SPECIAL DAYS: Third Sunday in Advent

December 12, 1999

LESSONS: Isaiah 61.1-4, 8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5.16-24; John 1.6-8, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: The Cry of a Lonely Voice

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. An article in Homiletics magazine emphasized the ways in which some in the Christian Community are advertising(1)
     
    1. "Picture this:(2) A dark red poster covered with a black-inked image of a stern-faced, visionary and revolutionary Jesus, his forehead ringed with thorns.
       
      1. It's an image of Jesus recast, transformed, reformed and portrayed as 'the Latin American revolutionary leader Che Guevara created in order to challenge the image of Jesus as a 'guy in a white nightie with a halo.'
         
      2. The caption across the bottom of the poster reads, "MEEK. MILD. AS IF. Discover the real Jesus. Church. April 4.'
         
    2. "The God billboard campaign started last year when an anonymous person walked into the Smith Agency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and said, "I want to market God."
       
      1. He had the goal of showing God as a living God ... not as a historical God, stagnant in the Bible, but a God who loves and cares about people.
         
      2. The billboards were designed to promote God as the guy next door rather than the guy upstairs.

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  1. "As word about the Florida campaign spread, the idea caught on. Soon the Outdoor Advertising Agency of America made a commitment to put billboards across America. Here's a sample of what they say:
     
    1. --"Let's Meet At My House Sunday Before The Game--God."
       
    2. --"C'mon Over And Bring The Kids--God."
       
    3. --"We Need To Talk--God."
       
    4. --"Loved The Wedding, Invite Me To The Marriage--God."
       
    5. --"That 'Love Thy Neighbor Thing,' I Meant It--God."
       
    6. --"Need Directions?--God."
       
    7. --"You Think It's Hot Here?--God."
       
    8. --"Tell The Kids I Love Them--God."
       
    9. --"Need A Marriage Counselor? I'm Available--God."
       
    10. --"Have You Read My #1 Bestseller? There Will Be A Test--God"

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  1. The Church Ad Project(3) has also put together provocative, eye-catching print-ready ads, each with an appropriate graphic, for local church use in newspapers.
     
    1. --"There's only one problem with religions that have all the answers. They don't allow questions."
       
    2. --"There's a difference between baptized and brainwashed."
       
    3. --"People used to solve their problems by turning to Matthew and John, not Smith and Wesson."
       
    4. --"You say his name often enough on the highway. Why not try saying it in church?"
       
      1. The small copy at the bottom reads: "You feel much better using the Lord's name in prayer. Not in traffic. Worship this Sunday".

MAIN BODY:

  1. Advertising is vital for the success of any business or enterprise.
    1. You have a product that you know be of benefit to all kinds of people.
       
      1. You need to communicate the value of what you are offering.
         
      2. What do you do?
         
    2. You advertise.
       
      1. But then what are you going to say in your advertisement?
         
      2. How many times are you going to say it? Advertising works

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    1. Fresh in our minds are the pictures of the protestors at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.
       
      1. A Newsweek article called it The Battle for Seattle(4)
         
        1. Mike Dolan, field organizer for the Nader group Public Citizen, spent nine months in the city getting things ready (and consulting regularly with city leaders).
           
        2. The Naderites and other groups posted Web pages to educate their followers on the evils of foreign trade and to draw them to Seattle.
           
        3. The demonstrators started showing their tactical smarts the first day of the conference.
           
        4. Early that morning, thousands of activists who had announced their intention to completely, but peacefully, block access to the huge Washington State Convention Center had taken up key positions, amounting to a ring around the meeting facilities...
           
        5. The mostly seated protesters couldn't approach the convention hall, but neither could delegates, unless they wanted to risk a scuffle.
           
        6. The start of the meeting had to be delayed.

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  1. How many times are you going to say it
     
    1. If you are going to reach people the word needs to be repeated over and over again.
       
    2. Illustration from Homiletics(5)
       
      1. Have you given thought to advertising?
         
      2. Here is what one professional marketing agency suggests: Don't Be a Two-Timer. Two-timers fail by definition alone.
         
      3. They advertise twice; once for a grand opening and again for a going-out-of-business sale.
         
      4. Research shows that repetition is the key to any advertising campaign.
         
      5. One out of nine ads is ever seen by your prospect. That prospect has to see that ad three times for it to register in his mind.
         
      6. Plan a long-term commitment to advertise your product. Once you make that commitment, run that same ad in the same media, in the same position if possible, often enough to reach that customer countless times.
         
      7. Take the time to create a quality ad. Although it may seem expensive to have it designed, it is relatively cheap compared to the cost of running it.
         
        1. You only pay the price once and you should use the ad for months.
           
        2. Begin the process by deciding what you want your ad to do before you create it.

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  1. God needs advertising.
    1. The Messiah is coming.
       
    2. How do you prepare people to listen, to pay attention, to receive, to benefit, to enjoy?
       
      1. You cannot use print, radio, television or the Internet.
         
      2. You send John the Baptist
         
      3. He cries out, "The Messiah is coming."
         
      4. He is one lonely voice crying out in the midst of vice and confusion.
         
      5. He will be heard.
         
      6. He will cry for personal and national reformation.
         
      7. It is a call to repentance.
         
    3. It is an offer of grace
       
      1. This is not cheap grace - Bonhoeffer
         
      2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about Cheap Grace(6)
         
        1. Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.
           
        2. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap-jacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost. The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?...
           
        3. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

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  1. Contrast with costly grace
     
    1. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
       
    2. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
       
    3. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price,"and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon -his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. This is the message of Christmas.
     
    1. It is good that we celebrate Christmas every year.
       
    2. It is good that Christmas has to compete with the commercial interests.
       
    3. It is good that there are those who irritate us with billboards which proclaim, "Keep Christ in Christmas."
       
  2. This is a way in which God can advertise.
     
    1. This of Christmas is an ad campaign.
       
      1. What is being said?
         
      2. How is it being said?
         
    2. What are the results of what is being said?
       
      1. It is worth it if it reminds us of what God has done for us
         
      2. It is worth it if an individual frees her or him self from the market-driven commercialization that attempts to use Christian symbols to sell non-Christian goods.
         
      3. It is worth it if one person, in the midst of all the confusion, comes to realize Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior.
         
      4. Of course, it would help enormously, if the Christian Community would put Christ first, last and always.

1. Billboards from God, Homiletics, November-December, 1999, vol 11, no. 6, December 12, 1999, pp. 52-53.

2. The Church Advertising Network, England, printed in Harper's Magazine, March, 1999

3. The Web site of the God billboards is www.go speaks. net

4. The Battle for Seattle, Newsweek, Internet Edition, December 10, 1999

5. Ibid, p. 55

6. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., 1937) pp. 45-48.

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