Sermon Archive - December 3rd, 2008

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=3 height=130 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="12ba6e903.jpg"> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="11fcbc320.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>OFC:  713-526-5731      5315 MAIN STREET, HOUSTON TEXAS 77004      FAX: 713-524-1709</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="St. Matthew Lutheran Church Houston, Te"><U><B>HOME</B></U></A><B>  ~   </B><A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Worship Schedule"><U><B>WORSHIP</B></U></A><B>  ~  </B><A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Map Directions"><U><B>LOCATION</B></U></A><B>  ~  </B><A HREF="id362.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="URL Calendar Home Link"><U><B>CALENDAR</B></U></A><B>  ~  </B><A HREF="mailto:info@stmatthewhouston.org?subject=Website Inquiry" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:info@stmatthewhouston.org?subject"><U><B>EMAIL US</B></U></A><B>  ~  </B><A HREF="id452.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Map"><U><B>SITE MAP</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=155 BGCOLOR="#660000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="123030970.jpg" border=0 width="48" height="151" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id464.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome"><U>Welcome</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id465.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lutheran Beliefs"><U>Lutheran Beliefs</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id466.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="How to Join"><U>How to Join</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id467.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Local Missions"><U>Local Missions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id468.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Global Missions"><U>Global Missions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id508.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Parish Education"><U>Parish Education</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=280 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> Sermon Archive - December 3rd, 2008</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="568" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#990000" BORDERCOLORDARK="#FFCC99" FRAME="VOID" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#FFCC99 HEIGHT= 18 WIDTH="134"><div> <A HREF="id563.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="St. Matthew Sermon Archives"><U><IMG SRC="157a270e0.png" border=0 width="39" height="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR=#990000 WIDTH="421"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="18" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="421" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> “Our Heaven-Rending Redeemer”</div> <div> Isaiah 64:1-9</div> <div> First Week in Advent: December 3, 2008</div> <div> Pastor Mark Wiesenborn</div> <div> St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas</div> <div>       </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" >     </FONT>Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our sermon message for the first midweek Advent worship service is taken from the Old Testament reading, where the prophet Isaiah makes an appeal for our Lord to come down in mighty power, bringing justice and salvation:</div> <div>      “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,</div> <div>           that the mountains might quake at your presence!”</div> <bR> <div>      Dear friends in Christ, for many of us there are certain familiar traditions that enter into our lives this time of the year.  For example, I usually begin listening to Christmas music immediately after Reformation Sunday (sometimes, even a little sooner!)  My wife and I begin watching for great prices on Christmas presents the weekend before Thanksgiving.  These days we buy the vast majority of those gifts through businesses on the Internet - specifically in order to avoid the crowds and craziness that we would otherwise be forced to deal with at brick and mortar stores!</div> <bR> <div>      Here is a recent example of what I am talking about.  Many of you probably heard the news report about a Wal-Mart worker in Long Island, New York, who was killed this past Black Friday (as the day following Thanksgiving has come to be known) when customers desperate for their doorbuster bargains went out-of-control. Police said about 2,000 people had gathered outside the entrance, with the impatient crowd pressing against the store's sliding-glass doors.  The 34-year old employee - a big man, who was described by his friends as a gentle giant - was trying to hold the shoppers back.  Just before the 5 a.m. opening the doors shattered under the weight of the crowd, knocking the man to the ground and leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion. Shoppers stepped over and around that man as they streamed into the store, trampling him to death within just a few minutes. Dozens of other employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd.  The store was eventually cleared out and closed for several hours before reopening.  At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for injuries caused by the mob.</div> <bR> <div>      Here is the part of the story that many people found especially shocking.  When the store manager got on the public address system and told the customers they HAD TO LEAVE due to the medical emergency, they ignored him. A police spokesman later told reporters “This crowd was out of control,” describing the scene as utter chaos.  One woman who witnessed the stampede said shoppers were acting like savages, saying: “When they told us we had to leave because an employee had been killed, people were yelling `I've been in line since yesterday morning'.  So they kept on shopping.” [Associated Press, 11/28-29/08]</div> <bR> <div>      I don't know whether the man who was trampled to death was a Christian or not; and I can only wonder whether he died with a sense of panic or of peace.  But it reminds me of the story of Stephen in Acts chapter 7 - a man full of God's grace and power - who told people the truth about who Jesus was, and why He had come into our world.  Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked up to heaven he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and proceeded to stone him to death.</div> <bR> <div>      “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,</div> <div>           that the mountains might quake at your presence!”</div> <bR> <div>      What images come to mind when Isaiah says REND the heavens?  When Christ returns in the “Second Advent” we can be certain that He will shake things up; that He will cause a great commotion; that He will interfere with the self-serving pattern of our lives in order to INTERVENE with the crooked paths we create for ourselves.</div> <bR> <div>      “As when fire kindles brushwood</div> <div>           and the fire causes water to boil -</div> <div>                to make your name known to your adversaries,</div> <div>                     and that the nations might tremble at your presence!”</div> <bR> <div>      Do you remember Charles Dickens' classic story “A Christmas Carol”?  There is a “sympathetic” character named Tiny Tim, the kind-hearted but lame little son of Bob Cratchit who walks only with the help of a homemade crutch.  He relies on others to help him.  Can you imagine the OUTRAGE if he was the one in the path of a trampling mob?  Every one of us hearing that story wants to help little Tiny Tim; that is why it is especially meaningful when the cold heart of miserly old Ebeneezer Scrooge is warmed by the glimpses of love and hope he has been shown by three visiting “spirits”.  One of the traditions that Christmas is known for is helping others; yet we often tend to do this grudgingly and selectively - and the reason for this is that we ourselves still have a little coldness left in our hearts. Only one person can restore what is “broken” within us: Jesus, our “heaven-rending” Redeemer!</div> <bR> <div>      “When you did awesome things that we did not look for,</div> <div>           you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.</div> <div>      From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear,</div> <div>           no eye has seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him.