Tag: Embody the Gospel

Reading For Wisdom & Redemption In 2020

What books did you read in 2020 that you’d recommend? Here’s my Top 10 (& 20, &30, and more) for books that helped me make more sense of 2020, for redeeming it, and enjoying it.

The year 2020, for me started off in wonder, anticipation and joy. The first eight weeks included preparation for and the experience of the visiting Y’s and sacred sites in the Holy Land with the YMCA OnPrinciple cohort.

Upon returning, the rumblings of the COVID pandemic could no longer be ignored, and within weeks we were in lockdown, quarantined at home, facing unprecedented uncertainties.

My vocation, my work with the YMCA, and my family situation gave me strategic time to read. Three themes intersected: how to strengthen the Christian presence of the YMCA, how to do this in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) reality with the pandemic and economic disruption, amidst resurgence of overdue racial inequity protests across the country. All this hardship exacerbated by the outrageous, slanderous, inflammatory politic rhetoric by irresponsible power-mongers.

How did we get here, what is next? Christianly? Racially? Politically? Morally? Economically? Religious & Spiritually? For the YMCA? For the Church?

Based on material I had been reading for years, and shaped by timely recommendations of trusted friends, here is my reading list for 2020, in my striving to gain wisdom and nurture redemption in our chaotic, dangerous, yet beautiful world.

I’d be glad for more recommendations of what to read in 2021.

Tim’s 2020 Top Ten Books


( * = unfinished / + = reread portions annually)

God’s Gamble, by Gil Bailie

Revolutionary theology integrating Christian reflections of Rene Girard for our culture and mimetic realities.

Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman

Raw, candid, wise, hopeful meditations by a black preacher for his black congregation, a world leader writing out how to survive as a black Christian in early 20th century America.

The Protestant Era, by Paul Tillich

What’s going on with the withering of Protestant Christianity in America? Tillich asks tough questions, he digs deep into the beliefs and practices which are shaping our seeming decline.

New Creation As Metropolis, by Gibson Winter

A hopeful and grounded vision of how Christians in the church can be participants in the flourishing of their community.

A Better Hope, by Stanley Hauerwas

Provocative; a unique, refreshing yet disturbing take on how Christians can embody our Lord Jesus in the dark realities of this American culture.

Christianity and Power Politics, by Reinhold Niebuhr

Brilliant insights of the early 20th century that still resonate today for how Christians leverage their power for the gospel and their community. Shaped by the horrors of the Great War and emerging Nazism, this is crucial content that needs to be re-engaged and adapted for us now.

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

Poetic, empathetic, brutally honest, searching, yearning, wounded; a hard look at reality for a talented black man in a Christian country.

Go Set A Watchman, by Harper Lee

It’s connected with the storyline of To Kill A Mockingbird, but it stands on its own. A fascinating yet rough read, if you let it be, for upending assumptions and opening up disturbing realities about oneself.

Roots, by Alex Haley

I’ll never be the same. Literal tears stain the pages of my book.

The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan

A history for which I know to little, and from what I do think I know, I now know reality is much more complex, painful, and yet hopeful. A genuinely unique story, and a very good one.

Bonus (& reread): The Source, James Michener

My third time reading it, this time to prepare for my trip to the Holy Land again, this tine with the YMCA. The storyline, the scope of the ages, the humanity, the cultures – while there is much to critique, it does provide a humbling yet awe inspiring take on our humanity, our faith, and our future.

Out of the 60+ books I read this year (or reread, or started, finished, or read partially) here’s the second half of the top twenty:

Strategic Doing, by Ed Morrison – practical system for community collaboration, especially in a VUCA world; rich, thoughtful, humane, successful content.

Letters from the Desert, by Carlos Caretto – spiritual reflections from a real man in the real world, with a European perspective in the north African wilderness.

