FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 20
©© by Pastor Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch (proprietary)
MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch
Welcome Friends to The Full Measure’s Celebration of Advent 2021
ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 20, Friday, December 17, 2021
SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:7-18
READER: Carron M. and Rickey Gibbs
THEME: Joy
CANDLES: Light 2 purple and one pink candles for each reading this Week 3 of Advent. The HOPE Candle from Week 1 and The PEACE candle for Week 2 and now the JOY Candle for Week 3
Reading
LUKE 3:7-18
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them
Reading
Faith without works is dead.
We are called as disciplined followers of Christ, to walk worthy of the calling, the vocation we have received.
This calling is a divine invitation from God to receive the benefits of salvation. And, our R.S.V.P. to the invitation, in light of its generosity and fullness, is to make our way, progress, make due use of opportunities, regulate our lives, conduct ourselves, and pass our lives on earth in a suitably Godly manner.
God, through John, says that a lifestyle that is a worthy response to so great a salvation as is found in Jesus, demands critical discernment on the part of those invited into this salvation. An invitation to salvation (divine health, prosperity, and holiness) and an invitation to be a part of the kingdom of God, to be the people of God demands a joy and gratitude-filled response. Our response to salvation needs to be commensurate to the weight of salvation’s glory.
King David said, “What shall I render to God for all God’s benefit? And, his response is ``I will serve the Lord just as my mother and my ancestors did?”
The appropriate response to God for God’s invitation to salvation, God’s gold-gilded invitation to the Kingdom of God, and to eternal life, is to give in return a life yielded to God’s will and God’s way.
The potency of transcendence in Advent is found in turning aside, from the physical and getting God’s perspective on how we are to live life on earth.
The people of God are called to examine our motives, examine our hearts.
Yes, judgment begins at the house of God.
In the scripture today for Day 20 of Advent, John, the last of the Old Testament prophets, is calling the people of God to stop considering their spiritual heritage as ethnic descendants of Abraham, with whom God first made a covenant, as the criteria for being in right standing with God.
John, the messenger of God, to prepare the people of God for the first coming of the Christ, is saying that God’s judgment between what was good and what was evil, was starting at the root of the tree, (God’s first covenant people) and that God was severing all who do not show the fruit of God-like living.
Faith without works is dead, just as is a tree whose roots are severed from the soil. John called the people to bear fruit or be cut off and cast into the fire.
It is true that it is by grace, God’s favor, that we are saved, and that we are not saved from sin by doing good works, but rather by faith in the salvific work of Jesus on the cross. But, it is equally true that our faith is demonstrated by our works.
I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. (James 2:18 MSG).
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust God. God knows what God is doing, and God will keep on doing it. (1 Peter 4:17-19 NIV/MSG)
Let a person examine themselves lest they take, so great a salvation for granted. Salvation is free to us. But, God and God’s Christ paid a hefty price for our salvation.
We were bought with a price. We are not our own. We belong to God and God’s Christ who redeemed us from the one who enslaved us to darkness, and the perversion of good and held us in terror of death, namely, the accuser of the people of God, day and night, the devil.
A reasonable response to such a good gift, as Jesus, is to present our lives, as a living sacrifice holy, set apart, and acceptable to God. Yes, this is our reasonable portion.
So Beloved in this season of preparing for the Arrival, the Advent of Jesus, then, now and again, we allow the word of the Lord to divide between the spirit and the soulish realm. To bring judgment, to discern between good and evil in our works and in our lives.
We prepare ourselves to be a good work and to do good works.
We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God ordained from the beginning.
So, we shun worthless accumulation of wealth and things. Instead, we give from our abundance to those who lack.
We are determined to earn a living working with our gifts, our hands and our heart and not to steal or embezzle, or cheat on our taxes, taking what does not belong to us.
And, we refuse to strong arm and brow-beat people into doing things our way for our gain, exhorting and lying to protect ill-gotten gain.
We live our lives, according to God’s sovereign rule. And, we do so with Joy because God has invited us into a kingdom of great benefits, God’s kingdom of goodness. God has invited us into God’s great salvation through faith in Jesus, God’s Christ.
Prayer
God, thank you for inviting us into the Beloved Community and Kingdom that you share with your son, our Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
We are so grateful. As evidence of our gratitude, we invite you into our hearts, our homes, our lives to discern, to judge to chastise anything in our motives, our behavior our actions, our works in the earth that contradicts the grace-filled rule of your kingdom and its Christ. If what we say is our faith contradicts our action, judge it, chastise us, that we may be whole and not walk through life crippled.
God, you have begun a good work in us, and you have promised you will complete it. So we surrender our lives to you.
Purify us oh, God, skim off the dross, so that our faith is tried, and it and our works are not wood, stubble, or hay, combustible in the fire of your discernment between what is good and what is evil.
Rather may our faith and our works remain, and be pure gold. We thank you in advance for your marvelous refining and with joy and thanksgiving say, “Let it be so.” Amen!