Psalm 62:5-12
5For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
6He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge in God.
8Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
9Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
10Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hope on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
11Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
12And steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Mark 1:14-20
14Now after John was arrested, jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
16As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
I’ve heard this passage, and the corresponding texts in the other gospels, preached a number of times. Each time the focus has been on the calling of the disciples. Either they had enough faith to drop what they were doing, and we should be like them, or that there must have been something special about our God to just make them abandon their obligations to join this man Jesus on his journey. We’re even left with a somewhat comical image of Zebedee looking around for his sons after they’ve seemingly disappeared. But the focus for me is on verses fourteen and fifteen, which set the pattern for the rest of Mark’s gospel.
Mark’s gospel is filled with “immediately,” and everything happens quickly after the preceding event. Mark only has time for the most important stuff, and chooses to start with this man John, who is out baptizing, using the same words as our call to worship this morning: “Prepare the way for the Lord;” And here we are, with ten verses in between, and this seemingly central character we’ve been introduced to has been arrested.
There’s no fanfare here, no story about how Herod had him arrested so he could later be executed, no account of why, he just disappears. Because this isn’t the Good News of John the Baptist, it’s the good news of Jesus Christ. John is not the story, he prophesied about the story that was coming. And Jesus is in Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
The Common English Bible, which is currently my favorite translation, has three exclamation points in verse 15 of our Mark passage. It reads “Now is the time! Here come’s God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” These words are not just a call to action, they’re not something to sleepily read in a morning devotion, Haven’t you heard? Jesus is on the move!
We live in a world where our churches are in decline, and some are even dying. But we also live in a world that is waiting to hear God’s voice. In everything we do, if we are not acting out God’s voice, we’re just performing a party trick. Our accomplishments may impress us, and it is indeed easy to put our trust in visible touchable things. But the psalmist tells us that they’re just empty air. For God alone is our rock and our salvation, and we shall not be shaken. Like the old hymn says, You can have the whole world, just give me Jesus. You can keep your securities, your mutual funds, your fishing nets that I’ll just have to end up mending, all I want is a God who is my refuge, a God who is worth waiting for. Just give me Jesus. The psalmist says “Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.” Our world has so little that we can really know. But I know Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is on the move.
We’re in a world that sometimes is spinning out of control and other times is mired in a mess that we can’t break ourselves out of. But the thing we can hang all of our faith on is God, who is our rock, our salvation, our fortress. In a world that we don’t understand, Just give me Jesus, because I know that God is a refuge for us, but it’s not a refuge where we can just sit around, waiting to be picked up by our heavenly mother to take us home. All that time spent waiting, and we know it’s worth for, and now the time is fulfilled, Because Jesus is on the move.
Jesus is moving from the wilderness to Promised Land, crossing the river Jordan into Galilee, and then Jesus will move to Jerusalem, the seat of the promised land. But the promised land is a shadow of the promise that is embodied by God-With-Us. The time is fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ, the source of all our hope. And Jesus is on the move.
He’s moving in new church developments, and in century old churches bringing new life into communities that all reason says we should just abandon. He’s moving in our communities, bringing us together over a meal, or helping us to clean fallen limbs out of our yard after a storm. He’s moving through peacemakers and warriors, even though they do not understand one another, Jesus is moving in both of them, acting in love so that neither peace nor war will need to be made. Jesus is moving through a world that is waiting for the time when it will be redeemed from it’s fallen state. Jesus is on the move, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.” It’s not some far off dream, it’s not a day to await, it’s already here, happening all around us. So come, Jesus says, “Follow me.” Leave behind what you know, what you have resigned yourself to, because I’m on the move, and even though you have no idea what it will look like, in following me you will be transformed. You can stay stagnant, but Jesus is on the move.
My first year in Seminary, I was met outside the chapel door by a Korean artist and worship leader. Right before we entered he addressed all of us who would be worshipping that day saying that we were required to participate in worship, and that none of us would be permitted to spectate. For me, it was a wake-up call. How many times had I attended worship and merely watched Jesus move past me. You have the option to stay stagnant and spectating, but Jesus is on the move.
