ROUGH DRAFT of Sermon

So over the last few days I have taken the time to play around with the three passages I will be preaching on. I noted things on each passage, thought of new ideas, and played with others. I have yet to go to the commentaries on the three passages (always recommended by teachers to do that last). This next week I will try to consolidate, focus, iron out, and add important background from commentaries. As a sneak preview (mainly for my wife who is most likely bored at work right now) I thought I would post my notes and incoherent ramblings online. Enjoy!

December 27^th 2009 Sermon

I have been on many, many mission trips. In these trips I have visited Mt. Vernon, Forks, Yakima, Idaho, Vancouver B.C., San Francisco, North Carolina, Tijuana, and Mexicali Mexico. Each one of the trips has presented us with many challenges, and usually along with it comes a piece of clothing.

Over the several trips I have received at least 12 T-shirts. Some of the shirts were cool. Some of them I have given away. Some I have thrown out. No matter the coolness of the shirt we always had one picture with everyone wearing their shirt. While these pictures were never the popular ones with the students, it symbolized more. It showed us as a community. A group connected for one purpose.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

The story of Samuel is a fascinating story. In the beginning it parallels that of Jesus. The song of Hannah, Samuels mom, is inspiration for Mary’s famous song that we often hear referred to as the canticle of Mary or Magnificat.

The story of Hannah may sound familiar. She is the most loved wife of a faithful man. She can not have a child and is barren. Up until this point we naturally think of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachael. Most closely, Hannah’s story follows that of _________. Then we get thrown a curveball.

She prayed. In her bitterness she prayed. Instead of just asking for something she made a crucial mistake, she made a promise! Have you been there? “God if you give me this job I will…”; “God if you get me out of this commitment I’ll…”; “God if you would give me an A on this test I’ll…”; “God if you give me a Child I’ll give them to you for all the days of their life.” Hannah is granted the Child that she has prayed for and unlike all the times we prayed for jobs, houses, release, and made promises that we did not keep, Hannah keeps her promise and gives Samuel to the Priesthood.

Where were they living? Did she only go once a year?

This loving mother had made a tough sacrifice. What she wanted more than anything else she gave up. With the Jewish custom she and her husband would have to return to the temple each year.(Explain in depth) And in doing so she would see her son.

Eli, the priest whom blesses the family, recognized this great gift and sacrifice. This is why he asks that the Lord would repay the gift she made.

Upon first reading we are still left with why this would be included at Christmas time. Samuel is definitely a gift to God and to Hannah. This is not how these passages connect though.

Scripture: Luke 2:41-52

Luke adds in a story that none of the other gospels record. This story is unique in many senses. It also is the only account of Jesus as a young boy.

The story starts off with reminding us of the Jewish custom to travel to Jerusalem for Passover. This is very similar to Hannah traveling to the temple each year.

The twist here comes when the family leaves and Jesus stays behind. The Mary and Joseph discover this error and start searching. They ask all those around them. They make the day’s journey back to the Jerusalem and start searching the city. After a long frantic search they discover him.

At the time this passage would have carried a different meaning to the readers. The culture of the day would have understood the traveling parties, the city layout, and customs. As a result they would have centered in on how Jesus responds to his parents. Jesus’ comments support the purpose that Luke has for his Gospel. He is telling the Good News and trying to show that Jesus is the Christ. Thus by showing how Jesus knew where he belonged early would lead us to start to recognize Jesus’ divinity. It also would show how he is not an simply a man as he teaches the teachers of the law for three days. They spent three days in discussion with a 12 year old boy. Now we have had some great biblical conversations in Sunday school, but none yet that have kept us for three days.

Now, instead of zeroing in on how this shows Jesus’ wisdom, maturity, and ultimately his divinity, we want to focus on the worry. We imagine ourselves in the parents shoes frantically searching for our child. We know that feeling of worry and dread. We all have stories of losing our children, family, parents, or keepsakes that have caused us to worry.

After relating to the feeling of dread and worry, I would always wonder what kind of parents Mary and Joseph were. How could they lose God’s only begotten son? Did Jesus not need to be watched? Were Mary and Joseph just not observant or worse yet, negligent?

