The Third Sunday after Epiphany --- January 26, 2014

When I reached the church on Sunday, I realized that I had forgotten my keys to the building! Add a continuing snowfall, a congregation of 18, and a few slip-ups I made in the worship service, it made for an interesting day.

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

• This is the message with which Jesus began his ministry. Essentially it is the same message John preached and it wouldn't be far off the mark to say that the prophets of Israel all preached the same message. If we were to look, we'd see that the Book of Jonah is almost all about this message.
• The call to repent is a funny one. It usually brings up mental pictures of a hairy, robed, unkempt, sandalled man shouting “Repent!” at the top of his lungs on a street corner. Or it might bring up an image of a fire-and-brimstone preacher pointing an finger at all who might hear, accusing everyone around of every sin possible and condemning them for those sins, real or imagined.
• I have a different view of this proclamation of repentance. I find this statement to be good news in the best Gospel sense,
• First off, the call to repentance does involve the acknowledgement of sin and sinfulness. There's no way around it. I believe we all understand that... especially if we know ourselves the least little bit. Repentance does require recognition of sinful behaviour and the existence of sin in the world. It will also require an acceptance or at least an acknowledgement of our own sin. I don't know anyone who enjoys this. It is real and it is not fun.
• Secondly, Jesus' call to repentance is not one of condemnation. Rather it is a providential and hopeful call. It is providential because it proclaims grace. It is hopeful because a call to repent of sin carries with it the promise of forgiveness. How much hope would there be in a call for repentance that “might” be followed by forgiveness by God? What good would repentance be if there were only a slim chance that there might be forgiveness?
• Jesus calls his listeners to repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. This is a message of good news, for the kingdom of heaven is one of justice, mercy, and peace. It is one of judgement, but the righteousness and judgement of God is mercy.
• Jesus' call to repent is one of telling people to prepare for what is coming and telling them what it will take for the kingdom of God to be good news to them. For those who are willing to “turn around” - the original meaning of the word translated as “repent”- and to look and go in a different direction, this will be good news. The nearness of the kingdom will bring about a renewal in their lives and in their way of living. They will “turn around” and look in a new direction and look at all that is and all they have in a new way. Those who will not “turn around” will remain with their eyes fixed on lesser things than God and God's kingdom. They could be described as distracted and just like any other distracted person, they will miss what they were looking for even though it might be right before their eyes and will end up accepting poor substitutes and things or relationships of lesser value – things that will never satisfy, let alone save.
• Repentance in this sense means more than simply saying we're sorry. There is always the aspect of changing our lives. Were we to think that this idea is not “Lutheran”, listen to the first thesis of Luther's 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. ”
• This is one of the reasons that the Confession and Forgiveness precedes so many of our services. It is there to have us honestly face our failings “in what we have done and in what we have left undone.” It doesn't end there; it also honestly brings us face-to-face with the gracious and life-giving promise of Jesus to forgive our sins. When the pastor assures us of God's forgiveness, the pastor also proclaims to us the forgiveness of God! This is a promise fulfilled in our hearing, to use a Scriptural phrase. In hearing these words and believing them, the Kingdom of God HAS come near. Actually it was always near; we've just become better aware of it through our faith.
• The words of Jesus to us in the Gospel we've heard today -"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."- those words are a grace-filled and hope-filled call. We can hear it with joy rather than with terror, or sorrow, or fear.
• Remember... the two things we quite often hear Jesus saying in the Gospels are “Repent!” and “Don't be afraid!” Wouldn't you agree that those phrases are good news indeed?

On "Lutheran Evangelicals"

I ran across this article this morning. It may be a bit academic and "thick" to read but it says a lot. I especially liked this comment by the author, James R. Rogers:

The crucial shift is that, for the Lutherans, justification derives from Christ’s faithfulness—his trustworthiness—rather than from an act of mental will. This affects Lutheran preaching and Lutheran piety.

