Lay Speaking Sermon delivered Nov 27, 2022
John 1:1-11 (NIV) 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Picture It. Sicily. 1922. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. If you were a fan of the television show The Golden Girls then you know that is how Sophia always started one of her stories if she had lesson or a point she wanted to make. But I really do want you to picture something with me this morning. Let’s say you’ve gone shopping, whether it’s the grocery store, Walmart, Target, or any other place you frequent. Everything on your shopping list is all checked off. Buggy full of items. You approach the checkout lane. We’ll even pretend for once they have more than one lane open and running. There’s a line in all of them. If you’re one of those not opposed to self-checkout you look over there. There’s a line there as well. You are just going to have to wait. Now, just sitting here imagining that, how does it make you feel? Are you all excited and joyful thinking about having to wait? I’m sure the answer is No. In fact, you may have even felt that knot of apprehension in your stomach just thinking about it. Because the truth is – we don’t like to wait. Checkout line, DMV, Tag Office, table at your favorite restaurant. Doesn’t matter. We don’t like to wait. We fret over all the things we aren’t getting done while we are stuck waiting.
Yet here we are today. 1st Sunday in Advent. And we are being asked by none other than our Creator God to wait. Advent involves waiting. Advent is designed to be a time of waiting. Granted, it is not a passive kind of waiting where we sit back, twiddle our thumbs, and do nothing. Instead, it is an active type of waiting that also involves a time of preparation. But it is a time of waiting. God invites us to slow down, pause, take a deep breath, and wait in and with the Almighty Presence. With that in mind, I’m going to pause here and invite us to listen to a song called The Waiting by Jamie Grace.
I had never heard this song until Jenny suggested it as she and I were planning for today’s service. But those lyrics really struck a chord with me. “What will it look like? What will it be like? When my world turns out like you planned? When will I get there?” The song doesn’t ever fully answer those questions. Quite frankly because they can’t be answered yet. But that’s not the point. The point is that as the song says, in those moments when we do find ourselves anxiously waiting and when our patience is being tested, we are reminded that in God we can find a love that will never let go and be in a place where we are never alone.
This morning we lit the first candle in our Advent wreath. The candle that represents Hope. It is in the love of God and in God’s Presence that we find hope. And here I think we need to clarify the idea and the meaning of hope. I know you all are familiar with the word. But, I worry that the way we tend to use it in our everyday life or conversations is different than the biblical meaning of the word in Scripture. We often say things like, “I hope my team wins today.” “I hope that movie we’re going to see is as good as they say it is.” I’m constantly saying “I hope work isn’t too busy tonight.” Hope is a good word and even when used like that it is with an optimistic and positive outlook. Our expectations are for something good. Yet, at the same time it brings with it a sense of uncertainty. We don’t know if our team will win. We don’t know if the movie will be any good. I don’t know if work is going to busy. We don’t know and can’t know the outcome until the event is complete.
The hope offered this morning with the lighting of this candle is a different kind of hope. This is a hope with a certainty. It is not just a hope with an optimistic and positive outlook. No. This is a hope that comes with a promise. A promise from an unfailing God who loves us in a way we can never fully comprehend. In 1 Peter 1:3 we are told that God, “in his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”
This is the same Jesus we just read about in Scripture from the Gospel of John. This is same Jesus who was with God and was God and was there from the very beginning. John says “in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The light of all mankind.
As you see, we have a strand of Christmas lights on the altar. For this Advent season Dr J. has come up with an overall theme of looking at and including different Christmas Traditions with each Sunday’s worship service. Today’s aspect is Christmas lights.
One of the best things about this time of year is the Christmas lights. And it comes at the best time. We’ve just recently set our clocks back an hour, so it gets dark sooner. You know I do believe there is a truth to the idea of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). People do tend to get more depressed around the winter due to a decreased exposure to sunlight. Christmas lights themselves don’t replace that natural sunlight we need of course. But the lights themselves bring joy by helping to overcome the darkness we see around us. They become a shining beacon of hope. I am not quite the historian and teacher that Dr J is, so I don’t have full insight into how and why the use of lights over time evolved as a Christmas tradition and the full religious significance of it all. Come out Tuesday for Bible Study and that is something he can elaborate on with his wealth of knowledge. What I can do this morning is acknowledge and remind us all that as Christians when we look at and enjoy the lights we see during this time that we should always let it remind us of Jesus Christ, the true Light of the World.
