conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

friday feasting and sermon prep

Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him
call us by your holy Word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

-www.oremus.org

Just prior to Turkey Day, Community Church sent out a letter listing all of our Advent happenings. We send it to members and others including those who come to a larger events like the 5K. It's a good thing for us to do...a little extroversion. On that Advent schedule is a listing of our worship services and the sermon titles through Christmas Eve. Yep. I have titles for all those sermons. So, now what?

This Sunday's sermon is entitled "Come to the Mountain." You can go here for the lectionary reading. I am focusing on Isaiah and Matthew. Isaiah reads: In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.

I find this time of year to be generous...spiritually generous. It's a limitation on my part to be certain, but as the leaves fall from the trees and the cold wind blows, these messianic readings from Isaiah seem to carry an extra punch. I have that old song running through my head..."A change is gonna come..." I love Sam Cooke. He's likely not showing up in my sermon. But these things seem to be floating about in my head this morning.

The scriptures beg us to come to the mountain and stand on the edge of some high precipice. We have to look out into a future that we cannot control, that we cannot dictate. This is life. There are ways we can pitch in, align ourselves. Matthew makes it very clear that our present participation in God's future is essential to Christian identity. There's no sitting around. Nope. The hour is "unexpected." So we must be ready. There are no signs or portents. There are no tea leaves to read. There is only our work and prayer.

I hope that you all have a great day. Tomorrow we green the church! That should be fun. The first Sunday of Advent is a communion Sunday for us. I'll try to keep it simple this time. I've been leaning toward more liturgy and not less the last couple of months. But this time I think I'll allow us to experience a little (a lot?) of silence. We have to go to the mountain top. Ya can't carry too much with you if you hope to make it. Leave those things at base camp. Let's keep it simple.

Posted by tripp at November 30, 2007 06:37 AM