May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Christmas
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 24 & 25, 1998
TEXT: Luke 2: 1-20 - And the angel said to them (the shepherds), "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
ISSUE: In this beautiful and simple passage, Luke proclaims to his readers that the Savior of the world has come. It is Jesus the Christ. He comes in the flesh. He is not a spirit, a tablet of stone, an angel. He comes as one of us, to show us his love and reveal what we might become. He comes to the least, the shepherds thought to be little more than a band of thieves, and they in turn honor him. We are gathered here to do the same, to honor him, and rejoice in the hope that he brings.
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We are gathered here on this Christmas to honor the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks for the fact that God has come among us in the flesh. Luke's poetic narrative expresses the fullness of God coming among his people in great simplicity. Having heard the story and reflecting on it for a few minutes, we then come to the altar rail to reach and to receive him into our lives. We come this evening in search of hope for the days and years ahead.
Luke's narrative is so profoundly beautiful. He speaks of hard times when the Roman Power manipulated and disrupted people's lives. He conveys this hardship by tell that Mary and Joseph must make a journey from their small hometown of Nazareth to Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem to participate in some census or tax payment arrangement. They are the victims of the powers of the world, and felt little control over their lives.
Nazareth was a small town of about a 100 inhabitants, and Bethlehem was not much bigger. When they arrive in Bethlehem Luke tells us there was no room in the "inn." Bethlehem did not have inns as we know them. A more literal translation would be guest room (or upper room as in the room used by Jesus for the Last Supper). Peasant homes were ususally one room dwellings. A few had an upper room or guest room. The more usual peasant dwelling had a living quarters at one end of the room, and a place at the other end to bed down the animals at night separated by a manger. Apparently the guest rooms were already taken by people who had more status or honor than Mary and Joseph. Thus Mary gives birth to the child Jesus in a room or place like all the other peasant women. The child will not have anything special, no unique crib or stately bed. He is born like all other peasant children, in a manger, probably with some of the local women attending Mary in her delivery. Jesus' birth is one says Luke that has no special honor attached to it. He is truly like all the rest of the peasants.
Now out in the fields around Bethlehem are a band of shepherds, Luke goes on to say. Shepherds and flocks were common to this area since the sheep were raised and made available for temple sacrifices in nearby Jerusalem. Shepherds had no honor in these days either. They did not stay at home at nights to care for their women and children. Their occupation was one without honor. What's more they trespassed with the sheep on other peoples' land and had a reputation for being thieves.
Out in the fields angels (God's messengers) appear to shepherds and tell this dishonorable band of thieves. They are fearful, terrorized. Yet the angels tell them they have nothing to fear, for today is born for them a savior who is Christ the Lord. It is something to and with whom they can relate. It is a babe born in the town of Bethlehem and wrapped up like all babies of this time in swaddling bands. Honored by the visitation of the angels, the shepherds go to Bethlehem to adore, worship, honor the child who has no honor as the world understood it.
So what is Luke saying? He is saying that the savior, God's salvation, God's love and forgiveness, is within our reach, within our understanding. God is in the simplicity of the teaching, healing, ministry of Jesus the Christ, who lives and dies for his people. God comes to the last, the least, the lost, to a motley bunch of shepherds and thieves. No one stands outside of the grace of God's free gift of love. Inspite of the Romans, the powers, the potentates, the systems of what the world deems as honorable, God in Jesus Christ comes to his save and redeem, to love and forgive his people. This savior is no high potentate, no stone tablets, no spirit, no angel. The savior is God with us in the flesh. Inspite of the world he comes in utter marvelous simplicity. He comes to a world with limited room and honor. He comes in utter simplicity and love. There is nothing to fear.
As we greet a new year, it is not looking at this point like a particularly good or easy one ahead of us. There are the problems in our government, which are likely to and may create considerable dissention and uncertainty. We face the realities and fears of terrorism. There will be something of a mad scramble to get the world's computers fixed before the millenium, the turn of the century. Each of us face various individual uncertainties and anxieties in our futures. Yet this is the night, the time of our being renewed in hope that whatever we face God in Christ Jesus is with us.
We gather here this evening to honor him with our hymns, with our songs, with our prayers, and with our reaching out at the altar to take his loving grace into our hearts. May we continue to be the bearers of the Goodnews of God in Christ as we live out our own humanity both embracing and and allowing ourselves to be embraced and touched by the Jesus Christ our Lord and his saving grace, who being like us and with us loves us and fully understands our humanity.
Friday, December 25, 1998
Sunday, December 20, 1998
Advent 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 20, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 1:18-25 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
ISSUE: Matthew's account of the events and reactions of people surrounding the birth of Jesus is fascinating. Out of a scandalous situation, the savior is born. God is acting in history, bringing about a new creation. Joseph in Matthew's account accepting this seemingly sordid situation is instrumental in allowing God's redemption to take place. (In Luke, it is Mary that is the God-bearer.) Both Mary and Joseph's situation is redeemed. In our own world's scandals and violence, we need to allow the Christ to be central in our lives and his loving grace to flow through us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus is so very different from Luke's story which includes angels and shepherds. Matthew does not have the pageantry of Luke and his emphasis is not so much centered on Mary as the bearer of the Son of God. In Matthew we see Joseph as the more heroic figure. Matthew's account deals significantly with the whole idea that the birth of Jesus is scandalous. God is acting in one scandalous way.