*A Palestinian Cry for Reconciliation, by Naim Stifan Ateek – passionate liberation theology of Christian leaders striving against impossible odds to do God’s will with love towards their enemies and justice for all.

The Death of Race, by Brian Bantum – the personal and probing theologizing opens up for me ways that race and Christianity are intimately intertwined in America, of ways forward, in Christ.

*The Kingdom of God in America, by Reinhold Niebuhr – a step back into time, when American Christian theologians work with the Church Fathers, Greek philosophers, European theologians, to address our pragmatic US political and religious culture, shaped deeply by the Great War, the Great Depression, and the aftershocks of the Enlightenment- which is still the case in 2020, just more complicated.

*Christianity and Civilisation, by Emil Brunner – a fresh, rejuvenating European take on ways Christendom has shaped our world, and how to move forward; a fan of the YMCA and one who eloquently writes out the implicit beliefs of the Y.

*The End of History and The Last Man, by Franics Fukuyama – still relevant, still insightful, still necessary reading to make sense of 2020.

Be The Bridge, by Latasha Morrison – a crucial Christian contribution to the personal and cultural work of racial reconciliation; it is personal, practical, hopeful.

*For The Life of the World, by Alexander Schnemamm – an American Russian Orthodox priest and professor making accessible the beauty and compelling theotic reality of the Eucharist for life in American culture.

The Great Bridge, by David McCullough – gritty story of genius and corrupt New York characters building the enduring Brooklyn Bridge. A great tale of greatness in early American civilization.

Bonus: The Evening and the Morning, by Ken Follett – I love these tales of cathedrals, the loving attention to detail of the structures, the history, and the people who you grow to admire, root for, and hate. This prequel was unexpected, and a pure delight.

For the final set of the top thirty:

Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now, by Maya Angelou

+The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr

+The Wisdom of the Enneagram, by Russ Hudson and Don Riso

+Mortal Beauty, God’s Grace, poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Mother Jones, by Judith Pinkerton Josephson

+Strength to Love, by MLKJr

+Voices, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A Spirituality of Fundraising, by Henri Nouwen

*From Beiruit To Jerusalem, by Thomas Friedman

*Jerusalem: A Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Bonus: Faith for Living, by Lewis Mumford

Other Books I Enjoyed Reading in 2020:

*Social Ethics and the Return to Cosmology: A Study of Gibson Winter by Moni McIntyre

*From Land to Lands, by Munther Isaac

+I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightening, by Rene Girard

*Love Does, by Bob Goff

+What Are People For, by Wendell Berry

Militia Christi, by Adolf Von Harnack

*Faith on Earth, by H. Richard Niebuhr

*Hermeneutics and Criticism, by Friedrich Schleiermacher

In The Name of Sanity, by Lewis Mumford

*Reason for Being, by Jacques Ellul

The Christian Intellectual; Fools for Christ, by Jaroslav Pelikan

*Character of Community, by Stanley Hauerwas

*Social Sources of Denominations; The Irony of American History, by Reinhold Niebuhr

*Political Order and Political Decay, by Francis Fukuyama

*The Fire This Time, by Jesmyn Ward

*Gilkey on Tillich; *Naming the Whirlwind, by Langdon Gilkey

*Sacred Rhythms, by Ruth Haley Barton

+Seasons of Life; +Guilt and Grace; +The Healing of Persons, by Dr. Paul Tournier

What We Talk About When We Talk About God; Drops Like Stars, by Rob Bell

*Spirituality, a Very Short Introduction, by Philip Sheldrake

Canoeing the Mountains, by Tod Bolsinger

*Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

*Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

+The Divine Hours: Autumn Edition & Christmastide, by Phyllis Tickle

+Works of Love, by Soren Kierkegaard

FICTION

Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith

*Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

a dozen Jack Reacher novels, by Lee Childs

a half-dozen Sherlock Holmes short stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

*The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

*1984, by George Orwell

*The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Doestevsky

#CHRISTISNOWHERE – When Will King Jesus Return To Make Everything Alright? Third Sunday of Advent Sermon

“For as the earth brings forth it’s bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

What a beautiful and compelling vision of the future.