Consider the differing appeals made to a person weak in faith. The admonition derived from the standard Protestant view of sola fide is that the person weak in faith must try to believe harder. The admonition directs the person to look within to remedy his or her failure. In Lutheranism, the admonition comes from Jesus himself to me in particular, not to look inward to myself or my belief, but to look outward, away from myself, to Christ on the Cross. Trust in Christ comes not from an act of will, but rather simply reflects the fact that Jesus is trustworthy. Trust, or faith, comes not from within, but from the nature of God’s character revealed in Jesus on the Cross. As Paul puts it in the well-known passage in Romans, given that God “did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?”

It is worth reading the entire article and it explains a lot about our history as Lutherans and our relationship to other Protestant bodies and their "spirituality."

Here's the link:  http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/01/lutheran-evangelicals

The Second Sunday after Epiphany --- 19 January 2014

John 1:29-42

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." 

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed ). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter ). 

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see."

• It's a simple formula. Jesus just asked the two disciples of John the Baptizer to follow him when they asked where he was staying. They followed him and then they began to invite others to “Come and see” for themselves.
• Does it make you wonder why this simple formula does not seem to work in our day? Maybe we should unpack this a bit.
• First, the invitation was given by Jesus who said “Come and see” to those men when he met them face to face. Such an invitation would have to be taken seriously, especially since the men invited had asked “Where are you staying?” Once they showed interest, Jesus said, in essence, “follow me.” It isn't clear what they were looking for when they began to follow after Jesus, whom John called “the lamb of God.” For a number of reasons, it really isn't clear what John meant in calling Jesus the lamb of God.
• In any event, it appears that Andrew saw Jesus as the Messiah and convinced his brother Simon Peter to see for himself. Whatever Jesus said or did while Andrew was with him, it caused Andrew to begin to believe and in believing, led Andrew to share this faith with others.
• If we see ourselves in this picture, we might get discouraged by see that only two people came to follow Jesus that one day out of all the people who had gone out to be baptized by John. In this case, numbers don't count for much. The two disciples of John followed Jesus and learned a lot about who Jesus was. Jesus doesn't appear to be concerned about numbers either; his whole attention was on the two who were with him.
• Was it curiosity that led the two disciples to ask about Jesus? It would appear not. These two were already disciples of John. They were not just two people seeking a “drive-through” baptism from John – one that would take place and let them get on with their day. They were already taking their faith seriously.
• We all know what became of Andrew and the brother he brought to Jesus, Simon Peter. There's no need to discuss or point out their place in the history of the church. They came to faith by the simple formula of “come and see.” What they saw and experienced made all the difference.
• We are not able to 'come and see' Jesus as Andrew and Peter did. We have to do it in the way that is available to us in our life right now. We all have come to faith because we have come and have seen someone -a disciple of Jesus- who took their faith seriously, whose faith made a difference in their lives.
• This “taking our faith seriously” is the important thing. If we take our faith seriously, it will influence every area of our lives. It will direct how we work and possibly what we do for a living. It will give direction on how we might raise our children and how we will treat everyone we meet.
• Taking our faith seriously will effect how and even how often we pray. It may change our prayer and way of praying, replacing a “gimme” mentality with one of gratitude, seeking God's life and God's will more than goodies and things.
• Taking faith seriously may not change what words we use, but it certainly will change what we might talk about.
• If every one of us here truly took our faith seriously, the grace of God would be seen by anyone who would look. They could “come and see”, and see Jesus in his followers, in us.
• Note I didn't use the term “religion” although I could had I used the word in it's best sense. There are people who don't trust the word “religion” because they see it as a system of human actions or “works” to earn God's favour or salvation. The earliest understanding of the word “religion”, however, is one of commitment to a certain way of life or to certain values. This definition sounds more like our understanding of faith in action than a way of getting your ticket to heaven punched.
• If we believe Jesus Christ is alive, then we believe that he is still active in the world he came to save. If he is active in the Church, then he is active in us for we are the Church. It is to us that those who are searching will “come and see.” What we can all do is reflect the light of grace that has been given to us.
• The simple formula I mentioned still works today and it might work better than any other way we might try. After all, this is Jesus' way.

