May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 4
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 30, 2000
TEXT: Mark 1:21-28 - Jesus calls the demon out of a man
“What is this? A new teaching - with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
ISSUE: Jesus is presumed to have authority. He is captivating as a teacher. Mark seems to be implying that Jesus’ teaching, although not explicitly stated, is liberating. He calls out evil, and allows people to take responsibility for their lives. Jesus brings a sense of the importance of God to human life, and casts out the things that keep us from being the people of God, and what God seeks for us to be.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last week, I spoke with you at length about the subtleties of Jesus calling some of his disciples to be fishers of people. Today’s reading builds on the calling of Andrew, Simon, James, and John. Following Jesus was not and is not a passive thing we do. Jesus said he was creating, molding, shaping, these four fishermen to be fishers of people. They were not going to be like ducks following mother duck down the road, or like ushers to manage the crowds. There were prophetic Old Testament images of God calling fishermen to be like prophets calling people to change, and to judgment of their lives alienated from God. They were to be something like judges in the world. They would learn like a fisherman does to separate good from evil; the good fish go in the buckets and the bad fish are thrown away. To fishers of people with Christ was a profound calling, quite unlike the image we have of sitting passively in church. Disciples were to be teachers with Christ.
Today’s reading from the Gospel account of Mark builds on the calling of the disciples. Jesus and the disciple have moved on to Capernaum where Jesus begins teaching in a local synagogue. Notice especially what the reaction is. The people are astonished, amazed at him. He teaches with authority, and unlike the usual scribes and Pharisees. What’s so amazing is that here is an artisan peasant carpenter walking into a synagogue and dares to speak. In this time an artisan peasant would not have presumed to speak in a teaching way in a synagogue. Who does he think he is? He steps completely out of his place in the society and presumes to have a message worth hearing. He’s only the son of a carpenter of Nazareth, and nothing good or honorable comes out of Nazareth. And yet he dares and presumes to speak, and what he is saying is making some sense. Let us make no mistake about it, Jesus was challenging and daring.
Now while Jesus is doing his teaching there is a man there who is possessed with and evil spirit. This part of the story is somewhat difficult for us, because I suspect that the large majority of people today do not believe in spirits in quite the same way they did in Jesus time. Today we would think of a person that is described in this passage as somehow mentally deranged. But keep in mind that in Jesus’ time spirits were believed to abound most everywhere, especially in the wilderness and in the darkness. There was a hierarchy of spiritual beings. God, of course, topped the list. Then, in order, there were Archangels, angels, spirits both good and evil, then human beings and sub human creatures. But mind you, good and evil spirits were higher on the scale than humans. Why would people of the time believe this? Well, they did not see themselves as having much control over their lives. They were subservient to political powers, the controlling culture. There were just so many things that they could not explain that became just good and evil spirits that manipulated their lives.
Another common belief of the time was that if you could name a spirit or being you could in some measure control it.
Now look at this scene. Jesus is teaching with authority. A man who is possessed with an evil spirit comes speaks out while Jesus is teaching saying: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” The evil spirit names who Jesus is “Holy One of God.” The evil spirit attempts to control Jesus by calling him by name, “Jesus of Nazareth - Holy One of God.” The evil spirit attempts to control and throw Jesus out of the synagogue. But Jesus turns to the demon possessed man and says in effect, you have no control over me: “Be silent, and come out of him!” Convulsing and screaming the evil spirit is destroyed, and the man regains his sanity (we would say); the man is restored to his good senses and becomes again the man God created him to be.
Note well, what Mark’s Gospel is telling us. The teaching of Jesus was and is powerful enough to set things straight, right. The teaching of Jesus is far more powerful than the ways and teachings and demonic spirits of the world. Yes, he is of God. Jesus is divine, but he is right there in the midst of God’s people restoring them to good sense. He will not speak to the evil forces. He is beyond their power. He will not listen to their baloney (bullshit.)
Notice that the people are not raving about how Jesus performed a miracle. That this may seem to be a miracle to us was not the issue. The issue is that Jesus is a great teacher, and he teaches with compelling authority that challenges the evil spirits or if you prefer the evil conditions of the world. He does not quote other people like the scribes and Pharisees did. He is clear, straightforward. He speaks knowledgeably as a true man of God, a son of God. He is prophetic and Moses like. His fame begins to spread.
We may not have the same feeling about spirits in our way of thinking today. We are able to explain so many things scientifically. We think and believe that we are more in control of our lives than were the people of Jesus’ time. I’m not sure that that is something of an illusion that we have because our culture tells us we are self-made men and women. When, in fact, there are still things that we cannot always control: our children, our mates, the circumstances of our lives. There are still things that are out of our control. There are things that we can control.
There is evil in our world, whether you call it just plain evil or evil spiritedness. What Jesus and Mark are teaching in this scripture story is that we have to stand up to it and take responsibility. There is evil but we renounce it. Remember in the Baptismal Service there are several statements in the exorcism section of the Service:
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God? . . . I renounce them.
Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God? .I renounce them.
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I renounce them.
We take responsibility because Jesus Christ showed us the way to stand up against and renounce the evil spirits and forces of the world.
Jesus was calling the disciples and the people of his time to stand up against the forces of the period that victimized them.
He was an artisan carpenter and he could speak boldly about God. He could attack and renounce evil spirits and dare to cast them out. People who felt alienate and separated from God could be restored to the embracing arms of a loving God. They could have dignity and worth, and value. Jesus taught that they could truly be the sons and daughters of God. This message was a profound message of hope for the people of Jesus’ time and our own.
Are there evil spirits in our time? You bet there are. Haven’t you done something and afterwards wondered what “possessed” me, what got “into” me that made me say or do something that was shameful. We come to a realization that we have to take responsibility for what we may say or do. We may need to ask forgiveness, or to seek the appropriate therapy that will help us change our behavior.
Is there evil and/or evil spiritedness in the world? Look at what the Nazi’s were able to do, in what was one of the most religious countries in the world. The whole world had to stand up to that evil. In our own time racism continues that has led to some vicious and cruel murders, and that continues to denigrate many of God’s own. Babies are born drug addicted and people addicted to drugs and alcohol have their lives ruined. In America we have a booming, flourishing, Health & Diet Industry while in other parts of the world, people and children are starving to death. We have a planet eroding away from pollution and lack of caring concern. We may well see friends who have breast cancer, leukemia, or other forms of cancer. We can turn away feeling helpless, victimized as if there is nothing we can do. We can allow ourselves to feel paralyzed. Jesus the teacher with authority became angry and confronted the evil of his time and renounced it. Is it that we just don’t get angry enough and have for too long thought of ourselves as helpless non-descript followers of a sweet Jesus.
Jesus taught his own with authority that they were more powerful than the evil spirits. The hierarchy of spirits was wrong, or could a least be changed. Renounce them. He was tough about that, and with the help of God, maybe we need to be tougher too. We need to ask God, prayerfully, to give us strength to find, to discern what God is calling us to be and to do that we can teach with Christ and help to exorcise the demons of our time. He taught men and women to confront evil, to stand for what is right. We need to begin with ourselves and be witnesses to our children that our faith is one of commitment and strength that confronts the immorality and amorality, the indifferences and the vicitimizations of our time with the authority of Jesus Christ who proclaimed a new world under the Reign of the God of Love and Justice.
Sunday, January 30, 2000
Sunday, January 23, 2000
Epiphany 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 23, 2000
TEXT: Mark 1:14-20 - Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” . . . And Jesus said to them (the disciples), “Follow me and I will make
you fish for people.”
ISSUE: Jesus is not merely inviting the new disciples to follow him down the road and listen to his teachings. He is calling and creating them to be something different. They are to participate with him in being people of good judgment. They are called upon to help people see the difference between the ways of the world and the way of God. In the same sense to be a follower of Jesus is not merely a matter of attending church and putting money in the offering. It is a matter of being changed and taking on the judgmental qualities of knowing what is of God, and what is of the world. Discipleship is unity and partnership with Christ who teaches dependence upon the only dependable patron, God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It is so important that we do not trivialize the message in the Gospel for today. Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark is the account of Jesus calling some of his first disciples. According to Mark’s account Jesus’ ministry begins with the death of John the Baptist. It is believed by many scholars that Jesus was himself a disciple of John’s. With the death of John the Baptist by Herod, Jesus begins to strike out on his own, and begins to call some of his own disciples. You will notice that Jesus picks up on the same message of John the Baptist, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” It is a message based on the importance of repentance, or turning around, and reclaiming one’s allegiance to God. It has the same and real impact of judgment. It’s time for return to God.
