May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Christmas
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 24 – 25, 2000
TEXT: Luke 2:1-20 – But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, The Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”
ISSUE: Few stories in the Bible have created so much attention as this story found in Luke’s gospel account called The Christmas Story. A simple poetic story is a kind of overture to the Gospel spelling out the fact that a savior has come to all the world. In lieu of the many problems of the world the story gives great hope in a savior and Lord that can be picked up and embraced.
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We have come to another Christmas Eve. We gather here this evening to do some reflection on one of the most beautiful and poetic stories in the Bible, Luke’s poetic narration of the birth of Jesus. Just as an opera has an overture, the story is something of an overture to all that follows in the Gospel, which includes a marvelous extending of God’s undeserved love, which we call grace, to the world. The story is rich in subtle meaning and profound grace.
It tells of a world whose powers centered in Augustus Caesar are oppressive and manipulative, and quite insensitive to human need. A peasant carpenter and his wife, according to Luke, are forced to make a journey back to their homeland for not very clear political reasons. Yet, Mary and Joseph journey to a town where the birth of their child will take place. It is in Bethlehem, the city of David who had been Israel’s greatest charismatic king who had brought unity, peace and prosperity to his people. The name “Bethlehem” is translated from the Hebrew, The House of Bread. Jesus is born in a king’s town and a place known for its sustenance and nurturing.
The story tells of cultural system that demeans many people. Joseph and Mary have no place to stay, no place to lay their heads in comfortable surroundings. More prestigious and honorable folk have made claim on the best places to stay. They find only very humble surroundings where peasant children are born, in a manger. There’s likely to be meaning in that as well, for the manger is a tray, or a place of feeding. It seems to be a preliminary hope and looking forward to the nurturing and spiritual food that Jesus Christ will give in his ministry as told in the stories of the Feeding of the Multitudes.
Finally, with no honor or place, nor family to sing simple welcoming songs to the child, Angels are given that role to announce to shepherds. The shepherds in the area of Bethlehem were the shepherds who raised the sheep that were used for sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple. The angels announce the birth to these same shepherds of the birth of the Lamb of God, who will also give his life as a sacrifice for the world at his eventual crucifixion in Jerusalem. Little do the shepherds know that they embrace The Good Shepherd of the Sheep, and the very Lamb of God that will take away the sin of the world. They raise him up in their arms. The Angels announce: “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke prepares his readers: Into a harsh and cruel world God is coming to his people bringing hope and a new way of life to enlighten the darkness and despair of those lives.
While we come here this evening in joy to greet once again the coming of the Christ at Christmas, we also come with all of our humanness, and our human frailty. We gather with our heartaches, our pains, and our sufferings. We live in a world that can also be harsh, cruel, manipulative, and insensitive. We live at the mercy of circumstances in our lives that we cannot control, and circumstances over which we have little control. Think of the people whose lives have been disrupted by the recent tornado in Alabama, or the volcanic eruption in Mexico. Many people in the world are lonely, especially older people whose friends and relatives have died. Many people weep and grieve this night for broken relationships or lost loved ones. Many of us live with our health issues that are bothersome and worrisome. No one of us escapes our humanness. No one escapes that fact that we are at times less than honorable people ourselves. We live too in a world that has such enormous difficulty in finding peace. Think of the situation in Northern Ireland, and especially the great and long feuding in the Middle East that has world wide implications, not to mention the great suffering of its own people and especially the children.
Why does Luke’s story get our attention? Perhaps, it is because it tells us a Savior is born, who is Christ the Lord. Christ is the Savior who comes in great humility and even great dishonor. But at the same time, He is available. He shares our common humanity, and you can reach out to him, and pick him up out of the manger and hold him to your breast. In doing so we hold peace, fear is diminished, love abounds, spiritual food is given and you could just eat him up. He is our light for those who walk in darkness. He is our wonderful counselor, Mighty but humble God, our everlasting Father, our prince of peace. To those who walk in darkness, he is our new life, our light and our hope. “Come into my heart Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee.”
Monday, December 25, 2000
Sunday, December 24, 2000
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: C
PLACE: St. John’s Parish
DATE: December 21, 1997
December 24, 2000
TEXT: Luke 1:39-56 - Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth and The Magnificat. - “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
ISSUE: God works in mysterious and wonderful ways to bring about his salvation and hope. While women are seen by some to have been the cause of the Fall from Grace, as Eve at the apple and seduced Adam, Elizabeth and Mary are now seen as the channels of grace through which God’s redeeming salvation comes. Among the poor and lowly God fulfills his promises and a social inversion takes place. The passage awakens all of us to see that through our readiness to receive the savior, we also participate in being the channels of God’s grace in our world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In these last days of Advent just before Christmas, we read the beautiful story of the meeting of the two women, Elizabeth and Mary. It is indeed a story of such great joyful expectation as the two pregnant women rejoice with one another. There is an ecstasy about the passage. I hope that you won’t miss it. Let me caution you, if I may. Many people today are often inclined to literalize the Bible and so many of the stories. A literal interpretation of the Scriptures causes us to miss so much, and trying to literalize it all raises for a lot of people many unanswerable questions. Often the profound stories of the scriptures come across as mere nonsense in a modern and scientific world. In fact, the Bible was not written as a literal presentation of everything that Jesus did and said. It is not a book of science, not a book of history (except for some Old Testament writings), and it is not a biography. It is not appropriate to ask if scriptural stories really happened, but rather the issue is what does the Bible and its wonderful variety of stories mean? What is the meaning? How is God revealed in the various biblical stories and accounts.
If we see this encounter of Mary and Elizabeth as merely Luke telling us that the two women met to chit chat about their impending deliveries, and that Mary is simply traveling around the country side pregnant, and breaks into a happy song, we drastically miss the point without looking deeper into the meaning of this special and beautiful encounter of two very special women, so far as Luke is concerned. The very idea that Mary is traveling Judea by herself in this period would have simply been unheard of. People in May and Joseph’s class in this period rarely traveled. If they did, they traveled in caravans. A woman traveling alone would have been very deviant and shameful behavior. What look wants us to know, I think, is that we need to look at these two women and try to appreciate the meaning of their lives and what they had to offer to all who would come to know them. He arranges a story which puts the two women together so we can learning something of the working of God through their lives.
The meeting of the two women reminds me of the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. Early on in the story just after the creation, Eve is tempted by the serpent and succumbs to eating the apple. She then coaxes Adam also to partake. Think what you will about Eve, but Adam who is bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh and vice versa is equally responsible. However, in the story we see the Fall of humanity. Women and men are participating in disobedience. In the stories of Elizabeth and Mary you begin to see the exact opposite beginning to happen. Elizabeth, who is barren and old, is told she will bear a son. Her husband Zechariah cannot believe it to be true and is struck dumb temporarily. Elizabeth on the other hand is faithful and accepts the possibility that by the grace of God her barren state shall be redeemed.
Close in time, an angel appears to Mary who is told that she too shall become pregnant and bear and son, and she replies, “I am the Lord’s servant; may it happen to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38) Notice that the turn around, the repentance, the conversion. While through the disobedience of Eve, a symbol of human fallen state, it is through women, Elizabeth and Mary, that the way is paved for redemption, for renewal, for the wonderful uplifting of humanity through the women who will become God’s chosen vessels to restore humanity from its fallen state. Both women respond in faithfulness and obedience to what God has chosen them to do. They are the instruments of grace who participate in the hope of a new garden, a new kingdom, the renewed paradise of God.
As for the men, Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah, comes to his senses names the child John as the angel directs and regains his speech. Joseph, Mary’s espoused husband, is converted in a dream and accepts Mary’s pregnancy. A new age is about to be come into being, an age of redemption, reconciliation, and age of hope.
