Are You Ready? (Jake Enns)

We are going into the Advent season and from now till

Christmas Day we will be speaking on the topic the

subject of Christmas. The title for this morning is

Are you ready? Are you ready?

Why is it that for many people, the closer they get to

Christmas, the less ready they seem to appear?

You ever noticed that? And it seems as if the day gets

closer and then we have so much still to do in the time.

The clock is ticking and the days are shrinking for fewer and

fewer, and the more tense we become.

Just go to the parking lots in the mall.

Especially two or three days before Christmas.

I've sometimes asked people, Are you ready for Christmas?

And they've asked me, Are you ready for Christmas?

And so on. And this is starting to get to

me a little bit. Not in a bad way, but just it

eats on my mind. It it to choose.

And why are we even asking that? Are we joyfully and expectedly

waiting for Christmas? Or are we rushing frantically

and hurriedly just trying to get ready the last few things?

Is that how we live life? Frantically getting ready?

Never been really ready until it's all over, And then to dump

the whole thing and start over again?

So much of life is spent getting ready.

And I'm not saying we shouldn't get ready when an important

event comes up. We need to get ready.

But do we need to hurry getting ready?

Does it always need to be a mad dash?

Why would we not just live ready?

Think about that for a moment. It would seem to me that would

make sense, right? I think Jesus lived ready.

I think He did. I think He lived ready much more

so than getting ready. Of course He got ready for

certain things. We know that.

But it's a valid question. Are we ready?

I often think of the buzz and so much activity and looks good and

all looks great. I'm not saying we shouldn't

decorate. Decorations look good and all.

I'm not saying it's bad. But I think it's more a matter

of the mind, a matter of the heart than anything else.

Let me put it this way. I think Christmas is more about

being than it is about doing. Yes, we're designed to do.

We're created to do, But first we're created to be.

We're all designed to be a reflection of God's goodness,

his grace and mercy, and whose image bearers Genesis tells us.

Just by being God's children, we already reflect his glory in

some way. But we're so busy with getting

ready, flitting here and there and forget about the being more

than the than the doing. And again, doing is not wrong,

but when doing replaces being, we got some things mixed up.

When doing takes everything over and we forget about being, we

missed the important part. Jesus warned people about being

ready. Yeah, we do something to get

ready, but being ready, numerous stories in the Bible, the

servant who was told to to watch and to be ready.

The young virgins be ready. And they had to do some things

to get ready, of course, but to be ready.

There are things in life that we're not ready for.

Let's just admit it. There are things in life that

when they happen, we're not ready, just not ready.

And this passage that we are going to go into in a few

minutes, his name is Zachariah. He had something happened to him

for which he and his wife were not ready.

Totally not. And it happens to us too

sometimes. Maybe your person who has always

been waiting for something and you expected it and you are

ready for it never happened or you thought you were or

something happened which you totally did not want to happen.

Maybe an accident and an injury that impacts your whole life

from here on in, severe injury or maybe a loved 1 was taken

from you suddenly, unexpectedly through illness or an accident.

You're not ready for that. Maybe it's economic.

You all of a sudden lost your job or place of employment.

Whatever the case may be, your finances went down the drain.

You're not ready for that. Wherever this morning finds you,

in whatever circumstances you're facing today, you have to

consider that even though you might not be able to avoid what

happens, God is still in control.

He's ready. He's always ready.

But God does not tell us ahead of time what's going to come or

what will happen, how it will affect us.

Even sometimes He does. The story today that we're going

to go into, He does tell this guy Zechariah, how that's going

to affect him. He does tell him that, but

mostly we don't get to know. But I do believe this.

I, I do really believe this. God's interruptions in our lives

are acts of grace toward us. I really believe that sincerely.

And even if and when God allows suffering and pain and hardship

into our lives, God sometimes disciplines us, not because He's

want to set us straight, or He has, He has it out for us, but

training us, moving us toward Him, graciously drawing us

through the hardships and the good times too.

