Pastor: Paula Hemann
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 1:68-79
Message: Turning the World Right Side Up
Pastor Paula Hemann
Sometimes you have to turn the world upside down to see it right side up.
Today begins with hearing of a messenger- John the Baptist- who is a prophet.
Prophets have a frustrating habit of pointing out our flaws, airing family secrets,
and being all around nuisances.
They love to call us out when we stray from God and when we have lost sight of
truth.
At best, they are a nuisance; at worst, they are meddling. Who needs these
messengers of discomfort and sacrifice?
What are they good for?
Wouldn’t it be best for them to get on their soap boxes and protest and preach
somewhere else, anywhere else but here?
It is hard enough trying to be a good upright, churchgoing, tithe-giving, Sunday
school-teaching person without one of these prophets calling us to care for the
poor, to look out for the downtrodden, to seek after justice and righteousness.
Don’t we do enough already?
It would be nice if they would go bother the people in power, the people who can
actually do something for the poor and the needy.
Why do these prophets insist on bothering good people?
But here they are, calling us once again to repentance, and forgiveness, and hope.
You would think that they were broken records, spinning the same thing over and
over and over again.
Here comes another one called John, son of Zechariah—John the Baptist, some
call him.
He’s no ordinary prophet; he doesn’t just preach that we need to repent, but he has
the nerve to insist that people get baptized in the muddy River Jordan no less.
It would be nice if John sang a different tune for a change. He is always running
around, “Repent this! Prepare that!” Haven’t we heard this message before? And
yet he persists.
Like crazy old Isaiah preaching about paths being made straight, and valleys and
mountains being filled and made flat.
The thing about straightening crooked places and valleys being filled and
mountains being brought low is that we like our paths crooked, our valleys deep,
and our mountains high.
We like things the way they are and the way they have always been. Yet prophets
have a way of moving us to turn the World upside down so we can see it right side
up!
Now steps in Paul – and Paul- well he rejoices while in prison – Why - why does
he do this? We find the answer in verse six of the passage:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Paul knows that God finishes what God begins. And through Jesus Christ, God has
begun a good work in the Philippian church.
Even though they are experiencing suffering and persecution, God will continue to
be faithful to them just as he is faithful to us- and God completes the good work he
starts.
Just as today there is division there were seeds of division among them with
Euodia and Syntyche’s dispute, and in spite of all this division God continues his
work in his church.
In the season of Advent, we are reminded that we are waiting for Jesus’ second
coming, when he will turn this world upside down and make all things right.
That will be the final day, the “day of Jesus Christ,” when God brings his work to
completion. This is the hope that Paul lives as he sees that , “For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain” (ESV).
Let’s admit it - We need prophets.
The people who sit in darkness, in deep despair, they need prophets.
The people who look around and see destruction and desolation, they need
prophets.
The people who have no voice, no rights, no hope—they need prophets
because prophets proclaim a new and better way.
Prophets are truth-tellers to a world longing and praying and looking for glimpses
of hope.
Our world needs prophets.
Prophets are announcers of hope and hope is found in the one whose coming we
await.
The message foretold by John the Baptist breaks into our world with
deafening silence and shatters the dark of despair with the light of love.
Pushing us to turn the world upside down so we can see it right side up!
Who needs prophets? We need prophets. We need those frustrating, nagging
nuisances that call us to be better followers of Jesus.
As American Columnist Rachel Held Evans reminds us, “Biblically speaking, a
prophet isn’t a fortune-teller or soothsayer who predicts the future, but rather a
truth-teller who sees things as they really are—past, present, and future—and
who challenges their community to both accept that reality and imagine a
better one.”
We need the voice of one crying out in the wilderness because things happen in the
wilderness.
In the wilderness, the needs are raw and real, and sweet words and hollow
sentiment are not enough.
We need prophets especially when we have grown so full of ourselves that we
neglect to see the orphan, the refugee, the migrant, the widow, and the stranger.
We need prophets to call us back to God, back to a place where hope is found not
only in church, but in the world around us—in the interaction of strangers, the joys
of difference, and in the radicalness of love.
Like Jesus and John, we are tasked with holding lightly to the things that do
not matter, in order to be open to a hope-filled future to which God calls us.
Now more than ever, our communities, our nation, and our world are in desperate
need of the glimmer of hope found in Jesus Christ.
Now more than ever, we need to not only hear the cries of the prophets, but to take
on the position of the prophets.
We, as the church, the people of God, the followers of Jesus, are called to claim our
birthright and be the voice of the voiceless, the hope of the hopeless, the love of
the loveless.
Sometimes in the church, we can feel small and powerless, wondering how we will
survive, being concerned about ourselves rather than those in need.
But God’s grace often falls not on the powerful or the mighty, but on
extraordinarily ordinary people who turn the world right-side-up. On people
like you and you, and you and you!
We are called to remember that we are not a group of people who
believe all the same things; we are a group of people caught up in God’s
plan of redemption and salvation with Jesus in the center.
The question facing us as Christians, who seek to follow where Jesus leads and to
heed the call of John, isn’t “Do we need prophets willing to turn the world upside
down so it can be seen right side up?” The question we must answer is “Are we
willing to be that kind of prophet?”
Are we willing to let God’s light shine through us so much so that we can show the
world a new and better way?
Are we willing to be brave enough to walk out in faith and break bread with people
who may not look like us, or talk like us, or vote like us or speak like us?
Because that is the Good News that we have to share; that is the vision that has the
power to transform our world.
There are prophets right here in our midst.
There is one sitting next to you right now. Look around. Listen. Keep awake.
There is still darkness and despair and shattered dreams.
There are still sins to be forgiven and enemies to turn into friends.
It may not look like it, it may not sound like it, it may not feel like it, but in Jesus
Christ, love has already won!
The light of love and the glimmer of hope has broken through the gloom.
The crooked places have been made straight, the valleys and mountains made
smooth, the rough places made plain.
Look and you will see the salvation of our God breaking through in a thousand
specks of light.
So, tune your ears to the voices crying from the wilderness, pay attention to the
weirdos who speak of Good News and forgiveness and repentance and hope. Be
the people of God who point to Jesus coming once more into our world. And all
God’s people said, Amen.
