Albert D. Mosley - Sermon Untitled (December 10, 2000)

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Female Speaker	Herod was ruler of Galilee,	0:03
	and his brother Phillip, ruler of the region of Iturea,	0:05
	and Trachentis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene.	0:09
	During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.	0:13
	The word of God came to John,	0:17
	son of Zachariah, in the wilderness.	0:19
	He went into all the region around the Jordan.	0:22
	Proclaiming a baptism of repentance	0:25
	for the forgiveness of sins.	0:27
	As it is written in the book,	0:29
	the words the prophet Isiah.	0:31
	The voice of one crying out in the wilderness.	0:34
	Prepare the way of the Lord,	0:37
	make his path straight.	0:39
	Every valley shall be filled,	0:41
	and every mountain and hill shall be made low.	0:42
	And the crooked shall be made straight,	0:45
	and the rough ways made made smooth.	0:48
	And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.	0:50
	This is the word of the Lord.	0:54
	[Congregation] Amen.	0:57
	(silence)	0:59
Male Speaker	The voice of one,	1:12
	crying in the wilderness.	1:13
	Prepare the way of the Lord.	1:17
	Make his path straight.	1:19
	Well, here we are, the	1:25
	season of Advent is upon us.	1:28
	Today, we're celebrating the second Sunday	1:32
	of Advent.	1:34
	For some people, however, the season of Advent,	1:37
	or at least that time that leads up to Christmas	1:40
	began several weeks ago.	1:43
	The day after Thanksgiving.	1:46
	On Friday, November 24th, which	1:49
	by the way was my birthday,	1:52
	but you didn't ask.	1:53
	[Congregation Laughs]	1:54
	On Friday November 24th,	1:56
	hoards of eager consumers	1:58
	descended upon the shopping malls,	2:00
	hoping to find the perfect gift	2:02
	for everyone on their list.	2:05
	Huge sums of cash, and credit	2:08
	changed hands.	2:11
	Stress levels went through the roof,	2:13
	as cars prowled the parking lot	2:15
	trying to land a choice spot.	2:18
	But isn't it fun, though?	2:21
	Isn't it wonderful,	2:23
	out of nowhere, it seems that radio stations	2:25
	began playing Christmas tunes.	2:28
	Cards from long lost friends, and relatives	2:30
	began pouring in.	2:33
	And lights, lights, lights everywhere.	2:35
	This is how Advent, or that time of preparation	2:41
	began for so many people in our society.	2:44
	It did not start last Sunday,	2:48
	with the first Sunday of Advent.	2:50
	It started several Fridays ago	2:52
	with the 50% off sale at Penny's.	2:54
	However, and whenever it started for you	2:59
	Advent is a season filled with great tension	3:02
	and with a fairly high degree of anxiety.	3:06
	Of course you would never surmise this to be the case.	3:10
	In light of the treatment of this season	3:14
	in the American commercial realm.	3:16
	Advent is primarily concerned with eschatology	3:19
	with the end times	3:23
	with the consummation of all things in Christ.	3:26
	Hence the song 'Tis the season to be jolly.	3:29
	In Advent, we as Christians attempt	3:34
	to express our hope and expectations.	3:36
	For both the first and second comings of	3:39
	Christ, the Messiah.	3:41
	There's an obvious paradox here.	3:44
	Advent is considered the beginning	3:47
	of the Christian year.	3:49
	Yet it plunges us immediately	3:51
	into the tension between the already Christ	3:54
	who has come in the flesh,	3:56
	and the not yet consummation of all things in Christ	3:58
	at the end of time .	4:01
	So the Christian liturgical year has it's beginning	4:04
	on focusing on the end.	4:07
	Prayers, songs,	4:10
	lectionary readings.	4:13
	They all challenge us to begin our year	4:14
	by thinking about the end of time.	4:17
	This beginning of the end mode of Advent	4:22
	contains both thankfulness,	4:24
	and anticipation.	4:26
	It contains both threat and promise.	4:29
	Our thankfulness is due to the fact that	4:34
	Christ has already come once.	4:35
	And we can be grateful for the incarnation	4:38
	and all that the incarnation accomplishes.	4:40
	Because he has already come once	4:43
	he will come again.	4:45
	And thus, we anticipate, and look forward to full	4:47
	and final coming, when he will complete the work	4:50
	of redemption.	4:53
	So we're able to approach this season	4:56
	with thanksgiving in our hearts	4:57
	for the gift of Christ to us in past times.	4:59
	And with the full anticipation	5:03
	of his second coming.	5:05
