understood as a time to get ready for Christmas, but in truth, it's a season for contemplating the judgment of God. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:34.319 Advent is the season that, when properly understood, does not flinch from the darkness that stalks us all in this world. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:39.199 Advent begins in the dark and it moves toward the light. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:47.040 But the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:55.120 Advent teaches us to delay Christmas in order to experience it truly when it finally comes. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:06.399 Advent is designed to show that the meaning of Christmas is diminished to the vanishing point if we are not willing to take a fearless inventory of the darkness. 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:09.519 Get you in the Christmas spirit? 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:11.360 Absolutely. 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:15.120 Point one, Advent begins in the dark. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:24.720 As I was mulling over these words, it struck me it's fitting that Advent and daylight savings time kind of come together, right? 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:31.920 It feels like when that this time in the fall comes around, in the snap of a finger, the world just becomes dark, right? 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:35.759 It had been, seemed like recently, light until 9.30. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.319 Now it's pitch black before 6. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.040 Where did all the light go? 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.319 On the church calendar, Advent is akin to Lent. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:48.959 We might be a little bit more familiar with Lent. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:52.560 Lent is that time of preparation before Easter. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:59.199 It's a time when we we prepare our hearts and we remember why is Easter so important? 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:05.519 Just like in Advent, we are to ask the question: why was the incarnation necessary? 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:17.680 During Lent, we tend to look inside at our own sins and we reflect on why it was necessary for Messiah to come and to die on the cross for my sins. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:36.879 Rutledge reminds us that Advent is a time when we are called to look into the darkness, the darkness of my own heart, the darkness of the world around me, to remind me why Christmas and Easter are such high and holy days. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:54.240 Now, again, for 21st century Americans, this may seem strange to us, but when we take a moment just to reflect on Jesus' own life, both his birth and his death did come at dark times. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:08.720 Prior to Jesus' birth, King Herod got wind of an ancient prophecy that Messiah would be born in the small town of Bethlehem, which was just outside the city of Jerusalem. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:14.959 And based on the priests and their understanding, they thought that Messiah was coming soon. 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:20.480 And so what did King Herod do, king of the Jews, to prepare the way for Messiah? 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:27.040 He sent his soldiers to the city and commanded that any child under two be put to death. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.879 We call it the death of the innocence. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:46.639 So forever afterward, Jesus' birth would be connected to a deep grief in the community, a great injustice that the people of Israel would feel for generations. 00:08:47.200 --> 00:09:03.440 Similarly, in our passage, as Jesus talks about his second coming, he links it to this horribly destructive moment in the history of God's people when the city of David and the temple of the Lord would be utterly destroyed. 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:11.679 Yet Jesus tells his disciples in this moment, in our sermon passage, that hidden in this tragedy is actually their redemption. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:18.799 He says this people will be fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming into the world. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:25.679 For the powers will be shaken, and they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:34.399 Now, when these things begin to take place, straighten up, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:48.320 Brings us to point two that Advent as the season helps us to see what is hidden in the darkness. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:59.440 Now it's easy for us to forget as Christians, those who celebrate Jesus' birth, you know, next to Easter, it's our highest day of the year. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:04.960 But uh in Jesus' day, his birth was very hidden. 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:06.720 Nobody knew what was happening. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:13.679 In fact, uh God had to tell a bunch of poor shepherds to go check it out. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:21.600 And uh the wise men from the East came, uh non-Jewish men who read the stars. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:37.120 Um was he hidden that because of the census and everybody moving around, by the time the family got to Bethlehem, there was no room at kind of the only place of lodging there. 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:46.559 And so the king of heaven and earth was relegated to a barn, uh, let alone, you know, a palace where we would expect him to be born. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:53.200 Fleming Rutledge again, she says, it is this hiddenness that gives Advent its special character. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:11:08.080 The church's life is hidden with Christ until he comes again, which explains why so much of what we do in this night appears to be failure, just as his life appeared to end in failure. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:10.080 You ever thought about that? 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:24.080 That uh again, we celebrate Jesus' death on the cross, we celebrate his resurrection as the true victory over sin and death, and yet for the people who were around him, his ministry ended in utter failure. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:39.679 He had come, he had promised to save Israel from their sins, from, and his disciples and those who heard him thought that that meant that he would overthrow their Roman oppressors and return Israel to its former glory. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.240 And yet he was arrested by the Romans. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:51.120 He was uh brutalized and he was executed on a Roman cross. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:58.240 So Jesus' ministry, born in obscurity, uh ending in failure and death. 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:17.840 Now, since uh I've come to Redeemer, I've been here just over a couple years, and since being here and getting to know many of you, I've been gathering, I've been collecting stories of Jesus' beauty and light that has been revealed in dark moments of uh people's lives. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:19.440 Here are some examples. 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:23.840 There's a couple in our church who have known the darkness of infertility. 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:45.759 But now, years later, they lead an infertility care group in our church that invites those who are experiencing the pain and darkness of infertility now, a safe place to come, to be known, a place to be offered hospitality, a place where people will weep with you, and a place that's safe to ask hard questions. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:52.080 There's another couple in our church who have experienced the darkness of infidelity. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:13:09.039 But now, years later, they they quietly offer to anyone in the church who is currently experiencing the pain of infidelity, rather an individual or a couple, they will meet with them and encourage them through their own experience of the darkness. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:16.240 Not long ago in uh in the in the lobby out there, I saw two mothers weeping together. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:29.519 And just because I happen to know what's going on in their lives as a pastor in the church, it was a beautiful moment to just stand back and allow my heart to grieve, but also to rejoice. 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:37.440 Because one mother was comforting another mother in the grief of some family suffering. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:50.879 And it's only because one of those mothers has gone through this in the past that her words, her presence, and her tears offer a special balm to the mother who is going through it right now. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:14:03.679 Uh I know uh people in our church who've experienced the pain and the fear of cancer, who are now walking with uh others in the church who are currently going through treatment. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.320 This repeatedly happens in our men's gathering. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:10.480 Let me put in a little plug for our men's ministry and our men's gathering. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.480 Um over the last year or two at our men's gathering. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:22.960 Part of that is having men in our church come and give a talk and share vulnerably about um what God has done in their lives. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:38.000 And about a little over a year ago, one of the older men in our church, who's a leader in our church, shared boldly and vulnerably about uh mistakes, sins of his past, uh, and how God met him in those places. 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.879 And it was a beautiful story of redemption. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:53.600 After the talk, another younger man in our church came up to me and he said, if I don't make some different choices, my life's gonna look just like that in the dark elements. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:58.720 Uh he later went up and talked to the guy who had uh given the talk. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:10.639 Uh they connected, they had lunch, then they had lunch again, they had lunch again, and now, today, the trajectory of that younger man is quite different than where it was uh originally. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:17.519 Each of the people in these stories embody what Paul talks about in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians. 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:35.840 He says, This blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:44.000 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:47.200 This is what Advent is all about, beloved. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:53.039 Advent teaches us that we can become these channels of God's comfort. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:16:05.519 We can become light in the darkness, but only if we are willing, as Fleming Rutledge encourages us, to take a fearless inventory of the darkness in our own lives. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:16.159 You see, when I experience failure, when I experience something hard, my instinct is to run away, to turn away, to ignore it. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:32.159 But what Advent teaches us is that when we will take that fearless inventory, when we will look into the dark, when we will face the heaviness in us and around us, that that's exactly where Jesus meets us. 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:41.279 And that as he meets us and offers us his healing comfort, then we can become channels of that healing comfort to others. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:47.679 That brings us to point three that Advent teaches us how to be light in a dark world. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:17:04.000 Uh we had some friends over recently, maybe a month or so ago, and um after we'd been hanging out for a little while, having maybe a drink or two, um, this other couple started sharing passionately about something going on in the news. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.400 Uh, you know, recently we've had a lot of things in the news uh that people can be passionate about. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:28.880 And um I was quiet, and uh my wife, my beautiful, lovely, wonderful wife, who's here in this service, she said, you know, I really appreciate your perspective because I've only heard about this news event from Matthew, and he has a different perspective than you. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:45.119 And I thought, wow, you know, politics and religion, this is what we're not supposed to talk about, but my wife is like, you know, no small talk, let's get into it. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:58.640 So uh so we started discussing, I started to share, you know, oh, this this is these are my facts, these are this is my perspective, this is what I know about the situation, and we went back and forth, and it was very cordial. 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:03.440 Um But at the end of the conversation, a couple of things became clear to me. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:19.680 First, that in this particular situation, but in in many, there are plenty of historical grievances to go around, and that neither of us arguing this out were going to solve anything, right? 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:25.759 Like us sitting in this little house in Marietta were not going to you know save the world. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:28.880 And neither of us was going to win the argument. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:30.960 There was just too much there. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:38.240 Second, after arguing and making our points, after that was over, the conflict would remain. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:47.039 And that you know, the darkness of human sinfulness will you know proliferate and create more conflicts to come. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:58.319 And it became clear to me that it particularly in this situation, all we can do is cry out, how long, O Lord, and come quickly, Lord Jesus. 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:10.400 But as I reflected on this, working on this Advent sermon, again I see how Advent helps us by calling us to fight against both cynicism and despair. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:12.160 Where our hearts easily go. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:16.160 You see, there are no easy answers to the real darkness. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:19.759 You know, we just finished uh a political season in our country. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:30.640 And, you know, if you're if you're listening, what it sounds like is, well, yeah, we have all these problems in the world, but if you vote for the right candidates, we've got the answers, we'll take care of it. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:38.880 Um, but if you pay attention for five more minutes, or the four years in between, you realize that that's just not the case. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:46.640 That for the things, the real darkness in this world and in our own hearts, there are no easy answers. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:50.960 But Jesus speaks to us here, even in our passage. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:20:03.839 He says, But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:15.039 Now, Jesus is talking about, as we said, the destruction of the temple, and the day when, in the lifetime of his hearers, the Roman army would come and destroy Jerusalem. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:22.559 But I believe his words can speak to the weighed down nature of our own hearts. 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.519 How many of us can relate to this warning? 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:31.359 Watch yourself, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the cares of this life. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:32.160 Amen. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:35.279 Anyone else's heart been weighed down? 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:49.920 You see, though we're tempted to despair, right, when our hearts become so heavy we feel like we can't carry them anymore, or we're tempted to cynicism when we want to just turn off our hearts so we can stop feeling anything at all. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.759 Jesus reminds us that God keeps his promises. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:02.480 That's what he was saying to his disciples then, and that's what he says to us now. 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:24.240 That though we don't know how these conflicts will be resolved, Jesus' disciples had no idea how the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple was connected to their redemption, which it was through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, so that the temple was no longer necessary or even appropriate. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:34.559 So we look to the promises of God when He will come again at His second Advent and every tear will be wiped away. 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:48.240 And in the midst of our own darkness, the darkness in us and in the world, it's Jesus' first Advent, together with all the fulfilled promises of the scriptures that remind us that his second Advent is sure. 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:54.720 Even as we are currently tempted to cynicism and despair. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:22:05.279 And you see, when we when we take hold of the promises of Advent, that we don't have to look away and we also don't have to be overly burdened. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.880 We can enter the darkness with Jesus at our side. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:18.799 Did you ever notice that Jesus did not defeat the darkness from outside? 00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:30.079 The word became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:32.960 Jesus defeated the darkness by entering into it. 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:47.279 And so now those of us who have experienced the light of Jesus' enduring presence, now we, through faith, can become those channels of light for others. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:53.759 We don't give in to cynicism, we don't give in to despair, we hold on to hope. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:57.839 And there we can enter into the darkness of others. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:03.599 Now, I'm not against the joy and celebration of Christmas. 00:23:03.759 --> 00:23:12.880 Again, this is one of my favorite times of life, but I would argue that it's those who truly take the fearless inventory of the darkness who are actually able to celebrate best. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:25.519 Who truly experience the joy of Christmas and what it means that the word became flesh, that God was in a manger, and that he is our savior. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:33.599 If there's anything in the sermon that is particularly resonated with you, any questions that it has, or if you need prayer, I'll be down here afterwards. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:34.880 Let's pray. 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:47.839 Our Father and our God, Lord, thank you for the truth that the gospel allows us, Christmas and Advent allow us to look at real life. 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:55.519 We don't have to shy away, we don't have to make excuses, nor do we have to be overly burdened by it. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.880 Lord, let us be light in the darkness as you are for us. 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:00.400 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:00.960 Amen.