WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.799 Well, good morning and welcome everyone. Merry Christmas. It's great to be able to say that. 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:14.120 My name's Kevin. I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Advent. It's also great to be able 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:18.160 to say that. I'm the newest addition to the pastoral team. I've been here for about two months 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:25.359 and I'm really excited to be here. I want to say just thanks to everyone for all of your love and 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:31.699 words of encouragement and kindnesses shown to us through meals. To my family and me, 00:00:31.939 --> 00:00:37.039 thanks especially for your prayers. Please keep praying for us. We have our third baby due in six 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:42.439 days, which is right around the corner. We feel that very acutely. Susan's actually a little bit 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:46.879 sick right now. She's at home with our two boys who are a little sick, so please pray for us. 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:54.939 This morning, I want to spend some time considering where we are both in the church calendar and the 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:59.899 Gregorian calendar, sort of our civil calendar that everybody uses. I want to help us think 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:05.420 through and process the purpose of Advent, the season from which we've just come, and orient us 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:10.519 to the new year. And so I want to sort of just basically take stock of where we are. And I want 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:17.200 to do that by asking three questions. Where are we? Who are we? And how should we then live? I know 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:22.060 many of us are coming from really hectic weeks and we have lots of things on our mind thinking about 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:26.760 the new year. Our minds are very cluttered thinking about all of those things. And so I want to take a 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:32.780 moment before we really dig in, a moment of sacred silence where we can quiet our hearts, center our 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:37.040 minds and our hearts to attend to the things that the Lord wants to speak to each one of us today. 00:01:37.659 --> 00:01:43.120 So let's just take a brief moment of silence so that we can be prepared to receive from the Lord. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:43.180 Amen. 00:01:52.060 --> 00:02:03.740 Lord, we know that you are present here. Help us to be so present. Lord, speak for your servants are 00:02:03.740 --> 00:02:11.080 listening. Fill us, challenge us, equip us, and send us. We pray that you would send out your light 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:17.860 and your truth. Let them lead us. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. So if you're anything 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:24.460 like me, the day after Christmas or maybe even the evening of Christmas is marked by a tinge of 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:31.180 disappointment. There's so much buildup, so much expectation, so much hope. And when the day actually 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:36.760 arrives, it's a little bit of a letdown. I remember feeling this very strongly when I was a kid in 00:02:36.760 --> 00:02:42.600 school, middle school and high school. I always longed for the break from school, break from classes, 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:47.780 a break from homework. And I looked forward to time with friends in the magical season of 00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:54.719 feasting and gifts and a time to actually sleep. And the day would come and it would go. 00:02:55.699 --> 00:03:00.659 And it just wasn't as magical as I expected it to be. Either I didn't get the gifts that I wanted, 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:05.060 or even worse, I did get the gifts that I wanted, and they just didn't live up to the advertiser's 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:10.560 promises. Christmas Day, I end up feeling a bit like Clark Griswold when the lights on his house don't 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:17.360 work. My family, every year, we have this tradition. It's a great tradition, where we watch the 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:21.720 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I don't know if any of you watched that. It's an amazing 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:27.900 film. It's not a movie, it's a film, it's a classic. And there's this iconic scene in the movie where 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:34.140 Clark Griswold, he decorates his house with, and I paid attention this year because I wanted, 00:03:34.340 --> 00:03:38.940 this scene is in my mind, I wanted to see if he mentioned how many lights. 250,000 lights, 00:03:39.060 --> 00:03:44.660 according to Clark. 