GOD INTERRUPTS
As I read these verses from the prophet
Jeremiah in 33:14-16, I keep hearing the word promise. The prophets
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, writers of the Psalms, and even Moses tell of a
promise; the promise of a deliverer. I am convinced that Advent is really all
about God’s fulfillment of a promise; a promise not only made to the Jewish
people, but you and me, and to all of his people wherever they are found.
And then, maybe
we can look at Advent in another way, as an interruption of the routines of
people’s lives. Have you ever wished for something to happen in your life, not
something bad, but just something to break the routine and the humdrum of daily
living? In Advent, the church celebrates a God who keeps promises, who cares
about his people, who wants to be with them, and puts into action his love. We
also celebrate a God who hears the cries of his people as he told Moses at the
burning bush. Moses’ routine life as a shepherd was interrupted by a God who
needed a messenger. So we celebrate a God who hears, intervenes, and
interrupts. That is our great hope. A God who searches us out, who loves us so
much that he cannot leave us alone; so he interrupts our lives, not only at
Bethlehem, but in many other times and places. Jesus Christ, whose advent we
celebrate in this season, is the great, loving, divine Interruption.
God, in his
incessant desire to be near us and to bring us to himself, from time to time
breaks into the life of the individual and into the life of the church. There
are times when the Holy Spirit is sent to disrupt our comfortable routines, to
give us new directions, convict us, and refresh our faith walk. This is called
revival. Revival starts within the hearts of people who see the need of
intervention and renewal. Revival starts with prayer. God can then come and
interrupt what we have been doing and how we have been thinking and replace it
with a new “Order of Worship.”
This is what
happened at the first Advent. Paul wrote in the letter to the Galatians in
chapter 4 that after 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, God
interrupted human hopelessness and
discouragement, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of
a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who are under the law, so
we might receive adoption as children.” When the fullness of time had come, God
intervened, and interrupted so that his people would have hope and
salvation.
So our lives,
which are closely regulated by the clock and the calendar, must realize that
here we are once again at the season of Advent. If you follow the church
calendar, you know that Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year. It is
the beginning because God in the fullness of time sent his Son, Jesus. God
stepped in and interrupted the flow of human history. God began, once again,
something new.
The Advent
season is proof that God is a God who loves us enough to interrupt our lives
and show us a better way-the only way. God interrupts in John 3:16, “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Here we are plodding down
our comfortable way of life, creatures of habit, and getting by on our own just
fine, we think. And then, in a place we do not expect, in a way we do not
expect, in God’s own time, God comes. God is born among us, as one of us, in a
form we do not expect. It happened in Bethlehem
When God’s grace intervenes in our
life, we must be prepared to receive it. “Surely the days are here when the
Lord will fulfill his promise.” Let this be the Advent in which God’s
interruption changes our life.
Rev. Tim McConnell, Long’s Chapel UMC ,
December 1, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment