 |
| Bulletin Cover |
Below you will find the transcript of the sermon. I am also posting the two recorded sermons from the churches, Fort Oglethorpe UMC and Simpson UMC, because the recorded sermons contain different things from the transcript and each recorded sermon is a little different from the other.
We started recording our sermons and putting them on our Facebook pages for our shut-ins, for folks who missed church, and/or for anyone who might want to listen.
Peace on your journey,
Debra
-----------------------------
“Made Holy By Love”
Hebrews
10: 5-10 (CEB)
December 23, 2018 (4th Sunday of
Advent)
Fort Oglethorpe UMC, Simpson UMC
Hebrews
10:5-10 (CEB)
5 Therefore, when he comes
into the world he says,
You didn’t want a sacrifice or an offering,
but you prepared a body for me;
6 you weren’t pleased with entirely burned offerings or a sin offering.
7 So then I said,
“Look, I’ve come to do your will, God.
This has been written about me in the scroll.”
but you prepared a body for me;
6 you weren’t pleased with entirely burned offerings or a sin offering.
7 So then I said,
“Look, I’ve come to do your will, God.
This has been written about me in the scroll.”
8 He says above, You didn’t want and you weren’t pleased with a sacrifice or an
offering or with entirely
burned offerings or a purification offering, which are offered because
the Law requires them. 9 Then he said, Look,
I’ve come to do your will. He puts an end to the first to establish
the second. 10 We have been made holy by God’s will through
the offering of Jesus Christ’s body once for all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS
IS THE WORD OF GOD FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today
is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and we are focusing on the word “love”. Notice
how the light continues to grow on the Advent Wreath. The outside has become fully encircled in
light.
A
meme I have been sharing the last two weeks at Flintstone about the Advent
journey is this: “The Advent journey: Hope becomes peace. Peace becomes joy. Joy becomes Love. Love becomes Christ.” (Ask
the congregation to read it with me.—At FOUMC, on the screen; at SUMC, in the
bulletins.)
As
we near the end of our Advent journey, let’s look closer at today’s passage. Verses 5-7 refer to and almost directly quote
Psalm 40:6-8—
6 You don’t relish sacrifices or offerings;
you don’t require entirely burned offerings or compensation offerings—
but you have given me ears!
7 So I said, “Here I come!
I’m inscribed in the written scroll.
8 I want to do your will, my God.
Your Instruction is deep within me.”
you don’t require entirely burned offerings or compensation offerings—
but you have given me ears!
7 So I said, “Here I come!
I’m inscribed in the written scroll.
8 I want to do your will, my God.
Your Instruction is deep within me.”
The
title comes from verse 10, which reminds us that “we have been made holy by God’s
will through the offering of Jesus Christ’s body once for all.” We know that this offering was because of God’s
love for us, as stated in John 3:16-17—“ God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that
the world might be saved through him.”
This
offering is a relationship with Jesus, with God, with Emmanuel, God with
us. As we focus today on love on this 4th
Sunday of Advent, we recognize that love came down to be with us, love was made
Incarnate in Jesus so that we could be in relationship with the Creator.
Christina
Rossetti’s hymn, “Love Came Down at Christmas”, written in 1885, found in the
UMH #242, verse 1:
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Today’s
passage reminds us that this love came down in human form to live among us and to
teach us how to love one another.
We
sing of this love in the hymn, “O Holy Night” by Placide Cappeau in 1847,
translated by John Dwight, verse 3:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his Holy name!
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his Holy name!
As
we reflect on the Incarnate Christ, on Emmanuel with us, on love, where in our
lives do chains need broken for us to truly love one another and to live the
law of love and the gospel of peace? What
oppression is holding us down?
As
you search your heart, what is keeping you from fully receiving the love and
freedom that Christ offers you? (Pause)
As
we listen, hear these words from Henri Nouwen’s Here and Now:
“God is love, only love, and God’s spirit is the spirit of love longing to guide us to the place where the deepest desires of our heart can be fulfilled. Often we ourselves do not even know what our deepest desire is. We so easily get entangled in our own lust and anger mistakenly assuming that they tell us what we really want. The spirit of love says: “Don’t be afraid to let go of your need to control your own life. Let me fulfill the desire of your heart.” (in A Guide to Prayer For All Who Seek God, 44)
“God is love, only love, and God’s spirit is the spirit of love longing to guide us to the place where the deepest desires of our heart can be fulfilled. Often we ourselves do not even know what our deepest desire is. We so easily get entangled in our own lust and anger mistakenly assuming that they tell us what we really want. The spirit of love says: “Don’t be afraid to let go of your need to control your own life. Let me fulfill the desire of your heart.” (in A Guide to Prayer For All Who Seek God, 44)
It
isn’t easy for us to understand this Incarnate love, the love that came down to
be a part of humanity, then suffered and died out of love for us. Nor is it easy to accept this love and
appropriate it for ourselves. Once we do
that, we can more easily live into the commandment of loving others.
James
Finley reminds us that “Christ has identified himself with the human family,
especially the poor and the forgotten.
In loving them we love him in them.
And they, in turn, encounter him in us in the love we give them.” (From
Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, in A Guide to Prayer For All God’s People,
44)
Where,
to whom, do you need to share the love of Christ? (Pause) Who comes to mind when you consider
loving others as Christ loved? (Pause)
Jesus
came to be in relationship.
Jesus
showed us great love when he died upon the cross, was resurrected, and
continued to teach until he left earth.
“He
came to deal with separation issues. He
came to mend what was broken, to rebuild what had been destroyed, to bury the
hatchet, and to make peace between God and us.
Jesus was very clear about his mission.” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, Steven Eason, 88)
Can
we take up the mantle of love from Jesus and live into our mission to make disciples
of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?
May
it be so.
--------------------------------
Fort Oglethorpe UMC Recorded Sermon
Simpson UMC Recorded Sermon
Love Came Down at Christmas
O Holy Night
No comments:
Post a Comment