This morning Gospel begins with two couples each expecting their first child. One family is, to be blunt, too old for all this. The other family is a bit overwhelmed by the circumstances of the pregnancy. But whether they are overwhelmed or over-aged doesn’t even slow down the process, and as today’s Gospel reminds us, birth and delivery are going to happen and lives are going to change. These two families will, when the time is right, move from anticipation and expectation into a joyfully new reality……all based on the faith that God has given them.
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent we find ourselves poised on the “edge” of Christmas……the time of “just about there” and “not quite yet.” The church is decorated, but the color is still blue. We’re expecting and anticipating the JOY of Christmas, but we’re not quite there. The choirs are rehearsed, but the Christmas songs are yet to be sung. The Sunday School kids know their lines and have their costumes, but we’re all still wondering what will happen when they actually get on stage! The Christ candle has been in the center of the Advent wreath for a month now, but it’s not yet been lighted. We’re teetering on the edge and we’ll finally begin to “tip over” tonight as we celebrate the JOY OF CHRISTMAS, and then on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day we will be THERE, rejoicing in the birth of Christ our Savior!
Our congregation is also at a point of “just about there and not yet.” For over three years we have been getting ready for the events of this morning, when we will formally dedicate what we have called Envision Hope. We have prayed, planned, and pledged. We have built, rebuilt, and renovated. There’s been a lot of just plain hard work to get us ready for the “birth and delivery” of what will come next. We were blessed by the Laborers for Christ, who have moved on to other projects in the Synod. A few years ago all the things that we’re already taking for granted were just dreams in our minds and drawings on paper. We still had to ENVISION what Hope would become.
There’s a certain wonder in moving from Vision to Reality. It happened for Elizabeth and Zechariah, as the angel’s words of a son became real for them when their son was born and was given the name JOHN. This was NEW! There had never been anyone named JOHN before, not in their family and not in the Old Testament! Yet God said it and it was done. It became real for Mary when her child, announced by angels and conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born.
The process wasn’t easy: Zechariah lost his voice; Elizabeth was ridiculed for her long overdue pregnancy; Joseph considered divorcing Mary, who had been warned that her son to be would “pierce her heart” with a sword!
Yet God moved in His wonderful and mysterious ways and both the messenger and the message-bearer were born; the Word was made flesh and lived among us, to use the words of John 1. God “made all things NEW” through Christ.
There truly is cause to celebrate this morning as we celebrate the end of the third year of Envision Hope. When we as a congregation voted to move forward with our capital campaign in 2008, the economy of our country had ground to a halt. Some said we were foolish to move ahead, that the failing economy would doom the project. Some refused to commit themselves financially. Still others faded into the woodwork or simply left the congregation. All of these responses, sad to say, are normal when a congregation follows the leading of the Holy Spirit. Some of us have become far too comfortable in the “status quo” of church life and don’t trust the unknowns in what God wants it to become. Some of us simply don’t want to part with our money. Some played the “done that before, let someone else do it” card.
But the vast majority of this congregation understands, believes and trusts that when God makes a promise, He keeps it. God wants to “make all things new.” He did that with your life. He did that with my life. He’s done that for the hundreds of lives that are blessed by this place every single week through worship, through our preschool (which is the largest it has ever been) and now also through our child care. He does it through youth ministry, social ministry, and in ways we may not see this side of eternity.
But my dear friends, there are still lives around us on the edge of eternal peril; lives that must be reached, touched, and changed, forever. Lives that must, like ours, be made new. That’s why God has brought us to an incredibly wonderful place in our congregation’s history. We are, like Elizabeth….like Mary….ready for the time to “bear fruit.” We are ready for Envision Hope to become LIVING HOPE to hundreds, if not thousands of people around us. It’s time to change, as we remembered on Wednesday evening, from “anticipatory joy” to the “real joy” of watching God “make all things new,” one life at a time.
How is God going to do that? What is our part in God’s promise? What is required of us? What is God asking of you? How is He going to “make all things new” with you in the coming year? I’m asking a lot of questions; but truthfully, God is asking a lot of us.
Look at the yellow pledge ‘card’ that you brought with you this morning. What promises are we going to make to our Lord this morning, even if they stretch us and challenge us? Let’s take them one at a time:
Worship is one of God’s tools, one of His means for making us new. It’s a “Means” by which He brings Grace into our lives: through His Word and His Sacrament. Pledge yourself to worship regularly in 2012, and He will continue to re-make you more each day into the person He has already planned for you to become! Can you check this box and commit 2012 to worship?
Prayer changes lives. Your prayers can change not only YOUR life, but the lives of others. I’m sure you are willing commit yourself to pray daily for this ministry!
Discipleship is growth. Jesus taught His 12 disciples daily for 3 years. St. Paul spent many years being tutored by the Holy Spirit before he was ready for ministry. No Christian is EVER “done growing” in the faith. I pray you will commit yourself to growing through devotions, through Bible classes, through study.
Faith, the disciple James said, without works….without service…..without bearing fruit….is dead, and I would never want to depend on a “dead faith” for my salvation! What are you doing with the talents God has given you? Will God commend you for being a good steward of those gifts? There are so many new opportunities for ministry here at Hope just waiting for you to bring them to fruition. I pray you will pledge yourself to use your gifts and talents this year.
Finally comes our money. You knew I would get there….because money is, for most of us, the hardest thing to part with. It’s necessary for life, and it’s also necessary for ministry. We’ve built Envision Hope, and now we need the financial resources to make ministry happen. That money is here…..in our pockets and in our passbooks. Will you give sacrificially in the coming year? This is the one most significant area where we physically demonstrate TRUST in God, like the widow who gave her last two mites. She trusted in God to get her through, and He did. He will do the same…..that’s HIS promise (Malachi 3).
Friends, we can ALWAYS find other things to do with our money. What God asks is a faith-based demonstration what while we might not know HOW we are going to “make it,” we’ll give away enough to show that we’re placing TRUST in Him! Will you commit yourself to increasing your offering? To moving towards a biblical tithe? To giving regularly, even if you aren’t here, by using Simply Giving?
In a moment we’re going to have a prayer and then collect our pledge cards. I don’t know what you will check. I don’t know what numbers you will enter. But God knows what He wants you to do. Take a silent moment to listen to Him before you hand your card in……and let Him “make all things new” in your life and in your church in the year to come.