For Israel, righteous justice and joyful praise was most definitely not sprouting among the empires of the world.

It seemed as if God was no where – not in the temple, not on the throne, and not amongst the people.

Though Israel knew they had sinned against the LORD and broken their covenant, they wondered when the punishment would end.

It seemed that returning to Jerusalem and rebuilding their life in the Promised Land was the beginning of a new era with God.

But now a new empire was directing the affairs of the nations, and injustice and sorrow marred the gardens and cities.

Which is why Isaiah’s sermon resonated so deeply with Israel.

When would righteous justice flourish – not only in Israel, but also in the surrounding nations?

How long, O Lord, until all the peoples of the earth praised you instead of their idols?

Isaiah reminds Israel who it is they worship, of how great and good is their LORD.

He announces to them that the Spirit of the LORD God will descend upon an anointed servant who will come to Israel.

This anointed servant will preach good news to the poor and heal the brokenhearted.

The LORD God will send his servant to proclaim liberty to the captives and the Jubilee year of the Lord.

The LORD God will have his day of vengeance, and God will comfort all who mourn, giving them beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

If Israel is a garden, the LORD will plant righteousness that the people may be called oaks of justice.

And through this rebuilding and replanting, Israel shall rejoice and God will be glorified.

Through the LORD’s faithfulness, he will make an everlasting covenant with a people who are continually unfaithful to him; BUT, the Lord God will direct their work in truth.

Through what the faithful LORD God does with unfaithful Israel will result in all the world acknowledge that surely Israel is blessed of God.

Isaiah is so sure of this planting, of these oaks of righteousness, of a world rejoicing at the justice and faithfulness of God in how he rebuilds Israel, that he declares himself already clothed in salvation, already putting on a robe of righteous justice, like a bride and groom all decked out in their finest beauty.

Isaiah is so confident in the LORD God, he believes with every bone in his body that justice and joy will spring forth before all the nations.

It will happen as sure as when the garden causes the things that are sown in it so spring forth.

Isaiah wrote to the people of God during the Advent of the First Christmas.

As the people of God, we are now reading Isaiah during the Advent of the Last Christmas.

We read of Isaiah’s confidence in the LORD God almost twenty five centuries later.

Sometimes it seems, on this side of that first Christmas that the robes of righteousness are wearing thin and the coats of salvation are getting threadbare.

We need Isaiah’s sermon now just as much as when Israel needed it then.

They were ready and waiting for the anointed King, their Messiah, their Christ to come and cause justice and joy to spring up from the parched earth.

But Israel crucified their king, cutting down the gardener with all the injustice and hate that we are all to familiar with still today.

God brought comfort to all the people of God who recognized Jesus to be the Son of God and the Son of David.

Through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God signaled his faithfulness to Israel while vindicating Jesus as the LORD and King of Israel and all the nations of the world.

But through the crucifixion and resurrection we also begin to see how the LORD is going to sow the seeds of righteous justice and joyful praise throughout the world.

He’s going to do it through the church scattered throughout the whole world. In every city of every nation there will be a gathering of men and women who are faithful to the LORD Jesus Christ.

Because of their confidence in the coming of the Lord to establish the kingdom of God, they live now in light of a future that may not come in their lifetime.

They rejoice always, praying constantly, giving thanks to God in all things, for they believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is both with them and coming again to reign upon the earth.

And when he does, the justice and joy that the church has been striving to sow in their community will become true of the whole world.

The justice and joy of the church will become seeds for that nation, and God will cause justice and joy to spring up from what was sown in that place.

Maybe you are having a hard time imagining what it will look like for justice and joy to spring up from the earth.

I want to show you a small three minute movie where you will see men springing up from the earth in justice and joy at Christmas time.