	The threat and promise elements of this season	5:08
	are contained in the belief that the second	5:10
	coming of Christ	5:12
	will be a time of judgment, and salvation.	5:13
	Christ comes to judge, and Christ comes to save.	5:17
	For some this is a threat	5:22
	for other it is a promise.	5:25
	The gospel of Matthew portrays	5:28
	each of these elements the threat and the promise.	5:29
	As the writer there records he will clear	5:32
	his threshing floor and will gather his wheat	5:34
	into the granary.	5:37
	But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.	5:39
	Advent is about being ready.	5:45
	Being prepared.	5:48
	As a child growing up in the rural Mississippi Delta	5:51
	I would spend most of my long hot summer days	5:54
	playing games outside.	5:58
	One of my favorite games was hide-and-seek.	6:01
	A designated counter would count to a certain number	6:05
	while the remainder of us desperately	6:07
	sought out good hiding places.	6:10
	When the counting was over,	6:12
	the counter would yell ready or not	6:14
	here I come.	6:17
	Almost invariably I would	6:19
	respond to this alert by shouting	6:21
	I'm not ready yet.	6:23
	Even though I was the smallest child in my group	6:27
	the larger children always	6:31
	found all the good hiding places.	6:33
	Whenever I would stumble upon a good hiding place some	6:36
	200 pound kid would come along and	6:39
	intimidate me to the point that I would give it to him.	6:41
	In so many ways, this is the very essence of Advent.	6:47
	Whether or not we're ready	6:51
	the return of Christ is eminent.	6:54
	His return is a certainty.	6:57
	He promises us in his word,	6:59
	that all flesh shall see the salvation	7:01
	of our God.	7:03
	Therefore it behooves us to be ready	7:07
	at all times.	7:09
	The Gospels Matthew again reminds us	7:11
	to watch therefore, for you know not	7:13
	what day the Lord is coming.	7:16
	If the owner of the house had known at what time	7:18
	of night the thief was coming,	7:21
	he would have kept watch.	7:23
	Would not have let his house be broken into.	7:25
	So you must also be ready.	7:28
	Because the son of men will come at an hour	7:30
	when you least expect Him.	7:31
	Preparation is something we are all familiar	7:35
	and acquainted with.	7:37
	From early on in life	7:40
	most of us were taught to plan ahead.	7:41
	To be on time.	7:43
	To prepare well in advance.	7:45
	The early bird presumably having prepared,	7:48
	is the one who gets the worm, we say.	7:51
	The majority of us start preparing	7:55
	and saving for our golden years	7:56
	in the prime of our lives.	7:59
	And who among us	8:03
	would dare walk into a board meeting,	8:04
	or a job interview	8:06
	without having prepared?	8:08
	Only few brave students would sit through an exam	8:10
	without having spent countless hours	8:13
	preparing for the experience.	8:16
	Preparation is especially important for us preachers.	8:19
	The only thing I can think of more insulting	8:23
	to a congregation, than an unprepared sermon,	8:25
	is a preacher who thinks the congregation	8:28
	doesn't realize he's not prepared.	8:30
	A mentor of mine once said to me that	8:34
	good preaching takes a lot of preparation.	8:37
	For every one minute of a sermon delivered,	8:41
	there should be at least an hour used in preparation.	8:44
	We spend quite a bit of our lives preparing	8:49
	for one thing or another.	8:51
	Often times we expend more energy	8:55
	preparing for an event	8:57
	than we do in the actual event itself.	8:58
	Think for example, of weddings.	9:02
	The hours spent selecting the right dress.	9:05
	The hours spent addressing envelopes for invitations.	9:08
	The hours spent chasing down the caterer.	9:13
	And doing all sorts of other things	9:15
	in preparation for this event.	9:17
	Hours and hours of time, and for what?	9:20
	In most circumstances the wedding ceremony is over	9:24
	in 30 minutes to an hour.	9:27
	But it really takes that sort of preparation,	9:30
	it takes detailed planning and thinking ahead	9:33
	for most major events in our lives.	9:36
	During the time of the Babylonian empire	9:41
	engineer soldiers, called Zephyrs would precede	9:43
	the Monarch as he traveled in his chariot	9:46
	to visit various regions of his Kingdom.	9:49
	These soldiers would construct the road	9:52
	that the King had to travel on.	9:55
	They filled pot holes, moved things out of the way	9:57
	and made certain that the Kings journey	10:00