He never tries to push us away from Him by what He allows into

our lives. He knows what He's doing when He

allows hardship into our lives. His desire always is for us to

use what He allows to bring us closer to Him.

Think of all the Saints in the Bible, all the men and women in

the Bible who were tested and put under severe stress and

strain, never for the purpose get away from me, but always I

want to mold you, shape you to be ready for me.

As I mentioned, we're in the advanced season today.

Actually, last time it would have started, but we're starting

this morning and we want to look at a character in the Bible

whose life was drastically changed to one small, not small,

but big interruption, something he totally did not expect nor

was ready for. Never in his life would this man

ever have dreamed that what would happen to him did happen.

The story is found in Luke chapter one, verse 5 to 25.

So we'll go through it this morning.

Luke chapter one, verse 25 verse.

We'll read the first 10 verses. For now, take your Bibles and

we'll just read other scriptures, and I want you to

keep your Bibles open to those passages as we dig our way

through it. In Luke chapter one, verse 5, it

starts this way. There was in the days of Herod,

the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the

division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of

Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the

commandments and ordinances of the of the Lord, blameless.

But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they

were both well advanced in years.

So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in

the order of his division, according to the custom of the

priesthood, his lot to to his lot failed to burn incense when

he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude of

the people was praying outside at the hour of incense.

We'll read further a little bit, but for let's stop here for a

moment. Now there's a backdrop to the

whole story that happens and this is kind of it.

This was a worship servicing session.

I want to shed a bit of light on the background of the story and

highlight a few circumstances of that time.

You see that that time was not easy for the Jews.

They were, they were living in difficult days.

And what we see here at the get go at the start of the story is

Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth.

They were faithful in difficult times.

That's the first thing we see. But as a Jewish nation, they had

it hard. They had to pay taxes to the

Roman government. They didn't have self governance

under Roman rule. But in all of this, there were

God fearing Jews. And Zechariah and Elizabeth were

two of them. And of course there was also

many others. And we see here there was this

whole crowd at the temple. They were outside praying while

Zechariah is inside doing the incense burning.

Zechariah was faithful in hard times.

Sometimes when life is hard a person, we get somewhat used to

it, you know, and kind of we live in the discomfort or the

inconveniences and then later on when it's all over and we are

living better times, we wonder, oh, how would I ever get through

that? Well, God must have helped us.

And that's true. There were God fearing Jews and

Zechariah and Elizabeth were two of those.

The political environment wasn't good either.

I mean, in terms of the local stuff, not just were they under

Rome, but the local king Herod, who was the king, was not a good

king. He was a ruler and evil man at

that. And he tried to please Rome and

then also kind of please the Jews and somehow get keep this

thing together because there's always tension there.

He was an evil man. Historians say that he was a

tyrant. He banished his first wife, sent

her away, married another woman, and then he became suspicion of

a second wife and had her killed.

He executed her with her two sons that he had with her.

Then later on his his oldest son, presumably from his first

wife, had him executed because he didn't trust him either.

He was the same king who tried to kill baby Jesus later on, but

30 some years later, I mean a few years later, not 30 years

later, a few years later, but a year later, he killed all the

baby boys in Bethlehem to make sure he had killed Jesus, which

of course is the story goes, Jesus was rescued when the Angel

told Joseph to flee. So from the time that this this

happened till the time he tried to kill baby Jesus was maybe two

or three years or something like that.

So the Jews had freedom of worship.

The temple services were regularly going on faithfully.

And all of this Zacharias served as a priest, married to his wife

Elizabeth, Old and past child bearing years.

A little bit about a priest. They served in groups and way

back in the days, I think it was King David, they had organized

the priesthood into divisions. There were many Levites and they

served as priests. And so each division got a was

was scheduled to serve at a certain time.

And then a lot was cast which one of those priests would now

do the the work, the sacrificing and incense burning and so on.

And Zechariah's turn was this time he was on temple duty.

