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It's Dangerous on the Front Line |
Isaiah 53 |
In an earlier note I said that every Advent season I liked to select a theme from which to put together a special series of related advent sermons (not being a lectionary preacher). And I included a sermon from the series on Advent as a Literary Metaphor. This is the opening sermon from another Advent series, different year. This time the theme was "Living as Jesus Lived." Actually, the title sounded easy and at first I thought it might be too easy. It turned out not to be, though, since the texts I selected were hard-bitten and tough. We ended up focusing on what it would mean, realistically, for us today to try to continue the spirit and force of Jesus' presence on earth, continue the kind of counter-life to the world that Jesus himself lived, the life that ended inevitably in his death. That's what made the series grittier than most people would like to have had. If he was "wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities," is "wounded" and "crushed" what we can expect to experience if we respond to his "come follow me?" Is that what it means to "live like Jesus?" We tacked such questions, and this is the sermon with which we began that trip. Listen to it. |