Advent Illumination & Discovery for Advent I

 

Malachi 3:1-6, 4:4-6   Ist Reading Old Testament 1^st Sunday in Advent

 

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

 

 

The Epistle
Romans xiii. 8.

OWE no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

 

The Gospel
St. Matthew xxi. 1.

WHEN they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name 'of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

 

 

Advent Illumination & Discovery

Advent Insight ! Romans 13

Let me open this new Church Year with a story. I was out walking the dog the day after Thanksgiving am Friday, and this account popped into my mind regarding the Romans text we heard read . In the early 60's when my Dad was stationed in Viet Nam, my mother, sister and I lived with my grandfather in Philadelphia for a year. It was an old interesting triple decker house in the suburbs of Philly. I had the roam of it, and it was exciting.

One day though I got myself into trouble.....I was almost 8 and broke a window in the third floor bathroom trying to open it. I thought my grandfather would be very mad, but he wasn't. He said, " That is an old window anyway and it needed replacing." I felt very guilty about breaking it , and thought I deserved a good punishment. Instead he was kind, loving and grandfatherly in the best sense. This widened my thinking at that very young age! Imagine someone treating you nicely even when you did not deserve it!

We already probably know this but for me it was an eye opener. The Romans text tells us that, " ....he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Again in vs. 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." I had never heard it this way till I read it last week thinking about this Advent message. DID WE HEAR THAT?

The Apostle is saying that if we love others we have fulfilled the law. I know a lot of Christians and I may have been in that camp for a bit that thought that law keeping was so important. Well it is , and it is not. First of all, Jesus did say , " I have not come to destroy the law...but to fulfill it...He that breaks one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven...." Matthew 5 The Apostle Paul repeats the commandments here lest we get the wrong idea.
Look again in Romans 13. Listen to it......vs 9 repeats some of the commandments lest we think they are just optional. The Ten Suggestions? No, of course not. But the emphasis of this passage again is dramatic...."
IF THERE BE ANY OTHER COMMANDMENT, IT is briefly comprehended in this namely, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF." VS. 9b

The word for love here used throughout this passage is not friendship love, phileo. It is the word agape, the sacrificial word for love in the greek language. " love in the moral sense" as Thayer's Greek says. There is no reason to do it on earth, but we as Christians are commanded to even love our enemies , Matthew 5:44.

I seem to remember that the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of references to this ...." Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." " Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." 5:44
2. What are some of the other actions of love?

Listen, understand, be patient, be kind, be forbearing, love never fails or as R . Brault, " Love becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got."
The word for love means sacrificial love. Loving the unloveable. It is the love that only Christ can give us at the Cross.
Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Or one time, and you are out! We all need the forgiving love from others in our lives for we are fallible, human and short tempered if the truth be told.
Love as FF Bruce said in his little book on Romans ," Love never harms another." " Love fulfills the law."
" Love is the sum of all virtue, and loves disposes us to good." Jonathan Edwards the famous New England preacher in early America

One poster I saw said it this way, " Leave footprints of love and kindness wherever you go."

3. LOVE NEVER FAILS. We remember this from I Corinthians 13 from the Apostle Paul. Unfortunately being human we fail, and we fail to love sacrificially. We are too busy finding other things to argue about? Keeping the law is so important, but if we fail to love we fail to keep the law. We cannot obviously in this keep it perfectly, but if we begin to love others with the same love that our Lord had on the Cross, we will be on the right path.

This Advent season has so many beautiful things, the Calendar, the Advent Wreath, the scents of the coming of Christmas but if we wish to please our Lord, we should love in word, deed and attitude even when we do not feel much like it.

Happy New Church Year in Advent I!