The Danger of Confusing Social Action with the Gospel

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[00:05:22] Advent reminds us that we are people who share a story, the story of Jesus, who enacts peace by judging in favor of the poor and deciding with equity for the meek of the earth.
[00:05:37] We long for the day when the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead
[00:05:49] them .
[00:05:52] Today we choose to live the story of peace, believing that true peace comes when we seek the flourishing of all God's creation.
[00:06:02] We light this candle of peace as a sign of our commitment to bring light to the places the world seeks to hide until the day when all creation lives together in harmony and abundance.

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[00:06:18] A reading from the prophet Isaiah.

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[00:10:43] A shoot shall come out from the stalk of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
[00:10:50] The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him in the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
[00:11:02] His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
[00:11:05] He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth he shall not he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips
[00:11:23] he shall kill the wicked righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins the wolf shall live with the lamb the leopard shall lie down with the kid the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and
[00:11:45] the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand
[00:12:00] on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse
[00:12:15] shall stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:12:22] shall be glorious. The Word of God for the people of God. I'm not sure if we want or need a sermon

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:15:39] after that, but here goes. There's an old saying about prophets, biblical prophets, that they are called to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Well, Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah was pretty good at both of those things. In the chapter just before the
[00:16:10] scripture that we just heard, chapter 10 of Isaiah. Isaiah is doing some pretty good afflicting at that point. He says things like this, Woe to you unjust judges, those who issue unfair laws. Woe to you who deprive the poor
[00:16:31] of justice and deny rights to the needy. Woe to you who take advantage of widows and orphans.
[00:16:39] What will you do on the day of punishment?
[00:16:44] To whom will you flee for help?
[00:16:46] Where will you then leave your wealth?
[00:16:51] See, things were not going all that well at the time for the people of Judah.
[00:16:56] Judah was the southern kingdom of Israel to whom Isaiah is speaking in that chapter.
[00:17:04] The Assyrian, the powerful Assyrian empire, had come into the northern region of Israel and had invaded them and conquered those people.
[00:17:15] And now they would soon be laying siege on Judah as well.
[00:17:22] So Isaiah is reprimanding.
[00:17:24] He's chastising Judah for their unjust behavior.
[00:17:30] The prevailing understanding of the prophets in those days, including Isaiah, was that the reason Israel and Judah were being attacked, the reason they were being defeated by their enemies, in this case the Assyrians, the reason they
[00:17:44] were being defeated was because they were acting unjustly toward the poor and the needy and the stranger.
[00:17:55] This is what Isaiah is saying, as long as the rich and the powerful are continuing to get richer and more powerful at the expense of the poor and the marginalized, God is going to allow them to be defeated. And so in chapter 10, Isaiah is giving Judas some good afflicting.
[00:18:17] Reminds me a little bit of John Lewis. Remember the former congressman from Georgia? Isaiah is getting in some good trouble, as John Lewis would say. Well, I have preached my share of sermons over the years that have got me in a little bit of trouble, have made people uncomfortable. I've
[00:18:41] had my share of folks come up to me after a worship service and say, I don't come to church to feel worse about myself. Come on. I come to be comforted, which I do too. Certainly I understand
[00:18:57] that. But there are times when a good afflicting is what we need. And Isaiah knew that. But he also knew that along with that, there comes a time when we need comforting too, when we need to comfort
[00:19:19] the afflicted, comfort those who are hurting and when they are afraid. And that's what today's scripture is primarily about. Now is the time to comfort the afflicted. In the midst of their fear and their uncertainty about their future, Isaiah says to the people, he says, a shoot will come out
[00:19:41] from the stump of Jesse, and a branch will grow out of its roots. Jesse, you may remember Jesse in the Bible. Jesse was the father of David, King David, the greatest leader that the united
[00:19:59] kingdom of Israel had ever known. And so that kingdom, though, was no more. It had been divided.
[00:20:10] As I said, the northern part of the kingdom had been defeated by the Assyrians. And so it looked like this mighty tree of a kingdom had just been cut down to where there was just a stump
[00:20:26] remaining. And this is when Isaiah shares these words. He says, even from a stump something can grow, a tiny shoot from which a new branch will begin to emerge. In other words, a new leader.
[00:20:44] and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him and he, unlike the leaders that they had had before, he will rule with justice for the poor and for the oppressed.
[00:20:59] And he will bring peace, not the war and the violence that they had come accustomed to.
[00:21:05] This new leader will bring peace, lasting peace.
[00:21:10] Now the original hearers, readers of Isaiah, They may have thought, when Isaiah is telling these words, that he was referring to Hezekiah.
[00:21:22] Hezekiah was the son of King Ahaz, who was their king at the time.
[00:21:28] Perhaps they were hoping that the Spirit of the Lord would rest on Hezekiah, so that he could grow up and become a better king than his father had been, because the father had been a disaster.
