New Advent Hymns

Some of the things that make planning Advent worship difficult, particularly in traditions that don't have a long history of observing Advent, are that (1) there are few well-known Advent songs and (2) it's hard to teach a congregation new ones when they only sing them every 12 months.

No doubt the time will come when more of our existing Advent hymns get into our memories like our Christmas songs have.

In the meantime, though, it occurred to me that one thing we could do to address the situation would be to have Advent texts set to familiar Christmas music. So I have undertaken a project to do just that.

My first effort is called Our Savior Comes which is sung to the tune ANTIOCH (the tune to Joy to the World).

If you would like to receive the words so you can try the hymn out, send me an email at ruffinml@gmail.com and I'll reply with the text.

Advent blessings to you!

When Jesus Comes: We Are Gathered Home

(A sermon based on Isaiah 64:1-9 & Mark 13:24-37 for the First Sunday of Advent 2011)

This first Sunday of Advent is for the Church the first day of the New Year; it being the first day of the New Year, it is appropriate that we spend a little time looking ahead. And so our Mark text encourages us to look forward to the time when Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected and ascended Messiah, will come again.

You might be thinking, “Now, hold on there—this is the time of year when we look forward to Christmas; we haven’t even gotten to the birth of Jesus, much less his death, resurrection, and ascension. How can we be talking about his second coming?” The answer is that the Season of Advent is about all of the comings of Jesus—his first coming to the manger of Bethlehem (to the commemoration of which we look forward but which has after all already happened), his second coming at the close of the age to which today’s text points, and his coming to us in our lives here and now. We celebrate his first coming, we anticipate his second coming, and we live in the fellowship with him that results from his present comings to us.

One thing that Jesus said will take place when he comes again is that “he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (v. 27). That is, all the people of God, no matter who they are and no matter where they are, will be gathered together to be together—with Jesus and with each other—forever. All the children of God, all the brothers and sisters of Jesus—all of our brothers and sisters—will be gathered together to be together.

Where will we be gathered? We’ll be gathered home, of course, because home is where the family belongs. What will we do there? We’ll do whatever our Lord wants us to do, of course, because we’ll finally get this discipleship and obedience business right.

We need to remember, though, that we are in a very real sense already gathered home. Jesus told a parable to make the point that we should always be ready for him to return; in that parable he used the image of a man who goes away from his home and leaves his servants in charge. “Therefore, keep awake,” Jesus said, “for you do not know when the master of the house will come…or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake” (vv. 35-37).

Jesus came here all those years ago to make his home with humanity; he then went away and told us to be ready for his coming. Jesus has come to us to make his home with us through the Holy Spirit right here and right now and we need to be on the watch for his coming.

How do we stay watchful and ready? By staying in close communion with him, by living the kind of life he did, by being obedient to the Father like he was, by giving ourselves up like he did, and by loving like he did.

We’d all like to see God intervene in a big and obvious way and one day God will do just that when Jesus comes back. But let’s not lose sight of small and subtle ways that God intervenes right now—and let’s not lose sight of the ways God does that through us.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that one day, when Jesus returns, we’ll be gathered home.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that on this day, because Jesus has already come and still comes to us, we are already gathered home.

This Thanksgiving was a homecoming of sorts for me. I was invited to deliver the pregame devotion for the Lamar County Trojans, the football team of my high school alma mater, on the day after Thanksgiving. My class, the Class of 1976, was the first class to graduate from the school after it moved to its present location in the fall of 1975. While I graduated with my class in 1976, I never attended school in that building because I left to after my junior year to go to college. So I kept thinking as I walked through the buildings, “This is my home; I don’t belong here.”

That’s kind of the way it is for us as Christians. This earth is our home; God has placed us here and God in Christ through the Holy Spirit makes God’s home with us right here and right now. Ultimately speaking, though, we don’t belong here. And one day Jesus will return to take us where do we finally and for all time belong.

But still, let’s not forget that in a very real way, we are already home…

Ten Thanksgiving Memories

1. The one 40+ years ago when my Aunt Dot Mulling passed out on the back porch of Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house.

2. The one where we stayed in Louisville and took advantage of the Take Five restaurant's "Dinner and a Movie" deal for Thanksgiving dinner.

3. The other one where we stayed in Louisville and a member of the little church I served as pastor had died and they had the funeral on Thanksgiving morning which meant we had to drive 70 miles each way and put off our Thanksgiving dinner with friends until supper time.