The Baptism of the Lord --- 12 January 2014

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

• When was the last time you saw the heavens open up? In my experience, that phrase usually means a huge rainstorm. You know, the type where the rain pours down “in buckets”, where it rains “cats and dogs” as my mother used to say. It's the sort of rainstorm where thunder roars and lightning flashes, lighting up the whole sky so much you'd swear the sky would fall on you.
• Maybe that's what happened at Jesus' baptism. Not a huge thunderstorm or a windstorm, but an opening of the heavens. Matthew says when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him... Then the Spirit of God comes upon him like a dove landing and he hears voice of God expressing both election and pleasure. Before this, Jesus came to be baptized and John objected. Jesus responds by saying "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." It must have been quite a confusing day for John and, in some ways, for Jesus.
• I'd like to talk about two things this morning: What it means to fulfill all righteousness and what it means to have the heavens opened. These may be odd idea, but they could be quite important to our own lives in Christ.
• In most cases, righteousness means to fulfil some sort of moral law or code and that law or code is used as the measure of righteousness. Jesus says John should baptize him to fulfill all righteousness, meaning to show Jesus to be a good and righteous son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – a true Israelite. He does it not because he needs it for himself (hence John's objection) but for the sake of his heritage. This is very important for Matthew since his original audience in general was Jewish. Jesus' genealogy, His birth to Jewish parents, his escape into Egypt and his subsequent entry into the land of the promise, all show Jesus to be the whole people of Israel, all wrapped up in him. Jesus' baptism by John would not be to renounce sin as it might be for others, but it would fulfill all righteousness as a Israelite following the God of Israel in every righteous way possible. The Law would be followed and fulfilled in Jesus, with the help of John whose objections make sense to us who are in on the secret that not all the characters in the Gospel know. Here as in all the Gospels, the reader is privy to the secret but true nature of Jesus. So for Jesus, the righteousness he holds must be made manifest to all. He would keep to the Law; he would be a true Israelite.
• At Jesus' baptism, the heavens opened as Matthew puts it. We don't know if he was speaking in a literal sense or in a more symbolic sense.
• Actually that doesn't really matter so much. If the heavens are opened, then it is possible to pass through, one way or the other, while they are open. God can get to us and we can get to God. This is shown in Jesus' life by the descent of the Spirit of God in the form of a dove and the Father's voice resounding from heaven.
• Does this happen whenever a person is baptized? We'd believe it does. Not that the physical heavens open and the Spirit shows himself in the form of a dove; that's not something I've ever seen, and if I did, it would probably scare the life out of me. Still if we believe in hidden realities like grace, love, forgiveness, and the presence of God -things we cannot usually perceive- then to believe that baptism as it is done in so many Christian churches throughout the world and throughout time involves the opening of the heavens for the newly baptized and the entire congregation as well the presence of the Holy Spirit AND the acceptance by the Father of the newly baptized as a child of God is not something out of reach of our faith.
• Whenever someone is baptized, in this or any other font, the Father, Son, and Spirit are present, bring life, salvation, and righteousness to us and to our world again and again.
• Did you notice that the Gospel never says the heavens closed up after the theophany, that is, the manifestation of the divine at the Jordan? It seems that the heavens remain open and God can alway get to us and we can -by grace- get to God.
• This next idea may be a bad joke, but it is still wonderfully grace-filled (in my opinion). When I was a young boy, I would run through the house and often leave the door open. My mother would call out after me “Were you born in a barn?” which of course means “Shut the door!” Well, in a way, Jesus WAS born in a barn or at least a stable. So then with Jesus, the door is always open.