[00:21:40] But of course, when we hear these words, when Christians hear these words, we can't help but see jesus in the one that isaiah is describing i mean he says things like this he's the one who judges the poor and the oppressed with justice and with righteousness that under his
[00:22:02] reign the wolf shall lie down with the land the lion and the calf shall feed together even the child will play over the whole of the asp we see jesus in those words and not only do we see jesus
[00:22:18] but we see something even more. We see this sort of idyllic, heavenly existence.
[00:22:27] Isaiah 11 is not considered an apocalyptic passage necessarily, but it does sound like some. It sounds like the book of Revelation, actually, which describes a new heaven and a new earth, a place that is unlike and even better than the one we are living in now.
[00:22:49] So when we read Isaiah 11, it's tempting.
[00:22:54] It's tempting, I think, to see it and to read it as if it's just heaven talk, we'll call it.
[00:23:03] It's not really applicable necessarily to our world today because it's about something in the future.
[00:23:12] But nothing could be further from the truth.
[00:23:14] As we prepare for Christ, the birth of Christ, the return of Christ during Advent, We do it best when we're doing exactly what Isaiah talks about, when we are working for peace and for justice and for righteousness,
[00:23:33] when we ourselves become peace and justice and righteousness.
[00:23:39] To affirm what David, that David, not King David, that David, to affirm what he said last week in his sermon, if we only see a peaceable kingdom as something that's out there, you know, out there in the future, as if it's only something that we will experience in the
[00:24:02] afterlife, after we die, if we only see it that way, then what is our motivation to make our world more peaceful and more just and more righteous? If we pray every week, maybe you pray every day,
[00:24:19] thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven do we mean those words i hope we mean those words when we pray them whenever i read or hear scripture passages that talk about peace
[00:24:35] especially this time of year and i think of how unattainable maybe even unrealistic peace, like real peace is today in the world. I always think about a story of something that happened a long time ago. It happened back during World War I, and you probably know this story.
[00:25:00] World War I on Christmas Eve. It was 1914, and in the midst of the fighting on the Western Front, allied and central powers in World War I, they called a truce on Christmas Eve.
[00:25:18] The British and French forces on this side and the German and the Austrian soldiers on this side, they just stopped fighting. They literally laid down their weapons and many of them met together in no man's land, in between the trenches.
[00:25:43] They met.
[00:25:44] They exchanged gifts with one another.
[00:25:46] They ate and drank together.
[00:25:49] They played soccer with each other.
[00:25:53] They sang Christmas carols together in their native tongues.
[00:26:00] And it was not just a few of them.
[00:26:02] It was over 100,000 soldiers all along the Western Front, which goes many hundreds of miles.
[00:26:13] And they, of course, call this now the Christmas truce.
[00:26:17] In some areas of the Western Front, the truce lasted for a couple of days.
[00:26:23] It went through Christmas Day.
[00:26:25] In others, it went on further.
[00:26:27] It went on all the way until New Year's.
[00:26:31] But when it was all over, the soldiers went back to their trenches.
[00:26:36] They picked up their weapons again, and they started killing.
[00:26:44] They went back to killing.
[00:26:47] but imagine imagine though if uh if they didn't do that imagine if they had not picked up their weapons again they just left them down you know it's hard to keep a good war going when a hundred
[00:27:05] thousand soldiers on both sides just decide they're not going to participate my point is peace isn't unattainable it's just hard it's really hard reminds me of the old quote from gk chesterton who said the christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting it's been found
[00:27:36] difficult and left untried in other words peace even a little bit like what isaiah is talking about peace is ours to have if we want it badly enough. The trouble is not enough of us want it
[00:27:56] and are willing to work and to sacrifice, really sacrifice for it. I was thinking about it this way this past week. You know, roughly one-third of human beings all over the earth, roughly a third,
[00:28:12] It's about 31% of people across the globe are Christians, people who follow Christ as their Lord.
[00:28:24] But then you take another very significant percentage of people in the world who are Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or Jews or atheists, And many of them, a large percentage of them, while they don't claim Christ to be their Lord,
[00:28:45] they still agree with so much and like so much of what Christ taught and lived.
[00:28:52] So imagine if every one of us, like all of us who claim Christ as our Lord, and those other people who just like Him or are fans of Jesus, Imagine if all of us were to actually live what Jesus called us to do, live as peaceful people.
[00:29:16] How much closer to peace would we be?
[00:29:21] I still would not want my grandchild to play over the den of a venomous snake.
[00:29:29] Only Jesus is going to bring that ultimate kind of complete peace.
[00:29:37] But, you know, for the time being, we are his body on the earth.
[00:29:41] and we can make peace. We can be people of peace in our little corner of the world. We can be people of peace with our friends and with our neighbors and with our family. We can make peace
[00:29:57] with our co-workers. We can make peace with strangers. God help us, maybe we can even make peace on Facebook and we can hopefully have peace in our own souls. And make no mistake, we do have to make peace. Peace doesn't just happen on its own. Kate Bowler says,
[00:30:25] peace is not passive, nor is it polite, but it's necessary. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers. He never said, blessed are the peace lovers, or the peace hopers, or the peace adjacent.
[00:30:46] none of that. We've got to work. We've got to work to make peace, peace on earth as it is in heaven. And as we prepare during this Advent season to make a way, to make a straight path
[00:31:04] for Christ, peace really is the very thing, or at least one of them, that we need to be about

