0
Sermon: An Advent Pilgrimage
First Presbyterian Church of Hallock, Minn.
Nov 28, 2010
An Advent Pilgrimage
Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122:1-9, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44
A pastor friend of mine took a four month sabbatical a few years back — he traveled a bit, was a live-in Bible scholar at a retreat center, and read lots of books, but perhaps the most significant event of his sabbatical was walking part of the Camino de Santiago, the way of St. James in Spain.
The way of St. James is a 500+ mile pilgrimage route in northwestern Spain. For centuries, pilgrims of all types have walked the trails through the countryside and tiny villages, on their way to the magnificent Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. My friend Brad had it easier than some — on the trail he carried a little day pack rather than a huge hiking backpack that some had with all their gear for the journey. Most nights, Brad said, the tour company he was with arranged a delicious meal flowing with red Spanish wine. Not exactly roughing it!
But even so, after his sabbatical, Brad seemed changed by his pilgrimage. The daily treks, the walking for hours at a time, focused his mind and his heart. (Not to mention, slimmed his waistline.)
The season of Advent is a type of pilgrimage journey. Heck, the whole Christian year, from Advent to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and the sundays that follow it are a pilgrimage. We travel the liturgical year because it helps us focus on God, on the stories of God’s people, and God’s call for us today.
So, on this first Sunday of the church year, I’m going to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done before, a dangerous and daring feat of preaching prowess. (Ok, well, maybe that’s a bit overdramatic.) Here’s the plan: to help us focus on Advent as a pilgrimage towards Christmas and the celebration of Christ’s birth, we’re going to take a (quick) pilgrimage through all four lectionary scripture readings for today, since they all touch on different aspects of Advent. So buckle up, these scripture passages aren’t for the faint of heart. … Continue Reading
0
Sermon: "What in the World?" Luke 1:39-55
Adam J. Copeland
FPC Hallock
December 13, 2009
Advent III
What in the World?
Luke 1:39-55
What in the world is God thinking? God must be messing with us. Did you hear today’s reading? Utterly unbelievable. I mean, had Luke gone off his rocker? What in the world is God thinking?
Mary? God chose Mary to bear a son. What in the world is God thinking? Mary was a teenager — maybe 15 or 16. Mary wasn’t rich. Mary was dating, but not even married. Was God just asking for a scandal?
What an absurd notion — that God would choose a teenager to bear God’s son. What a crazy idea — that God would become human through the weak flesh of an unwed mother. What a ridiculous proposition — that the savior of the world would be cared for by a peasant.
What in the world was God thinking? There surely were better ways, right? Come as an adult and skip over those nasty cloth diapers and terrible twos — that sounds good. Or if God must be born as one of us, at least choose a respectable family. Someone married, with means; a family that has shown good parenting skills and is keeping up with the Joneses. Couldn’t God have found someone a bit more qualified than Mary? What in the world is God thinking? … Continue Reading
0
Sermon: Luke 3:1-6, "Prepare the Way"
Adam J. Copeland
First Pres Hallock, Minn
Dec 6, 2009
Prepare the Way
Luke 3:1-6, Malachi 3:1-4
In Northfield, today, south of the cities, hundreds of singers and orchestra members are preparing the annual Christmas Festival. Though it’s been five years since I’ve sung with them, my heart is still with the St. Olaf students who have spent so many hours preparing for a successful weekend the festival. Thousands come to Northfield for the performances, and even more listen on the radio or watch on TV. (You can catch this afternoon’s performance at 3:30 on Classical MPR stations.)
It’d take a PhD in statistics to figure out how many collective hours are spent prepping for the concerts. Five choirs of around one hundred people each memorize the words to a couple dozen songs and hymns. The St. Olaf Choir rehearses every day for and hour and a half. Orchestra players learn their parts on their own before playing with the group. Singers come back three days early from Thanksgiving break for rehearsals. And by the time of the concert, all is prepared. The stage is set with beautiful props, every choir member knows how to process and recess into the hall. If it’s a TV recording year, all is choreographed with the video cameras as well. After months of preparation the concerts go always manage to go off without a hitch, and then, a few short weeks later, a committee meets to begin preparing the theme for the next year’s festival.
Today, a few hundred miles north, Malachi and Luke speak of another sort of preparation. Malachi writes, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me…the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, indeed, he is coming.”
Malachi anticipates the messenger, but Luke names him clearly. He’s called “John the Baptist” and he’s sent to prepare the way of the Lord.
The writers of Mark and Matthew talk about John the Baptist coming from the wilderness strangely dressed and eating locusts and wild honey. But Luke doesn’t say much about that. Instead, Luke chooses to quote a longer passage from Isaiah after introducing John the Baptist:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low…
Early December is the season of many preparations — buying presents, decorating trees. Julie and David, Jan and Dave, have had a few weeks of special preparation that is now just over, getting their houses ready for a successful Tour of Homes. Advent is about preparation too, but a different sort than that of buying stocking stuffers and pie ingredients. John the Baptist calls us to prepare for a new sort of world order, one in which Jesus and love, not consumerism and self-interest, rules forever. … Continue Reading
0
Sermon: Advent Hope, 1 Thess. 3:9-13
Adam J. Copeland
First Presbyterian Hallock, Minn.
