Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (02:56):
Good morning. Please join me in the cotton worship. Comfort,
Oh comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her, the voice cries out in the wilderness.
Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. Every valleys shall be
(03:19):
lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.
The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places
a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh see it together. For the mouth of
the Lord has spoken st.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Sa sa SA suss.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
S S S.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
S spot see side.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Scene.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So please pray with me, Almighty God, during this season
(06:20):
of advent, remind us again that in the midst of
our darkness you bring us peace to calm our anxious
spirits and hectic lives. Turn our hearts again towards you
in this world filled with turmoil. Grant us the tranquility
that all your peace can bring. Help us to be
(06:42):
entrance of reconciliation and harmony in our relationships and communities.
Make us ready to receive your son, our Savior. Slow
our pace and give us the blessing of feeling your peace.
Now in the name of Jesus, the Principees who taught
(07:02):
us to pray our Father, who art in heaven. How
would be thy name, Thy kingdom? Come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
as daily bread, and forgive us our truspasses, as we
forgive those who trustpass against us, and lead us not
(07:26):
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is
the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and employment.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Also leave your hymnals, open.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
All the hosts.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
It to my.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Mistess in a.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Time that shot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
School street.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Spo shooting.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
The scripture today is in the Old Testament, in the
book of Isaiah, a familiar verse on the second Sunday
of Adva Isaiah seven fourteen. Therefore, the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a woman shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call his name in Manuel.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Please join me in the reading of the Lutany.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Now is the time of watching and waiting.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
The time of pregnant expectation of new life. Now is
the season of peace unfurling the silence or winter season,
when peace is preparing to be revealed. Let us come
before God with receptive and willing hearts. Maybe rejoice in
the name of Devon with palms bringing life and pace.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Sss s.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
S.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Side thinks house.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And six. Since that was not be it, so.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Come to be six three.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
More.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
Please pray with me, Loving Father, Prince of Peace. Our
hearts are filled with gratitude for the hope we have
in you. Thank you for the promise to keep in
perfect peace. Those minds that are steadfast and trust in you.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
Help us to do good and.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
Share with others. For with such sacrifice as you are pleased,
may our offerings today be multiplied and used to spread
your word and serve your people. Accept them. Lord, we
pray as an act of worship, a joyful response to
your great love. For it's in your precious Son's name
(13:24):
that we pray.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I'men you may be seated. Our first scripture reading this
(14:13):
morning is an extended version of what Jim Leech read
when we lit the advent candle. Here's the bigger picture again.
The Lord spoke to King a Has saying, ask a
sigh of the lords your God, Let it be as
deep as shie Old or as high as heaven. But
(14:37):
A has said, I will not ask and I will
not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said, here, then,
o house of David, is it too little for you
to weary mortals that you weary?
Speaker 6 (14:53):
God?
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Also, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look,
the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Emanuel. He shall eat kourds and
honey by the time he knows how to refuse the
(15:13):
evil and choose the good. For before the child knows
how to refuse evil and choose the good, the land
before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.
The Lord will bring on you and your people, and
on your ancestor's house, such days as have not come
(15:35):
since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king
of Assyria. Let's pray together, oh Gracious God, as we
gather in worship on this second Sunday of Advent, the
(15:58):
week of peace. We are aware of all the places
in the world that are not at peace, but wars
are taking innocent lives, looting people's homes, destroying everything they have. God,
(16:24):
sitting in the comfort of this sanctuary and returning back
to our homes warm with heat, it is hard for
us to process what's going on in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria,
and other places around the world. We ask, o God,
(16:50):
in ways we cannot see, that your peace would still come.
Oh God, we see your peace for our own lives
and for all that is busy in our lives. Right now,
as we try to prepare for Christmas, we know there's
lots to do, presents to buy and wrap, there are
(17:13):
Christmas cards to write and send, there are meals to
plan for, for feasts with family and friends. Help us,
oh God, in the midst of all this, to slow
down and live into your peace. This host season of advent,
(17:44):
Oh God, we resound in hope as we await your birth.
Help us, Oh God, as we think of hopes for
our own lives, and hopes for this church, and hopes
for this commune unity, that you would help us to
(18:05):
tie them to reality. Whatever the reality that we face,
whatever issues we face in our life through help health
or job or vocation, or difficulties in relationships, Help us
to face the truth, the reality in which we live,
(18:27):
so that out of that reality we can see the
hope you're offering us, Oh God, help us to run
away from the false hopes that so often divert our
attention from you, and for the true hope you have
for us, Oh God, we pray for persons in our
(18:55):
congregation who have been facing difficult days. We think particularly
of Mitchar who's recovering from surgery. We ask that you
would continue to give him strength and help his body
to recover. We pray for his healing and for Jennifer
as she cares for him. For those who are returning
(19:23):
home from times in the hospital, we ask your grace.