The calling is marked by Jesus saying to a group of fishermen who are busy mending their nets, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Mark implies they immediately drop everything and follow him down the road. What Mark may be trying to convey is that there was great power in Jesus’ words that was very compelling to some people, and that in fact Jesus did have a significant number of disciples. However, it is not likely that people, especially these fishermen, spontaneously just dropped everything to follow Jesus. News traveled fast in these days, and the fact that Jesus was proclaiming a message of hope, the coming of God’s Kingdom, would have created news and discussion. Fishermen had it extremely difficult. Their work was hard, and they were heavily taxed and paid large sums for the rights to fish to government tax collectors. They formed family corporations as implied by the fact that James and John are sons of Zebedee and Simon and Andrew were sons of Jonah. It is highly likely that they knew of Jesus’ work and message, and shared as many people did in the discontent of the period which Jesus seemed to be addressing. The only one you could count upon was the Justice of God, and God’s Kingdom, and to reclaim that was the only hope. With this teaching and message, the disciples consider following him. And indeed, to leave family and business behind was a very traumatic thing to do, and you Simon, Andrew, James and John would have had to have good cause.
When Jesus calls the disciples, he reportedly says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Those words sound innocent enough, even a little clever to call fishermen to fish for people. Again we get the idea that they were all going to go down the road with Jesus and listen to his parables and words of wisdom, and sort of help manage the crowds for Jesus. But it is so important here to know that these words like so much of what Jesus did and said was rooted in Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus says that he is going to make the disciples to fish for people. It means that in following him, they would be made, or created or shaped, into something different. Their work and place with him would be of great significance. Following him did not merely mean walking behind him down the road. They were called into partnership with him, and they would be an integral part of that ministry which called people to repentance or change, or to become aware of the Kingdom, or Reign of God.
The whole expression to be fishers of people had roots in the prophetic writings. Jeremiah (16:16) wrote at a time of coming punishment, “The Lord says, ‘I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people . . . I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.’” The calling of fishermen in this instance is an issue of judgment, and the prophetic call to end idolatry, alienation, and sin, and to restore the faithful to God.
A passage from Amos (4:2) uses the fisherman imagery again in a judgmental sense: “Listen to this, you women of Samaria, who grow fat like the well-fed cows of Bashan, who mistreat the weak, oppress the poor, and demand that your husbands keep you supplied with liquor! As the Sovereign Lord is holy, he has promised, “The days will come when they will drag you away with hooks; every one of you will be like a fish on a hook. You will be dragged to the nearest break in the wall and thrown out.” God’s people are always under judgment, and the unfaithful will be cast out.
Note well the Parable of the Net, told by Jesus in Matthew (13:47f): “Also the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish: the good one go into the buckets, the worthless one are thrown away.”
What are the implications of these references as they relate to the calling of Jesus’ disciples to be Fishers of Men? They are called upon to be prophetic, to be teachers, to be astutely able to make judgments between the ways of the world and the ways of God. They are called with Jesus to be a challenging force in world between what is right, what it is of God, and what is evil. No easy task!
When you understand the calling of the fishermen in this sense it gives a whole new appreciation of the story. We think discipleship is following Jesus down the road to be a kind of corps of ushers. We think of following Jesus as a matter of being good people who come to church on Sunday and who contribute. We get an extra feather in our cap if we dare to bring someone else to church with us, and that makes us really fishers of people.
A colleague of mine in a study group that I am a part of remarked that back in the fifties our churches were relatively full of people. They were good times following the War, and the church seemed to be doing well. Lots of contributing folks in the pews. But when the 60’s came and the church’s leadership began to talk about Civil Rights and bringing an end to racism, and putting some of its money in grants where its mouth was, there was a significant dramatic exodus of people from the church! Membership wise we’ve not yet recovered. But the point and issue is that when the church boldly followed Christ in terms of holding up to the light the evil injustices of racism in the world, many of the followers, and so called fishermen, left and went back to their nets. Some dare to be the fisher folk of Christ and met the challenge and still embrace the church today.
This issue of discipleship and being fisher people with Christ is important. We have to be so careful that we don’t either trivialize or sentimentalize the calling. Just sitting in a pew and giving, and hugging on one another is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Even the pagans can do that. We are called upon to walk with Christ discerning what is it exactly that God is calling us to do and to be. We need to be prayerful. We need to be students of Scripture, a part of which we do in church. We need to be in dialogue with one another and the people around us, and form ideas as to what we believe is right and Godly. We need at times to stand up and be counted. When things are wrong, we have to be with Christ the ingredient to bring about change. Jesus’ ministry to the weak, the least, the last, the lost, the poor, the sick and the dying was in sharp contrast in this time to the injustices of the period that kept these people poor, sick, and oppressed. He was himself a statement of judgment exposing the powers of the time.
Parenthetically, we Christians in our sentimental church seem to fear being judgmental. We’re afraid we may be seen as self-righteous and bigoted. I suppose that that is one of the risks. But we also know that Christ’s ministry was also based upon mercy, forgiveness, and understanding. Further, we must not just act alone. Jesus always called his disciples into fellowship and community. The church is a community, and we need one another to help us to keep within the Spirit of God. Acting totally alone is very risky. But we do make judgments all the time. Sometimes good and not so good, and it is hardly possible to live without making judgments. Yet we must remain in the community and in prayerful relationship always with Christ to be in the Spirit.
Being a fisherman was not easy. You made very little money. You were heavily taxed. You were out on the sea at times of terrible storms. It was risky. And you had to judge between what was the good fish and throw away the bad fish. To be fisher people with Christ is no less dangerous. You can meet with great opposition in this world. But in each of our lives there are risks and mighty storms. We just have to be prayerful and knowledgeable of God’s will in our lives. We have to live that out not only by what we say and think, but by what we do. We have to ask God to give us the strength and courage to do those things in such away as to be witnesses and lights with Christ.
Sometimes its a matter of pulling out of the segregated Country Clubs and organizations and stop our prejudices. Sometimes we need to stop our cheating and lying, and our infatuation with drugs and alcohol. Sometimes we have to be more intent, outspoken, and involved in ecological issues. We may need to reconsider the violence that we perpetuate in our own homes among spouses and children. We need to keep wrestling with the issues of abortion and gay and lesbian rights. We need to examine the ways in which we spend our comfortable and abundant lives in relation to the needs of other people and nations.
To be fishers of people. . . . . . . isn’t that to be close to Jesus Christ and to bear a courageous witness to what is right and just in the world. Doesn't that mean to stand with Christ, to walk with Christ and to take on our roles as prophets and teachers? It is also a matter of wrestling with the issues of our time and asking God what God would have us to do and convey to the world God calls his own.
SEASON: Epiphany 3
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 23, 2000
TEXT: Mark 1:14-20 - Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” . . . And Jesus said to them (the disciples), “Follow me and I will make
you fish for people.”
ISSUE: Jesus is not merely inviting the new disciples to follow him down the road and listen to his teachings. He is calling and creating them to be something different. They are to participate with him in being people of good judgment. They are called upon to help people see the difference between the ways of the world and the way of God. In the same sense to be a follower of Jesus is not merely a matter of attending church and putting money in the offering. It is a matter of being changed and taking on the judgmental qualities of knowing what is of God, and what is of the world. Discipleship is unity and partnership with Christ who teaches dependence upon the only dependable patron, God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It is so important that we do not trivialize the message in the Gospel for today. Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark is the account of Jesus calling some of his first disciples. According to Mark’s account Jesus’ ministry begins with the death of John the Baptist. It is believed by many scholars that Jesus was himself a disciple of John’s. With the death of John the Baptist by Herod, Jesus begins to strike out on his own, and begins to call some of his own disciples. You will notice that Jesus picks up on the same message of John the Baptist, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” It is a message based on the importance of repentance, or turning around, and reclaiming one’s allegiance to God. It has the same and real impact of judgment. It’s time for return to God.
