First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one at the center of the story. Amen
 
The season of Lent is a time of storytelling.
During this 40 day period
we tell the stories of Jesus’ last days
 leading up to the greatest story of Easter morning.
 
We tell these stories every year during this season,
 we tell them because they are important to us,
we tell them so that new people might hear them,
we tell them to remember who we are and whose we are
because stories form our identities.
 
We start with our reading from Deuteronomy,
 I love this passage because it combines the power of storytelling with worship.
 
In this passage
Moses is instructing the Israelites
 before they enter the promised land
 on how to worship God who is giving them the land.
 
It is clear that Moses is concerned
that once the people settle in
 and start working the land
 and providing for themselves through farming
that they will forget God.
 
Moses says some variation
 of “the land that the Lord your God is giving you”
six times in this short passage,
 
he has a right to be worried
it’s a very human temptation
to forget God
 when it appears that we can take care of ourselves through our own work
even though God made it possible for us to work in the first place.
 
So Moses prescribes a ritual for worship
designed to both praise God
and remind the worshipper of God.
 
When the land,
a gift from God,
 starts to produce
the Israelites are to take the first harvest,
 put it in a basket,
bring it to the temple and give it to the priest
who will put it before the altar of God.
 
Seems simple enough,
but there is more,
 in addition to bringing the first fruits
 the worshiper is to retell the story of the people and God
 
"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." Deuteronomy 26:5-10
 
The story puts the act of offering in context,
 the ability to offer these first fruits
 is only possible because of God’s saving actions and gracious gifts.
Telling the story this way
makes sure that God stays at the center of the story.
 
Worship is designed to keep God as the main character
in the story of life,
and let’s be honest
we need all the help we can get
 
we humans love to think that it is all about us,
and when we start to make ourselves the center of the universe
we get into trouble very quickly.
 
It is this human inclination
 that the Devil plays on as he tempts Jesus in our gospel for today
and Jesus resists
 by keeping God at the center of the story
 
 In his first attempt
 the Devil plays on Jesus’ pride and hunger
by saying “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
 
 Now imagine if Jesus were living with the perspective
 that he was the center of the universe-
 he would be insulted at the Devil’s questioning of his identity
 and authority as Son of God,
and being hungry it would make sense to prove the devil wrong
by creating some bread,
 seems like killing two birds with one stone.
 
But keeping God at the center
Jesus, even though he is the Son of God and is very hungry answers:
 “It is written, ‘one does not live by bread alone.’”
 
So the devil tries another common weak spot for humans,
he offers power,
 all the kingdoms of the world.
In exchange for allegiance that is.
 
We only have to look through history
at the various dictators
to know how this temptation might have played out.
But again Jesus keeping God at the center
 answers: “It is written, ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
 
And now the Devil knows he’s working with a really tough case
 and so in his last attempt
he combines a question of Jesus’ identity
with quoting scripture,
playing Jesus’ own game saying “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘he will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’  
 
there you have it,
the word of God straight out of Psalm 91,
 how can you argue with that? The Devil implies
 
this tactic has worked really well for the Devil over the years
 playing on the pride of people
 who then pressure other people
 saying: “If you are a Christian, you will go and do____ something very un Christ like”
and by backing up their claim with scripture
people fall prey to the desire
 to prove that they are Christian
 rather than to act like Christ.
 
but yet again Jesus sees through the devil’s ploy
 and keeping God at the center of the story
responds “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
 
At this the devil departs-
 but not for good, just until another time when Jesus is ripe for temptation,
 a time like this one where his defenses are down.
 
That’s when the devil likes to tempt us,
 not when we’re at our strongest,
 but when we’re at our weakest,
 
those times of struggle
 where we desperately desire a certain outcome
 because we are so overcome with the events in our lives
 that we’ve started telling our story with ourselves at the center
 
we are so focused on ourselves
 that we give into temptation
and start testing God saying things like:
“God, if you’re really there I’ll know because you’ll make the one I love all better.”
 or “God, if you’re really compassionate make all this pain go away, right now.”
 
Of course that way lies madness,
because God doesn’t work like that,
God is not a cosmic vending machine
where if we insert our prayers like dollars
our desired outcome will be dispensed.
 
 And how do we know God doesn’t work like that?
 Through all the stories of how God has acted in the past,
 the stories where again and again
God chose to work through death to bring new life.
 
So how do we make it through the tough times and resist temptation?
Through stories,
the stories of how God has acted in the past
and promised to act in the future.
 
 In worship we hear the stories,
and we give to God in recognition that in the great story of life
God is the main character to our supporting role,
and we celebrate the life God has given us.
 
And fortified by the story,
gratitude and communal celebration
 God sends us back out into the world,
to live through death into new life. Amen

Transfiguration of Our Lord
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who speaks to us. Amen
 
Speaking and listening
 
These two actions lie at the heart of the transfiguration story.
 
Speaking and listening are the transfiguration story.
 
Jesus has been teaching
he’s been speaking to crowds,
 imparting wisdom
 and now he needs some time with God.
So he takes with him three disciples,
 Peter, John and James and goes up a mountain to pray.
 
Jesus likes to go to deserted places to pray,
less distraction that way
but going up a mountain signals that this is a special occasion,
God is often met on mountain tops,
 
 And sure enough while Jesus is praying something happens,
 Jesus’ face changes
 and his clothes become dazzling white
and suddenly he is joined by Moses and Elijah
 
they’re having a conversation about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the cross
 and Peter, John and James witnessing the glory of God
want to hold on to the moment
 
 Peter offers to build permanent structures
 so the moment never has to end
and at this God overshadows them
and speaks to them,
telling them to listen to Jesus
 and terrified they keep silent.
 
