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Advent Object Lessons for Adults

Adult Object Lesson: Advent A-4 Isaiah 7:10-16

Advent artThree Weeks and Counting: Still Broken

Isaiah 7:10-16  •  Psalm 80:1-7

This is the fourth object lesson based primarily on the Isaiah readings for Advent Lectionary Year A.

For the last three weeks we have been pondering the great event that is about to be remembered by the world once again. In just two days the Saviour will come at last.

Have things been getting steadily better for us during these four weeks? Not necessarily.

On this last Sunday before Christmas Eve, we read from Isaiah and Psalm 80 and we hear about our brokenness.

Both the psalmist and Isaiah reference an exasperated God—a weary God.

“All right, you guys. If you are just too stubborn or helpless to get the messages of the last three weeks or last few decades, listen up. Listen and listen good. I am sending a baby. And by the time this baby starts eating solid food, things are going to change around here.”

For all the prophesying that had been taking place in Israel and for all the preaching that has been taking place here, we arrive at the threshold of Christmas as broken children of God.

Your object today is something that is broken. It could be a broken record, a broken piece of pottery or a broken toy. Set out to do some mending as you talk about today’s lesson. Try some tape or duct tape, move on to white paste or school glue. Express your frustration as you work at mending things. Then pull out the Krazy Glue.

Speaking of crazy fixes — here’s how God intends to fix our brokenness. He is going to send a baby. He will be born of woman, just like any other baby, but He will be a sign that things are about to change.

As you come to Isaiah’s unlikely solution for the problems his audience faced, walk over to your congregation’s crèche scene. If you don’t have one, have at hand just the manger and the baby or even just the baby. Put all the glues away. You might have a child hold the baby Jesus while you put away the glues and broken object.

Then focus all attention on the baby.

Point out the brokenness that we all face—and with which the baby will contend from the time he can eat solid food!

You don’t have to say much more at this point. Just read verse 13-14 from Isaiah Chapter 7.

Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?
Therefore, the Lord God will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Remind them that the people hearing this message from the lips of Isaiah would have known the meaning of Immanuel.

God is coming to be with us.

Invite them to return on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

You might lead the congregation in an a capella rendition of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” It captures both the hope and desperation of the Advent season.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood;
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim, with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Here are the other three Advent lessons based on Lectionary A’s Isaiah readings.

Advent 1

Advent 2

Advent 3

Adult Object Lesson: Looking Ahead to Advent A-1

peanutSwords Into Plowshares

Anything Can Be a Weapon
Anything Can Be an Instrument of Peace

Advent is a great season for focusing on the Old Testament.
This year, Lectionary Year A, each Advent Sunday focuses on the prophet Isaiah.

This is the first of four object lessons based on the Isaiah Readings for Lectionary Year A.

Isaiah understood that adults understand object lessons!

The first lesson is the well-known “swords into plowshares” text.

Isaiah 2:1-5
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.  In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.  Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.  O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Your object can be any or several simple garden tools: a hoe is good. It is used to whack weeds so that good plants can grow.

Or it can be a peanut butter sandwich! (Read on!)

My son went to Quaker school where any reference to weaponry was strongly discouraged. This was a challenge for teachers working with young boys who wanted to dress up as superheroes at Halloween.

What’s a superhero without a weapon?

My son had two kindergarten teachers: a zealous young gal in her first years of teaching and a seasoned teacher in her last year of teaching before retiring. While the young teacher fervently and repeatedly discouraged five-year-old boys from thinking about weapons, the older teacher sighed. “They are boys. They will make weapons out of a peanut butter sandwich!”

Boys, men, adults of any gender . . . . we all have ways of manufacturing weapons.

Talk about how the hoe is tool of peace. Its purpose is to rid the garden of nutrient-sapping weeds so that life-sustaining plants can grow. Still, even the garden hoe can be a weapon. I was chopping away at weeds one summer day when I realized I had chopped a garter snake in two!

The difference between a sword and a plowshare is often in how we look at the world. That’s Isaiah’s mission in today’s passage—to change our point of view.

Words can be weapons. “It takes a thousand ‘attaboys’ to erase one ‘You idiot!’” Doctor Phil regularly tells his audience. Yet the “You idiot” slips out so much more easily.

Money is a favorite weapon. “Do as I say or you will lose my support!” Children learn this early when their parents withhold allowance! Adults often weigh it every day at work and even in church!

You want support? You listen and you listen good!

Rules, meant to keep order, can be used to force will and submission. Words and rules are actually favorite “weapons” of the Church through the ages and even today. You want an upper hand, keep that constitution within reach! (American nuns, get in line or face sanctions!)

Love can be a weapon, too. We are approaching the celebration of love coming from heaven to our doorstep! Yet it, in our hands, it often becomes a weapon.

Just as almost anything can be a weapon, anything can be a plowshare.

The gun in the hands of a hunter can feed the family. The knife can divide fruits and vegetables so that more people can share in God’s bounty.

The challenge of this passage is not so much to address physical tools but to change our mindset— to begin to see our possessions and talents as instruments of peace rather than weapons of war.

A little baby is coming. He will be an instrument of peace even when we are tempted to use Him to fuel our warlike ways!

This Advent: Watch our words. Watch how we use our power and influence. Put love to work. Look at our possessions as tools to spread the goodness of God’s creation.

Turn all those peanut butter sandwich weapons back into sandwiches.

(Why didn’t Isaiah think of that!)

photo credit: boodoo via photopin cc