“Rebuilding the Nativity: Preparation” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – December 10, 2017
Lay Reader = Mark 1:1-8
1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Introduction
We are still in the season of Advent, waiting on the edge of our seats for the coming of Jesus. Last week we looked at how important it is to listen to the voice of God, because today might be the day God decides to tell you “awesome deeds you did not expect.” This week we are going to look at the role preparation played in the build-up to the birth of Christ.
You know, there’s a famous line from one of Ernest Hemingway’s books, where one character asks the other, “How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways: gradually, and then suddenly.” That’s how God sent the Messiah into the world – gradually setting things in motion for hundreds of years, and then suddenly by sending John the Baptist and Jesus. Let’s hear what the Apostle Peter wrote about God’s gradual and sudden ways.
2 Peter 3:8-15a
8But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.
9The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
11Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness,12waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. 14Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
Preparing for the Best
My brother and I are both gifted or cursed with the same ability. We can always see how our ideas could become HUGE! A couple of years ago we were working on a program together, and we were pitching some pretty high-up people on the idea. We knew that, with this particular idea, there were only two options: either it would be completely rejected and worthless, or one of the big boys would adopt it and we would suddenly have to be ready for millions of people using it simultaneously. There was no middle ground. As you may be able to guess, it wound up in the bupkis department, but I had to be READY for the millions scenario. Before we could even approach the high-up people with this idea, I had to build it as if millions of people would be using it. Without that kind of preparation, there would be no meeting to pitch the idea.
So why did I take the time to build it, even though I knew the most likely outcome would be nothing? Because I saw the potential. I saw what could be. I was preparing for the best to happen.
A lot of people spend their time preparing for the worst to happen – they’re ready for a nuclear war, or the zombie apocalypse, or for the electricity grid to go down for two months. But are they ready for something good to happen? Are they ready for the best to happen?
Or what about a person who has all of their emotional defenses ready to shut people out and defend themselves…but are they ready for love?
Peter writes in our text today, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise.”
And he follows that up with the so what: “what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”
Thirty generations had passed in Israel between the time the nation split in two and the birth of the Messiah, Jesus. A hundred generations have passed for us since Jesus’ death and we’re still waiting for his return, as Peter mentions in this letter.
Most of us are very ready, we are prepared for Jesus NOT coming during our lifetimes. But are we ready, are we prepared if he does? Or are we ready and prepared if our lives are shorter than we think? Are our souls prepared for the day of the Lord – even if it’s tomorrow?
Are we prepared for the best?
When Jesus was born, when you watch how it all plays out, MOST people weren’t prepared for the Messiah to be born – at least not the kind of Messiah Jesus was. Especially the people in power – they really weren’t prepared.
Another way to think about this – if you KNEW you would be meeting Jesus face-to-face tomorrow, however that’s going to happen – are you ready RIGHT NOW for that date with Jesus tomorrow? Would 24 hours be enough time to get ready, or would you ask Jesus to postpone a little bit so you could get ready?
There’s a Canadian astronaut who gained a level of fame for his interesting videos from the International Space Station. Chris Hadfield has a natural curiosity and a willingness to entertain almost any question from kids. But he’s also known for his music videos from the station as he plays the guitar and spins around in zero gravity. After he came back from his longest mission, he was going to an Elton John concert. And this is how Chris Hadfield thinks. He thought to himself, what if Elton John heard that this guitar-playing astronaut was in the audience? And what if he asked me up to play with him? And what would he want to play with a guitar-playing astronaut? Well, probably Rocket Man, right? So he spent time mastering Rocket Man before he went to the concert.
And you know what happened? Elton John played his normal concert, blissfully unaware of the over-prepared astronaut in the audience. Like my project with my brother, all of Chris Hadfield’s preparation wound up in the bupkis department.
But is that a bad thing? Sure, it would have really cool to play with Elton John. But instead he can play Rocket Man really, really well. Is that bad? Sure, it would have been really cool to have our project picked up and have millions of people use it. But I still learned new ways to program, new ways to manage projects. That’s not too bad.
In the same way, we are encouraged to ACT as if we’re going to meet Jesus tomorrow. We are encouraged to be PREPARED to meet Jesus at any time. What’s the downside? Is it going to be a BAD thing if you develop an incredible ability to forgive others like Jesus? Is it going to be a BAD thing if you devote time to soul-mending prayer? Is it going to be a BAD thing if you drop some of your life-draining habits and replace them with life-filling ones that honor Jesus? There is literally no downside to this.