So here we are, the church, in the world but not of the world. We are the body of Christ, we are the face and hands and feet of Jesus. And we have long thought that we could expect our church to grow without really working at it. We could just wait for the time when our pews would be filled like they once were, when we couldn’t get that new building fast enough. When we would prepare ourselves to be disciples with pulpit lectures and passed plates. Then when the day of the Lord came we would be swept up like the faithful church mice we were.
Our task was to prepare the way of the Lord, and to make his paths straight. John’s message is one of preparation. But it’s too late to prepare, because the one for whom we were preparing has arrived. The Time is fulfilled because Jesus is on the scene, and Jesus is on the move. With Jesus on the move, we cannot expect to keep up just by being passive. The time is fulfilled, Jesus is on the move, and wants us to go with him.
We are the body of Christ, and we are part of a movement. We are not individuals taking a stand, we are not waiting for the Day of the Lord foretold by the prophets. At least I hope not. Because this is not the good news of John the Baptist, it’s the Good News of Jesus Christ. Because if the church is just waiting for the world to change, it’s going to pass us by. The Psalmist speaks to this, “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” We’re not supposed to wait for the world to accommodate us, we’re supposed to wait for God. With Jesus on the scene proclaiming that the kingdom is at hand, we no longer have to wait for God. John pointed to what was coming, but now The time is fulfilled. God-with-us is on the move.
Columbia Seminary has a January term where one takes a single course and does nothing but that for the month of January. So the professor’s have to pack a semester’s worth of information into about three weeks. In the middle of the three year program, students are required to take a class where they explore an alternative context. Some folks travel to Easter Europe to experience Orthodox Christianity, others explore the way Christianity has grown and changed on the Caribbean Islands. The course I took was Transformational Church and Urban Ministry in Atlanta. Growing up out in the country in Burke County, urban ministry was a totally different world for me. Over the three weeks of that class, we looked at various different models for what a church can look like and still be a church. Because the world is changing around us and traditional models don’t speak to everyone.
One church met in a storefront and had a coffee shop built in, had a professional jazz band and didn’t do any congregation singing. They had a community garden out back, and their nursery was almost always empty because the children wanted to be in the main worship space.
Another church was renting an auditorium from a local elementary school, kept everything they used in worship in boxes to be unpacked before every worship service, and then moved it all back out at the end of the day. They broadcast each of their three worship services live over the internet, and had a surprisingly large group of members who lived in Romania. Their Associate Pastor for Online Ministry handled most of the technical stuff, and also keep the conversation going long after worship ended.
Another church met in an old church building, which they shared with a couple of other worshipping communities. The old church had died out, but left its building in trust so that other communities would have access to a traditional sanctuary, even if they could only afford to rent the site one day a week. The three newer congregations that used the building split the rent between one another, and each used it at a different time on Sunday, and used it as a base of operations for mission and outreach on a different day during the week.
In studying the various contemporary church models, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one “right way” to do church: and that is as faithfully as possible. Whatever model we use now and in the future, so long as we act in faith, our offering is pleasing to God. We can’t stand still just because we’re afraid of what might happen, as Nicholas Wolterstorff wrote in his book Lament for a Son, “Faith is a footbridge that you don’t know will hold you up over the chasm until you’re forced to walk out onto it.” But we have to walk out over the chasm, because that’s where Jesus is, and Jesus is on the move. So we must step out of our fishing boats and follow wherever our God calls us, because power and steadfast love belong to our Lord. Even when it is scary, and it will be. But when we step onto that bridge of faith, we are one step closer to a God who is too loving and powerful to just stand still, but is always active in our lives, even when we aren’t active ourselves.
Jesus is on the move, and the gospel message isn’t passive, it’s an urgent message to the people of God that we are no longer enslaved to sin and death. We have been purchased by God, and although on our own we are only a breath, God says we are valuable enough that God moves through us even in our brokenness, for no other reason than God loves us. I’m not sure what it will look like to fish for people, but I want to be on the move with the God who loves us all that much.
Before We Know It from
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1 Samuel 3:1-10 (307)
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli, The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6The LORD called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
John 1:43-51 (112)
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip 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.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is an Israelite in whom there is not deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”
The most famous sermon in American history didn’t start out as a sermon, it started as a speech at a political rally. It began as a refusal to return to normalcy, a demand that normalcy change to a more righteous, and equal form. The speech looks to the promises of the past, lives in the reality of the present, and reaches towards the hope for the future.