250 strands of 100 light bulbs each. He puts them all over his house, 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:48.379 they're covering his roof, the entirety of the surface area of his house, and his yard. 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:52.719 And he gets everyone out in his family, the grandparents, and they're doing a drum roll, 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:57.219 and he has this big reveal where he's going to light the house. And if you've seen the movie, 00:03:57.519 --> 00:04:03.439 it doesn't work out very well. He plugs the lights together, and he's just disappointed. I think I 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:07.259 have a picture here. I don't know if you can see it very well, but that's kind of how I feel sometimes 00:04:07.259 --> 00:04:11.719 on Christmas. I'm just a little disappointed. There's so much buildup. I do so many things to prepare, 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:19.060 and the day comes, and it's just not what I was expecting it to be. I think I feel the disappointment 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:25.759 and confusion more acutely now that I'm an adult. Maybe some of the magic is gone from Christmas, 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:32.319 but I actually take Advent and Christmas far more seriously now as an adult, and I think that's why I 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:39.180 feel a little bit more disappointed. You know, I was so excited for Advent this year. We had just moved, 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:44.600 and I really personally just needed a jump start to my spiritual life. I don't know if you felt that 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:50.280 way, but I really needed the season of Advent to focus more intently on my apprenticeship to Jesus, 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:56.699 and so I guess you could say I took the risk of taking Advent really seriously. And so as much as I 00:04:56.699 --> 00:05:03.340 could bear, I tried to face the turmoil and the brokenness of the world, the suffering and the hurt in 00:05:03.339 --> 00:05:08.799 our church family, the needs of my own family, extended and immediate, and the issues in my own 00:05:08.799 --> 00:05:13.439 life. And I looked around. I tried to focus and attend to those things to pray for them, and I 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:19.539 saw so much darkness. And so I would often read at the dinner table during Advent. We would often 00:05:19.539 --> 00:05:25.039 read together as a family the beginning of the Gospel of John that we read this morning. 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:30.339 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, 00:05:30.339 --> 00:05:35.939 and the darkness has not overcome it. And so I would pray, come Lord Jesus, lighten the darkness, 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:43.419 come and make all things new. Advent, the season, stirred up so many needs and desires and longings 00:05:43.419 --> 00:05:48.259 and hopes in my own heart. And I don't know what you were praying for or hoping for or expecting this 00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:53.259 season, but I was really praying and asking for a breakthrough in the world, in our church, 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:59.719 in my family, in my own life. And I thought and I prayed, maybe, just maybe, Jesus would come, 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:04.360 and he would finally fix all the things. That he would end the wars, that he would heal broken 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:10.020 bodies, mend broken hearts, reconcile broken families. And so I entered into this season of 00:06:10.020 --> 00:06:15.320 Advent with some serious expectation in faith and in hope. And when Christmas finally came, 00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:22.620 I took stock and I asked, well, what's different? And if I'm honest, not really a whole lot. 00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:27.640 The circumstances of the world, the wars, the oppression, the violence, the cruelty, 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:34.759 the circumstances of my own life, the anger, the impatience, the fear, they're all roughly the 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:38.599 same and maybe a little bit worse because I spent a lot of time at home and with family, 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:44.839 which is always good and challenging. But as I've processed it and I've prayed through the 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:50.019 disappointment and the confusion this past week, I've realized that something actually is different. 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:55.879 Even if my circumstances haven't changed and the circumstances of the world haven't changed a whole 00:06:55.879 --> 00:07:02.379 lot, Christ really has come to me and he has done work. I really did encounter Christ in fresh ways 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:08.779 and I've been changed by him, even if in small ways. I'm more awake and I'm more aware of the hurts and 00:07:08.779 --> 00:07:13.479 the needs and the brokenness of the world. And it's not just a cognitive awarement. I've really like 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:21.080 felt it in my body. Advent has produced in me what I'd call a holy frustration with the status quo and 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:25.860 it's made me really want to get more involved in Jesus's mission to make all things new. 