“Worshipping Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)”
“Hear the Urgency of the Message” – Malachi 3:1-3, Luke 3:1-6
Advent highlights the power of hope and peace.
A friend and mentor passed away on November 19th. Tony Campolo changed my life with his focus on Jesus’ commitment to justice and the “least of these.” Tony Campolo wrote a book titled The Kingdom of God is a Party. In chapter one, he tells the story of a trip to Honolulu in the mid 1980’s. Having crossed far too many time zones from Philadelphia to Hawaii, he found himself awake and needing breakfast at 3:30am local time. He ended up in a greasy, dive of a place ordering a donut and a coffee.
While consuming this wholesome breakfast, eight or nine prostitutes walked in. The place was small. Campolo was surrounded and like most of us decided the best thing to do was to get out of there. Then he overheard one of them say, “Tomorrow is my birthday; I’ll be 39.” Somebody else teared into her. “So?? Whadya want me to do about it?? Want me to throw you a party, bake you a cake, sing “happy birthday???” The first shot back, “Come on! Why do you have to be so mean? I’m just telling you; you don’t have to put me down. I’ve never had a birthday party my whole life.”
If you know Tony Campolo, you probably have an idea what happened next. He hung around until they all left, then asked the guy who ran the place if those people came in every night. “They do”, the owner replied. So Campolo asked if he could throw that one prostitute a big birthday party that next night. Tony and the chef got excited about the idea and made all the arrangements. Campolo decorated the diner, the chef baked a cake, and the word went out on the street.
This is how Campolo describes the scene: “By 3:15am every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. It was wall-to-wall prostitutes… and me! At 3:30am on the dot, the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. I have everybody ready (after all, I was kind of the M.C. of the affair) and when they came in, we all screamed, “Happy birthday!” Never have I seen a person so flabbergasted … so stunned … so shaken. Her mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to one of the stools along the counter, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. As we came to the end of our singing with “happy birthday dear Agnes, happy birthday to you,” her eyes moistened. Then, when the cake was carried out with all the candles on it, she lost it and just openly cried.” She couldn’t blow out the candles. She couldn’t cut the cake. In fact, she was so overwhelmed that she asked if she could just keep the cake for a little while. The gruff chef said, “It’s your cake. Go ahead.”
And so, Agnes picked the cake up and carried it home as if it were the most precious thing imaginable. The crowd was stunned into silence. Not knowing what else to do, Campolo said; “what do you say we pray?” And he did. Tony prayed for Agnes, for her salvation, for God to turn her life around. At the end, the chef turned to him with a trace of hostility in his voice and said, “You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” Campolo replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30am in the morning.”[1]
Moving from an individualistic understanding and experience of God to one that places a higher value on the community experience of God requires a change of mind. San Francisco Theological Seminary Trustee, the Rev. Aimee Moiso writes, “The science of changing minds is complicated. We humans change our minds constantly — about what we want for dinner, whether to walk or drive, how much to spend. But we are also creatures of habit, and laziness can hold more sway than novelty. A deluge of facts will rarely shift our thinking, but a well-told story can transform our vision.”[2] The texts in Malachi and Luke tell a story of and speak to the change which can occur in the core of our being, because of God’s unconditional love for us and our love for God and others.