The calling is marked by Jesus saying to a group of fishermen who are busy mending their nets, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Mark implies they immediately drop everything and follow him down the road. What Mark may be trying to convey is that there was great power in Jesus’ words that was very compelling to some people, and that in fact Jesus did have a significant number of disciples. However, it is not likely that people, especially these fishermen, spontaneously just dropped everything to follow Jesus. News traveled fast in these days, and the fact that Jesus was proclaiming a message of hope, the coming of God’s Kingdom, would have created news and discussion. Fishermen had it extremely difficult. Their work was hard, and they were heavily taxed and paid large sums for the rights to fish to government tax collectors. They formed family corporations as implied by the fact that James and John are sons of Zebedee and Simon and Andrew were sons of Jonah. It is highly likely that they knew of Jesus’ work and message, and shared as many people did in the discontent of the period which Jesus seemed to be addressing. The only one you could count upon was the Justice of God, and God’s Kingdom, and to reclaim that was the only hope. With this teaching and message, the disciples consider following him. And indeed, to leave family and business behind was a very traumatic thing to do, and you Simon, Andrew, James and John would have had to have good cause.
When Jesus calls the disciples, he reportedly says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Those words sound innocent enough, even a little clever to call fishermen to fish for people. Again we get the idea that they were all going to go down the road with Jesus and listen to his parables and words of wisdom, and sort of help manage the crowds for Jesus. But it is so important here to know that these words like so much of what Jesus did and said was rooted in Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus says that he is going to make the disciples to fish for people. It means that in following him, they would be made, or created or shaped, into something different. Their work and place with him would be of great significance. Following him did not merely mean walking behind him down the road. They were called into partnership with him, and they would be an integral part of that ministry which called people to repentance or change, or to become aware of the Kingdom, or Reign of God.
The whole expression to be fishers of people had roots in the prophetic writings. Jeremiah (16:16) wrote at a time of coming punishment, “The Lord says, ‘I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people . . . I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.’” The calling of fishermen in this instance is an issue of judgment, and the prophetic call to end idolatry, alienation, and sin, and to restore the faithful to God.
A passage from Amos (4:2) uses the fisherman imagery again in a judgmental sense: “Listen to this, you women of Samaria, who grow fat like the well-fed cows of Bashan, who mistreat the weak, oppress the poor, and demand that your husbands keep you supplied with liquor! As the Sovereign Lord is holy, he has promised, “The days will come when they will drag you away with hooks; every one of you will be like a fish on a hook. You will be dragged to the nearest break in the wall and thrown out.” God’s people are always under judgment, and the unfaithful will be cast out.
Note well the Parable of the Net, told by Jesus in Matthew (13:47f): “Also the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish: the good one go into the buckets, the worthless one are thrown away.”
What are the implications of these references as they relate to the calling of Jesus’ disciples to be Fishers of Men? They are called upon to be prophetic, to be teachers, to be astutely able to make judgments between the ways of the world and the ways of God. They are called with Jesus to be a challenging force in world between what is right, what it is of God, and what is evil. No easy task!
When you understand the calling of the fishermen in this sense it gives a whole new appreciation of the story. We think discipleship is following Jesus down the road to be a kind of corps of ushers. We think of following Jesus as a matter of being good people who come to church on Sunday and who contribute. We get an extra feather in our cap if we dare to bring someone else to church with us, and that makes us really fishers of people.
A colleague of mine in a study group that I am a part of remarked that back in the fifties our churches were relatively full of people. They were good times following the War, and the church seemed to be doing well. Lots of contributing folks in the pews. But when the 60’s came and the church’s leadership began to talk about Civil Rights and bringing an end to racism, and putting some of its money in grants where its mouth was, there was a significant dramatic exodus of people from the church! Membership wise we’ve not yet recovered. But the point and issue is that when the church boldly followed Christ in terms of holding up to the light the evil injustices of racism in the world, many of the followers, and so called fishermen, left and went back to their nets. Some dare to be the fisher folk of Christ and met the challenge and still embrace the church today.
This issue of discipleship and being fisher people with Christ is important. We have to be so careful that we don’t either trivialize or sentimentalize the calling. Just sitting in a pew and giving, and hugging on one another is not what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Even the pagans can do that. We are called upon to walk with Christ discerning what is it exactly that God is calling us to do and to be. We need to be prayerful. We need to be students of Scripture, a part of which we do in church. We need to be in dialogue with one another and the people around us, and form ideas as to what we believe is right and Godly. We need at times to stand up and be counted. When things are wrong, we have to be with Christ the ingredient to bring about change. Jesus’ ministry to the weak, the least, the last, the lost, the poor, the sick and the dying was in sharp contrast in this time to the injustices of the period that kept these people poor, sick, and oppressed. He was himself a statement of judgment exposing the powers of the time.
Parenthetically, we Christians in our sentimental church seem to fear being judgmental. We’re afraid we may be seen as self-righteous and bigoted. I suppose that that is one of the risks. But we also know that Christ’s ministry was also based upon mercy, forgiveness, and understanding. Further, we must not just act alone. Jesus always called his disciples into fellowship and community. The church is a community, and we need one another to help us to keep within the Spirit of God. Acting totally alone is very risky. But we do make judgments all the time. Sometimes good and not so good, and it is hardly possible to live without making judgments. Yet we must remain in the community and in prayerful relationship always with Christ to be in the Spirit.
Being a fisherman was not easy. You made very little money. You were heavily taxed. You were out on the sea at times of terrible storms. It was risky. And you had to judge between what was the good fish and throw away the bad fish. To be fisher people with Christ is no less dangerous. You can meet with great opposition in this world. But in each of our lives there are risks and mighty storms. We just have to be prayerful and knowledgeable of God’s will in our lives. We have to live that out not only by what we say and think, but by what we do. We have to ask God to give us the strength and courage to do those things in such away as to be witnesses and lights with Christ.
Sometimes its a matter of pulling out of the segregated Country Clubs and organizations and stop our prejudices. Sometimes we need to stop our cheating and lying, and our infatuation with drugs and alcohol. Sometimes we have to be more intent, outspoken, and involved in ecological issues. We may need to reconsider the violence that we perpetuate in our own homes among spouses and children. We need to keep wrestling with the issues of abortion and gay and lesbian rights. We need to examine the ways in which we spend our comfortable and abundant lives in relation to the needs of other people and nations.
To be fishers of people. . . . . . . isn’t that to be close to Jesus Christ and to bear a courageous witness to what is right and just in the world. Doesn't that mean to stand with Christ, to walk with Christ and to take on our roles as prophets and teachers? It is also a matter of wrestling with the issues of our time and asking God what God would have us to do and convey to the world God calls his own.
Sunday, January 16, 2000
Epiphany 2 & Martin Luther King Sunday
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 2 & Martin Luther King Sunday
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 16,2000
SERMON FOLLOWS THE READING OF PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE BISHOP REGARDING RACE RELATIONS & MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
TEXT: John 1:43-51 - The Calling of Disciples
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
ISSUE: Nathaniel speaks out of a prejudice and stereotype when he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.” But he is invited to “Come and See.” He finds himself a part in the development with Christ of the new Israel of God. All of us are challenged to face our prejudices and enter into our callings as the disciples with Christ. Human prejudices are real, but with Christ they are not insurmountable.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Let us pray: Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
It is hard to imagine that there are people sitting in the pews today that don’t remember the struggles of the 1960’s when Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement. They were extremely difficult times in terms of the feelings people had about the movement. Many white people saw the movement as merely rabble rousing and only intended to create distention in the country. Some of King’s greatest opponents were people who proclaimed to be Christians, and many members of the church dug in their heals in opposition to Martin Luther King. What many did not know was that King was an advocate of Ghandi who taught non-violent protest in India against the English establishment. Following that line of thinking, King attempted to lead the black community in protest against racism, and to establish their cause of justice for all through non-violent protest in this country. They sought equal opportunities. But bringing people to change and to put aside their prejudices is not easy. The letter from our Bishop’s asks us to look at that whole issue of racism and to look once again, and continually, at our motives and our way of thinking. Changing and continuing to work at changing is not easy.
In fact, when we look at the Gospel reading today from John’s Gospel, we find even among those early disciples some prejudicial thinking. Jesus began himself calling some men to be his followers and close disciples. Jesus found Philip who followed him, and Philip invited Nathanael to at least come and see Jesus, and to see him as the unique prophet who came from Nazareth. Philip’s response was one of prejudice: “Can anything good come from Nazareth. In this first century there were many prejudices. To come from Nazareth, that little hick town was to tell all anybody needed to know. The people of Nazareth weren’t thought to be much, nor to have much in the way of honorable standing. Nathanael, based on the way of thinking of the time and based on what he had learned from others challenges Philip’s assessment that nothing good can come from Nazareth. But Philip urges Nathanael not to make a quick judgment but to come and see.