You may have already seen this chocolate commercial.

It’s a story known as the Christmas Truce and it took place exactly one hundred years ago this Christmas, during the first five months of the Great War, of what became known as World War One.

It helps to know a bit of history to appreciate the beauty of this compelling event. The first five months of the Great War was the worst warfare the world had ever seen.

The world had seen many horrific wars over the thousands of years of recorded history.

But none like this.

Prior to World War 1, great battles lasted one day, maybe three days. No battle had ever raged on everyday for a month.

When the battles started in August between Germany and the Allies, France expected the war to be over by the end of September.

So when December came and there was no end in sight of the war, the nations became gravely worried about the new world of chaos they were descending into.

Though the truce only lasted for a day, and though the war raged on to consume over twenty million lives in the next four years, there was a moment where justice and joy sprung up from the earth.

It’s a picture of what could have happened had the rulers and authorities turned away from their fear, pride, and greed.

That Christmas Truce was a brief picture of what the Last Christmas will be like, when the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up, conquering the dark powers and evil forces that enslave the nations in a kingdom of war and darkness.

You can see the video here:

WW1 Christmas Truce

We are not living in World War I, but we are still living in the aftershocks of it, one hundred years later.

You may not be living in the trenches, but you are living in a time where it seems like Christ is no where.

There is so much injustice in our nation.

There is so much loneliness and despair.

There is so much violence and death.

There is the every day grind of having to work with people who suck the joy out of the air; of living every day in pain or hardship or the constant struggle to survive with no end in sight.

Maybe it’s the nagging feeling that for all you have accomplished, there is still an emptiness that cannot be filled.

Maybe you need your own Christmas Truce: to rise up out of your trench and choose to rejoice in the LORD and believe that Christ is now here.

It’s important to note how Isaiah ends his poem: “As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

In your hardship, in your grief, in your sadness, in your difficulties, in your uncertainty, in your anxiety, in your sufferings: what are you sowing?

When the evil one seeks to sow bitterness and despair in your heart, do you join him in it?

When the devil speaks lies to you, do you add to them?

When evil strikes you, your family or friends, when death unfairly strikes down those you care about – do you let the shadows of death creep in and drain your life away in despair and anger?

Isaiah writes to Israel, reminding them that it is the Lord who causes righteousness and praise to spring up, but we must sow things into the garden in order for anything to spring up.

There will always be death in this world, but are you sowing life?

There will always be injustice and wickedness, but are you sowing righteous justice and goodness?

There will always be sorrow and despair in our world, but are you sowing kindness and faithfulness anyway?

We plant and water, but it’s the LORD who makes it grow.

There is an old Israelite myth that if you wept over the seeds that you sowed in the spring, you would thus be able to rejoice as you reaped a bountiful harvest.

Sometimes it’s in pain that we continue our faithfulness, sometimes it’s with tears that we do the next right thing.

But we look to the coming of the LORD, whether in our lifetime or in the generations to come, and we believe that he will come and cause justice and joy to spring forth before all the nations from all the seeds that we sowed with our tears.

“In that year of the LORD, he will comfort all who mourn, giving them beauty for ashes;the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called oaks of righteousness, that He may be glorified.”

2020 Lectionary Reading for the Third Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 61v1-4, 8-11 / Psalm 126 / 1Thessalonians 5v16-24 / John 1v6-8, 19-28

#CHRISTISNOWHERE: What Does It Look Like For Jesus To Be Your King This Christmas? – Second Sermon of Advent

Sometimes it’s hard to see if Christ is at work in our world when it’s so full of sorrows, sickness, and suffering. Advent reminds us to keep the faith, that just as Christ came once to bring good news and hope, so he will come again to finish what he started.

Why do we need to prepare for Christmas with Advent?

Advent means “to come”; it implies waiting for the arrival of someone or something.