Sometimes we become so focused in our hard times, we forget how

God is trying to use us. And it just becomes about

turning the crank and just doing church and living what we know

is right. But there's never any real sense

of purpose or real sense of umph or real sense of passion about

it. And I don't I don't want to say

Zechariah was that, but in his old age, not having children,

him and Elizabeth, we don't even know if they were together at

the temple this time. Maybe she was at home.

We don't even know. The verse 7 is a very hard verse

as they had no child because Elizabeth was barren.

They were both well advanced in years as far as they were

concerned. They had been denied a special

privilege in Jewish culture and Jewish tradition.

A woman who hadn't, couldn't have a baby, was viewed as God

has not favoured her or God has withheld from her what was would

have been a blessing. And it would have been.

Little did they know that life wasn't about to wrap up.

It was about to begin. They're about to get going.

But would they be ready for Zachariah?

He's in the temple, and again, we don't know if Elizabeth was

outside worshiping with the crowd or not.

Maybe she was at home. What we do know is what

happened. Just just picture this for a

second. Imagine this Zacharias in the

temple burning incense, which maybe was his first time in his

life. We don't know because not every

priest even got a chance once in a life according to the records.

But he's here. He's doing his thing, burning

incense. Let's read verse 11 to 17.

Then an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the

right side of the altar of incense, and when Zacharias saw

him he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the Angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for

your prayers heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a

son, and you shall call his name John, and you will have joy and

gladness. And many will rejoice at his

birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall

drink neither wine or strong drink.

He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his

mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel

to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in

the Spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the

fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

He had been faithful in his work.

You ever notice how it's the faithful Saints God picks to

interrupt, to turn to different directions?

That's how it often is. Next Sunday, we will hear about

how God interrupted Mary's life. We'll go into that this morning.

And but this morning we're into how he's interrupting

Zachariah's life. So there's this interruption.

Let's pay attention to what happened here and to the way the

Angel talked to Zachariah. And God does things in the

strangest of ways. Just reading.

One more thing. Was there not a better time to

have a meeting with Zachariah and share the good news with

him? Why in the worst imaginable

places and times of all time when he's on stage preaching A

sermon where he wasn't on stage in the temple, But this was not

a good time. He's busy.

Maybe an informed, more drawn with conversation.

He just dumped it on him, basically.

It's good news, all right, just not good.

Convenient timing. I mean, which old couple in our

world today would want to hear news like that in a, in context

like that? And yes, it was different back

then, but nevertheless, it was a shock to Zachariah.

No doubt his neighborhood friends in his village were

grandfathers. In their time, they would be

connected with their grandchildren.

And what's happening here? Zachariah is away for an old

couple. No children, no grandchildren.

He's a priest. I want to say a few words about

priests. By the way, the priests were

Levites from the tribe of Levi, 12 tribes of Israel.

In the book of the Law, a man from the tribe of Levi was

eligible to serve as a priest at the age of 25 until 50.

Let's read that Numbers chapter 8, verse 23.

Numbers 8:23

Then the Lord spoke to Moses. Now this is going way back in

the Old Testament. This is what pertains to the

Levites from 25 years old. Above 1 and above 1 May enter to

perform service in the work of the Tabernacle of the meeting,

and at the age of 50 years they must cease performing this work

and shall work no more. They may minister with their

brethren in the Tabernacle of Meeting to attend to needs, but

they themselves shall do no work.

Thus you shall do to the divides regarding their duties.

Now I will say I'm glad we don't practice it this way today.

That would put guys like me out of work.

And so now they they, they didn't retire by the way, maybe

it was better than because they pensioned them off.

They could still serve burning incense and stuff.

They could still serve lugging the animals around, killing them

and butchering them. That was not their job anymore.

At age 50, that ended, but they still could serve.

It's very interesting how this all how the system work in the

Old Testament. So here's old retired Zechariah.

He's in the temple burning incense.

Not exactly a hard task. We don't know exactly how old he

was, but old enough that to have a baby was would take a miracle.

So in this lesson, Zacharias's neighbors or grandparents, he's

for the first time you're going to be a new dad.

