Feb 3, 2013 Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Luke 4:21-30

21 And he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
    22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
    23 Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "
    24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."
    28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

“Not Just Nice Sounding Words”

Jesus ‘blew’ his first sermon in his home synagogue.  He really blew it!  He said some things which he could have left unsaid.  More then just nice sounding words which we like to hear.  He told them they were way off base, and he, Joseph son, was here to set them straight.
I doubt they were singing, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds” after this!

So what was he saying?
He was saying that God’s goodness and mercy does not limit itself to a chosen few; it goes out to all, even strangers and aliens.  We can reject God’s goodness but we can not stop it.  It will find a receptive heart and there it will do its work.

God can and does use the ‘unorthodox’ as instruments of his goodness and mercy.

Our sin, in not wanting to believe this, is that we put our faith ahead of God’s grace.  We say that before God can act we have to believe in Him.  As if we are in control.  God can use those who know Him not to bring about His will; to be instruments of goodness and mercy.

Jesus didn’t come to just talk about God.  Jesus came to be God .  It is not enough when we talk about God; it is only enough when we become little Christ's as Luther said,  and be something of God’s goodness and mercy with those we meet on the street, as well as those we live with.
It’s not just a matter of the right words, but the right living which counts with Jesus.

No prophet is accepted in his home town, or country, or people.  For to be a prophet is to have to say what doesn’t want to be heard and to keep saying it until it is heard even if it doesn’t want to be believed.


“On Being A Prophet”

“The prophet is human, yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears.  He experiences moments that defy our understanding.  He is neither a  singing saint’ nor ‘a moralizing poet’, but an assaulter of the mind.  Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends.  The prophet is an iconoclast, challenging the apparently holy, revered and awesome.  Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretensions.”  Herschel, The Prophet, 99 9,10

Jesus was such a prophet.  We are such people.
We didn’t want to heard what
 George McGovern said about Vietnam;
Martin Luther King said about segregation;
     Bishop Tutu said about apartheid in South Africa;
          Or what Jesus said about God’s love for all!        
The truth is, the prophet has to say what the people don’t want to hear.  And say it with love.  Herschel again: “The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging.  but behind his austerity is love and compassion for humankind.  Almost every prophet brings consolation, promise, and hope of reconciliation along with censure and castigation.  (They) begin with a message of doom; (they) conclude with a message of hope.”
 see Jer. 33:10,11

Jan 27, 2013 Third Sunday After Epiphany

Luke 4:14-21

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
    16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
    18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
       19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[a]
    20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

“Trouble In The Temple”

This is Jesus first trip; home following his baptism and 40 days in the wilderness.  It is the beginning of his ministry.  He is announcing who he is and why he has come.  And he is doing it in his home synagogue.

Jesus should have stopped before he got himself thrown out of town.  But he didn’t.  He went on to say what they didn’t want to hear.  When we don’t hear what we want to hear, we get angry and fight, or leave.

Paul Rees: “I shall go to my grave firm in the feeling that one of the most frequent undetected sins of Christians is idolatry.  Customs, tradition, forms, ideologies, organizations, institutions, precedents, structures, titles, clichés - in every one of them there is a potential idol.  They arise, it well may be out of historical necessity.  We cling to them, or kowtow to them, or somehow perpetuate them, out of lethargy, or bigotry, or stupidity, or vanity.”

Redemption only happens when I am disturbed enough to let it happen.  When I let God at my life, even those places where I most want to keep God out!

I need forgiveness before I can give forgiveness.  I need to hear what I don’t want to hear before I can hear what I want to hear.   I hope you don’t like everything which is said from here (pulpit), for that may well be a sign that His Word is being fulfilled in our hearing too!
“TODAY: This Scripture is Fulfilled”

Jesus is letting the secret out in his first sermon, in his home congregation, and it is too much for them to hear or believe.  They didn’t take him seriously and rejected what he said.

We do that.  We hear only what we want to hear and believe only what we want to believe.  We take from a sermon only what fits our belief system- not what challenges us to  a new belief system.

Then religion becomes something which keeps us from living the Gospel, and changing our ways so they more closely alien with God’s ways.

And the bite comes with the word ‘today’.  Had he said ‘someday’ it would have been easier to take.  For we live in the somedays more than today.
Yet we are called to be’ ‘today’ people,  fulfilling the scripture today!

We are to make a difference today.  Martin Luther King did.  We can.  Someday is not enough.  Today something of God’s love and Jesus compassion would be fulfilled  in us, through us in our world.  Make what you can of that - today!

Jan 20, 2013 Second Sunday After Epiphany

John 2:1-11

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[a]
7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
    11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.


“The First Of His Signs”

“Gas ahead - 5 miles”  the sign said.  I was empty and making 15 miles to a gallon.
I believed the sign and was immediately relieved.  I hadn’t seen the gas station, nor could I be sure it was open, but I believed the sign and was at peace.

