Driveway, I put my headphones in to listen to music on the way up to the gym for my morning workout.
And so every morning I make this walk with music.
I make this walk with songs.
Every once in a while I have walked it without music.
It's not quite the same thing.
It's always better with music, right?
It brings us the walk a certain rhythm.
It's why we like to listen to music in the car.
It's why we like to listen to music when we do the dishes.
It's how we bring a change to the way that time passes.
Now I mentioned that because that's sort of what the church calendar is.
You know, some of you come from a background, you know what the church calendar is.
Some of you come from a background, you have you have no idea what the church calendar is.
Some of you come from a background, you don't even know what church is, right?
And you're here, we're excited you're here.
So the church calendar it breaks up the year with different seasons.
And so we get this season called Lent before Easter.
And now we're in a season called Advent, which is the season leading up to Christmas.
And like a song, like a song, these seasons they focus us, they focus us as we walk through life.
They build a rhythm, is what they do.
And the seasons sing over us something for us to hear rather than us just kind of get on with it.
Right?
And especially this season, I mean the season of Christmas, leading up to Christmas, so easy just to get on with it.
Go to Aunt Janice's for the party and buy Uncle Randy a flashlight radio and drink eggnog and do that and shop, and then before you know it, like it's all over.
But it's more than that, right?
It's more than that.
That's why after this week, after a morning of contemplative prayer, I bought a Christmas sweater that says Jesus is the reason for the season, and Sam's gonna wear it for Christmas Eve service.
I'm kidding.
Oh, does anybody have a Jesus is the reason for the season Christmas sweater?
Because Sam did tell me this week that he wanted one and he wants to wear it for Christmas Eve.
So if you have one, give it to him, and he wants to wear that just to proclaim that message, right?
Because that message is good, right?
It can be a little cheesy, bumper sticker, t-shirt, whatever.
But it's true, right?
That's why it's like an enduring message, uh, is because Jesus is the reason for the season, and Advent is the season leading up to it to remind us over and over again that we are in a season of waiting, an expectation for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
So Advent is about desire for what is to come, but it's not here yet.
And so some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
We spent Thanksgiving Day with my mom and Gwynette, and so we had a late lunch, and then we cleaned up, and then we laid around a bit, and then we went to the Lawrenceville Square where I grew up, stomping grounds, Lawrenceville Square for the tree lighting, county seat, in case you're wondering.
So the old county courthouse is there, and they have a big tree, and we parked behind the Baptist church, and we walked up to the square and saw a couple friends that I grew up with, and we chit-chat, and then it's like, hey, I'm here.
Like Russ is here, Russ has arrived, time to light the tree, but right, that's not how it works, doesn't work.
Like right when you get there, and so you wait, and there's a band playing, and then there's like a tent selling like light up trinkets, so your children will bother you the entire time.
Why you don't want to waste$20 on light up trinkets.
And so all that's going on, and you're there and you find your spot and you're ready to see the tree light and the band still playing, and you're hopeful for the moment that's coming.
You're really hopeful that this moment is coming, you're ready for this lighting, right?
It's about desire for what is to come, but it's not here yet.
So we're waiting, like a thousand people, we're all waiting for this tree to light, and I didn't realize that we're waiting for Santa to come.
So Santa he comes, he comes down the main street.
I think it was on like a trailer, turned into a sleigh, but it actually worked pretty well.
Um, I mean, this is this is home small town hometown stuff.
It was great.
And so down we come, and Santa gets off, good looking Santa Claus, great.
Santa Claus is there, the the Santa Claus is there, and kids are freaking out, right?
I mean, you can imagine.
Kids in here, a few kids in here, Santa Claus is there, he has shown up for Larchville tree lighting, big deal.
And so he's there, and him and another guy get up on a balcony at the courthouse.
And let's just call, let's call him Uncle Randy as well.
Uncle Randy's up on the balcony with Santa Claus, and apparently Randy's been planning this thing because this is his moment, right?
