CMLC 2024-12-01 Sermon (Traditional)

Howdy

Well, we've been looking we are starting our first week of Advent and as we are doing so

We have different themes for these four weeks of Advent

Each week will be lighting a different candle as we lead up to Christmas Eve and celebrate the coming of Christ Jesus

Advent meaning the coming

The time for Jesus to arrive

So with that is today with our different themes. We celebrate the theme of hope

Now one of the things that I oftentimes think about is what brings ideas of hope to mind

What brings the images of hope? But sometimes we know hope

better at times when we have felt

Hopeless and the time that I remember seeing hopelessness the most was when I watched

Groundhog Day

Bill Murray Bill Murray at his best I swear it was a fascinating that apparently

Bill Murray and Harold Ramis argued so much about this movie that they refused to make any more movies together

After that the guys that put together ghostbusters and this movie ended up breaking them apparently

Now one of the things with this movie for those who haven't seen it is that

Groundhog Day, it's that this person named Phil Connors

He goes to this place called Punxsutani and they're supposed to see if the groundhog comes out

Well, he has absolutely no regard for the town or any of their traditions. He's just annoyed at being there

But there was a blizzard that's coming into the area

So what ends up happening is in the morning he hears I got you babe

Sonny and Cher and he goes through the whole day of

entering the town and looking at the groundhog and seeing that there's going to be more winter and then the blizzard strikes

And he wakes up and he hears I got you babe playing again and

As he leaves his room

He starts having the same conversations with people that he knows he already had and then he looks he says

Where's everybody going where they're going to see the groundhog?

That was yesterday and the entire day has played again

But he goes to bed

And it wakes up and again

It's groundhog day all over again and it keeps happening over and over and over and after a bit instead of just being confused

He just decides well

I'm stuck in this. I must be some form of a God

So therefore I'm going to ignore all the usual rules and do whatever I want

But with that is he eats what he wants. He does what he wants. He takes what he wants

But as he does that over and over he starts to realize why can predict what's going to happen?

So with this is he knows how to everything will play out which means he can start manipulating things the way he wants

He's going to decide how everything will play out

except for this one person that he really wants to impress and

Somehow nothing that he does ever manages to be the exact formula to win her heart

He can't seem to quite find the right formula to win her over

But then he decides maybe I just need the formula to escape this cycle

But nothing he does even times whenever he gives up hope and tries to end it

nothing seems to stop the cycle and

Nothing ever seems to change

It is easy to lose hope

Whenever time and time again no matter what you have tried to do nothing feels like it ever changes

Whenever things feel like they are stuck it is easy to lose hope

Whenever we look at our gospel passage

I can't help but wonder if that's the way that it was for the people of Israel

Time and time again

They kept losing themselves and they had lost hope in who they were

They had gotten to a point where they no longer had a nation that they could actually claim to be their own in

722 BC

The northern part got conquered by Assyria 586 BC the southern part got conquered by Babylon

Then later on they were under the oppression of the Persians in 538

Later they got conquered by the Greeks in 322 BC

They did have a little window of

independence in 167 BC with the Maccabeean revoles

But it was not very long lived

Because then the Romans came and conquered them in 63 BC

The thing is is that when Jesus came on the scene they'd been waiting around

for around 70 years or so and they were wondering if it was time for their true freedom to finally arrive

But everyone had different ways that they reacted

Some people just ignored the rules did whatever they wished whatever they felt like doing

And they didn't really think that God was paying attention to them anymore

Others were trying to figure out the exact formula for how to convince God to give them exactly what they wanted and

To let them escape the madness of the Roman world around them and others

Just gave up

They didn't really believe anything would change and they just kind of changed themselves to fit into the life of their Roman occupied country

Whatever it was that people felt that they needed to endure

They were struggling with a feeling of hope and that how they couldn't seem to find it anymore

But here comes Jesus

But with Jesus it's time for something to change

And it says behold your king is coming

Now Jesus ends up telling the disciples go get this cult go get the full of a donkey that is over here and

They end up walking over there and not only finding exactly what he said they would find a cult that no one had ever written before

But then they just tell the people there

The Lord has need of it

That's it and then they're able to take it and bring it to Jesus

How was that even a thing? How did Jesus know what was going to happen?

Well, there were prophecies that had happened in Genesis 49

Whenever Jacob was speaking

Futures over each of his sons and he got to Judah the ancestor of Jesus and he says

Binding his fall to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine

He has washed his garments and wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes

So realizing that the donkey's colt will end up bringing the one whose clothing will have

the fruit of the vine

The grapes the wine that would point to his death the blood of the grapes

But even in Zechariah 9 and it says rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion shout aloud

Oh daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you

Righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt the full of a donkey

So we could reasonably say well Jesus had the prophecies

He he would be able to see and know that this would happen, but that's not what we actually end up seeing truly happening

This isn't just that Jesus knows how everything will play out because he's able to look forward at it

It's because he is God

authoring the story himself

guiding it

Knowing exactly what his purposes are and making them happen

And isn't that something that we oftentimes struggle to get our mind around is that Jesus?

Is it just in a set of circumstances?

