Before the advent of television, baseball broadcasts depended on colorful announcers to captivate a listening audience. One of the best of these announcers was named Rosey Rowswell. Rowswell was the radio voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The star slugger with the Pirates at the time was Ralph Kiner. Rowswell got his audience to imagine a little old lady with an apartment window facing Forbes Field. Whenever Ralph Kiner would connect with a potential home run, Rowswell would yell, “Open the window, Aunt Minnie, here it comes!” Then, as the ball left the park, he would smash a light bulb near the microphone. (1)
Rosey Rowswell knew how to create excitement.
We ought to enter Advent with a level of excitement. It is a shame that Advent hymns tend to be slow and almost mournful. Sometimes I think that shopping malls do a better job of promoting this season of the year than houses of worship. That’s a pattern I would like to break. And so on this first Sunday in the Advent season, I want to shout with great enthusiasm, “Open the window, Aunt Minnie, here comes Advent!”
Children understand that kind of excitement. Just wait until Christmas gets a little closer. Some of them are already making list of things they want Santa to bring them.
Pastor John Jewell tells about a young boy a few years ago who at one of their Christmas Eve candlelight services expressed his excitement. Immediately after the benediction, this four year old broke out at the top of his lungs with, “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Jesus is born! Jesus is born! Let’s get going!”
It seems the boy’s parents had told the lad that he could not open his gifts until after the church service. Waiting was difficult for him, so just as soon as the service was over, he was thrilled that he could get on to the things that mattered most to him. (2) That lad didn’t understand the true meaning of Christmas, but he certainly caught its excitement. “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Jesus is born! Jesus is born! Let’s get going!”
The prophet Jeremiah understood that kind of excitement. He writes in our Old Testament lesson for today: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.’” Jeremiah is known to many students of the Bible as “the weeping prophet.” Often he was the purveyor of bad news. He gave bad news because he was a prophet of God and the people of Israel were living outside of God’s favor. Jeremiah knew the people’s sins and he knew of God’s justice. He knew that God would not protect the people of Israel from the consequences of their own bad choices forever. Israel had been unfaithful to the laws of the covenant and had forsaken God by building high altars to Baal. Some of them even offered up their children as a sacrifice to Baal. Consequently Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem by invaders from the North. He also prophesied that the nation of Israel would be faced with famine, be plundered and taken captive by foreigners who would exile them to a foreign land. That was not a popular message, as you might imagine. Jeremiah was persecuted for his prophecies. People don’t like to hear that their nation is under judgment by God. They didn’t like to hear it then. We don’t like to hear it now.
But Jeremiah spoke the truth, no matter how distasteful and everything he prophesied came true. The nation fell; the population was dispersed; the people were in despair. However, just when everything looked totally bleak and hopeless, God gave Jeremiah a new message. Jeremiah finally gets to tell his people good news. All is not lost. The exiles will come home. God is faithful to His promises. God will “make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line . . .” This was exciting news for the people. Open the door, Aunt Minnie, the children of Israel are coming home.
For Christians, this is, of course, a prophecy of Jesus he who “will do what is just and right in the land . . .” and by whose life and death Israel and Judah and all the peoples of the earth will be saved. This is the very heart of the Gospel message.
God always fulfills His promises. That’s the first thing we need to see this day. God always fulfills God’s promises. Jeremiah writes, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah . . .’”
Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War II. He was stripped of everything property, family, possessions. He had spent years researching and writing a book. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, his manuscript, which he had hidden in the lining of his coat, was taken away.
This was devastating to Frankl. He called it the loss of his “spiritual child.” He found himself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances his life was ultimately void of any meaning. He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.
In place of his own clothes Frankl inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber. Instead of the many pages of his manuscript which were now lost, he found in the pocket of his newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book. Only a single page of that prayer book remained yet on that page were words that turned Victor Frankl’s life around. That single page contained the most holy prayer of the Jews, the Shema Yisrael what Jesus called, the great commandments: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Was it a coincidence that a page such as this would find its way into Frankl’s seeking hands? He did not think so. He interpreted it as a sign of God’s faithfulness. Frankl sums up the meaning of his experience like this: “How should I have interpreted such a ‘coincidence’ other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?” (3)
That is the best way to interpret any experience: resolve to live your thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper. God is faithful. You can trust His promises.
Martin Luther King, Jr. trusted God’s promises. He, too, was a prophet of God speaking words of judgment to people who were blind to the sin of racial injustice. As a young pastor, King’s intent was not to be a civil rights activist. His intent was to be a shepherd to the flock that had called him to be their pastor. However, after Rosa Parks captured national attention by refusing to move to the back of the bus, the civil rights movement exploded in Montgomery, Alabama. And King was thrust into leadership almost without his consent. Immediately afterward, he was thrown in jail for driving only five miles over the speed limit, and he began receiving threatening phone calls.
Late one night, according to writer Philip Yancey, King sat in his kitchen, his wife and young daughter asleep in the next room. And he found himself wrestling and murmuring with God. He was unsettled, scared, angry, and he felt very distant from God. And then he found himself praying: “Lord, I think what I am doing is right. But I’m weak. I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage.” And at that point a moment of brutal honesty and need King heard a voice, the voice of God: “Martin, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you even until the end of the world.”
