1st Sunday in Advent

My father taught me to swim. Dad was not known for his patience, especially with children though admittedly, he has mellowed a bit in this his 4th quarter! My mother was the nurturer, my father the disciplinarian. But when it came to swimming, things were different. My brother’s drowning changed that.
I remember swimming to my dad, my arms frantically outstretched toward him; his arms searching the water for me. And I realize now, something I honestly didn’t realize then;

that Dad was rooting for me! The terse look on his face was one of concern, not impatience. And every time I swam across that pool and into the waiting, outstretched arms of my father, he was not just teaching me to swim; my Dad was redeeming himself for the child whose life he could not save!
Psychologist Carol Gilligan said, “We listen each other into existence.”

That certainly fits today’s biblical narrative from Luke. John the Baptist has been listened into existence! He is the answer to his parents’ prayers!
God discerns our deepest longings and births hope. Things will get better because God is at work in the world!

Our Advent scripture reading comes from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 57-66. As you are able, please stand for the reading of the gospel.

57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.  59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. 60But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ 61They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ 62Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. 63He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed. 64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. 66All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Prayer: Come thou, long expected Jesus. Open our hearts to receive the gifts you bring to us and for us today. Amen.

My Dad and step mom live in Lancaster, a city located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, at the base of the San Gabriel and Tehachapi mountain ranges. Known as the High Desert, it only gets about 8 inches of rain annually. While land prices in the valley have driven much of the development of this region, you can still drive for miles and miles and see nothing but barren terrain.

Barrenness takes a number of different forms. The author of our Advent study describes barrenness this way:
“Barrenness is the condition of our lives and our world when we live as if there is no listening God to hear our prayers, no life-giving God bringing new possibilities to birth, no redemptive God who might actually be at work in human history to transform the kingdoms of this earth into the kingdom of God and to shape our lives into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Barrenness is the biblical description of a life without hope.”

If you’ve lost a child, suffered a divorce, wrestled with depression, you know what barrenness feels like. But barrenness doesn’t require a crisis! You can experience barrenness in a marriage, a job, or even in a life stage like old age!

In his book, “When will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops, George Carlin writes:
“I was looking in the mirror the other day and I realized I haven’t changed a lot since my twenties. The only difference is I look a whole lot older!”

Barrenness for Zechariah and Elizabeth meant abandoning their longing for a child to share their lives with. This hope had grown, developed and matured through the years, but finally their biological clocks had run down. Pregnancy had simply become an impossibility.
And as with the death of most dreams, grief eventually leads to acceptance. There would be no child. No wonder they could not bring themselves to believe the angel’s promise. That ship had long since set sail!

An operative concept in scripture is that with God all things are possible.” Ephesians 3:20-21 kicks this up a notch when it says,
“Now to the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”

In other words, way beyond expectations!

That 100 of us showed up at the CROP Walk to raise both awareness and money to fight world hunger went way beyond anyone’s expectations. No question, God was behind the success of that event!

John’s birth was not just an answer to his parents’ prayers. It was God’s answer to the “How long O Lord?” of anyone who has ever prayed that prayer. John prepare the way for God’s salvation in Jesus.

Thus there are couple things I think our narrative teaches us about prayer:
1st)  When God answers our prayer it is always in keeping with God’s “greater purpose.” Maybe that’s why some prayers aren’t answered, at least in the way we hoped; they do not fit into God’s plans! Isn’t this how Jesus taught us to pray, “thy will be done?”
2ndly) Even when we’ve given up hope, that first prayer and all of those that come after continue to resonate both deep in the human soul and in the heart of God. Even after the couple has given up praying for a child, God still hears their long abandoned prayer.
Verse 13, “Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.”

Zechariah and Elizabeth witness to the hope that because God is active in the world something better is ahead! “Jesus makes it better!” That is how faith invites us to believe and live!

In the words of our Advent study, “We are called to irrigate the world with hope.” And how do we do this? If you believe Mother Teresa, it’s by one small act of kindness at a time.

I want to invite you as a church to make the most important Christmas gift you will ever make! Intrigued?!

Three years ago, the General Conference of the UMC established the Global AIDS Awareness fund. The intent was to fund AIDS treatment, research and awareness globally. Each church was asked to participate by making donations to that fund at a level of $1 per member. I am issuing you a challenge this morning. I am asking that each family in the church donate 10.00 to the UM Global AIDS Awareness Fund. To put that into perspective that’s about the cost of a pizza. Why 10 dollars and not one dollar? Because when God is involved, things go way beyond expectations!

• 42 million people have been infected with AIDS,
• 20 million have died 
• 16,000 new infections occur daily. 
• 600,000 children each year are infected and 
• 13 million children have been orphaned due to the pandemic.
  

THOSE ARE STAGGERING NUMBERS! And each one represents a human being just like you and me:

I’m going to show you a short 3 minute video clip about some of these children who have been orphaned by AIDS.  

(Video)

You know, in a sense, the entire Biblical narrative is about God’s rooting for us, with open arms and outstretched hands.

Hope is what keeps us reaching out. And maybe in a way we don’t fully understand, we redeem ourselves every time we reach out in turn, in concern and service to the world.

“Just as you have received, so now give,” said Jesus. And how is that Lord? Freely! He said, freely. Matthew 10:8.

This Christmas I asking you to irrigate the world with hope. When you come up to for communion you are invited to bring a communion offering for the Global AIDS awareness fund (if you can swing it, 10 bucks).

One of the things I’m going to be doing this Advent season is push you to rethink Christmas. I invite you to do something significant; not for yourself, or even family or a friend. This Christmas, I invite you to join me in doing something significant for someone who has lost their hope.

Now a point of personal privilege: Many of you know Kathleen Baskin Ball, a former staff member of HC; Kathleen received her call to ministry here.

Now the Pastor of Suncreek in Allen, Kathleen is an incredibly gifted pastor, a colleague in ministry, and my friend. A year ago she was diagnosed with cancer, and responded so well to treatment that her doctor took her off intense chemotherapy and put her on a daily maintenance drug.

The email Bill, her husband sent Friday states that her cancer has returned in all the areas where it was previously found. While doctors are switching her medications in hope they can find something to halt the progress of the disease, Bill is asking for our prayers:

He writes, “Keep praying-we really need your prayers. Keep hope alive-we need hope to lift us up. Keep loving-your expressions of love to us and to others give us strength.”

We are going to have a moment of silence and I am asking that you pray for Kathleen, Bill, Skyler, and her church.

Romans 5:5 makes the following promise:, “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”