FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 13

MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch  

Welcome Friends to The Full Measure’s 2021 Celebration of Advent

ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 13. Friday, December 10, 2021

SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:1-6

READER: Pastor jen Cumberbatch

THEME: PEACE 

CANDLES: Light 2 purple 

Lm p

candles for each reading The HOPE Candle from  Week 1 and The PEACE candle from Day 8-Day 15.

Scripture

Luke 3:1-6 NIV

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

    make straight paths for him.

5 

Every valley shall be filled in,

    every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight,

    the rough ways smooth.

6 

And all people will see God’s salvation.’”[a]

Reading

So, when you grow up in a household where your parents, or grandparents are Pastors, teachers, deaconesses or hold any of the offices of the five fold ministry in the Church, there is always the possibility that one might take the presence and the Word of the Lord for granted.  

In some circles preachers' kids, having matured, might articulate their phenomenon like this, “I am a PK and I grew up in the Church.” In other circles the testimony is given, thusly, “ I grew up in a Christian home, in fact I am a PK.”

Elizabeth and Zacheriah were both from the priestly line of Israel.  Zacheriah was an active-duty priest in the service of God in the temple.  John came from good stock.  John was filled with the Holy Spirit in Elizabeth’s womb.  Hey, John was the fruit not only of his father’s loins, and his mother’s menopausal womb, but the miraculous product of The Word of the Lord, spoken to his father by the Angel Gabriel the right-hand angel of the One True And Living God!

What a heritage. What a legacy.  God is faithful from generation to generation. And, not one jot or tittle of God’s Word will ever fail. But , Malachi had been the last prophet of God to the people of Israel for 400 years.  And, the people had, in many ways, gone from bad to worse. Sin against God had become the norm.

The governor--the tetrarch, the heir of a genocidal king, had taken his brother’s wife into his bedroom, while his brother was still alive.  It was typical and expected that tax collectors would take a little som’em, som’em extra for their own pockets.  Soldiers used their  authority and sword to mafia-style extort the people, demanding payment for protection, or else… Generosity, and loving kindness, hallmarks of God’s posture toward Israel and the expected posture of them towards each other, had been stifled. The people had ceased to be generous with their material goods and hoarded their belongings, in fear they would suffer lack.  And, just as Malachi had scolded the priests of his time, the hearts of the parents in John’s generation had grown cold toward their children.These children were  holy offspring, who were ostensibly dedicated to reverencing and glorifying the Lord.

At John’s birth his father, Zachariah declared to those at his circumcision what God had said about John to him in the temple.  And, John grew strong in the spirit. But, the petri dish for his growth was a wilderness. 

Yet, in the fullness of time. 400 years after Malachi, while ruthless adulterous, incestuous, genocidal, power-hungry, bribe-prone and corrupt rulers ruled both in the secular world and the religious seats of power, the Word of the Lord came to John.  And the people, hungry and thirsty, dying in their personal wildernesses, having experienced the agony of a silent, rather than an open heaven, were ready for God to speak.

So, John seized the Word of the Lord, in it his destiny, purpose, his reason to be.   John adopted The Word of the Lord, for himself. It was not his momma or his daddy’s Word.  John’s was the Word of the Lord for John---The Elijah of his generation.

And, the Word was “repent”.  Don’t just be sorry, or sorry you got caught.  Godly sorrow leads to repentance.  It is a turning away from and turning to.  Repentance looks like movement in a new and good direction. Repentance bears fruit.

From the day of his conception from an old seed, and in an old womb, to his Holy Spirit filling in Elizabeth’s belly, and his father’s birth announcement, to his time in the desert, until his public preaching and the baptizing of the Savior, until the time of his beheading, John kept and declared The Word of the Lord. John served his generation well. 

John ushered in the kingdom of God with one singular message, The Word of the Lord, had come to this last of the Old Covenant prophets, and he prophesied it,  “People of God, Repent.” Make the rough places smooth, elevate the valley to mountain-height, make the crooked. places straight.  Prepare your hearts to receive the Word of the Lord made Flesh, the Incarnate One.   Receive the Word of the Lord Fo yo own self. The kingdom of God is at hand. 

Prayer

Dear God,

We, your Beloved, don’t take our spiritual heritage in Christ for granted. We receive the Word of the Lord, for us, in our own hearts, even in our wilderness season.  We are your spokespersons, Lord, preparing the way for the return of your Christ.  

Send your Word and heal us. 

Breathe in us your Spirit, 

and Revive us! 

We open our hearts to your will. 

We open our mouths for you to fill them with your Word and we make our vow to declare, The Word of the Lord, and to live it, as martyrs, laying down our lives, serving our generation well, for your glory and the coming of your kingdom on earth. Help us, oh God.  Amen!