Imagine that. Any 70 plus year olds who would

love to just be a brand new dad. I can't imagine.

But again, we must remember in those days, raising children was

viewed different than in our day.

And how did Zacharias react? Well, let's pause again, Verse

12. When Zacharias saw him, he was

troubled, fearful upon. Well, yeah, His reaction is

fear. We can imagine where his mind

was. He's an old man doing his duty,

burning incense, an Angel standing there.

This is not expected. And this interruption was not

for nothing. It happened for a specific

purpose. He had been and was a faithful

man. He gets interrupted.

This interruption comes with a calling.

He's going to be a dad. Angel says don't be afraid.

Your prayers heard. Your wife, Elizabeth will bear

you a son. You should call his name John.

You'll have joy and gladness. Many will rejoice at his birth.

I think he's probably just just, this is too much to take in.

But it's happening. And it's like, what prayer?

Well, the one you prayed 45 years ago and your first years

of marriage. I wonder if he was still praying

that prayer. Had he given up by now?

We're not told. It's always a good thing to get

an answer for prayer, right? Provided the timing is right,

Right. He had prayed.

It just never happened until now, way past their

expectations. Now it's going to happen.

The Angel gives this man a lot of detail.

I'm not saying it's I'm jealous, but hey, what parent wouldn't

like to know the fortunes and blessings their child would

bring to the world? And God gives this man a

boatload of information about this boy they're going to have.

When we have children as parents, we don't have anything.

We don't know what they're going to be.

We don't even know what to name them.

We got a name in everything. He got them almost like a manual

with him. What he doesn't mention is how

John was called John the Baptist.

What doesn't mention is how he's going to end.

We know how he ends. Life ends.

Not not good, but by no, no doubt by that time, Zacharias

and Elizabeth are long gone. And so when John dies in prison,

that's a whole nother story for another time.

The Angel picked out the name tells him what the work will be

he'll be doing. He'll filled with Holy Spirit.

I won't spend time on that this morning due to time constraints,

but it's a good story. But one thing that sticks out

there is going to be joy and gladness.

It's beautiful. And he's going to be a leader

and he's going to do this in the power and spirit of Elijah.

Now, Elijah was a hero. If somebody would say, well,

your son will be in the steps of so and so, some ancient, famous,

well known, highly respected hero, wow.

That would be shoulder tapping, shoulder padding experience.

As I was thinking about the story, the thought crossed my

mind. I wonder how is the incest

burning happening while all this is going on?

Was he even paying attention? But either way, it didn't really

matter. God had interrupted the whole

proceeding. See, in our lives we may never

be given news like Zechariah received, and in a way that he

received it. But it doesn't mean that God

does not want to use us for his Kingdom.

He still want to use us. He still wants to.

He still called us to embrace the challenges we face from our

vantage point that anything with God is possible.

There are times in life we pray and pray and pray.

Nothing happens. It seems as nothing happens and

yet God is at work, may be different than we expected, and

it may happen in a way that humanly speaking, we say it

doesn't make sense, this shouldn't be this way, and it's

a God thing. Sometimes God specialises in

answering prayers in ways that, humanly speaking, are

impossible. So we have to give the credit to

him. The problem is not God when it

comes to answering our prayers. The problem is our lack of

commitment or our lack of surrender or lack of trust or

lack of faith. And how does how does that right

respond? Oh yes, finally, finally.

No, it's not what he does, not what he does.

Let's read verse 18 to 20. And Zechariah said to the Angel,

How shall I know this? I'm an old man, my wife has well

advanced in years. The Angel answered and said to

him, I'm Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was

sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.

But behold, you'll be mute and not able to speak until the day

these things take place, because you did not believe my words,

which will be fulfilled in their own time.

If you pay attention to people and listen how they respond in a

conversation, it's interesting when listening, how do people

respond? The Bible says out of the

abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And Zacharias at this point spoke out of the abundance of

his heart as well, and he sees an obstacle.