He doesn't just happen to know what's going to happen is that he's the one guiding and directing

Because oftentimes we lose hope whenever we forget that God is still the author and the perfecter of our faith

and our future

Whenever we forget that our hope is not in circumstance and hoping that things work out and wondering if they will

But rather our hope is in the one who has actually determined the future

Who knows what will happen because he's created it

Who has done it not just by wishing but by his own blood and sacrifice

Because the future is not something that just happens

It has to be something that is one and it was one on the cross and

done by Christ Jesus

See the thing is is that whatever that future might be

God knows what it is

But we are oftentimes not expecting what God is going to do

And that's part of why it is so difficult to have hope because what God has intended is not the thing that we were looking for

See in the movie Phil Connors. He wasn't expecting

The actual solution he kept trying to manipulate it to try to get to where he wanted to be

Trying to decide what it was that he wanted

And then when he didn't get it or he got it and it didn't meet what he wanted. He became even more hopeless

That's the thing about the people of Israel

They weren't expecting who Jesus is

They were looking for the victory against their overlords. They were looking for a different kind of king

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord

But this isn't the one that they were looking for

This isn't the one that they were hoping for people were excited to see him

They were you could see them singing you could see them laying the palms and the blankets and preparing away

But the problem was

They were preparing the way for who they thought he was

But he was nowhere near what they expected him to be

See they were hoping for a victory against the rulers, but he wasn't planning that kind of victory

See rather the victory in Christ was one that came through humiliation

Something that appeared

Hopeless what we oftentimes hope for in our life and in our faith is much more shallow than what God

actually

intends

What we hope for is

Meaningless compared to what God has truly intended

Because the king was meant to be on the cross to go through humiliation and death

For our blessing the hope was only able to come through the hopelessness

And even after Jesus came to Jerusalem

He still had to go to the temple and cleanse it and refocus everyone so that he could proclaim what he had come to do

But he still didn't know what to do

So that he could proclaim what he had come to do, but he still didn't allow things to go the way people hoped

Because that's the thing about the true hope that comes in God is

That it does lead to a cross

The thing is is that hope is not easy

And don't mean the things that we wish for the things that would make life easy the things that would somehow make sense

I mean true hope

Something lasting

Something meaningful it is never

easy

God's path does not come simply it does not come without struggle

Even as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem look finally they're acknowledging who he is and what he has come to do

Only to hear them say crucify him within a week

As they discover who he truly is

But you see the thing about hope is that it is real

It's not just something that we wish for

See one of the things about the movie

Was to realize that there wasn't a magic setting

There wasn't something where Phil Connors ends up going through the right steps to somehow fix things and get what he wanted

But he had to grow and he had to change

At some point he finally had to realize that the things that he was pursuing or wishing or hoping for

were meaningless

And even knowing that he wasn't going to escape from this cycle

How could he actually help people but also become who he was meant to be

He ends up taking piano lessons he ends up walking around discovering who needs what when where and how

And making sure he's right there at the right time to help them person choking at dinner walks up gives them the high amount of money

ends up gives them the Heimlich person falling from a tree branch and catches them

And ends up discovering more about himself so that while people wondered who is this person who came in that magically knows piano and seems to fit each need that we have

They didn't realize everything that it had taken for him to finally get there

Because he had to finally let go of what he was trying to get in order to become who he was truly meant to be

And that was when he was finally able to find love and to escape into the life that he was meant to live

And so when it finally played again

Even with the same song

It was finally February 3rd

And a chance to move forward

You see there was no magic formula with Jesus coming in on that donkey

Just because he was on the right animal just because they were shouting the right cheer just because he ended up giving the appearance of what they wanted

It wasn't a magic formula to change hearts

It wasn't great now we see him now we're all going to become exactly who we're meant to be

Jesus still had to suffer

And people still needed to wrestle with what it meant for him to be the true Messiah

Instead of just what they had wanted him to be

Because that's the thing

Hope is meant to be real

It's not just a wish

Hope is meant to be real

Not just your wish

The reason that hope matters so much is because it's not just meant to be an idea

But it's something of substance

It takes time

It takes struggle

It takes effort

It takes the time to push through

In order to find hope on the other side

It isn't just waiting for your circumstances to fit what you're hoping for

It is for you to grow in Christ

In order to change the cycle that you find yourself stuck in

Because with resurrection

It requires death

Death to the old

But death does lead to resurrection

But only in Christ

As we are in this season

And there are so many people that are struggling and wondering

What does the new year have to offer?

What do I have to look forward to with this time of Christmas?

What is Advent even for?

It will be a time of struggle

And there will be times of darkness

And wondering what it's all for

But what we know from a Messiah

Who goes to the hopelessness

And pulls through

Is that He is there with you

To give you true hope

A hope of life everlasting

A hope of true transformation by His Spirit

And a hope of discovering

That we're not just meant to focus on the wishes that we have

But rather to take joy in the journey

Than to take joy in the journey

That we have

To take joy in the journey

That gets us to where we're meant to be

Not to get what we want

But to become

Who God has intended us to be

May we each discover hope

As we see what God is doing

To change us into the people

He has called us to be

Thanks be to God.