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:31.960 So I want to explore that together this morning. How can we get more involved in the mission of 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:36.900 Jesus? And I want to do that by asking, looking at three questions together. Where are we? Who are we? 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.620 And based on the answer to those two questions, how should we live? What should we do about it? 00:07:40.620 --> 00:07:46.680 So our first question, where are we in the story? I want to consider this both in terms of our 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:51.939 location on the plot line, where are we in the plot of the story of redemption, and also consider our 00:07:51.939 --> 00:07:57.160 particular roles as characters in the story. And so what I want to do, looking back a little bit, 00:07:57.220 --> 00:08:01.699 is reframe how we ought to imagine Advent. And by doing that, I want to fill out its meaning a little 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:08.019 bit. So Advent just means coming, to come, and it has a triple meaning. Two of the meanings we're really 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:13.639 familiar with, referring to when Christ came in the past and when he's going to come again in the future. 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:18.180 So the first meaning, Jesus came in the past. That's the incarnation. That's what we celebrate 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:23.439 at Christmas. When God took on flesh as Jesus Christ, like some of the songs we just sang, 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:30.659 the human predicament of sin and death was so bad that the only solution was for God to send his one 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:37.019 and only son to become human, to live a righteous life, to die a sinner's death, and to be raised up 00:08:37.019 --> 00:08:44.120 that we might, as John 1 states, believe in his name and become his children, enjoying relationship 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:49.660 with him and inheriting eternal life. So we're familiar with that, the past that Jesus came with 00:08:49.660 --> 00:08:54.220 the incarnation. I think we're also pretty familiar with the second meaning, that Jesus will come again. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.779 Theologians call this the parousia, which is just the Greek word for coming, the same as the Latin 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:04.399 word for Advent. This is the second coming of Christ, where Jesus promises to return to judge 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:09.480 the living and the dead, and to fully and finally set the world to rights, and to complete the new 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:15.500 creation project that he really began in earnest with his death and resurrection. Now the third meaning 00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:21.000 that I sort of want to fill out for us this morning is to remind us that Christ didn't just come in the 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:25.639 past, and he's not just going to come in the future. He comes to us every single day in the present. 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:30.480 We live between the times, between the Advents, as it were, and if we're paying attention, 00:09:31.379 --> 00:09:37.000 we'll see that God comes to us every single day, every moment, and then he comes to the world through 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.319 us. That's what I want to explore together this morning. The concept here that I want to highlight 00:09:42.319 --> 00:09:49.519 in particular is participation. I want to highlight the concept of participation. Advent is the start of 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:55.539 the new year, in the church year, and the purpose, at least one of the purposes, is to energize us 00:09:55.539 --> 00:10:02.159 for mission, to energize us to participate in new and fresh ways in the mission of Jesus Christ in 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:08.620 2019, this upcoming year. And so just as important as it is to remember the incarnation, to celebrate 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:16.299 that God took on flesh, and to long and to hope for when he will come again, Advent functions to 00:10:16.299 --> 00:10:22.899 recharge us and to re-engage us with the mission of Jesus Christ here and now. I think that's part of 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:28.919 the why in the wisdom of the Christian tradition, Advent starts the new year. It sets us up for the 00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:34.840 new year. So that's the first question. Where are we? We live in between the Advents, right in the middle 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:40.179 of the action. And if we have the faith and if we have the fortitude, it's really an exciting time 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:46.500 to be alive. So