The Advent Story

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 27, 2016: First Sunday in Advent

The Advent Story

Selected Texts

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said,

“See, I am making all things new.”

(Revelation 21:3-5)

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We know the story, don’t we:

it is a story we love,

a story we love to hear,

every year,

every Christmas:

the story of a baby,

a baby born to a carpenter and his young wife;

a baby born in a stable;

a baby whose bed was hay in a feeding trough,

with donkey and oxen and lamb

all looking on with sleepy detachment

in dim candlelight.

It is a story we hear;

a story we sing;

a story we watch in pageants;

and of course,

it’s a story we re-create in nativities,

some of us by the dozens (and dozens)!

It is a story we celebrate each year

as we decorate, wrap gifts,

bake cookies, hang ornaments on trees.

But our focus on that story

and all the joyful celebration that goes with it,

can distract us from another story,

THE other story: the Advent story.

The Advent story tells us that the Christ who came,

the Christ who was born in a stable;

the Christ who died on the Cross,

is the Christ who will come again,

come in glory,

come to make all things new.

Were you aware that we tell the Advent story

throughout the year,

every month?

We tell it in its most condensed form

every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper,

when together we say in our Eucharistic prayer,

“Christ has died;….     

Christ is risen;…  

Christ will come again!”

Christ will come again!

Christ WILL come again—

emphasis on the word, “will”:

Christ WILL come again.

Say it that way next Sunday:

Christ WILL come again.

That is the Advent story.

Our Lord himself told us that he would come again,

come again, “like a thief in the night”,

come at a time known only to God:

As he said,

“But about that day or hour no one knows,

neither the angels in heaven,

nor the Son,

but only the Father.”

(Mark 13:32)

Jesus is about as clear as can be on this,

emphasizing the point even after his resurrection:

that he would come again, but that,

“It is not for you to know the times or periods

that the Father has set by his own authority.

(Acts 1:6)

Trying to figure out the day, the time,

as so many have done over the centuries,

not only ignores our Lord’s teaching,

it is a waste of time;

it distracts us from

what our Lord teaches us

we are supposed to do,

which is to make ourselves ready:

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit,”

Jesus tells us,

“Be like those who are waiting for their master

to return from the wedding banquet,

so that they may open the door for him

as soon as he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those

whom the master finds alert when he comes…

You must be ready,

for the Son of Man is coming

at an unexpected hour.”

(Luke 12:35ff)

Do you hear that: we must be ready!

Are you ready?

Are you ready,

not for Christmas,

but for Advent?

                          

We all have our lists of things we need to do

to get ourselves ready for Christmas:

shop, cook,

decorate, clean,

send cards,

avoid politics.

But what do we need to do

to get ourselves ready for Advent,

what should be on that list?

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah

God helps us get started:
“…cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow….

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not defend the orphan,

and the widow’s cause does not come before them.”

(Isaiah 1:16ff)

So, there’s a start right there:

an emphasis on doing good,

not just on Sunday, but at all times,

in all places.

Living compassionately,

showing concern without judgment

for those who struggle in life.

Mary, the mother of our Lord,

emphasized theses points as she anticipated

God’s Advent Kingdom in her prayer of gratitude:

“The Lord has scattered the proud

in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.”

(Luke 1:52ff)

Do justice,

love kindness,

walk humbly with God.

That’s what the Lord requires of us;

that’s what needs to be on our list.

(Micah 6:8)

A familiar Christmas text also guides us:

“For a child has been born for us,

a son given to us;

authority rests upon his shoulders;

and he is named

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

…He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness

he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity

for the meek of the earth;…

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.”

(Isaiah 9 & 11)

Live with compassion,

kindness,

humility, goodness,

righteousness,

as we work for justice,

following the Prince of Peace –

that’s how we prepare

for the Advent of our Lord.

We hear and read of the birth of our Lord

as spectators;

we are far removed from the story

by time and distance.

But you and I are part of the Advent story;

we are woven in its pages,

chapter and verse,

as much as the shepherds and the Wise Men

were part of the Christmas story.

Biblical scholar Alan Culpepper has observed,

“We have seen in the ministry of Jesus

the beginning of a new community,

one that redeems and reconciles.