Speaking and listening
That’s where it all starts
with Jesus going up the mountain to pray,
 
  prayer is a combination of speaking and listening,
we’re more familiar with the speaking side of prayer
but prayer also happens in listening,
 listening for what God is saying to us.
 
Jesus goes up the mountain to pray
and is visibly transformed by encountering God.
 
This is keeping with tradition,
 we heard how Moses’ face was transformed
as he spoke to God.
 
Being in the presence of God changes us.
 Listening to God visibly changes us.
 
And that frightens us.
 
Moses took to wearing a veil around the people
 because when they could see the glory of the Lord shining in his face,
 they were afraid to come near him.
 
Yet they still listened to Moses speak,
 when others are transformed by being in the presence of God
 we are afraid yes,
 but we’re also intrigued,
 part of us wants to see more,
but we can only take so much.
 
We’re like little kids experiencing something new,
 at first it startles us and we run and hide our face in our parents leg,
 but soon enough we’re ready to take another peak,
 and a peak turns into a longer look
 and eventually, step by step we move toward a full encounter.
 
It’s a different story when we’re the ones who are changed.
Peter, dear impulsive, enthusiastic Peter
witnesses Jesus’ transformation along with Moses and Elijah
and determines that this is a good place,
he wants to see more
 so he suggests building houses for the trio.
 
He wants to make this brief moment permanent
 even though that is impossible,
we are told that Peter didn’t know what he was saying,
 that this was a moment for just a moment.
 
To be fair to Peter it’s a very human thing
to suggest what he did.
We humans love to embark on building projects
around sites of significance.
 
 In seminary I got to go to Israel and Palestine
as part of a class on the Holy Land
which included visiting sites of significance to Jesus’ ministry.
 
 To be fair we were a bit skeptical
that we were visiting the exact place where Jesus appeared to the disciples
after the resurrection and made them a breakfast of fish,
or the exact place where Jesus was baptized
but our tour guide
a wonderfully faithful Palestinian Catholic named Johnny
 had an explanation,
‘we know this is the place because the early Christians built a church here’
 and there were a lot of churches dedicated to specific events in Jesus’ life.
It’s what we humans do,
we try to capture significant moments in permanent buildings.
 
But back on the mountain
God has other things in mind,
the moment is too significant to get caught up in a building project
 and so even as Peter is offering his suggestion
a cloud comes and overshadows the disciples,
 
this is the presence of God,
 when God appears to people in the Bible
it is often in the form of a cloud,
For example God led the people of Israel out of Egypt
appearing as a pillar of cloud by day.
 
And the disciples are terrified as they enter the cloud.
 Then God speaks “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to him!”
 And when the cloud lifts,
all that’s left is Jesus.
 
And this time,
their reaction is to keep silent,
and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
 
They obviously eventually told someone
otherwise we wouldn’t know the story
 but it took them awhile to be able to tell the story,
my guess is that it was only after the resurrection
did they feel comfortable enough to tells others of their encounter with God
 and what God said to them.
And this too is a perfectly human response.
 
Because as much as we long for God
 to work in us and in our community
- we pray for that every Sunday,
 
when the time comes,
like the disciples
we are terrified to enter the cloud of God.
 
Covered in clouds we can’t see where we’re going,
even on top of a mountain
 and we don’t like that feeling,
we like to be able to look out and see where we’re going
 anticipate what’s coming next,
it’s less scary that way,
 
 and yet,
God most often speaks when we’re covered in clouds.
 
Those times in life
when we can’t see what the future holds,
 we can barely see our hand in front of our face.
 
A diagnosis,
a broken relationship,
 a job loss,
any kind of loss,
 
we don’t know what the future will bring
and it terrifies us
and that is when God speaks,
 
and when the clouds lift,
 in that first moment of clarity
 what do we see?
 
Jesus alone,
before us
who was there all along.
 
 “Listen to him” God says,
so we do,
as we move forward we listen to Jesus,
 we save the speaking for later.
 
The Church, with a capital C
 is in a time of clouds,
things that worked for decades are no longer effective
and frankly, we’re afraid,
 
 this comes out in all kinds of anxieties,
 I’m not going to list them
but I’m sure you can think of something
that worries you about the Church,
 
we’re afraid because we can’t see the path in front of us
and yet, when we pause,
take a deep breath, and a moment to collect ourselves,
 we find that we do know what to do.
 
 Listen.
 Listen to God who speaks in the midst of clouds,
who tells us to listen to Jesus.
 
I’ve been listening for awhile now,
And you know what?
 I’m not afraid of the clouds surrounding the Church anymore.
Why?
 
 Because I know that when the clouds lift
what we’ll find is Jesus,
who has been there all along
and who will lead us down off the mountain
who will show us the way.
 
Realizing this has made Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians
so much more meaningful,
 listen to them again:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”
 
In Christ we have freedom,
 freedom from fear,
 
in Christ we see the glory of the Lord,
 
 In Christ we are being transformed,
 
In Christ we are engaged in ministry.
 
 In Christ we do not lose heart.
 
“This is my son, My chosen; listen to him!” Amen
 

Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
grace and peace to you from the one who makes us worthy. Amen
 
Our lessons for today,
though they speak of different events
tell the same story.
 
 The story broadly goes like this.
 
The main character has an experience of God,
 and while they are wowed by this experience
 it also serves to highlight to the main character
just how inadequate they are in the presence of God,
 
the main character expresses to God
 how unworthy they are
 both for the experience and the notice of God in general.
 
God doesn’t debate this
but goes ahead and makes the main character worthy,
 then provides a way for the main character to respond in gratitude,
 which they do.
 
That’s it,
people experience their unworthiness,
God makes them worthy,
God provides for grateful response.
 