this brings us to the second question. Who are we? And embedded in the second 00:10:46.500 --> 00:10:51.980 question is really another question. What's our role in the story of redemption? We live in between 00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:58.840 the Advents, but what's our part to play? As I've processed going through Advent, I think that I 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:05.019 entered into Advent with a mistaken expectation, at least slightly mistaken. You know, I was aware of 00:11:05.019 --> 00:11:09.300 all of the issues and all the problems and the brokenness of the world, and I thought, this is just 00:11:09.300 --> 00:11:16.120 so bad. If there's any way that this is going to get better, Christ has to do it all himself. And so I 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:22.279 would sort of, I was praying sort of as this passive spectator saying, Lord Jesus, you go do the things. 00:11:23.299 --> 00:11:28.399 And so at best, I was sort of imagining myself as someone who would just sort of watch and observe, 00:11:28.899 --> 00:11:34.779 knowing that God can and ultimately will accomplish things. But I was really imagining myself 00:11:34.779 --> 00:11:42.539 as a spectator. And I think this morning's passage from Acts speaks to this mistaken expectation that I 00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:46.399 brought into Advent, and it offers some correctives that I'd like to share this morning. So I want to 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:51.719 make a few comments about the passage of Acts that we read this morning. And first, I want to look at 00:11:51.719 --> 00:11:56.000 Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8 in particular. I'll read it again for us. 00:11:57.439 --> 00:11:58.579 This is what it reads. 00:11:58.579 --> 00:12:05.219 So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 00:12:05.220 --> 00:12:12.639 He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:19.580 authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my 00:12:19.580 --> 00:12:27.779 witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So what we see here 00:12:27.779 --> 00:12:36.139 is the first recorded conversation between Jesus's disciples and the resurrected Jesus in the book of 00:12:36.139 --> 00:12:43.659 Acts. Right before this, we're told that the resurrected Jesus was spending time. He spent 40 days with the 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:48.259 disciples, and he was teaching them about the kingdom of God. If you can imagine how amazing it would have 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:53.339 been to sit under the resurrected Jesus's teaching about the kingdom. But as it turns out, it didn't really 00:12:53.339 --> 00:12:57.459 stick too well with the disciples. They didn't quite get it yet. The Holy Spirit hadn't come. 00:12:57.779 --> 00:13:04.199 To really illuminate for them. And so, I'm sure they asked him other questions, and Jesus would have 00:13:04.199 --> 00:13:10.839 said other things. But the author of Acts tells us this was their first question that we have, which is 00:13:10.839 --> 00:13:16.220 just really interesting and really illuminating. And I think it betrays their own misunderstanding 00:13:16.220 --> 00:13:22.539 about their expectations for what Jesus would do after he was resurrected. They didn't understand 00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:27.559 the nature of the kingdom of God. They thought it was for Israel over and against the nations. 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:35.000 And they didn't understand how it was going to be built. They were expecting Jesus himself to 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:41.500 overthrow Rome, their pagan oppressors, and establish what they expected to be the kingdom for Israel. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.059 Jesus was back from the dead, and they're thinking, Jesus, it's time to do your thing. It's been 40 days. 00:13:47.059 --> 00:13:54.039 It's time for you to finally do all that stuff that was prophesied about you. Bring justice. 00:13:54.279 --> 00:14:00.979 Overthrow the oppressors. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. I imagine them thinking, okay, Jesus, you came 00:14:00.979 --> 00:14:05.019 back to life. You were dead. You came back to life. I'm pretty sure that means you can't die again. 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:12.279 So let's go get Pilate. After we kill Pilate, let's go get Herod. After we kill Herod, let's march to Rome and 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:18.840 overthrow Caesar, and let's just establish this thing here and now for Israel. Jesus, establish your kingdom. 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:23.819 That's what they wanted him to do. That's what they're expecting him to do. And given these expectations, 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:29.699 Jesus's reply would have been utterly baffling. He doesn't really quite answer their question, as 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:34.500 Jesus is wont to do. Even the resurrected Jesus doesn't always answer our questions directly. 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:39.500 But he effectively says, no. Now is not the time, and you're not going to know what the time is. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.879 And the plan isn't actually for me to do everything myself. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be leaving, 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:53.379 and you will be my witnesses. And so the first answer for who are we is that we are witnesses. So what is a 00:14:53.379 --> 00:14:59.460 witness? A witness is not just a passive spectator that observes things. A witness is 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:05.139 a person who's bearing a divine message. It's effectively a representative, somebody who 00:15:05.139 --> 00:15:10.519 represents Jesus. So we're not just going to be watching what Jesus is going to do. Jesus is 00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:16.200 calling us to get into the game. This is where we get the word witness in Greek is martus. It's where 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.639 we get the word for martyr. And a martyr is just somebody who bears witness to a message at the cost of 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:26.980 their life. And so Jesus says, I'm going away, and I'm entrusting the message of the gospel, the good news, 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:33.320 to you. And so this passage offers a corrective to their misunderstanding, to my misunderstanding. 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:40.779 Jesus doesn't intend to accomplish his mission by himself. He actually commissions his disciples 00:15:40.779 --> 00:15:47.720 as spirit-empowered witnesses. God comes to us and then plans to come to the world through us. 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:54.620 Now, after commissioning his disciples as witnesses, as representatives, he ascends to heaven. 00:15:54.620 --> 00:16:01.240 And even though Jesus may not be physically present any longer, it's a mistake to think that Jesus is 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:06.919 no longer in the picture. And we see this in the very beginning of the passage we read in Acts verses 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:12.600 one and two. I'll read it for us again. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:18.919 began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:24.519 Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. Now, this is a really easy detail to miss because at the very 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:29.000 beginning of Acts, you think it's just introductory, but it's actually really important. What you need to 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:34.579 know about this passage and about Acts in particular is that Acts, the book of Acts, is really part two 00:16:34.579 --> 00:16:39.459 of a composite work that was written by the same author, Luke. Luke wrote Luke and Acts. Our Bibles 00:16:39.459 --> 00:16:44.819 separate them. The gospel of John is inserted in between Luke and Acts. And why that is is probably 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:52.680 another sermon for a different day. But what the introduction of Acts tells us is that there's a part one. 00:16:53.020 --> 00:16:58.360 He says in the first book, which is the gospel of Luke, that's what he's referring to, 00:16:59.060 --> 00:17:06.259 the author wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach. And so that implies that in the second book, 00:17:06.299 --> 00:17:12.600 he's going to talk about the things that Jesus continues to do and teach. This second book deals with 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:18.399 what Jesus continues to do and teach. So how is that the case if right at the very beginning of the 00:17:18.399 --> 00:17:24.500 book, Jesus ascends to heaven? How does the ascended Jesus continue to do and teach things throughout the 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:32.139 book of Acts? Well, even though Christ isn't physically present, he ascends to heaven, he continues to be 00:17:32.139 --> 00:17:39.139 actively involved through his Spirit-filled people. Because his Spirit lives in Christians, because his Spirit 00:17:39.140 --> 00:17:46.440 lives in us, Christ so identifies with us, he so identifies with the church, that the actions of 00:17:46.440 --> 00:17:53.180 the church are described as the actions of Christ. And we see that throughout the entire book of Acts. 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:58.160 It's really interesting. I don't think there's any other way of making sense of really fascinating 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:04.000 passages like Acts chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. We won't go into it to too much detail, but in this scene, 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:11.279 the church has scattered. Saul is a persecutor of the church. He's a Pharisee of Pharisees, 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:15.119 and he's basically terrorizing the church. He's persecuting the disciples of Jesus. 