December 10, Second Sunday of Advent

Lesson: Luke 2:8-12

Sermon Title: Messiah, The Anointed One

(Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION:

Shipwrecked Sailor (1)

The shipwrecked sailor had spent several years on a deserted island. Then one morning he was thrilled to see a ship offshore and a smaller vessel pulling out toward him.

When the boat grounded on the beach, the officer in charge handed the marooned sailor a bundle of newspapers and told him, "With the captain's compliments. He said to read through these and let us know if you still want to be rescued."

  1. How do you respond as you read the newspapers today?

    1. Oh hum!

    2. Or do you still have the desire to be rescued?

    3. Wait a minute, who needs to be rescued?

(Top)   (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY:

  1. Let's say you find this place like a deserted island and you are thrilled to see a ship off shore and a smaller vessel pulling towards you.

    1. It is the hope for rescue.

    2. Where in this world are you going to find a rescuer?

Julie Polter, in Catalog Jesus (2) speaks about procuring a Messiah

"I confess: I was a catalog girl who grew up to be a catalog woman. We had stacks of them when I was a child: Lillian Vernon and the petite Avon booklet left by the neighbor lady; a bounty of cookware, knickknacks, clothes, and books laid out appealingly on glossy pages. And, of course, best of the best, the Sears and J.C. Penney Christmas wish books. I whiled away hours, days, weeks, flipping the pages, compiling my lists: Lego sets, the Barbie Prom Ensemble, a giant Raggedy Ann. Catalogs were about fantasy and the potential fulfillment (it seemed) of every want, need and dream ....

"Catalogs, ironically enough, weren't bad practice for [anticipation]. What is anticipation, anyway, except glimpsing something that might be, and deciding you want it, and awaiting its arrival, yearning for it even? But mystery: Mystery is something else entirely. There is no catalog code or customer service number that we can provide to procure the Messiah. There are no glossy pages that can contain the living power of the Incarnation, of the Holy Spirit moving through a world battered, bruised and beautiful, a world being called to remember its true song."

      1. You will not find a messiah in the government.

        1. We acted as messiah in Iraq

        2. Is the situation now worse than it was under Sadam?

      2. You will not find a messiah in social structures.

        1. The have's get more; the have-not's less

        2. Class structures lead to class warfare.

      3. You will not find a messiah in our educational institutions.

        1. Education is a wonderful opportunity to grow a mind and spirit.

        2. Education is not able to solve the problems that it illuminates.

    1. So where are you going to find the real and true Messiah?

    2. Perhaps there is a clue in Hertha Pauli's story: (3)

"In his magnificent coach, drawn by four plumed horses, Charles Jennens would ride to town from his country seat, an impressive and well-known figure. And on Saturday, August 22, 1741, he brought a scrapbook with him to Handel's small study. 'Here,' he said, 'is a collection called The Messiah. Can you make an entertainment out of it?'

"As soon as Jennens had left, the Handel started reading the text he had received. The words, Handel noticed, were all taken from the Scriptures; but in arranging the quotations, the Handel felt, Jennens had outdone himself. The words seemed to sing by themselves.

"Handel started writing at once. He wrote so fast that the ink had scarcely dried on one page before he started another. The score was covered with splotches, but the Handel did not notice them. He forgot the whole world around him.

"'Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote The Messiah,' Handel said later, 'I know not.'

"For twenty-four days he remained in the little front room on the first floor of his house near Hanover Square in London, setting down thousands of notes to Jennens' biblical excerpts.

"At regular intervals Handel's servant brought him food, but the Handel left it untouched. Sometimes the servant stood in silent wonder as the Handel's tears fell on a page and mingled with the ink while he penned his notes. And once the servant found the Handel sobbing with emotion. He had just finished the 'Hallelujah Chorus.'

"'I thought I saw all Heaven before me,' Handel told his choir boys, 'and the great God himself!'"

    1. In using this illustration, Charles Swindoll writes:

"Does a Christmas season ever pass that isn't bedecked with the magnificent melody of Handel's Handelpiece? Crescendoing in churches and concert halls, the glorious harmony of "hallelujahs rings forth from enthusiastic carolers everywhere. Yet, oddly enough, if you were to ask most people what the title Messiah actually means, they wouldn't have a clue. Surprised?" (4)

(Top)   (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. Do we know what the title Messiah means?