He sees an obstacle. Now this was never God's plan

for him. I don't believe that he's going

to bless him with a baby boy, give him the name, gives him the

job description, gives him what, By the way, also what he

shouldn't eat, not wine, drink wine or strong drinks, gets all

mapped out. And this obstacle is not of God.

It's something Zachariah does, and he's not ready.

How often is that not the case? You know, we can't get something

through our minds because humanly speaking, there's a

barrier. And the barrier is ours, not

God's. When the Angel first met

Zachariah, Zechariah surprised and fearful now with the news

from the Angel that they would have a baby, Zechariah does some

thinking and he doesn't believe. And I, I want to say let's not

be too hard on Zechariah because I think I would have done the

same thing if I was in his shoes.

And so he wants to help the Angel out a little bit.

He wants to give him some, some, some information that the Angel

may have forgotten. He says I'm old, so is my wife.

The Angel says, Oh yeah, I forgot about that, didn't I?

It's not what happens. It's not what happens.

God does not read reminding in our relationship with Him where

there's obstacles. The obstacles are ours, not his.

Many times in Scripture we read prayers where the person says

Lord remember, look and remember, and God does not mind

us praying that. But from what perspective?

In this case, Zachariah wants the facts.

I don't know how this is going to work.

Explanations. Imagine you being a parent, your

little 3 year old wanting you to give them a detailed fact by

fact, detailed explanation of everything you're doing.

You'll say just trust me because they're too small, too young,

too inexperienced to know. Sometimes we do that to God a

little bit and then we need to ask who do we think we are?

Zacharias says. How will I know this since see,

I'm an old man, my wife is old too.

What does Zacharias get? He gets disciplined in a very

interesting way. I find this humorous, actually.

There, in the middle of his temple service, burning incense,

Zach gets his voice turned off. Not just the volume turned down,

it's off. No connection.

No more talking, no more speaking until this would happen

as the Angel had prophesied for a priest in that day, for a

pastor in our day, not being able to talk is a huge deal.

The one thing that's very important for a priest, there's

others, but the one thing that's very important is being able to

talk. He just lost that ability would

last nine months. Well, the people are outside

waiting while all this is going on inside.

And we do not know how long this all lasts, but long enough

beyond the normal time. It says they marvelled that he's

lingering so long in the temple. They're thinking, what's he

doing in there? What's taking so long?

Let's read on verse 21. And the people waited for

Zacharias and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.

But when he came out, he could not speak to them.

And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for

he beckoned to them and remained speechless.

The worship service that had begun and who knows when, turned

out completely different than any normal worship service had

been up to that time. Zachariah had not known when he

walked into the temple he would come out zip a speech impediment

that would now last for the next nine months or longer.

I don't know about Zachariah, but it seems to me he might have

thought, and I think I might have thought, well, this miracle

better work because I'm done for her.

I can't talk anymore. He comes out of the temple, He's

different. He doesn't say a word.

He can't. He's trying.

Mouth is going. And then he starts using sign

language and they figure, hey, what's with him?

He's must have seen a vision or something.

And he had much more than a vision.

He'd been interrupted as never before and would never be again.

This news was a lot to take in. But the fact that he had not

believed that that this would happen 'cause God to shut him

up. I'm thankful today that God does

not shut us up. Every time we don't believe,

think about how silent it would be if every time our faith

failed and we and God would say, OK, you know what, until this

happens, you're going to be quiet.

He would shut us up so many times, at least me, I'm glad he

doesn't do that. But this is how Zachariah had to

learn a lesson. If our level of faith was the

benchmark of how God would allow us to walk and talk, many of us

would spend most of our lives silent and we would be doing

sign language or now we have texting.

Zachariah filled his days of service in the temple.

Then he left for home. Verse 23.

So it was as soon as the days of his service were completed that

he departed to his own house. Now after those days, his wife

Elizabeth conceived and she hid herself five months saying, thus

the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to

take away my reproach among people.

There you have it. That's how it was viewed as not

being able to have a baby reproach, I think.