00:18:15.940 --> 00:18:21.440 And in Acts chapter 9 verse 1, it says, Saul is breathing threats and murder against the disciples 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:29.519 of Jesus. He actually oversees the first murder of one of the Christians, Stephen. And as Saul is walking 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:35.440 along the Damascus road, basically hunting Christians, Jesus stops him in his tracks. You might remember 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:42.160 this story. And Saul hears a voice, and the voice says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting, not the 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:49.980 church, why are you persecuting me? And Saul says, who are you, Lord? And Jesus says, I am Jesus whom you 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:55.680 are persecuting. So interesting. He's persecuting, Saul is persecuting the church, and Jesus is saying, 00:18:55.680 --> 00:19:01.920 you're persecuting me. The two are one, in a sense. This is explained by this really helpful doctrine 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.320 by Saint Augustine. He was a fourth century theologian. He calls it the doctrine of totus 00:19:06.320 --> 00:19:12.019 Christus, the whole Christ. He writes this, the word was made flesh and dwelled among us. This is on 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:17.840 his commentary on the gospel of John, which we read this morning. The word dwelled among us, and to that 00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:24.920 flesh is joined the church. And there, the church and Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus, is made the whole 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:31.140 Christ, the head and the body, the totus Christus. So we can't understand the church, we can't, apart 00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:36.620 from Christ, we can't really understand Christ apart from the church. We are his body in a very real and 00:19:36.620 --> 00:19:43.039 palpable sense. So what does all this mean for us? Well, I think this means that the mission of Jesus 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:49.539 Christ, if we can put it this way, has been democratized to his people. We are on the front lines, and we're not 00:19:49.539 --> 00:19:54.860 just passive spectators, but we're active witnesses. We're the ones who are sharing the message of the 00:19:54.859 --> 00:20:00.579 gospel. Jesus Christ continues to do and teach things, to be very active in the world. He's 00:20:00.579 --> 00:20:07.359 accomplishing his mission and his purposes through us, his spirit-filled church, as we bear witness to 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:15.559 the gospel. We are sharing the good news of Jesus as his hands and feet in the world, in word and deed. 00:20:16.259 --> 00:20:24.039 This means that ours are the hands and feet and the mouths of Jesus Christ. It's up to us to bring the 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:30.980 presence of Christ to bear on this earth, in our city, in our places of work, in our homes, in our 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:37.619 families, in our friendships. The best description of this that I know is from one of my favorite poets. 00:20:38.399 --> 00:20:44.440 It's called As King Fishers Catch Fire. It's one of my favorite poems that he's written, and this is 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:49.079 the second stanza. I'll read it for you so you can follow along on the screen. He says this, 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:55.939 I say more, the just man justices. He's talking about Christian. The just man justices keeps grace 00:20:55.939 --> 00:21:05.480 that keeps all his goings graces, acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is, Christ. For Christ plays 00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:13.259 in 10,000 places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men's 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:20.440 faces. So what Hopkins is saying is that Christians live their lives acting as Christ in the world, 00:21:20.980 --> 00:21:28.680 and Christ acts through us. We act as Christ, and Christ plays in 10,000 places. So a quick review 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:34.480 before we go to our final question. Where are we? We live between the Advents, the time when Christ 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:42.180 comes to us by his Spirit, and then to the world through us. And who are we? We are Christ's witnesses. 00:21:42.180 --> 00:21:48.779 We are the body of Christ, and our role is to participate and to further the mission of Christ 00:21:48.779 --> 00:21:54.500 until he returns. We don't have time to look at it this morning, but in a really interesting way, 00:21:54.779 --> 00:22:00.759 the passage from Isaiah that we read about Israel being the light to the world is fulfilled in Jesus, 00:22:00.900 --> 00:22:06.940 which we read in the Gospel of John. And then later on in Acts, Paul actually applies 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:16.059 Isaiah 49, verse 6 to the church. He says, we are the light of the world. We don't have time to go 00:22:16.059 --> 00:22:23.000 there, but we are continuing and furthering the mission of Christ in the world. So the third question, 00:22:23.539 --> 00:22:28.840 if all of that is true, what should we do about it? How shall we then live? What does all this mean? 