For those who are facing surgery in the weeks aheads,
we ask your peace for them. Help us to be
the church to people in this congregation who need care,
and for people in this community who need a hand
out and a hand up. We thank you for the
(19:46):
season of giving and ask you to renew our hearts
for the living of these days. In Christ, Jesus, we
pray Amen.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
In the time a state school for water, school, school.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
School school, stool.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
School, the.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Sort shot studete sistosto.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So for.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Changeation bred.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
T for change, the.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Presanta side strong so it some time.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Our second reading this morning comes from the prophet Jeremiah,
the twenty ninth chapter, beginning with verse four. Thus, as
the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all
the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem
(24:45):
to Babylon, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens
and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons
and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your
daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters.
Multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare
(25:13):
of the city where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says
the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. Do not
let the prophets and the diventers who are among you
(25:33):
deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that they dream,
for it is a lie that they are prophesying to
you in my name. I did not send them, says
the Lord. For thus says the Lord, only when Babylons
seventy years are completed, will I visit you, and I
(25:57):
will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back
to this place. For surely I know the plans I
have for you, says the Lord. Plans for your welfare
and not for harm, to give you a future.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
With hope.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May God
bless it for our hearing and understanding. The Lord will
give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with
child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Christians have read Isaiah seven fourteen ever since Matthew quoted
(26:44):
it when he wrote his version of How Jesus Was Born.
Jim Leech read it in the lighting of the Second
Advent Candle just a few moments ago. In this season
of Advent, it is worth taking a deeper look at
this passage, which is so familiar to us at this time.
(27:12):
The child Emmanuel was born some seven hundred to twenty
five years, give or take a decade or two before
Jesus's Bethlehem birth. The young woman appears to be Isaiah's wife.
(27:32):
The child to be called Emmanuel is Isaiah's second and
middle son. If you eat the sections before and after
this passage, all the way from chapter sevens beginning to
eight Chapter eight verses four or five, you will see
that Isaiah's to other sons their names were a part
(27:54):
of prophecies the King of Judah that was Southern Israel
and whose capital was Jerusalem, had been under attack by
two other small kingdoms, one of which was the Northern
(28:15):
Kingdom of Israel. So it was cousins fighting each other,
and Judah was losing the war. But Jerusalem was a
city built on a mountain with fortifications and it was
difficult to take. So it appears that these two kingdoms
(28:38):
armies had surrounded the city and laid it in siege.
In those days, that meant nobody escaped, and more importantly,
it meant no food or supplies came in. To be
a city under siege in those times is to know
(28:59):
that your day are numbered. You might be safe for
the moment, but it was only a matter of time
unless someone intervenes that the soldiers surrounding the city would
be crashing through the city's walls, because week by week,
the people inside those walls became weaker through starvation. Isaiah's
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message of hope is bad news before it is good news.
Isaiah is saying that the siege will last a while,
(29:46):
so prepare ration food, use every piece of land to
lay and plant crops. Plan for the long term. Because
the good news is that this child's name is Emmanuel,
which means God with us. And by the time this
child can choose the good and refuse the evil, the
(30:10):
seeds will be lifted and the city saved. Now we
don't know at what time Israelites thought that children were
old enough to choose good and evil, But we do
know that in civilizations in the Middle East, in time
(30:32):
imorimm that when a child began eating kurds and honey
better to us known as butter and honey. But the
child a child began eating butters of honey, they were
being weaned from their mothers. They were toddlers, in other words,
(30:55):
So this child, the good news was this child would
soon be eating kurds and honey tutor's biscuits, and you
will with butter and honey. Okay. And by the time
that happens, everything's gonna be okay. But that's going to
be a while. And to this child who's being born,
(31:16):
is going to be old enough to eat tutor's biscuits,
butter and honey bad news before good news. The message
was resiliency. Hold on, king a has God is with us.
The siege will last a long time, but persevere, be resilient.
(31:38):
By the time the toddler. The Emmanuel is a toddler.
The siege will be lifted, and there'll be enough butter
and honey for toddlers to have Tutor's biscuits, and all
will be well. This is one of several passages throughout
(31:58):
the Bible. Godd's message of hope begins with bad news,
and then it goes to good news. I wanted you
to see this small passage because it's Advent and we're
lighting a candle in its memory. And I want you
(32:21):
to see even a better example from the prophet Jeremiah
as I read just a few moments ago. Jeremiah wrote
a hopeful letter to the exiles living in the foreign
capital of Babylon. By exiles, I mean these people were
forced at knife point to march for three months out
(32:45):
of Jerusalem across the desert to Babylon what is today
modern Iraq. And they were forced to leave their homes
and to become citizens of Babylon, to become in a sense,
they're workers. Babylon wanted their smarts and their strength to
(33:10):
support the empire. And what is the message? What is
the simple message that Jeremiah gives these exiles who have
now arrived in Babylon and are now prisoners of this
foreign capital. His simple message is this, you will be
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in exile for seventy years. That some of you might
be thinking, if that's Jeremiah's messages of hope, I would
hate to see this guy's despair, right, I would be
despairing if somebody said to me, for the rest of
your life, you're going to live in exile. But this
(33:56):
is a message of hope. Now, if you're to flip
in your Bibles one chapter back in Jeremiah, you would
see that. A few months before he writes this letter,
a prophet in Jerusalem named Hannah and Aiah had prophesied
that the Lord was going to save the exiles and
(34:19):
bring them back within three years time. It was a
patriotic message, and everybody cheered Hannonia's words, but they were
alive and they did not come true. And Jeremiah warns
the exiles do not listen to these patriotic, optimistic messages.