It can also be an impetus for preparation; much like the work we do around the house to decorate and clean for Christmas Day festivities.

Christians know that Christmas means much more then family and food, it is also about the bedrock of our faith.

But what, exactly, does Christmas and Advent have to reveal to us about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

It helps to retell the story of Christmas – not just the one that starts in the Gospel according to Matthew or Luke, but the one that we discover in the sermons of the prophet Isaiah, or the stories of King David in books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. And even further back to Joshua and Moses, Abraham and even Adam.

Matthew and Luke give all sorts of obvious cues that we need to know the OT stories to make sense of the Christmas story – the genealogies kind of give it away!

Each gospel-writer also makes it clear that Jesus is to rule over Israel as a descendant of King David, that he will sit on the throne of the twelve tribes of Jacob and his reign will never end. If this identity of Jesus as King is central to our understanding the Christmas story, then how did Jesus become King at Christmas?

Delving into the story of Jesus will help us discern how Jesus can be the king of our Christmas.

There is a very interesting story in 1 Samuel 8, where the elders of Israel reject God as their king and demand for the Lord to provide for them a human king, like all the other nations, to lead their people into battle when attacked by their enemies.

God’s kingship hadn’t been overt over Israel, like having a human king would be. God was the king they couldn’t see, but he was the most powerful king in all the universe.

And they would rather have a limited human king they could see then an almighty king they can’t see.

How long had God been the king of Israel? When did it happen? Why did they rejected him?

For a few hundred years God had been appointing judges to rule over the tribes of Israel.

These judges were his representatives, servants of the king, so to speak, to dispense justice and deliver the tribes from the surrounding enemy nations.

Over the centuries the judges became more corrupt and the people often did what was right in their own eyes.

At the end of the story comes Samson, the worst of the judges, and then Samuel, the best.

But Samuel’s sons were completely unfit for judging, they took bribes and abused their priestly duties in the tabernacle.

It was Samuel’s sons that the elders were rejecting, but they were also rejecting God’s judges, and thus rejecting God as their king.

God was the one that had delivered the twelve tribes from slavery in Egypt.

There God had a showdown with the king of Pharaoh, who considered himself a god. God won the duel with Pharaoh, establishing himself as a more powerful god and king.

His people were released to go worship God in the wilderness, and there God made a covenant with his people, much like a king covenants with the subjects of his kingdom.

Prior to God’s people becoming enslaved in Egypt, they had been the descendants of the powerfully wealthy and blessed patriarch Abraham.

God had appeared to the Abraham, calling him out of Ur and promising to bless him with land and descendants, a nation and kingdom through whom God would bless the world.

Abraham believed God, and he followed the call and did become a blessing. Though Abraham reigned as a king in his portion of the promised land, it was clearly God who was the one with the authority and power, making him the ultimate king over Abraham.

But Abraham wasn’t the first man whom God called to serve as a king on the earth on his behalf.

We read in the book of beginnings, Genesis, of God calling Adam and Eve to serve together as his kings and priests in the world, ruling with goodness and blessing in God’s name, for the flourishing of all creation.

From the beginning, God’s relation to humanity was like that of a king and citizens of his kingdom.

But we know how the story still goes, the citizens rebel and reject their God and king, again, and again, and again.

Sometimes because of envy or jealousy, other times because of pride and ambition.

But it also happens because we are incited to sin, we become deceived with half-truths and are led to doubt and mistrust God as king.

That’s what happened with Adam. And it’s what happened with the people of Israel towards God and Moses.

It’s what happened with the twelve tribes and the God-appointed judges.

When the elders of Israel rejected Samuel’s sons as judges and God as their king, the Lord was used to this pattern of rejection.

But, because of God’s covenant with Israel, he was going to stay faithful to them no matter how unfaithful they became.

But the covenant relationship bound Israel to their God, thus faithfulness resulted in blessings and unfaithfulness resulted in curses.