Toward the end of the speech, someone from the crowd, a gospel singer named Mahalia Jackson, called out to the man on the podium and reminded him that he was not just a political speechwriter, but a preacher blessed with a prophetic voice.
“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
Mahalia speaks: “Tell them about the dream Martin.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. forsakes his notes, and lets the dream speak for itself. The dream stands up and carries a nation forward because the people who heard about the dream dared to try and make it a reality.
“Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’” We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.
Dr. King’s dream is still out there, parts of it have been realized, but we’re not all the way there yet. Racism and White Privilege still have a choke hold over many parts of our culture. All people are diminished while those injustices stand.
But we know that it will not stand forever. We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these. We live in a World come of age, ready to take the step of putting Christ at the center of our life together, a world where suffering is replaced by redemption. Where despair is redeemed to amazement.
We share a vision of a far-off hope that even though the church’s walls may be crumbling, the foundation is strong, and God is rebuilding her so that she will glorify him and enjoy him forever.
We share a vision that even though the word of the LORD is rare in these days, and visions are not widespread, that our dim vision will be made light, because the lamp of God has not yet gone out in this world.
But it seems so far off. Our vision, like Eli’s, has grown dim. We struggle to see the promise of God through the fog of an anxious culture. We struggle to see the work God is already doing among us through the smoky haze of violence, burning around the world and chasing us back to our living rooms on the evening news. We struggle to remember the hope God has given us through the gloom of soul-emptying despair that threatens to take us.
But the hope we have is more than nebulous, more than wispy, more than misty. The gloom will not take us, the violence will not consume us, the fog will not overwhelm us. We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.
The hope that seems so far-off is brought near through Christ.
Two thousand years after the pivotal moment of human history, it’s obvious to us that Jesus is so much more than just a man from Nazareth. Those who lived and walked alongside the incarnate Word did not have have the advantage of our perspective.
"Jesus has presented no proclamation about the reign of God that could excite the imagination of Philip or anyone else. Philip has no evident reason to find Jesus to be remarkable.” Yet Philip does find himself amazed at the person who invites him to join the Gospel that is already written, but is still being spelled out.
“He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” He sees something in this man called Jesus of Nazareth that compels him to do more than just follow, he has to find his friend Nathanael bring him along. Before he even known this man, he has to share, and he makes powerful claims about who this Jesus is.
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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus is a truly human man from Nazareth, on his way to Galilee. Philip is just a human from Bethsaida. If John’s Gospel goes out of its way to reveal these origins, it’s no wonder that Nathanael jumps to conclusions based on the neighborhood Jesus grew up in. “[John] presents most of Jesus's contemporaries as making he same mistake as did Nathanael in appraising Jesus and his message. They assumed that Jesus's origins could explain who he was.” But we know from the beginning of John’s Gospel that although Jesus’s human origins may begin in Nazareth, Christ’s origins as the Word of God go all the way back to the beginning.
Jesus Christ, the man from Nazareth who is also the Word made Flesh, brings us close to God, and brings the kingdom of God near to the people of God. "[Jesus is] the means by which human beings can have an authentic encounter with the divine.” The vision of far off hope, about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, is shown in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.
Nathanael’s honest question about Jesus’s humble origins show that God does not require us to be great in order to work through us. God works in our lives before we can respond in faith. God called Samuel even before he knew the LORD, Jesus was creating in the world even before the world knew him. Philip saw that the law and the prophet’s pointed to Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Jesus reveals that he knew Nathanael even before Philip found him. “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is an Israelite in whom there is not deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’” Perhaps a minor miracle, knowing someone’s heart before meeting them in person, not a big thing compared to raising the dead.
Nathanael responds to being known with praise, “Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’” "The overwhelming shock is that this person whose earthly origins can be identified, this Jesus, elicits a response appropriate to God.” Nathanael gives a testimony about the nature of this son of Joseph from Nazareth, he speaks of the far-off hope knowing that he’s standing right in front of him.
We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.
Jesus turns towards this response in faith, and promises that even greater things are coming.
“Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”
In that second part, from “Very truly” on, Jesus is talking to all of his followers, even us reading it today. A more southern translation might say, “Very truly, I tell y’all, y’all will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’” Or even more colloquially, “Really, y’all, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
I wonder how we will respond to that promise of hope? I wonder how we will answer God’s call to follow him, how we will extend the invitation to “Come and See.” I know that God works in our lives before we can respond in faith. I know we will answer God’s voice, calling in the night. I know that Christ has brought us close to God, and brought our hope close to us.
We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.
Fringe Benefits from
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Acts 19:1-7 (169)
1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied “New we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.” 3Then he said, “Into what were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s Baptism.” 4Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied - 7altogether there were about twelve of them.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Mark 1:4-11 (42)
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around is waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop to untie his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And 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. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
A crowd begins to gather at the edge of town. You can hear the commotion long before you can see what's going on. Drawn out by the spectacle, you try and see what has started to happen, maybe it's the beginnings of a fight, maybe an especially talented street performer.
Instead, you're confronted by a voice crying out in the wilderness, declaring in the language of scripture that the day of The Lord is coming. This roaring prophet sounds the part, his voice carries over the whispers and murmurs of the assembled throng, firm and powerful with conviction, yet it also has a burned-out tone to it, a crunchy edge to his words brought on by too much shouting. It's a wild man from the wilderness, dressed in Camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, the way the great prophet Elijah is said to have dressed. This must be John the baptizer.
Rumor has it that he is spends so much time in the wilderness that he doesn't even have room in his diet for the many kinds of food available in the city. He has traded the comfort of civilized life, with the fruits and meats from all across the region, for insects and whatever wild honey he can find. John the baptizer lives by an unrelenting trust in what God gives him. You push through the edges of the crowd, finding room a few rows back from the prophet, surrounded by the excitement of a crowd that wants to hear God's word spoken anew.
At the town limits, on the banks of the Jordan river, at the edge of the wilderness, John tells the story of something amazing about to happen, the world is on the fringe of renewal, The Lord is coming. God is not stuck in the middle of a temple, or even bound by a particular community. God is free to come even to the fringes of the culture. ”He proclaimed, 'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop to untie his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'" God is free to share the benefits of grace with the poor and oppressed instead of the wealthy and powerful. God is free to change the world, starting at the Jordan river. It’s wild. It's weird. It's...strangely compelling...
So many of the folks in the center square were turned inward, only looking at what they could grab and hold for themselves: power, wealth, comfort, security. The folks in the center are too afraid to move because they might lose something, and they have so very much to lose. Every step comes with the question, "what will it cost?"
But here on the fringes with John the baptizer, we can see the benefits of a world made new, like the sunrise over the wilderness as it reflects off the water of the river Jordan, dancing over the ripples every time someone new is baptized. From the fringes, we can see the freedom of God, dismantling the status quo and continually creating and recreating in the world. ”Into the wilderness of our own broken lives and our own bleeding world erupts the promise of a baptism of new life.” John brings a promise that God is coming, that our sins can be cleansed, that we can turn away from self-centeredness and toward the fringes where we have the benefit of seeing what God is freely doing in the world.
But the one who is coming after John brings an even more promising future. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan” The freedom of God is such that even absurd things, like joining sinners in baptism, is possible. The freedom of God is such that a promised future can be expanded, grace can be abundant, and the world can change.
John's Baptism is cleansing, but like everything else he does, Jesus's involvement adds to human experience by his participation. Baptism maintains its cleansing, but also becomes a claiming and a commissioning. John is the herald, Jesus is the Lord. Jesus’s baptism is not one of turning away from sin, but of turning toward his identity as the Son of God. "The cross reveals that the sonship declared at Jesus's baptism involves obedient suffering. This is evident in the baptism scene itself, for Jesus voluntarily joins the ranks of penitent sinners.”
The more promising future is ready to emerge, the kingdom of God is at hand! At the town limits, on the banks of the Jordan river, at the edge of the wilderness, something amazing happens. Jesus steps forward and is baptized, and the fringe of renewal expands, and takes us further out into the wilderness where we will meet God.
Yet Jesus, even before he takes a deep, dripping breath, on the fringe between the river and the ground, on the fringe between Jerusalem and the wilderness, finds that he has intersected another fringe. “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.” God rends sky in Jesus’s view so that God can share this moment, this space, this affirmation, with Jesus. “and a voice came from heaven, “you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” A private moment of revelation, a private joy within the Triune God, a powerful intersection at the fringes between heaven and earth, earth and water, civilization and wilderness.
