Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Feb 2 2014 4th Sunday after Epiphany
Matthew 5:1-12
1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“Finding Happiness”
Sermon on the Mount is not a do it yourself guide to happiness. The Beatitudes describe how it is with happy people, not how to become happy. How it is with those who have discovered the gift of happiness in the process of living.
Happiness is something we all desire, live for, seek out and desperately want.
Yet happiness is not something we can possess, take, create.
Happiness is a serendipity -”the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”
It is a gift, a byproduct, a consequence of our living. To pursue it is to miss it.
“Faces along the bar,
Cling to their average day;
The lights must never go out.
The music must always play.
Lest we should see who we are,
Lost in a haunted woods;
Children afraid of the night,
Who have never been happy or good.” (Auden)
Happiness is wholeness from the inside out. It comes from within when we come clean with ourselves and stop playing games. It is born in true confession which opens our eyes to see what we otherwise couldn’t see, hear what we couldn’t hear, believe what we couldn’t believe.
It also comes by losing oneself in usefulness. Happiness is found outside ourselves.
It is living for more then my own happiness. It is being caught up in that which makes others happy.
Happiness is a gift. Happiness is found in giving the gift. It is to live by grace and to be a graceful person. Happy people are good people to be around. Their happiness is contagious and it creates more happiness, for them as well as for others.
This is what the Sermon on the Mount is describing for us in words which are beautiful beyond words.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Jan 26, 2014 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Matthew 4:12-23
12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”[a]
17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
“Come Follow Me”
Come is echoed throughout scripture: Ps 95:1,2; Is 1:18; Is 55::l; Mt, 4:19; Mk. 10:21;
Mt. 11:28,29; Rev 22:17,
,
Come - it is a word of grace and a word of command; it invites us and entices us and commands us to risk ourselves in the venture of faith and discover how true it is that God dwells with us, is for us, lives through us, is above, beneath and in us. And cares about us as well as all!
To follow is to get involved - it is to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. It is to be led by the Holy Spirit to that which God would have happen - through us.
“Repent...And Live It Up, Following Jesus”
Two thoughts regarding this word from Matthew. First on repentance and then on following Jesus.
Repentance:
Repentance is not something we do just to take care of our badness; it is not permission to be bad because we can always be forgiven.
Repentance is a positive not a negative word. It means ‘change from within. It has to do with opening life up, changing ones mind, being open to new possibilities; being open to live from within. To repent means to open up!
Our dogma and our prejudices keep us from repentance. Our fear of change keeps us from opening up to new possibilities. It is what stops God’s grace from having a positive effect in the lives of good, even religious people. And keeps life from happening, as God would have it happen.
Following Jesus:
What an irresponsible thing to do - leave all and follow Jesus.
To follow is to live in the light; not pretend our darkness is light.
It begins with repentance - for we have a lot of darkness in our lives; then it is to be led by the light into that which God would have us be and do- no matter what.
Scott Peck reminds us that evil is doing harmful things and not even knowing it because we refuse to come to the light. Following Jesus is letting the light shine in us first; so we can be a reflection of that light in our world.
This is how the Kingdom of Heaven comes on earth!
12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”[a]
17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
“Come Follow Me”
Come is echoed throughout scripture: Ps 95:1,2; Is 1:18; Is 55::l; Mt, 4:19; Mk. 10:21;
Mt. 11:28,29; Rev 22:17,
,
Come - it is a word of grace and a word of command; it invites us and entices us and commands us to risk ourselves in the venture of faith and discover how true it is that God dwells with us, is for us, lives through us, is above, beneath and in us. And cares about us as well as all!
To follow is to get involved - it is to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. It is to be led by the Holy Spirit to that which God would have happen - through us.
“Repent...And Live It Up, Following Jesus”
Two thoughts regarding this word from Matthew. First on repentance and then on following Jesus.
Repentance:
Repentance is not something we do just to take care of our badness; it is not permission to be bad because we can always be forgiven.
Repentance is a positive not a negative word. It means ‘change from within. It has to do with opening life up, changing ones mind, being open to new possibilities; being open to live from within. To repent means to open up!
Our dogma and our prejudices keep us from repentance. Our fear of change keeps us from opening up to new possibilities. It is what stops God’s grace from having a positive effect in the lives of good, even religious people. And keeps life from happening, as God would have it happen.
Following Jesus:
What an irresponsible thing to do - leave all and follow Jesus.
To follow is to live in the light; not pretend our darkness is light.
It begins with repentance - for we have a lot of darkness in our lives; then it is to be led by the light into that which God would have us be and do- no matter what.
Scott Peck reminds us that evil is doing harmful things and not even knowing it because we refuse to come to the light. Following Jesus is letting the light shine in us first; so we can be a reflection of that light in our world.
This is how the Kingdom of Heaven comes on earth!
Monday, January 13, 2014
Jan 19, 2014 2nd Sunday after Epiphany
John 1:29-42
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.
“We Have Found The Messiah”
Faith in Jesus as the Son of God is not something which happens in isolation -ever.
It is not something we do by ourselves; it is something which happens in the human encounters of life.
It is something we walk into more then create by ourselves.
And we help each other believe what is otherwise too incredible to believe.
John sounds sure today; tomorrow he asks, “Is this the one?”.
Andrew says “We have found the Messiah.” He didn’t know the half of it, yet!