In our first reading
 Isaiah tells of seeing God in the temple
 surrounded by seraphs- a class of angel-
 whose praise of God shakes the thresholds,
 
 Isaiah’s response is: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
 
Isaiah expects to die
 because he is unworthy and has seen the glory of the Lord,
 but then one of the seraphs takes a hot coal from the altar
and touches Isaiah’s lips with it saying:
 "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
 
With this ceremony
Isaiah has been made worthy.
 
Then he hears  “the voice of the Lord saying,
 "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
 and now instead of cowering in fear
Isaiah steps up and says “Here am I, send me”
 
Isaiah feels his unworthiness,
God purifies him,
 Isaiah responds in gratitude.
 
In our gospel, it’s Simon and the disciples.
 They’re cleaning their nets after a long night of fishing
 while a crowd has gathered around their new pal Jesus,
 
the crowd is so big
Jesus is about to get pushed into the water,
 so instead he climbs into Simon’s boat
 and has him put out a ways so he can teach the crowd in comfort.
 
 When he’s finished he tells Simon to take the boat out farther
 and put the nets in to catch some fish.
 
 Simon, who I’m sure is exhausted at this point
tells Jesus: "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."
 
And at Jesus’ direction they go out
 and put the nets in the water
 and catch so many fish that the nets start to break,
 
 they call for back up and the other boat comes out
 
and together they catch so many fish that the boats start to sink!
when Simon sees all this he falls “down at Jesus' knees, saying, "’Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’"
 
 Simon knows that he is unworthy to be in the presence of Jesus.
 
But instead of going away Jesus stays,
 and indicates that he wants to spend more time with Simon
saying  "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
 Simon is worthy enough to follow Jesus
and Luke tells us that “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”
 
Simon and the disciples feel their unworthiness,
 Jesus affirms their worth through an invitation,
 Simon and the disciples leave everything to follow Jesus.
 
Finally we have Paul,
 who eludes to his version of the story
 in his letter to the Corinthians
 though the full version in the book of Acts follows the same pattern.
 
 Paul or Saul as he is called then
is one of the people that is persecuting the followers of Jesus
after the resurrection,
 seeking them to send them to prison or even kill them,
 
the people of the way are afraid of him
 but they are still spreading the message beyond Jerusalem,
so Saul goes and gets permission to go to Damascus
 to hunt down people there and bring them back to Jerusalem.
 
As he’s traveling on the road to Damascus
a light flashes around him
 and he hears a voice saying
 “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Saul) asked, Who are you, Lord? The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” Acts 9:3-4
 
When Saul gets up he is blind.
 Meanwhile Jesus also appears in a vision to Ananias,
 a disciple in Damascus
 and tells him to go find Saul,
 
naturally Ananias is hesitant to go
 because he’s heard about Saul
 but God tells him that he’s chosen Saul
to bring the message to the gentiles.
 
 So Ananias goes and lays his hands on Saul
and prays for him
and something like scales fall from Saul’s eyes and he can see again.
He is baptized
then begins preaching the good news that Jesus is the son of God.
 
on the road Damascus
Paul experiences his unworthiness
 in the presence of Jesus,
 
 God makes Paul worthy,
 through the healing of Ananias and Paul’s baptism,
 
and in grateful response
Paul begins preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.
 
Paul is unworthy,
God makes him worthy,
 he gratefully responds
 fulfilling the mission God provides him,
 preaching to the gentiles,
 
Now Paul is writing to some of those gentiles,
 the Corinthians,
who have also experienced this progression of events
 when Paul came to preach to them,
they were baptized and formed a community
but now they’ve gotten off track,
 
Paul is writing to admonish them for a number of things
 going on in the community
including failure to practice the Lord’s Supper in a way that honors all.
 
And here Paul demonstrates
that our story line is actually a story cycle
 because we humans have a hard time believing
that God has truly made us worthy,
 
we have an incredible life changing experience of God
and we respond gratefully to God’s call
but after a while
 we begin to doubt
because we know ourselves
and all the things that we have done and left undone,
how we’ve failed to love our neighbor as ourselves,
 
life is complicated,
God seems far away,
 and pretty soon it feels like we’re back where we started,
 
 and once again
 God comes to us,
 reminding us that we are worthy,
 there is a place for us in the kingdom of God.
 
Paul has spent his letter to the Corinthians
 detailing all the ways they’ve gone wrong
but here towards the end
Paul brings it back around saying
 
 “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand.”
 
he’s telling them,
you are worthy,
and look he says I get it,
I get that feeling of doubt
look at me “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
 
But Paul doesn’t stop there,
 he continues on “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.”
and goes on to detail how God was able to work through him.
 
By the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
Repeat it after me,
 
hold on to these words
 
We are not worthy because of our actions,
we are worthy because of the grace of God,
 
God makes us worthy
 in the font at our baptism,
 
and God reminds us we are worthy
over and over again,
in the bread and wine at the table,
with the words of confession and absolution,
 through the body of Christ gathered here.
 
By the grace of God you are worthy.
 
By the grace of God we are worthy.
 
And now God has something in mind for each of us,
whether it is to be a prophet like Isaiah,
 fishers of people like disciples,
 a reminder like Paul
or something else entirely,
 
 and because God has made us worthy,
 when we hear God’s call
 we answer: “Here am I, send me”
 Thanks be to God, Amen.

Third Sunday After Epiphany
Nehemiah 8:1-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthian 12:12-31
Luke 4:14-21

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace to you from the one with a purpose. Amen
 
We are still in the season after Epiphany,
the season where our readings reveal who Jesus is
 and what he is about.
 
