December 9, 2018 - Second Sunday in Advent - The Bethlehem Candle / Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord

This Sunday Pastor Sara preached again because Pastor Ray's mother passed away this week and he is in Alaska with his family. She continued her Advent message from last week. She led the congregation three times during her sermon to sing the Godspell song Prepare Ye The Way of the Lord. to emphasize a theme of preparedness. This was one of what she called Her "Powerpoint alliterative highlights" she named last week - Prophets, Prepare and Paradox..

There was another theme that today's scripture and candle introduced and illuminated. The Gospel begins begins;

"In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness"

Pastor Sara preached this Gospel starts with a cascading power reference starting with the emperor of Rome, the city center of the world, through six other rulers and ends with a guy in the backwater Jordanian wilderness. And the word of God does not come to the emperor or any of the other six. God's word came to John.

The significance of the second candle in Advent, the Bethlehem Candle, parallels and underscores this "powerful to humble" focus. The second candle is lit and our attention moves towards Bethlehem, a tiny town resting in Jerusalem’s shadow where the world’s agony was pierced with hope as God drew his first human breath.

The humbleness of Bethlehem is emphasized in scripture, Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days."

When David was anointed king of Israel, God made a covenant with him to establish David’s throne forever (2 Samuel 7:12–13). The Old Testament confirms this promise that the Messiah would be of the kingly line of David (Psalms 89:34–37) of the mighty tribe of Judah and, also, born in David’s humble hometown: Bethlehem.

Scripture's beauty, however, is that there is always more to the story. Jesus both does and also does not share Joseph's royal lineage. Is an individual's importance and power measured by who their parents are? Does it matter? Instead there is Divine inception in the deepest place where your truest life is birthed. This engages our Bethlehem hearts. This is the place where the Divine begins new life. And newness of life is what we all desire. This is the work God wants to do in the soul womb of all humanity...

Advent.is all about waiting for something that is coming . This is something that has come before, will come again and is already here. There are many questions on how to prepare for Emmanuel.

Sara preached about another kind of preparedness we could think about recalling John the Baptist's back-story. His parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth were past child bearing years. and Elizabeth was supposedly barren. Pastor Sara talked about the internal ache of her personal response to the story of Mary after years of attempting to have a child with her husband. She always felt a bit of emptiness upon that reflection. John's birth is a different miracle than the birth of Jesus but is still a blessed event of God's doing. Elizabeth said, “The Lord has done this for me. . . . In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people” (Luke 1:25).

Pastor Sara also preached about how we are tempted to be anxious in our concern for being prepared in the right way. After considering Mary and Elizabeth and the stories of the births of their sons,is there a right way to be prepared to make space for God?

I was reminded how much this congregation has influenced and does influence my spiritual growth by different conversations this morning - some looking forward and some remembering back to what they see as a better time. I first posted about Creator in 2006. I knew then what a special time and a special people were Creator members who offered the right balance of freedom and church tradition to help deepen my understanding of the God that was in my heart.

Scott Erickson

The times have changed. The people have changed. I have changed and yet there is also a continuity. I talk to new members with unique ideas and enthusiasms about the future direction of the congregation. I am in conversations with members are concerned about Creator's direction but I trust I will learn more about God and how to live in God's world as a result of the prayers around those directions and concerns.

There is another aspect to this lectionary passage that we did not consider, probably because of the translation we are using leaves out the word roads in "The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth." This may have been more important when this was written because people knew about Roman roads. For us this may be a new call to pay attention to physical roads and to be concerned with the community infrastructure even as we pay attention to making the spiritual ways straight,

A prayer: Almighty, I do not know what needs to be birthed in me. I do not even know if I believe that you want something to be birthed at this moment. But I open up the deepest place in me and ask that you would birth transformation in me and transformation outside of me if that is what you will. Whatever it is, may it be done according to your word.

Yes, may it be done according to God's word.