Yancey says it was the crystallizing moment of King’s life. “And even three nights later, when a bomb exploded on his front porch, Martin never forgot the power of those words, the reassurance of that Voice, a Voice that echoed again and again and again in his soul through all the dark days of his crusade. God had promised never to leave him, never alone, never to leave him alone.” (4)
It has been the anchor of every soul committed to the work of God through history: God always fulfills His promises. No matter how dark the night, no matter how harsh the critics, no matter how violent the enemy God will not forsake us. That is the first thing Jeremiah reminds the people of Israel. God will fulfill His promises.
But Jeremiah said something else. He prophesied the coming of the Messiah. Jeremiah wrote: “a righteous Branch [will] sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.”
Jeremiah undoubtedly believed in a messiah who would unite a divided nation and restore it to its former glory. He could not foresee that God had a much grander plan in mind. He could not foresee the manger in Bethlehem. He could not foresee the coming of one who would rise above nationalistic dreams and be the Savior not only of Judah but of the entire world.
Jeremiah knew that God was faithful. He knew that God had promised that, from the line of David there would come a Savior. However, he could not know that this Savior would come not as a conqueror but as one who would allow himself to be crucified on a cruel cross. He could not know that the Messiah would be a humble carpenter from Nazareth whose name would one day be held in reverence by people of every race and nation. He knew God would send a Messiah; he could not know this Messiah would be the kind of Messiah Jesus turned out to be.
Rev. Bill Hayes tells about an event that occurred several years ago when the community of Spencer, South Dakota was devastated by a tornado. Six people died in that tornado. Among the structures that were devastated was St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church.
The day after the tornado the pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church walked through the devastation. She writes that it was an unbelievable sight a grain elevator twisted and fallen, a water tower toppled, vehicles and other heavy items strewn around like toys, whole buildings gone from their foundations.
When she got near the site of the Church someone called out: “Look! There He is! There’s Jesus!”
“Sure enough,” this pastor writes, “there was the statue of Jesus that had stood at the altar of the Church. There it was a beacon to what had been the site of a 100-year-old congregation’s place of worship.” The pastor later wrote that it was so fitting to look up from the chaos around her and see Jesus arms outstretched, welcoming, and loving His people. She wondered how the statue had survived the devastation and later learned that two young girls, helping clean up for a family member in a nearby home had taken time to come over to where the Church had been and found the statue in the rubble. They decided that everyone in Spencer needed to see that Jesus was still there, so they stood him up for all to see. (5)
Those young girls were right. Whether times are good or bad, in times when things seem hopeful and times when they seem hopeless, people need to see Jesus. He is our hope. He is the Savior of the world.
You have heard me mention before the name Anne Lamott. Lamott is a Christian author, though somewhat unconventional in her approach to the faith. Perhaps for that reason, she is helping so many Christians rediscover their faith.
What you may not know is that Ann Lamott has a tattoo on her ankle I told you she was unconventional. The tattoo reads like this: “Trust the Captain, trust the crew.”
Lamott points out that those words are not her own. The phrase came from the title of an episode of The West Wing, the TV series from a few years ago.
The episode was about a U.S. submarine that was in trouble in North Korean waters. The president is faced with a dilemma. If he does nothing, their situation might deteriorate and lives would be lost. On the other hand, if he or any navy personnel were to radio the sub to gather more information, the boat and its crew would be discovered immediately by the North Koreans, not only putting their lives at risk, but also provoking an international incident, perhaps even sparking war.
Wrestling with this dilemma, the President finally decides that the best thing to do is to let the captain and the crew of the sub handle the crisis on their own. The President chooses to trust the captain, trust the crew.
Lamott latched onto the phrase because, as a Christian, she knows it is a marvelous statement about keeping faith in God and the Christian community. It resonates with her so well that she has “Trust the Captain, trust the crew,” tattooed on her ankle. (6)
Some of you have learned the same lesson. We can trust the Captain. He always keeps his promises. Among those promises is the promise that he will never forget us or forsake us. And we trust the crew. We are a family, the family of Christ. We begin this Advent season as one body, his body. That is reassuring to know. And that brings us to the final thing to be said: we need to spread the excitement.
This is an exciting time of the year. It’s very busy, I know, but it is exciting as well. Some of you will undoubtedly view the wonderful operetta, “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” this Advent season. Amahl, hearing the description of the Christ child, cries in joy, “For such a king I’ve been waiting all my life.” You and I have been waiting all our lives for such a king as well, even if we aren’t always aware of it. It is an exciting time of the year.
I hope you will use the Advent season as an opportunity to invite a friend to worship with you. The most powerful form of advertising any church can do is word of mouth. When people are excited about their faith, they spread that excitement to others. Are you excited? Do you have the same excitement as that little boy when he shouted, “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Jesus is born! Jesus is born! Let’s get going!”
Maybe you’re not quite that excited. At least maybe you will be just as determined to spread the good news of Christ as the two young girls who lifted up Christ after the storm swept through their town so that everyone could see their Savior.
God always keeps His promises. Jesus is the Savior of the world. That’s exciting. Watch out, Aunt Minnie, Christmas is coming!
1. Saul Wisnia with Dan Schlossberg, Wit and Wisdom of Baseball (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1999), p. 181.
2. http://www.lectionarysermons.com/ADV3-98.html
3. Cheryl A. Bourne, http://www.prinevillepc.org/Beyond_Suffering.pdf.
4. Soul Survivor (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 20-21.
5. Rev Bill’s Sermons, http://revbill.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/jeremiah-3314-16-luke-2125-36/.
6. Charles Grant, “Trust the Captain, Trust the Crew,” May 1, 2011. Cited by
Gregory Knox Jones, http://www.wpc.org/uploads/sermons/pdf/May8Jones2011.pdf.