+Points to ponder

1. Have you ever received an invitation you just wanted to ignore? Did you accept it or not?
2. What does this verse from Hebrews mean? - “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” – How is it applicable in your life?
3. How can our congregation better share God’s invitation for people to join His kingdom?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Almighty God, as Your kingdom dawns, turn us from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness, so that we may be ready to meet You in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Not all invitations are glorious! Not all invitations are what they appear to be.

Left to our own sinful ways, we would refuse to do what we consider is below us. The tempting lies of the devil can have us believe that we are what we are really not! As children of Adam and Eve, we desire to be like God. We seek after notoriety and wealth. We desire the praise of others. We covet pomp, power, prestige, and possessions. We sometimes believe Satan’s lies and see ourselves to be above all others.

“By college, Michelle [Akers] had become an All-American soccer star, earning ESPN's woman athlete of the year in 1985 – the same year the United States formed its first women's national team, with Michelle a starter.

In 1991 the U.S. team won the first-ever Women's World Cup and Michelle scored 10 goals in five games, including the championship's winner. She signed an endorsement deal and became the first woman soccer player to have a paid sponsor. She played professionally in Sweden. Michelle's drive and tenacity were beginning to pay off. She even tried out as the place kicker for the Dallas Cowboys: her longest attempt reached 52 yards.

But just as her star was rising, Michelle's health was declining. By 1993, the woman who used grit and determination to make life happen found her life unmanageable.

‘Each day I felt like I had flown to Europe with no food or sleep, then flown right back and trained for hours,’ Michelle says.

She suffered from Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), a debilitating disease affecting more than a million adult Americans. ‘When it was really bad, I couldn't sit up in a chair. The racking migraines stranded me at home, unable even to get up to brush my teeth or eat.’

For the first time, Michelle could no longer count on her old friends – strength and hard work. She had to find a new way to cope.

‘I couldn't bear not to be the best in the world, not to be the one who could bounce back from any injury,’ she says. ‘It was the only me I knew.’ When her marriage of four years broke up in 1994, Michelle had reached the end of herself.

‘I was so sick I couldn't take a five-minute walk without needing two days on the couch to recover. I was forced to spend a lot of time thinking about who I was. I didn't like what I saw.’

Michelle had [been titularly a Christian since] high-school but ignored God in college and after graduation. Now sick and alone, Michelle reluctantly accepted an invitation from a strength coach to attend his church ... Although she couldn't articulate it at the time, in retrospect Michelle says she knew she ‘needed to get things right with God.’

‘Looking back,’ she explains, ‘I think God was gently, patiently tapping me on the shoulder and [inviting me to follow Him] for years. But I continuously brushed him off, saying, 'Hey, I know what I am doing. I can make these decisions. Leave me alone.' Then I think He finally said, 'Okay,' crossed his arms and looked at me sadly – because He knew I was going to make a lot of mistakes by ignoring [His invitation]. He knew I would be hurting in the future.

‘It took total devastation before I would acquiesce and say, ‘Okay, God. You can have my life. Please, help me.’”

And so, we too have told God that we know what we are doing and have gladly accepted the devil’s invitation to join him in his make-believe kingdom: a kingdom built on shallow promises and selfish lies, a kingdom of the flesh catering to all our baser desires.

Repent. Confess the sins that you hid even from yourself, the delusions of your heart. Confess who you too often are: commandment breakers - full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; a gossiper, slanderer, God-hater, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Repent. The lies of the devil are never delivered as promised.

Through the voice of the Gospel, Beloved, hear and heed the invitation – the invitation to join Christ in His kingdom. Of course, not all invitations are glorious! Not all invitations are what they appear to be. As we just sang in the in the Advent candle lighting recitation:

Savior of the nations, come, Virgin’s Son, make here Your home! Marvel now, O heav’n and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth. (LSB 332:1)

When there was nothing, there was God the Holy Trinity. “The only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
Out of pure darkness, when there was yet nothing, the invitation came from the Father to His Son, an invitation to join Him in the creating of all things “visible and invisible.” An invitation to be the Word, the Word in which all things were made and without which nothing was made. Of course, not all invitations are glorious! Not all invitations are what they appear to be.