Like he's been three months into this planning, and he's been behind the scenes, and finally, we know we know the feeling.
You've been planning something, and then you get your moment to speak in front of everybody.
And Randy's going on about the history of the Christmas tree, and it is going for a while, and he's taking his moment, and there is one big problem here.
Santa Claus is next to him, right?
I mean, this is the problem.
I mean, Santa Claus is standing next to you, and we are waiting.
I mean, children are waiting.
Santa is next to you, and Randy's talking about the history of the Christmas tree for 15 minutes.
This doesn't work out, and parents are waiting for Santa Claus for to say, light up this tree.
And there's all of this waiting.
Finally, he says it, the tree lights, it's amazing, it's amazing, right?
Like, we know what it feels like to wait.
It's the same you feel this way when you turn your your laptop on.
And you're like, all right, I'll go re-shingle the roof and then come back before it's ready.
It's it it it's when uh it's when you're pregnant and it's like six months, seven months, eight months, nine months.
You're you're waiting.
And there's other waiting too, right?
There's waiting to get the call from the doctor.
There's waiting for your loved one to die.
There's waiting for your family to be normal.
There's waiting for you to be normal.
And underneath all of this is just this waiting to be uh or to feel restored.
Like finally I am okay and loved and eternally and internally healthy.
So we wait.
And so this is point number one.
I got a few points, I got four points.
Point number one, we wait in hope.
We wait in hope.
That's what the Isaiah passage was about, like Kristen read.
We wait in hope.
Hope is confident expectation.
So we don't just wait vainly like the Christmas tree is never gonna light.
I mean, we wouldn't be there if we thought that.
We wait, we wait as children of God in hope.
Although things are not perfect right now.
We wait in hope that all things will be made new.
And so I read that passage, Isaiah 11, that Kristen read for us.
I was reading that this week and just spending some time in it, and I stopped at verse 6.
Verse 6 was the verse that I stopped in, but it's probably the verse that most of us, even as she read it, you're like, oh, I've heard that one before.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.
And I read my first thought was I'm naturally cynical.
Is it my first thought was like, really?
Like, like when I watch National Geographic, um, the wolf is biting the neck of the lamb, is what's that's what's going on.
And then my children tell me I need to change the TV channel.
That is disgusting.
I mean, that's what's going on.
But but then you look closer at this idea and you can see how it is true, right?
Like you can see how in this church, uh, Democrats and Republicans and people who don't care all come in to worship.
And now don't get me to label who the wolf is.
Don't don't even try to get me, don't I'm not gonna do that, I'm not going there.
Or the congregation this week in Charleston, remember a few years ago, a guy comes in and he starts shooting?
That guy's on trial now.
And then the news that the news reminded us that the congregation came out and forgave the shooter.
That's a wolf lying down next to a lamb.
Or anytime an exhausted, broken person comes in to hear, and uh maybe you maybe you can't even sing because you're not even quite sure.
And maybe even listening to me is a bit much, but maybe at the end of the service you're willing to come down and receive communion and receive God's redeeming love.
And so we wait.
We wait in hope that all the wolves around us and the wolf in us will finally lay down next to the Lamb.
And we find hope there.
That's what Advent's about.
Advent's about this the season to remind us of this hope.
And the hope is Jesus, the incarnation, God to us, the breaking in, God breaking in to our frustration, our suffering, our rebellion, right?
While we're still sinners, Christ comes and dies for us, God's pursuit of us.
While we're messed up and messy, the message of Christmas is I love you anyways.
That's what God is saying.
I love you, I love you anyways.
I will incarnate myself into your suffering and frustration.
And in humility I will come toward you, and in the crucifixion I will take on your sin and all the ways you're messed up and broken.
I will take that upon myself to make you right with me, and I will give you, forever give you righteousness, so your standing is secure, and you don't have to question it.
You don't have to be anxious about it, you don't have to be afraid.
So, our second passage this morning, and these passages, by the way, they were set for us centuries ago.