How do you need to prepare to meet Jesus? If you were going to meet Jesus tomorrow, what would you do for the next 24 hours? Is there any downside to doing that even though you might not meet Jesus until you die? How can you be prepared for the BEST that Jesus has for you?
Preparing for the Worst
Back when I was in high school I was taking an Advanced Placement History class. And the teacher always gave us about ten minutes to refresh our brains before he would give us the test. I don’t remember how this started, but that ten minutes eventually morphed into “Study by Cody,” where I would give my summary of what we had learned. And several people told me they actually stopped doing their reading for the class, because they could get a B on every test just by listening to Study by Cody. I’m pretty sure that’s the opposite of the teacher’s intent.
Now, I did much better than a B. I had to prepare even more to be ready for Study by Cody. It was great motivation for me. But I always wondered – what if the teacher decided not to give us that ten minutes one day? What if he put a stop to Study by Cody? What would my friends have done then?
Now that I’ve spent half a sermon telling you to be prepared for the best, I supposed I should acknowledge that it’s ALSO good to be prepared for the worst.
Howard Rutledge was a pilot during Vietnam, and he was shot down in enemy territory. He was captured, stripped naked, and imprisoned for seven years. He reports that being surrounded by pain and suffering and death made him all the more interested in the part of himself that would never die – his soul. He wracked his brain trying to remember every song, every lesson from Sunday school. He could remember 36 hymns – eventually 37 when an extra one popped into his head. And during the brief moments they could communicate, he and the other prisoners exchanged the Bible verses they could remember. Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The Lord’s Prayer. John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life?”
He could remember a portion of Psalm 119, which says “I have hidden your word in my heart…”
In his book about his captivity, he said, “the enemy knew that the best way to break a man’s resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell…Scripture and hymns might be boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us.”
Have you hidden any of God’s Word in your own heart? If you never saw another hymnal, never saw another Bible, what could you remember?
I have had a few verses hidden in my heart. 1 Timothy 1:5 – “but the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” That’s been my summary of how I should live a God-honoring life.
And for the perfectionist in me who wants to prove I’m right and earn my way and be the best? Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not the result of works so that no one may boast.” That’s been my reminder that God gets the credit, not me, not my works, not my abilities, not my talents, not my discipline. And that’s helped me move ON from my mistakes instead of dwelling on them, too.
Reading the Bible is nice. But it’s the parts of God’s Word that are memorized, written on your heart, those are the ones that shape your life.
When I was a chaplain, I had a woman on my floor of the hospital who was in there because she was beaten and abused. And she was planning to go back to that relationship, because she thought that when Jesus said, “turn the other cheek,” he meant you had to keep going back to be hurt. I told her something else that Jesus said. He sent his disciples out in pairs to the surrounding countryside, and he told them to let their peace extend from them wherever they go. And if their peace is received in a town, praise God, set up camp, and proclaim the good news there. But if their peace is rejected, shake the dust off your feet, let your peace return to you, and go on to another town.
In other words, there are times when Jesus says you should move on.
I don’t know what she did after she left the hospital. But I was able to give her another option because I had some Scripture written on my heart.
Summary and Challenge
So here’s the challenge. I challenge everyone here to memorize one Bible verse this week. Write God’s Word on your heart and mind. Embed it deeply. Learn it so well that you could recite it even if you never saw another Bible again.
That’s planning for the best, because dwelling on God’s Word is dwelling on the mind and heart of Christ. That’s also planning for the worst, because you never know when you’ll need to call on your reservoir of faith. It might be like that Vietnam pilot, where you need to call on your stored up faith because something terrible has happened to you. It might be like me in the hospital, where you need to call on your stored up faith because something terrible has happened to someone else.
There is no downside to memorizing a verse of the Bible. There are tremendous upsides and no downside. It’s even better than learning Rocket Man before going to an Elton John concert. It’s even better than being ready for a project to immediately have millions of people using it. It’s better than making an A in History. There’s no downside.
If you don’t know where to start, I actually put four options in the Insert in your bulletin. You have three that I’ve already mentioned as well as Jesus saying the Greatest Commandment. Pick one of those if you don’t know where to start. Write some part of God’s Word on your heart this week. There’s no downside. And the upside is you’ll be more prepared for whatever life sends your way – whether that’s the worst or the best or something in between. Amen.