From the shore, all we can see is another one of John’s baptisms. We don’t know, living in Mark’s narrative of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that the central event of human history is about to unfold. ”Jesus knows who he is by means of an experience that is not accessible to objective public verification. Others must discover this truth by listening to what Jesus says and by watching what he does.” God is also free to wait for human discernment, not every divine intervention is accompanied by angelic armies or thousands of conversion. God is free to act apart from humanity, sharing a moment with Jesus as the ongoing story moves towards a cruciform climax.
And yet God’s freedom also means inviting us to participate in building the kingdom, inviting us to be uncomfortable with a fallen world and to show that a redeemed life can impact that world, but we can’t participate in what God is doing on the fringes if we stay stuck in the safety of self-centeredness. God is free to move beyond our comfort zones, and the challenge of Christian discipleship is to follow, whether that leads us to the outskirts of town, or the river Jordan, or even into the wilderness of we-know-not-what.
John comes from the wilderness to offer Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus, immediately following his baptism, is driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we are too eager to stay in the embrace of these walls and pews. Maybe we're too quick to come in from the wilderness, to come up from the water. I wonder, if we stayed a little longer, would we see the Holy Spirit too? Would we see the heavens torn apart and be forever changed by it?
If we stay in the center, we're not likely to find out what God is doing out on the fringes.
It's not just about God becoming a person, giving up cosmic, transcendent power, and taking on the dustiness of human life. There's also an empowering by the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn't just take on sin and suffering, he also receives the power of the Holy Spirit and uses it to breathe life back into the human condition. "Baptism matters because we are who God says we are. The identity declared at baptism, however, is only a word until it is revealed with convincing power in the unfolding story of our life and death - and resurrection.” We join Jesus’s baptism so that we can follow him in his death, and in his resurrection. We are who God says we are, and God says we belong to God. We do not belong to ourselves or our own self-centeredness, we belong to God, who sets us free to follow Christ to the fringes. We are no longer concerned about our own benefit, but about responding in faith and gratitude to God.
We do not fear judgment, because we know God is gracious freely. We do not fear death, because Christ has given us life. We know the benefits of living on the fringes: that’s where we experience God.
A Word, Please from
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Jeremiah 31:7-14 (898)
7For thus says the LORD: sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the church of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel.”
8See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and father them from the farthest parts for he earth, among them the blind and the lame, those which child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.
9With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it to the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will father him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.”
11For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12They shall come and sig aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; theif life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again.
13Then shall the young women rejoin in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the LORD.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
John 1:1-18 (111)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3all things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. what has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10He came into the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and this own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, “this was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
A word, please. If you will, a moment of your time. We’ve come through Christmas and the passing of 2014. Now we're beginning the dreary early weeks of January. It's difficult to keep our energy up without the lights and excitement of the holidays. Our houses were full of family and celebrations, and now we're packing up the decorations and washing the sheets from the guest bedroom. Our household's evergreens are turning brown and it seems like we're vacuuming more needles than remain on the tree. We get to sing Christmas carols one last Sunday, but our minds have already moved on from Christmas. The paraments are white but the weather is gray.
When we're drifting in so much gray, it's easy to find ourselves disconnected from our absolutes. In the gray beginnings of the year, we lose the energy to search for the ways God is working in the world, and it's tempting to live as though the grayness in front of us is all there is. In the beginning of the New Year, we need a word, please. We need to remember the promise that there is more for us than just bouncing from distraction to diversion.
There was more for Ancient Judah, too, than the trauma and despair of Babylon. By the time we get to this section of Jeremiah, much of the nation has already been carried off into exile. In chapter 29, the prophet writes them a letter telling them that their captivity will not be short, and that they should build houses and plant gardens. This passage is part of another letter sent to give them hope that their captivity will end, but even this hope is kept at arms length, talking of the Northern Kingdom of Israel rather than the community of exiled Judeans. The hopeful word is too much for a fragile community that is suffering through the midst of collapse. Jeremiah's prophetic words give the people hope by promising it to some on else, knowing that the hope will be stronger if the people claim it for themselves when they are ready.