There will always be doubt in the midst of faith, for it is human to doubt, In fact, doubt makes faith authentic, as Martin Luther once said: “There is more faith in honest doubt then all the creeds of Christendom,”
Frederick Buechner puts its this way:
“Whether your faith is that there is a God, or that there is not a God,
if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep.
Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
Faith is something which is born in us as God’s spirit is at work in human ways in our lives.
Look for God in the common places and encounters of your life. And where your doubts are, there too will your faith be!
“Called To Be At Risk”
It is not always clear what God would have us do, and when we set about doing what it is we think God has called us to do, it does not always end up as we expected it to be.
How can we know what is God’s calling for us, God’s will, purpose in the here and now as well as tomorrow?
Martin Marty -”The call of God is always to witness and witness means to be at risk.”
Between our confessing - which always has some bewilderment in it for what we believe is awesome, too wonderful to be true - and our living, there is a lot of uncertainty and risk.
To be a disciple is to live with a faith which goes beyond our comprehension and it is to risk living as if this is certainly true. It is to take risks - risks in forgiving others, helping others, even telling others about our Lord, - our hopes and dreams all the way to eternity.
Martin Niemoeller reminds us in succinct words what happens when we don’t take faith risks in our discipleship.
“When the Nazis came to get the Communists, I was silent.
When they came to get the Socialists, I was silent.
When they came to get the Catholics, I was silent.
When they came to get the Jews, I was silent.”
Monday, January 6, 2014
Jan 12, 2014 The Baptism Of Our Lord
Matt. 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
“A Sign Of Who We Are To Be”
Jesus baptism was uniquely different from all other baptisms. For Jesus knew no sin.
It identified who he was and what he was all about.
A suffering servant who “ will bring froth justice to the nations.”
A humble servant who “will not cry or lift up his voice...”
A gentle servant, “going about doing good and healing all who were oppressed...”
Baptism is not so much about what we get as it is a sign of who we are to become.
It is a sign that we are to be something more then we humanly want to be.
Being loved and loving is a wonderful thing; it is also a most difficult thing for then I can never just do what I want to do.
To be baptized is to live so others say, “If only there were more people like you...”
“A Brother Of The Sinful”
Jesus did not come to John to be baptized by him in order to be identified with John and his ministry. He didn’t come to be baptized in order to demonstrate that He was a religious man. He came to be baptized by John - and insisted on it! - in order to be identified with sinners. Real flesh and blood human beings who were struggling with the passions of life - you and me!
By his baptism Jesus - “who knew no sin” ; “who was like us in all ways except without sin” - chooses sides.
“He chooses to be identified with the sinful crowd, with the insiders who are really outsiders, rather than with the self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees. He does not surrender his identify as the sinless one, but he makes an identification with sinners. He accepts their corruption, their sinfulness as his own. He is, In Bonhoeffer’s memorable phrase, ‘The Man For Others.’” (Proclamation 2A Epiphany, p. 17)
God has chosen to be on our side and sent His Son to so identify with us that there can be no mistake about it. In his Baptism Jesus boldly lets the world know where he stands and where God stands too!
He came to show and tell us about a God who’s compassion is greater than his anger - always; who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.
Psalm 103:8
His baptism marked him for a ministry of mercy - which is our ministry too.
We who claim the name of Jesus, and are baptized into his name, are not called to be “censors of sinners” but “brothers and sisters with Jesus of the sinful”.
So it is in the Kingdom of Heaven!
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
“A Sign Of Who We Are To Be”
Jesus baptism was uniquely different from all other baptisms. For Jesus knew no sin.
It identified who he was and what he was all about.
A suffering servant who “ will bring froth justice to the nations.”
A humble servant who “will not cry or lift up his voice...”
A gentle servant, “going about doing good and healing all who were oppressed...”
Baptism is not so much about what we get as it is a sign of who we are to become.
It is a sign that we are to be something more then we humanly want to be.
Being loved and loving is a wonderful thing; it is also a most difficult thing for then I can never just do what I want to do.
To be baptized is to live so others say, “If only there were more people like you...”
“A Brother Of The Sinful”
Jesus did not come to John to be baptized by him in order to be identified with John and his ministry. He didn’t come to be baptized in order to demonstrate that He was a religious man. He came to be baptized by John - and insisted on it! - in order to be identified with sinners. Real flesh and blood human beings who were struggling with the passions of life - you and me!
By his baptism Jesus - “who knew no sin” ; “who was like us in all ways except without sin” - chooses sides.
“He chooses to be identified with the sinful crowd, with the insiders who are really outsiders, rather than with the self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees. He does not surrender his identify as the sinless one, but he makes an identification with sinners. He accepts their corruption, their sinfulness as his own. He is, In Bonhoeffer’s memorable phrase, ‘The Man For Others.’” (Proclamation 2A Epiphany, p. 17)
God has chosen to be on our side and sent His Son to so identify with us that there can be no mistake about it. In his Baptism Jesus boldly lets the world know where he stands and where God stands too!
He came to show and tell us about a God who’s compassion is greater than his anger - always; who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.
Psalm 103:8
His baptism marked him for a ministry of mercy - which is our ministry too.
We who claim the name of Jesus, and are baptized into his name, are not called to be “censors of sinners” but “brothers and sisters with Jesus of the sinful”.
So it is in the Kingdom of Heaven!
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