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Sermons for Advent 2

Matthew 3:1-12 - Repent Your Way to a Merry Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12 - God's Tectonic Shift

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Sermon Opener #1 - Repent Your Way to a Merry Christmas

The full text of the following sermon is available at Sermons.com.

[Members: Please see Matthew 3 or Advent 2 for the sermon titled "Repent Your Way to a Merry Christmas"]

A number of years ago a couple traveled to the offices of an Adoption Society in England to receive a baby. They had been on the waiting list a long time. They had been interviewed and carefully scrutinized. Now at last their dreams were to be fulfilled. But their day of happiness was another's pain.

Arriving at the offices of the Society they were led up a flight of stairs to a waiting room. After a few minutes they heard someone else climbing the stairs. It was the young student mother whose baby was to be adopted. She was met by the lady responsible for the adoption arrangements and taken into another room. Our friends heard a muffled conversation and a few minutes later footsteps on the stairs as the young mother left. They heard her convulsive sobbing until the front door of the office was closed. Then, there was silence.

The lady in charge then conducted them next door. In a little crib was a six week old baby boy. On a chair beside it was a brown paper bag containing a change of clothes and two letters. One of these, addressed to the new parents, thanked them for providing a home for her baby and acknowledged that under the terms of the adoption each would never know the other's identity. Then the young mother added one request. Would they allow her little son to read the other letter on his eighteenth birthday? She assured them that she had not included any information about her identity. The couple entrusted that letter to a lawyer and one day the young man will read the message which his mother wrote on the day, when with breaking heart, she parted with him.

I wonder what she wrote? If I had to condense all I feel about life and love into a few precious words what would I say? I would have no time for trivia. I would not be concerned about economics, politics, the weather, the size of house or the type of car. At such a time I would want to dwell on the profundities, on what life was all about and what things were absolutely essential.

John in the desert was in the great tradition of the Hebrew prophets. He was aware that time was running out. In his burning message he had no time for peripheral matters. He was not playing Trivial Pursuit nor was he prepared to splash about in the shallows. Soon the sword of Herod's guard would flash and his tongue would lie silent in the grave....

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Sermon Opener #2 - God's Tectonic Shift

The full text of the following sermon is available at Sermons.com.

[Members: Please see Matthew 3 for the sermon titled "God's Tectonic Shift" or look under 'This Week's Sermons' on the home page.]

It’s Advent – the time when we prepare ourselves for God’s grande entry into the world as we know it! God literally parted our image of reality and materialized in human form among us! What an amazing phenomenon! It’s no wonder it takes a “mind shift” on our part to wrap our heads around what theologians call God’s incarnation!

What we are really doing is “acknowledging” the occurrence of this new reality. “God with us.” After all, the actual incarnation happened many years ago. But God’s new reality remains – that is, if we are willing to accept and embrace it!

If we do embrace God’s dynamic “breakthrough,” we assign God enormous presence and power. And supernatural finesse. “God with us” changes not only our psychological and spiritual landscape but our grasp of the physical world. It means, we must also embrace Jesus as more than a historical figure of the past or a mere great teacher. We must accept that developing a close and intimate relationship with him is possible. Not only that but allowing God to shift our mind’s eye will mean that we will undergo radical, transformational change.

What will that mean? We don’t know! And that is exactly what makes “metanoia” so hard for us!

Metanoia – the Greek word we assign to the concept of “repentance” actually means a mind shift – a change of mind (and heart)! When we experience “metanoia,” our minds undergo the kind of “tectonic shift” that can entirely rearrange our inner landscape,....

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Illustrations for Matthew 3:1-12

We Need John

When our children were small, a nice church lady named Chris made them a child-friendly crèche. All the actors in this stable drama are soft and squishy and durable - perfect to touch and rearrange - or toss across the living room in a fit of toddler frenzy. The Joseph character has always been my favorite because he looks a little wild - red yarn spiking out from his head, giving him an odd look of energy. In fact, I have renamed this character John the Baptist and in my mind substituted one of the innocuous shepherds for the more staid and solid Joseph. Why this invention? Because, over the years, I have decided that without the disconcerting presence of John lurking in the shadows of our manger scenes, the Jesus story is mush - nothing but child's play, lulling us into sleepy sentimentality.