A sign has to be believed, trusting that it is true.
There is no logical, fool proof, scientific reason to believe that there is a God above us or around us, except for the signs which do exist in our midst and in our history.  Signs which point to God.

We can choose to say with the atheist:  ‘I have swept the heavens with my telescope and have not found God.”
 
Or we can choose to say with the Psalmist: “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”  Ps. 19:1

Again, “We have examined the brain of man and have not found the soul.”

Or “Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” Ps. 103:1

The difference between believing the truth to which the signs point or not, lies not in the sign, but in us. In our seeing our need for God and then our seeing the God we need.
That’s the way it works for we mortals!

Jesus is a sign of God’s great love for all people!
Even you and me.  Believe it!  Trust  it!  And live in the joy it brings!

“A delightful Opportunity Of Grace”

This miracle tells us what Jesus is all about.  Gospel not law, grace not demands, love not wrath, laughter not somberness.  The God Jesus came to reveal was not a God hung up on shoulds, oughts, or musts, but a God hung up on love, grace and forgiveness.

Turning the water into wine was a delightful opportunity of grace for Jesus.  It set the stage for what he was all about and what we are to be all about - to love and laugh our way into the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven and let its grace flow through us into virtually everything.

Jan 13, 2013 Baptism of Our Lord Sunday

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

  15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, "I baptize you with, water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
  21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

"Jesus Baptism"

Jesus baptism was a means of identification; his credentials if you please.
It was clear what God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom i am well pleased.”  Yet Jesus continued throughout his life to have an identify problem.  Because he wasn’t who they expected the Messiah to be.

Our expectations do have a way of getting in the way of our seeing, believing and trusting.

God goes beyond our expectations, and only as we dare to go beyond too, will we be able to see, believe and trust in what God has done for us through an unexpected Baby in Bethlehem.

"With You I Am Well Pleased”

Jesus baptism was a powerful moment for him.  He needed this moment, this experience, this voice, this assurance to even dare begin to walk this earth as the Son of God, the servant of God.

There was struggle for Jesus in knowing his divine call.  For he is going to have to walk as a stranger among his own kin and an outside among his own people.  He will be hated, despised, rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  Yet as one in whom God delights.  He is to bring a new brand of justice which is directed by compassion.

Regarding this justice, Rabbi Abraham Heschel in “The Prophets” makes this bold statement.
“There is a point at which strict justice is unjust.”  Then speaking of biblical justice he says, “Justice was not equal justice, but a bias in favor of the poor...for beyond all justice is God’s compassion.”  
“A father is disqualified to serve as a judge.  Yet the judge of all (people) is also their Father.  He would be unjust to His own nature where He to act in justice without being compassionate.”

Jesus baptism set him apart for servanthood.  And so does ours!  To ‘walk wet’ means we cannot be indifferent to injustice and must bring mercy, compassion and kindness into our world through who and how we are.

It was no small thing for Jesus to be baptized.  It is no small thing for us either!  It does not mark us as God’s favorites; it does commission us as God’s servants!

Jan 6, 2013 Epiphany Of Our Lord

Matthew 2:1-12

 1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

   6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
   are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
   who will shepherd my people Israel.]”

   7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route

 “Following A Star”

It was no simple thing for the Magi to follow that star.  It would have been easy for them to philosophize about it, to debate its significance, but to follow it was something quite extraordinary.
They are an example of the quest of faith.  To discover God we too have to dare follow some stars, risk leaving the comfortable contemplation of heavenly things and move out into new and different surroundings.

God is not found in a book isolated from people.  God is discovered in the venture of faith, in very human ways.  God entered this imperfect world in human form and that is where God is still discovered.

"He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side, He came to those men who knew Him not.  He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!"  and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time.  He commands.  And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is."
Albert Schweitzer- "The Quest for the Historical Jesus"


 “Worshipped By Outsiders”

The Magi were outsiders who demonstrated a lot of faith, acting on such flimsy evidence.  They didn’t know what we know; they just knew of a word of prophecy and a strange star.  It was full of mystery and they were full of a searching faith.

“Our three Epiphany lessons unite, you see, to say that God does not despise the religions of outsiders, and neither may we.  This is not to say that one religion is as good as another, but that the hunger for God is a common human trait and deserves respect wherever it is found.”  Proclamation 2 A, pp.12,13

Outsiders:  Bob would be one; not much of a church goer yet a man of deep insight.   “Let us have a church that dares imitate the heroism of Jesus; seek inspiration as he sought it;  judge the past as he; act on the present like him; pray as he prayed; work as he wrought; live as he lived.”  (Bob Folk - letter to editor)

Gandhi would be one: “Find a Muslim boy and adopt him as your son (pause)
and raise him as a Muslim.”  Words spoken in Movie to a Hindu seeking peace in his heart for killing a Muslim child.

Henri Nowen:  “Saintliness ( or discipleship) means living without division between word and action.”

Christ belongs to all and all belong to Christ!  That’s the secret of the Magi!