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The Gospel of Matthew Bible Studies
The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
The Book of Acts Bible Studies
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
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1st Sunday Advent (C) Grace and peace be with you from Jesus Christ, our coming Savior and Lord. Amen! This past week Carol and I watched a wonderful movie on our Blu-Ray disk player – Disney’s Pixar movie “UP”. “UP” begins by showing how two children, Carl and Ellie, are both enraptured by the adventures of a famous explorer – who had discovered a “lost world” in South America called Paradise Falls. Carl and Ellie meet each other and quickly find out that they share a common passion for adventure. They promise each other that some day, they will go to this “lost world” of Paradise Falls together – “cross their hearts”. As the years go by, Carl and Ellie end up getting married – buying and fixing up their old “explorer clubhouse”, and making plans of how they someday will actually get to go to Paradise Falls. They even start a coin jar fund to save up for their journey. But through the years all kinds of life-situations keep on intervening – and as the years and then decades pass by, it becomes more and more apparent that their dream just isn’t going to happen. Finally, Ellie dies and Carl is left alone as a bitter and totally disillusioned old man. And THAT is when his adventure finally begins! One day a “Wilderness Explorer” scout – a ten year-old or so kid named Russell – shows up at his door, seeking Carl’s help for earning an “Assisting the elderly” badge. Crotchety Carl at first doesn’t want anything to do with this kid, but something about Russell’s enthusiasm awakens his own desire for adventure! And a few days later when he was about to be put into a retirement home, Carl comes up with a crazy idea of blowing up thousands of helium balloons in order to lift up his house and fly it to Paradise Falls in South America! Which he does! (And, as you might imagine for a crazy plot like this – little Russell just happened to be on the porch when the house lifted off, and so he also becomes part of the adventure.) I won’t go into any more details about this movie, except to say that Carl and Russell DO arrive at Paradise Falls and end up having many, many wonderful and fantastic adventures together! But this movie started me thinking about the theme for his first Sunday in Advent. Advent and adventure go together – in fact, the words are related! Like Carl and Ellie, we as God’s people dream about and look forward to a wonderful journey – not to “Paradise Falls” in South America, but to PARADISE itself – the kingdom of God! What an adventure it will be to finally be there and fully experience God’s love, and peace, and joy! But as we know, PARADISE is far away. I don’t necessarily mean “Paradise” as a place, but as a state of existence that we never seem to attain. We want to know God and fully feel his loving presence in our lives, but we never seem to get “there”. Instead, as we go through life, we keep on encountering disappointments and trials again and again – such as illness, financial worries, relationship problems, and even (as in the movie) the death of a loved one. And after awhile, we may begin to lose hope and become bitter and disillusioned, just like Carl did in the movie. Such was the situation in today’s first reading from Jeremiah. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, were advancing on the holy city of Jerusalem. Soon Jerusalem would be surrounded and under siege. Soon the streets of Jerusalem would be filled with the corpses of her people. Up until this point, the people of Jerusalem had believed that they were especially loved and favored by God – and that for the sake of his house, the Temple, their city would never be destroyed. But now it was obvious that their belief was wrong and that Jerusalem was doomed. And as you can imagine, the people were bitter and totally disillusioned. And yet, in the midst of this coming catastrophe, Jeremiah speaks words of hope. “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.” (Jer. 33:14-16a) A righteous Branch will spring up from the line of David. A similar image is found in Isaiah 11:1 – “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The image is one of HOPE and UNEXPECTED JOY: new life springing up from what looks like a dead stump. Even though Jerusalem is about to be destroyed and the people led off into exile, God will somehow bring life out of death. A branch will sprout. So it is with us. In the midst of hopelessness, disillusionment, and despair in our world – and perhaps even in our lives, we proclaim that the promises of God will be fulfilled. We will get to Paradise – or to say it more accurately, God will bring Paradise to us. Someday, despite all the evidence to the contrary, God’s reign will be complete throughout our world – and we will all know his love, and peace, and joy in a way that will never end. This hope is the ADVENTURE of Advent! Like it was for Carl Fredrickson in the movie, like it was for the people of Judah in today’s first reading, hope will erupt from even the most hopeless of circumstances. “A righteous Branch will spring up.” It may not have happened yet. But it will. Through Jesus, God’s kingdom will come into our world and into our lives. And for now we wait, not with fear and disillusionment – but with expectation and joy. The ADVENTURE of Advent! Thanks be to God! Amen! -------------------- Pastor George Karres 418 W. Main St. Sidney, MT 59270
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