So far in the time after Epiphany
We’ve heard the story of Jesus’ baptism
where the spirit came down and claimed him
and God’s voice named him as beloved son,
 
we got a glimpse of Jesus’ capacity for abundance
as we watched him in action
at the wedding at Cana
 turning a huge amount of water
 into a vast amount of fine wine
so that by the grace of God relationships could be repaired
 
and today
 Jesus announces his purpose,
what he has come to do.
 
From his baptism
 Jesus is driven out into the wilderness
 to be tempted by Satan,
he successfully survives the test
and that is where we pick up the story today
 when filled with the power of the spirit
Jesus returns to Galilee
and begins teaching,
 
people are impressed
and word begins to spread
about how great this new teacher is
and so of course he has to go home and teach in the home synagogue,
local boy makes good better come home and share his talents right?
 
So there is perhaps a greater sense of anticipation
when Jesus,
in his home town synagogue,
 among the people who watched him grow from a cute baby
 through those awkward teen years
into the man before them, stands,
takes the scroll and turns to Isaiah and reads:
 
“The spirit of the lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
 
And he sits down to teach
 and eyes of all in the synagogue are fixed on him.
The people are holding their breath,
what is this reportedly great teacher going to say about this passage?
Will he talk about the tradition of the prophets?
The hoped for messiah?
 
And Jesus delivers his sermon in one sentence:
 “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
That’s it.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
 
 The way the planners of the lectionary set it up
 we don’t get the crowds’ reaction until next week,
so this week we get to unpack what is revealed about Jesus
 through his reading of Isaiah
and his one sentence interpretation of the reading.
 
These are the first words we hear from Jesus
 after he starts his ministry
 and in his choice of reading from Isaiah
 Jesus lays out his purpose for the rest of his ministry,
 
Jesus is to bring good news to the poor,
proclaim release to the captive,
recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor
 
Jesus has rooted himself firmly
in the prophetic tradition
and the expectations of the people of Israel,
 
 but we know of course
 that the way Jesus works
is decidedly unexpected
so we wonder what does Jesus mean
when he claims that the scripture has been fulfilled?
 
- we will see just what this all means,
 as Jesus lives out his purpose,
in how he feeds the hungry,
thousands with a few loaves and fish
 
forgives those captive to sin
with the words ‘your sins are forgiven’
 
heals those oppressed by sickness
as simply as saying ‘get up take your mat and go’ 
 
Jesus will live his purpose out
 in more controversial ways as well
by choosing to associate with tax collectors and sinners over the religious elite,
he will break the law to fulfill his purpose
whether it’s healing on the Sabbath or not washing his hands
 
and in a grand display
he will cleanse the temple of money changers
and merchants selling animals for sacrifice,
disrupting the established economic system
 in a bid to turn the focus of the temple from worldly gain
to prayer to the creator of the universe.
 
 And as you can imagine
 all these actions disrupting the status quo
upset the people who benefitted from the status quo
which leads to the cross
Jesus’ most unconventional way of being messiah,
 dying for the sake of life
 
And it is Jesus’ short sermon in his home synagogue
at the beginning of his ministry
that starts this all off
sounding the death knoll of the status quo
  
because good news for the poor
means consequences for those who are rich
 
freedom is good news for the oppressed
and means changes for those who oppressed them
 
the year of jubilee, the Lord’s favor
when the ancestral land is redistributed
 is exciting for those who have no land
but perhaps not so much
for those who have acquired great amounts of land.
In the words of the hymn the Canticle of the Turning
 “the world is about to turn”
 
 Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
What are we to make of this pronouncement of Jesus
Especially in light of all that’s going on in the world around us
A world still full of the hungry, poor and oppressed.
 
Allow me if you will
 to take a slight detour into the world of grammar.
There is a tense called the perfect tense,
and it describes actions that have been completed
but whose consequences are ongoing in the present.
 
For example the statement:
I made lunch.
The making of lunch is complete,
an action of the past
 
 but the consequence of that statement
 is that there is now lunch available to eat.
 
Jesus’ sermon is like that,
In the perfect tense
the words of the prophet Isaiah have been fulfilled.
 Completed by Jesus’ pronouncement
 
 but the consequences of his statement,
 of what he has done
is still being worked out
and we have a part in living them out
 
As Paul said in our second reading for the day:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and we were all made to drink of one spirit.”
 
In our baptisms we were joined to Christ
 and when we were joined to Christ
 his purpose became our purpose,
to bring good news to the poor,
 proclaim release to the captives,
 recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free
and to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor.
 
And as we look around at the world
 and see how many people are still poor, captive and oppressed
we realize there is a lot of work left to do,
 
and when this seems overwhelming
 we pause and look around at the body of Christ,
made up of many members
each with a role to play according to the gift of the spirit.
Who, joined together as one in Christ
 live out God’s purpose in the world. Amen
 

Baptism of Our Lord
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who comes in judgment. Amen.
 
Today we celebrate the baptism of Jesus,
which all the gospels agree
is the start of Jesus’ public ministry.
 
 John the Baptist has been preparing the way,
 preaching in the desert
getting the people excited about the coming messiah
 and Jesus comes out to the wilderness,
 is baptized
 and Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us
that the heavens open,
 the Holy Spirit descends like a dove
 and the voice of God is heard affirming Jesus as beloved son.
 
That’s the general outline of the story
that we think of when we refer to the story of Jesus’ baptism
 
But each gospel writer
puts their own spin on the story
 and in Luke we have the first part of our gospel reading
 where the people ask John if he is the messiah he’s been preaching about
 
and John says: "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."  
 
and only then does Jesus come and is baptized
 and the heavens oven,
the holy spirit comes down in the bodily form of a dove
and the voice of God is heard naming Jesus beloved son.
 