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:31:11] every day. Amen. I want you to stand as we affirm our faith together.
[00:31:30] I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried.
[00:31:53] The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
[00:32:02] From thence ye shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
[00:32:06] I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:32:22] I invite you to be seated.

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[00:33:25] As we await in this season of Advent the fulfillment of God's promise, let us offer the prayers of our hearts to God.
[00:33:35] oh God together we pray for the church that we may help to clear a path for God's reconciling love to come upon the earth and to bring peace Lord in your mercy we pray for the world the world which you love we pray that hurt and
[00:34:07] destruction and division may yield to the beauty and justice of your peaceable reign. Lord, in your mercy, we pray for all in positions of power that they may have hearts of compassion and become advocates for the vulnerable and the oppressed. Lord, in your mercy, we remember
[00:34:40] today the sick and the lonely, all who suffer for friends and family, for neighbors, for broken relationships, for divided families, for our neighbors who are cold or hungry, lonely.
[00:35:06] We pray, O God, that through our love and care that your tender love for them may be made known.
[00:35:21] We pray also for those who are closest to our hearts and minds, those we love, those about whom today we are worried or concerned and who we name aloud are in our hearts.
[00:35:41] Lord, in your mercy, we pray, O God, for all who have died and all who love them, that they may be gathered into your strong and gentle arms and know that peace that passes understanding. Lord, in your mercy, O God, whose word brings hope and whose promise
[00:36:08] is new creation. Make a way in the wilderness of our world. Open our eyes to see your coming and strengthen us for the work of preparing the way for your reign of peace. We ask this through
[00:36:24] our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Well, welcome to worship on this second Sunday of Advent. We're glad that you're here and in worship today or worshiping with us online. If you are a guest,
[00:36:48] we say a special welcome to you. I believe that one of the greatest gifts God gives us is new friends to meet, and we want to get to know your story a bit. So if you have a moment, please stop
[00:36:59] out by the Welcome Center following worship and introduce yourself to us. We'd love to get to know you. There are friendship pads in your pews. Please share those with your neighbors. Sign in.
[00:37:09] let us know you've been in worship and greet your neighbor following following this the service just a couple of things to highlight in your bulletin there's a lot going on in this season lots of opportunities for worship for fellowship for serving for growing in your faith please take
[00:37:29] note of all of those they're in your bulletin they're online on our website on our social media channels. Two things I want to highlight today. You've heard us talk a lot about Realm, which is our church sort of database and communication platform. If you have struggled
[00:37:44] with that, I won't ask you to raise your hand, but if you have, across the hall in the fellowship hall this morning are some wonderful people younger than me who can help you get connected
[00:37:57] to Realm. So if you have a few moments, I'm going to stop by after the service and see one of them.
[00:38:02] they'd be glad to help you sign in figure out how to use it a bit and get more comfortable with that that resource so they're there today as you might need them thanks to all of you who helped to make
[00:38:15] the live nativity the 25th annual live nativity such a huge success they need one more thing as we wrap up that event for this season and that is to help us to put Bethlehem away for another
[00:38:28] year so over in the parking lot by the chapel there are volunteers already at work disassembling the Bethlehem set if you have a 30 minutes an hour whatever to give this morning following worship go over they can use extra hands as we put those those items away for another season and they
[00:38:50] greatly appreciate you doing that thank you for all the ways that you give generously of yourselves your gifts, your time, your prayers, and especially your presence. It matters that