</div> <div>      You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,</div> <div>           those who remember you in your ways.”</div> <bR> <div>      So we watch for Christ's return, and we prepare room for Him in our hearts and in our homes.  A special tradition in our home the weekend after Thanksgiving is to climb up into the attic in order to bring down the artificial Christmas trees (we have two, one just for Chrismons), as well as boxes of decorations and lights and Nativity sets.  They have been kept in storage for the previous eleven months, enduring the summer heat and humidity - and this year, also escaping the wrath of Hurricane Ike!  Some of those decorations are sturdy; some are more fragile - but all of them can be broken.  How would you feel if you discovered that one of your most cherished “family heirloom” ornaments had developed a tiny crack running all the way through it?  Today I brought with me a little snowman dough ornament that Kristen made in 1978, our first Christmas together when I was still an engineering student at Texas A&M University.  Since we didn't have much money, she made several dozen different dough ornaments, finishing them with tempura paint and several coats of polyurethane sealant.  Since that does not hold up well in storage, they have been recoated several times over the years with varnish and even with clear finger nail polish.  Every year we wonder whether they have survived; this year the little hook on the back of this snowman had broken off, but we believe it can still be repaired!</div> <bR> <div>      Like the ornaments on our Christmas trees, some of us are more “sturdy” in our faith than others, and some are more fragile.  We live in a world that has been BROKEN by sin, and as the seasons pass we sometimes become more vulnerable to the problems that SIN causes with our health and our homes and our relationships.</div> <bR> <div>      “Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;</div> <div>           in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?</div> <div>      We have all become like one who is unclean,</div> <div>           and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.</div> <div>                We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.</div> <div>      There is no one who calls upon your name,</div> <div>           who rouses himself to take hold of you;</div> <div>                for you have hidden your face from us,</div> <div>                and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”</div> <bR> <div>      The problem with looking too closely at old Christmas ornaments - or with looking too closely at our own lives - is that everything does have a crack in it.  The big world in which we live; this world of ours has a crack of imperfection right through its core. And your life and mine?  We too have this crack of flawed lives right through our inner core.  We know this very well. And that is why Jesus came to earth - to heal our hearts, to restore our lives, to patch the flaws and cracks found at the very center of who we are.</div> <bR> <div>      “But now, O Lord, you are our Father;</div> <div>           we are the clay, and you are our potter;</div> <div>                we are all the work of your hand.</div> <div>      Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,</div> <div>           and remember not iniquity forever.</div> <div>                Behold, please look, we are all your people.”</div> <bR> <div>      My friends, as we prepare for Christmas part of our preparations will include many enjoyable “external” things - beautiful colors, incredible sounds, delightful flavors, amazing fragrances for days and weeks to come.  May the traditions that are most precious to you and your loved ones reserve a special place for those “internal” things that remind of whose people we are, and the special place that has been reserved for us in eternal life.  We know and believe and trust that Christ has died; Christ has risen; and Christ will come again!</div> <bR> <div> In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen!</div> <bR> <bR> <div> OLD TESTAMENT READING - Isaiah 64:1-9 [ESV]</div> <bR> <div> 1 <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" >Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,</FONT></div> <div>      that the mountains might quake at your presence - </div> <div> 2<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > as when fire kindles brushwood</FONT></div> <div>      and the fire causes water to boil -</div> <div>           to make your name known to your adversaries,</div> <div>                and that the nations might tremble at your presence!</div> <bR> <div> 3<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > When you did awesome things that we did not look for,</FONT></div> <div>      you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.</div> <div> 4<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > From of old no one has heard</FONT></div> <div>      or perceived by the ear,</div> <div>           no eye has seen a God besides you,</div> <div>                who acts for those who wait for him.</div> <div> 5<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,</FONT></div> <div>      those who remember you in your ways.</div> <div>           Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;</div> <div>                in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" >6</FONT> We have all become like one who is unclean,</div> <div>      and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.</div> <div>           We all fade like a leaf,</div> <div>                and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.</div> <div> 7<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > There is no one who calls upon your name,</FONT></div> <div>      who rouses himself to take hold of you;</div> <div>           for you have hidden your face from us,</div> <div>                and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" >8</FONT> But now, O Lord, you are our Father;</div> <div>      we are the clay, and you are our potter;</div> <div>           we are all the work of your hand.</div> <div> 9<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Franklin Gothic Book" > Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,</FONT></div> <div>      and remember not iniquity forever.</div> <div>           Behold, please look, we are all your people.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>      </div> </td> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=155 BGCOLOR="#660000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="122e30960.jpg" border=0 width="48" height="150" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id499.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Meet Our Leaders"><U>Meet Our Leaders</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id114.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tour Our Church"><U>Tour Our Church</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id493.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Read Our History"><U>Read Our History</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id626.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arts and Music"><U>Arts and Music</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id136.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Events"><U>Special Events</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id515.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Gallery"><U>Photo Gallery</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=70 BGCOLOR="#660000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <A HREF="id423.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bible Search"><U><B>BIBLE SEARCH</B></U></A><B>  </B><B>~  </B><A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LCMS Links"><U><B>LUTHERAN</B></U></A><A HREF="id99.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LCMS Links"><U><B> LINKS</B></U></A><B>  </B><B>~  </B><A HREF="id100.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Online Devotionals"><U><B>DEVOTIONALS</B></U></A><B>  ~  </B><A HREF="id563.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="St. Matthew Sermon Archives"><U><B>SERMON ARCHIVES</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> © 2008  St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Houston, TX - All Rights Reserved</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>