Nov 29, 2009
Advent Hope
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Talk about a full day marking many things. This Sunday we celebrate the first Sunday of the church year which is also the first Sunday of the season we call Advent. Advent means “coming,” and today we begin our preparation for Christ’s coming at Christmas.
Today also marks the Sunday closest to Thanksgiving, when we gathered as a nation to loosen our belts and watch football…and also remember the many people and things in our lives for which to be thankful.
Today is also the first Sunday in the official holiday shopping season. Added to that, later we have a Commissioning service and Family Advent Night. As if that’s not enough, the Vikings plays the Bears at 3:15 and there’s an all new Desperate Housewives on ABC tonight.
But believe it or not, we gather today less to anticipate Desperate Housewives, than to look through the lens of scripture on all that today brings and listen for God’s word to us.
In their letter the Thessalonians, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy emphasize two main ideas. The four verses before us today are a sort of a summary of those two points: (1) you’re doing really well, and we thank God for that, (2) let’s make it even better. The writers sort of sound like my high school chorus teacher who always said, “Good better best, never rest until your good is your better and your better is your best.”
Sound like a message for today? Well if we’re thinking about today as the first Sunday of the new church year — the first sunday of Advent — then Paul and his buddies’ hit the nail on the head. After all, at New Year’s we look back at the previous year, and we look forward to the next. So on this first sunday of the new year, let’s give that a try. … Continue Reading
0
Sermon: Wait on the Lord, 2 Peter 3:8-15
Sermon preached at a Lutheran congregation last week. I was guest preaching, so I had to make more general context assumptions than usual. I enjoyed exploring advent waiting in regards to Christ’s second coming, but continue to wonder how such ideas are best put into practice.
Wait on the Lord
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Advent means “coming.” I don’t need to tell good Lutherans that. This is a season of waiting, of expectation, for Christ’s coming on Christmas Day. So with the whole church, we wait: lighting candles, singing services, counting down each Sunday until, with Christmas joy, we celebrate God’s incarnation. Waiting, faithfully, for Christ’s coming at Christmas.
But there’s another side to Christ’s coming, one that, generally speaking, us mainline Christians get a bit nervous to discuss. It’s the reason, after Charles sent me today’s lections, that I had some second thoughts about preaching at tonight’s service. This reason gives some of us hope to get out of bed each morning, and for others, it’s the farthest thing from our minds, a scary and strange idea that we just rather not consider.
Advent means “coming” in another way: Christ’s “second coming.” Christ’s return. –and it’s not all elves and reindeers, and would you believe this: my Bible doesn’t have one mention of snow flakes falling while chestnuts roast over an open fire?!
Tonight’s lection from 2 Peter is all about Christ’s coming again, “The day of the Lord” Peter calls it, but that day isn’t December 25th at all. … Continue Reading
0
Seminary Reflections, Presbyterian Bloggers Style
Posted this over at Presbyterian Bloggers…..
As the semester draws to a close, final exams are written, and papers turned-in (or clicked-in, as is the case when one submits a paper online), I’m aware of the inherent beauty of the academic calendar.
Work twelve weeks, HARD. Big push at the end for finals. Then, rest. Sabbath. It’s almost Biblical, even, since from time to time we all need take a break to reconnect with God, with others, with ourselves, (and yes, with those non-academic to-do lists).
One of the differences between my full-time church internship last year, and my full-time student life at seminary this year, is that last year I actually had time to read for fun, to come home from a day at work and not have to worry about homework or studying. I enjoyed an almost nightly sabbath from work, a feeling very difficult to achieve during the school year. It helped me break and connect with Megan, with friends online, with God.
Advent, to some extent at least, is about sabbath, a sabbath from our normal secular-driven holiday thoughts to another a focus on something else entirely. A sabbath to ponder Christ having come, a sabbath to hope for Christ’s coming again. A time to wait, to be allowed to rest, to reconnect with God, with others, with ourselves.
Maybe these feelings are more intense for one who has just finished a semester’s work, but I hope that we all might use our sabbath time whenever it’s each night after work, or a Sunday afternoon, or early in the morning to rest, to wait with God, to hope for the time when all will be well, for Christ is surely coming.
image by yunior
0
Advent Wreath New Ideas
Advents wreaths can get a little stale if you ask me. I’m all for tradition–love it, actually– but really, are we using that plasticky old wreath and unexamined liturgy AGAIN?!
Well, the church I attended this past sunday surely isn’t. Their wreath isn’t a wreath per se; it’s four candles set up on four individual stands around their sanctuary. Their bulletin notes,
As the darkness deepens and winter comes, each week we light one more candle to speak of our hope for the coming light. Much has been made of the symbolism of the Advent wreath, each candle given a particular meaning. Actually, it is the action of lighting one more candle in the darkness that bears its deepest meaning. In the face of growing darkness, the church brings more light. Since our sanctuary gathers us in a circle, we imagine ourselves as the wreath, bearing in our hearts the light of Christ.
I love these ideas, moving away from each candle symbolizing a certain meaning but having the wreath more broadly remind us of bearing light in the darkness. The candles then function as actual candles, lighting the way. I guess I had forgotten that candles actually brighten things rather than just look pretty and sit in a wreath.
Does your congregation have any Advent traditions?
image by István Benedek
Connect Online