I think that it is also important to point out that when Mary visits Elizabeth, the mother of the prophet John Baptist, she also fulfills a prophetic role when she says, “And why has this happened that the mother of my Lord comes to me? At the same time all this business about pregnancy and the leaping fetus in the wombs of their mothers speaks of life, vitality, hopefulness, excitement, joy. There is such vivid dramatic expression of something wonderful to come and to be. Luke is a bit of genius as he puts this story together of the meeting of the women. Furthermore, the very idea that the impending hope of the world resides in the wombs of these women was a startling concept for the period. Notice the change, the restoration, the place of women so far as the evangelist Luke is concerned in the early church. Elizabeth is bearing the last of the great prophets that calls the world to preparedness, and Mary shall be called “Mother of God.” God is indeed doing something brand new and profoundly wonderful. God is turning the world and its traditions upside down as God’s glory is about to be revealed.
There is more in the story. Consider the women themselves. Elizabeth is old and barren. In fact what’s more, she would have been considered as cursed for not bearing children for her husband. In the period male semen contained fully developed babies in miniature it was believed. Women were the field in which they were planted. If they didn’t grow it was the woman’s fault, not the husband’s. Barren women were cursed. Yet the story tells us that God could, can, and will do the impossible to reclaim his people. God can use the old, the barren and the cursed to accomplish His purposes. Luke is also implying that the Old Testament is not barren, that within them is the messages of hope that are about to be realized. the old is giving birth to something grand. What was thought to be dried up and cursed is pregnant with hopefulness and blessedness.
From the barrenness of Elizabeth, Luke’s story tells of the unwed mother, Mary. Unwed motherhood in this period was considered totally unacceptable. But in this story the unwed mother, what is seen as unacceptable, cursed, broken, sinful and demeaning, God has the power to change it into the miraculous hope and salvation for the world. While Luke talks about a virgin birth with its various interpretations, the people of the time saw Mary as simply an unwed mother who becomes betrothed to Joseph out of his great compassion. Mary herself is among the poor and the outcast, yet God can use her and she agrees to be the handmaiden, actually the bondslave of God to be the channel through which God’s grace may flow. A new age of hope and salvation for the poor, the disenfranchised is coming into being.
In the passage Mary breaks out in song. The Song of Mary, or commonly known as The Magnificat, which is sometimes sung in our worship services was not original with Luke. Mary proclaims, “My soul does magnify and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” The song is not original to Mary or to Luke for that matter. The song comes from the Old Testament. It is the song of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. (I Sam.2:1f) Hannah herself had once been a barren women and unmercifully teased and cursed by Peninnah, her husband Elkanah’s other wife. When her prayer for a child is answered she broke out into a song, which Luke uses and attributes to the virgin mother Mary. But the point and message of the song is that God will use the unusable who turn to him in faith. God uses the poor and lifts them up, and the rich (more accurately) the greedy, the proud are scattered.
Consider last week when John Baptist was baptizing in the Jordon. All the losers were coming out to him, pitiful tax or toll collectors, and Herod’s scruffy soldiers. They were looking with hope for something new, and John called them to a repentance and deep change of heart. Today we hear to two women, one barren and cursed, the other unwed and worthy of stoning. Yet through their faith and trust they become the channels of grace for one of God’s most mighty acts, the birth of a renewing prophet and the Savior of the world.
What does all this mean? It means that God works through his people. He asks us to turn to him in faithfulness and trust that we may become his servants, and that his grace and hope may flow through our lives. Tax collectors and soldiers say, “What shall we do?” Two women, one old and barren and the other an mere immature child, open themselves up to being the servants of God. It tells of how God needs and can use all that are broken, and fallen. God uses the poor and the afflicted, those who are or think of themselves as untalented to bring on the new Garden, the Kingdom of hope and peace.
Around us my good people the high and the mighty do often fall. Hitler failed. Communism is fading away. There are movements in the world to end weapons of mass crippling and destruction such as atomic weaponry, biological warfare, and land mines. The highly proud, the greedy, the corrupted whether they be clergy (TV evangelists), high priced lawyers, bankers, powerful politicians, sports celebrities in due time are brought low. God uses the poor and lifts them up into his arms. We’ve seen the great progress of the enslaved blacks in Africa and in our own country begin and continue to have and share in what is just, right, good, and lovely.
We all stand on the edge and verge of Christ’s coming again. Elizabeth and Mary turned their lives over to the presence of God. They in their poverty became the channels of grace and hope. Christ was born and revealed the loveliness of God in way never seen before nor since. The Christ came to show the way of love and forgiveness, of a passionate redemption on a cross, and gave a message of hope, renewal and resurrection.
And so it is our time again, to return in faith and obedience, to say, “I too am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen to me as you will. Let me be changed and renewed and incorporated into a ministry through which God’s love and grace may flow.” May God use us, even with our shortcomings and fallen state, our emptiness and barrenness, our failures and foolishness. May we be open to him and allow Christ to flow through our lives, finding in us a mansion prepared.
SEASON: Advent 4
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John’s Parish
DATE: December 21, 1997
December 24, 2000
TEXT: Luke 1:39-56 - Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth and The Magnificat. - “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
ISSUE: God works in mysterious and wonderful ways to bring about his salvation and hope. While women are seen by some to have been the cause of the Fall from Grace, as Eve at the apple and seduced Adam, Elizabeth and Mary are now seen as the channels of grace through which God’s redeeming salvation comes. Among the poor and lowly God fulfills his promises and a social inversion takes place. The passage awakens all of us to see that through our readiness to receive the savior, we also participate in being the channels of God’s grace in our world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In these last days of Advent just before Christmas, we read the beautiful story of the meeting of the two women, Elizabeth and Mary. It is indeed a story of such great joyful expectation as the two pregnant women rejoice with one another. There is an ecstasy about the passage. I hope that you won’t miss it. Let me caution you, if I may. Many people today are often inclined to literalize the Bible and so many of the stories. A literal interpretation of the Scriptures causes us to miss so much, and trying to literalize it all raises for a lot of people many unanswerable questions. Often the profound stories of the scriptures come across as mere nonsense in a modern and scientific world. In fact, the Bible was not written as a literal presentation of everything that Jesus did and said. It is not a book of science, not a book of history (except for some Old Testament writings), and it is not a biography. It is not appropriate to ask if scriptural stories really happened, but rather the issue is what does the Bible and its wonderful variety of stories mean? What is the meaning? How is God revealed in the various biblical stories and accounts.
If we see this encounter of Mary and Elizabeth as merely Luke telling us that the two women met to chit chat about their impending deliveries, and that Mary is simply traveling around the country side pregnant, and breaks into a happy song, we drastically miss the point without looking deeper into the meaning of this special and beautiful encounter of two very special women, so far as Luke is concerned. The very idea that Mary is traveling Judea by herself in this period would have simply been unheard of. People in May and Joseph’s class in this period rarely traveled. If they did, they traveled in caravans. A woman traveling alone would have been very deviant and shameful behavior. What look wants us to know, I think, is that we need to look at these two women and try to appreciate the meaning of their lives and what they had to offer to all who would come to know them. He arranges a story which puts the two women together so we can learning something of the working of God through their lives.
The meeting of the two women reminds me of the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. Early on in the story just after the creation, Eve is tempted by the serpent and succumbs to eating the apple. She then coaxes Adam also to partake. Think what you will about Eve, but Adam who is bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh and vice versa is equally responsible. However, in the story we see the Fall of humanity. Women and men are participating in disobedience. In the stories of Elizabeth and Mary you begin to see the exact opposite beginning to happen. Elizabeth, who is barren and old, is told she will bear a son. Her husband Zechariah cannot believe it to be true and is struck dumb temporarily. Elizabeth on the other hand is faithful and accepts the possibility that by the grace of God her barren state shall be redeemed.
