Advent 2023 Week 1 Hope

MC
by Ma Ke Alo o Community17 views·Updated Dec 2, 2023
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  1. Hi, everyone. My name is Owen Strasser. I'm one of the pastors here at Malo
  2. O and
  3. Malo
  4. O in Hawaiian means presence.
  5. We believe in the presence of God and being present
  6. with one another and present in the community around us.
  7. Um We are going to be starting our Advent Series in 2023
  8. this week and it's been something that we've actually never done before.
  9. Uh in the Life of Macho
  10. is to do a proper Sunday Advent uh series
  11. uh according to the election.
  12. Uh And first up this week is on the Hope Candle,
  13. uh next week will be on the love candle where we're going to be gathering in person
  14. um at Grace and Growlers for our annual Christmas communion on tap.
  15. Um
  16. uh The following week will be the Joy Candle
  17. and then the last week will be on Christmas Eve will be on the Peace Candle.
  18. But today, we're going to be focusing on the Hope Candle.
  19. And traditionally actually, uh the hope candle
  20. was originally about the candle of prophecy or prophecy.
  21. And in order for us to sort of understand what that might be like,
  22. uh I invite us to look at Ezekiel 37 in
  23. Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel is a prophet of God. It's, it's during
  24. um
  25. when it feels like all hope is lost in the people of Israel. And uh chapter 37
  26. uh starts out with the hand of the Lord was on me.
  27. Uh Ezekiel speaking and he brought me out by the spirit of
  28. the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley.
  29. It was full of bones.
  30. He led me back and forth among them.
  31. And I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley. Bones that were very dry.
  32. And the Lord asked me, son of man, can these bones live?
  33. I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know.
  34. Then he said to me prophesy
  35. to these bones and say to them dry bones. Hear the word of the Lord.
  36. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones.
  37. I will make breath enter you and you will come to life.
  38. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin.
  39. I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I
  40. am the Lord.
  41. You see. Ezekiel 37 is all about what happens when the breath of God
  42. comes to us.
  43. But it's not just that it's what happens when God compels us
  44. the life and truth and beauty of God compels us to prophesy
  45. to dead things. To things that are dying around us,
  46. prophesy
  47. into them, that they will come to life because God is near us because God is with us.
  48. And because God tells us prophesy
  49. to these dead things, these dead places that they will come to life.
  50. And when we think about Ezekiel 37 doesn't it remind us so much
  51. about, uh, the Christmas story?
  52. Doesn't it remind us so much about how, uh, the hope of the whole world,
  53. the light of the whole world came as a baby into a dark place,
  54. into a place that feels like death into broken places
  55. and, and breathes new life into all of us.
  56. For many of us, Ezekiel's reality is not too different from our own.
  57. Most of the time we can see in ourselves
  58. and in our communities that are plagued by injustice,
  59. forcing us to reckon with the destruction of life,
  60. whether it's under some sort of oppression, some sort of lie,
  61. some sort of a part about this broken world that grips
  62. us.
  63. And when you add the loss of surrounding what
  64. we have all gone through from the pandemic.
  65. And now here in Hawaii, the collective loss that we've been experienced
  66. through, through the fires in Maui,
  67. we realize that the dry bones Ezekiel saw
  68. are all around us too
  69. yet. God still call us, compels us
  70. to be called and reaffirm our commitment to our communities.
  71. And it drives us to hear God say, can these dry bones live
  72. and he compels us to prophesy
  73. to them, that the bones will live because God is with us.
  74. Because God breathes new life in us.
  75. In Ezekiel 37 6, he says, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you will live.
  76. I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with
  77. skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord
  78. God's response to our prophesying to dead things is
  79. that he will breathe new life into them.
  80. So invite us to in this week of advent,
  81. this first Sunday in advent to kind of think through
  82. what looks and feels dead in you or in your community
  83. right now.
  84. And maybe to also consider where do you hope for renewed life,
  85. a new breath of life in you or a new breath of life in your community?
  86. We'll close with a breath or a breathing prayer where we inhale
  87. a words together and then we exhale a words together. But before that,
  88. let us remember that the God of the universe who would so
  89. graciously meet us in the depths of our valleys of dry bones.
  90. He gives us courage to prophesy to death around us,
  91. to the dead things and dead places around us when
  92. it doesn't make sense or it doesn't look promising.
  93. Let us listen for God's voice
  94. when he whispers, can these dead things. Can these dry bones live?
  95. Can we embody Christ and let him breathe new life into us,
  96. into the communities around us so that we can
  97. continue a good work of incarnation in us,
  98. in our families, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in our friendships,
  99. in our communities.
  100. Let us see and pray for the possibilities of renewed life
  101. in our communities so that God's kingdom may draw near.
  102. So we pray with me as we inhale.
  103. Lord breathe new life into me, my community and our world.
  104. And let's exhale together, Lord revive the dry bones in me,
  105. in my community and in our world.
  106. Amen.