(34:51):
For hope to be real, it has to be based
in reality. False hope only deceives us and ultimately mocks us.
(35:12):
Jeremiah didn't try to sugarcoat things with the exiles. You're
gonna be here for seventy years. He writes, seventy years.
That's a life sentence, isn't it? Or a death sentence
in a way. How many people who would have heard
Jeremiah's letter read in a gathering of the exiles at
(35:36):
some place. How many people would have heard that message
and thought, one day I'll be back. Maybe a ten
year old girl, maybe when she was eighty, could walk
that far. Maybe few were to realize the end of
(36:01):
Jeremiah's hopeful letter. Jeremiah's hope, however, was not based on
returning home. Jeremiah's hope was based and placed in a
God who stays with people in exile, who guides them,
(36:24):
who leads them, who loves them through their exile. Build
houses and live in them, he writes, Get married and
have children, and encourage your children to have children. Seek
the welfare of this city, this exile city, for as
(36:46):
it prospers, you will prosper. He even told them to
pray for their captor, the people who had killed some
of their family members, who made them march across the
(37:06):
desert for three months, and who had stolen everything that
they had once had. He told them to pray for
their captors, for their future would be in tandem with
their captors. It's an amazing letter. Jeremiah tells them that
(37:31):
on the one hand, you are never coming home, so
give up that hope. You are never coming home. But
on the other hand, make a new home in this
foreign land, and there God will be with you, and
God will bless you, and God will prosper your life
(37:52):
in your lineage. It is essential for Jeremi to tell
the exiles the hard truth. For as long as they
held onto a hope of one day returning home, if
they listened to Hananiah's message, if it had filtered their way,
and if other prophets or religious leaders tried to hang
on to that hope and they began talking about that,
(38:16):
they would never settle down in Babylon. As long as
they dreamed these big dreams are returning home, they would
never build houses and live lives in Babylon. Jeremiah had
to kill false hope so that the exiles could live
(38:41):
into real hope. That's God's bad news before you get
to good news. Couple of decades ago, two doctors Matthew
(39:04):
Linx and Joshulyn Kramer wrote an essay that changed the
way I did pastoral care. The essay was titled Breaking
Bad News Realistic versus Unrealistic Hopes, and they shared their
research that unrealistic or false hope actually hinders the care
(39:33):
of cancer patients. It lowered the quality of their lives.
Though there are exceptions, most cancer patients generally want to
know what they are facing. It's been true in my case,
(39:55):
and the reason is I think this you can't fight
what you can't see. Sometime after reading that article, I
began changing how I interacted with church members, particularly facing cancer,
and especially those facing terminal cancer. I would often say
(40:17):
something like this, I'm going to keep praying for a miracle.
I want us to keep praying for a miracle. But
if a miracle doesn't come, what would you most like
me to pray for today and in the days ahead.
(40:44):
Over time, I found that most people were glad I
said that and asked that question. For some, I had
been the first person other than their doctor to truly
acknowledge what they were facing. And this was difficult for
some of the because they longed to talk with their
close family members, the people they love the most and
(41:07):
love them the most, about what they were facing. But
too often it's so difficult for family members that all
fame members keep talkings about is we can't give up hope, right,
We just have to keep praying God's going to heal you.
Sometimes that feels disconcerting about the person's faith. Some asked
(41:36):
me to pray that their family would be able to
accept the truth so that they could honestly talk about this.
Others wanted me to pray that they could just live
long enough for one more Christmas and to be able
to share it with family, or to attend a grandchild's
graduation or wedding day and to really enjoy the day.
(41:58):
One person lamented with me that he was going to
miss all the big moments of his two middle school grandsons,
and he had enjoyed a deep, special relationship with him,
and he felt so proud that in a grandfather away
he had been able to begin passing on some wisdom
about life to his grandsons, and now he was going
(42:23):
to miss all that. Why don't you still do that,
I asked him. He looked at me oddly from the
hospital bed where he was recovering from his latest bout.
I said, why don't you write letters to them? Start
(42:45):
right now. You can label the letters to be opened
on your sixteenth birthday or the day you get your
driver's license, or high school graduation, or the first day
of college, or wedding day or the first day of
your job after college graduations.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You can do that.
Speaker 5 (43:04):
You can write out your thoughts, your wisdom that you
want to share with them that you are afraid you
will no longer be here to do that. Your voice
will speak to them into the future and impact their
lives with your love for them. That's going to outlast
your death. I don't know how many he wrote. I
(43:30):
just know that that was the last hope that he
carried on with his life. If he had been holding
on to some unrealistic hope that he could be healed,
he would have never written those letters. But facing reality,
he lived into a real hope that gave him purpose
(43:52):
and meaning the last weeks of his life. It is
only when you know the reality of her situation that
you can then plot a course of action against what
you're facing, or around what you're facing, or in the
midst of what you're facing. Martin Luther King Junior once wrote,
(44:23):
we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose
infinite hope. Accepting finite disappointment is the starting point for
infinite hope. To accept a difficult spot you may be
(44:49):
in doesn't mean you give up. Acceptance of reality is
not resignation. It is the opposite. Accepting where you are
is the starting point, the launching point of hope. Once
(45:10):
you accept the reality that you face, then you are
free to let the Lord guide you with wonder and imagination.
