Good day and welcome back! Actually you all expressed your welcome backs to us yesterday in worship and we appreciated that. We had a great trip and had we not all caught some sort of bug upon arriving here we would have been fine yesterday! For those of you who didn't know, we took a ten day vacation to London, England, and Granada, Espana. Marvelous trip! It was great seeing Carli and she should be home on the 18th. Please keep her in your prayers.
Yesterday we continued our study of Advent with a sermon entitled, "All the Signs Point to Jesus!" And Advent is that spiritual journey that allows the wonder of Christmas to made full by allowing it to "come home" into our lives. As an illustration I shared how I had missed a Boy Scout camping trip while still a grade schooler in Kingsville. This trip had taken our troop to Mathis where the boys who attended got exposed to the deliciousness of persimmons. I had only heard about persimmons through Deputy Dawg or one of those 1950s cartoons. (I justed checked and one online source says that Musky used to get in trouble for stealing persimmons from the Sheriff's tree.). My friend could not describe the persimmon with enough detail. He used words like "juicy, delicious, wonderful," and he talked about how the fruit had just squirted everywhere and run down his face onto his uniform and his jeans. And for some forty-some odd years I took his word for it. Persimmons didn't grow in my neighborhood and the little grocery store where we shopped didn't have much beyond bananas, apples and oranges. And those times I happened to be in a fancy grocery store and saw them I just left them there. But one morning while in Granada, Nellie and I ate at the hotel's breakfast buffet. We had pretty much thought breakfast in Espana was a "tostada" which is a Subway 6-inch sub sized bread cut in half and toasted. You get to put butter or jam or both on it and eat it with coffee or tea. There were other versions but we didn't know of them until later. We thought a buffet might have more "American" fare like eggs, bacon, etc. This one was like a cold cut buffet with all kinds of cold cuts and cheeses, cereal, juices, and fruit. In the fruit platter there was a huge persimmon. I thought, "If this is included in the price I will at long last discover what a persimmon tastes like!" I asked the waitress if everything on the table was included in the price of the buffet and she said it was, so onto my tray comes this huge fruit. I didn't quite know how to eat it so I cut a piece for me to see if it wouldn't ruin my teeth by biting into it. And I discovered in 2005 what my friend had known since about 1963 or so. Advent is that journey of faith that brings into our lives that which has been "out there" for so long. Advent means preparing to taste, as the Psalmist says, "that the Lord is good."
So, here is today's study guide:
Monday: Please read Matthew 3:1-6. In this passage we find what many believers call the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in yesterday’s text. Read that passage and see how the messenger in Matthew can be compared to the messenger mentioned in Isaiah. Why do you supposed God needed to foretell His people of this need in their lives? As was covered in yesterday’s sermon, God knows that in our Point A there is a need. What is at your point A?
Here is the Matthew passage: 3:1
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' " 4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
We also talked about Advent being our realization that there is a Point B to our Point A's of faith. And in this passage we find what many believers hold as the fulfillment of Isaiah's text from yesterday (Isa 40:1-11). Could John the Baptist be the messenger with the message from Isaiah? Verse two declares that he is, and from verses three and four, John's dressed the part. More importantly, the coming of John as a messenger before Jesus' public ministry is important for the people to know that God has not abandoned them nor given up on them. God still desired relationship with them and in Jesus was making that invitation to them. God very much wanted people to move before their Point A's, their starting points of faith, to a realization or awakening point (Point B) for their lives.
What we find surrounding us at our Point A is what makes our journeying with God difficult. Doubt, worry, confusion, illness, fear, etc. all serve to keep us from venturing out with God. And Advent is that time that says God has, as Isaish foretold, "paid the price," and we should trust God.
What is at your Point A today? Are you standing still spiritually because of what you find surrounding you? Let God speak to you to let you know, everything's been taken care of. God has paid the price and God has made every low point high, and all the challenges of what seem to be mountains, low. It's your call!
PRAYER: Loving God, we thank you for being with us regardless of where we are. If we find ourselves stuck in a place spiritually right now, come and lovingly take us to where You would have us be. Let us not be overcome with fear and doubt about today or tomorrow but let us know all has been paid through Christ Jesus. For it is in His name that we pray. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