It is helpful to appreciate what the marriage arrangements were like in this period of history in the middle east. They were very different from our own. The New Revised Standard Version we read today says that Mary and Joseph were engaged. That is not really accurate; they were betrothed. The engagement or betrothal of that time was nothing like engagement of our time. Marriages were not individualistic as they are today. A marriage in Jesus' time was the marriage not so much of individuals as the joining of two families. They were made for political and economic reasons, for the betterment of the two families that were of like economic status. A father offered gifts to win a bride for his son that the wants. Women worked out the details of the arrangements and the fathers ratified the agreement. Sometimes the arrangements or betrothal took place long before the wedding. The bride-to-be stayed with her own family until the time of the wedding. However it did require a divorce to annul the arrangement. Marriage was the ritual that removed the bride from her home and sent her to live with the new family and husband. These arrangements were not based on romantic love.
Now a woman who was betrothed to a man, and who became pregnant by someone else brought terrible shame on her whole family. According to Deuteronomic law she could be stoned to death as an adulterous. (Dt.22:23-24) Whether or not this exteme punishment was done in Jesus' time is uncertain. But there would be no question of the terrible shame it brought upon the family. Apparently at about the time the marriage is to take place between Joseph and Mary, Mary is found to be already pregnant.
What Matthew seems intent upon proclaiming is how honorable Joseph is in this situation. Joseph decides at first to simply divorce Mary quietly and end the relationship. He does not want to put her and her family in the position of great dishonor and shame. By divorcing her quietly, he allows the real father of the child to claim the child, and to marry Mary. Matthew is revealing how honorable Joseph is in this very awkward situation.
But according Matthew's account Joseph then has a dream. In these days people believed that they could discern the will of God in their dreams. Joseph dreams that God tells him that the child is a boy; therefore, a prized gift. God tells Joseph in the dream that the child is conceived by the Holy Spirit. The child who will be named Jesus, meaning "Yahweh (God) Saves" shall enhance Joseph's own honor. Joseph who shall adopt this child shall be a bearer of the Son of God, a channel through which God's grace shall flow to the world.
Now as Matthew addresses this account of Jesus' unusual birth to a Jewish community, they would have had in mind the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Remember that Joseph in the Old Testament got a really raw deal at the hand of his brothers. Out of jealousy they were to kill him, but sold him instead. Joseph went through really tough times being sold into slavery and then eventually put in jail. Remember too that Joseph in the O.T. was a dreamer. He interpreted dreams that ultimately became his salvation. He interpreted the dream of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and was freed and became the prime minister of all Egypt. But not only that, Joseph forgave his brothers. He redeemed a really bad situation that was ultimately the salvation of his whole family and the nation of Israel.
We know very little about Jesus' father Joseph. He's not mentioned much at all. He is not mentioned in Mark at all. He is mentioned only once in John's gospel as Jesus being son of Joseph. The early writings of Paul make no mention of Joseph. He is a very shadowy character. But what Matthew seems to want to convey is that Joseph was in the line of King David, and he wants to create a character that is very forgiving, and honorable. He wants to root Jesus deeply and profoundly in the Jewish tradition as the continuing action of God working through his people and coming into the world as "God with us" and as "God's Salvation." In the account, Joseph adopts the child that God's plan may be fulfilled. And in the end God in Christ adopts the world with his love and saving grace. What is a truly scandalous situation, the Christ comes to his people though people of faith.
The birth of Jesus was and is a scandalous story. Many of the parables of Jesus are themselves scandalous. The first being last and the first last. Prodigal sons being rewarded, and latecomers in the vineyards getting the same wage as those who bore the heat of the day, and outrageous crooked stewards get commended. God acts in the strangest and most scandalous ways. Yet people who embraced God in faith had their lives changed and became channels of his grace.
We are living today in the midst of a scandalous time. There is scandal in the presidency, ans signs of terrible dishonor. We are just about to celebrate Christmas, the season of peace on earth, and our nation is at war with one of the smallest nations on the face of the earth. One side tells us it is something that has to be done for the future of the world, and still another side tells me this use of force is tragically wrong. As in so many acts of violence in the world, it is the poor, the children, the innocent who become the victims of the world's forces and powers. It is still scandalous that petty and ancient racism and violence prevails on the city streets of a nation throught to be enlightened. It is a despairing and pessimistic scene. It is a world without much honor.
Yet, in the lives of the simple, those shadowy figures, the unsung heroes, and people of faith there is the confident hope and belief that God seeks to come to his world. In all the pain and suffering of the world, Christ Jesus seeks to touch human hearts and continues to be the enlightening hope for the world. We need Jesus Christ as our way, our truth, and in our lifel. We need to make ourselves available to his coming. We need to make ourselves discerning, dreaming dreams and having visions, and allowing the loveliness of God in Christ to come to the world through our faith and through our lives. I know we feel unworthy at times. We feel inadequate. We feel that we have so little control over anything, what's going to happen today much less that what's going to happen tomorrow. So very little is know of Mary and less even is known of Joseph, and yet in this wonderful way, God acted in history and sent to us a Savior and an assurance that God is with us. May we all be open to the saving grace and love of God, and allow the Lord Jesus Christ to endwell our lives and Spirits that we may be the expression of his redeeming and forgiving love in God's world.
SEASON: Advent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 20, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 1:18-25 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
ISSUE: Matthew's account of the events and reactions of people surrounding the birth of Jesus is fascinating. Out of a scandalous situation, the savior is born. God is acting in history, bringing about a new creation. Joseph in Matthew's account accepting this seemingly sordid situation is instrumental in allowing God's redemption to take place. (In Luke, it is Mary that is the God-bearer.) Both Mary and Joseph's situation is redeemed. In our own world's scandals and violence, we need to allow the Christ to be central in our lives and his loving grace to flow through us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus is so very different from Luke's story which includes angels and shepherds. Matthew does not have the pageantry of Luke and his emphasis is not so much centered on Mary as the bearer of the Son of God. In Matthew we see Joseph as the more heroic figure. Matthew's account deals significantly with the whole idea that the birth of Jesus is scandalous. God is acting in one scandalous way.