Close in time, an angel appears to Mary who is told that she too shall become pregnant and bear and son, and she replies, “I am the Lord’s servant; may it happen to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38) Notice that the turn around, the repentance, the conversion. While through the disobedience of Eve, a symbol of human fallen state, it is through women, Elizabeth and Mary, that the way is paved for redemption, for renewal, for the wonderful uplifting of humanity through the women who will become God’s chosen vessels to restore humanity from its fallen state. Both women respond in faithfulness and obedience to what God has chosen them to do. They are the instruments of grace who participate in the hope of a new garden, a new kingdom, the renewed paradise of God.
As for the men, Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah, comes to his senses names the child John as the angel directs and regains his speech. Joseph, Mary’s espoused husband, is converted in a dream and accepts Mary’s pregnancy. A new age is about to be come into being, an age of redemption, reconciliation, and age of hope.
I think that it is also important to point out that when Mary visits Elizabeth, the mother of the prophet John Baptist, she also fulfills a prophetic role when she says, “And why has this happened that the mother of my Lord comes to me? At the same time all this business about pregnancy and the leaping fetus in the wombs of their mothers speaks of life, vitality, hopefulness, excitement, joy. There is such vivid dramatic expression of something wonderful to come and to be. Luke is a bit of genius as he puts this story together of the meeting of the women. Furthermore, the very idea that the impending hope of the world resides in the wombs of these women was a startling concept for the period. Notice the change, the restoration, the place of women so far as the evangelist Luke is concerned in the early church. Elizabeth is bearing the last of the great prophets that calls the world to preparedness, and Mary shall be called “Mother of God.” God is indeed doing something brand new and profoundly wonderful. God is turning the world and its traditions upside down as God’s glory is about to be revealed.
There is more in the story. Consider the women themselves. Elizabeth is old and barren. In fact what’s more, she would have been considered as cursed for not bearing children for her husband. In the period male semen contained fully developed babies in miniature it was believed. Women were the field in which they were planted. If they didn’t grow it was the woman’s fault, not the husband’s. Barren women were cursed. Yet the story tells us that God could, can, and will do the impossible to reclaim his people. God can use the old, the barren and the cursed to accomplish His purposes. Luke is also implying that the Old Testament is not barren, that within them is the messages of hope that are about to be realized. the old is giving birth to something grand. What was thought to be dried up and cursed is pregnant with hopefulness and blessedness.
From the barrenness of Elizabeth, Luke’s story tells of the unwed mother, Mary. Unwed motherhood in this period was considered totally unacceptable. But in this story the unwed mother, what is seen as unacceptable, cursed, broken, sinful and demeaning, God has the power to change it into the miraculous hope and salvation for the world. While Luke talks about a virgin birth with its various interpretations, the people of the time saw Mary as simply an unwed mother who becomes betrothed to Joseph out of his great compassion. Mary herself is among the poor and the outcast, yet God can use her and she agrees to be the handmaiden, actually the bondslave of God to be the channel through which God’s grace may flow. A new age of hope and salvation for the poor, the disenfranchised is coming into being.
In the passage Mary breaks out in song. The Song of Mary, or commonly known as The Magnificat, which is sometimes sung in our worship services was not original with Luke. Mary proclaims, “My soul does magnify and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” The song is not original to Mary or to Luke for that matter. The song comes from the Old Testament. It is the song of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. (I Sam.2:1f) Hannah herself had once been a barren women and unmercifully teased and cursed by Peninnah, her husband Elkanah’s other wife. When her prayer for a child is answered she broke out into a song, which Luke uses and attributes to the virgin mother Mary. But the point and message of the song is that God will use the unusable who turn to him in faith. God uses the poor and lifts them up, and the rich (more accurately) the greedy, the proud are scattered.
Consider last week when John Baptist was baptizing in the Jordon. All the losers were coming out to him, pitiful tax or toll collectors, and Herod’s scruffy soldiers. They were looking with hope for something new, and John called them to a repentance and deep change of heart. Today we hear to two women, one barren and cursed, the other unwed and worthy of stoning. Yet through their faith and trust they become the channels of grace for one of God’s most mighty acts, the birth of a renewing prophet and the Savior of the world.
What does all this mean? It means that God works through his people. He asks us to turn to him in faithfulness and trust that we may become his servants, and that his grace and hope may flow through our lives. Tax collectors and soldiers say, “What shall we do?” Two women, one old and barren and the other an mere immature child, open themselves up to being the servants of God. It tells of how God needs and can use all that are broken, and fallen. God uses the poor and the afflicted, those who are or think of themselves as untalented to bring on the new Garden, the Kingdom of hope and peace.
Around us my good people the high and the mighty do often fall. Hitler failed. Communism is fading away. There are movements in the world to end weapons of mass crippling and destruction such as atomic weaponry, biological warfare, and land mines. The highly proud, the greedy, the corrupted whether they be clergy (TV evangelists), high priced lawyers, bankers, powerful politicians, sports celebrities in due time are brought low. God uses the poor and lifts them up into his arms. We’ve seen the great progress of the enslaved blacks in Africa and in our own country begin and continue to have and share in what is just, right, good, and lovely.
We all stand on the edge and verge of Christ’s coming again. Elizabeth and Mary turned their lives over to the presence of God. They in their poverty became the channels of grace and hope. Christ was born and revealed the loveliness of God in way never seen before nor since. The Christ came to show the way of love and forgiveness, of a passionate redemption on a cross, and gave a message of hope, renewal and resurrection.
And so it is our time again, to return in faith and obedience, to say, “I too am the Lord’s servant. Let it happen to me as you will. Let me be changed and renewed and incorporated into a ministry through which God’s love and grace may flow.” May God use us, even with our shortcomings and fallen state, our emptiness and barrenness, our failures and foolishness. May we be open to him and allow Christ to flow through our lives, finding in us a mansion prepared.
Sunday, December 17, 2000
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: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 17, 2000
TEXT: Luke 3:7-18 – “You vipers brood! . . . . Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”
ISSUE: - This passage is a call to individuals who are Christians to make determined changes in their lives. Lives lived without the willingness to serve the common good, and to bear the spirit of God are unworthy lives. This is the clear message of this passage in the face of the worlds enchantment with the festive holiday season. Without the readiness and preparedness to receive the Christ into our lives, all the rest is empty and we remain spiritually depraved.
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The Gospel reading continues with the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist. As we read this lesson, it becomes rather obvious as to how the church is truly counter cultural in our world. The world is busy with the festive holiday season, while the church is still concerned with the spiritual issue of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Savior.
Few pastors today could get away with addressing their congregation as “you vipers brood”, more literally translated “you snake bastards.” “Who warned you to come slithering down to the river to wash your snake skins to deflect God’s judgment. It is your life that must change, not the surface of your skin!” The Jewish people of this time thought that their ancestry made them at one with God, and was their saving grace. John is clear that it is the individual person that must be repentant and change. Because your grandfather was baptized in that font, or that old Uncle Bill was an acolyte in the church long ago, or even ourselves gives us no clout. It is the present and how we are acting now as God’s people or not is what really counts. Deadwood is useful for nothing but to be thrown into the fire.
The people who came to John seem to be searching for a new spirit, a new spirituality in a time when the Jerusalem Temple just was not working. Spirituality was at a low ebb, and some people come to John looking for a new spiritual direction in a world that seemed scary, empty, uncertain, and increasingly unjust.
In John’s time it was dishonorable to have more than you needed. It was a culture of limited economics. If you had too much, someone else did not have enough. Today in our industrialized affluent culture, we think very differently. Americans think resources will never run out, and the more you have and possess makes you thought of as a person of great success. In John’s time, if you had two coats then you should give one away to someone who had none.
If you had more than enough food, then give some of it away. People lived day to day. Finding and making enough money for food was difficult and hard. The majority of people lived at a subsistence level. A wider degree of sharing was important. Recall that at the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Why does that miracle get recorded some six times? It is about an unheard of abundance of food that comes through Christ. Recall also the story of the two brothers fighting over their inheritance (Luke 12:13-15) Jesus replies, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because a person’s true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.” Is it to be understood that life is measured not by what we possess as the world would have us believe, but rather in what we give away and share?
Tax or toll collectors came to John. These were people who had no honor or respect. Few got rich, but the system of collecting tolls and taxes at bridges, roads, and other various places often led to extortion. At tax or toll collector paid for the right to collect taxes up front. Then, he had to recoup his investment, which led to extortion and burdensome charges on peasants. John calls for change among them, to collect only that which was fair and just.
Tough soldiers came to John. They were also a hated lot as they served the corrupt system and rule of Herod Antipas who was nothing more than a puppet king for the Romans. Obviously they come to John feeling demoralized and spiritually empty and are willing to bear the insult of ‘you brood of vipers.’ John orders them to stop bullying, blackmailing, and making false accusations. They were to learn to live with their pay.
John’s spiritual direction is a matter of having these people change the direction of their lives. Let go of greed. Let go of hostility and cruel injustices. Begin to bear fruit that is good fruit. Dare to change your lives, John is telling them. Be ready be prepared for the Kingdom of God, for the Messianic Hope of a new world order that John sincerely expected to come. His baptism was an immersion into the Jordon River, and let the past sins be washed away, and to begin with a changed heart and soul, and ready to enter into a new way, a new Kingdom of God. John Baptizes with water, but the one coming baptizes with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and an enlightening renewing energizing fire. John is calling his disciples to the matter of re-embracing the love of God and of the justice of God. To change and to look forward to the renewed presence of God in your life was good news indeed.
In our day it is sure one daring parson who would begin his sermons with the phrase, “You brood of snakes, what brought you to church today?” Modern congregations want to hear about LUV. We can be very uncomfortable with sermons about sin. Who talks about sin anymore? In fact someone even wrote a book called, Whatever Happened to Sin? But we all know that there are surely things in each of our lives that need changing for our own souls health and for the good of the community we are a part of. We all have to consider our spiritual growth and development as human beings or our lives can become pretty empty.
One of the most important things we might all look at is our family life. Men may well need to look at how they express their love and their devotion for their wives. Women may need to do the same. What are some of the specific things that any married couples could do to enhance their marriage relationship, besides taking one another for granted? It is amazing in our time how married couples can have so much and lose it so quickly and create such pain and suffering simply because they don’t work at enriching their relationships.
Parents might also look at the quality of time they spend with their children. It’s a busy world, and many distractions, school activities and sports, can usurp precious time for just being together and getting to know and listen to one another. Our affluence and toys at Christmas cannot replace that precious time together.
Another one of the things that we might look at is how extremely over zealous we are about our own needs and cherished individuality. It is often the case that we demand our rights as individuals without concern for the great good of the community. We all want the rules bent to meet our needs. It is a form of greed. We can be like children who when asked to change behavior or contribute something worthwhile will say, “You can’t make me.” This can effect the way we drive, the way we live together in community, our attitudes with one another, our respect of other human beings.
Common to the Christian calling is the virtue of servanthood. Do we each have a mission or special purpose or calling? However great or small doesn’t matter much, but it may be important for our own worth and self-esteem to be able to say I am committed to tutoring a child, or visiting an elderly shut-in person, or to working with Habitat for Humanity re-furbishing or building homes for low income people. Maybe we have a mission for taking a stand on some important social issue and seek the attention of politicians who can effect change.
Making appropriate changes to our lives may not be merely a matter of doing things for others specifically, it may well have to do with living healthier lives. Maybe we do need to give up smoking, lose some weight, exercise more, or watch the amount of alcohol we consume, or get a grip on the amount of drugs we are consuming. Actually these things may seem personal but they do effect how we live in the community and in the family. Neither are they easy to do. But neither are they impossible to do with the help of God and various other health oriented organizations. But they do require a commitment to repentance, to change, and to a change of life style.
Maybe today, old John the Baptist might not refer to us as you ‘brood of vipers’ but as you “slothful, affluent, apathetic, self-centered scoundrels that serve your selves without a specific sense of mission. Get with doing something that gives hope to the world of which you are a part. Make the appropriate changes in your life that enables us to live up to our baptismal covenant: working for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of all persons, and bearing witness to a godly way of life.
We don’t know when Christ will come again in terms of The Second Coming. No one knows that, only the Father. All we know is that he has come and brought to us forgiveness, love, and grace. He brings to us an empowering Holy Spirit. At Christmas we are once again reminded of that presence and the humility with which he comes to walk with us in our human frailty, to be our strength and guide. Lets be firm and committed in our efforts to make the changes required that enable us to walk with and in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
SEASON: Advent 3
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 17, 2000
TEXT: Luke 3:7-18 – “You vipers brood! . . . . Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”
ISSUE: - This passage is a call to individuals who are Christians to make determined changes in their lives. Lives lived without the willingness to serve the common good, and to bear the spirit of God are unworthy lives. This is the clear message of this passage in the face of the worlds enchantment with the festive holiday season. Without the readiness and preparedness to receive the Christ into our lives, all the rest is empty and we remain spiritually depraved.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel reading continues with the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist. As we read this lesson, it becomes rather obvious as to how the church is truly counter cultural in our world. The world is busy with the festive holiday season, while the church is still concerned with the spiritual issue of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Savior.
Few pastors today could get away with addressing their congregation as “you vipers brood”, more literally translated “you snake bastards.” “Who warned you to come slithering down to the river to wash your snake skins to deflect God’s judgment. It is your life that must change, not the surface of your skin!” The Jewish people of this time thought that their ancestry made them at one with God, and was their saving grace. John is clear that it is the individual person that must be repentant and change. Because your grandfather was baptized in that font, or that old Uncle Bill was an acolyte in the church long ago, or even ourselves gives us no clout. It is the present and how we are acting now as God’s people or not is what really counts. Deadwood is useful for nothing but to be thrown into the fire.
The people who came to John seem to be searching for a new spirit, a new spirituality in a time when the Jerusalem Temple just was not working. Spirituality was at a low ebb, and some people come to John looking for a new spiritual direction in a world that seemed scary, empty, uncertain, and increasingly unjust.
In John’s time it was dishonorable to have more than you needed. It was a culture of limited economics. If you had too much, someone else did not have enough. Today in our industrialized affluent culture, we think very differently. Americans think resources will never run out, and the more you have and possess makes you thought of as a person of great success. In John’s time, if you had two coats then you should give one away to someone who had none.
If you had more than enough food, then give some of it away. People lived day to day. Finding and making enough money for food was difficult and hard. The majority of people lived at a subsistence level. A wider degree of sharing was important. Recall that at the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Why does that miracle get recorded some six times? It is about an unheard of abundance of food that comes through Christ. Recall also the story of the two brothers fighting over their inheritance (Luke 12:13-15) Jesus replies, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because a person’s true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.” Is it to be understood that life is measured not by what we possess as the world would have us believe, but rather in what we give away and share?
Tax or toll collectors came to John. These were people who had no honor or respect. Few got rich, but the system of collecting tolls and taxes at bridges, roads, and other various places often led to extortion. At tax or toll collector paid for the right to collect taxes up front. Then, he had to recoup his investment, which led to extortion and burdensome charges on peasants. John calls for change among them, to collect only that which was fair and just.