4. The ones when the big Barksdale family gathering in the New Life Baptist fellowship hall still included Granny and her sisters.

5. The one where for the first time I had deep fried turkey, prepared by my late good friend Gary Spann.

6. The one where we held the first Ruffin bonfire/hot dog roast/hayride on Thanksgiving night in Yatesville, which has for many years now been an annual tradition.

7. The one when the Community Thanksgiving Service was held in the sanctuary of FBC Adel where an African-American gentleman played the piano and sang wearing a white suit and sunglasses and Joshua, who was just a little fellow at the time, tugged on my sleeve and asked, "Is that the man who sings, "You got the right one, baby'?"

8. The one when we began our tradition of spending the 15 minute drive from Yatesville to Barnesville listening to the greatest Thanksgiving song ever recorded which is, of course, "Alice's Restaurant".

9. The one that was the first one that Debra and I celebrated as husband and wife and that included performing the wedding ceremony of Bruce Swatts & Yolanda Perez and then having a Thanksgiving dinner with my father & step-mother that featured the traditional broiled pork chops.

10. The ones when I have reminded myself every Thanksgiving Day to be thankful every other day of the year.

Ten Things for Which I AM Thankful This Year

1. The ruthless faithfulness and insistent grace of God.

2. The love, grace, peace, faith, and joy persistently embodied in my wife.

3. The wonderful people that our children are now and are in the process of becoming.

4. The educational institutions that made a difference in my life, especially Miss Sylvia's Kindergarten, Gordon Grammar School and Mercer University.

5. The families of faith that have made a difference in my life (they all happen to be Baptist), in particular Midway in Barnesville, GA, Pritchett Memorial in Jugtown, GA, First in Macon, GA, Beech Grove in Owenton, KY, First in Adel, GA, Fosterville (TN), The Hill in Augusta, GA, and First in Fitzgerald, GA. Special mention also goes to two churches of which I was never a member but which hold a special place in my heart: Tatnall Square in Macon whose former sanctuary became Newton Hall at Mercer University and where we attended BSU meetings and chapel services and Leary Baptist in Leary, GA which is the home church of Debra Kay Johnson and in whose sanctuary on a glorious June day in 1978 she became my wife.

6. My growing awareness of the necessity of practicing the classic Christian disciplines.

7. Printed words in real books--the kind with pages and covers.

8. Football Friday nights in South Georgia.

9. Friends I have known, now know, and will know.

10. Pie.

Ten Things for Which I am NOT Thankful This Year

1. That the nature of the political discourse in our nation is so negative and counter-productive.

2. That the Super Committee exists at all and that, since it does exist, that it proved incapable of accomplishing anything.

3. That "celebrity" has become an occupation.

4. That so many public servants serve narrow interest groups rather than the public.

5. That so many Christian leaders are so obsessed with tradition that they can't deal with modernity or are so obsessed with modernity that they can't honor tradition.

6. That so many Christians follow the dictates of the commercial Christmas calendar with more enthusiasm than they follow the proddings of the Church's Advent and Christmas calendar.

7. That our national politicians are proving in negative ways why their respective parties are represented by a donkey and an elephant.

8. That our commercialized culture doesn't want us to enjoy one holiday at a time and that we let it push us around.

9. That cancer has stricken so many of the children and youth in our community.

10. Brussels Sprouts.

When Styles Clash--or Come Together

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier died of liver cancer on November 7, 2011. He had a career professional record of 32-4-1.

Although I was only twelve years old at the time, I have very clear memories of the build-up to and the aftermath of the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and him that was held in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971.

I recall going to bed on March 8 hoping that Frazier would defeat Ali and upon waking up the next morning going straight to the kitchen where my father always listened to the morning news on the radio to find out the results. “Frazier won,” he said, and I was happy.

While I rooted for Frazier in that fight I really think that I rooted against Ali even more. I wasn’t alone; I can remember only one of my friends admitting openly that he wanted Ali to win.

I knew neither fighter personally, you are not surprised to learn, but I nonetheless had strong opinions about them.

Frazier struck me as a solid, quiet, hard-working, rational, determined man; he was the kind of man I admired and the kind of man I wanted to grow up to be. As a boxer, he was effective without being flashy.

Ali, I had concluded on the other hand, was an arrogant, brash, loud-mouthed, egotistical draft-dodger with a strange name and an exotic religion. As a boxer, he was both flashy and effective.

Frazier seemed to represent values and practices that were valued in my home and in my community while Ali seemed to represent values and practices that were not. So, it was simple and easy for me to conclude that Frazier was the good guy and that Ali was the bad guy—and I always pulled for the good guy.

When I saw the pictures of Frazier stalking away from Ali, who was sprawled on the canvas after being floored by the then-champion, I was thrilled to see that the loud-mouthed and arrogant one had been put in his place by the solid and low-key one.

My perspective has changed somewhat over the years. For instance, when it comes to Ali’s refusal to accept induction into the Army, I can, even if I don’t think I would have done the same thing, appreciate his willingness to pay a steep price for the sake of his convictions. Moreover, I admire Ali’s showmanship and the levity he brought to an otherwise brutal sport.

Besides, what really made their 1971 match-up and their two rematches so memorable was the clash of styles—Ali the dancer vs. Frazier the plodder, Ali the boxer vs. Frazier the puncher, Ali the manic vs. Frazier the stoic, and Ali the exotic vs. Frazier the down-to-earth. The drama of it all, not to mention the beauty and wonder of it all, was found exactly in the coming together of their differences in the dance of death that boxing is.

It is good to remember that had Ali not been Ali and had Frazier not been Frazier, then Ali vs. Frazier would not have been Ali vs. Frazier but just another boxing match in the footnotes of the sport’s history.

It is good to remember, too, that if everyone thought and acted the same when it comes to religion or politics or lifestyle or tastes, it would be a very dull and nondescript life in a very dull and nondescript world.

The differences between Frazier and Ali came together and produced something memorable in their battles in the ring.

Maybe we can learn to experience and to appreciate our differences and let them lead us into greater cooperation and creativity without resorting to the conflict that we members of the human race seem so prone to expect and even to seek.

Come Home—Because Home Is Where the Encouragement Is

(A sermon based on Hebrews 10:19-25 preached at the First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald, Georgia on Sunday, November 6, 2011)

Encouragement is one of the most important gifts that we can offer each other in our homes. Indeed, home should be a place where we build one another up and where we offer strength to each other. After all, the world is tough and out there we can get beaten up and beaten down a lot and we need for home to be a place where we are accepted and loved and encouraged. How do we encourage each other in our homes? We encourage each other by our presence—by being there for each other, by our example—by living in ways that others can follow, by attitude—by being positive and supportive, and by words—by speaking in ways that build up and lift up.

The condition that must exist if we are to encourage each other in our homes, though, is that we be there. Absentees can’t encourage! Moreover, in being there we must be invested; we must give ourselves over to the dynamics of being a family.

So I am glad that you are here at home—we are a family, you know!—to worship this morning and, since you are here, I want to talk with you about why it is so important that you are here and why it is so important that you keep on being here Sunday after Sunday. I want to talk about why it is so important that we invest ourselves in the life of our family of faith and in the lives of each other.

There are lots of reasons that we come to worship, of course, and we should never forget what the main reason is: we come to worship to praise God for who God is and what God does and especially for the fact that God is our Savior who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us remember also that when we come together—whether we come together to worship through praise, to worship through fellowship, or to worship through service—we come together as the family of faith and it is so important that it is together—and not alone—that we come. It is as John Wesley said, “Christianity is a social religion. To turn it into a solitary affair is to kill it” [Will Willimon, retrieved from http://www.northalabamaumc.org/bishop_column_recent.asp on November 1, 2011].

In coming together as the family of faith we affirm the truth that we need God but we also affirm the truth that we need each other. And in acknowledging that we need each other we are on our way to encouraging each other.

On the one hand, it is surprising that we Christians need to be reminded of the importance of coming together for worship. On the other hand, our Bibles bear witness to the fact that Christians have always needed such reminders. So in the book of Hebrews we see the writer telling first century Christians that he did not want them “neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some”—just a few decades after Jesus lived, died, and rose again, church folks were already in the habit of not participating in worship!

It is important to remember that worship is a way of life; Paul in Romans reminds us that we are to “present (our) bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is (our) spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). We are in God’s presence all the time and we are Christ’s followers all the time and we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit all the time and we are doing the work of the people of God all the time. So we are all in this together in all things and at all times.

Why do some Christians neglect to meet together? In the case of those first century Christians, there could have been several reasons. First, some may have felt spiritually superior to others and thus felt like they just didn’t need to be with everyone else; they had outgrown the group, they thought. Second, some may have feared being publically identified as Christians with the risks of persecution such identification could bring. Third, some may have maintained their allegiance to their former life in Judaism and may have fallen back into their old worship and fellowship patterns; they were attending both synagogue and church and it became easier just to attend synagogue.

Why do some of our church family members neglect to meet together? Oh, some of them have reasons like they don’t like the preaching or they don’t like the singing or they don’t like the temperature in the sanctuary or they don’t like this or that; we all have things that we don’t like. Some did not invest themselves properly in the life of the church, perhaps through their own neglect or perhaps through the failure of others to invite them in. Some have not given their following of Christ the priority in their lives that is appropriate or have failed to understand that they do not do their following alone and that they thus need to be with other Christians. Some have been discouraged by hypocrisy, whether their own or someone else’s.

Some have decided that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Our former pastor Gene Wilder recently wrote a newsletter column in which he talked about “Greener Grass Syndrome.” Pat and he decided to take an autumn vacation to see the leaves in New England. After noting that the scenery there was pretty but not spectacular, Gene wrote,

Ironically, “spectacular” is the word I most often use to describe the fall landscape of East Tennessee. The beauty I see from my own back porch is without comparison. No New England hill rivals the beauty of the Smoky’s foothills. No New England color is more vibrant that the colors that wash across the landscape that surrounds our church, and no grass is greener than the grass outside my own back door.
It’s easy to get caught up in the Greener Grass Syndrome, isn’t it? Instead of fully appreciating the blessings we have we convince ourselves that the greatest blessings lie in other pastures. We look at our job, our family, our income, even our church and long for something we don’t have. We long for something on the other side; but the other side rarely lives up to our grandiose expectations. More often than not, greener grass is just an illusion, a mirage born of discontent, a fantasy woven with the threads of an unappreciative spirit.
Sadly, those who become fixated on the other side don’t get greener grass. They just become blind to the beauty outside their own back door. [Gene Wilder, “Wilder’s Words,” The Messenger (Newsletter of the First Baptist Church of Jefferson City, Tennessee), October 25, 2011]

Those with ears to hear, let them hear!

And, if you truly believe that the grass is greener elsewhere and you must try out that pasture, please know that we bless you on your journey even as we commit to celebrating the green grass that is right here. I know--we have our stuff. But it is our stuff and we will work with it and through it. After all, as Erma Bombeck once said, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

Let’s not find excuses not to meet together; instead, let’s come together as a church family to encourage one another and to lift one another up. What are some ways we can do that?

For one thing, we can be here with each other in our worship services. Never forget that the main reason we gather on Sunday mornings is to praise God. Think for a minute, though, about how encouraging we are to each other when we are here together. Think about how your smile or kind word might mean the world to someone on a particular Sunday morning. Think about how much encouragement and energy we give each other when our pews are full. Think about how much our singing together means to each other; just the other day someone told me how they were encouraged by another member’s singing—something that person probably doesn’t even realize. We encourage each other by being here. And, while being here every time the doors are opened is not a measure of the quality of our faith, I must mention how we can encourage each other by our presence on Sunday and Wednesday nights and at our special services of worship, too.

For another thing, we can make an effort to get to know each other. The writer of Hebrews said we should “consider how to provoke one another in love”; we inspire love in each other by getting to know each other and by sharing our lives with each other. Let me make some radical suggestions. First, come to Wednesday night supper and when you come, sit at a different table and talk with different people from time to time. Second, sit in a different section and in a different pew with different people every once in a while. Third, have some folks to your home for dinner or dessert but when you do, invite some close friends and some church members that are not part of your “group.”

For yet another thing, we can join together in ministry and mission efforts. The author of Hebrews also said that we should “consider how to provoke one another to…good deeds.” The church offers all kinds of opportunities for us to come together in doing good deeds. For example, when we have a PACK (Planned Acts of Christian Kindness) Day, call a friend and say, “Let’s go do that together!” Let’s inspire and encourage each other in positive ways to do the good work of ministry together.

We have the blessed opportunity, given to us by the saving actions of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be a family of faith that approaches God together, that affirms our faith together, and that serves God by serving people together. Let’s let our church home be a fellowship of encouragement. Let’s come home so we can encourage one another with the grace and love of the Lord!