This Isaiah passage and this Romans passage and all the passages the next coming weeks through Advent, they were set for us centuries ago in the book of common prayer.
And so there are these passages preset for us to build us up to Christmas.
And so Romans 15, 4 through 13 is our second passage, and it is in your bulletin.
I'll read verses 4 through 7.
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Right?
So there's hope in the waiting.
There's hope in the waiting, such good news.
Verse 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may have one voice.
Glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
So we wait in hope, and number two, we wait in harmony.
We wait in, we wait united.
So there's a psychological term called splitting.
It's the practice of constantly breaking the world, breaking your world into two camps, and one is good and one is bad.
So this isn't about issues, right?
Like there's lots of issues that there is a clear split.
There's a right and there's a wrong.
So that's not what I'm talking about.
What I'm talking about is out of insecurity and defensiveness, we split and we'll deem one side bad.
And if they're deemed bad, you know what that means.
We're good.
Like I'm on the I'm on the good side.
And we do this when we're being defensive or insecure.
So yesterday I was at my eight-year-old's uh basketball game at Marietta Wreck Gym.
A lively, festive, rambunctious place.
And you get in there, and you are so passionate for your little kid to do well, and we're in there.
And so when you score, it's a big deal, but it's kind of like a soccer game.
That's how high the scores are.
So when there's a score, big celebrations, okay?
And so we're scoring a few, they score every once in a while, we're scoring more.
I'm not taking too much, you know, I'm a very balanced, centered person, so I I wouldn't, I would never know that.
But we're winning.
We're winning.
All right, so we're winning.
You know, when you're winning, the other team shouldn't celebrate too much.
You're like, hey, you're you're really losing here.
Don't you know don't celebrate too much.
They score one one time.
And it was like this lucky shot.
It was ridiculous.
And that and I don't know if it's extended family, I don't I don't know who the cheering.
It it was just an obnoxious amount of noise of cheering down there.
And I kind of looked down there and I was just the feeling was like, how, how rude, how that was that was an obnoxious.
My cheering is proper cheering.
It is the right level of cheering, is at the right time.
It's the right time, the timing of my cheering is very their cheering is bad, it is wrong, and I am I am superior in my being in my life in my cheering because of this, right?
This is what we do, right?
We do it at football games, we do it at a political rally, I mean we do it all the time, right?
It it looks like this.
It's pretty simple.
So we're a group of loving parents, we're in a gym at Marietta Wreck, and we're a group of loving parents to young children that are good, bright young children.
We are one group of parents, right?
And then I get defensive.
And so in defensiveness, you split, and I look down to those other side of the gym, and those people are bad.
And see, if they're bad, you know what this does for me.
See, this is the cycle, this is the practice you do when you're defensive or you're insecure.
If they're bad, it means automatically I am good.
Right?
And so we can do this with politics, we can do it with church preference, right?
It's not about issues.
I'm not talking about issues, I'm talking about out of insecurity, how we can demean one person in order to build yourself up.
You can do it, is is the crown better than Downton Abbey?
Is it?
Anyone?
Anybody want to weigh in on that one?
Is the crown better than Downton Abbey?
Some of you know I'm talking about.
Right?
And you go, I no way.
How dare you, how dare you speak about Downton Abbey like that?
Like, so if you view the crown, the c people who support the crown over downtown Abbey are bad, therefore, I mean I am I'm smarter, right?
Like I am more cultured, I get it more, I understand it more.
This is how we do it with all sorts of things.
And this is this is sin.
This is this sin of not loving another person.
This is this is this is the way in which we build security and assurance and self-worth outside of Jesus and outside of Christ.
It is the sin of disharmony.
It's the way one uh theologian and philosopher actually goes to the extent of saying, this is the way we create demons in our culture and the way we create angels in our culture.
And then Paul comes and he's speaking to a class cultural system with huge stereotypes, and he says, family is family.
And this is where Paul's taking us in this text that the church should live united.