Tough soldiers came to John. They were also a hated lot as they served the corrupt system and rule of Herod Antipas who was nothing more than a puppet king for the Romans. Obviously they come to John feeling demoralized and spiritually empty and are willing to bear the insult of ‘you brood of vipers.’ John orders them to stop bullying, blackmailing, and making false accusations. They were to learn to live with their pay.
John’s spiritual direction is a matter of having these people change the direction of their lives. Let go of greed. Let go of hostility and cruel injustices. Begin to bear fruit that is good fruit. Dare to change your lives, John is telling them. Be ready be prepared for the Kingdom of God, for the Messianic Hope of a new world order that John sincerely expected to come. His baptism was an immersion into the Jordon River, and let the past sins be washed away, and to begin with a changed heart and soul, and ready to enter into a new way, a new Kingdom of God. John Baptizes with water, but the one coming baptizes with Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and an enlightening renewing energizing fire. John is calling his disciples to the matter of re-embracing the love of God and of the justice of God. To change and to look forward to the renewed presence of God in your life was good news indeed.
In our day it is sure one daring parson who would begin his sermons with the phrase, “You brood of snakes, what brought you to church today?” Modern congregations want to hear about LUV. We can be very uncomfortable with sermons about sin. Who talks about sin anymore? In fact someone even wrote a book called, Whatever Happened to Sin? But we all know that there are surely things in each of our lives that need changing for our own souls health and for the good of the community we are a part of. We all have to consider our spiritual growth and development as human beings or our lives can become pretty empty.
One of the most important things we might all look at is our family life. Men may well need to look at how they express their love and their devotion for their wives. Women may need to do the same. What are some of the specific things that any married couples could do to enhance their marriage relationship, besides taking one another for granted? It is amazing in our time how married couples can have so much and lose it so quickly and create such pain and suffering simply because they don’t work at enriching their relationships.
Parents might also look at the quality of time they spend with their children. It’s a busy world, and many distractions, school activities and sports, can usurp precious time for just being together and getting to know and listen to one another. Our affluence and toys at Christmas cannot replace that precious time together.
Another one of the things that we might look at is how extremely over zealous we are about our own needs and cherished individuality. It is often the case that we demand our rights as individuals without concern for the great good of the community. We all want the rules bent to meet our needs. It is a form of greed. We can be like children who when asked to change behavior or contribute something worthwhile will say, “You can’t make me.” This can effect the way we drive, the way we live together in community, our attitudes with one another, our respect of other human beings.
Common to the Christian calling is the virtue of servanthood. Do we each have a mission or special purpose or calling? However great or small doesn’t matter much, but it may be important for our own worth and self-esteem to be able to say I am committed to tutoring a child, or visiting an elderly shut-in person, or to working with Habitat for Humanity re-furbishing or building homes for low income people. Maybe we have a mission for taking a stand on some important social issue and seek the attention of politicians who can effect change.
Making appropriate changes to our lives may not be merely a matter of doing things for others specifically, it may well have to do with living healthier lives. Maybe we do need to give up smoking, lose some weight, exercise more, or watch the amount of alcohol we consume, or get a grip on the amount of drugs we are consuming. Actually these things may seem personal but they do effect how we live in the community and in the family. Neither are they easy to do. But neither are they impossible to do with the help of God and various other health oriented organizations. But they do require a commitment to repentance, to change, and to a change of life style.
Maybe today, old John the Baptist might not refer to us as you ‘brood of vipers’ but as you “slothful, affluent, apathetic, self-centered scoundrels that serve your selves without a specific sense of mission. Get with doing something that gives hope to the world of which you are a part. Make the appropriate changes in your life that enables us to live up to our baptismal covenant: working for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of all persons, and bearing witness to a godly way of life.
We don’t know when Christ will come again in terms of The Second Coming. No one knows that, only the Father. All we know is that he has come and brought to us forgiveness, love, and grace. He brings to us an empowering Holy Spirit. At Christmas we are once again reminded of that presence and the humility with which he comes to walk with us in our human frailty, to be our strength and guide. Lets be firm and committed in our efforts to make the changes required that enable us to walk with and in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Sunday, December 10, 2000
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: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 10, 2000
TEXT: Luke 3:1-6 – John the Baptist, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
“He went into all the region around the Jordon proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins . . . “
ISSUE: - John is the last of the Hebrew Prophets. He is calling for God’s people to change and be open to renewal. John is Isaiah’s ‘voice in the wilderness’ call all people to a ready for the coming of God to bring salvation to a world destined to destroy itself by its alienation from God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The important figure of the Advent season is John the Baptist. He is the forerunner who calls for a readiness for receiving the Christ into our hearts.
Luke records in the passage for this morning some specific historical data. Tiberious is emperor of Rome. Pontius Pilate is governor in Judea. Herod rules Galilee along with other rulers governing other surrounding states. Caiaphas and Annas are the high priests. Luke is reassuring his reader that into human history, God is about to make his mark, or stake his claim once again.
John the Baptist is the son of Zechariah the priest. John’s ministry, however is not a ministry in the temple with the finest of vestments and privileges. John is in the wilderness around the Jordon River. This is a place of spirits, divine presence, and a place where visions and hopes are born. The Jordon River itself has significant meaning as it was once the River the People of God crossed upon entering the new Promised Land.
John is calling now in this historical age, an age of great political and religious corruption, where the Temple Priests and leaders are in collusion with the Romans, at the great expense and derision of the poor and their needs. John longs for the coming of a saviour, a messianic figure of deliverance. He preaches a sermon for repentance, for change, for human renewal with broadened horizons to accept the way of God once again. He urges repentance and change among all who come out to hear him.
As a symbol of repentance and renewal on the part of those who listen to John, they are baptized. At this time, persons who were born Jewish were not baptized. Their lineage in the Jewish community was sufficient. Only those persons who converted to Judaism were baptized. It was a symbolic cleansing ritual, that was intended to wash their past uncleanness by virtue of their being pagan, heathen, Gentiles. Thus, John’s baptism is significant in that he feels that his world and Judaism of his ancestors has become so corrupted that all people have become alienated from God. They have turned away from what is Godly, and need to turn back, or repent. They need to broaden their understanding and appreciation of God’s calling to a just world.
John in the wilderness for the people of that time, and for those first reading Luke’s Gospel, John is an Elijah like figure. He is a dynamic character in the wilderness untouched by the extravagances of the world revealing the need for a renewed presence of God in the lives of the people.
In still another sense, John is almost Moses like. He stands to confront the powers of the time. Like Moses confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh, John takes his stand condemning the powers of his time: Tiberius, Herod, Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas. As Moses led his people to the Red Sea and into the wilderness and eventually the Promised Land, John is leading his followers through the wilderness to the Jordon River to be changed, renewed, and prepared for the saving grace of God and for entrance into the Kingdom of God.
John is likened to the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” John’s message is one of hope in a bad time. His belief is that God will not leave his people bereft. The world powers have abandoned the people of God, and God will not allow that to continue. Thus, John calls for preparation, readiness, change of hearts, and broadened horizons in religious thinking to begin looking for and anticipating the coming of the Lord to his people. He is calling for preparedness for a new presence of God with his people. Eventually, John proclaims that Jesus is one who is to come, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin and alienation of the world. But like so many of the ancient prophets, John was murdered by Herod. But, his work was accomplished.
The importance of John’s ministry is that he calls for making ready for the Christ and for appropriate change and new thinking. Jesus’ teachings we will remember require new thinking as he often offers the Great Reversals in the face of worldly thinking and trends. John work also clear points at the Jesus Christ as God’s Christ in the world, and the world’s hope. Even beyond this role that John has, John is somehow symbolic personification of the work of the church in the world today.