What I suppose is good about Nathanael is that he listens to his friend Philip and seeks to know Jesus. Jesus sees in Nathanael an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Jesus has seen Nathanael as a studious man of Scripture under the fig tree, which is what that idiomatic expression means. Jesus sees in Nathanael a man who can change and is open to new learning, and assures him that he will see heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of Man. What’s going on here?
It is helpful to know the Hebrew Scripture story of Jacob when he has the vision of the ladder, where the angels are seen to be ascending and descending. Jacob had been a deceitful man. Recall the story of how he stole his brother’s birthright. He was a real conniver of a man. But still God used Jacob and showed him the way to heaven through his faithfulness in the vision of the angels ascending and descending. Now says Jesus, here is Nathanael, a man in whom there is no deceit (note the unprejudiced remark of Jesus toward Nathanael), and who will follow me, and make the changes necessary in his live, for Nathanael says after having thought that nothing good could come out of Nazareth, that Jesus is Son of God! King of Israel.
The point that seems to being made is that following Jesus, Nathanael will participate in a New kind of Israel where there is no deceit, and where those who become involved in this community will truly find their way to God. They will see God revealed through Christ who descended and who ascends leading folk back to God from whom they are often estranged.
Our faith calls us to follow Christ, to see in him the Son of God, the way to God, and that in doing so we are called to be unique people who are invested in change and who want to see Christ’s way become a way for all people that leads them to God, and to God’s justice. Even today we are still caught up in our prejudices. But our prejudices don’t change anything, and we keep living in a world of racial jokes, where differing kinds of people are kept in their so called place. Many people are not afforded the dignity they deserve as human beings. Still in these recent years there have been horrible expressions of racism that has resulted in cruel and violent deaths of black persons. To come and see Christ means we have to see that he has something new to offer, and that there is another way.
The disciples of Jesus learned some startling new things. The learned the importance of loving their enemies, and blessing those who persecuted them. They learned to turn the other cheek, to give more than is asked, to give your coat and you shirt as well. They learned that merely loving the people who loved them was not going to change things in the world of prejudice suspicion and hate. Jesus taught the importance of looking beyond your own family, and your own kind. He saw all human beings as the people of God worthy of dignity and respect. ( (Luke 6:27-36) To respect the dignity of every human being is an important and significant part of our baptismal covenant, of our relationships with God and Christ.
When we are distanced from one another and a set apart from one another it is easy to be suspicious of others and to misunderstand them. It is only in being close to one another that we get a much better appreciation of who these people are. An old Native American proverb states something like this: “You really don’t know another person until you have walked in their mocassins.” It is easy to judge from a distance. It is comfortable to hold on to old prejudices because that’s what our dear and blessed loved ones taught us. But there are clearly times when we must part from the past and from ancient so-called wisdom, when new insights make us aware that God is calling us to a new way, when God is calling us in Christ into the making of a new Israel where there is no deceit and prejudice.
It is important in the living of our lives that we make efforts to know people who are different from us and our own cultures. We need to strive for understanding and grow in appreciation for all that God has provided for us. God surely has a wonderful sense of human and creativity. He has given to our world such diversity of beings and ways of thinking. These ways only contribute to a growing and wonderful kind of life that is never ever dull. Come and See what it is that Christ is calling us to be an enjoy the participation in his mission that changes the world, bringing it into the full light of bountiful love.
SEASON: Epiphany 2 & Martin Luther King Sunday
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 16,2000
SERMON FOLLOWS THE READING OF PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE BISHOP REGARDING RACE RELATIONS & MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
TEXT: John 1:43-51 - The Calling of Disciples
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” Nathaniel said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
ISSUE: Nathaniel speaks out of a prejudice and stereotype when he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.” But he is invited to “Come and See.” He finds himself a part in the development with Christ of the new Israel of God. All of us are challenged to face our prejudices and enter into our callings as the disciples with Christ. Human prejudices are real, but with Christ they are not insurmountable.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Let us pray: Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
It is hard to imagine that there are people sitting in the pews today that don’t remember the struggles of the 1960’s when Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement. They were extremely difficult times in terms of the feelings people had about the movement. Many white people saw the movement as merely rabble rousing and only intended to create distention in the country. Some of King’s greatest opponents were people who proclaimed to be Christians, and many members of the church dug in their heals in opposition to Martin Luther King. What many did not know was that King was an advocate of Ghandi who taught non-violent protest in India against the English establishment. Following that line of thinking, King attempted to lead the black community in protest against racism, and to establish their cause of justice for all through non-violent protest in this country. They sought equal opportunities. But bringing people to change and to put aside their prejudices is not easy. The letter from our Bishop’s asks us to look at that whole issue of racism and to look once again, and continually, at our motives and our way of thinking. Changing and continuing to work at changing is not easy.
In fact, when we look at the Gospel reading today from John’s Gospel, we find even among those early disciples some prejudicial thinking. Jesus began himself calling some men to be his followers and close disciples. Jesus found Philip who followed him, and Philip invited Nathanael to at least come and see Jesus, and to see him as the unique prophet who came from Nazareth. Philip’s response was one of prejudice: “Can anything good come from Nazareth. In this first century there were many prejudices. To come from Nazareth, that little hick town was to tell all anybody needed to know. The people of Nazareth weren’t thought to be much, nor to have much in the way of honorable standing. Nathanael, based on the way of thinking of the time and based on what he had learned from others challenges Philip’s assessment that nothing good can come from Nazareth. But Philip urges Nathanael not to make a quick judgment but to come and see.
What I suppose is good about Nathanael is that he listens to his friend Philip and seeks to know Jesus. Jesus sees in Nathanael an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Jesus has seen Nathanael as a studious man of Scripture under the fig tree, which is what that idiomatic expression means. Jesus sees in Nathanael a man who can change and is open to new learning, and assures him that he will see heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of Man. What’s going on here?
It is helpful to know the Hebrew Scripture story of Jacob when he has the vision of the ladder, where the angels are seen to be ascending and descending. Jacob had been a deceitful man. Recall the story of how he stole his brother’s birthright. He was a real conniver of a man. But still God used Jacob and showed him the way to heaven through his faithfulness in the vision of the angels ascending and descending. Now says Jesus, here is Nathanael, a man in whom there is no deceit (note the unprejudiced remark of Jesus toward Nathanael), and who will follow me, and make the changes necessary in his live, for Nathanael says after having thought that nothing good could come out of Nazareth, that Jesus is Son of God! King of Israel.
The point that seems to being made is that following Jesus, Nathanael will participate in a New kind of Israel where there is no deceit, and where those who become involved in this community will truly find their way to God. They will see God revealed through Christ who descended and who ascends leading folk back to God from whom they are often estranged.
Our faith calls us to follow Christ, to see in him the Son of God, the way to God, and that in doing so we are called to be unique people who are invested in change and who want to see Christ’s way become a way for all people that leads them to God, and to God’s justice. Even today we are still caught up in our prejudices. But our prejudices don’t change anything, and we keep living in a world of racial jokes, where differing kinds of people are kept in their so called place. Many people are not afforded the dignity they deserve as human beings. Still in these recent years there have been horrible expressions of racism that has resulted in cruel and violent deaths of black persons. To come and see Christ means we have to see that he has something new to offer, and that there is another way.
The disciples of Jesus learned some startling new things. The learned the importance of loving their enemies, and blessing those who persecuted them. They learned to turn the other cheek, to give more than is asked, to give your coat and you shirt as well. They learned that merely loving the people who loved them was not going to change things in the world of prejudice suspicion and hate. Jesus taught the importance of looking beyond your own family, and your own kind. He saw all human beings as the people of God worthy of dignity and respect. ( (Luke 6:27-36) To respect the dignity of every human being is an important and significant part of our baptismal covenant, of our relationships with God and Christ.