God warned the elders of Israel that if they rejected God as king and followed a human king, they would still come to the same fate: their covenant unfaithfulness will destroy them.

The elders went with a human king, and God worked with the kings to ensure that they still kept the covenant.

The first king was a flop, but the second king, David, and his son Solomon, were two of the best kings Israel ever had.

During their reign, Israel seemed to be fulfilling the promise to Abraham: the nations were being blessed by the justice and wisdom of the kings.

But then David and Solomon were enticed to sin, to commit adultery, to murder, to enslave, and for Solomon to fall into idolatry.

Injustice descended upon the royal families, and the human kings of Israel were no better then the judges who had ruled earlier.

God sent prophets to the royal and priestly families, warning them to turn away from their idols and return to serving and worshipping only God.

God warned them that their injustice, immorality and idolatry would result in them becoming defenseless against the Assyrians and Babylonian empires.

The kings and priests of Israel were sent into exile for 70 years for their sins.

Eventually some of the ruling and priestly families were able to return and rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

Though they came home, they had no king, there was no one on the throne, and they were not able to rule their own land as they saw fit.

And so the laments and groans continued, the cries increased in intensity: O Lord, turn your face to us, come and save us! Send us a king, like you promised, that our land and people may flourish! Restore us and the land!

The lectionary readings of last week focused on these cries for deliverance while they waited in continued exile.

The lectionary readings for this week, though, point to God’s call to his people to prepare for his coming! Good news! Behold, your God shall come to you! Prepare the way with righteous justice! You can hear the hopefulness in the words of Isaiah 40:1-11.

Notice the power of the words of the poem: “Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand!”

This is the gospel announcement of Christmas!

The prophet proclaims: you who bring good tidings!

This is what the shepherds heard from the angels. Good tidings, good news, the Gospel of the coming king to reign upon his throne, to end the exile and establish righteous justice and peace.

Believe the good news that the king is coming, that God himself will take up the throne of Israel again and rule in a new way!

This is what Jesus himself announces as he begins his ministry!

What had been announced to exile Israel at his birth was now being fulfilled, following his baptism by John the Baptist!

Today’s Gospel reading complements today’s first Scripture reading – Mark refers to this whole passage when he quotes it in the beginning of his gospel of Jesus the King of Israel.

What is Christmas?

It is the good news of the arrival of the king of the kingdom of Israel who are the people of God, set apart to be royal priests to bless the world through their righteous mercy and justice.

Isaiah was calling Israel to prepare for the coming of their God and king.

The angels did the same thing on the night of our dear Saviors birth, John announced it on the dusty hills of the flowing Jordan.

Jesus did it as he crossed over the hills of Galilee and the mountain of Jerusalem.

And it was the early Christians believed in as they looked for the ascended king of kings to return from the heavens and establish his kingdom on earth.

So how can we let Jesus be the king of our Christmas?

When we let the first Christmas prepare us for the last Christmas.

We are part of the same people of God, just as Israel was preparing for the Lord and King to come in power (which Jesus did, but not in the way they expected…), so we also as the people of God prepare for King Jesus to return and fully establish his kingdom on earth.

Like Israel, the Church looks for a day when righteousness will rain from the sky and truth shall spring up from the earth; when righteousness and peace kiss.

That is what the first and last Christmas are all about.

Don’t let this Christmas be only about nostalgia, or religious piety about that first Christmas.

Let the first Christmas, which was for Israel, reveal to you what the last Christmas will be about, which is for Israel.

The church is the people of God in-between the rejection of their Lord in the past, and their embrace of their Lord in the future.

The Lord is the God of Israel, and we Gentiles are adopted into the family of God through their rejection of their king and our allegiance to him. Jesus is the crucified king of Israel who was resurrected by the God of Israel, and he know reigns over the people of God at the right hand of the Lord Almighty.

That is the season in which we are celebrating Christmas.