And the thing is,
 it’s so tempting to skip the first part,
 John’s depiction of the judgement by the coming messiah,
 
we’d rather jump straight to the baptism,
we’re Lutherans after all,
we love baptisms,
they give us the warm fuzzies
 and this is Jesus’ baptism,
so let’s get right to the good stuff,
and skip the talk of unquenchable fire,
we’re really not fire and brimstone people
 
and yet
 we can’t really truly talk about baptism
and what it means for us
 without talking about judgment.
 
Because the truth is that the world is messed up
 and that we are messed up right along with it,
 
 if it weren’t we wouldn’t need a savior.
 
and the truth is
 that there is good in the world and good in us
but that good doesn’t seem able to override the bad,
 we need help
 
And that’s where God comes in
God who created the universe,
who is merciful
wanting to look for the good over the bad,
 
 we have a God who is committed to this creation
and making it work,
 
there was that one time we hear about in Genesis
where God got so frustrated with the evil of humanity
God sent a flood to wipe everything out
and start over with Noah and his family and a boat of animals
 but after the flood waters went down
God realized it wasn’t such a good solution
and promised to never do that again.
 
God is merciful
and committed to this creation
 and God is committed to justice,
 
 and since God is committed to justice
 there must be some judgment,
the separating out the good from the bad,
that is God’s job.
 
 too often, however,
Christians have taken it upon themselves
to play the role of God
 and judge others
- and not surprisingly the people they say God decides against
are the very people that they themselves don’t like
 so we tread carefully with talk of judgment,
 
 We also get uncomfortable with judgment talk,
even when it’s all God’s job
 because we have this idea that it’s an all or nothing thing,
 
 popular culture
and even what I call popular Christianity
has made judgement an up or down thing,
judged good you go to heaven,
 bad to hell, often associated with fire,
 
 and while there is some biblical basis for this
- see Matthew 25 and the sorting of the sheep and the goats,
 it’s always much more nuanced-
than the straight up or straight down version
which is wielded as a weapon of fear
to exact strict social behavior in the image of those wielding the weapon
 and very rarely is there talk of the mercy of God.
 
The picture John is paints
with his talk of the coming messiah
 is much different,
 
 the way John tells it
 the judgment of the messiah
is a process throughout life,
 the one who is coming will sort the good from the bad
in each person
and uses fire for purification rather than punishment.
 
John uses the process of threshing wheat as his analogy,
after the wheat is harvested the grain needs to be separated
 from the straw and the husk around it- the chaff.
In Jesus’ day
 animals would walk over the harvested grain
and their weight would separate out the kernels from the straw
 then the harvester would take the winnowing fork
 kind of like a shovel
 and throw scoops of the straw and grain in the air,
 the wind would blow away the lighter straw and chaff
while the heavier grain would fall down to be collected for use.
 
The wheat and the chaff are two parts of the same plant.
One part is more useful than the other
and it takes some hard work to separate the two.
 
There is good and bad in all of us,
and it takes some hard work to separate out which is which,
 and that is what Jesus came to do.
 
 As we encounter his teachings,
his stories and parables
we face the refining judgement of Jesus,
 a life of discipleship
is a life of separating the wheat from the chaff.
 
And that is hard and painful work,
 as anyone who has done any amount of work on themselves will tell you,
 it’s hard to let go of old resentments,
 it’s hard to separate out prejudice from truth,
 it is tempting to give up,
no matter how great the promised outcome may be
 
separating out the wheat from the chaff in ourselves
can seem impossible,
and frankly on our own it is
 and that is where baptism comes in,
 a sign of the mercy of God,
 
 who says I claim you as mine
 no matter what
because I love you and I will be with you throughout the painful parts of life-
 
 we heard God telling the Israelites this
in the passage from Isaiah,
 
God never promises that life will be easy
what God does promise is to be there through it all.
 
In baptism we are claimed by God,
 who promises never to leave us
whatever life brings
and we are joined to Jesus the messiah’s death and resurrection,
which means that in the end
 God judges us as if we were Jesus,
in a word perfect.
 
In baptism we are made saints 100%
and yet we are still 100% sinners
 And while the math doesn’t work out
 we know in our hearts
 the truth that God loves us
and that we are in need of the refining judgement of Jesus
 
in Jesus we are set free to live both of those truths,
we are freed to live a life
where love is the law that guides our actions,
 a life where we are held secure in the love of God as we are refined,
 we are free
all because of Jesus,
 the son of God,
the beloved,
with whom God is well pleased. Amen
 

Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the Wonderful Counselor,
the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel. Amen
 
This time of year,
among all the other things that it is,
is a season of names.
 
Everywhere we turn there are names,
at the office drawing for the secret Santa gift exchange
and packages under the trees,
there are the names on or associated with
 some of our favorite holiday recipes and traditions,
 
 names come up as we decorate the tree
 and tell the family stories.
 
Names arise in our memories
 as those who are no long with us
 linger close at this time of year
 
Closely associated with names are stories
 and this is definitely a season of stories,
stories filled with names,
 
 now names can be stories in themselves,
 sometimes all that’s necessary to invoke a story
 is to say a certain name
because our names represent who we are,
 and who we are is revealed by the story of our lives.
 
Behind every name
 is a collection of stories,
 
so it’s little wonder
 that when telling the greatest story
 Luke uses a lot of names,
each mention adding layers of meaning
 to a seemingly simple story
 about a baby born in a manger.
 