The work of the church throughout the ages has been a work similar to what John the Baptist did. The work of the church has been to baptize all nations into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that this does not merely mean sprinkling water on people. It means rather to immerse the world into the love and grace of God. All through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures we have stories in our faith about how God seeks to deliver his people and keep them in His Kingdom. Moses deliverance of the Hebrews through the dying of Jesus on the cross is all tenants of our faith in which God is redeeming love.
The role of the church throughout history has also been a prophetic role. It is called upon to stand against the injustices of the world. This role is hard. It is not always easy to know what is right, and there have been times when the church has been wrong in her judgments. But we must be humble and careful as the people of God to have are prophetic arguments well worked out and carefully thought out. It was appropriate that the church stood firm and walked with Martin Luther King in the face of grave injustices. We must continue to stand firm against racism and exclusiveness in our world. It is appropriate that the church make a clear statement in its accessibility for handicapped and physically challenged people. The Church today will need to struggle with the issues of the Middle East. Dare we to stand back and do nothing, or must we be informed about what is fair and reasonable for both the nation Israel and the Palestinians who have no homeland. It is sad to see the hostilities developing there between Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We can be so quick to demonize our enemies without first seeking new ways for peace and finding common ground for peace.
The church today may be needing to be more prophetic in its stand against the extreme consumerism, the American raping of the environment. We may have to take a stand for simpler less extravagant lifestyles in a world where resources are limited.
Sometimes we have to take bold stands on issues like gun control, when we see so many innocent children and bystanders harmed by epidemic of gun and drug related crimes.
We have to think and pray, and be concerned about the whole issue of gay and lesbian rights. What is appropriate; what is not. What’s more we need to think about the standards of what is appropriate behavior for the heterosexual community in the present day world.
In a world of that is becoming increasingly more vulgar, we may need to be concerned. Look carefully at what our children are seeing on television – what we are seeing on television! There is marked decline in what is good humor and appropriate viewing for a world that is civilized. There has been a significant decline in sitcom television. While these trends may seem harmless enough, they do diminish human dignity and standards.
It is no easy task being prophetic. You never know what words you may have to eat. We as the people of the church are not perfect. For that very reason this the season for cleaning up our own spiritual lives as the church of God. We have to take time for setting aside the distractions and reclaiming who we are and what we stand for. We must ourselves look for the coming of Christ again to direct and rule, to shape our lives. There is always the repeated need to allow Jesus Christ to come to us again to be the standard and guide of what is right coupled with compassion and mercy. Lest we become rigid and fixed, domineering, manipulating, and overbearing. . . . Lest we become to easy, trite, saccharin, sentimental, and meaningless . . . We need Christ to come to be with us. We need the presence of God in our lives that we can be his prophets and priest in a world that needs the love and the saving grace of God. John went proclaiming the need for change and repentance. He did his work well. The church in its role to proclaim the good news of God in Christ must know and look forward to his coming presence with us always.
We are called to faithfulness, study, prayerfulness, generosity. We are called to prayerfulness in our need for direction. We are called to embrace God and His Christ in everyway that we can to be faithful to our own baptism into the body of Christ, and into the role of the church.
SEASON: Advent 2
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 10, 2000
TEXT: Luke 3:1-6 – John the Baptist, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
“He went into all the region around the Jordon proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins . . . “
ISSUE: - John is the last of the Hebrew Prophets. He is calling for God’s people to change and be open to renewal. John is Isaiah’s ‘voice in the wilderness’ call all people to a ready for the coming of God to bring salvation to a world destined to destroy itself by its alienation from God.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The important figure of the Advent season is John the Baptist. He is the forerunner who calls for a readiness for receiving the Christ into our hearts.
Luke records in the passage for this morning some specific historical data. Tiberious is emperor of Rome. Pontius Pilate is governor in Judea. Herod rules Galilee along with other rulers governing other surrounding states. Caiaphas and Annas are the high priests. Luke is reassuring his reader that into human history, God is about to make his mark, or stake his claim once again.
John the Baptist is the son of Zechariah the priest. John’s ministry, however is not a ministry in the temple with the finest of vestments and privileges. John is in the wilderness around the Jordon River. This is a place of spirits, divine presence, and a place where visions and hopes are born. The Jordon River itself has significant meaning as it was once the River the People of God crossed upon entering the new Promised Land.
John is calling now in this historical age, an age of great political and religious corruption, where the Temple Priests and leaders are in collusion with the Romans, at the great expense and derision of the poor and their needs. John longs for the coming of a saviour, a messianic figure of deliverance. He preaches a sermon for repentance, for change, for human renewal with broadened horizons to accept the way of God once again. He urges repentance and change among all who come out to hear him.
As a symbol of repentance and renewal on the part of those who listen to John, they are baptized. At this time, persons who were born Jewish were not baptized. Their lineage in the Jewish community was sufficient. Only those persons who converted to Judaism were baptized. It was a symbolic cleansing ritual, that was intended to wash their past uncleanness by virtue of their being pagan, heathen, Gentiles. Thus, John’s baptism is significant in that he feels that his world and Judaism of his ancestors has become so corrupted that all people have become alienated from God. They have turned away from what is Godly, and need to turn back, or repent. They need to broaden their understanding and appreciation of God’s calling to a just world.
John in the wilderness for the people of that time, and for those first reading Luke’s Gospel, John is an Elijah like figure. He is a dynamic character in the wilderness untouched by the extravagances of the world revealing the need for a renewed presence of God in the lives of the people.
In still another sense, John is almost Moses like. He stands to confront the powers of the time. Like Moses confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh, John takes his stand condemning the powers of his time: Tiberius, Herod, Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas. As Moses led his people to the Red Sea and into the wilderness and eventually the Promised Land, John is leading his followers through the wilderness to the Jordon River to be changed, renewed, and prepared for the saving grace of God and for entrance into the Kingdom of God.
John is likened to the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” John’s message is one of hope in a bad time. His belief is that God will not leave his people bereft. The world powers have abandoned the people of God, and God will not allow that to continue. Thus, John calls for preparation, readiness, change of hearts, and broadened horizons in religious thinking to begin looking for and anticipating the coming of the Lord to his people. He is calling for preparedness for a new presence of God with his people. Eventually, John proclaims that Jesus is one who is to come, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin and alienation of the world. But like so many of the ancient prophets, John was murdered by Herod. But, his work was accomplished.
The importance of John’s ministry is that he calls for making ready for the Christ and for appropriate change and new thinking. Jesus’ teachings we will remember require new thinking as he often offers the Great Reversals in the face of worldly thinking and trends. John work also clear points at the Jesus Christ as God’s Christ in the world, and the world’s hope. Even beyond this role that John has, John is somehow symbolic personification of the work of the church in the world today.
The work of the church throughout the ages has been a work similar to what John the Baptist did. The work of the church has been to baptize all nations into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that this does not merely mean sprinkling water on people. It means rather to immerse the world into the love and grace of God. All through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures we have stories in our faith about how God seeks to deliver his people and keep them in His Kingdom. Moses deliverance of the Hebrews through the dying of Jesus on the cross is all tenants of our faith in which God is redeeming love.
The role of the church throughout history has also been a prophetic role. It is called upon to stand against the injustices of the world. This role is hard. It is not always easy to know what is right, and there have been times when the church has been wrong in her judgments. But we must be humble and careful as the people of God to have are prophetic arguments well worked out and carefully thought out. It was appropriate that the church stood firm and walked with Martin Luther King in the face of grave injustices. We must continue to stand firm against racism and exclusiveness in our world. It is appropriate that the church make a clear statement in its accessibility for handicapped and physically challenged people. The Church today will need to struggle with the issues of the Middle East. Dare we to stand back and do nothing, or must we be informed about what is fair and reasonable for both the nation Israel and the Palestinians who have no homeland. It is sad to see the hostilities developing there between Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We can be so quick to demonize our enemies without first seeking new ways for peace and finding common ground for peace.
