Advent - Love

Okay, my name is Greg, one of the pastors here at the house and we are in our fourth

Sunday of our Advent series and we have gone over hope, we've looked at peace, we've been

reminded of joy and today we need to be reminded of love.

Alright, so are you a difficult person to buy a gift for?

I'm a little tempted, I won't actually do this, but I think, imagine creating a line

of people from one side to the other on a scale of easy to difficult to buy for.

I don't know exactly where I would be in that line, but I can tell you right now that I

am definitely on the side of difficult to buy for.

I'm difficult to buy for because I'm the guy that buys things throughout the year.

I'm not like fancy, so most of the things that I like are 20, 30, 40 bucks, like you

know, there is inflation, so a flat bill hat, a really good one might be like $45 these

days, so maybe I'll buy myself one or two of those in a year, but if something is 20,

30 bucks, it's not that big of a deal to just pick that up on a random Tuesday in June,

that then just makes it harder for people when it comes around to Christmas morning.

And if I didn't already get it for myself, it's probably because it's just too expensive

and no one else needs to spend that much money on me.

But as difficult as it can be to buy a gift for me, every now and then someone will give

me something that just blows me away.

For instance, this past May, Cindy and I celebrated 20 years of marriage and after 20 years, we

are on at least our fourth full set of plates and bowls.

Can anyone relate?

And this right here, this is one of the bowls from our very first set of dishes.

This by a brand called Denby, I remember adding these to our wedding registry with Cindy.

I liked them because I love pottery, because I did a pottery a lot when I was in high school,

a little bit in college, I still do a little bit at home now.

And while these are surely mass produced, they feel earthy.

They look simple, they're plain, but beautiful.

Of course, as you move a few times and have kids and dinners and events and just live

life, what happens?

They break.

Bowls break, plates crack, and you end up with an incomplete set.

And so it was probably 12 or 13 years ago.

I don't, I even asked Cindy, we couldn't pinpoint exactly what Christmas it was, but we were

home, we didn't live here anymore, but we were back, we were at my parents' house, everyone

was over for Christmas morning, we're opening presents, and it was my turn to open something

and it was kind of a heavy little box.

And I opened this box and now I don't remember asking for bowls.

I would never have asked for bowls for Christmas.

But I was overwhelmed.

I cried when I opened a box that had replacement bowls for the ones that had been broken.

Because as it turns out, I really did want bowls for Christmas.

I just didn't know that I needed them.

Now many years and many more moves and more kids and more events and dinners and celebrations

we are again, many more broken bowls later.

This is one of only two that remain.

Of the original set of eight that then was replenished.

They don't make these anymore.

And so we know we're not going to be opening any more of these up, right?

There won't be any more surprised Denby bowls on Christmas morning, but these bowls, particularly

those extra bowls, were one of the best, most thoughtful gifts I've ever been given.

Because they weren't just bowls, they were a gift that was given with the kind of insight

that only comes from love.

The kind of love that knows what you need or what you really want even when you don't.

So with that in mind, let's open up our Bibles.

Let's look at the scriptures together.

We're going to be in the book of Matthew chapter two.

Matthew is the very first book in what's called the New Testament because Matthew, Mark, Luke,

John, Acts, Romans.

If you find any of those, you know you're in the right neighborhood.

If you don't have a Bible, we have some in the lobby you can have.

They're on the bookshelf right there in the middle of the lobby.

Otherwise download one from any of the digital app stores.

We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention.

You can do that in any number of ways.

One of the ways is to stand if you are able.

And so if you would like to stand as you were able with me as I read the scriptures, let's

do that now as I begin to read from Matthew chapter two.

Says this, two verse 13, when the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph

in a dream.

Get up, he said.

Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.

Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt where

he stayed until the death of Herod.

And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet.

Out of Egypt, I called my son.

Now verse 19, after Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in

Egypt and said, get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for

those who were trying to take the child's life for dead.

So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelius was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he

was afraid to go there.

And having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.

So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that he would be called the Nazarene.

Let us pray.

God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we thank you for your scriptures

that they exist, that they have persisted throughout the millennia, that we can still

read them and learn from them.

And whatever you have for us to learn today, I pray that it would stick.

Pray that it would become part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would become

stronger as we become more like your son Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for all you can have a seat.

Alright, so by the time Joseph is picking up his family and fleeing to Egypt, they've

already experienced a number of unexpected turns in their story, right?

Mary as a virgin, promised to be married to Joseph, is told by an angel that she will

give birth to the Savior.

Then she's told that her cousin Elizabeth, who was thought to be beyond childbearing

years is also pregnant, is going to give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah, John the

Baptist.

And then Joseph finding out that his wife-to-be is pregnant before they consummate their marriage.

He puts a plan together to dissolve their marriage peacefully, to try and preserve whatever

cultural dignity that he could for both her, him, then an angel visits him.

Tells him to trust that Mary is in fact the first person in history to get pregnant without

scans room for small children having sex.

And then there's the census called.

So they have to go to Bethlehem.

