December 18, Fourth Sunday of Advent

Lesson: Isaiah 53.1-12

Sermon Title: Participation

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INTRODUCTION:

"You Could Drive a Person Crazy" (1)

Episode Preview: Sun, Dec. 18 at 9/8c

Susan is surprised, and not pleasantly so, when she finds out who Edie's new boyfriend is. Meanwhile Lynette goes back to work, leaving Tom at home in charge of the house, which turns out to be a better plan in theory. Bree's mother-in-law, Phyllis (guest star Shirley Knight), continues to drive Bree crazy with her melodramatic grieving, and Carlos makes an unusual request of Gabrielle.

  1. Desperate Housewives is set on picture-perfect Wisteria Lane--one of the houses on the set was the home of Ward and June Cleaver--and is populated by a group of far-from-perfect women.

    1. According to Marc Peyser and David Jefferson in Newsweek (November 29, 2004), Susan is a divorced children's book author and major klutz. Lynette gave up her career to become the mother of four and is so overwhelmed she's become addicted to their ADD medicine. Bree is the local Martha Stewart, a woman who brings homemade potpourri to the marriage counselor even though it's her perfectionism that's driving her husband away. Gabrielle is rich, miserable and having an affair with the teenager who cuts her lawn. And finally there's Edie, the neighborhood tramp.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Henry Brinton, our Senior Writer, and Senior Minister of the Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia, has written:

"So our fingers are scratching the blackboard, we're hanging on to the rails white-knuckled and scared to death. We approach Advent wound up tighter than a pair of jeans on Paris Hilton."

    1. So, maybe people like watching a television show that parodies all this desperation.

    2. In late October 2004, more people were watching these erratic women than were watching the Yankees and the Red Socks in the world series.

    3. Here are four women in Wisteria Lane desperately trying to find security as their make their way in and out of one disaster after another.

    4. They each have their problems and America loves watching them sort it out.

      1. One woman knows that having everything she ever wanted isn't enough.

      2. Another, a divorcee wants the new available man, but for various reasons, can't get him. she wants real love, unlike the superficial sexist love her ex gave her.

      3. Another is a perfectionist falsely thinking that doing everything just right will make everything alright.

      4. The fourth is an ex-executive who needs to feel the fulfillment she felt when she was a success.

    5. They're desperate and right now, the show is ringing a bell, and people are saying, silently perhaps, "Yeah, I'm desperate, too."

      1. It was Henry David Thoreau who said:

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

      1. There is a great deal of truth in that statement.

      2. Perhaps it is more than we immediately recognize.

    1. Well, welcome to the club.

      1. You're not alone.

      2. In fact, on this fourth of the Advent season, we have a perfect opportunity to remember that God has seen us in our desperation.

    2. Again in the words of Henry Brinton:

"You might even consider God to be a Desperate God taking Desperate Measures for a Desperate People."

  1. How does a Desperate God taking Desperate Measures for a Desperate People?

    1. Desperate is really too strong a word. God is in this sense never desperate.

    2. Determined is perhaps a better word.

    3. God is determined to fulfill God's covenant promises.

    4. How is God's determination revealed?

    5. God has participated in the lives of the nation of Israel, but before now, his participation has been indirect.

    6. Now his participation is direct.

    7. He comes to live with us.

      1. God participates.

      2. God does not participate on the fringes.

      3. God makes a total commitment.

      4. Its an old story but worth retelling.

A chicken and a pig went for a walk around the farm. As they passed the farmers window they noticed a wonderful breakfast prepared for the farmer and his wife sitting on the breakfast table. As they peeked closer they noticed ham and eggs on the plates.

The pig and chicken were silent for a moment as they took in the impact of what they saw.

Finally, looking at the eggs and prideful of her contribution, the chicken said, "now that was a sacrifice!"

The pig looked at the ham on the plate and finally turned to the chicken and said, "Yes, for you it is a sacrifice. But for us it is total commitment!"