Susan R. Andrews, Sermons for Sundays: In Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: The Offense of Grace, CSS Publishing Company

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Snoopy of Charlie Brown comic strip fame is typing a novel. He begins his story, "It was a dark and stormy night ..." Snoopy always starts his stories in this manner. Lucy looks at what Snoopy has written. She goes into a tirade, putting down Snoopy for such a silly beginning. Doesn't Snoopy know that any good story starts with the words, "Once upon a time ..."

The last frame of the comic strip has Snoopy starting his story again. Now he is ready. He types, "Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night." Do you feel like Snoopy sometimes? No matter how you begin your story you somehow revert to "a dark and stormy night." If you feel that way today you are not alone. Most of us are struggling in one way or another to overcome the dark side of our existence.

The Advent season leading to Christmas should be a time of joy, anticipation and hope. But, the very fact that it is supposed to be such an upbeat time only compounds the problem.

Richard A. Hasler, Empowered by the Light, CSS Publishing Company

Recognizing Our Need to Repent

One critic said he had gone to many churches and heard the preacher say, "Don't try to impress God with your works" or "Don't attempt to please God with your merits" or "Don't try to keep the rules and regulations and thus win your way." He looked around at nearly slumbering collections of utterly casual Christians and wondered, "Who's trying?"

Martin Marty

The Restaurant in Downtown Jericho

The way it happened in my mind is that he walked into this little restaurant in downtown Jericho, took a deep breath and hollered, "Repent!" Folks stopped eating mid-bite. It got so quiet you could hear the motor running in that tall machine over in the corner that kept slices of pie turning around behind the glass all day. Every eye in the place was on him, and that was what he was waiting for. He started talking, and shouting, and waving his arms, and every time someone would try to laugh at him and go back to their coconut cream pie, he would walk right over and slam a fist on their table, or just stand and stare at the pie eater until their appetite simply disappeared. All this without missing a beat of his sermon.

And what a sermon it was. He started out, "Some of you folks are from around here, aren't you? Born and raised right here? Well, that don't count for one blasted thing in God's book. Your ancestral tree might take you all the way back to Abraham himself, but as far as God is concerned, that won't pay for that cup of coffee you got sitting in front of you." He went on for quite some time, made his way from one table to the next, even the big round one in the back where the Pharisees sat at their weekly noon-time alliance meeting. People couldn't help but smile when he walked around that big round table and called them all a bunch of hissing old women who couldn't spell salvation if they had a dictionary in their hands.

Then he was done. He walked out of the door just as he had come in. Except on the way out he was not alone....

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Children's Sermon: Children Get Ready!

Exegetical Aim: Teach the Children how to get ready for Christmas: To "produce fruit in keeping with repentance."

Props: (a description of all props needed for this children's sermon is available with a subscription)

Lesson Preview: I have a question for you this morning: Does anyone know who John the Baptist is? (response) That's right. He was that really strange guy in the Bible who ate locust and wild honey. He knew that Jesus was coming and he wanted everyone to get ready: Does anyone remember what he said? (response) He was saying, "prepare the way for the Lord" and "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is coming. Get Ready! Get Ready!" He was really excited and he wanted everyone to prepare their hearts and do good things for others.

Well, It is so good to see everyone this morning and I know that you are all excited. Something is coming in 3 weeks. Can anyone tell me what it is? (Christmas!) What is Christmas? (response) Allow some time here. It is the birth of Jesus, that is correct. And, what did you do this week to get ready for Christmas? (response) Did you help mom and dad around the house this week? (response) Interact with their responses. These are all ways that we celebrate and get ready for Christmas. Here is another way to get ready (Hold the gift up before them) and of all the ways we get ready for Christmas it is the most important....

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Children's Bulletins for December 7

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