ADVENT 2009
A Christmas Carol Part 1
The Darkness of a Soul
At the close of today’s presentation you will know a little about Advent and the
meaning of lighting the first Advent Candle.
You’ll be reintroduced to Ebenezer Scrooge,
We’ll be using his Christmas journey as a guide to our own.
We’ll explore the darkness of a human soul
And the hope held out in scripture for our deliverance.
Finally there will be two choices I am going to ask you to make.
I will challenge you to get into the light,
And I will challenge you to give the light away.
If that sounds good to you—then lets begin:
Advent is how the Church prepares for the Christ’s mass,
Christmas,
the great holy day, from which we get our word holiday,
commemorating the incarnation of the Creator.
We believe in the incarnation,
God becoming like us so that we could become like him.
Advent is a season of anticipation and hope.
The fourth Sunday before Christmas Day marks the beginning of the Church
Year.
Today is the beginning of the Church’s New Year
We use an Advent wreath to help us celebrate the season
The circle of the Christmas wreath reminds us of God’s never ending love
towards His Creation.
The ever green of the wreath speaks to us of the hope of eternal life.
Four candles of the wreath move us from darkness to ever increasing light.
Each candle is a call to contemplation.
The center candle is the Christ Candle celebrating the incarnation of the
Creator.
Today we will light the first Advent Candle
The first candle is the candle of prophecy
It is to remind us of the mess the world is in, and the love of God so
great as to promise a deliverance.
Isaiah 60:1b-2 (NLT)
For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you. Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
Lighting the first candle:
As we light this first Advent candle, our of the darkness a light shines and it fill us with hope for the fuller brightness that is to come.
Darkness,
Winter brings us those shortened days,
The hours of light are less than the hours of darkness.
In the land in which I grew up,
With the darkness comes the cold.
Rain turns to ice, snow falls.
The darkness and the cold of winter,
Reminds me of how dark and cold a soul can become.
For the scriptures use darkness to describe sin, and ignorance, folly and evil.
Let’s watch.
A Christmas Carol (1999)
Starring: Patrick Stewart,
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Carol-Patrick-Stewart/dp/0780623746
Matthew 6:22-23 (MSG)
"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Scrooge is a soul that is living in spiritual darkness.
The pain in his soul manifests itself in darkness and cold.
As he sacrifices everything to the god of his own choosing.
For Ebenezer Scrooge his entire world view is fixated on making money.
Nothing he fears more than being poor.
Nothing too precious to sacrifice on the alter of the god he serves.
He hordes, unwilling to spend any of his amassed wealth even on
his own creature comforts.
He lives for business, for gain, for profit.
He is tyrannical and cantankerous
He is down right mean, an uncivil bully.
He chooses to be feared than loved.
To me this is a picture of life dominated by egoism.
The sin nature, that desire to be the arbitrator of your own morality.
You set yourself up as judge and jury of what is right and what is
wrong.
God is the source of life, with Him there is truth, knowledge and wisdom.
Apart from Him you are left to your own devices.
Estranged from God its up to you to make your way in this
world,
We inevitably choose our way in ignorance and stumble along.
Sometimes doing well, most often not so good.
But regardless ending in destruction
We fail to become what we were created to be,
We do not achieve what we were destined to achieve.
Our life doesn’t become a blessing.
Many say, my life is good, I’ve done well under the circumstances,
What blinds the eye for those living the good life is that
They can’t see what they are truly missing.
Their light is really darkness,
And the kingdom they have built is really just a
dank cellar.
Friends if you live in the land of pygmies,
you think being 5ft tall makes you a giant.
Comparison is a trap.
There is always someone worse off than you,
There is always someone better off than you.
Scrooge is a picture of what’s wrong with our lives
We are so consumed with ourselves,
And grown so closed to others,
That all we are concerned about is our own interests.
My stuff and the way I do my stuff rules my life so that
there is no room for the unexpected blessing God
wants to bestow.
We hang a Do Not Disturb sign on the door of our life,
We become stingy with our time, we no longer give our self away,
After all, isn’t it someone else’s turn?
We don’t want anything to disrupt my schedule,
No time left for you, we’re busy, we’re focused, we’re serious.
We’re getting done what we have to get done.
“Do not inconvenience me with your need.”
