Sermon Text, "Opening Advent Gifts":

In the name of Jesus.  Today, on the first day of Advent, Christians begin a holy pilgrimage which eventually leads to a day known as Good Friday, followed by, of course, Reality-Changing Sunday!    But America, today, is still recovering from what we call Black Friday. (Let me ask–don’t you think those names should flip-flop?  The day Jesus is crucified I feel is a black Friday.   Those eager to get up at dawn for incredible deals would want to call that day good Friday).  Anyway, any of you take advantage of a Black Friday sale?   How many of you have bought at least one Christmas present for somebody already?  Maybe even a stocking stuffer?   Well, I brought you folks a few presents.  Not for Christmas.  But a few gifts that I hope will prepare you a bit for your Advent journey.

First, I’ve got something known as Mexican jumping beans.   Now, how many of you know how to jump?  Let’s try it a bit.  Some of you were jumping on Thanksgiving when you heard it was time to eat.  Or time for pie or dessert.   Maybe you watched some football on Thanksgiving or even yesterday.   A lot of times, the players are so excited, they jump up and down as a team right before the game–or before the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth overtime of the UGA and Georgia Tech game.  🙂

So, let’s take a look at something I find incredible.  Mexican jumping beans.  Do you see their little legs?  You don’t?  I guess I don’t either.  But how do they do it then?  A mystery.  But they must be really happy beans, huh?  Because jumping is something do when people get really excited.  There is this gameshow on TV (still might be on) called the Price is Right, and when they call people’s name to “come on down” because they’re the next contestant, you should see these people.  They run down to the front and they’re jumping like these beans because they’re so happy that they get to play the game.

Well, kids, in one of my favorite Advent stories, we heard the story of 2 women, Mary and Elizabeth.  Mary was pregnant with—can you guess???_____  Jesus.  And Elizabeth was pregnant with—can you guess??? ____  John, who would be John the Baptist, who would prepare people for Jesus’ ministry.  Now the story tells us that as soon as Mary arrived at her cousin Elizabeth’s house, the baby inside Elizabeth leaped for joy—because it somehow knew Jesus was on the way!

In John 15 Jesus told us, “I’m telling you all these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy complete.”  Friends, that’s why I’m here today.   Because Jesus started a movement not of shame, guilt or rules. But of joy!  I want to be a part of a life called to joy!

For the second present today, I brought you a trap.  A mouse trap.  I feel sort of bad using traps at my house.  But for a couple of years, carpenter bees have chewed up the eves in the back of my house.  So, whether bee traps, mouse traps, or ant traps, we’ve used them.   My neighbor used a pretty big cage for an armadillo trap.

In our gospel today, Jesus talks about a much more potent trap.  A trap that’s designed for YOU!  A trap that is designed to suck the joy out of our Advent and Christmas season.  Let’s me read again what Jesus instructs in verse 34:

³⁴ “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, ³⁵ like a trap.”

In verse 34, Jesus warns us that one of the dangerous tricks this world can use to trap us is . . .  Worry.   Anyone here ever worry from time to time?    You don’t have to live too long to realize there are all kinds of worries in life.  Worries about money, our weight or looks, what other people will think.  But Jesus says, “be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with worry, like a trap.”  If we’re weighed down, we can’t jump like Mexican jumping beans, can we?  We can’t leap for joy like little John in his momma’s belly, who is excited for Jesus’ arrival.  We might not be able to open our arms to the hope, renewal, and joy the Lord wants to offer us.

We need to help each other with our worry-management.  “Worry, worry go away, come again some other day.”  Actually, how about worry NEVER comes back, right?

You’ve heard me share before a worry-management story that has really helped me over the years.  It’s from a story of a man who hospitably invites a new worker from his company over to his home for supper that night.   They drive home together.  Get out of the truck and start making their way up the walk to the back door.  A few steps into the walk, the host pauses a moment, puts both hands on a low hanging limb of a tree, and closes his eyes for about 7 or 8 seconds.   Then he starts walking again toward the house.   His co-worker has to ask:  what was that all about? His new friend responds, “well, years ago I was bringing way too much worry into my house after every shift.   And my worries weighed me down.  They got in the way of how I enjoyed my dinner, and especially with how I interacted with my wife and kids.  So, I decided to leave my worries out here on this branch. I physically touch the tree and imagine me dumping them on the branch.  And I told God that when I walk out each morning, if there are some worries or issues God wants to give to me to handle at the beginning of the morning, I’d be happy to pick them back up on the way out.  But funny thing is, there is rarely a morning when there are as many worries to pick up in the morning as when I placed down the night before.”

