Everything That Rises

Here's a link to the manuscript of my sermon for the second Sunday of Advent, "Peace while Waiting": http://a-good-sermon-is-hard-to-find.blogspot.com/2011/12/peace-and-waiting-second-sunday-of.html

I wonder what they were saying about the coming of the messiah in the synagogues of Judea leading up to the first century. Were the rabbis preaching in front of giant, billboard-sized scrolls outlining the "Seven Signs of the Messiah's Appearing"? Did artists busy their brushes painting great images of a conquering king, his sword flashing in the blazing sun as he drove out Rome and all his enemies before him? I wonder, if they had been able, if folks would have produced dramatic motion pictures outlining every detail of the arrival of their idealized version of the Messiah. Would authors have written captivating volumes of fiction describing scenarios surrounding the Messiah's arrival that would have sold millions of copies? Would they have produced DVD series outlining the major prophecies of Isaiah and Hosea concerning the nature of the Messiah? I wonder if they had ever even imagined that he might arrive in a manger-as a baby born to an unknown woman. I don'...

Today is the second Sunday of Advent; the Sunday to reflect on Peace. I thought about how little peace I actually feel during the Advent/Christmas season. In the ministry, December is anything but peaceful: there are special services to plan, the Lottie Moon Christmas offering (for the CP of the SBC), the increased awareness of other people's needs, shopping lists (one stressor I would love to eliminate from my life altogether!), Christmas parties, and all manner of special celebrations to mark the holiday season, and to add fuel to the fire, our congregation will begin the process of searching for new staff replacements. To be sure, this Advent has been anything but peaceful for me. I also thought about how little peace there is in the world as a whole. I say "little" because I don't think the world is completely void of peace. After all, there are those moments when one sees the sun set and watches the horizon crack with all the colors of nature's pallet; t...