We build our world the way we see fit,
We love what and whom we choose to love,
If we choose to love at all.
Just like Scrooge.
Then there are those who don’t have it so good.
They’re miserable and they know it
They can’t get out of the darkness that has ensnared them.
They live with damaged and continually disappointing relationships,
Work in jobs because they have to,
Or have already surrendered to being a ward of the state,
Living off of public assistance.
They scrap to get bye, living on the edge,
Trying to make ends meet but too often not.
Happiness has eluded them.
Joy is unknown.
Just when they seem to get a break, something does.
Then its back to square once again.
Money can create denial, and illusion.
They don’t have money, so they are stuck in the stark reality that their
lives are not being lived to the full, that something is bad broke.
They don’t know what to do to fix their lives.
They’re trapped in the dark and the cold too.
Self loathing, self pity, self shame, isolates them from others.
An anger can burn because they feel cheated.
So they like Scrooge lash out at others in their own way.
Both the “haves” and the “have nots” are standing outside in the darkness and in
the cold.
The only real difference is that the “haves” have made better choices
according to the world than the “have nots”
The prophet said this malady infects the entire species.
There is a sickness in the soul of mankind.
Isaiah 60: 2a (MSG)
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth…
Our legacy is disobedience,
estrangement from God the result is
Cain killing his brother.
The world is plunged into a madness and knows no peace.
Just look at our own American History.
You find we are constantly at war.
We don’t have a 50 year span in our history when we were not
fighting someone.
Nations are like people, seeking only their own welfare.
Some countries are at war within themselves,
Like some sort of cancer inwardly devouring itself.
Consider our Civil War,
Or look to what has happened in Angola, Uganda,
Somalia, Sudan…
We exploit the weak for our own gain.
We take advantage of others.
We try to create our kingdoms.
We try and try to build utopias
Our dreams of a better tomorrow,
A tomorrow where things are the way we deem they should be
start to succeed but enviably fall in shambles around our
feet.
It’s the Tower of Babel over and over again.
Good morning, wake up and smell the ashes.
Romans 7:24 (MSG)
I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me?
With either pockets empty or pockets full
We stand out in the darkness and the cold,
Some realize it, some don’t,
but all in need of a hero, a leader,
who can guide us out of empty and vain lives
into lives worth living.
The prophecy of scripture proclaims that there is indeed one who can deliver.
Isaiah 60: 2 (MSG)
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
As we lit one candle of the Advent wreath,
It also ignites hope in our heart for a hero, a leader,
but not just one for our own lives,
it symbolizes hope for the entire world.
With the question Is there no one who can do anything for me? On our lips,
The scripture fans hope into flame.
Romans 7:25 (MSG)
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
Jesus can and does set us free.
Jesus is the one, the only one, who can work with you to set things right.
It is through faith in Jesus that our estrangement with God is
reconciled.
If you don’t know Jesus—
Run to the light.
Ask God to show you how to be rescued,
Ask God to guide you into the deliverance of His Son.
He will lead you on a path unique to you.
But it will look something like this
Accept the fact that you are living in darkness
You are out in the dark and the cold, slowly freezing to death.
Inside is the abundant life.
Believe that Jesus is the light.
He is the way the truth and the life,
He’s your hero, your leader, Who can deliver you.
Commit yourself to following Jesus.
Together you will journey out of the dark and cold
into the light and warmth of a life worth living.
Do you sense a candle flickering in your darkness ?
Then run to the light, right now, don’t wait, don’t procrastinate,
Today could be your day to start a whole new life.
Now if you consider yourselves already a follower of Jesus,
As a follower of Jesus you are expected to be a light,
You are expected to be a candle lit in the dark for others.
It’s time for you to shine.
There are people in your world trapped outside,
You are the only one who can lead them to the one who is the light of
the World.
Can you think of just one,
One person, caught up in living life for themselves,
One person out of answers for their problems.
Who comes to mind?
Write their name down.
God help me to reach ________________________________ this Advent season.
Make that person your mission for this Advent season.
Ask God to help you bring this person to the light.
Help them find a Christmas celebration.
You may be the only one who can reach them.
Isn’t pointing the way to Jesus the best Christmas gift you can give?
Isn’t finding a hero the best Christmas gift you can receive?
Two challenges this morning—
Get into the light and Give the light away.
Don’t be a Scrooge.