So how can you prepare for the last Christmas through letting Jesus be king of this Christmas?

Pay attention.

It’s not hard to notice the injustice that swirls around us.

The temptation is to notice but not pay it attention.

It’s over there, it’s not my problem, I already have enough on my plate, I don’t want to get involved, etc.

But it’s paying attention to the wickedness in our world that makes us groan for deliverance, it’s what prompts our prayers for Hosanna and Maranatha.

But paying attention isn’t about fueling despair.

It’s about fueling faith: we believe that this wickedness will one day end, justice shall triumph over injustice some day – and we will prepare for that day by participating this day.

We believe that the good news which Isaiah preached and Jesus fulfilled is still at work today in our generation: the gospel of the kingdom of God is continually breaking into the world through the people of God, the church, the body of Christ, the students of King Jesus who imitate his ways and obey his commands.

The Psalm for today ends with these words: Righteousness will go before him, And shall make his footsteps our pathway.

Our righteousness prepares us for the return of the Lord.

The epistle for today out of 2Peter builds on this theme: the apostle writes that our holiness and godliness can actually speed the day of the return of the Lord.

Why would’t we want a kingdom of righteous justice to flourish in our world?

The wickedness is so prevalent and blatant, whether oversees or in our own cities, injustice and immorality reveal that there is massive idolatry.

Peter goes on to write that the Lord is putting off his return so that more people have time to repent, to turn way from their sins and turn towards his salvation.

Isn’t it ironic: the more unrighteous the church is, the longer the Lord tarries; the more righteous and just and holy the church becomes, the sooner he will return.

It might sound a bit odd to put it that way, but think about it: if you don’t really want justice to prevail on our earth, you don’t really want God to return, for when he does he will judge everyone according to their deeds.

If you really do want justice to prevail on our earth, then you are preparing yourself and our world for his return, and you are eager for his return.

How would you know that you are ready for God to return and establish justice upon the earth?

By doing your part to establish righteous justice in your world, in your church, in your workplace, in your home, in your heart.

You want Jesus to be king of your Christmas?

Then pay attention to the wickedness in our world.

Let the overwhelming evil that infects everything and everyone prompt you to get on your knees and thank God that he is rescuing you from it.

Hear the gospel and believe it: Jesus is King and he has come to establish the kingdom of God – through the church and through all those who will be loyal to him and do as he instructs for the flourishing of humanity, blessing the world with righteous justice and enduring peace.

The wickedness of the world can cause despair, but it can also prompt us to cry out for salvation.

Just like Israel in exile, so we, the church, today, hear the word of the Lord: Behold the Lord your God shall come with strength to rule! Turn away from your folly and turn towards the Lord!

Commit to holiness and godliness, mercy and truth, faithfulness and justice.

Idolatry is when you turn away from God and turn towards anything else besides God to give you guidance or protection, strength or help, blessing or deliverance.

Immorality is when you turn against God and do with yourself whatever you want, doing right in your own eyes; unrighteousness always leads to valuing self above others, which leads to using and abusing others for your own gain and preservation.

Your immorality is connected to your idolatry; whatever you worship you become, whatever you serve becomes your master, whatever you desire will demand your life.

Injustice is when you turn against your neighbor, it is the outcome of our immorality and idolatry.

Injustice had taken on embodied forms, becoming embedded in our governments and institutions of education, health, law, public works, science, art, and all else political and cultural.

It becomes a kingdom of darkness with a power all it’s own that transcends and yet it immanent throughout humanity.

But God has been at work to destroy the works of darkness through this kingdom King Jesus.

Though it may seem that the darkness of sin and death are prevailing, we believe in the gospel of the kingdom of God, that the light of the Son is shining through, that his goodness is overcoming evil, and that he is preparing the church, his people, for his return to the world, where he will restore all things.

We prepare for what only he can finish.

2020 Lectionary Reading for the Second Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 40-1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13, 2Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8