Sin is forgiven and defeated.

The broken are made whole.

Oppression of the deprived is forbidden,

and the powers of this age

are challenged by the power at work in Jesus.”

The Advent story is the culmination

of the Christmas story.    

It is what we heard from the final book of the Bible,

the book of Revelation,

God with us, our Immanuel:

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

And the one who was seated on the throne said,

“See, I am making all things new.”

This is the Advent kingdom,

the kingdom of righteousness and justice,

the kingdom in which God’s people
“shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more…”

It is Advent

and we are called to “become light”,

each of us,

for our role in the Advent story,

each of us becoming light

as we sing our song of eager anticipation,
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.

“Be like those who are waiting for their master,”

Jesus tells us,

“so that they may open the door for him

as soon as he comes and knocks.”

As though if we were not there,

not ready,

the door would remain closed,

and Jesus could not enter,

our lack of preparation,

our failure to be alert and ready,

blocking,

stalling

stopping our Lord’s advent.

          

So wrap gifts,

sing carols,

send cards,

decorate homes,

celebrate the birth with joy!

                                                              

But also: make yourself ready

for our Lord’s advent.

For the promise is sure,

God is “about to create new heavens

and a new earth”.
(Isaiah 65)

To God be the glory!

AMEN  

We’ve Got Mail – Again!

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 20, 2016

We’ve Got Mail – Again!

Selected Texts

The apostle Paul was a letter writer.

Had Paul lived today, in our time,

I’ve no doubt he would have dismissed Twitter

and its cousins

as self-indulgent and superficial.

No, Paul wrote letters,

letters to express his thoughts,

his arguments,

his words of encouragement,

his words of concern;

words he laid out carefully,

methodically,

thoughtfully,

faithfully.

We heard from Paul last summer,

when you heard me read from what I called,

“the Epistle to Manassas”.

Well, we’ve got mail again from Paul,

another epistle.

All of Paul’s letters were written to be read aloud,

read in community,

read to provoke us to think and respond.

So listen now to our brother Paul’s words

to you and to me:

To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ

in Manassas:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Our prayers for you are always spilling over

into thanksgivings.

We can’t quit thanking God our Father

and Jesus our Messiah for you!

We keep getting reports on your steady faith

in Christ, our Jesus,

and the love you continuously extend to all ….

Be assured that from the first day we heard of you,

we haven’t stopped praying for you,

asking God to give you wise minds

and spirits attuned to his will,

and so acquire a thorough understanding of

the ways in which God works.

We pray that you’ll live well for the Master,

making him proud of you

as you work hard in his orchard.

As you learn more and more how God works,

you will learn how to do your work.

We pray that you’ll have the strength

to stick it out over the long haul—

not the grim strength of gritting your teeth,

but the glory-strength God gives.

It is strength that endures the unendurable

and spills over into joy,

thanking the Father who makes us strong enough

to take part in everything bright and beautiful

that he has for us.

We look at [God’s] Son

and see the God who cannot be seen.

We look at this Son

and see God’s original purpose

in everything created.

For everything,

absolutely everything,

above and below,

visible and invisible,

rank after rank after rank of angels—

everything got started in him

and finds its purpose in him.

He was there before any of it came into existence

and holds it all together right up to this moment.

And when it comes to the church,

he organizes and holds it together,

like a head does a body.

He was supreme in the beginning and—

leading the resurrection parade—

he is supreme in the end.

From beginning to end he’s there,

towering far above everything, everyone.

So spacious is he, so roomy,

that everything of God

finds its proper place in him without crowding.

Not only that,

but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—

people and things, animals and atoms—

get properly fixed and fit together

in vibrant harmonies,

all because of his death [on] the Cross.

You yourselves are a case study of what he does.

At one time you all had your backs turned to God,

thinking rebellious thoughts of him,

giving him trouble every chance you got.

But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross,

actually dying for you,

Christ brought you over to God’s side

and put your lives together,

whole and holy in his presence.

You don’t walk away from a gift like that!

You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust,

constantly tuned in to the Message,

careful not to be distracted or diverted.

 

…[Beloved,] I want you woven into a tapestry of love,

in touch with everything there is to know of God.