When we are distanced from one another and a set apart from one another it is easy to be suspicious of others and to misunderstand them. It is only in being close to one another that we get a much better appreciation of who these people are. An old Native American proverb states something like this: “You really don’t know another person until you have walked in their mocassins.” It is easy to judge from a distance. It is comfortable to hold on to old prejudices because that’s what our dear and blessed loved ones taught us. But there are clearly times when we must part from the past and from ancient so-called wisdom, when new insights make us aware that God is calling us to a new way, when God is calling us in Christ into the making of a new Israel where there is no deceit and prejudice.
It is important in the living of our lives that we make efforts to know people who are different from us and our own cultures. We need to strive for understanding and grow in appreciation for all that God has provided for us. God surely has a wonderful sense of human and creativity. He has given to our world such diversity of beings and ways of thinking. These ways only contribute to a growing and wonderful kind of life that is never ever dull. Come and See what it is that Christ is calling us to be an enjoy the participation in his mission that changes the world, bringing it into the full light of bountiful love.
Sunday, January 9, 2000
Epiphany 1 - The Baptism of our Lord
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Epiphany 1 - The Baptism of our Lord
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 9,2000
TEXT: Mark 1:7-11 - The Baptism of Jesus
And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
See also Isaiah 42:1-9 - I have given you as a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
ISSUE: Mark’s Gospel account makes it clear that Jesus is His Son, Son of God. His identity is certain, and God is well pleased with him. The Baptism of Jesus is like a creation story. It is a new beginning, with the old left behind, Jesus steps up to the family of God. The baptismal incident marks a new beginning for us all. We are all called out of the past with its heartaches, pain, shame, guilt, and suffering to be the renewed and redeemed people of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the beginning of the Epiphany Season. It is that time in the Church year when we celebrate the fact that the coming of Christ was and is meant for all people, Jew and Gentile alike. It is the great manifestation that God comes to all of his people.
In these past weeks we’ve dealt with all of the birth stories of Jesus in Luke with his shepherds, and in Matthew with his account of the Wisemen and the fight of Jesus into Egypt. Out of that experience he is seen to be a dynamic leader like Moses, and he is the Nazarean, or the branch out of King David’s line, to be the savior of his people. John’s Gospel account does not give a birth account but it does speak of Jesus as the expression of God’s Word and Logic from the very beginning. Now, today, Mark’s Gospel account has neither a birth story nor a specific philosophic or theological statement. Mark begins with Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordon by John. It is believed to be a symbolic birth story.
I have mentioned many times in my sermons that in Jesus’ time, this first century period, a person’s family was everything. You were dependent upon family for education, work, who you married, business contacts, friends. Without a family you were lost and dead. Remember the story of the Prodigal Son. He leaves his family and ends starving in the pig pen. Jesus leaves his family goes into the wilderness where he meets John the Baptist. He leaves his family. He leaves the old system behind and is baptized in the River Jordon, by John the Baptist who is calling people to change and repentance. It’s a new birth, just as we are all born out of the water of our mother’s womb. Jesus is brought up out of the water. The heavens are torn open, and a voice is heard. You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. Mark’s gospel is telling us that Mary and Joseph and Jesus’ earthly family is not at issue. Rather, Jesus is of God. God the Father takes responsibility for the paternity of Jesus. Mark declares this to be the fact of new creation, and new hope for the world. It is up to his readers to declare through their awareness of Jesus that it is true. Truly this is the Son of God. This Jesus is the new Adam, the new beginning of what a child, a man, a woman of God looks like.
The baptism of Jesus in the River Jordon where the dove descends and God speaks is not the first experience of new beginnings and new birth experiences. The Scriptures, especially the Hebrew Scriptures are full of these kinds of experiences. They begin with the creation story itself in the Book of Genesis. The creation is without form and the Spirit, the holy winds like the flapping wings of the Dove bring order to the creation. And the universe comes into being.
The wonderful and cherished story of Noah and the Ark tells a story of God washing away the unrighteous and corruption, and Noah, his family and the animals, start a new creation. The old is washed away, and a new creation begins.
When Moses leads God’s people out of Egypt the come to the banks of The Sea of Reeds or Red Sea. The evil oppressive Egyptians are in pursuit. A powerful wind, a Holy Wind, of the Spirit of God, blows the waters apart as God’s people led by Moses escape the evils of the past and enter into a new pilgrimage. It’s a baptismal experience of passing though the river bed, and leaving the past behind, and carrying on as the people of God.
After years of wandering in the wilderness, and worshipping the Golden Calf, Joshua brings the people of God to the River Jordan. The priests step into the river carrying the Covenant Box which contained the Ten Commandments, and the river stops flowing. The people pass through the River Bed and enter into the Promised Land. (Joshua 3:16)
Elijah the prophet transfers his power to Elisha the Jordon River, and Elisha struck the water with his Elijah’s cloak, and the Jordon parts again for Elisha to cross over and return to his people. It is, again, a story of a new beginning for the Prophet Elisha who takes on the power of the prophet Elijah. (2Kings 5:11)
The prophet Elishah (2Kings 2:11) had also told the Gentile Syrian, Naaman, to wash in the River Jordon, when he was afflicted with leprosy, and Naaman was renewed and made clean.
The wonderful story of Jonah and the Big Fish tells another story of a new beginning. Jonah resists God’s call to him to call the people of Ninevah to repentance. He tries to flee from God aboard ship. A terrible storm comes upon the ship and it is not until Jonah is thrown overboard into the water that he is swallowed for three days by the Great Fish. On the third day, he is cast assure by the Fish, and begins again to call all people to repentance, expressing the gracious mercy that God seeks to extend to all people. Having been immersed into a symbolic death, Jonah is reborn to do the work of God.
There are many Scriptural stories of renewed baptismal experiences that through water people are given new hope, new callings, new adventures into being the people of God. It should not be a surprise to us then that Jesus’ ministry begins with baptism. He is a sign, a symbol, an assurance that God has called him to be His Son with a unique and special ministry as the Son of God. The flapping wings of the Dove are the sign of God’s Holy Spirit surrounding him, and the thundering voice identifies him as Son of God. Jesus has left the old order behind to become involved in a whole new life as the New Adam, the new man, the new revelation of what a son, a daughter, a child of God looks like.
In Jesus time there was a great deal of anger and frustration. People were cruel. These people experienced dreadful oppression at the hands of the Romans and by some of their own religious leaders. They felt shame by being a beaten people They lived in a system which often gave way to feuding among themselves, and lying to one another to preserve honor. They were a people alienated from one another, and from God. The greater majority saw themselves as failures, as poor peasants, trapped in a system and life that didn’t have much hope. John’s baptism, and Jesus’ baptism gave hope and potential for a new possibility of being the people of God again with hope, as the Lord of Love, of mercy, and gracious forgiveness came to them. His new life and hope said to them: “Come to me all of you who travail, who work hard, who are deeply in debt, who are heavy laden and have a broken Spirit, and are worn out with your grief, your pain, your suffering, you guilt and shame, and I will give you rest.” (paraphrase of Matt. 11:28)
What does all of this mean for us today? It is indeed a profoundly rich experience of how God has constantly sought to call his people to renewal, rebirth, cleansing, and new beginnings and hope.
In the modern world today, we don’t like to talk much or hear much about sin, shame, guilt, anxiety, and uncertainty. They are not the in-things to talk about. These are things we keep hidden away in our lives. But they’re all there just the same. Many people have some very poor images of themselves, and feel deep down great shame for their lives. There are those deeply enslaved in credit card debt and wonder if they’ll survive or see the light of day. There are those afflict with addictions to alcohol, to drugs, and to nicotine. All around us is the serious collapse of the family in our time. There are the perpetrators of violence and the victimized who see little or no hope of escape. We question the adequacy of our faith, our ability to do what we ought and should be doing. Shame for things long past, and foolish acts and decisions may well be buried deep in our spyche. At one time or another, I would imagine that we all feel a sense of being caught up in chaos, fear, inadequacy, poor self-image. We may well feel we are downing in situations over which we have no control. Remember that vivid Biblical story of Peter walking on the water, and he begins to sink in the storm, because he lost his focus on Christ. We need absolution. We need forgiveness. We need hope and new enlightenment. We need God to be there to lift us up and to reclaim us so we can start again fresh. We need to hear the voice of God saying, “This is my child, with whom I am pleased.”