It is helpful to appreciate what the marriage arrangements were like in this period of history in the middle east. They were very different from our own. The New Revised Standard Version we read today says that Mary and Joseph were engaged. That is not really accurate; they were betrothed. The engagement or betrothal of that time was nothing like engagement of our time. Marriages were not individualistic as they are today. A marriage in Jesus' time was the marriage not so much of individuals as the joining of two families. They were made for political and economic reasons, for the betterment of the two families that were of like economic status. A father offered gifts to win a bride for his son that the wants. Women worked out the details of the arrangements and the fathers ratified the agreement. Sometimes the arrangements or betrothal took place long before the wedding. The bride-to-be stayed with her own family until the time of the wedding. However it did require a divorce to annul the arrangement. Marriage was the ritual that removed the bride from her home and sent her to live with the new family and husband. These arrangements were not based on romantic love.
Now a woman who was betrothed to a man, and who became pregnant by someone else brought terrible shame on her whole family. According to Deuteronomic law she could be stoned to death as an adulterous. (Dt.22:23-24) Whether or not this exteme punishment was done in Jesus' time is uncertain. But there would be no question of the terrible shame it brought upon the family. Apparently at about the time the marriage is to take place between Joseph and Mary, Mary is found to be already pregnant.
What Matthew seems intent upon proclaiming is how honorable Joseph is in this situation. Joseph decides at first to simply divorce Mary quietly and end the relationship. He does not want to put her and her family in the position of great dishonor and shame. By divorcing her quietly, he allows the real father of the child to claim the child, and to marry Mary. Matthew is revealing how honorable Joseph is in this very awkward situation.
But according Matthew's account Joseph then has a dream. In these days people believed that they could discern the will of God in their dreams. Joseph dreams that God tells him that the child is a boy; therefore, a prized gift. God tells Joseph in the dream that the child is conceived by the Holy Spirit. The child who will be named Jesus, meaning "Yahweh (God) Saves" shall enhance Joseph's own honor. Joseph who shall adopt this child shall be a bearer of the Son of God, a channel through which God's grace shall flow to the world.
Now as Matthew addresses this account of Jesus' unusual birth to a Jewish community, they would have had in mind the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Remember that Joseph in the Old Testament got a really raw deal at the hand of his brothers. Out of jealousy they were to kill him, but sold him instead. Joseph went through really tough times being sold into slavery and then eventually put in jail. Remember too that Joseph in the O.T. was a dreamer. He interpreted dreams that ultimately became his salvation. He interpreted the dream of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and was freed and became the prime minister of all Egypt. But not only that, Joseph forgave his brothers. He redeemed a really bad situation that was ultimately the salvation of his whole family and the nation of Israel.
We know very little about Jesus' father Joseph. He's not mentioned much at all. He is not mentioned in Mark at all. He is mentioned only once in John's gospel as Jesus being son of Joseph. The early writings of Paul make no mention of Joseph. He is a very shadowy character. But what Matthew seems to want to convey is that Joseph was in the line of King David, and he wants to create a character that is very forgiving, and honorable. He wants to root Jesus deeply and profoundly in the Jewish tradition as the continuing action of God working through his people and coming into the world as "God with us" and as "God's Salvation." In the account, Joseph adopts the child that God's plan may be fulfilled. And in the end God in Christ adopts the world with his love and saving grace. What is a truly scandalous situation, the Christ comes to his people though people of faith.
The birth of Jesus was and is a scandalous story. Many of the parables of Jesus are themselves scandalous. The first being last and the first last. Prodigal sons being rewarded, and latecomers in the vineyards getting the same wage as those who bore the heat of the day, and outrageous crooked stewards get commended. God acts in the strangest and most scandalous ways. Yet people who embraced God in faith had their lives changed and became channels of his grace.
We are living today in the midst of a scandalous time. There is scandal in the presidency, ans signs of terrible dishonor. We are just about to celebrate Christmas, the season of peace on earth, and our nation is at war with one of the smallest nations on the face of the earth. One side tells us it is something that has to be done for the future of the world, and still another side tells me this use of force is tragically wrong. As in so many acts of violence in the world, it is the poor, the children, the innocent who become the victims of the world's forces and powers. It is still scandalous that petty and ancient racism and violence prevails on the city streets of a nation throught to be enlightened. It is a despairing and pessimistic scene. It is a world without much honor.
Yet, in the lives of the simple, those shadowy figures, the unsung heroes, and people of faith there is the confident hope and belief that God seeks to come to his world. In all the pain and suffering of the world, Christ Jesus seeks to touch human hearts and continues to be the enlightening hope for the world. We need Jesus Christ as our way, our truth, and in our lifel. We need to make ourselves available to his coming. We need to make ourselves discerning, dreaming dreams and having visions, and allowing the loveliness of God in Christ to come to the world through our faith and through our lives. I know we feel unworthy at times. We feel inadequate. We feel that we have so little control over anything, what's going to happen today much less that what's going to happen tomorrow. So very little is know of Mary and less even is known of Joseph, and yet in this wonderful way, God acted in history and sent to us a Savior and an assurance that God is with us. May we all be open to the saving grace and love of God, and allow the Lord Jesus Christ to endwell our lives and Spirits that we may be the expression of his redeeming and forgiving love in God's world.
Sunday, December 13, 1998
Advent 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 13, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 11:2-11 - When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
ISSUE: Matthew's passage is working at making clear definitions as to who John the Baptist and Jesus are. John is clearly Malachi's forerunner of the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah described in much of Isaiah's passages in terms of the great healer. In a time of great anxiety and uncertainty in both Judaism and the early church, these distinctions were important. For our age it is a matter of taking the leap of faith that also defines the Messiahship for ourselves. Is it truly Jesus the Christ, and do we embrace him fully in thought, mind, spirit, and action, or do we wait for another?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew is addressing the early church community in a time of high anxiety. The Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed. There was a lot of uncertainty within Judaism as to who or what was the shape or definition of a delivering messiah. Anyone who had taken on some kind of leadership role and who opposed the forces the Romans was seen as a kind of messiah. Matthew seems to be trying to bring some clarity in this time of high anxiety and uncertainty for his people.
Matthew reports an incident when John the Baptist is in prison. Remember last week how John had dared to call the Sadducees and the Pharisees a brood of vipers. He had challenged them and all people who came to him to be repentant, not just sorry, but changing in their behaviors. He challenged the corruption of the priestly cast, the smoothness of the Pharisees, and the oppressive forces of the time. Now this week we find where that led John. He is in prison. Thereby, he appears to be a failure. He sends word to Jesus by his disciples asking if Jesus is the expected Messiah in these anxious and troubled times. Is Jesus the one who will bring about the Kingdom of God? Now Jesus asks the crowd what do you think of John? What did you go out into the wilderness to see?
Was John a mere reed easily broken or bending in the wind? Indeed not. If anyone was easily manipulated and uncertain of themselves, it was Herod.
Did they go out to see someone dressed in soft robes? Of course not, John the Baptist wore coarse clothing and ate the food of prophets, locusts and wild honey. Only the greedy rich like Herod dressed in effeminate clothing and behaved like a "pansie."
What did people go out in the wilderness to see? They went out to see a profoundly honest and straight forward prophet who was calling a confused, anxious, sinful world, a world of greed and injustice and oppression to repentance, to change. John, for Matthew, as Matthew tells this story, was the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. The words: "See, I am sinding my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." comes from the prophet Malachi 3:1 and continues "Then the Lord you are looking for will suddly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant." Also in Malachi 4:5 it is written: "But before the great and terrible day the Lord comes I will send you the prophet Elijah." Matthew is holding up John the Baptist as the anticipated forerunner of the Messiah who will deliver Israel from its great affliction. For an uncertain community, they can be assured that God is continuing to work in their history and fulfilling the hopes of the prophets. John is seen as that stark contrast to the worlds powers and leadership. He calls for a cleansing, a renewing, and a complete change. He comes with no pretense or facade of royal robes and palaces. He is the rough stone that God has turned into one of his true prophets that honestly proclaims things as they are and demands change before the judgment of the Lord.
In this passage, John is perceived as uncertain as to who Jesus is. Is he the anticipated one? Is he the Messiah? And again Matthew wants to clarify the uncertainties of the time for his newly forming Christian congregation. In the passage, Jesus tells John's disciples to go and tell John what that they themselves are experiencing of Jesus' ministry: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor (or the wretched) have good news brought to them." This sentence is nothing more than a direct quotation from Isaiah. It incorporates several passages. One from Isaiah 35:5-6, which we just read earlier today as the first lesson, the blind, the deaf, the lame and even the mute or speechless are speaking and being healed. The idea that the dead are being raised comes from Isaiah 26:19, "Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead." The idea that the poor or the wretched are having good news proclaimed to them comes also from Isaiah 61:1, "The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his spirit. He has chosen me and sent me to bring goodnews to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison."
Repeatedly, Matthew in this account is revealing Jesus as the messianic folk healer that is coming into the world to those who have suffered at the hand of injustice and oppression. It is a passage again of great reversals: Blind - see; Lame - walk; Deaf - hear; Dead - live again; Poor outcasts, speechless ones like widow - get a voice. What's more . . . Great as John the Baptist is. . . even the least are greater than he. The last, the least, the lost are reclaimed by the Messiahship of Christ that comes among the people.
John had called for repentance. John had called for people to turn around, "turn over a new leaf" is the modern expression. For those who are ready to turn to Jesus as the Messiah as the Christ that shall find themselves reversed; from silence to joyful voices; from darkness into the light; from deadly lives to lives of renewed hopes; the dirty untouchables are being made touchable and restored to fullness of life again. The age of injustice and the slandering of the poor and the oppressed is coming to an end (Isaiah 29:18-21), "My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame." The new age of reversal and hope has come. Matthew is proclaiming this to a people who live in an age of fear, anxiety, oppression, and injustice. He is clarifying that the forerunner Elijah in the person of John has come and Jesus is the messianic folk healer who dares to come among his people, to touch and reside with them, to bring the healing and hope they need. Physicians (doctors) in this time rarely came near their patients. They talked of healing but avoided contact with people for fear of retribution by families if they injured a patient. But folk healers were different; they mingled with the sick, the dying. Jesus was the folk healer who came to his people in their great distress and becomes the great messianic healing hope. Matthew clearly defines who John the Baptist and Jesus are for a bewildered community, that they might take hold of the hope in their time of great distress, that they might see themselves as beginning to step into the Kingdom of God.
This is not merely about healing. It should not be taken too literally in our time. It is clearly a defining message of hope. The world and the church today has its severe problems. The problems of the affliction of the poor: homelessness, hunger in the face of great affluence in certain quarters of the world. It suffers enormously from violence in the streets and internation terrorism around the world. Our family life in so many instances has severe problems. Honesty is not always a top priority value whether it is in government or on the sales floor of your local car dealership. The world needs changing, our lives need changing. Sometimes in the face of great need we standseemingly helpless, apathetic and unconcerned. The message of John the Baptist is quite relevant. We need changing, and we stand under the judgment of God.
Yet at the same time coming into the world is the messianic healing hope. It is the Christ in this story who helps the blind to see new things in new ways, deaf are opened to hear new ways and the message of love. The dirty and unclean can find forgiveness in the mercy and compassion of God realized in Christ Jesus. People who are stifled, unable to move with their lives can find themselves challenged by Christ. Things that have grown old can be raised up and made new, and the least, the last, the lost can be made great in the eyes of God.
Honest people may well know that we stand under the judgment of God. It's a troubled world. We belong to a troubled church, and God knows we all have various troubles in our lives. We know we need changing and redemption. How can we be changed and in what direction do we turn? We need like John to ask, "Is in fact Jesus the one who is to come, or do we look for another?" There is that time when we must make the leap of faith. For all we know John the Baptist may well have expected a much more militant messianic figure as opposed to the healing messianic hope revealed in Jesus. People today look to various philosophies and fads as their hope and salvation. Even today people look to strong military leaders. Economic wizards as their hope. Strong political leaders and those who like to play everything safe, and keep things all the same. We look to strong characters who see rigid rules and regulations and laws as the hope of the world. But before us too is Jesus, the one who expressed a deep profound mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love. Where we turn to whom we seek for salvation and hope is ours to choose and that decision effects the depths of our souls.
SEASON: Advent 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 13, 1998
TEXT: Matthew 11:2-11 - When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
ISSUE: Matthew's passage is working at making clear definitions as to who John the Baptist and Jesus are. John is clearly Malachi's forerunner of the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah described in much of Isaiah's passages in terms of the great healer. In a time of great anxiety and uncertainty in both Judaism and the early church, these distinctions were important. For our age it is a matter of taking the leap of faith that also defines the Messiahship for ourselves. Is it truly Jesus the Christ, and do we embrace him fully in thought, mind, spirit, and action, or do we wait for another?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew is addressing the early church community in a time of high anxiety. The Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed. There was a lot of uncertainty within Judaism as to who or what was the shape or definition of a delivering messiah. Anyone who had taken on some kind of leadership role and who opposed the forces the Romans was seen as a kind of messiah. Matthew seems to be trying to bring some clarity in this time of high anxiety and uncertainty for his people.
Matthew reports an incident when John the Baptist is in prison. Remember last week how John had dared to call the Sadducees and the Pharisees a brood of vipers. He had challenged them and all people who came to him to be repentant, not just sorry, but changing in their behaviors. He challenged the corruption of the priestly cast, the smoothness of the Pharisees, and the oppressive forces of the time. Now this week we find where that led John. He is in prison. Thereby, he appears to be a failure. He sends word to Jesus by his disciples asking if Jesus is the expected Messiah in these anxious and troubled times. Is Jesus the one who will bring about the Kingdom of God? Now Jesus asks the crowd what do you think of John? What did you go out into the wilderness to see?
Was John a mere reed easily broken or bending in the wind? Indeed not. If anyone was easily manipulated and uncertain of themselves, it was Herod.
Did they go out to see someone dressed in soft robes? Of course not, John the Baptist wore coarse clothing and ate the food of prophets, locusts and wild honey. Only the greedy rich like Herod dressed in effeminate clothing and behaved like a "pansie."
What did people go out in the wilderness to see? They went out to see a profoundly honest and straight forward prophet who was calling a confused, anxious, sinful world, a world of greed and injustice and oppression to repentance, to change. John, for Matthew, as Matthew tells this story, was the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. The words: "See, I am sinding my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." comes from the prophet Malachi 3:1 and continues "Then the Lord you are looking for will suddly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant." Also in Malachi 4:5 it is written: "But before the great and terrible day the Lord comes I will send you the prophet Elijah." Matthew is holding up John the Baptist as the anticipated forerunner of the Messiah who will deliver Israel from its great affliction. For an uncertain community, they can be assured that God is continuing to work in their history and fulfilling the hopes of the prophets. John is seen as that stark contrast to the worlds powers and leadership. He calls for a cleansing, a renewing, and a complete change. He comes with no pretense or facade of royal robes and palaces. He is the rough stone that God has turned into one of his true prophets that honestly proclaims things as they are and demands change before the judgment of the Lord.
In this passage, John is perceived as uncertain as to who Jesus is. Is he the anticipated one? Is he the Messiah? And again Matthew wants to clarify the uncertainties of the time for his newly forming Christian congregation. In the passage, Jesus tells John's disciples to go and tell John what that they themselves are experiencing of Jesus' ministry: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor (or the wretched) have good news brought to them." This sentence is nothing more than a direct quotation from Isaiah. It incorporates several passages. One from Isaiah 35:5-6, which we just read earlier today as the first lesson, the blind, the deaf, the lame and even the mute or speechless are speaking and being healed. The idea that the dead are being raised comes from Isaiah 26:19, "Those of our people who have died will live again! Their bodies will come back to life. All those sleeping in their graves will wake up and sing for joy. As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth, so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead." The idea that the poor or the wretched are having good news proclaimed to them comes also from Isaiah 61:1, "The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his spirit. He has chosen me and sent me to bring goodnews to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison."
Repeatedly, Matthew in this account is revealing Jesus as the messianic folk healer that is coming into the world to those who have suffered at the hand of injustice and oppression. It is a passage again of great reversals: Blind - see; Lame - walk; Deaf - hear; Dead - live again; Poor outcasts, speechless ones like widow - get a voice. What's more . . . Great as John the Baptist is. . . even the least are greater than he. The last, the least, the lost are reclaimed by the Messiahship of Christ that comes among the people.