 Most of the time when we read the Christmas story
the names are easy to pass over
mostly because
when we don’t know the stories behind names
they are easily dismissed,
they are something we read through to get to the good part,
 the baby in the manger, the angelic chorus and the believing shepherds,
 
but whether we pay attention to them or not
names drive the action of the Christmas story,
 
Emperor Augustus starts things off,
 the one with the most power in the Roman Empire,
 dictating the lives of those with the least power,
 
Augustus calls for a registration,
 a census, a cataloguing of people by name,
 making it easier for the empire to tax its conquered subjects
 and conscript them into the military.
 
 Families must return to their hometowns to be counted
and so that is what Joseph does along with his pregnant fiancée.
 
Joseph we’re told
is a member of the house of King David,
 a huge figure in the story of Israel,
 David is the King
to whom God promised to always raise up ancestors
 as leaders for Israel.
 
Now in the story of the people of Israel
it’s been awhile since they’ve had a great leader,
at the moment Israel is under the control of the Roman Empire
 this after being under the control of the Babylonians
 and then the Persians,
 
 independent rule in the promised land
 is such a distant memory
 it almost feels like a fairy tale,
 
 but unlike fairy tales
this is a promise made by God,
and God keeps the promises God makes.
 so at the mention of Joseph and his family ties,
 our ears perk up,
 could God be about to make good on the promise of old?
 
This suspicion is heightened,
 even confirmed
when Luke tells us that Joseph takes Mary to Bethlehem
where she has their firstborn child.
 
 Bethlehem, is King David’s hometown
 and the prophesies foretelling the messiah,
the anointed one who will save Israel,
say that the Messiah will come out of Bethlehem.
 
We heard one of the prophetic announcements
in our first reading from Isaiah,
 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
and there is great joy
 at an infant born
through whom God will work out the promise of perpetual peace
with justice and righteousness
 
and here again names appear.
In this case the names or titles are descriptive
of how this sign of hope will accomplish God’s promised future
 and what that future will look like,
 
 it will be a future of peace,
 brought about through the wisdom of God,
and in the wisdom of God,
 the one to bring that about,
 is a baby.
The enfleshed wisdom of God
 
It’s quite a contrast,
 the royal names and accompanying expectations
even the angelic announcements back in Luke to the shepherds
of “a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
 
 all hung on a newborn human,
 the weakest of creatures
 unable to thrive without the care of others.
These are big names for a little baby,
seemingly unrealistic expectations
for one born without even power according to humans,
 wealth and privilege.
 
And yet, the baby in the manger
will live up to the names given him,
 but he will do so in ways that defy human expectations,
 
 he will be the Prince of Peace,
 the Messiah
Emmanuel- God with us
in the same way he started life,
from a place of human weakness,
rather than human strength,
 
 because that’s how God chooses to work in the world,
through the weak and the unexpected,
 through the underrated and overlooked,
 through us.
 
All of us carry several names or titles,
some represent the collective stories of our lives,
 some are more descriptive or name what people expect from us,
 
 some are seemingly unrealistic
 and others we maybe don’t care for so much,
and these names may change over time
 as more stories are added to our collection
 
 but there is one name we have been given
 that will never change,
we have been named Child of God.
 
God identifies us as God’s own beloved,
and nothing we say or do,
no mistakes we make
 will change that,
 
God has named us
 and that makes us part of God’s story,
the story where weakness is wisdom
 and compassion is salvific,
 the story where nothing can separate us from the love of God,
 
 it’s a story with many names
ours included,
each with their own stories,
all connecting back to the greatest story,
of a baby born in a manger long ago. Amen

4th Sunday of Advent
Micah 5:2-5
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who works through us. Amen
 
We’re almost there,
 we’ve lit all the blue candles on our wreath,
plans and preparations for the Christmas festival
 are finished or nearing completion
 and we’re ready for it all to get here,
 
but before we jump to the baby in the manger,
 angel choruses and shepherds watching their flocks by night,
we spend some time with Mary,
the one who partners with God
to make this wild scheme a reality.
 
God, creator of the universe,
is still active and involved
 in the working of the world,
 
 but since creation
God has taken a more hands off approach,
 choosing to work with partners,
 people in the world,
to bring about God’s agenda for creation
 
and God has a habit of choosing to work with
 the people whose high school yearbook
 superlative would start ‘least likely to’
 
God chooses to work with those other humans overlook,
 underestimate, or write off as not good enough by human standards
 
 Abraham and Sarah,
 well past childbearing years
 are the parents of a nation,
 
 Joseph the youngest brother
 so annoying that his older brothers
 literally threw him in a pit
 and sold him into slavery
 saves the nation from starvation,
 Moses, the exile
who had a stutter and very low self-esteem
led the Israelites out of Egypt,
 
 Jonah the prophet
who kept running the other direction
 and only followed God’s directions
after spending a few days thinking about it
 while sitting in the belly of a giant fish
 and the list could go on.
 
So it really shouldn’t surprise us
that for the grandest plan of all
God chooses the least likely person
to help bring it about,
 
a young unmarried Jewish girl
 living under Roman occupation
in one of the smaller towns
out in the countryside.
 
One who definitely meets
 the qualifications for
 ‘least likely to work with God to save the world.’
 And yet that’s what God proposes
and Mary accepts.
 
Luke tells us that an angel, a messenger,
is sent by God to Mary,
the angel starts off “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you”
 a greeting that we are told perplexes Mary,
 
 she’s wondering just what is going
 on when the angel goes on to tell her the plan,
 she’ll get pregnant and bear a son
who will be called Jesus,
who will take the throne of his ancestor David,
 and of his kingdom there will be no end.   
 