While they are far from home, Mary gives birth in Bethlehem.

And then shepherds, uninvited shepherds, just suddenly start filling the house because

angels had told them where to find this Jesus and then Magi show up having followed a star

from the east and bring Jesus gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And then when they're already not living where they imagined that they would be, an angel

tells Joseph to pick up and run.

Because a jealous king wants to take the life of their child.

And so they do.

They run and they escape to Egypt.

And years later, even when an angel tells them that they can come back to Israel, Joseph

still doesn't feel like it's safe in a certain area and region because of another violent

ruler.

And so he takes the family back to Nazareth.

Way up north.

If you look at a map of Israel, Nazareth, the region of Galilee is far north.

Far from Jerusalem, far from the hustle and bustle, far from the politics, far from the

center of the religious rulers, further into where they thought we can keep this child

safe.

Maybe it feels fair to ask from our perspective.

Isn't there another time that Jesus could have come?

When there would have been fewer bumps built in?

When kings wouldn't have been trying to kill him?

But if we're honest with ourselves, we then say when?

When has our world not been the home to violence and the lust for power from earthly men?

I think the reality is that no matter what year God chose for Jesus to be born, the story

would have been the same.

And that is the point because it is for love that Jesus entered our violent world as a

vulnerable child.

He didn't enter the world like this bull.

This bull has been fired, then glazed, and then fired again at extremely high temperatures

because it makes it strong.

Call it stoneware for a reason.

Still breakable as we know, but it is strong.

Only having two of these left after all of these years does not speak to how fragile

these bulls are.

It speaks to just how much these bulls can take.

Because I have a house of six people, four of them are boys.

Now, Jesus arrived like this bull.

This is just clay.

It's never been fired.

This is very similar.

This one was thrown, dried, fired in a bisque, a bisque firing, then dipped and glazed.

That is literally glass.

And then fired again to make it even stronger.

I can hit this on the table and nothing is going to happen to it as long as it's within

reason.

No, Jesus came into the world like this.

Unfired.

Just simple.

If I dropped it on this table, it would crack.

If not break into many pieces.

This is how Jesus came into the world because this is us.

The word became flesh and dwelled among us, Eugene Peterson wrote in the message.

The word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood.

It came like us.

Mary didn't carry an invincible God in her womb.

She carried a vulnerable fetus like an impressionable ball of clay.

And when Jesus was born, Joseph listened to the Lord and he picked up this little, easily

broken bowl and he did everything that he could, everything a good father does to keep

this baby safe because this child was the gift that he didn't know.

He needed.

So he wrapped Jesus up and he carried him to Egypt.

Then after years, he carefully brought him back to Israel, carefully choosing where they

should live that this child might be safe from the persecution of violent men.

Over the years, Jesus grew, Joseph and Mary filled Jesus with the laws of the Lord, with

the scriptures.

They taught him the way of following Yahweh, the God of Israel, his father in heaven for

love.

They kept him safe because like any of us, Jesus was fragile.

When he grew up, people didn't want Jesus to be fragile.

People didn't want him to be earthen.

They wanted him to be hardened.

They wanted him to be fired.

They wanted him to have weapons and armor.

That is the gift that they had been asking for.

They wanted something that would never break and would in turn break all the things that

had been breaking them.

God gave them something unexpected, what they didn't know they needed, a savior with flesh

and bone that would bleed when beaten and die when crucified.

Messiah that instead of defeating emperors and kings with swords and slings would take

the violence of this world on his shoulders and bring this peace, hope, joy, and the love

that was needed, that we need.

God so loved the world that just the right time, he gave us something that could be broken.

Not what we asked for, but what we need, a king that feels what we feel, that bleeds

like we bleed, that breaks like we break.

Because he is love.

So that we can love.

Because on the night that this child grown into man was betrayed to death on a cross,

he took something that represented himself, would be broken, and he broke it.

Today I want to ask, I want to honor my mother who is here today, if my mom and my dad will

help me pass out the communion today.

Mom will you hand it out to this side, if my father will hand it out to this side.

I grew up in a church that did communion once a quarter, and in that church only men could

pass out the communion.

So today we receive the body and the blood of Christ.

You just carry those around, just give one to each person.

And as these come around, let your heart reflect on your own brokenness, and on the way that

Jesus allowed himself to be broken, and on the ways that because of that love, that you

are made whole in a new way, an unexpected way, in some ways an unasked for way, but

the way that is truly needed.

There is nothing in the body today that is broken.

There is nothing in God's body but you.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it.

He blessed it.

He said, take, eat.

This is my body.

Let us take.

Let us eat.

In the same manner, after the meal, he took the cup and he said, this is a cup of a new

covenant is my blood, just poured out for the forgiveness of many.

Whenever you drink, whenever you eat, do so in remembrance of me.

Let us drink.

Jesus, we thank you for allowing yourself to be broken.

Father, thank you for leading your son into this moment.

Spirit, thank you for leading us into our belief and faith in Jesus Christ.

Find us that we are only whole in as much as we are found in you.

Amen.