	would be a smooth one.	10:02
	Subjects of the King received a fairly good notice	10:05
	well in advance that he was on his way.	10:07
	Therefore they would take advantage of this time	10:11
	and clean themselves up.	10:14
	They would don their best outfits	10:16
	and prepare delectable meals, just in case	10:18
	the King decided to stop at one of their houses.	10:20
	These engineer soldiers prepared the way for the coming	10:25
	of the Babylonian King.	10:28
	In a like manner, John the Baptist	10:31
	prepares the way for the coming of our King.	10:35
	Interestingly enough, John's message of preparation	10:39
	is directed at a specific group of people.	10:42
	And even more interesting than that	10:46
	is that this group of people	10:47
	it's not just any ordinary crowd.	10:49
	John was not speaking to just the common folk of Jerusalem.	10:53
	Who'd come out the the river Jordan	10:56
	to be baptized by him.	10:58
	John's message of preparation was not	11:00
	directed at the stragglers,	11:02
	and rift raft of Judea.	11:04
	The ne'er do wells, and crime bosses	11:07
	of the Ancient near East.	11:09
	Instead, John here in this passage,	11:11
	spoke to Pharisees and Sadducees.	11:13
	The most pious of the pious.	11:16
	The all stars of Jewish religion.	11:19
	The ones, no doubt, voted by their peers	11:22
	as least likely to be named a brood of vipers.	11:25
	You brood of vipers, says John the Baptist.	11:31
	What an interesting choice of words.	11:34
	Interesting because Jesus uses the same phrase	11:38
	later in chapters 12 and 13 of Matthew's Gospel	11:41
	to condemn, strangely enough, the same folks	11:45
	John condemned.	11:49
	The Pharisees and Sadducees.	11:50
	In both instances this Pharisees habit of	11:54
	cultivating the outward appearance	11:56
	of righteousness, while remaining inwardly	11:58
	corrupt, that angers Jesus.	12:01
	Jesus says to them you are like white washed tombs	12:04
	which on the outside look beautiful,	12:07
	but inside they are full of the bones	12:10
	of the dead and all kinds of filth.	12:12
	The appearance of preparation, is not the same	12:16
	as being really prepared.	12:19
	Last Christmas, Olivia and I requested	12:23
	that our church family not give us gifts.	12:26
	Lets just say this request was based upon our	12:30
	past experiences of gifts	12:33
	from various churches we've served.	12:35
	Sort of a nice way of saying	12:38
	in case you can't use it, we can't either.	12:39
	[Congregation Laughs]	12:42
	well, like laypeople often do,	12:48
	they did not listen and instead	12:51
	showered us with beautifully wrapped gifts.	12:53
	As I loaded the gifts in the car one Sunday	12:57
	after church, I turned to Olivia,	12:59
	and I said you know,	13:00
	maybe it's going to be different this year.	13:02
	Maybe somebody will give us something	13:04
	we can actually use.	13:06
	I thought surely, out of all these beautifully	13:09
	wrapped boxes, there was bound to be some really,	13:11
	some really, really nice stuff on the inside.	13:15
	Christmas morning rolled around,	13:20
	and we began the process of opening our gifts	13:21
	from the church members, the first of which	13:23
	was a set of place mats.	13:25
	With Richard Nixon's face on them.	13:27
	[Congregation Laughs]	13:29
	Being the sort of optimistic guy,	13:34
	the one who always things the glass is half full,	13:36
	I said this is only one out of 15.	13:39
	You're bound to have at least one bad one.	13:43
	I opened a second gift, to find a clip on tie.	13:47
	And now the half full glass is beginning to	13:52
	look half empty.	13:54
	The third, and final, of the 15 gifts we opened,	13:57
	was a Central High class of 1979 coffee mug.	14:01
	So much for the beautiful wrapping,	14:08
	and looking good on the outside.	14:10
	Which is essentially the same thing that John	14:13
	and Jesus said.	14:16
	True preparation goes beyond the surface.	14:18
	It occurs in the deepest recesses of our souls.	14:22
	The flayed poets of yesteryears	14:28
	spoke of getting one's health in order	14:29
	in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.	14:31
	They spoke of keeping the lamps trimmed and burning,	14:35
	for the time is drawing neigh.	14:38
	John's message of preparation is a message	14:41
	of repentance.	14:43
	Calling the people of Jerusalem and all Judea,	14:44
	as well as you and I	14:47
	to get our houses in order.	14:49