Then you will have minds confident and at rest,

focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward:

Just go ahead with what you’ve been given.

You received Christ Jesus, the Master;

now live him…. !

And let your living spill over into thanksgiving….

If you’re serious about living this

new resurrection life with Christ,

act like it….

See things from his perspective….

Your old life is dead.

Your new life, which is your real life—

…is with Christ in God….

HE is your life!

So, chosen by God for this new life of love,

dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you:

compassion,

kindness,

humility,

quiet strength,

discipline.

Be even-tempered…,

quick to forgive an offense.

Forgive as quickly and completely

as the Master has forgiven you.

And regardless of what else you put on,

wear love.

It’s your basic, all-purpose garment.

Never be without it.

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other,

in step with each other.

None of this going off and doing your own thing.

                          

[C]ultivate thankfulness.

And, let the Word of Christ—the Message—

have the run of the house.

Give it plenty of room in your lives.

My friends, pray diligently.

Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude.

…Use your heads as you live and work…

…Make the most of every opportunity.

Be gracious in your speech.

The goal is to bring out the best in others…,

not put them down,

not cut them out.

[And remember:]

It is not you or I who live,

but Christ who lives in you,

Christ who lives in me.

Now, may God himself,

the God who makes everything holy and whole,

make you holy and whole,

…spirit, soul, and body—

…[And may] the amazing grace of Jesus Christ

be with you all!

These are Paul’s words to us,

Paul’s words to all followers of Jesus Christ,

Paul’s word from scripture,

by way of Eugene Peterson’s “The Message”.

And what that means, of course,

is that they are not only Paul’s words to us,

to you and me,

they are the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

AMEN  

(Adapted principally from

Paul’s letter to the Colossians

as found in The Message)

Forward

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 6, 2016

Forward

Exodus 14:5-15

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,

the minds of Pharaoh and his officials

were changed toward the people,

and they said, “What have we done,

letting Israel leave our service?”

So he had his chariot made ready,

and took his army with him;

he took six hundred picked chariots

and all the other chariots of Egypt

with officers over all of them.

The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt

and he pursued the Israelites,

who were going out boldly.

The Egyptians pursued them,

all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots,

his chariot drivers and his army;

they overtook them camped by the sea,

by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back,

and there were the Egyptians advancing on them.

In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

They said to Moses,

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt

that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt,

‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’?

For it would have been better for us

to serve the Egyptians

than to die in the wilderness.”

But Moses said to the people,

“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance

that the Lord will accomplish for you today;

for the Egyptians whom you see today

you shall never see again.

The Lord will fight for you,

and you have only to keep still.”

Then the Lord said to Moses,

“Why do you cry out to me?

Tell the Israelites to go forward.”

*******************************************

They could see the cloud on the far horizon,

a thick cloud of dust

kicked up by a thousand hooves,

two thousand, three thousand;

a cloud of dust kicked up

by the iron wheels of chariots,

chariots by the scores;

clouds of dust churning,

the sky no longer blue,

growing darker by the minute.

And as the cloud drew steadily nearer,

they could all hear it,

the low rumble of the hooves,

the wheels,

the tramping feet.

Before long, they could feel it,

feel it in the ground beneath them,

an army fierce, brutal,

armed with swords, spears, and shields,

racing down upon them,

not to take them back,

back to Egypt,

back to their lives as slaves,

but coming to kill them,

coming as storm cloud to slaughter them,

every man, woman and child.

They shook in fear as they watched horrified,

as they listened,

as they felt the very earth shake beneath them.

Where could they go?

They were trapped,

the savage army racing toward them from the west,

and the roiling waters of the sea to the east.

Why, oh why had they listened to Moses?

Why, oh why had they followed him?

Why had they followed the Lord God?

Yes, their lives as slaves in Egypt had been brutal,

working as they had, seven days a week,

from sunup until sundown,

never a moment’s rest

without risking the overseer’s whip,

meager rations for every meal.

And yet life, as cruel as it had been,

had been life.

And now, here they were,

men, women and children,

unable to defend themselves,

trapped,

death racing toward them.

They cried out to Moses;

they cried out to God.