The author of John's gospel also came from an oppressed community. His people live in the hope of the gospel, yet it seems so tenuous in a world so gray and hopeless. Maybe instead of light and darkness there's just a gray area and we make what we can from it while we can?
John refuses to settle for gray, imagination-killing despair. Just as Jeremiah had refused to give up on his relationship with God, so John holds ferociously to the Gospel. In a gray world, the Gospel is what gives him the vision he needs to see that the light indeed shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't extinguish the light. The Word of God, revealed in the Gospel, brings life into an otherwise gray existence. "The Gospel matters because the story of Jesus draws the reader into the story of God."
John begins his account of the good news of Jesus Christ with what is known as the Prologue to the Gospel of John. Even before anything happens, John makes a promise about what he is going to show us by the way he tells the Gospel story. It’s not just John’s promise to try and bring some color into the gray world of his community, John is showing us God’s promise to bring life into a world that had lost itself. A word. please? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It’s more than the historical, first century Jewish man named Jesus, it’s the story of humanity’s redemption at the hands of a loving God. "The Prologue is not concerned with the earthy origins of Jesus but with the heavenly existence of the Word in the beginning.” The Prologue promises that these words will point us to God.
A word, please, as we begin. A prologue before the good news, to show us where we should look in this gray world. “[The Word] was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, nothing came into being. What came into being through him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” In the grayness, we forget sometimes that this dreariness is not eternal. It had a beginning, and it will come to an end. We have life in God, in God’s Word, in Christ Jesus. With John’s Gospel, and Jeremiah’s prophetic words, and the whole of the Biblical witness pointing to God, we can have hope that surpasses these passing storms and seasons. ”Just as God created the heavens and the earth and all life therein, so the [Word] brings life to creation.” Even in the dreary times at the beginning of January, when it’s difficult to see, there is still life. Even in the dimness and shadows, there is still light.
John promises us, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” This is where his Gospel will end, the rest of this narrative unfolds to show how the darkness did not overcome the light that is God’s Word-made-flesh. Whenever we feel stuck, emotionally or spiritually, we come back around to the promise John makes about the end of the gospel, which he puts in the Prologue before the story even begins.
Then a different John, a character in a story not his own, makes an entrance. It’s not the same John as wrote this gospel, but just as the author of this book was inspired by the author of all creation, so too “There was a man named John who was sent from God.” John has one job, to testify about the light, to point to the one who sent him. A Word, please, of testimony, on behalf of “the true light, which enlightens everyone”
The true light energizes us when we are stuck, but it’s not a peaceful, easy process. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and this own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.” We resist, because we don’t always recognize the light in the midst of the dreary grayness to which we have grown accustomed. But when we live in a way that is oriented to God, when we grasp the life that is the light for all people, we are using the grace and truth that God has given us through Jesus Christ, the Word-made flesh.
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Another promise of liberation, an absolute claim on which we can hang this narrative. A word, please, about the truth which sets us free. ”From the contents of the prologue the reader knows Jesus's ultimate identity and knows that his mission will engender new life. But the reader also anticipates that darkness will attempt to overcome the light and that Jesus will be rejected by his own.” It’s not an easy process, and sometimes we may even long for the familiarity of the dreary world we had before Christ. But we are no longer stuck in the grayness, in the despair. We are liberated by the Word of God.
“From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”
Waiting With Love from
Joseph Taber on
Vimeo.
Luke 1:26-38
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house and lineage of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angle said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Isaiah 9:2-7
2The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined.
3you have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
4For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5For all the boots of the trampling warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6For a child has been born to us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
Every Wednesday, as many of y'all know, a handful of Presbyterian Pastors gather at Panera Bread over on Franklin. That group allows us to share our burdens with our colleagues, and we bring both joys and struggles to the table as we break our fasts together. We gather in the name of Christ, and in love for one another, so that we can build up Christ's body together. One of that group, a man named Len Bergman, observed this past week that “In a secularized Christmas there are too many warm-fuzzies.”
Between the made-for-TV Christmas movies and the music that's been playing in stories since before Halloween, one would think that the whole world is wrapped up in fluffy snow and silver bells, with good cheer and fraternal love all around. Every stories ends on a happy note, and the traditions continue with everyone having learned something! It's comforting, it's warm, it's fuzzy, and it's hollow. Holiday sentimentality merely masks the darkness, colors over it with pleasantness. “The child whose birth we attend [at Christmas] was born into a world painted not in pastels but in dust and blood.