	To prepare of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.	14:53
	With a changing of our ways,	14:57
	and a confession of our sins.	15:00
	Preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven	15:02
	requires radical change.	15:04
	Metanoia, the Greek word for preparation,	15:07
	the Greek word for repentance	15:12
	implies a complete turning around.	15:13
	A 100 degree turn to face the other direction.	15:17
	Some during John's time responded to this call,	15:21
	and they changed their ways.	15:23
	They humbly acknowledged their sins,	15:26
	and received the baptism of repentance.	15:27
	But then came along the Pharisees, and the Sadducees.	15:30
	They had no intentions of rearranging their lives.	15:34
	Their primary concern was not preparing	15:37
	for the coming of the Messiah.	15:39
	For the Pharisees and Sadducees	15:42
	the baptism that John offers	15:43
	was nothing more than another notch	15:45
	on their belts of holiness.	15:47
	John's message of repentance offers one more	15:50
	opportunity to reaffirm their status quo,	15:52
	as a blessed and obviously righteous	15:56
	children of Abraham.	15:58
	On the outside, they looked prepared.	16:00
	But on the inside,	16:03
	their hearts remained exactly the same.	16:04
	John clearly indicates that there's only one way	16:09
	to prepare for the coming Messiah.	16:12
	Repent. For the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.	16:14
	Repent.	16:18
	It's a bucket of water,	16:21
	right smack in your face.	16:23
	Change your ways.	16:25
	Something big is about to happen.	16:27
	Something is headed this way,	16:31
	and we may not be ready for it.	16:33
	Repent. It's a wake up call to the complacent,	16:36
	to the comfortable, to the content.	16:40
	Repent.	16:44
	Everything is about to change.	16:46
	The status quo will be done away with.	16:48
	The proud and mighty	16:50
	will be scattered, and the lowly will be exalted.	16:52
	Proper preparation for the One to come,	16:57
	is John's message.	17:00
	But as long as we think about John	17:02
	preaching in his own country, 2000 years ago.	17:03
	His message remains distant to us.	17:07
	We have to realize that John is preaching	17:11
	in the wilderness of our lives.	17:12
	He comes to the wilderness in which we live.	17:15
	Admonishing us to prepare for	17:17
	the coming of the Messiah.	17:19
	Warning us to get ready.	17:21
	Warning us to change our ways.	17:24
	Warning us to get our lives in order.	17:27
	And reminding us of the consequences	17:30
	if we don't.	17:33
	If Advent is the time for us to anticipate,	17:36
	and to prepare for Jesus,	17:39
	then what are you doing this December	17:42
	to get ready for His arrival?	17:44
	Too often we confine our experience	17:47
	of Advent to lighting the wreath on Sunday morning	17:49
	and thumbing through the church's holiday	17:51
	devotional guide.	17:53
	We limit our attention this season	17:56
	to pretty decorations.	17:58
	Ginger cookies, soft music, and warm wishes	18:00
	of good tidings.	18:04
	On the outside, we look prepared.	18:06
	But on the inside, our hearts remain	18:09
	exactly the same.	18:11
	Once the wrapping paper has been torn away,	18:14
	and the ornaments put in storage for another year	18:17
	will we pick right back up in January	18:21
	where we left off in November?	18:24
	Or will we really start this new Christian year	18:26
	with a new beginning?	18:30

Item Info

Title:

Albert D. Mosley - Sermon Untitled (December 10, 2000)

Description:

The return of Christ is imminent. Therefore, in the time of Advent, we are called to make radical changes in our lives to prepare ourselves for his coming. We must repent, as John says in the wilderness, and make ready for the coming of the Lord. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 01:12. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 18:33.
Key quotation: “Preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven requires radical change.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4bk1741k

Date:

December 10, 2000

Speaker:

Mosley, Albert D.

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 CS-1043
ref10243_iq5
uachapelsermaud
duke:320798
dcrau001687
ark:/87924/r4bk1741k
223c7e70-6b53-43be-85da-7fe23a875255

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Albert D. Mosley - Sermon Untitled (December 10, 2000)

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