ADVENT - HOW DO I LIVE THE NEXT 25 YEARS?

Notes taken from Advent sermon by Rev Fr Mike as part of his Face to Face - Advent with Fr Mike Schmitz series, 2024

https://link.ascension-app.com/xuJnSCtdZOb

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SERMON NOTES (not a transcription)

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PREPARING FOR THE LORD’S COMING

The season of Advent is a time to prepare for the arrival of Jesus - His three comings:

- His coming at Christmas, preparing our hearts so that we can appropriately and adequately celebrate Christmas.

- His coming to us in the present, in prayer, Scripture and the Sacraments, to recognise Him

- His final coming at the end of time.

As for the moment Christ will come at the end of time - we do not know the day nor the hour, but we do know we each have an appointment to meet Him at the last moment to our life, when we stand before the Lord.

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HOW DO I LIVE THE NEXT 25 DAYS?

WHAT IF I knew that Dec 25 is the day I was going to die, the day I was going to see the Lord, and I was given 25 days to prepare to see Him face to face?

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN in my life in the next 25 days so that I will be able to and be joyful about the reality of standing before God face to face?  

No more hiding, nothing left to hide, nothing left undone, a life that has been completed….

How do I live the next 25 days…

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PREPARING TO BE SEEN

The goal of Advent is to prepare to be seen by God, to be able to stand before Him fae to face.

Do I want to see Him, and be seen by Him?

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THE DESIRE TO HIDE 

We all have the desire to hide because all of us carry shame.  We fear that some day, all the things we did, all the stuff we hid, big and small, wil be seen. So we hide.  And we continue to hide.

How many times have we thought to ourselves:

“I don’t want you to know….about me.”

“I don’t want you to find out…I don’t want my siblings to know…i don’t want my parents to know….I don’t want my friends to know…I don’t  want my spouse to know….I don’t want my children to know…..”  

These things are often connected to appearances or performances…

Jesus warns us:  

“Beware that your heart is not drowsy from…the anxieties of daily life….”  Luke 21:34

If we spend our lives hiding, at the end, we will not have the strength to stand..

The things I have been doing to prevent me from being seen as I am…. The things I do in my life to cover things up, these are the anxieties of daily life that Jesus warns against.

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THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH

Fundamentally, we continue to hide because we do not believe the core truth of Christianity - that we are loved as we are right now。

Many of us do not believe this because we have things we are hiding.

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GUILT AND SHAME

We need to face ourselves before we face the Lord.  We need to drive out guilt and shame which keep us from freedom.

Guilt is when I know I have violated some objective standard.  

Shame is when I know you know that I have violated some objective standard.

Shame is relational.  

Guilt has no need to hide.  Shame thrives in hiding, in keeping it hiding, in silencing us, in not letting ourselves be seen.

We need to know that we are loved as we are right now. 

God knows everything about us. He knows our brokenness even before we had any idea of our brokenness.  He knows our wounds before we know we would have them, He knows what will cause us shame before we even know it existed.  

In the midst of knowing this, He declares we are worth loving as we are, loving us to the extend that He sends His son to this world so that we do not have to hide and so that we have the strength before Him.  

The love has not been lost as long as we let ourselves be seen.

What was taken from us and what was done to us do not leave us destroyed.

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Shame thrives in secrecy.

Love kills shame.

Let ourselves be loved.

The truth is we are loved as we are. God knows and He loves us, and he wants to rejoice over our presence mo that He rejects us over our shame.

Step out.  Let us prepare well to meet the Lord.