The church today may be needing to be more prophetic in its stand against the extreme consumerism, the American raping of the environment. We may have to take a stand for simpler less extravagant lifestyles in a world where resources are limited.
Sometimes we have to take bold stands on issues like gun control, when we see so many innocent children and bystanders harmed by epidemic of gun and drug related crimes.
We have to think and pray, and be concerned about the whole issue of gay and lesbian rights. What is appropriate; what is not. What’s more we need to think about the standards of what is appropriate behavior for the heterosexual community in the present day world.
In a world of that is becoming increasingly more vulgar, we may need to be concerned. Look carefully at what our children are seeing on television – what we are seeing on television! There is marked decline in what is good humor and appropriate viewing for a world that is civilized. There has been a significant decline in sitcom television. While these trends may seem harmless enough, they do diminish human dignity and standards.
It is no easy task being prophetic. You never know what words you may have to eat. We as the people of the church are not perfect. For that very reason this the season for cleaning up our own spiritual lives as the church of God. We have to take time for setting aside the distractions and reclaiming who we are and what we stand for. We must ourselves look for the coming of Christ again to direct and rule, to shape our lives. There is always the repeated need to allow Jesus Christ to come to us again to be the standard and guide of what is right coupled with compassion and mercy. Lest we become rigid and fixed, domineering, manipulating, and overbearing. . . . Lest we become to easy, trite, saccharin, sentimental, and meaningless . . . We need Christ to come to be with us. We need the presence of God in our lives that we can be his prophets and priest in a world that needs the love and the saving grace of God. John went proclaiming the need for change and repentance. He did his work well. The church in its role to proclaim the good news of God in Christ must know and look forward to his coming presence with us always.
We are called to faithfulness, study, prayerfulness, generosity. We are called to prayerfulness in our need for direction. We are called to embrace God and His Christ in everyway that we can to be faithful to our own baptism into the body of Christ, and into the role of the church.
Sunday, December 3, 2000
Advent 1
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 3,2000
TEXT: Luke 21:25-31 - Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Zechariah 14:4-9 - Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him . . . . And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
ISSUE: - These passages from Zechariah and Luke are images of hope for people living through and anticipating difficult times. God will not abandon his people and will come to them. The work of the church and its people today is to stand ready and prepared, fostering and looking forward to the renewed coming of Christ in our lives, and ready for the final coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Welcome to the beginning of a new church year with the beginning of the First Sunday of Advent. It is that time when we again look forward to the coming of Christ. Actually, there are two aspects of the Advent Season. We look forward to the coming of Christ once again in the celebration of Christmas. We also are reminded of the belief that Christ will come again to judge the world, known as the Second Coming. The concept of Christ coming again is seen as part of an apocalyptic event. When the end time comes, Christ will come. The Christian community must be prepared, watchful, and waiting for the event.
While the Apocalyptic event is often portrayed as a disaster and calamity, for the faithful people of God it is often portrayed with great hope. The Hebrew Lesson from the prophet Zechariah is one such picture. It is written in such a time when Israel, God’s people, had faced great suffering and oppression at the hands of their enemies. But, Zechariah proclaims a time of great redemption and hope for the people of God. There will be a great earthquake that will split The Mount of Olives in two, creating a great plain, which will be an escape route for the people of God. And it will be as if God or the Messiah of God will stand straddling the divided mountain as His people escape oppression and injustice. What’s more, God will change the face of the earth. The earth will be turned to perpetual daylight with no darkness at all. The cold and frost will turn to perpetual summertime. In a land known for its arid climate and lack of water, running living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, and God’s people will neither hunger nor thirst anymore.
Luke’s Gospel also tells of an awesome time. Luke is borrowing from Mark’s Little Apocalypse that we read last week. While Mark wrote when the Jerusalem Temple was being destroyed, Luke is writing after the event. It is a time of great distress for Jews and Christians alike in the face of domineering powers over them. But, Luke gives to Jesus the words that are reassuring to the faithful. When the very heaven above and the earth beneath seem to be shaken, let these events be a sign to you that God is near. “Your redemption is drawing near.” It is like a barren fig tree. It appears dead in the winter, but when you see the shoots, the signs are there that the summer is coming. When there are difficult times, let them be signs and reminders for you that the Kingdom of God is near. “Now when you see these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.
For Luke difficult times will be and are reminder that God is near, and the faithful need not fear. Look up, stand firm, and raise up your heads, your redemption is near. Again the coming of Christ forecasts a new spring, a new beginning, a new hope for the faithful. It is good news. God will come to his people.
Presently we are living through a difficult period in the history of the world, and a time of great concerns. We are living at a time when there is significant concern over the global issue of an earth growing too warm as a result of pollution. The implications are quite significant. Melting polar caps will change sea levels flooding low lying populated areas causing the need for significant migrations of people. Global warming can have a significant effect upon weather conditions, causing problems with food supplies for feeding the peoples of the world.
Recent theories on the death of dinosaurs millions of years ago, indicate that their extinction was likely to have been caused by a comet or asteroid striking the earth. In recent years this knowledge has inspired several apocalyptic movies. We live with that threat of the world as we know it coming to an end.
The more ever present event that threatens the world order today is the situation in the Middle East. We’ve already seen the sky turn black from the bombings and disaster for the people of Iraq. As that whole problem continues to fester in the Middle East and random uncontrolled terrorism and violence persists, we might begin to wonder what a world without oil would look like. Without alternative resources the outlook would be pretty grim.
In each of our personal lives, we also know difficult times. We lose jobs, marriages, people we love. We experience serious illness and death. There are things that happen to us over which we sometimes have no control. These are personal apocalyptic events that can make us feel our world has come to its end. We see no light or hope at the end of the tunnel.
One of the memorable events and a great metaphor for our time is the story of the Titanic. It was ship thought to be unsinkable and a modern marvel. Yet built at the hands of human beings, the steel was too brittle in cold water, and the rivets poorly made. Racing across the Atlantic on a calm and relatively clear night in hopes of achieving a new man made record; it side swiped an iceberg and sank. Its grandeur broke in half like a matchstick. That too, was an apocalyptic event. As terrorizing as the event was, it also created a new age for seamanship, requiring appropriate numbers of life boats, new radio monitoring codes, and gave birth to the iceberg watch patrols in the Atlantic. It also revealed the great gap between the rich and the poor, when it came to who could reach the available lifeboats first. We saw in the event a kind of judgment that we are not God but need God. It is like the old Biblical story of The Tower of Babel, where men try to storm heaven and take God’s place. Fact of the matter is that we need God and all that God represents. In recognizing that need we enter into a new age of hope and renewal.
We are also living in time of great affluence. It is an age, especially here in America, unlike any other time in history. We have more than enough, if not more than our share of the resources of the world. There is a great temptation to believe that we’ve got it made, that we are the masters and controllers over our own lives and the world. Without a greater concern for the needs and concerns of the world, which perceives us as not just rich, but greedy. We could be caught by surprise when the Son of Man returns in judgment.
This season is a very busy one. It calls for very busy lives and participation in all kinds of parties and festivities. In all of our lives there are distractions that gnaw away at our spiritual lives and our need to be in relationship with God. The call of the church in the Advent season is to keep in perspective what this season means. We stand under the judgment of God and we need God. The judgment of God is certainly awesome. At the same time is can also be fair, just, and renewing. With all that we do, with all we fear, this is the season for keeping in mind the need to allow the presence of God to be with us.