Point number three is this Christ's servanthood is the fuel of living in this absurd unity.
Where you have a lot of differentials, backgrounds, experiences, hey dress, hey parent, hey vote, how you feel about this, how you feel about that?
But that there could be harmony and Christ's servanthood.
Listen to Romans 15, 8 through 12.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, in order that the Gentiles, so alright, we have two different groups.
We have the circumcised, so this would have been the Jewish people, a cultural elite, and now we have the Gentiles, lowly Gentiles, or outside of the Jewish faith.
The Jewish people thought dogs, the dogs.
In order that the dogs might glorify God for his mercy.
As it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.
And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.
And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.
And again, Isaiah says, back to Isaiah 11, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.
So Christ becomes servant, theological word, incarnation, like we talked about, and servant unto the crucifixion for us.
So how does an elitist racist Roman Christian or an elitist racist biased United States Southern Christian overcome past experiences and ways of thinking to be family with family.
And it's only like Christ being your servant that we would allow that sort of love to come into the places inside of us.
Because we have a pursuing God.
That's what this idea of Christ as a servant is.
We have a pursuing God, one that pursues in to our messiness, into our bias.
Into the fact that we do this all the time, all the time.
With each other, with other people.
I mean this week I was just contemplating this, and I had to repent all the way.
You know, I'm not real racist.
I think I grew up with a little racism.
I grew up in the South and white, middle class kid in the South.
So I grew up with a little racism.
I think a lot, most of that, almost all that, is gone out of me.
But man, I there's a lot of elitism in me.
And I know that.
You know why it's in me?
Because there's an undercurrent of insecurity.
And so an undercurrent of insecurity will build elitism.
Anybody who who's like an elitist is really insecure, just to let you know.
I mean, I just love to think I'm better than other people.
And so there's a variety of ways for me to make sure I feel that way.
And this is a great practice to do that.
And you know what?
This is self-saving.
This is a way to self-save it.
If I'm my security and personhood outside of Christ, but I can do it by constantly comparing and demeaning people, and then by demeaning them, they're bad, then therefore I am good.
And I just have to I just had to repent of my elitism.
You know, people who don't agree with me or dress like me or parent like me, or you think the crown's better than Thousand Abbey and you're crazy.
You know, I you know, if I do that, I never have to face myself.
See, that that's that's that's the deal.
You never have to face yourself.
You never have to face your sin.
You never have to face your rebellion, you never have to face your wounds.
Because you're always looking at that other person, other person, and by default, you feel smart and good.
At least for that moment, until you gotta split again and again and again.
And Paul says to these Roman Jewish Christians those people you view as dogs, those people that are on that other side that you've split off, those people, you and them are the same.
You're the same.
And your family.
Your family now in Jesus.
Point number four.
We wait in belief because we are unable to wait in perfection.
Point number four, we wait in belief because we are unable to wait in perfection.
Romans 15, 13.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
So that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
So we're filled with joy and peace through belief in the God of hope.
And here's the secret.
Here's the secret.
You're already prepared for Advent.
So yeah, Advent is a season of remembering and waiting, but it's not a season of remembering and waiting as to be perfect and ready for.
You're remembering and waiting.
You have already been made perfect in Jesus' work.
That's why it's a celebration on December 25th.
And so we come and we wait, and we in belief we wait.
And we say, Come, Lord Jesus.
We say, Come, Lord Jesus.
Because we're saying, Come into any part of my life, come into any part of my life.
Help me to live in unity and harmony with the people.
So my brothers and my sisters, may you wait in peace where wolves around you and in you would lie down with lambs.
God, thank you that you call us and relieve us.
You call us to such great things such as living in harmony and unity with our family, with our brothers and our sisters.
Forgive us.
Thank you for the relief that you do.
Forgive us Of all the ways that we use plenty and demeaning and comparison to find assurance and security outside of you.
This is not living for our neighborhood.
This is not resident Jesus.