For we are a people who walked in darkness. Especially this time of year, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ struggle with grief and depression. Part of it is the short days, literally leaving us in a dark place sooner, and for longer. But much of it is also the grief of Christmas without loved ones. Isaiah speaks of a people who "lived in a land of deep darkness,..." a darkness of death, where we peer in and the void reflects back at us, and it frightens us.
The dwindling days are dwarfed by lengthening nights of winter, and the world in which we dwell is increasingly dark in more ways than one. The tendrils of violence that we once were able to keep at arms length in another part of the world have tended to find their way back to us. We are a people who walked in darkness, and it is tempting to ignore how real that darkness is so that we can pretend everything is okay. We're worried we don't have the resilience to grieve, so we cover up the grief of others, and mask them with sentimentality. That looks a lot like love, but it feels a lot like fear.
Perhaps we join ancient Israel in fear of political disaster. In this part of Isaiah, invading armies were threatening to crush the Northern Kingdom, and Judah, to the south, was next. The yoke of their burden was heavy, the bar across their shoulders kept them from imagining a future beyond the impending crisis. Our worries are a little different, particular to our time, but we can find ourselves in the same story of a never-ending parade of crises.
The darkness is not nothing, and we struggle with it daily. Ignoring it just sands all the edges off of our experience, leaving something smooth and polished, but also without anything to hold on to when we find our selves among those who lived in a land of deep darkness.
One of the lunch bunch pointed out that all the verbs in this passage are past-tense. As an English-major-type-person, I was really excited to talk about grammar! But then, I'm a nerd.
If this passage is in the past tense, what does that mean for the people to whom Isaiah preached, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ? Who is the child who has been born to them, the son given to them? They were promised "...there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.” That didn’t happen for the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom, and it didn’t happen in the way the people who walked in darkness expected. How can we believe this passage, then, if the darkness is still part of our experience?
We face it with a great deal more than a naughty and nice list. We approach the darkness with more than just holiday sentiment. Our hope is in the promise of God, given in the poetry and artistry of the prophet Isaiah. By using the past tense, Isaiah is making a theological claim that even though these things have not happened yet, God has decided it, and declared that it will be. Therefore it is as good as done. With the assurance of God’s promise, we can hope in the great light seen by the people who have walked in darkness. “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”
Jolly laughter and sentimental scenery can distract us, but they cannot give us the truth we need to live in hope and love. Can't beat the possibility afforded to us by hope. Except by the prophetic energizing we have in the Love of God in Christ Jesus. Knowing, truly knowing, that we are loved can motivate us to do things that our own internalized darkness would straight up prohibit us from doing. We can face the prophetic promise with energy, resilience and imagination because we know that we are waiting with love: both God’s love and our love within this community. God’s love intervenes in the world and gives us the love for one another that sustains us as we wait, as we walk, in darkness.
Even though the sentence begins with darkness, deep darkness, burdens, a bar, a rod, the boots of trampling warriors and the garments rolled in blood, look where it ends:
"The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined."
The beauteous heavenly light breaks forth and ushers in the morning. God is not content to abandon us to darkness, God's love intervenes in the world, so that where once their was only darkness and despair, God's glory can once again shine.
“The incarnation does not simply affirm Jesus’s body; it helps us see that our bodies and actions matter.” They don't just matter to us, they matter to God. Our bodies and actions are claimed by God every bit as much as our souls. God could simply take us out of the world, start anew on a creation built from scratch. Instead, God's love intervenes in this world, in this life, assuming all facets of what it means to be truly human, like us in every respect except sin.
The incarnation is a miracle of God’s loving presence with us, among us, and as one of us. It’s not a warm fuzzy feeling, it’s a world changing event, shining a light into the darkness and reminding the people that beyond the darkness is God, who will not let us go. God’s love intervenes in the world, and reaches out to be with us no matter where we are, in darkness, under the rod of the oppressor, beneath the boots of trampling warriors and wrapped in garments rolled in blood, God loves us still and redeems us by becoming human, rescuing us and claiming us for all time.