      1. God's total commitment is to

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  1. It is not only how God comes to live with us, but how we relate to the God who comes to live with us.

    1. Isaiah has some insight into how his people would relate to the God who came to live with them.

    2. How true are Isaiah's observations in 2005?

      1. You cannot read these words without sensing the significance of them

      2. You cannot read these words without experiencing the pathos that is found in the description of the suffering servant.

    3. What did Isaiah observe?

      1. Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

        1. The report of the prophets, of John the Baptist and Christ's own report of himself was provided to the people.

        2. These reports were not acceptable.

      2. For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

        1. He had not the beauty of a beautiful plant.

        2. A root out of dry ground, uncultivated and homely.

        3. He did not fulfill the expectations of the people.

        4. They found little in him to desire.

      3. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

        1. There is no question of his rejection.

        2. His personhood and ministry were unacceptable.

      4. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

        1. He was man who experienced all the circumstances and conditions of humanity.

        2. He was painfully afflicted because people would not believe in him and what he offered.

      5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

        1. He offered himself for the sins of the whole world.

        2. He died our death that we might live his life.

      6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

        1. He was the "good shepherd."

        2. Yet people did not follow, they went their own ways.

      7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

        1. He was tried in a kangaroo court.

        2. He did not defend himself, his preaching, or his mission.

      8. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

        1. He died the death of a criminal.

        2. He was set between two thieves.

      9. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

        1. It was thought that he grave would be with the wicked, the outcasts.

        2. He was laid in a borrowed grave of a rich man.

      10. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the LORD shall prosper.

        1. He fulfilled the will of God in which participated completely.

        2. God's will has prospered.

      11. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

        1. Jesus did have the satisfaction of completing his mission.

        2. Many have accepted and become righteous.

      12. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

    4. This was and is to be his participation in life, death, and resurrection.

    5. We rejoice that he was willing to do this for his people and for you and me.

    6. But then we are not done.

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  1. We are invited to participate in the life of Jesus, or the life that Jesus desires that we live.

    1. You cannot do this and be a wall-flower.

      1. A wallflower is a person who does not participate in the activity at a social event because of shyness or unpopularity.

      2. You cannot be shy with Jesus.

      3. You need to be bold.

        1. I was once a wallflower.

          1. I was a student at Fletcher Academy in Fletcher, NC.

          2. I was so shy and insecure that I took the door knob from the door to my room and carried it around with my in my pocket.

        2. After I was discharged from the Navy, and decided to become a pastor, I was working at New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham MA.

          1. When it was learned that I was going to study for the ministry I was asked to participate.

          2. I turned down the requests because I was still shy and deeply insecure.

          3. Once in a while you might still catch a glimpse of shyness or insecurity.

          4. As time passed I realized that if I was going to be a pastor, I needed to participate.

          5. Participation brought its own trauma.

          6. I made mistakes, but I could not let the mistakes prevent me from participating.

          7. I had to learn to participate.

      4. This is something that we all can learn.

        1. Participation may produce an initial level of anxiety.

        2. But if you are persistent you will find that the level of anxiety can be reduced.

        3. You may never feel totally comfortable.

        4. But what you can learn is that you can function in ways that you might not have even dreamed of.

    2. We are to participate in the life and purposes of Jesus.

      1. We are to live according to his code of love and ethics.

      2. We are to share our word and life of faith with others.

      3. This we can do, if we are willing, we can do it.

      4. God has promised help to strengthen the inner person to be able to accomplish his purposes.

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CONCLUSION

  1. We need the commitment of participation.

A pig and a chicken were walking by a church where a gala charity event was taking place.

    1. I know we have heard this one before.

    2. But it has a conclusion to teach us.

Getting caught up in the spirit, the pig suggested to the chicken that they each make a contribution.

"Great idea!" the chicken cried. "Let's offer them ham and eggs?

"Not so fast," said the pig testily. "For you, that's a contribution. For me, it's a total commitment."

    1. It's the total commitment of participation.

1. Retrieved from: http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/

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