the Second Sunday of Christmas --- 5 January 2014

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 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. 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.' ") 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

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... No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

• John takes things differently in comparison to the other evangelists. Matthew and Luke talk about the birth of Jesus and from them we have most of our Christmas/Nativity visualizations. Neither Mark nor John have these stories. The so-called prologue to John's Gospel – our reading today – goes back much further than any other Gospel, going back to the beginning of creation.
• The beginning of John's Gospel does not make for a nice story for children. It does not lend itself to a visual representation like our manger scene here, or to banners or stained glass windows. For many it is a very “heady” concept. A number of people I know find John's Gospel hard to understand... and often I must agree with them.
• This Prologue sets the stage for the whole of John's Gospel. John's Jesus is always privy to the flow of salvation history and the secrets of God. He is always the king, and even goes to his cross like a king ascending the throne at his coronation. Each of his miracles recorded in John serve to reveal who Jesus is and what he is about.
• So who is Jesus and what is he about?
• Another question might be asked first: Why did John write this way? John's Christian community was in conflict or so biblical scholars believe. The conflict was between those who held that Jesus was God and man both, and those who held he was one or the other, but not both. John was writing to let people know that Jesus was God - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. - and that Jesus was human - And the Word became flesh and lived among us... . John did this in a way that reflected the way of thinking of both his theological camp AND his opponents'. To express his theology using the opposition's terms and words would have a lot of power and especially the power of persuasion.
• So John answer to the question of “Who is Jesus?” comes down to us through the years and expresses the ancient belief of the Church that Jesus is true God and true human. Not half and half; not some sort of alloy, but a person whose divine and human nature cannot be separated.
• If the question were “What is Jesus about?”, John's answer would be found in his Prologue: we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. John would then go further: No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
• Even the first title for Jesus in John's Gospel – the Word – expresses a lot about John's understanding of Jesus and his ministry. The Word is that which reveals God and shows God to the world. It is Jesus who reveals the Father and the Father's action in the world. If we wanted to see and understand God, we will look to Jesus.
• There are some who want to by-pass Jesus in their desire to see God. There must have been some of those among the Christian community of John's place and time. To them (and to us as well), John wrote this in the 14^th chapter of his Gospel: Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.' (John 14:8-9)
• You might say that this is an grown-up Christian's Christmas story. It does not have the sentiment of the Nativity stories, but it has all the power. Years ago, in my former way of life, when we heard the verse And the Word became flesh and lived among us, it was the custom to bow since that theology was that important and vital to living our faith.
• Interestingly enough, this same passage gives us an excellent example of how to live out our faith. Since Jesus, the Word, became as we are and lived as we do, how he did that becomes our example and model of living faith in this world. The original phrasing of this passage is “The Word became common flesh and pitched his tent among us.” Not as poetic in English, but closer to the original language and weighted with meaning.
• The word translated as “flesh” can mean the meat of the body or the unredeemed part of the human being. The phrase “lived among us” is actually “pitched his tent/tabernacle among us.”, bringing to mind the Tent of Meeting or the tabernacle found among the Hebrews in their wandering in the desert. The Tabernacle was the place where the presence of God could be found and made manifest. In this case, to “pitch his tent” means to become part of the world and the life of the world and that is just what Jesus did. It is what we do as well. We do not run from or try to escape the world as it is; we embrace the world and work to change it with the Kingdom of God in mind. The phrase “Kingdom of God” is not found in John's Gospel; “eternal life” is the term used. In Jesus' entry into the world, he brings the Kingdom/eternal life. In our pitching our tent in the world as it is, we proclaim the kingdom and eternal life in Jesus.
• As I said, this passage is not an easy one and it is the Christmas story for grown-ups. It is also our faith in a capsule as well as our model for our way of life. The whole of John's Gospel is thick with this way of thinking. It is never easy but always worthwhile. It explains a lot.
• No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.