We live at a wonderful time in history. There is so much to commend this period of great scientific and technological advancement. It is also a time of insidious terrorism (the USS Cole being a vivid recent example, not to mention other bombings). In our culture there is a prevailing godlessness, moral decline, distractions, abusiveness, and a frantic busyness that is spiritually debilitating. In this sense we too live in an apocalyptic age. Our hope however is that God seeks once again to come to us to change and redeem us. The reality is that we stand in need of God to guide us and shape us, to remold us into new people of compassion, caring, and love. We need to reclaim the important of our faith in a world that is faithless. We need the vision of the God standing over us with his feet upon the mountains showing us the way to our deliverance. We need to recognize the signs, when terrorism and bloodshed prevail, when there is poverty and human suffering, God is needed. God is near. His Kingdom will come. We need to be the facilitators of his coming, open to be changed and renewed.
Jesus Christ comes again in this season in the manger at Bethlehem. Simply, humbly, his message of love comes again. His call to radical change and renewal dares the world. Humble and simple as he is, it is as if he stands with one foot on one mountaintop and the other foot on the other calling us to him and with him into the way of peace and love.
SEASON: Advent 1
PROPER: C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 3,2000
TEXT: Luke 21:25-31 - Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Zechariah 14:4-9 - Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him . . . . And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
ISSUE: - These passages from Zechariah and Luke are images of hope for people living through and anticipating difficult times. God will not abandon his people and will come to them. The work of the church and its people today is to stand ready and prepared, fostering and looking forward to the renewed coming of Christ in our lives, and ready for the final coming.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Welcome to the beginning of a new church year with the beginning of the First Sunday of Advent. It is that time when we again look forward to the coming of Christ. Actually, there are two aspects of the Advent Season. We look forward to the coming of Christ once again in the celebration of Christmas. We also are reminded of the belief that Christ will come again to judge the world, known as the Second Coming. The concept of Christ coming again is seen as part of an apocalyptic event. When the end time comes, Christ will come. The Christian community must be prepared, watchful, and waiting for the event.
While the Apocalyptic event is often portrayed as a disaster and calamity, for the faithful people of God it is often portrayed with great hope. The Hebrew Lesson from the prophet Zechariah is one such picture. It is written in such a time when Israel, God’s people, had faced great suffering and oppression at the hands of their enemies. But, Zechariah proclaims a time of great redemption and hope for the people of God. There will be a great earthquake that will split The Mount of Olives in two, creating a great plain, which will be an escape route for the people of God. And it will be as if God or the Messiah of God will stand straddling the divided mountain as His people escape oppression and injustice. What’s more, God will change the face of the earth. The earth will be turned to perpetual daylight with no darkness at all. The cold and frost will turn to perpetual summertime. In a land known for its arid climate and lack of water, running living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, and God’s people will neither hunger nor thirst anymore.
Luke’s Gospel also tells of an awesome time. Luke is borrowing from Mark’s Little Apocalypse that we read last week. While Mark wrote when the Jerusalem Temple was being destroyed, Luke is writing after the event. It is a time of great distress for Jews and Christians alike in the face of domineering powers over them. But, Luke gives to Jesus the words that are reassuring to the faithful. When the very heaven above and the earth beneath seem to be shaken, let these events be a sign to you that God is near. “Your redemption is drawing near.” It is like a barren fig tree. It appears dead in the winter, but when you see the shoots, the signs are there that the summer is coming. When there are difficult times, let them be signs and reminders for you that the Kingdom of God is near. “Now when you see these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.
For Luke difficult times will be and are reminder that God is near, and the faithful need not fear. Look up, stand firm, and raise up your heads, your redemption is near. Again the coming of Christ forecasts a new spring, a new beginning, a new hope for the faithful. It is good news. God will come to his people.
Presently we are living through a difficult period in the history of the world, and a time of great concerns. We are living at a time when there is significant concern over the global issue of an earth growing too warm as a result of pollution. The implications are quite significant. Melting polar caps will change sea levels flooding low lying populated areas causing the need for significant migrations of people. Global warming can have a significant effect upon weather conditions, causing problems with food supplies for feeding the peoples of the world.
Recent theories on the death of dinosaurs millions of years ago, indicate that their extinction was likely to have been caused by a comet or asteroid striking the earth. In recent years this knowledge has inspired several apocalyptic movies. We live with that threat of the world as we know it coming to an end.
The more ever present event that threatens the world order today is the situation in the Middle East. We’ve already seen the sky turn black from the bombings and disaster for the people of Iraq. As that whole problem continues to fester in the Middle East and random uncontrolled terrorism and violence persists, we might begin to wonder what a world without oil would look like. Without alternative resources the outlook would be pretty grim.
In each of our personal lives, we also know difficult times. We lose jobs, marriages, people we love. We experience serious illness and death. There are things that happen to us over which we sometimes have no control. These are personal apocalyptic events that can make us feel our world has come to its end. We see no light or hope at the end of the tunnel.
One of the memorable events and a great metaphor for our time is the story of the Titanic. It was ship thought to be unsinkable and a modern marvel. Yet built at the hands of human beings, the steel was too brittle in cold water, and the rivets poorly made. Racing across the Atlantic on a calm and relatively clear night in hopes of achieving a new man made record; it side swiped an iceberg and sank. Its grandeur broke in half like a matchstick. That too, was an apocalyptic event. As terrorizing as the event was, it also created a new age for seamanship, requiring appropriate numbers of life boats, new radio monitoring codes, and gave birth to the iceberg watch patrols in the Atlantic. It also revealed the great gap between the rich and the poor, when it came to who could reach the available lifeboats first. We saw in the event a kind of judgment that we are not God but need God. It is like the old Biblical story of The Tower of Babel, where men try to storm heaven and take God’s place. Fact of the matter is that we need God and all that God represents. In recognizing that need we enter into a new age of hope and renewal.
We are also living in time of great affluence. It is an age, especially here in America, unlike any other time in history. We have more than enough, if not more than our share of the resources of the world. There is a great temptation to believe that we’ve got it made, that we are the masters and controllers over our own lives and the world. Without a greater concern for the needs and concerns of the world, which perceives us as not just rich, but greedy. We could be caught by surprise when the Son of Man returns in judgment.
This season is a very busy one. It calls for very busy lives and participation in all kinds of parties and festivities. In all of our lives there are distractions that gnaw away at our spiritual lives and our need to be in relationship with God. The call of the church in the Advent season is to keep in perspective what this season means. We stand under the judgment of God and we need God. The judgment of God is certainly awesome. At the same time is can also be fair, just, and renewing. With all that we do, with all we fear, this is the season for keeping in mind the need to allow the presence of God to be with us.
We live at a wonderful time in history. There is so much to commend this period of great scientific and technological advancement. It is also a time of insidious terrorism (the USS Cole being a vivid recent example, not to mention other bombings). In our culture there is a prevailing godlessness, moral decline, distractions, abusiveness, and a frantic busyness that is spiritually debilitating. In this sense we too live in an apocalyptic age. Our hope however is that God seeks once again to come to us to change and redeem us. The reality is that we stand in need of God to guide us and shape us, to remold us into new people of compassion, caring, and love. We need to reclaim the important of our faith in a world that is faithless. We need the vision of the God standing over us with his feet upon the mountains showing us the way to our deliverance. We need to recognize the signs, when terrorism and bloodshed prevail, when there is poverty and human suffering, God is needed. God is near. His Kingdom will come. We need to be the facilitators of his coming, open to be changed and renewed.
Jesus Christ comes again in this season in the manger at Bethlehem. Simply, humbly, his message of love comes again. His call to radical change and renewal dares the world. Humble and simple as he is, it is as if he stands with one foot on one mountaintop and the other foot on the other calling us to him and with him into the way of peace and love.
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