Jesus living in the world’s chaos went to John and was immersed into the chaotic waters, and was lifted up. He heard the voice of God saying: “You are my Son, the child with whom I am pleased.” We too are called to repentance, to walk with Christ, to baptism, to renewal and to see the gracious voice of Christ calling to all who turn to him in our shame and guilt. We hear his voice calling: Come unto me all of you who are ashamed, broken, heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you refreshment.(Matt. 11:28) . . . . . . . . . Come you blessed of my Father and receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. (Matt. 25:34) Be the children of God with whom he is well please. And it is not that fellowship and community of love that we baptize this child today.
SEASON: Epiphany 1 - The Baptism of our Lord
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 9,2000
TEXT: Mark 1:7-11 - The Baptism of Jesus
And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
See also Isaiah 42:1-9 - I have given you as a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
ISSUE: Mark’s Gospel account makes it clear that Jesus is His Son, Son of God. His identity is certain, and God is well pleased with him. The Baptism of Jesus is like a creation story. It is a new beginning, with the old left behind, Jesus steps up to the family of God. The baptismal incident marks a new beginning for us all. We are all called out of the past with its heartaches, pain, shame, guilt, and suffering to be the renewed and redeemed people of God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday marks the beginning of the Epiphany Season. It is that time in the Church year when we celebrate the fact that the coming of Christ was and is meant for all people, Jew and Gentile alike. It is the great manifestation that God comes to all of his people.
In these past weeks we’ve dealt with all of the birth stories of Jesus in Luke with his shepherds, and in Matthew with his account of the Wisemen and the fight of Jesus into Egypt. Out of that experience he is seen to be a dynamic leader like Moses, and he is the Nazarean, or the branch out of King David’s line, to be the savior of his people. John’s Gospel account does not give a birth account but it does speak of Jesus as the expression of God’s Word and Logic from the very beginning. Now, today, Mark’s Gospel account has neither a birth story nor a specific philosophic or theological statement. Mark begins with Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordon by John. It is believed to be a symbolic birth story.
I have mentioned many times in my sermons that in Jesus’ time, this first century period, a person’s family was everything. You were dependent upon family for education, work, who you married, business contacts, friends. Without a family you were lost and dead. Remember the story of the Prodigal Son. He leaves his family and ends starving in the pig pen. Jesus leaves his family goes into the wilderness where he meets John the Baptist. He leaves his family. He leaves the old system behind and is baptized in the River Jordon, by John the Baptist who is calling people to change and repentance. It’s a new birth, just as we are all born out of the water of our mother’s womb. Jesus is brought up out of the water. The heavens are torn open, and a voice is heard. You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. Mark’s gospel is telling us that Mary and Joseph and Jesus’ earthly family is not at issue. Rather, Jesus is of God. God the Father takes responsibility for the paternity of Jesus. Mark declares this to be the fact of new creation, and new hope for the world. It is up to his readers to declare through their awareness of Jesus that it is true. Truly this is the Son of God. This Jesus is the new Adam, the new beginning of what a child, a man, a woman of God looks like.
The baptism of Jesus in the River Jordon where the dove descends and God speaks is not the first experience of new beginnings and new birth experiences. The Scriptures, especially the Hebrew Scriptures are full of these kinds of experiences. They begin with the creation story itself in the Book of Genesis. The creation is without form and the Spirit, the holy winds like the flapping wings of the Dove bring order to the creation. And the universe comes into being.
The wonderful and cherished story of Noah and the Ark tells a story of God washing away the unrighteous and corruption, and Noah, his family and the animals, start a new creation. The old is washed away, and a new creation begins.
When Moses leads God’s people out of Egypt the come to the banks of The Sea of Reeds or Red Sea. The evil oppressive Egyptians are in pursuit. A powerful wind, a Holy Wind, of the Spirit of God, blows the waters apart as God’s people led by Moses escape the evils of the past and enter into a new pilgrimage. It’s a baptismal experience of passing though the river bed, and leaving the past behind, and carrying on as the people of God.
After years of wandering in the wilderness, and worshipping the Golden Calf, Joshua brings the people of God to the River Jordan. The priests step into the river carrying the Covenant Box which contained the Ten Commandments, and the river stops flowing. The people pass through the River Bed and enter into the Promised Land. (Joshua 3:16)
Elijah the prophet transfers his power to Elisha the Jordon River, and Elisha struck the water with his Elijah’s cloak, and the Jordon parts again for Elisha to cross over and return to his people. It is, again, a story of a new beginning for the Prophet Elisha who takes on the power of the prophet Elijah. (2Kings 5:11)
The prophet Elishah (2Kings 2:11) had also told the Gentile Syrian, Naaman, to wash in the River Jordon, when he was afflicted with leprosy, and Naaman was renewed and made clean.
The wonderful story of Jonah and the Big Fish tells another story of a new beginning. Jonah resists God’s call to him to call the people of Ninevah to repentance. He tries to flee from God aboard ship. A terrible storm comes upon the ship and it is not until Jonah is thrown overboard into the water that he is swallowed for three days by the Great Fish. On the third day, he is cast assure by the Fish, and begins again to call all people to repentance, expressing the gracious mercy that God seeks to extend to all people. Having been immersed into a symbolic death, Jonah is reborn to do the work of God.
There are many Scriptural stories of renewed baptismal experiences that through water people are given new hope, new callings, new adventures into being the people of God. It should not be a surprise to us then that Jesus’ ministry begins with baptism. He is a sign, a symbol, an assurance that God has called him to be His Son with a unique and special ministry as the Son of God. The flapping wings of the Dove are the sign of God’s Holy Spirit surrounding him, and the thundering voice identifies him as Son of God. Jesus has left the old order behind to become involved in a whole new life as the New Adam, the new man, the new revelation of what a son, a daughter, a child of God looks like.
In Jesus time there was a great deal of anger and frustration. People were cruel. These people experienced dreadful oppression at the hands of the Romans and by some of their own religious leaders. They felt shame by being a beaten people They lived in a system which often gave way to feuding among themselves, and lying to one another to preserve honor. They were a people alienated from one another, and from God. The greater majority saw themselves as failures, as poor peasants, trapped in a system and life that didn’t have much hope. John’s baptism, and Jesus’ baptism gave hope and potential for a new possibility of being the people of God again with hope, as the Lord of Love, of mercy, and gracious forgiveness came to them. His new life and hope said to them: “Come to me all of you who travail, who work hard, who are deeply in debt, who are heavy laden and have a broken Spirit, and are worn out with your grief, your pain, your suffering, you guilt and shame, and I will give you rest.” (paraphrase of Matt. 11:28)
What does all of this mean for us today? It is indeed a profoundly rich experience of how God has constantly sought to call his people to renewal, rebirth, cleansing, and new beginnings and hope.
In the modern world today, we don’t like to talk much or hear much about sin, shame, guilt, anxiety, and uncertainty. They are not the in-things to talk about. These are things we keep hidden away in our lives. But they’re all there just the same. Many people have some very poor images of themselves, and feel deep down great shame for their lives. There are those deeply enslaved in credit card debt and wonder if they’ll survive or see the light of day. There are those afflict with addictions to alcohol, to drugs, and to nicotine. All around us is the serious collapse of the family in our time. There are the perpetrators of violence and the victimized who see little or no hope of escape. We question the adequacy of our faith, our ability to do what we ought and should be doing. Shame for things long past, and foolish acts and decisions may well be buried deep in our spyche. At one time or another, I would imagine that we all feel a sense of being caught up in chaos, fear, inadequacy, poor self-image. We may well feel we are downing in situations over which we have no control. Remember that vivid Biblical story of Peter walking on the water, and he begins to sink in the storm, because he lost his focus on Christ. We need absolution. We need forgiveness. We need hope and new enlightenment. We need God to be there to lift us up and to reclaim us so we can start again fresh. We need to hear the voice of God saying, “This is my child, with whom I am pleased.”
Jesus living in the world’s chaos went to John and was immersed into the chaotic waters, and was lifted up. He heard the voice of God saying: “You are my Son, the child with whom I am pleased.” We too are called to repentance, to walk with Christ, to baptism, to renewal and to see the gracious voice of Christ calling to all who turn to him in our shame and guilt. We hear his voice calling: Come unto me all of you who are ashamed, broken, heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you refreshment.(Matt. 11:28) . . . . . . . . . Come you blessed of my Father and receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. (Matt. 25:34) Be the children of God with whom he is well please. And it is not that fellowship and community of love that we baptize this child today.