Our prayer becomes, now that I know the situation I'm in, Lord,
where do we go from here? Since this is the reality,
(45:32):
where do we go from here? Time and time again,
throughout the ages and across the globe. The Lord has
provided alternatives, But first we have to accept the reality
we face in order to be open to the alternatives
(45:54):
God is giving us in the midst of this. You know,
this is the first step of a first of a
twelve step program like AA. You first have to accept
you have a problem. And until you accept you have
a problem, whether that's with alcohol or food addiction, or
(46:16):
drug addiction, or whatever addiction it is, you cannot begin
to recover. This is true with all sorts of things
in life. We've got to be willing to accept the
reality we're facing before then we can see the alternatives
that God has out there for us. Hope is a
(46:43):
good thing. It is powerful. It gets people to do
things that without it they would just give up. Which
is why sometimes people lie to give you a false
sense of hope or tell you a story. Maybe it's
not an outright lie, it's a story. It's a fabrication
(47:07):
of what the reality is, hoping that that will keep
you going. But false hope is always a cruel joke
played on those who are already struggling, because sooner or later,
false hope will be figured out. False hope has dire consequences.
(47:33):
God's hope is always built out of the reality that
you are facing. What's the reality the Fifth Avenue Baptist
is facing as we try to continue to minister from
this bridge, from this transition. This church does not live
(47:54):
in a vacuum. Its reality is shaped by the reality
of this city, the university that is residing here, a
reality that is shaped by the increasingly secular and diverse
society in which we live, and by a Christian church's
inability inability to speak of this faith. We share in
(48:18):
ways that seem relevant to younger generations. What are the
realities of living here as a people of faith at
this Christmas in the year of Our Lord twenty twenty four.
(48:38):
One of the best things we can do as a
congregation in this coming year is to take a good
assessment of our reality, our strengths, our weaknesses, where we
are truly being the hands and feet of Christ in
this community and where we are falling short. Only with
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an honor assessment can we then build and see a
hope that God has for us. Jeremiah told the exiles
the truth, the hard truth, because it's only when you
know where you are that you truly can see hope
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that is born out of that. You are going to
be an exile for the rest of your lives, Jeremiah
told the exiles. But don't believe in false hope. Don't
follow the dream of dreamers. And then he gave them
this new alternative hope. Build houses, marry, have children, make
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a new life in the city where I have sent you,
and pray on its behalf, for as it prospers, you
will prosper. A few weeks ago, on Wednesday Nights, we
had back to back occasions where we had Kathy Burns
from the Development office in the City of Honeys and
Brad Smith, the president of Marshall University. Both of them
(50:04):
gave us a snapshot from where the city and the
university are at this moment and what's on the horizon.
Give us a picture of what's the reality that Huntington
faces and Marshall University faces, and how can Fifth Avenue
Baptists better understand that so that we can then live
(50:28):
out a hope that God has for us in this community.
We're going to kind of continue that on in the
spring and Wednesday nights as we hear from different mission
partners that this church uses and partners with to do ministry.
Be part of living out a hope for ministry in
(50:49):
this community. Transformative ministry can only happen through real hope,
hope that faces our reality. Transformative minutes industry dies when
false hope props it up. Friends, we are going to
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live in this secular, diverse society for the rest of
our lives. How can we as Christians build new houses, marry,
have children, make a new life in this reality in
which we are living. When we can begin thinking like that,
(51:34):
it is out of that that we may then hear
the Lord say, I know the plans I have for you,
plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give
you a future with hope, Emmanuel God with us Ahmen.
(52:07):
It is our time and our worship service when in
our Baptist's tradition, we open our doors of fellowship and
we invite you. Maybe you've loved God for some time,
but you've never made a faith commitment or been baptized
in the church. We would hope this would be the
day you want to declare that. Or maybe you've been
a Christian for some time and you're looking for a
new church home. We hope you would love to be
(52:27):
a part of our congregation. This is not a perfect church,
I'll tell you right off the back. I'll give you
the reality. But it is a place where people truly
try to love God and love each other and this community,
and we would love you to be a part of us,
whatever your decision you might have. I'll be before the
communion table while we all stand together and sing one
(52:47):
thirty nine. Great is Thy Faithfulness. Let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
S S ist so S S S S.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
S since six S.
Speaker 5 (56:27):
Friends. As you go back out into the world, wait
in expectation and plant hope in the reality you face,
and receive the blessings of Emmanuel God with us. And
(56:49):
as you go, know that God, the creator of the universe,
is already preparing away for you, and Jesus the Christ,
is walking beside of you every step of away, and
the Holy Ghost, God's unconditional love is swirling around you
to prepare you for all you will face this week.
(57:11):
So friends, go now in peace. Amen.
Good morning. Please join me in the cotton worship. Comfort,
Oh comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her, the voice cries out in the wilderness.
Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. Every valleys shall be
(03:19):
lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.
The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places
a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh see it together. For the mouth of
the Lord has spoken st.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Sa sa SA suss.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
S S S.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
S spot see side.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Scene.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So please pray with me, Almighty God, during this season
(06:20):
of advent, remind us again that in the midst of
our darkness you bring us peace to calm our anxious
spirits and hectic lives. Turn our hearts again towards you
in this world filled with turmoil. Grant us the tranquility
that all your peace can bring. Help us to be
(06:42):
entrance of reconciliation and harmony in our relationships and communities.
Make us ready to receive your son, our Savior. Slow
our pace and give us the blessing of feeling your peace.
Now in the name of Jesus, the Principees who taught
(07:02):
us to pray our Father, who art in heaven. How
would be thy name, Thy kingdom? Come, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
as daily bread, and forgive us our truspasses, as we
forgive those who trustpass against us, and lead us not
(07:26):
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is
the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and employment.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Also leave your hymnals, open.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
All the hosts.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
It to my.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Mistess in a.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Time that shot.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
School street.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Spo shooting.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
The scripture today is in the Old Testament, in the
book of Isaiah, a familiar verse on the second Sunday
of Adva Isaiah seven fourteen. Therefore, the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a woman shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call his name in Manuel.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Please join me in the reading of the Lutany.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Now is the time of watching and waiting.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
The time of pregnant expectation of new life. Now is
the season of peace unfurling the silence or winter season,
when peace is preparing to be revealed. Let us come
before God with receptive and willing hearts. Maybe rejoice in
the name of Devon with palms bringing life and pace.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Sss s.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
S.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Side thinks house.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
And six. Since that was not be it, so.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Come to be six three.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
More.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
Please pray with me, Loving Father, Prince of Peace. Our
hearts are filled with gratitude for the hope we have
in you. Thank you for the promise to keep in
perfect peace. Those minds that are steadfast and trust in you.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
Help us to do good and.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
Share with others. For with such sacrifice as you are pleased,
may our offerings today be multiplied and used to spread
your word and serve your people. Accept them. Lord, we
pray as an act of worship, a joyful response to
your great love. For it's in your precious Son's name
(13:24):
that we pray.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I'men you may be seated. Our first scripture reading this
(14:13):
morning is an extended version of what Jim Leech read
when we lit the advent candle. Here's the bigger picture again.
The Lord spoke to King a Has saying, ask a
sigh of the lords your God, Let it be as
deep as shie Old or as high as heaven. But
(14:37):
A has said, I will not ask and I will
not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said, here, then,
o house of David, is it too little for you
to weary mortals that you weary?
Speaker 6 (14:53):
God?
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Also, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look,
the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Emanuel. He shall eat kourds and
honey by the time he knows how to refuse the
(15:13):
evil and choose the good. For before the child knows
how to refuse evil and choose the good, the land
before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.
The Lord will bring on you and your people, and
on your ancestor's house, such days as have not come
(15:35):
since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king
of Assyria. Let's pray together, oh Gracious God, as we
gather in worship on this second Sunday of Advent, the
(15:58):
week of peace. We are aware of all the places
in the world that are not at peace, but wars
are taking innocent lives, looting people's homes, destroying everything they have. God,
(16:24):
sitting in the comfort of this sanctuary and returning back
to our homes warm with heat, it is hard for
us to process what's going on in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria,
and other places around the world. We ask, o God,
(16:50):
in ways we cannot see, that your peace would still come.
Oh God, we see your peace for our own lives
and for all that is busy in our lives. Right now,
as we try to prepare for Christmas, we know there's
lots to do, presents to buy and wrap, there are
(17:13):
Christmas cards to write and send, there are meals to
plan for, for feasts with family and friends. Help us,
oh God, in the midst of all this, to slow
down and live into your peace. This host season of advent,
(17:44):
Oh God, we resound in hope as we await your birth.
Help us, Oh God, as we think of hopes for
our own lives, and hopes for this church, and hopes
for this commune unity, that you would help us to
(18:05):
tie them to reality. Whatever the reality that we face,
whatever issues we face in our life through help health
or job or vocation, or difficulties in relationships, Help us
to face the truth, the reality in which we live,
(18:27):
so that out of that reality we can see the
hope you're offering us, Oh God, help us to run
away from the false hopes that so often divert our
attention from you, and for the true hope you have
for us, Oh God, we pray for persons in our
(18:55):
congregation who have been facing difficult days. We think particularly
of Mitchar who's recovering from surgery. We ask that you
would continue to give him strength and help his body
to recover. We pray for his healing and for Jennifer
as she cares for him. For those who are returning
(19:23):
home from times in the hospital, we ask your grace.
For those who are facing surgery in the weeks aheads,
we ask your peace for them. Help us to be
the church to people in this congregation who need care,
and for people in this community who need a hand
out and a hand up. We thank you for the
(19:46):
season of giving and ask you to renew our hearts
for the living of these days. In Christ, Jesus, we
pray Amen.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
In the time a state school for water, school, school.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
School school, stool.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
School, the.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Sort shot studete sistosto.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So for.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Changeation bred.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
T for change, the.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Presanta side strong so it some time.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Our second reading this morning comes from the prophet Jeremiah,
the twenty ninth chapter, beginning with verse four. Thus, as
the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all
the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem
(24:45):
to Babylon, build houses and live in them. Plant gardens
and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons
and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your
daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters.
Multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare
(25:13):
of the city where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says
the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. Do not
let the prophets and the diventers who are among you
(25:33):
deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that they dream,
for it is a lie that they are prophesying to
you in my name. I did not send them, says
the Lord. For thus says the Lord, only when Babylons
seventy years are completed, will I visit you, and I
(25:57):
will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back
to this place. For surely I know the plans I
have for you, says the Lord. Plans for your welfare
and not for harm, to give you a future.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
With hope.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May God
bless it for our hearing and understanding. The Lord will
give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with
child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Christians have read Isaiah seven fourteen ever since Matthew quoted
(26:44):
it when he wrote his version of How Jesus Was Born.
Jim Leech read it in the lighting of the Second
Advent Candle just a few moments ago. In this season
of Advent, it is worth taking a deeper look at
this passage, which is so familiar to us at this time.
(27:12):
The child Emmanuel was born some seven hundred to twenty
five years, give or take a decade or two before
Jesus's Bethlehem birth. The young woman appears to be Isaiah's wife.
(27:32):
The child to be called Emmanuel is Isaiah's second and
middle son. If you eat the sections before and after
this passage, all the way from chapter sevens beginning to
eight Chapter eight verses four or five, you will see
that Isaiah's to other sons their names were a part
(27:54):
of prophecies the King of Judah that was Southern Israel
and whose capital was Jerusalem, had been under attack by
two other small kingdoms, one of which was the Northern
(28:15):
Kingdom of Israel. So it was cousins fighting each other,
and Judah was losing the war. But Jerusalem was a
city built on a mountain with fortifications and it was
difficult to take. So it appears that these two kingdoms
(28:38):
armies had surrounded the city and laid it in siege.
In those days, that meant nobody escaped, and more importantly,
it meant no food or supplies came in. To be
a city under siege in those times is to know
(28:59):
that your day are numbered. You might be safe for
the moment, but it was only a matter of time
unless someone intervenes that the soldiers surrounding the city would
be crashing through the city's walls, because week by week,
the people inside those walls became weaker through starvation. Isaiah's
(29:26):
message of hope is bad news before it is good news.
Isaiah is saying that the siege will last a while,
(29:46):
so prepare ration food, use every piece of land to
lay and plant crops. Plan for the long term. Because
the good news is that this child's name is Emmanuel,
which means God with us. And by the time this
child can choose the good and refuse the evil, the
(30:10):
seeds will be lifted and the city saved. Now we
don't know at what time Israelites thought that children were
old enough to choose good and evil, But we do
know that in civilizations in the Middle East, in time
(30:32):
imorimm that when a child began eating kurds and honey
better to us known as butter and honey. But the
child a child began eating butters of honey, they were
being weaned from their mothers. They were toddlers, in other words,
(30:55):
So this child, the good news was this child would
soon be eating kurds and honey tutor's biscuits, and you
will with butter and honey. Okay. And by the time
that happens, everything's gonna be okay. But that's going to
be a while. And to this child who's being born,
(31:16):
is going to be old enough to eat tutor's biscuits,
butter and honey bad news before good news. The message
was resiliency. Hold on, king a has God is with us.
The siege will last a long time, but persevere, be resilient.
(31:38):
By the time the toddler. The Emmanuel is a toddler.
The siege will be lifted, and there'll be enough butter
and honey for toddlers to have Tutor's biscuits, and all
will be well. This is one of several passages throughout
(31:58):
the Bible. Godd's message of hope begins with bad news,
and then it goes to good news. I wanted you
to see this small passage because it's Advent and we're
lighting a candle in its memory. And I want you
(32:21):
to see even a better example from the prophet Jeremiah
as I read just a few moments ago. Jeremiah wrote
a hopeful letter to the exiles living in the foreign
capital of Babylon. By exiles, I mean these people were
forced at knife point to march for three months out
(32:45):
of Jerusalem across the desert to Babylon what is today
modern Iraq. And they were forced to leave their homes
and to become citizens of Babylon, to become in a sense,
they're workers. Babylon wanted their smarts and their strength to
(33:10):
support the empire. And what is the message? What is
the simple message that Jeremiah gives these exiles who have
now arrived in Babylon and are now prisoners of this
foreign capital. His simple message is this, you will be
(33:33):
in exile for seventy years. That some of you might
be thinking, if that's Jeremiah's messages of hope, I would
hate to see this guy's despair, right, I would be
despairing if somebody said to me, for the rest of
your life, you're going to live in exile. But this
(33:56):
is a message of hope. Now, if you're to flip
in your Bibles one chapter back in Jeremiah, you would
see that. A few months before he writes this letter,
a prophet in Jerusalem named Hannah and Aiah had prophesied
that the Lord was going to save the exiles and
(34:19):
bring them back within three years time. It was a
patriotic message, and everybody cheered Hannonia's words, but they were
alive and they did not come true. And Jeremiah warns
the exiles do not listen to these patriotic, optimistic messages.