And the word of God came to them through Moses,

just two words,

two words the people didn’t understand at all:

“Go forward!”

“Forward?

Where?

Into the churning waters of the sea?

Are we to drown ourselves

to spare us from the Egyptian’s swords and spears?”

“Forward?

Where is the power of the Lord God

we’d seen in Egypt?

The power of plagues and locusts;

the power of the angel of death

that had been able to reach even into Pharaoh’s house.

Where is that power now?”

“Go forward!?”

And yet that was what God was saying to the people:

“Forward”,

God’s unspoken words,

“Trust me”

“Have faith”

“Believe.”

We know what happened next, don’t we?

The seas parted

and the Israelites were able to escape,

were able to walk through the parted seas,

which then closed over the pursuing Egyptians,

drowning every last man and horse,

including Pharaoh himself.

But who among the Israelites

could have imagined that,

even for a second,

gripped as they were with fear,

certain that death was minutes away.

Who would have thought,

who could have thought

even for a moment,

“God will part the waters

and we will be able to cross over on dry land,

every one of us.

We will escape from the Egyptians;

We will escape death”.

“Forward!”

“Forward!”

“Trust in me.”

“Have Faith.”

These were God’s words to our ancestors in faith

as they stood quaking on the edge of the sea.

These are God’s words to you and to me.

“Forward!”

“Forward!”

“Trust in me.”

“Have Faith.”

We are called to go forward,

even when we can’t see the path ahead,

the path God wants us to take.

We are called to go forward

even when it seems like the doors all around us

are shut tight, locked;

“Forward”, God says.

God has said that to us,

the people of this church

every year since 1867,

every year, in good years,

and in bad years,

Forward, through years of war,

forward through years of economic struggles,

forward through this problem or that.

“Forward;

trust in me;

have faith.”

As Ed White reminded us two weeks ago,

Jesus says so simply to each of us, “follow me”

“follow me”.

Adding two more words,

“fear not”.

“Follow me.

Fear not.”

And so we follow, confidently,

faithfully following our Lord Jesus,

who is the head of our church;

following Jesus wherever Jesus leads us.

God is leading us now through Christ

into our 150^th year.

It will be a joyful year as we celebrate our past,

our rich history.

It will also be a challenging year as we look ahead,

churches of every denomination struggling,

facing strong headwinds.

Our Session has been working on

our budget for next year,

and we know things will be tight.

We’ve had quite a few long-time members move away

the past year or so,

and with them, of course,

went their financial support.

It will be a struggle,

even with new members coming in,

to replace that money that was here last year

but won’t be here next year.

We’ve been down this path before.

We went through this back in 2010,

when $50,000 in pledges left the church

from a combination of members moving away or dying.

That was more than 10% of our budget,

there one year, gone the next.

But God called us forward,

saying to us, “fear not”,

and we got through that year,

and the years following,

with strength, assurance.

Our budget team is looking for places to cut,

which I understand,

but I also know

that we are a very lean organization.

Russell Jackson and I are the only full-time employees.

Believe it or not,

both Deborah Panell and Melissa Kirkpatrick

are considered to be part-time employees.

And you all know they put in far more time

than what we pay them for.

Krista Brocker, our office manager,

Lisa Faust, our financial administrator,

Jody Ritner and Brenda Martin

the leaders of our revitalized preschool,

all of us, the staff, we all are going forward.

Continuing to build a strong music ministry,

a strong Christian Education program,

an outstanding preschool,

a building that is bright, welcoming, and safe.

Brian McLaren writes in his most recent book,

“The call to get moving comes

not after the way is clear,

but while it still seems impassable…

when chaos, uncertainty, and turmoil prevail,

and when the tumultuous sea shows no sign of parting.”

God calls us forward,

Forward.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah,

God says to us:

“I, the Lord, am first,

and will be the last…

Take courage!

It is good!

Do not fear, for I am with you,

do not be afraid,

for I am your God;

I will strengthen you,

I will help you,

I will uphold you.”

(Isaiah 41:4ff)

McLaren ends his books with words written

as though for us at this time,

in this place:

“We have new places to go.

We have great work to do.

Our calling is forward.”

Forward.

Forward.

AMEN