The community in Malachi’s day was facing a crisis centered on injustice. The immediate needs of shelter , food and safety faced the Jewish people. The 400-year period of the Jews from Malachi’s day to Jesus’ birth is known as the Deus absconditus, the absence of God. You see, it’s God’s love for us which motivates us to love that makes change possible and normal. During this 400 years the people of God felt abandoned. Abandonment became normalized, until the people realized that the coming Messiah would bring justice. Sandra Maria Van Opstal writes, “Normal is something that occurs naturally: a pattern for how things should be. Describing something as normal implies it is regular and natural not only for us but for the people around us as well. We use the word normal to describe not only what is but what should be natural for everyone. We are comforted by normal. We assimilate to normal. There is a lot of power in naming something as normative.”[3] And in Luke 3:1-6, John the Baptist begins to prepare the way of Jesus to bring justice as the birth narrative in chapters 1-2 indicates. The peace promised by God is good news even though there is a level of uneasiness in it. God loves us in and through change. But real change is a matter of core beliefs and actions, not appearances.[4]
Have you ever heard of this British product, “Spray-on-Mud?” Citing an article on the website guardian.co.uk in 2005,
Many products are designed to imitate the real thing. There is plastic decking that looks like real wood. Vinyl flooring that appears to be ceramic tile. What about a can of Spray-on Mud? Spray-on Mud is designed for use on the outside of your SUV. That way it appears you use your vehicle for more than taking the kids to soccer practice. Spray it on and friends might think you’ve just returned from a wilderness adventure. Sales of the product are going well, especially in London where the concept originated. “If they want an authentic look,” says inventor Colin Dowse, “There’s not a lot else they can do. There’s not a lot of mud in Chelsea.” Apparently, $15 a can seems a reasonable price for the appearance of authenticity.[5]
So, I often experience in my own life and see in others, expressions of imitation Christianity: good wishes mistaken for prayer, success misconstrued as spiritual achievement, inspirational bumper stickers and symbols seen as evangelism, excellent music cover for authentic worship of the heart, humorous or emotional stories pass for inspired preaching, Christian clichés handed out as biblical wisdom and an attractive personality mistaken for a Spirit-filled life.[6]
Friends, we need Jesus, the one who embodies God’s love and shows us the way to love God and others. Change is real when we embrace love, not judgment. We worship God in the light of the real Jesus not a “Spray-on Jesus.” Again, Sandra Maria Van Opstal writes, “As long as our worship makes people feel excluded or in constant visitor status, we are not accomplishing the ministry of biblical hospitality.”[7] Who is this welcoming, inclusive, and loving Jesus? Well, it’s not the “Spray-on…”
Political Party Republican Jesus, who is against tax increases and activist judges, for family values and owning firearms or the Political Party Democrat Jesus, who is against Wall Street and Wal-Mart, for reducing our carbon footprint and printing money.
Revolutionary Jesus, who teaches us to rebel against the status quo, stick it to the man, and blame things on “the system.”
Good Example Jesus, who shows you how to help people, change the planet, and become a better you.[8]
The welcoming, inclusive, and loving Jesus is…
the Son of the living God. God in the flesh; the one to establish God’s reign and rule; the one to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, freedom to the prisoners and proclaim Good News to the poor; the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
the Creator come to earth and the beginning of a New Creation.
the Christ predicted through the Prophets and prepared for through John the Baptist, not a reflection of the current mood or the projection of our own desires. He is our Lord and God.[9]
Jesus is calling you by name. When you respond to God’s calling, it is good news for the world. You then represent what a human can look and behave like as envisioned in God’s desire. Believe in Jesus Christ. Repent. Change is possible. Really! This is the good news of Advent. There is hope and peace in Jesus. Just ask Agnes. Amen!
This sermon was preached the Second Sunday of Advent on Sunday, 08 December 2024
by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary
at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright 2024
Steven M. Marsh
All rights reserved.
[1]Adapted from Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God is a Party (Dallas, Texas: WORD Publishing, 1990), 1-9.
[2]Aimee Moiso, “Changing Minds” in Saving Love & Tender Mercy: Daily Devotions For Advent 2018 (San Anselmo, California: SFTS on Sunday, December 9, 2018).
[3]Sandra Maria Van Opstal The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World, 39.
[4]The two paragraphs of exegesis above are informed by the writing of Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Alan Gregory, Kimberly L. Clayton, Theodore J. Wardlaw, Joel B. Green, and Willie James Jennings in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 17-19, 19-20, 21-22, 23-24, 25-27, 28-30, and 30-31.
[5]Taken from the PreachingToday.com website; Ian Sample, “Spray on Mud: The Ultimate Accessory for City 4×4 Drivers” (www.guardian.co.uk June 14, 2005).
[6]Ibid.
[7]Sandra Maria Van Opstal The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World, 63.
[8]Adapted from Kevin Young, “Who Do You Say That I Am?” from his DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed blog (posted June 10, 2009).
[9]Ibid.
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