It took a closer reading to discover the truth about the situation. This was not a matter of bad parenting, but community. Mary and Joseph were traveling with their family, friends, loved ones. Their entire local church had made a journey together. More so they trusted their community to support, watch and raise Jesus.

This point becomes obvious as we see how long it took they to discover his absence, an entire day’s journey. Then we discover how large this community and Jerusalem are. It takes them three days to find him. We know it only took a day’s journey back to the city and knowing the feeling of frantically losing someone their search would not have been a slow one. As a result it takes them two days to search their traveling party and the city. Some estimates have the size of the traveling party around _____.

The connection with Samuel brings up this theme even stronger as we see Samuel ingrained into a faith community at an early age. He has been given from his family to become a part of a community that supports him. Samuel is more than just a boy in this community, but a minister as is stated in the first verse.

Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17

Colossians brings the established theme of community from the earlier two passages into the light.

*Background on why Colossians was written and to whom*

Colossians starts in verse 12 with establishing who the audience is, those who follow God. After a subtle reminder that we are loved and meant to be holy, the passage uses the imagery of clothes. The word choice harkens back to Jesus’ words in feeding the hungry, CLOTHE the naked, tend the sick (reference bible verse). This connection reminds us of the call Jesus has on our lives. Here, like we have seen in the other two passages we have looked at, it is the change in the familiar stories that are meant to draw our attention in and help us understand the meaning.

The change here centers on who we are to clothe and what with. We are called

And while church is important, the attitude of gratitude does not stop there. The passage continues and reminds us that we need to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is important that we have this church community, but our faith Jesus should not be confined to these walls.

What other communities are you apart of? Is Jesus in your heart in mind there? When is the last time you clothed your self with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience with your family? Your Children? Your frustrating relatives? When is the last time you clothed your self with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience at work? At a Husky basketball game? In traffic when you get cut off?

When is the last time you clothed yourself with love?

I absolutely love verse 15. Here we are reminded that the peace of Christ should rule our hearts. This is so difficult to do! Peace. During this season? Does Jesus know my family dynamics? Did Jesus ever have to drive on 520? Yet, peace is to rule my heart. Leaving the anger of what we did not receive, or who received what from whom on Friday behind for the peace of Christ to rule our hearts. Not only this but we are to do this in one body.

The image of the church as Christ’s Body is evoked here. We are reminded that we are to have peace in our community. Anger, frustration, competition should not rule this building, this denomination, or this Christian faith, but the peace of Christ. This does not mean do not disagree. We are called to admonish and teach each other in Wisdom and Love. This means we need to bring up things that divide us in a healthy way. Not defensive. Not vindictively. Teach one another with the peace of Christ in our hearts.

The kicker for verse 15 comes in at the very end. After being told that Peace should rule our hearts and that we must do this in community. After being instructed to love and be in harmony with one another. After we are reminded to forgive, and after many of us wonder if this is all possible we get the punch line in three simple words: “And be Thankful.”

I imagine the teenager in all of us hearing all this and starting to roll our eyes at parents. That’s when they drop the last line: And be thankful.

This community that we all probably look at and think it is unattainable I have seen take shape. In 2007 I lead a group of High school students to Yakima on a mission trip. We got this goofy t-shirt to show our selves as a community and to let others know who we were. As the week progressed the group painted a house for a woman who could no longer move around the house. We painted a deck for another struggling family. Finally, part of our group went to a house that looked as though it had been pulled straight from Mexico.

After the ups and downs of the hard work and serving those in need we sat on the last night. We talked about our experiences and one girl surprised me. She said something so simple yet she said it with such true joy on her face I understood exactly. When it came to her turn she exclaimed “This feels like paradise.” Now for those of you who have been to Yakima and painted outside on 100 degree days you know that is probably the farthest thing from Paradise. Yet, I knew what she really meant was that she felt close to God. It felt as though the kingdom of heaven was here on earth.

While there we had all put on more than just this T-shirt. We had all put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. We had worn love as we built and worked together in harmony. We let Christ rule our hearts and were thankful for it. We worked through disagreements and admonished one another with wisdom and love.