Between Advents

Sermons for the Lectionary, Year C, Advent through Eastertide

Bruce L. Taylor

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781666702514
  9781666702521
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666702538
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Between Advents continues Bruce Taylor's series of sermons for the Common Lectionary (Revised), offering theologically rich, sacramentally reflective, ecumenically compatible, and biblically centered proclamations for the Sundays and major feast days of Year C, from Advent through Eastertide. Included is an appendix, featuring a sermon preached in departure from the lectionary on the occasion of a high school baccalaureate service conducted shortly after the United States military invasion of Iraq. His strong commitment to Christian unity and deep appreciation of the heritage and contemporary relevance of the church and the importance of individual discipleship are a common thread in these sermons for the first half of the church year featuring Gospel readings from Luke. Included is a sampling of engaging story sermons, illustrating how this style of preaching can be used in lectionary-based preaching. Preachers and devotional readers alike will find Between Advents to be a valuable companion as they discover the profound beauty of sacramental worship through the course of the liturgical year and meditate on the Scripture passages commended for Christian worship in the lectionary cycle.

First Sunday of Advent

Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church, Sparks, Nevada

November 29, 2009

Jeremiah 33:14–16

1 Thessalonians 3:9–13

Luke 21:25–36

“Tomorrow, God”

“So what has it gotten you, this ‘good news’?” The voice came from the next cell. Raspy and mocking, it issued between fits of coughing and wheezing. The old man lifted his head slightly and drew his legs up close to his chest to preserve his warmth, which the cold stone floor had been sapping from his outstretched limbs. Somewhere, there was the sound of slowly dripping water. The jail was dank and smelled of human waste.

“He will not abandon me,” the old man replied to the taunt from behind the stone wall.

A raspy laugh answered his statement, but it quickly disappeared into another fit of coughing.

“Nor anyone who turns to him in faith,” the old man added.

To this, there came a snort from the next cell. “I heard him,” the raspy voice said after a few seconds. “That Jew who spoke down by their meeting place. What do they call it? ‘Synagogue,’ that’s it. I heard him. A lot of rubbish about the cross proving his point.” Another snort, which led to more coughing. When he recovered, he added, “They sent him packing, fair enough—talking about a king on a cross, indeed.” There was a thud. The man to whom the voice belonged had apparently been standing at the bars of his cell, and now had sat down on the hard floor. “Good news. Ha!” There was silence again, broken only by the sound of dripping water. Eventually, he asked, “What are you called?”

“Jason,” the old man replied, his chin resting on his knees and his arms wrapped around his legs. “Some know me now as a follower of Jesus.”

“Jesus, yes, that’s the name that little Jew called him,” the other man said with a slight chuckle. “The Christ, he said he was—the anointed one, whatever that means.”

“It has to do with the Hebrew scriptures,” the old man informed him. “He’s the one the prophets of the Jews said would come.”

“Bah,” the voice from the other cell uttered.

“The Lord,” the old man added.

“Have a care,” the raspy voice replied. “Talk like that’s what got you in here. So the guard told me. And not the first time.”

“Friends put up my bail the first time,” the old man admitted. “Then I was arrested again after some ruffians disrupted our worship.”

“Worship of what? The Jewish God?”

“Yes, Jesus’ Father—the God to whom Jesus prayed.”

“You people are daft,” the other man said. “Didn’t learn your lesson the first time?”

“The truth is the truth,” the old man responded. “My being threatened with arrest or not doesn’t change that.”

“The truth is that the world belongs to the emperor, and he’s not interested in sharing it with your ‘king.’” Now that the man had a theme, his cough was less persistent. “And what kind of a king wastes his time in a place like Palestine? And dies on a cross? From what I heard, he died like a criminal. Gods don’t die. And kings don’t die on a cross.”

“Oh, he’s not dead,” the old man answered. “He’s alive. He’s here with me now.”

“With you now? Sharing a jail cell with you? I hear no other voice. I saw you when they brought you in here. You’re alone, my insane friend, you’re quite alone.”

Now the old man laughed softly. “Quite the contrary,” he said in a low voice, not to convince the other man, and with a smile that the other man could not see. “And it’s not the first time he’s been in a jail cell.”

“If someone bailed me out of here, I wouldn’t go looking to be thrown back in again. That just proves how insane you are!”

“One day,” the old man said, “none of this will be regarded as the disgrace the authorities intend. Even now, I count it a privilege.”

There was an immediate burst of incredulous laughter that quickly gave way to another fit of coughing, then more laughter. “Rotting in jail a privilege? Being arrested ‘good news’? What has this God of yours done to your sense of values? Surely no one else in Thessalonica would think being in this stinking hole is an honor!”

“Being in jail, no. Being in jail because of him, yes. And his being with me here, definitely.”

“You’d do better with a God who’s strong enough to break these bars and show you the privilege of breathing clean air again, and not worrying about rats nibbling at your toes in the night.”

“Whether out there or in here, I am equally free,” the old man said. “And the fact that these things are happening only m...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• “Tomorrow, God”
• “Whose Heart Will Be the First?”
• “Believing Is Seeing”
• “God’s Revolution Has Begun”
• “The Littlest Shepherd”
• “Between Advents”
• “Who Is Lying in Your Manger?”
• “The Most Natural Thing”
• “The Word beyond Words”
• “When the Light Shines”
• “‘You Are Mine’”
• “A Sign of Things to Come”
• “‘Today, in Your Hearing’”
• “The School for Loving”
• “A Letter Home”
• “Strong Stuff, This Good News”
• “Like Parent, Like Child”
• “On to the Cross”
• “The Christian Nation”
• “Living in Sin, Living by Grace”
• “Beyond Touch and Sight”
• “Water for the Spirit, Bread for the Soul”
• “Return from a Far Country”
• “What Are You Giving Up for Lent?”
• “Conversation in a Workshop”
• “What We Do Here”
• “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
• “God’s Flower Has Shattered the Stone”
• “Whom Do You Seek?”
• “Stubborn Faith”
• “On the Other Side of Healing”
• “Nothing Will Ever Be Quite the Same”
• “Revelation”
• “Water of Life”
• “Witnesses of Hope”
• “Real Life”
• Appendix
• “Peace . . . Our Hope for the Future”
• List of Sources Cited