Drop the Name: December 9, A friend of mine Moved to California The Los Angeles area A few years ago.

Transcription

1 Drop the Name: December 9, 2018 A friend of mine Moved to California The Los Angeles area A few years ago. And it s interesting How she s integrated In the culture Of being wooed And impressed By the presence Of famous people. Back when I knew her in Madison We didn t know anybody famous. College coaches and players Local politicians But no one You would recognize. Nobody too impressive. But now she runs into people Who everybody has heard of. For example At her daughter s cross country meet One of the parents Who was cheering For her child was [1 Jennifer Garner] Jennifer Garner. For Pete s sake. There she was At a cross country meet Yelling for her kid. She even cheered for My friend s kid When she ran by Yep. One degree of separation Between me And good old.. Jennifer Garner. You ever do that? You ever drop somebody s name [2 Name Dropping] With the hope

2 That you might impress someone Or it might make you Seem important Or connected? Sometimes it s a fun game To play. But it doesn t really reflect Who we are as people It doesn t mean That somehow we are more Important. Impressive. Cool. Just to know Someone famous. And it doesn t even really reflect Who they are As celebrities Or sports figures Or world leaders. Jennifer Garner Was at a cross country meet TO SEE HER CHILD RUN. That s it. She probably also Eats food. Uses the bathroom. Sleeps at night. And does all kinds of things That normal un-famous People do. Just lives her life. But still We get easily star-struck And as a result We like to name drop Don t we? Maybe at first [3 Luke] It seems like Luke The gospel writer Is doing a little name-dropping Of his own. He writes

3 At his time About all those guys. You know Those guys The powerful ones. Emperor Tiberius Who was the Emperor Of the entire Roman Empire From 14 AD to 37 AD. And Pontius Pilate Who was the Roman appointed governor Of the whole area of Judea. Then of course You all know Herod The King of Galilee He does some pretty bad stuff And exerts a huge amount of power Against Jesus His brother Phillip Who was the King of the area Around Ituraea and Trachonitis. Who s just a minor character In the whole deal But still important. Then you have the good old God boys Annas.. and Caiaphas The high priests The pinnacle Of the Jewish faith. You can t get more important Than the high priest. It s like the pope To our Catholic Brothers and sisters. The top of the religious food chain. - So. Luke mentioned all the big guns The leaders of the world The heads of state And the patriarchs Of the church. The big guys. The important people. He dropped their names Like they were hot.

4 But. Not for the same reason That people drop names today. He did it for two reasons. The first Was to anchor the story In history. He s going to tell us a story That s pretty incredible Maybe a bit hard to believe. God is intersecting Breaking into And completely changing HUMAN HISTORY. With the advent of Jesus Our lives will be changed From this time forward. Time itself gets changed The way we keep track of time. We go from BC Before Christ [4 BC AD.] To AD which stands for Anno Domini In the year of our Lord. I know that s not politically correct Anymore To keep track of time According to the life of Christ We re supposed to say BCE Before the Common Era And CE the Common Era. But. The point is the same. The story of Jesus Is a SIGNIFICANT change For all humanity. And Luke ties it to famous people To let us know that This actually happened. [5 True Story.] There is a specific time In a specific place Governed by real life people.

5 This isn t a fairy tale. It s not make believe. It s a true story. And this is how it happened. - But the other purpose Of dropping all those names Is to set up a comparison. [6 Somebody] Between The rich and the powerful The decision makers The authorities of this world. These are the big people. The important people. And now Enter John the Baptist? Nobody knows him. Nobody recognizes his name. He s a self-isolated hermit He s a desert prophet. He s a wild man. He s a street corner preacher Calling people to repent To come back to God. To be baptized As a sign Of their remorse For the way they have treated God. He s nobody. He s just not important. Anybody recognize [7 DAV] This kid? No? Well this dapper young man Was somewhat written off When he was a child. If you turn to the last page Of one of his many books You can read about the author [8 About the Author] It says When Dav Pilkey was a kid He suffered from ADHD Dyslexia And behavioral problems.

6 Dav was so disruptive in class That his teachers made him Sit out in the hall Every day. Fortunately Dav loved to draw And make up stories. He spent his time In the hallway Creating his own Original comic books. In the second grade Dav Pilkey Created a comic book About a superhero Named Captain Underpants His teacher ripped it up And told him He couldn t spend The rest of his life Making silly books. Fortunately Dav was not A very good listener. Dav Pilkey Is the creator Author Illustrator Of the Captain Underpants [8b Captain Underpants] Series of books For kids. If you haven t read one Maybe you should. They re silly and fun. And even though He was not appreciated He was not recognized As being important And even though The teachers didn t value What he had to offer His work

7 Has encouraged kids to read And learn And laugh And grow. What I m trying to say is We need to suspend our expectations Of what it means To be important And powerful And maybe more importantly What it means to be meaningful - So John the Baptist. [9 John] He s nobody. Right? He s not important. Except. For one little thing. He was filled with The Word of God. The Word of God Came to John The Son of Zechariah In the wilderness. He wasn t there on his own. He wasn t making things up. He was filled with the Word of God And the power of the Holy Spirit. He was there Representing God And asking us To get ready. To turn our lives around. To stop thinking We are so important And wonderful And cool On our own. And to start believing That God is real. That God is with us. That God has an expectation Of a right relationship With us.

8 Which simply means Humbly understanding That God is God. Now listen You don t have to do anything To earn God s salvation Except. Believe. That God is God. And you are not. And I am not. That s what it means to repent. All the other behavioral stuff Comes out of our love for God. But that s another sermon For another time. But for today. One more story. About a mother And her experience With her daughter At the church Christmas Play. [10 Christmas Play] She said: My young daughter, Jana Was so excited About her part in the Church play That I was sure She was one of the main characters. But she would never tell me... What part she was playing She wanted it To be a surprise. The night of the performance All the parents and grandparents Were in the audience. Then one by one The children took their places For the opening scene. I could see the shepherds Fidgeting in one corner As Mary and Joseph Stood solemnly Behind the manger.

9 In the back Three young wise men Waited impatiently. Jana was calmly sitting on a chair Off-stage To the side. - Then the teacher began: A long time ago Mary and Joseph had a baby And they named Him Jesus. And when Jesus was born A bright star appeared Over the stable. With that cue Jana got up from her chair Picked up a large tin-foil star Walked behind Mary and Joseph And held the star up high For everyone to see. When the teacher told about The shepherds coming To see the baby The three young shepherds Came forward And Jana Jiggled the star Up and down excitedly To show them Where to come. When the wise men responded to their cue Jana took a few steps forward To meet them And to lead the way. She was smiling Ear to ear The whole time. The play ended And on the way home... Jana said with great satisfaction... I had the main part!" You did? I questioned Wondering why she thought that. Yes, she said

10 Because I showed everybody How to find Jesus! John was filled with the Word of God [11 The Point] Which compelled him To point to repentance And baptism And ultimately To salvation To Jesus. He was nobody. But he was so important Because he pointed Directly to Jesus. God uses nobody Or a better way to say it God can use Everybody Anybody Who is filled with the Word of God To point other people to salvation Through Christ. And there is no celebrity Politician Sports figure Movie star Musician Who is more important To know Than Jesus. The bible says There is no other name By which we can be saved. So you want to drop a name? Try the name of Jesus. And be like John Use your life To point to him. Thanks be to God. Amen!