Sunday, January 2, 2000
Christmas 2
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Christmas 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 2, 2000
TEXT: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 - Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.
ISSUE: Joseph is a very shadowy figure in the Scriptures. We know very little about him, except in how he is portrayed in Luke, but more especially in Matthew. He is pictured as a dreamer, a protector, and a deliverer of the Christ child. While Mary is portrayed as the channel of grace for the Christ child, Joseph is the masculine counter part who is the great protector of the child. Perhaps the story of Joseph as the great protector can be for us in our world a reminder of our need to dream dreams and have visions that enable us to embrace the faith we have in Christ and to protect and share its magnificence with the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are continuing today to deal with some of the stories that surround the birth of Jesus. While we’ve heard from Luke on Christmas, John’s theological interpretation last week, today we look at some of the story as told in Matthew. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we heard of how the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she succumbed to the will of God to be the bearer of the Christ child. We might have thought of that Sunday as Mary’s Sunday. Today, however, we see the work and place of Joseph in the birth narrative as some of the details are told by Matthew. We might think of this as Joseph’s Sunday.
In the Gospels, other than Matthew, Joseph does not play a very significant role. Tradition has led us to believe that Joseph was an old man who died before Jesus’ adulthood. Some biblical scholars even question the existence of a Joseph as Jesus’ father. Mark’s gospel makes no mention of Joseph and says that Jesus was a carpenter, not son of a carpenter. In John’s Gospel, Joseph is mentioned but plays no role. Luke has Jesus take his place at the manger, but Matthew is the only Gospel that deals with Joseph in any significant way.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus is seen to be in trouble. The evil Herod is out to get him. Herod is supposedly the King who orders the slaughter of innocent children. Keep in mind that no other secular historical source says anything about the slaughter of the innocent children. What we do know about Herod is that he was a very vicious man, and that Jesus was born into that very vicious world that could well have and did try to destroy him. What we also know is that Matthew makes every effort to tell the story of Jesus in such as way that it is and was portrayed to the people of his time as related to, and rooted in their ancient tradition. He tells it in such a way as it is seen as fulfillment and related to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The very idea that Herod supposedly attempts to slaughter the innocent children brought to the Jewish mind the story of how the Pharaoh of Egypt attempted to slaughter the Hebrew boys when the Hebrew people grew in strength and number. Jesus survived the terrible threat. Jesus, then like Moses, survives the hardship of childhood to become a great leader of his people who will lead them into the Empire of or Kingdom of God.
In the story, Joseph, led by a dream, takes Jesus to Egypt and then returns to Judea and then to Nazareth in Galilee. Matthew says that this action is a fulfillment of a passage from Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” It reminds of the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian oppression to the Promised Land.
Matthew also says about Jesus, “He will be called a Nazarene.” There is no such actual prophetic passage, but there is a passage in Isaiah 11:1, that says: “There shall come forth a root from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots." This is likely a play on words as the Hebrew word nezer for branch sounds like Nazareth. Jesus is therefore the branch that comes from the house of David.
Now back to Joseph. What we see and learn about Joseph in this story may also be associated with the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. It helps tremendously to know the Old Testament story of Joseph. He was one of the sons of Jacob. He became in fact a favorite son to whom he gives the long sleeved coat of many colors. What is especially notable about Joseph in the Old Testament story is that he is a man of many dreams, and an interpreter of dreams. He has a dream that his other brothers bow down and worship him. His brothers, very put off by his special treatment by their father, and his presuming to dream that they would bow down to him, threaten to kill him, but then have him sold into slavery. He ends up in jail and begins interpreting the dreams of some of his fellow jail mates, the butler and baker of the Egyptian Pharaoh. News of Joseph’s gift of the interpretation of dreams enables him to find favor with the Pharaoh himself, because Joseph successfully interprets the dream of Pharaoh, and is rewarded by being made the prime minister of all of Egypt.
When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt during the great famine, Joseph does not take revenge, but forgives them and offers them safe residence in Egypt. Thus, Joseph is a man of great forgiveness and a savior of his people. He’s one of the great figures of the Hebrew Scriptures in Genesis.
What does Matthew say about Jesus’ father Joseph? According to the New Testament Scripture, Joseph, father of Jesus, also has a father whose name is Jacob.
He says that he is a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. He dreams that Mary who is with child is with child by the Holy Spirit. Thus, he takes her as his wife and assumes responsibility for the child. He dreams that the child’s name shall be called Jesus, and he abides by the dream. He dreams that they are in danger and takes the child to Egypt. When in Egypt he dreams that it is safe to return home, and he does so returning to Nazareth, where the prophecies can be fulfilled.
Joseph in the New Testament story as father of Jesus is also the savior of the child, the child who will bring spiritual nourishment to a world hungry for God. Joseph, himself, plays like his forefather a significant salvation role with out vengeance. He is a very forgiving and accepting man of the situation in which he finds himself, as husband to a woman whose pregnancy is suspect, and who raises a child whose life shall be given as a profound witness to forgiveness.
The story here is telling the people who read it that God is still present with, and acting in the history of his people. Jesus has divine roots in the tradition and faith of God’s people. Joseph as the father of the Christ child is portrayed as another channel through which God comes through Christ to his people. Joseph is truly a not very significant character in the birth stories and in the whole of the Biblical story. But Matthew sees that seeming insignificance as embraced by God, and enhanced when it is set down next to the story of the Joseph of the Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures.
In Joseph, Matthew, relates the coming of Jesus to familiar Old Testament stories and imposes the presence of God upon him. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is always and from the beginning of time the incarnate word of God. Luke sees Mary as the giver of Jesus humanity and the channel through which his divinity flows from the Holy Spirit. Matthew gives that God presence in Jesus through his rooted association with God’s holy people where the human and the divine meet. But make now mistake about it, Joseph is also the character given to us by Matthew, especially, that is a man of dreams and visions. He is obedient to and trusting of God speaking to him so that he can be a channel through which God’s will and God’s Son is made manifest to and protected for the world to see and know.
This story reminds me of still another Hebrew Scripture prophecy that comes from the prophetic Book of Joel. Joel (2:28) believed and prophesied that after much degradation of God’s people, God would come to them again to restore them saying:
“Afterward I will pour out my spirit on everyone; your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams, and you young men will have visions. At that time I will pour out my spirit even on my servants both men and women.”
Mary and Joseph seem to be something of the fulfillment of the prophecy as they become the channels through which God comes to his people through Jesus Christ. The question also remains for our own consideration is whether or not we ourselves are allowing ourselves to dream dreams and have visions, both men and women, who allow the presence of God to flow through lives that are obedient and open to the Spirit of Christ-likeness within ourselves.
Today marks the beginning of a whole new millennium for the world. It also marks the beginning of a whole new millennium for the church, for the people of God. Though we may seem insignificant and as shadowy as Joseph himself, we are not without the capacity to dream dreams and have visions. As we face this new millennium together, what do you suppose it is that God is calling us to be and to do in the new age?
We have seen some unprecedented violence and human abuse in the past. Cruel wars infest our history. Craziness combines with the violence in our schools. Racial prejudice continues. We can go on listing the social, health related, and personal problems we all face. No one of us alone has answers. Yet we are still the church. We are still the body of Christ. We may think of ourselves as shadowy and insignificant, but the whole body of the Scripture bears witness to the fact that God uses even the least, the unknown carpenter, the pregnant little girl, to be the channels of hope through which God’s spirit flows. I think that as a community of believers together we need to sharpen our resolve to be faithful and obedient. We need to be constant in our prayerfulness asking God is use us for his channels of grace that Christ’s likeness may continue to flow and flood the world. We need to prayerfully discern what it is God is calling us to be and to do.
The people of Jesus’ time knew the story of their faith, and as it continued to unfold, and God continued to act in their history, they grew in faithful understanding and hope. They had their dreams and visions that enabled them to stand up firm in witness and assurance that God was with them. They witnessed to the sacrificial love, often sacrificing their own lives. We know well that the year 2000 is nothing more than an arbitrary date in the calculation of human history. But it is in spite of that a moment for contemplation of our place in the world as the people of God. We need to ask God to be our help and our guide to allow his grace to flow in us and through us, dreaming dreams and having visions, without vengeance and malice. Joseph is simply obedient, committed, loyal, faithful and carries on; through him comes the hope and salvation of God.