John had called for repentance. John had called for people to turn around, "turn over a new leaf" is the modern expression. For those who are ready to turn to Jesus as the Messiah as the Christ that shall find themselves reversed; from silence to joyful voices; from darkness into the light; from deadly lives to lives of renewed hopes; the dirty untouchables are being made touchable and restored to fullness of life again. The age of injustice and the slandering of the poor and the oppressed is coming to an end (Isaiah 29:18-21), "My people, you will not be disgraced any longer, and your faces will no longer be pale with shame." The new age of reversal and hope has come. Matthew is proclaiming this to a people who live in an age of fear, anxiety, oppression, and injustice. He is clarifying that the forerunner Elijah in the person of John has come and Jesus is the messianic folk healer who dares to come among his people, to touch and reside with them, to bring the healing and hope they need. Physicians (doctors) in this time rarely came near their patients. They talked of healing but avoided contact with people for fear of retribution by families if they injured a patient. But folk healers were different; they mingled with the sick, the dying. Jesus was the folk healer who came to his people in their great distress and becomes the great messianic healing hope. Matthew clearly defines who John the Baptist and Jesus are for a bewildered community, that they might take hold of the hope in their time of great distress, that they might see themselves as beginning to step into the Kingdom of God.
This is not merely about healing. It should not be taken too literally in our time. It is clearly a defining message of hope. The world and the church today has its severe problems. The problems of the affliction of the poor: homelessness, hunger in the face of great affluence in certain quarters of the world. It suffers enormously from violence in the streets and internation terrorism around the world. Our family life in so many instances has severe problems. Honesty is not always a top priority value whether it is in government or on the sales floor of your local car dealership. The world needs changing, our lives need changing. Sometimes in the face of great need we standseemingly helpless, apathetic and unconcerned. The message of John the Baptist is quite relevant. We need changing, and we stand under the judgment of God.
Yet at the same time coming into the world is the messianic healing hope. It is the Christ in this story who helps the blind to see new things in new ways, deaf are opened to hear new ways and the message of love. The dirty and unclean can find forgiveness in the mercy and compassion of God realized in Christ Jesus. People who are stifled, unable to move with their lives can find themselves challenged by Christ. Things that have grown old can be raised up and made new, and the least, the last, the lost can be made great in the eyes of God.
Honest people may well know that we stand under the judgment of God. It's a troubled world. We belong to a troubled church, and God knows we all have various troubles in our lives. We know we need changing and redemption. How can we be changed and in what direction do we turn? We need like John to ask, "Is in fact Jesus the one who is to come, or do we look for another?" There is that time when we must make the leap of faith. For all we know John the Baptist may well have expected a much more militant messianic figure as opposed to the healing messianic hope revealed in Jesus. People today look to various philosophies and fads as their hope and salvation. Even today people look to strong military leaders. Economic wizards as their hope. Strong political leaders and those who like to play everything safe, and keep things all the same. We look to strong characters who see rigid rules and regulations and laws as the hope of the world. But before us too is Jesus, the one who expressed a deep profound mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love. Where we turn to whom we seek for salvation and hope is ours to choose and that decision effects the depths of our souls.
Sunday, December 6, 1998
Advent 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 6,1998
TEXT: Matthew 3:1-12 - "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. . . . . Bear fruit worthy of repentance . . . . . I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful that I is coming after me: I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
ISSUE: John is presented in this passage as the long anticipated return of Elijah. He comes as a coarse prophet of the land to call people to repentance that they might step into the Kingdom of God. The repentance that John speaks of is not to be confused with sorrow, penitence, regret. It is changed lifes that bear fruit. Let us not minimize the preparation of Christmas as mere infatuation with baby Jesus, but more in terms of lives changed to resonate with and in receiving Christ as the way, the truth, and the life for our lives.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew's gospel passage this morning is eager to convey that God is still acting in the history of God's people. God seeks to save his people and grant them entrance into his Kingdom. It was believed by many of the Jewish people of this time that Elijah, one of the truly great prophets of Israel would return to the world, preaching the message of repentance. For Matthew and the early church that return of the prophet is unquestionably realized in the dynamic prophetic preaching of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is truly a prophetic character familiar to the people of this time. He was himself a son of a local village priest Zechariah. He had taken to the wilderness, and wore the coarse clothes of a prophet, camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, described in 2 Kings 1:8. He was the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy (4:5) that God would send Elijah before the terrible Day of the Lord. He was a loner, and like so many of the prophets before him he would be murdered by Herod.
John preached in the wilderness, and attracted groups of people. They made pilgrimages to see and hear him. His message and baptism must have been every bit as challenging and demanding as it sounds. People did not travel much in these times, especially in the wildernesses. Among those who came to hear John the Baptist were the Saducees and the Pharisees. These groups were the leaders and held places of significant honor in their society. It was a time when many of the people of the land suffered at the hand of their leaders, the Jeursalem elite and the Romans. There were exhorbitant taxes, confiscation of property, and shortages of food and life's supplies. John being in a priestly family knew well of the abuses, and of what he spoke. He called for change in a world of unrest, injustice, and oppression. This oppression shaped John's dynamic preaching. When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to him he dared to call these honorable men "a brood of snakes."
To these men and to all who came to John he called for repentance, and immersion in change, and a prepared readiness for God's salvation, for God's Kingdom, for the coming and receiving of their messianic hope. He dares them to be ready for immersion in fiery cleansing, empowering, and the true renewing wind of the Holy Spirit of God.
For John Baptist, he made it quite clear that geneology did not count. Honor in these times was something that a person inherited from family. Honor was in this culture inordinately important. But John clearly claimed that personal repentance was the issue, not what you inherited from family. In fact, there needed to be a clear break at times with the ways of the past to face the coming Kingdom of the present-future.
