Including verses from Isaiah 2: 1-5, Matthew 24: 36-44, and Romans 13: 11-14, this was written for and given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on November 28, 2004. It is IMPORTANT to note that it is very time-and-location sensitive! While the Jubilee Center is still there, many of the people mentioned throughout this piece may have moved-on or even be ‘gone’… Indeed, even the little ‘Lynnville UMC’ shut it’s doors not too many years after I left there in 2005… 😦 However, it is a great testament to that group of people that the number of ‘flood’ buckets’ taken to the ‘Midwest Distribution Center’ and the amount of food taken in to the ‘Jacksonville Food Bank’ each month FAR exceeded what might be expected from such a tiny group of people!! Kudos to them!?! May their spirit live on through those of us still here to carry on…

          Some of you were here the Sunday I talked about [my wife] and I taking the Youth groups from Wesley Chapel and Jerseyville on a mission trip to Sneedville, TN. Believe it or not, that was the summer of 2002! For those who weren’t here, or whose memory… like mine… just ‘ain’t what it used to be’… let me tell some of that story again!

          Hancock County, named after John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, was… and probably still is… the poorest county in the state of Tennessee, and Sneedville is the county seat of Hancock County. You see, in the past the economy had been based on all of the coal mines in the area, but they’ve all been gone, now, for a number of years, and there just hasn’t been anything to replace them!

          So, for the most part, as the young boys grow in to men, they generally opt to pack-up and leave. But most of the older generation have never known any other life and had no desire to move on, and didn’t know how to change… so for many years their upkeep has fallen on the various welfare systems of the state and county.

          A few years ago, area Methodist churches saw a real need in that area, and in time established the Jubilee Project, a combination Youth center and relief agency located in Sneedville but serving the entire county. In fact, let me read the blurb from their web site… Jubilee Project was begun by United Methodists in 1991, and it has expanded to include many others, joining together to help people in the name of Jesus Christ, by helping them meet their spiritual, economic, social and physical needs.  Jubilee Project’s vision is to assist in the empowerment of people in Hancock County Tennessee, especially those with the greatest needs, through enhancement of self-worth, abilities and opportunities.  We do this as an inclusive, community-based organization initiated and guided by Christian values and relationships.  Jubilee Project is open to everyone, regardless of religion, faith, creed, gender or race.

The person we dealt with when we were there, Randy Hildebrant, was the Youth Coordinator and also arranged and oversaw all of the projects that volunteers from all over come and work on each summer. During the week we were there, we had groups… replace an entire roof on an elderly lady’s home, build a proper entryway and porch to a house trailer inhabited by two or three generations of one family at one site and a wheel chair ramp for a house at a different location, build a retaining wall around a new water pump serving a young family’s needs, stuffed school supplies into shopping bags for distribution at school when it started back up, helped at a local clothing store run by the center, installed a new floor and repaired some doors and hardware around the center itself… well, you get the idea… we were very, very busy.

Let me see if I can put at least one face on all of this for you… One of the projects I was personally involved with was replacing the main circuit box and rewiring the air-conditioner for a gentleman I’ll call ‘Mr. P’. Mr. P lived in the same two-room shack he had been born in some ninety years earlier… indeed, he had never lived anywhere else! And while it was probably no more than thirty miles from Sneedville on a map, it took over an hour’s worth of driving up and down and around and over and under on all of those mountain roads to get there. This old, gray-haired, black gentleman sat and talked to me and the kids I had taken with me the whole time we were there working, and OH!, do I wish I had been able to record all that he had to say! The stories and insights he had about all of those years of life and living and loving were just spell-binding to me… the man was a true treasure, but no-one but us would ever know!

In addition to arranging all of these projects, Randy had also started a community self-help project designed to help the locals get off of the welfare roles and provide for themselves by providing ideas, seed-money, contacts and working space for anyone interested in starting a private business enterprise… and many of these were successful! He was truly an amazing person, and I came away with a great deal of respect and admiration for the man! And we’ll talk more about him in a bit.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent… that time of year when we try to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. In our Old Testament verses from Isaiah [2: 1-5] this morning we heard that, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

Now, I must needs point out to you that this did not happen during Christ’s first coming… this prophecy must be pointing to His return. And in our verses from Matthew [24: 36-44] this morning, Jesus himself says that, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

And in our verses from Romans [13: 11-14], Paul tells us to do all of this… “understanding the present time. The hour has come… to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Every day… every hour we live brings us closer to the time of Christ’s return! “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the… darkness and put on the armor of light.”

The Life Application Commentary reminds us that, “In Scripture, light provides a very powerful image… for light represents all that opposes darkness and evil. We must utilize God’s light.” And that is part of the significance of the lighting of the Advent Candles each Sunday during this season… dispelling the darkness of evil that threatens to engulf us at every turn. But… it is not the act of lighting that candle that dispels the darkness… it is the good being done in Christ’s name throughout the world that drives away the darkness of Satan, bringing light to all!

The kind of good being done by people like Mother Teresa and others like her… the kind of good being done by Janet McCarty, one of our local missionaries currently serving in Nepal… the kind of good being done by Randy Hildebrant in Sneedville, TN… the kind of good we do when we take food to the food center in Jacksonville and provide flood buckets for victims of natural disasters around the world.

In fact, let me read a small part from Randy’s latest [2004] newsletter… “Disaster Relief Work for UMCOR – Thanks to the work of many local United Methodist Churches, individuals, and even a Brownie Scout Troup, we were able to collect flood-buckets (clean up kits for flood victims), non-perishable food, bottled water, and clothing for victims of the recent hurricanes in Florida. As a district disaster relief coordinator, I have been working in conjunction with others in our conference on relief efforts. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the churches, groups, and individuals who donated their time, efforts, and money to help those in need.”

Now, keep in mind that this is Hancock County… the poorest county in one of the poorest states of this country! And these people are putting together flood buckets and other aid to send out in support of disaster relief for others! To me, that is truly amazing… and a very ‘bright’ example of the kind of light that dispels the darkness of evil!

As I said, this is the first Sunday of Advent… but while tradition may have us preparing for the birth of baby Jesus, I put it to you that we need to be in anticipation of His Second Coming… when we will all be judged by how much light we have added to the world!

Let’s bring in enough food next Sunday to fill a pickup for the Food center! Let’s get these flood buckets put together and take a truck load over in January! And let’s see if we can put a face on some of what we are doing as well… here is an ‘Advance Special’ Number for salary support for Randy Hildebrant at the Jubilee Program in Sneedville, TN! Let’s commit to making a monthly donation to him… or another program, if you so choose… and help keep that light lit in God’s name! It doesn’t have to be much… we could choose to give as little as $100/month, as a congregation… just add a little to the collection plate each week or month over and above your regular giving… marked for that special project!

Jesus is coming! And as He, himself says in today’s verses, “…you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Will He find you in darkness… or will He find us doing our part to light up the world?