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:33.740 What should we do about it? And I want to get really practical as we finish up. And I want to ask the 00:22:33.740 --> 00:22:39.740 question, how can we be good witnesses? I want to look into the new year. How can we be in new and 00:22:39.740 --> 00:22:45.599 fresh and more dynamic ways, Christ's hands and feet in 2019? You know, there are really so many places 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:52.599 that we could land this morning, but I've decided to focus on hospitality. I want to land on hospitality 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:58.099 and talk about that a little bit. So why hospitality? I want to explain briefly. First, 00:22:58.099 --> 00:23:04.919 it's actually one of our three key values as a church. Generous hospitality is one of our key 00:23:04.919 --> 00:23:10.879 values in addition to spiritual formation and missionary faithfulness. So in addition to it 00:23:10.879 --> 00:23:16.699 being one of our key values as a church, there are two other reasons why I want to focus on hospitality. 00:23:17.379 --> 00:23:25.000 The first one happens to do with the loneliness epidemic that we experience in America. There's some 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:34.079 really alarming statistics from a recent survey. The survey was of 20,000 Americans aged 18 to, 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:42.359 I think, 55. And it was published by Cigna. And the results were released May 1st, 2018. I'll read 00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:49.539 some of the alarming statistics about loneliness in America. Nearly half of Americans report sometimes 00:23:49.539 --> 00:23:58.980 are always feeling alone or left out. One in four Americans rarely or never feel as though there 00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:06.019 are people who really understand them. Two in five Americans sometimes or always feel that their 00:24:06.019 --> 00:24:12.119 relationships are not meaningful and that they're isolated from others. And the last one I'll highlight, 00:24:12.119 --> 00:24:20.339 only around half of Americans have meaningful in-person social interactions, such as having an extended 00:24:20.339 --> 00:24:28.559 conversation with a friend or spending quality time with a family on a daily basis. And this loneliness 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:34.379 epidemic has terrible effects on us emotionally and psychologically, but also very physically. 00:24:34.380 --> 00:24:42.400 Ours is a nation. Ours is a city that's plagued by loneliness. And showing hospitality is a really 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:49.880 practical way to show love to people who desperately need and deserve love and meaningful relationship. 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:56.140 So in addition to loneliness, the second reason is the polarization in America right now. Our city, 00:24:56.400 --> 00:25:03.080 our society is incredibly divided. You know this, I know this. We're divided into our own tribes and we 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:08.379 demonize one another. We demonize one another. We dehumanize one another. And in many ways, 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:16.159 Christian ideas are viewed as hate speech. Even the most articulate, most nuanced of Christians 00:25:16.159 --> 00:25:26.460 are often viewed as unloving, hateful, bigoted, or maybe at the very least offensive. And I think we're 00:25:26.460 --> 00:25:32.079 just not really likely to get anywhere in developing relationships if sort of our leading edge in doing so 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:37.779 is talking about some of our fundamental differences in worldviews. Far better is it to show practical 00:25:37.779 --> 00:25:42.480 love and care, to fill bellies, and to fill hearts around the dinner table showing hospitality. 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:49.119 And hospitality, I want to be clear, is not entertaining, which is a great thing. It's not hosting, 00:25:49.439 --> 00:25:54.919 merely hosting, which also is a great thing. It actually means that the New Testament word for 00:25:54.920 --> 00:26:02.259 hospitality is the love of a stranger. The Greek word is philo and xenia, love of stranger. That's 00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:07.660 what it means to show hospitality, to love strangers. Interestingly enough, it's kind of the exact opposite 00:26:07.660 --> 00:26:13.240 of xenophobia. Xeno, again, the word for stranger phobia, fear. Hospitality is sort of the opposite of 00:26:13.620 --> 00:26:20.460 the fear of strangers. Hospitality means we are to show love and practical care to the foreigner, 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:26.440 to the other person, the person who's different from us. And as we develop relationships with the 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:33.299 stranger and build trust and friendships, hopefully, eventually, we might earn the right to be heard, 00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:40.880 to share our understanding, our faith in who Jesus Christ is. I think in our context, one of the best ways 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:47.200 to love well and one of the most effective ways to bear witness to the good news of the gospel is by 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:53.860 showing hospitality. Hospitality is a really powerful way that God can come to us and to the world 00:26:53.860 --> 00:27:00.059 through us. To close, I want to illustrate the power of hospitality by talking