12.11--Our Advent (Sermon on Isaiah 61:1-3 and Luke 4:14-21)

A week and a half ago, while I was still sleeping, millions of people around the nation were up and preparing for one of the scariest, one of the craziest, and one of the most unsettling events of the year: Black Friday.

Do we have any Black Friday shoppers here? Does anyone go out and brave the cold weather, early morning, and cutthroat competition on the morning after Thanksgiving? I can’t bring myself to do it for a couple reasons. The first is that I value my sleep too much to ever desecrate it by waking up so early. The second is that I spent many a Black Fridays growing up going out with my mom and waiting in the seemingly mile-long lines while she ran around and grabbed any- and everything she could find off of her Christmas list. I’ve earned my shopping stripes. I’m retired.

This year, though, one of my classmates woke up from his turkey nap at 10 pm to try and be one of the first in line at Best Buy. He had his heart set on a new TV for his family, and he was not going to let the deal pass. Unfortunately, he did not get there early enough to be among the first inside the store. He ended up waiting out in the cold in a line that wrapped around the building for almost 4 hours and then spent another hour inside the store. While he waited, he started talking with the people on either side of him. The gentleman ahead of him was there to purchase a new computer for his mom. The one behind him was there for a game system for his kids. As they talked, my friend heard more and more testimonies around him of shoppers who were there for the purpose of buying for others.

They waited, and waited, and waited, just so that they could make someone else happy.

12.4--Great Expectations (Sermon on Luke 1:5-25)

The story goes that Balaam, a priest and sorcerer of much renown, was on his way to thwart the Israelite king and his armies. Having been hired by the enemies of Israel, Balaam set out on his trusted donkey to the Jew’s encampment so that he might curse them and gain for his employers the upper hand. As he was traveling, God sent an angel, armed with a sword, to bar his way.

Now, Balaam, for all his prowess and priestliness, could not see this heavenly being standing so menacingly in front of him. If he had been unimpeded in his traveling, his life would have been cut rather short. Luckily for him, his trusted steed’s eyes were opened to the impending doom, and she stopped in place and would not move a step closer to the armed seraph. Balaam, who was oblivious to the danger, cursed his donkey and beat her. She moves slowly and carefully around the angel, and they continue on their way.

The story is not over, though. God moves his malicious messenger farther down the road. Again, the donkey sees what Balaam cannot. Again, the donkey stops short. And again, Balaam curses and beats her. Not the nicest guy, is he?

A third time God places his angel in Balaam’s path, but this time it is in a narrow gorge. The angel is taking up the entire path, and there’s no way for the Balaam-laden donkey to work herself around the heavenly barrier. When the donkey sees the angel, she stops and will not move, no matter how much Balaam beats her and curses her. Now, Balaam is not a patient man. He, a priest and sorcerer of great renown, is used to kings shriveling before his gaze. No one crosses him, and yet this donkey is getting the upper hand… or hoof… on him. He has had enough, and he is ready to strike this animal down for her incompetence. But as he prepares to kill her, God opens the donkey’s mouth and Balaam’s eyes and ears. She—the donkey—calls him out for being an ignorant jerk, and he, already wide-eyed at his donkey speaking, sees the angel waiting menacingly ahead of them.

He was completely caught off guard by the angel and the donkey.