I remember as a child, the four of us getting in the car and even just simply riding around town to look at lights. There were always several neighborhoods that were fun to see. And that was back in the day before almost everybody put on big displays. Just head out to McAdenville or the Charlotte Motor Speedway and see how many people are showing up to look at the lights. The Speedway has a display of four million LED lights all set to music. That’s one thing I enjoy. Lights that flash in beat with Christmas songs. Lights themselves are great. Christmas music is great. But when you synchronize the two together, as a whole they are even better than each is on their own.
As the light of all mankind, Jesus calls us to do the same. He wants every part of our life to be synchronized to him. He wants our steps to match with his steps. Not trying to walk ahead of him. And not to be lagging behind him. His invitation to “Come, Follow Me” is an invitation to follow so close as to be in total lockstep with him. He wants our heartbeat to match with his heartbeat. He wants our eyes to see what his eyes see – the pain of others who need to be shown compassion. He wants our ears to hear what his ears hear – the cries of the heartbroken. He wants our hands to be doing his work – reaching out to others. He wants our words to be his words – telling others of his love and offer of salvation and healing.
In Psalm 119:105 the psalmist declares, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Walking on a dark pathway is difficult. My work schedule has me arriving home at 3:00 in the morning. Unless it is a full moon, the pathway from my car to the front door can be treacherous. I usually pull out my phone and use the flashlight function so I can navigate the stepping stones along the way. It’s just enough light for what I need. Well, except when I hear a loud noise in the woods and I discover it’s not bright enough for me to make sure that it’s not Bigfoot crashing through the trees towards me. But, yes, for my pathway to my front door it is enough of a lamp for my feet that I need at the time.
And that’s how Jesus works in our life. He gives us just enough light for what he thinks we need to see at the time. Sometimes he reveals just a small part of the way for us. Other times he may increase the brightness and show us a little more of the direction he wants us to go. Now, we often don’t agree with him on how much of our pathway needs to be illuminated. We always want more. But he asks us to trust him. To trust and hope in him that he has given us what we need at that particular time. He asks us to trust that he is preparing the way ahead for us. And that he is preparing us for the way ahead. I’ll be honest. I’ve had many prayers/conversations with God over the last several months where I’ve asked, even begged, for more of my future pathway to be illuminated and lit up for me. It’s probably a good thing you all didn’t hear some of those conversations. They certainly didn’t sound very preacherly at the time. But they were honest and they were heartfelt. They also always came with the same answer. Wait. Trust in Me. Put your Hope in Me.
So let’s all be honest here. It is possible to have too much light at times. Think about driving down the road and meeting a car with their high beams shining in your eyes. What do we do? We flash our lights to get them to dim theirs. I remember too back in my softball playing days and our night games. Of course, we needed the lights on the field to play. But there were some fields where the lights were better situated than others, whether they were too bright or not shining in the best direction. I lost sight of a lot of high pop-ups because of the lights blinding me. Suppose God decided one day to say, “Okay, here you go. I’m just going to light it all up. Here’s what’s in store for you tomorrow, next week, next month, even next year.” Do we really think we would be better off knowing everything that was in store for us? I don’t think so. Instead, we are going to look at that brightly lit pathway and we are going to only focus in on all the pitfalls we see ahead. All the steep mountains we are going to have to climb. All the speed bumps along the way. We would be so tuned in to all those things that we would let ourselves be blinded to all the blessings and all the goodness that God has laid out for us as well. We would end up missing out on all those things. Not because God would with-hold them. But because we wouldn’t see that they were so that we could reach out and accept them.
As we continue through this Advent season I encourage you to:
Respond to God’s request to Wait with and in the Holy Presence.
Wait even if it is an Anxious Waiting and even if your Patience is Tested.
Wait knowing that God offers a Love that will Never let Go and a place where we are Never Alone.
Wait with Hope. With a Hope that comes with a Promise and a Certainty.
Hope in the Light of all Mankind who offers Life.
But be Active in that Waiting. Remember what we sang at the very start of the Service: “This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna let it Shine” Let your light shine to show and share with others the Hope we have. John was a witness to the light so that others may believe. It is now our turn to be witnesses to the light so that others may believe. Now as we reflect on all that, I’m going to invite Jenny to sing The Waiting again. Together, let’s start learning how to Wait.
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