(34:51):
For hope to be real, it has to be based
in reality. False hope only deceives us and ultimately mocks us.
(35:12):
Jeremiah didn't try to sugarcoat things with the exiles. You're
gonna be here for seventy years. He writes, seventy years.
That's a life sentence, isn't it? Or a death sentence
in a way. How many people who would have heard
Jeremiah's letter read in a gathering of the exiles at
(35:36):
some place. How many people would have heard that message
and thought, one day I'll be back. Maybe a ten
year old girl, maybe when she was eighty, could walk
that far. Maybe few were to realize the end of
(36:01):
Jeremiah's hopeful letter. Jeremiah's hope, however, was not based on
returning home. Jeremiah's hope was based and placed in a
God who stays with people in exile, who guides them,
(36:24):
who leads them, who loves them through their exile. Build
houses and live in them, he writes, Get married and
have children, and encourage your children to have children. Seek
the welfare of this city, this exile city, for as
(36:46):
it prospers, you will prosper. He even told them to
pray for their captor, the people who had killed some
of their family members, who made them march across the
(37:06):
desert for three months, and who had stolen everything that
they had once had. He told them to pray for
their captors, for their future would be in tandem with
their captors. It's an amazing letter. Jeremiah tells them that
(37:31):
on the one hand, you are never coming home, so
give up that hope. You are never coming home. But
on the other hand, make a new home in this
foreign land, and there God will be with you, and
God will bless you, and God will prosper your life
(37:52):
in your lineage. It is essential for Jeremi to tell
the exiles the hard truth. For as long as they
held onto a hope of one day returning home, if
they listened to Hananiah's message, if it had filtered their way,
and if other prophets or religious leaders tried to hang
on to that hope and they began talking about that,
(38:16):
they would never settle down in Babylon. As long as
they dreamed these big dreams are returning home, they would
never build houses and live lives in Babylon. Jeremiah had
to kill false hope so that the exiles could live
(38:41):
into real hope. That's God's bad news before you get
to good news. Couple of decades ago, two doctors Matthew
(39:04):
Linx and Joshulyn Kramer wrote an essay that changed the
way I did pastoral care. The essay was titled Breaking
Bad News Realistic versus Unrealistic Hopes, and they shared their
research that unrealistic or false hope actually hinders the care
(39:33):
of cancer patients. It lowered the quality of their lives.
Though there are exceptions, most cancer patients generally want to
know what they are facing. It's been true in my case,
(39:55):
and the reason is I think this you can't fight
what you can't see. Sometime after reading that article, I
began changing how I interacted with church members, particularly facing cancer,
and especially those facing terminal cancer. I would often say
(40:17):
something like this, I'm going to keep praying for a miracle.
I want us to keep praying for a miracle. But
if a miracle doesn't come, what would you most like
me to pray for today and in the days ahead.
(40:44):
Over time, I found that most people were glad I
said that and asked that question. For some, I had
been the first person other than their doctor to truly
acknowledge what they were facing. And this was difficult for
some of the because they longed to talk with their
close family members, the people they love the most and
(41:07):
love them the most, about what they were facing. But
too often it's so difficult for family members that all
fame members keep talkings about is we can't give up hope, right,
We just have to keep praying God's going to heal you.
Sometimes that feels disconcerting about the person's faith. Some asked
(41:36):
me to pray that their family would be able to
accept the truth so that they could honestly talk about this.
Others wanted me to pray that they could just live
long enough for one more Christmas and to be able
to share it with family, or to attend a grandchild's
graduation or wedding day and to really enjoy the day.
(41:58):
One person lamented with me that he was going to
miss all the big moments of his two middle school grandsons,
and he had enjoyed a deep, special relationship with him,
and he felt so proud that in a grandfather away
he had been able to begin passing on some wisdom
about life to his grandsons, and now he was going
(42:23):
to miss all that. Why don't you still do that,
I asked him. He looked at me oddly from the
hospital bed where he was recovering from his latest bout.
I said, why don't you write letters to them? Start
(42:45):
right now. You can label the letters to be opened
on your sixteenth birthday or the day you get your
driver's license, or high school graduation, or the first day
of college, or wedding day or the first day of
your job after college graduations.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
You can do that.
Speaker 5 (43:04):
You can write out your thoughts, your wisdom that you
want to share with them that you are afraid you
will no longer be here to do that. Your voice
will speak to them into the future and impact their
lives with your love for them. That's going to outlast
your death. I don't know how many he wrote. I
(43:30):
just know that that was the last hope that he
carried on with his life. If he had been holding
on to some unrealistic hope that he could be healed,
he would have never written those letters. But facing reality,
he lived into a real hope that gave him purpose
(43:52):
and meaning the last weeks of his life. It is
only when you know the reality of her situation that
you can then plot a course of action against what
you're facing, or around what you're facing, or in the
midst of what you're facing. Martin Luther King Junior once wrote,
(44:23):
we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose
infinite hope. Accepting finite disappointment is the starting point for
infinite hope. To accept a difficult spot you may be
(44:49):
in doesn't mean you give up. Acceptance of reality is
not resignation. It is the opposite. Accepting where you are
is the starting point, the launching point of hope. Once
(45:10):
you accept the reality that you face, then you are
free to let the Lord guide you with wonder and imagination.
