PREACHER TO PREACHER

From the Editors

My childhood in the church was filled with scary images of tribulation and rapture and anti-christs. If we knew anything about being a Christian, we knew you’d better be ready at any moment. Perhaps you can identify with my experience of sleepless Sunday nights after the pastor or evangelist preached a hair-raising sermon on hell.

Well, things have changed. In many ways they’ve changed for the better. And yet, as so often happens, it seems as if the pendulum has swung the other way. Now we’re pretty much convinced of business as usual. As Christians, we know that this world will not always function as it is. Jesus is returning in his power and glory to bring to fruition the kingdom of God. There is coming a day of separation and judgment, of reward and punishment. In spite of that conviction, however, we tend to go on year after year with our nice little celebration of Christmas, running ourselves ragged, spending more money than we have, talking about how terrible it all is, and knowing we’ll do it all over again next year. Can it be different than that?

Jesus called the disciples and the church to a posture of readiness. That’s really what this season of Advent is about. Advent is a fresh call to us every year to look at our spiritual preparedness for the coming of Christ. We remember that we await not only the celebration of his coming in Bethlehem, but we also truly await the Second Advent, when Christ will come to finish his work. If we knew that Jesus was going to return on December 25th or January 6th, how do you suppose it would change our celebration of Advent this year? Do you think we might do some things differently? The truth is that Jesus is calling us to live just that way, to live in the readiness and watchfulness of his coming.

The sermon helps for the season of Advent and Christmas are provided by Pastor Sam Vassel of the Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene in New York City. Dr. Vassel has focused our attention on the Prologue of John’s Gospel with some very fruitful ideas for preaching from this wonderful text. The sermon materials for the Sundays after Epiphany are provided by Dr. Gary Henecke, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee. Pastor Henecke’s work focuses on the theme of Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus as the divine Son of God.

We send this issue to you with our prayer that these helps, along with the other materials provided in this issue of Preacher’s Magazine, will help you and encourage you in the good work of preaching.