Zachariah hurried home from that event from the temple services

and used the notepad to scribble things because he couldn't talk.

Well, the unexpected blessing came.

What Elizabeth had wanted for years, hope for, prayed for, and

wanted now happened. She was expecting a child.

It was special in that it was a miracle.

But I want to say this morning, isn't all of life a miracle?

Too often we just take it for granted.

The fact that we're alive, that we breathe, that we're human

beings, conscious and conscious aware, and those things have,

have, can reason and think that's a miracle.

We take it for granted. There's so much stuff we don't

even know. We know actually very little,

almost nothing in comparison to what there is to know.

In this case, God worked a miracle in the life of this

couple. Then we I won't go into it this

morning for the sake of time, but we find later in the chapter

how the baby was born, the neighbors rejoiced and they

hadn't circumcised and so on and and people wanted to know what's

his name going to be? And Elizabeth says he'll be

John. The people are surprised and and

then John Zachariah emotions for a tablet and they give him a

table. He scribbles his name is John.

And at that point in time he can talk again.

And then in the last part of Luke chapter one, we have the

prophecy, how he glorifies God and what God has done for him.

God had interrupted this couple's life by answering a

long delayed prayer request. And what he had for them was far

better or far more significant than if they had been an

ordinary couple. They had joy.

God had given them a calling, even though Zechariah had a

struggle as God was gracious to him, is faithful to him.

Too often, you see, when we read stories like these, we love

these stories and think they're good stories.

And they are. But I want us to go further this

morning. How does this story today

connect tomorrow to December 8th to next week?

What difference does it make for us?

No, we're not Zachariah nor Elizabeth.

We're not the couple. But I dare say that God is just

as interested in US, just as keenly focused on us, as He was

on that couple. Whether we're individuals or

married or single, old or young, makes no difference.

The question we have to ask, are we ready?

So how can you be ready for Christmas?

And not just Christmas, but just be ready.

The answer is surprisingly simple.

I'm not saying easy. I'm not saying convenient, but

simple. We can live ready.

There's a story that's been told and published and written in

various forms and, and many of you've read it over the years

and numerous times I'm sure I've read it.

It's an old story written, I think way back in Russia many

years, kind of a parable. But the old cobbler, and I want

to use that story this morning to illustrate a point.

The story is told of a certain town that lived in old cobbler

Shoemaker in a tiny one bedroom apartment with one window which

looked at him toward the street. And he'd been a good man all his

life, but in his old age he'd fallen into despair because his

wife and his children had died and he was alone and was a

Shoemaker by trade and kept making shoes.

One day an old man from a monastery stopped by and visited

him and told him he needs to stop grieving and to live for

God, telling him to read the gospels until he taught him to

learn how. And the cobbler bought a New

Testament and began to read it every evening.

The more he read, the clearer he understood that God required

this of him and his heart grew lighter.

One night as he was reading late, he read the story of where

Jesus invited to the Pharisees house and with a meet for a

meal. And a woman comes in and she's a

interesting woman, at least say the least.

She comes to Jesus kneels down and is weeping and washing Jesus

feet with his her tears and and not pouring ointment over them,

kissing them, drying them with her hair and so on.

This fairies things. Who is he?

He would know that this is a not a good woman.

And then Jesus to the Pharisee, Hey, I came to your house.

You didn't kiss me, you didn't wash my feet, you didn't anoint

my head and and so on the Cobblers reading that story and

he says I think I'm that man. I'm more concerned about my

convenience and comfort than about my guests.

And if the Lord came to me, what, what would I have done?

He's thinking this and suddenly the cobbler hears a voice and

says Call, we'll call him Martin, says Martin, look into

the street tomorrow if I'm coming to visit you.

The the version I read called this guy Martin.

So old. Martin roused himself from the

chair and rubbed his eyes and couldn't tell where they heard

these words. Or was he dreaming or something?

But his heart was filled with joy.