The sign we have of this is Isaiah’s promise in the prophetic past: “For a child has been born to us, a son is given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.” The name is both a promise and a testimony to the hope we all have in God, and in the promise of God-with-us.
Therefore we are waiting with love, praying in a still dark world, “Come Lord Jesus.” We are waiting still for the fulfillment of the promise. We know that God’s love intervenes in the world. We are able, therefore, to wait with love because God’s light sines in the darkness. Though we walked in darkness, we have seen a great light. The light of the world is the Word made Flesh, and is laid in a manger at Christmas time.
Waiting in Joy from
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Vimeo.
Psalm 126
1A song of Ascents
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy;
Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
3The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
4Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
6Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1The spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. 4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
8For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the LORD GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.
An old friend is coming over for dinner. Someone you haven't seen in a while, someone who means a great deal to you. Perhaps not a friend, but a favorite cousin, or a new grandchild.
The excitement builds, and you find yourself making final preparations on the afternoon they are to arrive. The guest room is all made up, and has been since Tuesday, but you go and check one more time, and smooth out the last wrinkles so that their place will be immaculate. You start straightening things up, even though the house has been cleaned top-to-bottom already,
Fresh towels in the bathroom? Check, the finest ones, they only get pulled out on special occasions like this one. Coffee made? Not quite, we'll make it fresh when they arrive. But it's perfectly measured already, and you've only got to press a button when they ask.
You've even pulled out the perfect album on the stereo, one that your guest will immediately recognize, yet won't intrude on the good conversation once they do arrive. The minutes tick past as you await their arrival, and so you run down the list for the four-hundred-and-first time: bed made, house clean, magazines stacked, yet slightly askew, fresh towels, coffee prepped, but not yet made... all that's left to do is wait.
You're almost dancing back and forth as the guest of honor pulls into the driveway. That feeling when the car stops and you try and play it cool, but really want to run out to meet them and tell them how grateful you are to have them here? That's joy.
And that's where we're headed.
All the preparations of Advent are leading us to the moment when our souls cry out with a joyful shout that the God of our heart is great! When we can sing God's praises at the miracle of the incarnation, joining the song of the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
We are waiting in joy for the coming of the LORD.
In an impatience born of excitement, we look to Isaiah."The spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”
God is about to change the world, and the people who are living and suffering in the meantime deserve to know that their comforter, their redeemer is on the way. So the Prophet Isaiah is sent out with the specific mission of proclaiming the year of the LORD’s favor. ”The identity of this servant is inextricably tied up with commitment to God's will... announcing that after years of mourning the time has arrived in which God will restore the conditions of justice and peace which characterize God's reign.”
We are waiting in Joy for the coming of the LORD.
We wait because justice and peace are too foreign to us. We cannot establish them on our own behalf. In the face of our sin-skewed perspective, we hold on to what little we can grasp, and therefore we are left with a world of oppressed, brokenhearted, captives, prisoners, and mourning.
Isaiah’s words are familiar to us, and tied in Christian memory to Jesus, who reads them aloud to his home congregation in the Gospel of Luke. Christ read these words to a people under the rule of the Roman empire. Isaiah spoke them to Israel in exile. We read them now in a different light, because we must admit that we are not the poor, or the oppressed. We hear Isaiah’s promise with a bit more trepidation, as we grasp at what we’ve already god, www wonder what the change will cost us.
Yet, "We know that even among the economically favored, we have broken hearts, we have dislocation, we need newness, even the kind that undoes and remakes society and us. Even if it scares us to death, we need God's justice-loving joy. So it is worth the risk, worth dying for even.” So we wait in joy for the coming of the LORD, when we will no longer worry about self-righteousness or celebrating our own accomplishments.
Instead, we will serve God, and Christ Jesus with joy as the righteousness of the Kingdom is established over all the earth. We “will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.” We will sing and shout the joy we have been given. ”The end of 'righteousness' is, that glory be given to God; and therefore he exhorts us to gratitude; for it is exceedingly [rude] to be [silent] after having received God's benefits. So we start here, in worship, but the joy we are given here is so compelling that it flings us back out into the world: a parade of grace declaring, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.” God is here among us, and has given us hope, peace, and joy, and at Christmas it is all wrapped up in the fragile body of a child.
We are waiting in Joy, for the LORD has come.