And taking this all in Mary asks a practical question: how?
 How can this happen?
the angel responds,
it will be the work of the Holy Spirit,
 so that your child will be holy.
And then the angel throws in this extra bit of information,
your relative Elizabeth who was said to be barren is now expecting a child,
 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
 
And considering all this,
 Mary consents,
she says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.”
and with this the plan is set in motion
 
 and the first thing Mary does
is go to visit Elizabeth,
the one person who has a chance of knowing what Mary is going through
 
and when Mary walks through the door Elizabeth cries out
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
 
Elizabeth offers affirmation to Mary,
 she sees the value and the blessing
of what Mary has agreed to do on behalf of God,
as crazy as it is
and only then does Mary break into song praising God
 
for every Mary out there,
there is an Elizabeth,
one who God works through
 to offer encouragement
 to keep doing the difficult things God has called for
 because even, or especially if,
it’s a mission from God
 it’s going to be difficult
and we will need all the help and affirmation we can get.
 
In life sometimes we are Mary
 and sometimes we are Elizabeth
and both are critically important roles for working with God.
 
I know when I was figuring out whether God was calling me to be a pastor or not
it was the outside voices, the Elizabeths in my life
that pushed me over the edge,
 
sure I felt that being a pastor was something God was calling me to be,
 but when I thought about it a lot
especially at night trying to fall asleep
 it sounded kind of crazy to me
 
until other people without me bringing up the topic
affirmed that they thought God was calling me to be a pastor too,
their words showed me that it wasn’t a crazy idea just in my head,
and their encouragement gave me the courage
 I needed to embrace what God was asking me to do.
 
Talk to most pastors about their call story
 or anyone who feels called by God
 and somewhere in there,
there will be an Elizabeth.
 
 And actually our denomination
takes so seriously the role of outside affirmation
that people who have prepared to become pastors
are not ordained until a church has called them,
has offered that outside affirmation.
 
I am a pastor today
 because you all looked at my paperwork
and heard me preach
and said yes we can see her as a pastor,
as our pastor.
 
God works not just through individuals
but through the community as well,
 and that means as a community
we have responsibility both to listen to what God is asking of us,
 and to what God is asking of others,
 
and if we see God at work in someone else
we need to affirm them,
 be Elizabeth to their Mary,
because the power that affirmation unleashes
 is far greater than we know.
 
Mary said yes to God’s scheme,
 it’s hard not to when confronted with a member of the heavenly host
who says nice things about you
 like ‘you’re favored by God’
 but we don’t hear her celebrate
 until after Elizabeth has affirmed her.
 
 Only then does she break into song
singing “my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior...for the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
 
and then she goes on to explain what God is doing through her
--her the least likely to work with God--
by acting through her
 God has scattered the proud,
he has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
 
God has filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty,
God has turned the world upside down,
 all to fulfill a promise God made to Israel a long time ago,
because God is merciful
and God keeps God’s promises
 
 and God keeps God’s promises
by working through the community.
 
before we jump to the baby in the manger,
angel choruses and shepherds watching their flocks by night,
Mary calls us to consider how God is keeping promises through us,
 
 Elizabeth calls us to affirm God’s work in others,
 and together with Mary
our hearts shall sing of the day God brings,
through God’s justice
 the dawn draws near
 and the world is about to turn. Amen
 

Second Sunday of Advent
Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who sends a messenger to prepare the way. Amen
 
Growing up my parents liked to take my brother and I hiking,
 usually in the Columbia River Gorge or up at Mt. Hood,
 more often than not these hikes were to a waterfall
and they always involved a change in elevation,
usually up on the way into the forest
and down on the way back to the car.
 
 Sometimes my brother and I did not share our parents’
overwhelming (it seemed) enthusiasm for hiking
and had to be cajoled along with these trails
 with something other than the promise of seeing a beautiful waterfall,
chocolate usually worked
or the promise of the rare treat of a soda when we got back to the car,
 
and many times my parents had done these hikes before
 so they had a good gage of when to leverage this external motivation
 so that we could all have a mostly pleasant time together in the beauty of nature.
 
But sometimes we tried new trails,
and then they had to make educated guesses
 on how the hike would go
and sometimes they guessed wrong.
 
One hike in particular goes down in family memory,
 Dad had heard about this great waterfall
 that we just had to go see
 so we decided to try the trail,
 
after what seemed like a long time of hiking
 we began to wonder just how much farther it was to the falls,
 Dad insisted they were “just around the next corner”
 
 several corners later we asked again
and again Dad insisted it was “just around the next corner”
 
 and again several corners with no waterfalls later
we inquired again and again Dad insisted it was “just around the next corner”
 
I think it was at this point we began to wonder out loud
about the possibility of turning around
 without seeing these waterfalls
 because we were clearly misinformed about the length of the hike
 
 but Dad insisted that we’d come this far
and that- you guessed it- they were just around the next corner.
 I don’t know how many corners later we did eventually reach the falls,
and they were nice enough as far as waterfalls go
 but it was definitely a longer hike than we were anticipating,
 and we’ve never let dad forget about his repeated insistence
 that the waterfalls were just around the next corner.
 
Sometimes,
waiting for Jesus can feel like that hike,
 the way includes many curves
and it starts to feel like the wait is far longer than we anticipated,
 
on our own it is all too easy to give up before the end,
shrug our shoulders and say
I’m sure it’ll be great
 but I’m turning around and getting on with my life,
 
which is why we need people
 to encourage us along the way,
people who insist with vigor
 that it really is just around the next corner
and that we should keep going,
 
in the Bible, these people are called prophets,
in the wait for Jesus this person is called John the Baptist.
 
