Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is 1 Thessalonians 3:9

For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, ¹⁰ as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? ¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, ¹² and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, ¹³ so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

The lessons for today highlight prophecy which is today’s Advent candle theme. You don’t see the word prophecy hanging from the Advent wreath. Instead you see the results of the prophecy "hope." Jeremiah prophesies the coming of the savior when he says; "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." The nation of Israel is in captivity, they are no longer the mighty nation they once were. There was nothing left but a stump; the stump of Jesse Isaiah spoke about. Jesus is the branch that will spring up from the stump of Jesse. There is hope in the prophecy that Jesus will bring justice and righteousness to the land.

The gospel lesson speaks of hope realized. Jesus is alive and living among the people here on earth. He is hope realized in the flesh. Jesus is entering Jerusalem triumphantly. He is the realization of hope to the people as the king. We know it to be the obedient act of the Son of God, the righteous branch, on His way to the cursed tree to bring hope to all through His righteous death and resurrection.

So, we read the prophecy and the prophecy realized. We know that Christ’s Advent, or coming to earth in the flesh, is His first advent. We are still waiting with hope for the Second Advent where He will separate the people like the sheep from the goats. He will collect the faithful to Himself as is recorded in Matthew chapter 25. What about the middle part? What about all the time in between the first and Second Advent of Jesus Christ; the time of the letters of the New Testament and now. We live in that middle part. We live in the time between the first and Second Advent of Christ. That is where the Epistle to the Thessalonians comes in. Paul prays for the church to grow in faith. He is hoping to help them grow with another visit. Paul wanted them to have everything they needed to make their faith complete. This is truly something we can use today in these middle times. This thought brings me back to the mission I presented to you. Worship together, Grow together, Go together. Through all the things we do together our faith grows. That is why regular attendance in worship and bible study is so important; our faith individually and as a church is growing through these activities. God is supplying what is lacking in our faith through worship, study, and serving others.

Paul goes on to ask that the Lord make their love for each other and everyone else increase and overflow. Basically, he is saying love abundantly. Let it flow! Let it Flow! Let it Flow! Let your love flow to members of this body of Christ and beyond. Again it goes back to the mission, Worship together, Grow together, Go together!

What does it mean to love each other abundantly? It means caring for, praying for, encouraging, and forgiving all the members of this congregation. We all have someone that just gets under our skin. It may be a personality clash or it might be something they did that upset you. To love abundantly means you look past the differences to what we have in common, the love of Jesus Christ. We must love them especially when they get under our skin. Show them the love of Christ; resolve your conflicts the way Matthew describes in chapter 18. Gain a brother through love.

Now we get to the Go Together part of the mission. This is where we love those in our community by serving them. When we serve them we show them not only our love but we also show them the love of Christ. By meeting our neighbors needs we show them love abundantly. Let it flow! Let it flow! Let it flow! We can do this together as we do when we pick up food at Wal-Mart for CASA, or when we help a person move their furniture into their house, or when we tile a floor for CASA, and so much more. We can also love abundantly individually; we still go together, as the body of Christ known as Trinity Lutheran Church. Together corporately and individually we are going together. Here is a story my friend Jon shared with me.

I am a mother of three (ages 14, 12, 3) and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was Sociology.

The teacher was absolutely inspiring with the qualities that I wish every human being had been graced with. Her last project of the term was called "Smile." The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake. Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest son and I went out to McDonald’s one crisp March morning.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away, and then even my husband did. I did not move an inch, but an overwhelming feeling of panic welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible ‘dirty body’ smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman close to me, he was smiling. His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God’s Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was of critical importance to him. I held my tears as I stood there with them. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all, Miss." That was obviously all they could afford. He knew that if they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm.

Then I really felt it. The compulsion was so great I almost reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That’s when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray. I then walked around the corner to the table the men had chosen as a resting spot. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman’s cold hand. He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Thank you." I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I didn’t do this for you. God is here working through me to give you hope."

As I walked away to join my husband and son, I began to cry. When I sat down, my husband smiled at me and said, "That’s why God gave you to me, Honey—to give me hope." We held hands for a moment. And at that time we knew that only because of the grace we had been given were we able to give. That day showed me the pure Light of God’s sweet love.

On the last evening of class, I returned with this story in hand. I turned in my "project" and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, "May I share this?" I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class and began to read my story. And that is when I knew that we as human beings and children of God share this need to help heal people and to be healed in the process. In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s, my son, my husband, the instructor, and every person who shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student. I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn—unconditional acceptance. That day I learned the importance of loving people and using things, not loving things and using people." This story pretty much sums up loving abundantly.

A New York City police officer saw a homeless man walking on a cold night without shoes or socks. He asked him where they were and the homeless man said he never had any. The police officer ran ahead of the man into a shoe store and bought him socks and a pair of boots. The picture is of the police officer about to put the socks and boots on the man’s feet because he was too cold to do it himself. He humbled himself to be a servant. Love abundantly; Let it flow! Let it flow! Let it Flow!

The love of Christ makes our human bodies react. When Christ enters you at baptism you are a changed person and once you realize what you have you can’t help but overflow with His love. Christ’s love is kind of like this tablet entering our bodies. (Drop a Mentos into the bottle of diet coke and watch it overflow) It reacts and we can’t help but to overflow.

This is the middle part between the two advents of Jesus Christ. Paul describes a great way to live as we too have hope in the second coming of Christ. Let it flow! Let it flow! Let it flow!

Amen.