    1. It not a name, but a title.

      1. In the New Revised Version of our Bible (Matthew-John), the word Messiah is used 50 times.

      2. Messiah is a translation of the Hebrew word mashiach (maòshŒòyach).

        1. The Greek is Christos (khris-tos') Christ

        2. It means the Anointed!

    2. Jesus is the Anointed One.

      1. Acts 10:38 (NASB-U) "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

      2. Hebrews 1:9 (NASB-U) "You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions."

    3. Jesus was anointed at the time of his baptism by the Holy Spirit.

      1. In Luke 4, Jesus came to Nazareth, his home town, but let the scripture speak:

16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
    18    "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
           because he has anointed me
                  to bring good news to the poor.
             He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
                     and recovery of sight to the blind,
                             to let the oppressed go free,
    19    to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
    20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," (Luke 4:16-21, NRSVA).

    1. If we have any doubts listen to the question of John the Baptist disciples:

2When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" 4Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me," (Matthew 11:2 through Matthew 11:6, NRSVA).

      1. "Go and tell John what you hear and see:

• the blind receive their sight,

• the lame walk,

• the lepers are cleansed,

• the deaf hear,

• the dead are raised,

• and the poor have good news brought to them."

      1. All the six items of evidence that Jesus cited for his being the Messiah relate to health and wholeness.

    1. James Montgomery continues this theme when he penned Hail to the Lord's Anointed, based on Psalm 72.

Hail to the Lord's Anointed,
Great David's greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
To set the captive free;
To take away transgression,
And rule in equity

He comes with succor speed
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong
To give them songs for sighing,
Their darkness turn to light,
Whose souls, condemned and dying,
Are precious in His sight

He shall come down like showers
Upon the fruitful earth;
Love, joy, and hope like flowers,
Spring in his path to birth.
Before him, on the mountains,
Shall peace, the herald go,
And righteousness, in fountains,
From hill to valley flow.

To him shall prayer unceasing
And daily vows ascend;
His kingdom still increasing,
A kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand fore ver;
That name to us is love.

(Top)   (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION:

  1. The Messiah is coming.

  2. What happens when Messiah Comes?

    1. What does he do for you and me?

    2. What happens when the Messiah comes and lives in you and me?

    3. Here is a story told by Joan D. Chittister (5)

There was a Benedictine community to whom nobody came. As the monks grew old, they became more and more disheartened because they couldn't understand why their community was not attractive to other people. Now in the woods outside the monastery there lived an old rabbi. People came from all over to talk to him about the presence of Yahweh in creation. Years went by and finally the abbot himself went into the woods, leaving word with his monks, I have gone out to speak to the rabbi. (It was of course considered humiliating that a Christian community had to go back to the synagogue to find out what was wrong with them.)

When the abbot finally found the rabbi's hut in the woods, the rabbi welcomed him with open arms as if he had known that he was coming. They put their arms around each other and had a good cry. The abbot told the rabbi that his monks were good men but they spread not fire, and the community was dying. He asked the rabbi if he had any insight into the work of Yahweh in their lives. The rabbi replied, I have the secret and I will tell you once. You may tell the monks and then none of you is ever to repeat it to one another. The abbot declared that if they could have the secret, he was sure his monks would grow.

So the rabbi looked at him long and hard and said, The secret is that among you, in one of you is the Messiah! The abbot went back to this community and told his monks the secret. And lo! as they began to search for the Messiah in one another they grew, they loved, they became very strong, very prophetic. And the old conference ends: From that day on, the community saw Him in one another and flourished!

    1. From that day on, the community saw Him in one another and flourished!

    2. May the Messiah flourish in you and me!

Amen

1. The Good, Clean Funnies List [gcfl-info@gcfl.net]

2. Julie Polter, Catalog Jesus, Sojourners, November-December 2000, 9-10.

3. Hertha Pauli, Handel and the Messiah Story (New York, N.Y.: Meredith Press, 1968), pp 49, 51 (Quoted in Charles R. Swindoll, His Name Is Wonderful: Bible Study Guide (Plano, Texas. Insight for Living, 1992) pp. 17-18)

4. Charles R. Swindoll, His Name Is Wonderful: Bible Study Guide (Plano, Texas. Insight for Living, 1992) pp. 18.

5. Story told by Joan D. Chittister, OSB, Living the Rule Today: A Series of Conferences on the Rule of Benedict (Erie, Pa.: Benet Press, 1982), 98-99, as quoted on pp. 82-83 of Wolff-Walin

(Top)   (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)