about Rosaria Butterfield 00:27:00.059 --> 00:27:06.039 and her story. You may have heard of Rosaria Butterfield. Her story is one of ordinary hospitality 00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:14.340 changing her life. Before she became a Christian, she was a staunch atheist. She was a tenured professor 00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:22.220 at the University of Syracuse. And she was actively working on a book to discredit Christianity and to 00:27:22.220 --> 00:27:27.119 undermine the Bible because she thought the Christian faith and the Christian scriptures were foolish, 00:27:27.379 --> 00:27:33.500 illogical, and really dangerous. She wrote this really critical essay that got a lot of hate mail from 00:27:33.500 --> 00:27:40.720 Christians. But she received one positive email and it came from a pastor. It was a local pastor in the 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:48.519 Syracuse area and he invited Rosaria over to his house to have dinner with he and his wife. And at 00:27:48.519 --> 00:27:52.460 this very first meal, Rosaria is like, well, you know, if I'm doing this project to undermine 00:27:52.460 --> 00:27:57.100 Christianity, I need to get inside the head of Christians. This guy seems pretty nice. And she 00:27:57.100 --> 00:28:02.660 viewed him basically as sort of a research assistant is how she describes it. So she went over to his house 00:28:02.660 --> 00:28:08.980 and she said it was an amazing meal because this pastor didn't share the gospel and he didn't invite 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:14.339 her to church. And she found this to be incredibly refreshing because she knew he was a pastor. She 00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:20.799 knew what he believed, but he didn't view her as a project. He viewed her as a neighbor. And that was 00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:26.920 incredibly endearing to her. And so she left the dinner and said, this has been a really wonderful 00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:32.460 time. Let's do it again. And over the course of the next few years, she would go to their house very 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:36.700 regularly. And she said she was in their home. They didn't hide their faith. She got to know their 00:28:36.700 --> 00:28:42.600 friends. But the way that they practiced hospitality in their home, she said, became a living and 00:28:42.600 --> 00:28:49.080 breathing example of the theology that they were teaching. It was another two years from that first 00:28:49.080 --> 00:28:54.240 meal before she stepped foot in their church. But she was in their home every week getting to know 00:28:54.240 --> 00:29:01.140 them, sharing life together, getting to know friends from church. And she said the process of dialogue 00:29:01.140 --> 00:29:07.780 and table fellowship was really compelling. Over the course of time, she describes it as the gospel 00:29:07.780 --> 00:29:12.980 just sort of building momentum in her life. And eventually she came to the conviction that Jesus 00:29:12.980 --> 00:29:19.020 really is who he says he is. She's written a book about how she came to know the Lord through 00:29:19.020 --> 00:29:24.640 hospitality and how she practices hospitality. It's called The Gospel Comes with a House Key. I just ordered 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:34.759 it. It's one of the top books on my two reads in 2019. As I was reading about the book, there was an 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:39.880 interview. And I want to read a quote from the interview as she's talking about and articulating 00:29:39.880 --> 00:29:43.300 how she understands hospitality and its power. She says this, 00:29:43.299 --> 00:29:50.500 we need to give each other the reminder that it is God who saves. It's not about us being perfect or our 00:29:50.500 --> 00:29:58.019 words being perfect, but show up we must in the lives of unbelievers. What comes naturally to me and 00:29:58.019 --> 00:30:03.359 what comes naturally to you is to hang out with people who are like us, people who can finish our 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:12.259 sentences, people who don't scare us. But hospitality, biblically speaking, takes strangers and makes them 00:30:12.259 --> 00:30:19.640 neighbors and takes neighbors and makes them the family of God. She goes on to say that through 00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:25.940 hospitality, the power of the gospel often brings people together who are supposed to be enemies. 00:30:27.299 --> 00:30:33.279 Now in a moment, we're about to come to the Lord's table to receive his hospitality. The Lord's table is 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:39.720 very much a table of hospitality. It's a meal where we remember and we celebrate the ways in which 00:30:39.720 --> 00:30:47.480 Christ in his incarnation, death and resurrection took us strangers and made us neighbors. And by faith 00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:55.140 in him took us neighbors and made us the family of God. As we feast on him in our hearts by faith, 00:30:55.740 --> 00:31:02.039 may we be filled to overflowing. And out of our abundance, may we be Christ's witnesses extending 00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:06.099 hospitality to the lonely and to the stranger. Let's pray together.