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:39:02] we're here together, and I'm grateful for it and grateful for each of you. Gracious God,

[00:44:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:44:04] your generosity overflows. Accept these, our gifts, so that with your blessing we may use them to proclaim Christ in our community and beyond. Amen. I invite you to be seated.
[00:44:25] Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another.
[00:44:33] Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another as we pray.
[00:44:39] Merciful God, you made light to shine out of the darkness in the advent of Jesus the Christ, and you call us to be prepared to receive him.
[00:44:50] we confess our unwillingness to see the light and to walk in your ways we have not loved you with our whole heart and we have failed to be an obedient church we have not always opened our eyes to the needs of others and our feet have
[00:45:09] wandered from the paths of justice and peace forgive us and be born in us anew that our hearts may be stirred to glorify the Nativity with acts of compassion and service through Christ our Lord.
[00:45:27] Amen.
[00:45:29] Hear the good news.
[00:45:30] Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.
[00:45:33] That proves God's love toward us.
[00:45:35] In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
[00:45:42] Glory to God.
[00:45:44] Amen.
[00:46:16] I invite you to stand.
[00:46:25] The Lord be with you.
[00:46:28] Lift up your hearts.
[00:46:29] Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.
[00:46:37] It is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
[00:46:45] And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.
[00:46:52] Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
[00:47:00] Hosanna in the highest.
[00:47:02] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
[00:47:05] Hosanna in the highest.
[00:47:08] Holy are you, and blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ.
[00:47:12] By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
[00:47:26] On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat. This is my body which is given for
[00:47:37] you. Do this in remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples saying, drink from this all of you. This is my blood of the new
[00:47:50] covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me and so in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ
[00:48:05] we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith Christ has died Christ is risen Christ will come again pour out your holy spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread
[00:48:27] and cup make them be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood by your spirit make us one with Christ one with each other and
[00:48:39] one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet through your son Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit in your holy church all honor and
[00:48:52] glory is yours almighty God now and forever amen And now, with the confidence of the children of God, we are bold to pray as Christ taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:49:08] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:49:14] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[00:49:23] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[00:49:27] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
[00:49:34] The bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
[00:49:41] And the cup over which we give thanks is a sharing in the blood of Christ.
[00:49:46] Friends, Christ is our host. He has prepared and set the table, and all are welcome.
[00:49:52] Come, feast on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.
[00:49:57] You may be seated.
[00:49:58] Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us.
[00:58:52] Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit to give ourselves for others.
[00:58:59] In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[00:59:03] I invite you to stand.

[00:59:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:59:04] well jesus told his disciples peace i leave with you my peace i give to you but then he said but i do not give as the world gives and that's true the world often tells us
[01:02:23] that peace comes through through wealth or through financial security but jesus is saying We know it comes, I'm talking about a different kind of peace, a peace that is inner peace, that transforms and transcends everything that we think about as being peace.
[01:02:41] Peace in our minds, peace in our souls and in our hearts that we can then take out into the world to try to transform the world, to make it a more peaceful place.
[01:02:51] So as we go out to do that, to try to be more peaceful people in the world, let's do so saying together our mission, that we will be the body of Christ and our community
[01:03:01] through worship, education, fellowship, and service. Go in peace.