What is most important for us to understand what repentance meant then and means now. Many people have learned that repentance means being sorry for your sins. Repentance for many people is sorrow, or regret, or remorse. If we do bad things, or we neglect to do things we should, it is appropriate to be sorry, to regret, to feel saddnes for our failings. But that is not what repentance is inspite of all the holy talk dished out by pious preachers. Repentance for John the Baptist and the church meant CHANGE. The hearts and minds and ways of the leadership needed not mere sorrow, but change. The hearts and minds of the people who came to him meant that they did not come to him on a pilgrimage to get their sorrows washed away. They came to be immersed in change. They were now to lead lives that would bear good fruit and not continue in the ways of scandalous oppression and separation from the ways of God. They were to give up affection for honor that came from mere geneology and face up to being honorable as people of God. You surely would be sorry for you sins and bad actions, but "sorry gets you no where." What parent has not said those words to their kids, and had their own parents say it to them when they were children. It was a matter of doing something about it.
In our own culture today we have to deal with how a passage like this speaks to us. When preachers and prophets talk today about repentance they are often seen as weird, killjoys for this for many people is merely the season to be jolly. We Americans like being just plain fat and happy. We make jokes in the proverbial cartoons about the prophet bearing a placard calling for repentance. We like to think that what we do with our own private lives is no body else's business. Leave us alone. But the Gospel does not do that. It does not leave us alone. It calls us to repentance and renewal that we might embrace the way of God's Kingdom that is revealed in Jesus Christ.
One of the issues being dealt with in our culture now is the recent antics going on in the White House. Many American and foreign people simply say this is what everybody does, and every body lies about it. What a person does in private doesn't matter. But it does matter. It matters in every health clinic around the world that is desperately trying to put an end to AIDS and other life threatening venereal diseases. It matters that we can trust one another, our leaders, and learn to be faithful to one another. It matters as to how our children are raised and the climate they grow up and mature in. Sorry isn't enough. It's profound change that matters. Do we have our secret sins? Of course we all do. They matter to our spiritual health and well being. We need in many instances to change the secrets of our hearts. Whether the president is impeached or not is not the issue, but how any of us conduct ourselves as the people of God in public or private has consequences. There are things we need to change, to repent of.
I listened to someone once who had had a stroke tell me how the person had their cholesterol check-up postponed because they had just gotten back from vacation eating many steaks out in the mid west. There are times when we need to change our behavior, repent, or we risk death, we risk diminishing the very thing we all claim to value.
I just buried a good friends's 20 year old daughter last week because someone on the road chose to drink and drive. That's what fat and happy sassy Americans do. Yet the consequences can be devasting to the victims as well as to the lives of the perpetrators. Repentance is required or damnation results. It's just really a matter of sense.
If we are over weight, we know we have to change or repent of our eating habits. If you are smoking, you have to change your life style, or the awful results are damaged skin in old age, emphazema, lung cancer, and a nasty smell. In order to break away from these behaviors we need to change behavior, and as AA people will tell you, you need a higher power in your life than the demons that possess you. Are the fathers of the land taking on the spiritual development of their childrens' lives or leaving them to the fads and fancies of a troubled and sometimes perverse world.
Whether it is our private lives, or our American culture, or even our place in the church, we need to be re-examining who we are and what we do, and what needs to be changed that we step into the Kingdom of God. How do we proclaim true democracy as Americans when we often use our power to threaten or manipulate or use the smaller third world nations of the world? How do we as Christians proclaim the Goodnews of God's love when we are bound up in tradition, ancestry, small impoverished love of ourselves and our closed exclusive communities. Can we take on some of the issues facing the world, and work for healing?
Christmas is coming. It is the season of light and joy, good times to be had by all. We love our carols, our Advent wreathes, the children's service, and dear sweet little baby Jesus. But all that is so trivial, so empty without that human hearts are prepared for the change required in us in a suffering servant savior.
The Advent season is the season of singing and saying "Lord have mercy." It is the season of confession. It is the season of seeking humble access. It is the season of changed hearts and minds that look forward to the coming of God to be our saving higher power to sustain us and lead us into a new order, a new way of sacrificial love, of being forgiving people, of being people with a profound and deep faith in the way of Jesus Christ as the higher power that brings us home to God.
John led those who came to them into the warm water of the Jordon River, immersing them in its cleansing power to help them change their lives and to be ready; ready for the Baptism of the Lord of renewed energy and Spiritedness.
SEASON: Advent 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 6,1998
TEXT: Matthew 3:1-12 - "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. . . . . Bear fruit worthy of repentance . . . . . I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful that I is coming after me: I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
ISSUE: John is presented in this passage as the long anticipated return of Elijah. He comes as a coarse prophet of the land to call people to repentance that they might step into the Kingdom of God. The repentance that John speaks of is not to be confused with sorrow, penitence, regret. It is changed lifes that bear fruit. Let us not minimize the preparation of Christmas as mere infatuation with baby Jesus, but more in terms of lives changed to resonate with and in receiving Christ as the way, the truth, and the life for our lives.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Matthew's gospel passage this morning is eager to convey that God is still acting in the history of God's people. God seeks to save his people and grant them entrance into his Kingdom. It was believed by many of the Jewish people of this time that Elijah, one of the truly great prophets of Israel would return to the world, preaching the message of repentance. For Matthew and the early church that return of the prophet is unquestionably realized in the dynamic prophetic preaching of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is truly a prophetic character familiar to the people of this time. He was himself a son of a local village priest Zechariah. He had taken to the wilderness, and wore the coarse clothes of a prophet, camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, described in 2 Kings 1:8. He was the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy (4:5) that God would send Elijah before the terrible Day of the Lord. He was a loner, and like so many of the prophets before him he would be murdered by Herod.
