[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #532, Advent 1, Dec. 3, 2006

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Advent 1, December 3, 2006

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
I Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

“Warning: The End Is Near!”

God will act.  This is the assertion of the church as the curtain goes 
up on another year of proclamation.  God will act.  God will act to 
preserve and protect Jerusalem or the new Jerusalem, the community that 
looks to God for protection.  That protection will be both a restraint 
of forces outside and forces within threatening to undo us.

The word is not “maybe God will act” or “if God acts”, but “God will 
act”.  So, the issue is not whether God will act in the world this 
year, but when and how. The issue is not the purpose of God in acting 
-- God will establish justice, execute mercy and preserve the righteous 
-- but the method, the method this time.

"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth 
distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the 
waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on 
the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”  (Luke 
21:25-26)  On the seventh day of June 1944, this happened on the 
beaches of Normandy.  During Advent of the preceding December, the 
church said it would happen without knowing how or when.  It said it 
not because it is the church’s word but because it is God’s word.  It 
is hard for the church to speak God’s word because it has no control 
over it, to make it happen.  It can only proclaim it and tremble, 
tremble for fear of being labeled a fool, tremble for fear of the word 
coming true and tremble in anticipation of deliverance.  Much easier to 
talk about things the church can make happen, like Christmas activities 
and new programs for the coming year.  Much easier to talk about the 
unfolding of the current culture than the unfolding of God’s plan. I 
thought it was the training vehicle to a mobile home in transit, this 
pick-up truck with a flashing yellow light, but as we got closer, I 
could see a sign below the light on a billboard made of a sheet of 
plywood fastened to the back of the camper shell, “Warning!  The end is 
near.  Repent and pray to Jesus.”  I nearly rear-ended him.  I mused as 
I continued west on Interstate 20 between Dallas and Fort Worth, how 
appropriate and misunderstood this message was.  The man driving the 
late model truck had unleashed the word of God in paraphrase to be 
thought a fool by most, admired by some and understood in a different 
way by others.

“Warning!  The end is near.”  How hard it is for the church to sound 
this warning -- to be thought a fool.  But, the end is near, and who 
will sound the alarm?  The end is always near.  A local man killed 
himself by strangulation this week trying to increase his pleasure in 
sex while the church accommodated itself to a society bent on its own 
pleasure.  The user-friendly church affirms the culture around it and 
promises that things can go even better with Jesus.  Sin goes 
unchallenged, and the end draws near, the inevitable end of sin -- 
death.

“Hurray!  The end is near.”  I’ve never seen that sign, but it is just 
as good a paraphrase of the word of God.  Surely, there is an end to 
torture, to child abuse, to wife beating -- a school teacher showed up 
at the shelter for battered women with missing teeth; she said her 
husband would hold her down and pull them out with the pliers when she 
crossed him -- an end to the perversion of human life, the perversion 
of the earth.  The world accommodates itself to endless degradation, 
but the church sees the end.

May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
http://www.webspawner.com/users/McGregorPage/

The MCGREGORPAGE is available free to your email inbox
To subscribe, write the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and send it 
to mcgregorpage-request at intenex.net.

To unsubscribe, write the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and send 
it to mcgregorpage-request at intenex.net.

You may contact the author at RMcGregorAlbq at AOL.COM.


      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
You have permission to share this material with any individual provided 
that you include the source with e-mail address.



________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and 
security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from 
across the web, free AOL Mail and more.