Ah.  Yep, Jesus advises his followers shouldn’t worry so much.    It gets in the way of the joy and life he wants us to experience.  It’s my kids who have actually taught me some breathing exercises or breathing prayers.   Would you like to try one with me?  Ok, get ready to inhale and exhale 3 times.   Inhale God’s grace. Exhale worry.  Inhale God’s assurance. Exhale worry. Inhale God’s peace. Exhale worry. Amen.  Isn’t that cool we can do that in the car, at work, doing the dishes or falling asleep.

Finally, when it comes to worry-management, a key strategy is our spiritual diet, so to speak.  If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then a promise of God a day helps keep the worry away.   Are we reading God’s word each day?  The songs, the insights of God and God’s people?  This Wednesday, we kick off another multi-dimensional Advent calendar.  Several times a week, you’ll receive via email, a chance to open a new Advent calendar window, so to speak.   Maybe a reflection, maybe a song—but some encouraging God offering that will certainly feed the wonder and not the worry of your soul and mind!

OK, if Mexican jumping beans can remind us of John the Baptist and the joy of the season, and if traps can remind us of Jesus’ warning about the worries of this season, how about we open a third gift?  A magnifying glass.  Why?  Well, a favorite Advent story for many is found in Luke when we hear Mary tell Elizabeth, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”

What does your soul magnify? Have you heard the story of a church member—at a church far, far away of course, who loved to magnify not Jesus, but juice.  Juicy gossip.  Mildred, the church gossip and self-appointed arbiter of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business.  Several members were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. Mildred made a mistake, however, when she accused Jim, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon.

She commented to Jim and others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. Jim, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny.  He said nothing.  Later that evening, Jim quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house ......... and left it there all night.

What does your soul magnify?  What did Mary magnify?  Did Mary the deficiencies of others such as Joseph’s sketchy travel plans or the innkeeper’s intolerance. No, Mary didn’t complain about those. Did Mary say, my soul magnifies life’s inequity! After all, God gave me a daunting mission and I’m going to face a lot of scandal.   No, it wasn’t that.  Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord!  For Mary knows what the world needs in her day and our day is someone who can be a light in the darkness.  Someone who wants to magnify not what is wrong, but what is right, namely that the Lord wants to come to be with us.  That in Advent we remember Jesus doesn’t choose to show up through the powerful in places like Jerusalem, Rome, or DC, but in everyday towns like Bethlehem and Fayette and Coweta counties to people like Mary and Joseph and you and me.

Let’s face it.  Each of our lives probably has a truck parked in front of something questionable, like old Mildred.  Each of our ministry teams here at church, each of our families, you and me--we all have room for improvement and renewal, right?  But what do we really want to magnify this season?  What a gift we each could be, if we were to make our driving goal that of Mary:  to magnify not ourselves, but the good news of grace, hope, light, kindness, vulnerability, meekness coming afresh into the world, through a little baby.

Well, how about that for an Advent kickoff? After turkey and football, to open some presents early.  Like jumping beans and John in the womb, let us leap for joy because the greatest gift is ours.  Like Jesus advises, let us not get trapped by the worries of life, but stay light to be ready and watchful for what God is up to these days, often in mysterious and surprising ways.  Like Mary, may our passion be to magnify not our own agendas, but magnify what the Lord is offering us afresh this season.

This Advent, let’s be ready!  In the name of One who is promised and coming, Jesus the Christ, Amen.

Bonus material that didn’t make final cut:

Talk about dissipation.    Had to look this up.  Squander.   Black Friday is fun.  Buying presents is fun.  BUT, don’t get carried away.   Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses as they say and squander your resources, or your time, or your talent, in activities or purposes that media tell us are long-lasting but our inner voices whisper differently.  “Dissipation” = “Squandering of one’s money, possession or resources.”   Have a great Christmas, but don’t max the credit cards that you’re weighed down with debt and weighed down w the worry that comes with it.   Know some people would like to share more with church, with other neat opportunities, but they share “well, I’m still dealing w some dissipation, when I squandered some opportunities in a reckless chapter of my life.”