SEASON: Christmas 2
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 2, 2000
TEXT: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 - Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.
ISSUE: Joseph is a very shadowy figure in the Scriptures. We know very little about him, except in how he is portrayed in Luke, but more especially in Matthew. He is pictured as a dreamer, a protector, and a deliverer of the Christ child. While Mary is portrayed as the channel of grace for the Christ child, Joseph is the masculine counter part who is the great protector of the child. Perhaps the story of Joseph as the great protector can be for us in our world a reminder of our need to dream dreams and have visions that enable us to embrace the faith we have in Christ and to protect and share its magnificence with the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We are continuing today to deal with some of the stories that surround the birth of Jesus. While we’ve heard from Luke on Christmas, John’s theological interpretation last week, today we look at some of the story as told in Matthew. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we heard of how the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and she succumbed to the will of God to be the bearer of the Christ child. We might have thought of that Sunday as Mary’s Sunday. Today, however, we see the work and place of Joseph in the birth narrative as some of the details are told by Matthew. We might think of this as Joseph’s Sunday.
In the Gospels, other than Matthew, Joseph does not play a very significant role. Tradition has led us to believe that Joseph was an old man who died before Jesus’ adulthood. Some biblical scholars even question the existence of a Joseph as Jesus’ father. Mark’s gospel makes no mention of Joseph and says that Jesus was a carpenter, not son of a carpenter. In John’s Gospel, Joseph is mentioned but plays no role. Luke has Jesus take his place at the manger, but Matthew is the only Gospel that deals with Joseph in any significant way.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus is seen to be in trouble. The evil Herod is out to get him. Herod is supposedly the King who orders the slaughter of innocent children. Keep in mind that no other secular historical source says anything about the slaughter of the innocent children. What we do know about Herod is that he was a very vicious man, and that Jesus was born into that very vicious world that could well have and did try to destroy him. What we also know is that Matthew makes every effort to tell the story of Jesus in such as way that it is and was portrayed to the people of his time as related to, and rooted in their ancient tradition. He tells it in such a way as it is seen as fulfillment and related to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The very idea that Herod supposedly attempts to slaughter the innocent children brought to the Jewish mind the story of how the Pharaoh of Egypt attempted to slaughter the Hebrew boys when the Hebrew people grew in strength and number. Jesus survived the terrible threat. Jesus, then like Moses, survives the hardship of childhood to become a great leader of his people who will lead them into the Empire of or Kingdom of God.
In the story, Joseph, led by a dream, takes Jesus to Egypt and then returns to Judea and then to Nazareth in Galilee. Matthew says that this action is a fulfillment of a passage from Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” It reminds of the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian oppression to the Promised Land.
Matthew also says about Jesus, “He will be called a Nazarene.” There is no such actual prophetic passage, but there is a passage in Isaiah 11:1, that says: “There shall come forth a root from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots." This is likely a play on words as the Hebrew word nezer for branch sounds like Nazareth. Jesus is therefore the branch that comes from the house of David.
Now back to Joseph. What we see and learn about Joseph in this story may also be associated with the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament. It helps tremendously to know the Old Testament story of Joseph. He was one of the sons of Jacob. He became in fact a favorite son to whom he gives the long sleeved coat of many colors. What is especially notable about Joseph in the Old Testament story is that he is a man of many dreams, and an interpreter of dreams. He has a dream that his other brothers bow down and worship him. His brothers, very put off by his special treatment by their father, and his presuming to dream that they would bow down to him, threaten to kill him, but then have him sold into slavery. He ends up in jail and begins interpreting the dreams of some of his fellow jail mates, the butler and baker of the Egyptian Pharaoh. News of Joseph’s gift of the interpretation of dreams enables him to find favor with the Pharaoh himself, because Joseph successfully interprets the dream of Pharaoh, and is rewarded by being made the prime minister of all of Egypt.
When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt during the great famine, Joseph does not take revenge, but forgives them and offers them safe residence in Egypt. Thus, Joseph is a man of great forgiveness and a savior of his people. He’s one of the great figures of the Hebrew Scriptures in Genesis.
What does Matthew say about Jesus’ father Joseph? According to the New Testament Scripture, Joseph, father of Jesus, also has a father whose name is Jacob.
He says that he is a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams. He dreams that Mary who is with child is with child by the Holy Spirit. Thus, he takes her as his wife and assumes responsibility for the child. He dreams that the child’s name shall be called Jesus, and he abides by the dream. He dreams that they are in danger and takes the child to Egypt. When in Egypt he dreams that it is safe to return home, and he does so returning to Nazareth, where the prophecies can be fulfilled.
Joseph in the New Testament story as father of Jesus is also the savior of the child, the child who will bring spiritual nourishment to a world hungry for God. Joseph, himself, plays like his forefather a significant salvation role with out vengeance. He is a very forgiving and accepting man of the situation in which he finds himself, as husband to a woman whose pregnancy is suspect, and who raises a child whose life shall be given as a profound witness to forgiveness.
The story here is telling the people who read it that God is still present with, and acting in the history of his people. Jesus has divine roots in the tradition and faith of God’s people. Joseph as the father of the Christ child is portrayed as another channel through which God comes through Christ to his people. Joseph is truly a not very significant character in the birth stories and in the whole of the Biblical story. But Matthew sees that seeming insignificance as embraced by God, and enhanced when it is set down next to the story of the Joseph of the Old Testament, Hebrew Scriptures.
In Joseph, Matthew, relates the coming of Jesus to familiar Old Testament stories and imposes the presence of God upon him. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is always and from the beginning of time the incarnate word of God. Luke sees Mary as the giver of Jesus humanity and the channel through which his divinity flows from the Holy Spirit. Matthew gives that God presence in Jesus through his rooted association with God’s holy people where the human and the divine meet. But make now mistake about it, Joseph is also the character given to us by Matthew, especially, that is a man of dreams and visions. He is obedient to and trusting of God speaking to him so that he can be a channel through which God’s will and God’s Son is made manifest to and protected for the world to see and know.
This story reminds me of still another Hebrew Scripture prophecy that comes from the prophetic Book of Joel. Joel (2:28) believed and prophesied that after much degradation of God’s people, God would come to them again to restore them saying:
“Afterward I will pour out my spirit on everyone; your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams, and you young men will have visions. At that time I will pour out my spirit even on my servants both men and women.”
Mary and Joseph seem to be something of the fulfillment of the prophecy as they become the channels through which God comes to his people through Jesus Christ. The question also remains for our own consideration is whether or not we ourselves are allowing ourselves to dream dreams and have visions, both men and women, who allow the presence of God to flow through lives that are obedient and open to the Spirit of Christ-likeness within ourselves.
Today marks the beginning of a whole new millennium for the world. It also marks the beginning of a whole new millennium for the church, for the people of God. Though we may seem insignificant and as shadowy as Joseph himself, we are not without the capacity to dream dreams and have visions. As we face this new millennium together, what do you suppose it is that God is calling us to be and to do in the new age?
We have seen some unprecedented violence and human abuse in the past. Cruel wars infest our history. Craziness combines with the violence in our schools. Racial prejudice continues. We can go on listing the social, health related, and personal problems we all face. No one of us alone has answers. Yet we are still the church. We are still the body of Christ. We may think of ourselves as shadowy and insignificant, but the whole body of the Scripture bears witness to the fact that God uses even the least, the unknown carpenter, the pregnant little girl, to be the channels of hope through which God’s spirit flows. I think that as a community of believers together we need to sharpen our resolve to be faithful and obedient. We need to be constant in our prayerfulness asking God is use us for his channels of grace that Christ’s likeness may continue to flow and flood the world. We need to prayerfully discern what it is God is calling us to be and to do.
The people of Jesus’ time knew the story of their faith, and as it continued to unfold, and God continued to act in their history, they grew in faithful understanding and hope. They had their dreams and visions that enabled them to stand up firm in witness and assurance that God was with them. They witnessed to the sacrificial love, often sacrificing their own lives. We know well that the year 2000 is nothing more than an arbitrary date in the calculation of human history. But it is in spite of that a moment for contemplation of our place in the world as the people of God. We need to ask God to be our help and our guide to allow his grace to flow in us and through us, dreaming dreams and having visions, without vengeance and malice. Joseph is simply obedient, committed, loyal, faithful and carries on; through him comes the hope and salvation of God.
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