For in that loving and gracious speaking, in such creating, God the Holy Trinity was wholly vulnerable. The creation could turn against its creator. The self-giving love of the Holy Trinity could never coerce its creation, would never manipulate for self-satisfaction.

For when perfect creation fell into the abyss of darkness and night, the all-creating Word could do nothing but become incarnate among that which He had once made and spoken good. The perfect Word of creation, Jesus the Christ, became the Word made flesh. The Father’s invitation to come down among His sinful children was fully and completely embraced by the Son so that He might speak words of light and life into all the world.

In humility and truest love, the Son left His throne in heaven and joined Himself to Mary’s womb. Taking up flesh through the speaking of a word, the only-begotten Son of God was knitted inside the Virgin mother that He might be fully what He had once created.

The invitation to become one of us is the greatest miracle of God. Not only that He created all things, but that He would make Himself to be like us in every way – except for our sin – that He might speak us righteous.

For this Word made flesh spoke the very words of life. Healing disease, raising to life, forgiving sin, granting eternal life – all with a word. And, unlike the devil’s word, His word always does what it says. His Word restores and makes whole all that which was once sick and separated.

From the manger newborn light Shines in glory through the night. Darkness there no more resides; In this light faith now abides. (LSB 332:7)

Along with Lent, I think that Advent is the most contemplative of all Church seasons. Advent is an invitation. Not all invitations are glorious! Not all invitations are what they appear to be. The invitation to join Christ in His kingdom (no matter what the season) is an invitation to follow in His suffering and death. The Advent invitation is a call to take up our cross and daily follow Him. The Advent invitation at the same time calls us to share the Gospel to the very ends of the earth, to sow the seed that has been given, to work while it is still light.

“In Something Beautiful for God, longtime British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge tells how he met Mother Teresa while filming a BBC documentary about her work. He was completely captivated by her deep compassion for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta's slums. But he, an unbeliever, could not accept her faith. What especially kept him back was that he could not join the church, such an imperfect and flawed institution.

Once, while Mother Teresa visited London, she and Muggeridge took a walk, and Muggeridge reports, ‘I took up my well-prepared defensive position about the church, whose deficiencies, crumbling barricades, and woeful future prospects, I expatiated upon, with little effect.’

After she left London, she wrote Muggeridge a letter and enclosed a small devotional book. Here are excerpts from her letter, which are a model of how to share your faith lovingly:

‘I think I understand you better now. I don't know why, but you to me are like Nicodemus, and I'm sure the answer is the same: 'Unless you become a little child.' I'm sure you will understand beautifully everything if you would only become a little child in God's hands. Your longing for God is so deep, and yet He keeps Himself away from you. He must be forcing Himself to do so, because He loves you so much, as to give Jesus to die for you and for me. Christ is longing to be your food.

Surrounded with the fullness of living food, you allow yourself to starve. The personal love Christ has for you is infinite. The small difficulty you have regarding His church is finite. Overcome the finite with the infinite. Christ has created you because He wanted you. I know what you feel, terrible longing with dark emptiness, and yet He is the one in love with you.’

Apparently, Mother Teresa's love kept working on Muggeridge. Just 8 years before he died (in 1990), he finally overcame his objections and publicly joined the Christian church.”

Faith is the truest theme of Advent. Faith given by our heavenly Father, through the Word, that trusts the Word to deliver all that He promises. A faith that is like that which the author of Hebrews describes. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

For very soon, the invitation will come from the Father for the Son to come down again, not in new flesh, but in His crucified flesh now glorified. And on that great and glorious day, “every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” And then the invitation: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” The Word made flesh will be in our hearts and upon our lips for all eternity. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”