John preached in the wilderness, and attracted groups of people. They made pilgrimages to see and hear him. His message and baptism must have been every bit as challenging and demanding as it sounds. People did not travel much in these times, especially in the wildernesses. Among those who came to hear John the Baptist were the Saducees and the Pharisees. These groups were the leaders and held places of significant honor in their society. It was a time when many of the people of the land suffered at the hand of their leaders, the Jeursalem elite and the Romans. There were exhorbitant taxes, confiscation of property, and shortages of food and life's supplies. John being in a priestly family knew well of the abuses, and of what he spoke. He called for change in a world of unrest, injustice, and oppression. This oppression shaped John's dynamic preaching. When the Pharisees and Sadducees come to him he dared to call these honorable men "a brood of snakes."
To these men and to all who came to John he called for repentance, and immersion in change, and a prepared readiness for God's salvation, for God's Kingdom, for the coming and receiving of their messianic hope. He dares them to be ready for immersion in fiery cleansing, empowering, and the true renewing wind of the Holy Spirit of God.
For John Baptist, he made it quite clear that geneology did not count. Honor in these times was something that a person inherited from family. Honor was in this culture inordinately important. But John clearly claimed that personal repentance was the issue, not what you inherited from family. In fact, there needed to be a clear break at times with the ways of the past to face the coming Kingdom of the present-future.
What is most important for us to understand what repentance meant then and means now. Many people have learned that repentance means being sorry for your sins. Repentance for many people is sorrow, or regret, or remorse. If we do bad things, or we neglect to do things we should, it is appropriate to be sorry, to regret, to feel saddnes for our failings. But that is not what repentance is inspite of all the holy talk dished out by pious preachers. Repentance for John the Baptist and the church meant CHANGE. The hearts and minds and ways of the leadership needed not mere sorrow, but change. The hearts and minds of the people who came to him meant that they did not come to him on a pilgrimage to get their sorrows washed away. They came to be immersed in change. They were now to lead lives that would bear good fruit and not continue in the ways of scandalous oppression and separation from the ways of God. They were to give up affection for honor that came from mere geneology and face up to being honorable as people of God. You surely would be sorry for you sins and bad actions, but "sorry gets you no where." What parent has not said those words to their kids, and had their own parents say it to them when they were children. It was a matter of doing something about it.
In our own culture today we have to deal with how a passage like this speaks to us. When preachers and prophets talk today about repentance they are often seen as weird, killjoys for this for many people is merely the season to be jolly. We Americans like being just plain fat and happy. We make jokes in the proverbial cartoons about the prophet bearing a placard calling for repentance. We like to think that what we do with our own private lives is no body else's business. Leave us alone. But the Gospel does not do that. It does not leave us alone. It calls us to repentance and renewal that we might embrace the way of God's Kingdom that is revealed in Jesus Christ.
One of the issues being dealt with in our culture now is the recent antics going on in the White House. Many American and foreign people simply say this is what everybody does, and every body lies about it. What a person does in private doesn't matter. But it does matter. It matters in every health clinic around the world that is desperately trying to put an end to AIDS and other life threatening venereal diseases. It matters that we can trust one another, our leaders, and learn to be faithful to one another. It matters as to how our children are raised and the climate they grow up and mature in. Sorry isn't enough. It's profound change that matters. Do we have our secret sins? Of course we all do. They matter to our spiritual health and well being. We need in many instances to change the secrets of our hearts. Whether the president is impeached or not is not the issue, but how any of us conduct ourselves as the people of God in public or private has consequences. There are things we need to change, to repent of.
I listened to someone once who had had a stroke tell me how the person had their cholesterol check-up postponed because they had just gotten back from vacation eating many steaks out in the mid west. There are times when we need to change our behavior, repent, or we risk death, we risk diminishing the very thing we all claim to value.
I just buried a good friends's 20 year old daughter last week because someone on the road chose to drink and drive. That's what fat and happy sassy Americans do. Yet the consequences can be devasting to the victims as well as to the lives of the perpetrators. Repentance is required or damnation results. It's just really a matter of sense.
If we are over weight, we know we have to change or repent of our eating habits. If you are smoking, you have to change your life style, or the awful results are damaged skin in old age, emphazema, lung cancer, and a nasty smell. In order to break away from these behaviors we need to change behavior, and as AA people will tell you, you need a higher power in your life than the demons that possess you. Are the fathers of the land taking on the spiritual development of their childrens' lives or leaving them to the fads and fancies of a troubled and sometimes perverse world.
Whether it is our private lives, or our American culture, or even our place in the church, we need to be re-examining who we are and what we do, and what needs to be changed that we step into the Kingdom of God. How do we proclaim true democracy as Americans when we often use our power to threaten or manipulate or use the smaller third world nations of the world? How do we as Christians proclaim the Goodnews of God's love when we are bound up in tradition, ancestry, small impoverished love of ourselves and our closed exclusive communities. Can we take on some of the issues facing the world, and work for healing?
Christmas is coming. It is the season of light and joy, good times to be had by all. We love our carols, our Advent wreathes, the children's service, and dear sweet little baby Jesus. But all that is so trivial, so empty without that human hearts are prepared for the change required in us in a suffering servant savior.
The Advent season is the season of singing and saying "Lord have mercy." It is the season of confession. It is the season of seeking humble access. It is the season of changed hearts and minds that look forward to the coming of God to be our saving higher power to sustain us and lead us into a new order, a new way of sacrificial love, of being forgiving people, of being people with a profound and deep faith in the way of Jesus Christ as the higher power that brings us home to God.
John led those who came to them into the warm water of the Jordon River, immersing them in its cleansing power to help them change their lives and to be ready; ready for the Baptism of the Lord of renewed energy and Spiritedness.
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