The next morning he rose early and lit his stove and prepared

some food and put water in the kettle, put on his apron, sat by

the window to work, and kept watching the street, looking

more and more. He soon saw a shabby old looking

soldier pass by, and he was busy clearing the snow from the

sidewalk, and poor fellow Martin thinks he must be half frozen.

He opens the door and called. Hey, come on, man, warm yourself

and drink some. Drink something hot.

The man gratefully accepts and Martin gives him some food and

to eat and tea to drink and, and tells me about the gospel and

the sword of thanks him and leaves again and he's gone and

and Martin turns to his window and keeps working away and

watching anxious, thinking the Lord is coming.

He still hasn't come. I only saw this old soldier have

done nothing but give him something to eat and to drink.

An hour later sees a young woman passing by.

She's pretty, dressed in thin summer clothes and carrying a

little baby wrapped in rags, and she paused wearily under the

shelter of his doorway and opens the door.

Come in, poor thing, he says, warm yourself while you rest.

She comes in, explains she's going to the hospital, she's ill

and has has no one to take care of her for her baby.

And so he gives her some milk and bread and notice the baby

has no warm clothes, takes care of her and young mother's eyes

filled with tears. May God reward you, kind man,

she says, and she leaves again. She leaves and off she goes and

the cobbler takes his place at the window again and it's the

afternoon. He's growing weary and he sees

him old woman selling apples from a basket.

And a small boy darts from around the corner, quickly

snatches an apple from her basket, and she grabs him by the

arm and holds fast to him. And he's crying and trying to

pull away. And he rushes out the door and

separates the two and asks the woman to forgive the boy.

And she says he ought to be whipped and he ought to be

taught a lesson. He says, but God's custom is to

forgive. We ought to forgive her, else we

may not be forgiven. If he's whipped, he'll turn out

worse. If he's forgiven, he'll remember

that the woman let the boy go and the cobbler gave her some

money and for the stolen app. When the boy begins to weep in

shame, and he takes the boy inside and takes care of him and

then he sends him home and night falls and the cobbler sits down

and feels disappointed and he doesn't come.

He says, I did hope, but have not have not seen him.

Suddenly he feels a presence in the room in a voice whispers in

here, hey Martin, Martin did you not know me?

From the corner of the old soldier steps forward and smiles

and then got and then he's gone. The voice whispers again,

Martin, Martin did you not know me?

The woman and the baby appeared and she smiled.

The baby laughs and they too disappear and the voice whispers

1/3 time Martin did you not know me?

The apple woman and the boys stand before him.

They smile and the two vanish. And his heart's filled with

glorious light, and he hears the voice repeating the gospels he

had read the night before. And and he says, I was hungry,

and you gave me. Something to eat.

I was thirsty, gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger. He took me in.

He understood. His guest had come and he

remembered the words of Jesus. As much as you've done it to the

least of these, you've done it to me.

Of course, it's just a parable, just illustration, but has a

point. The point and the question is,

Are you ready? We're in the advanced season

with all the opportunities around us that we need to

demonstrate the love of Christ. There's plenty of needs around

us everywhere. Can we honestly say we're ready?

You see, we're only ready when we left out the calling.

Are you ready? I read a quote many years ago.

It goes like this. We love Jesus only as much as

the one we love the least. And that's how ready we only

are. So let's do more than just busy

running and hustling about, madly rushing about getting

ready. Let's live ready.

Let's be ready. Let's live ready.

Jesus may come to us this holiday season in ways we had

never imagined. Let's pray, Lord, we know that's

only because of you that we are here and that we have you where

we pray that we will be people who will embrace and take up the

opportunities you bring us. Some of the opportunities will

look like interruptions and inconvenience and hardships,

even may be difficult, but they will be good.

Help us to be generous in every way this holiday season.

Help us to be generous with ourselves, not just with our

money, not just with our clothing or houses.

Help us to be generous with all those things, but most

importantly with ourselves. May we be reminded each time an

opportunity comes our way that by serving our neighbor, we are

serving you. Thank you Jesus.