Our prayer becomes, now that I know the situation I'm in, Lord,
where do we go from here? Since this is the reality,
(45:32):
where do we go from here? Time and time again,
throughout the ages and across the globe. The Lord has
provided alternatives, But first we have to accept the reality
we face in order to be open to the alternatives
(45:54):
God is giving us in the midst of this. You know,
this is the first step of a first of a
twelve step program like AA. You first have to accept
you have a problem. And until you accept you have
a problem, whether that's with alcohol or food addiction, or
(46:16):
drug addiction, or whatever addiction it is, you cannot begin
to recover. This is true with all sorts of things
in life. We've got to be willing to accept the
reality we're facing before then we can see the alternatives
that God has out there for us. Hope is a
(46:43):
good thing. It is powerful. It gets people to do
things that without it they would just give up. Which
is why sometimes people lie to give you a false
sense of hope or tell you a story. Maybe it's
not an outright lie, it's a story. It's a fabrication
(47:07):
of what the reality is, hoping that that will keep
you going. But false hope is always a cruel joke
played on those who are already struggling, because sooner or later,
false hope will be figured out. False hope has dire consequences.
(47:33):
God's hope is always built out of the reality that
you are facing. What's the reality the Fifth Avenue Baptist
is facing as we try to continue to minister from
this bridge, from this transition. This church does not live
(47:54):
in a vacuum. Its reality is shaped by the reality
of this city, the university that is residing here, a
reality that is shaped by the increasingly secular and diverse
society in which we live, and by a Christian church's
inability inability to speak of this faith. We share in
(48:18):
ways that seem relevant to younger generations. What are the
realities of living here as a people of faith at
this Christmas in the year of Our Lord twenty twenty four.
(48:38):
One of the best things we can do as a
congregation in this coming year is to take a good
assessment of our reality, our strengths, our weaknesses, where we
are truly being the hands and feet of Christ in
this community and where we are falling short. Only with
(48:59):
an honor assessment can we then build and see a
hope that God has for us. Jeremiah told the exiles
the truth, the hard truth, because it's only when you
know where you are that you truly can see hope
(49:21):
that is born out of that. You are going to
be an exile for the rest of your lives, Jeremiah
told the exiles. But don't believe in false hope. Don't
follow the dream of dreamers. And then he gave them
this new alternative hope. Build houses, marry, have children, make
(49:42):
a new life in the city where I have sent you,
and pray on its behalf, for as it prospers, you
will prosper. A few weeks ago, on Wednesday Nights, we
had back to back occasions where we had Kathy Burns
from the Development office in the City of Honeys and
Brad Smith, the president of Marshall University. Both of them
(50:04):
gave us a snapshot from where the city and the
university are at this moment and what's on the horizon.
Give us a picture of what's the reality that Huntington
faces and Marshall University faces, and how can Fifth Avenue
Baptists better understand that so that we can then live
(50:28):
out a hope that God has for us in this community.
We're going to kind of continue that on in the
spring and Wednesday nights as we hear from different mission
partners that this church uses and partners with to do ministry.
Be part of living out a hope for ministry in
(50:49):
this community. Transformative ministry can only happen through real hope,
hope that faces our reality. Transformative minutes industry dies when
false hope props it up. Friends, we are going to
(51:11):
live in this secular, diverse society for the rest of
our lives. How can we as Christians build new houses, marry,
have children, make a new life in this reality in
which we are living. When we can begin thinking like that,
(51:34):
it is out of that that we may then hear
the Lord say, I know the plans I have for you,
plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give
you a future with hope, Emmanuel God with us Ahmen.
(52:07):
It is our time and our worship service when in
our Baptist's tradition, we open our doors of fellowship and
we invite you. Maybe you've loved God for some time,
but you've never made a faith commitment or been baptized
in the church. We would hope this would be the
day you want to declare that. Or maybe you've been
a Christian for some time and you're looking for a
new church home. We hope you would love to be
(52:27):
a part of our congregation. This is not a perfect church,
I'll tell you right off the back. I'll give you
the reality. But it is a place where people truly
try to love God and love each other and this community,
and we would love you to be a part of us,
whatever your decision you might have. I'll be before the
communion table while we all stand together and sing one
(52:47):
thirty nine. Great is Thy Faithfulness. Let's stand together and sing.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
S S ist so S S S S.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
S since six S.
Speaker 5 (56:27):
Friends. As you go back out into the world, wait
in expectation and plant hope in the reality you face,
and receive the blessings of Emmanuel God with us. And
(56:49):
as you go, know that God, the creator of the universe,
is already preparing away for you, and Jesus the Christ,
is walking beside of you every step of away, and
the Holy Ghost, God's unconditional love is swirling around you
to prepare you for all you will face this week.
(57:11):
So friends, go now in peace. Amen.
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