Luke tells us in our gospel for today
 that in a particular time and place
“God came to John son of Zechariah”
 
Luke emphasizes the particular time and place
all those names at the beginning of the gospel
 for a couple of reasons,
 
Luke approaches his gospel as a historian,
 he’s investigated everything
and sets out to write an orderly account,
 
and listing the names of the rulers and the high priests
locates this story in historical time,
 sometimes it can feel like the story of Jesus
 is a bit of a fairy tale,
out of time,
 
no Luke says,
this happened at a particular time and place,
 a time and place a long time after God’s promise to David
that there would always be a descendant of his on the throne,
 
in that time many people had given up on waiting,
 they’d given up hope of seeing the waterfall
and turned back down the trail
and gotten on with their lives
being ruled by the Babylonians, and Persians and finally the Romans
 
the people needed some encouragement,
and that came in the form of John the Baptist,
 whose miraculous beginnings
 parallel Jesus’
 
an angel announces his birth and his name,
his father has some doubts
and because of those doubts is rendered mute
for the length of his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy
and is only able to speak when he confirms John’s name,
 
 and in response to the loosening of his tongue
 Zechariah sings a song of praise,
the song we had as our psalm for today,
praising God who has acted in the past on behalf of the people of Israel
and who will act again,
 through his son who is the one to prepare the way
by “giving people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins”
 
and then we are told that John “the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
 
Repent-
 literally to turn around,
 ‘hey,’ John calls to the people,
‘the messiah is just around the next corner,
turn back to God,
you’re going to want to see this.’
 
And people flock to John
 and mark their repentance
 by being baptized,
a bath signifying a fresh start
and all this happens in the wilderness.
 
Why the wilderness?
 We think of the wilderness as a place of scarcity,
 and it is,
 but it also is consistently a place where God is at work,
a place of safety and divine provision.
 
 God brought the people out of slavery in Egypt to the wilderness,
 where God provided food and instruction
 on how to live in freedom,
 
 many prophets escaped to the desert
when their message from God
caused rulers to seek their lives,
 
 the wilderness,
harsh though it may be
is where God provides us with what we need,
 even if we can’t see around the next corner,
or it feels like we’ve been walking up hill forever,
 or over boulders constantly twisting our ankles.
 
 God, through John
promises salvation-
and what that will feel like
 is the hills and valleys being leveled,
 and the path made straight
 so we can see where we’re going,
 and it’ll be smooth too,
no twisted ankles.
 
In the wilderness John prepares the people for the salvation of God,
Jesus, who comes and teaches a simple way of life-
 love of God and love of neighbor-
who lives out that way of life all the way to the cross,
for the love of us,
for our salvation,
 to give us life everlasting.
 
Jesus came,
in a particular time and place,
 but what he did stretches beyond that time and place
and now We are waiting again,
 for Jesus to come again
 
and once again the wait has become long
and the promise of around the next corner seems laughable,
 
sometimes during this wait we end up in the wilderness
going up endless hills
or around corner after corner
 
and yet in Advent each year
 John calls out to us to repent,
to turn back to the path toward God,
 
 and Zechariah sings of how God has acted
 and God will act again
 
and in his letter to the Philippians
Paul adds his two cents “I am confident of this, the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ...and this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best”
 
The messengers of God preparing the way
Pointing to Christ,
 and the wait becomes easier to bear,
 for we have seen the salvation of God. Amen
 

First Sunday of Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Advent 1
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who keeps all promises. Amen
 
Welcome to Advent
 and the beginning of the new church year,
this year we’ll be spending time with Luke
 and his gospel account of Jesus’ life,
and as always we begin
 by anticipating the coming of Jesus,
 
and not just in the sense of waiting for the baby in the manger
but for Christ to return as he promised he would,
a return we confess each time we say the apostle’s creed,
 “he will come to judge the living and the dead”
 
His coming will bring about a time of peace
such as the world has never known
 and that sounds like a very good thing,
 especially when we look around us
 we are moved to pray
come Lord Jesus,
 
come so that we no longer have to live in a world
 where children starve to death because of war in Yemen,
 come Lord Jesus,
come so that people will no longer have to flee their homes seeking safety,
 
come Lord Jesus,
 come so that if people decide to travel to a new land,
when they arrive they will be met with open arms,
 come Lord Jesus,
 come so that plants and animals, sea and sky are healthy and cared for,
 
 come Lord Jesus,
come quickly
 
God has promised to return,
 and God keeps God’s promises.
 
But God keeps God’s promises
on God’s time, not ours.
 
We heard God speaking of promise
through the prophet Jeremiah
in our first reading,
 
 the prophet recalls the promise God made
 to King David that there would always be a descendant of his
as ruler of Israel,
 
listen to God’s words of promise from 2 Samuel 7:14-15a
“I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him”
 
God chooses David to be in special relationship with God
But of course there will be consequences
for those kings who fail to trust God
and lead the people astray,
 and there are plenty of examples of that in the history of Israel,
 
but God also promises
that even though there may be times of suffering
God loves the people
and will provide once again
 a good and faithful leader from the house of David,
 
a branch will spring up from what seems like a dead stump
and life will grow once more.
 
And we believe that God kept God’s promise, in Jesus,
descendant of David.
 
And while hundreds of years passed between the words of Jeremiah
 and the arrival of Jesus.
 God kept God’s promise.
 
 on God’s time, not ours.
 
And so we wait
trusting in God,
 
Much of faith it seems,
 is about waiting.
 Advent.
We begin our year with waiting.
 
Jesus in our gospel for today
 is teaching the disciples about waiting,
he describes the prophesies of the prophets fulfilled,
 and frankly they don’t sound pleasant,
 signs in the sun, distress among nations,
 the powers of the heavens shaken,
heaven and earth will pass away,
nothing is permanent,
 
except Jesus’ words,
his promise.
 
“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away” Jesus says,
and we cling to these words,
 in the midst of the chaos that surrounds us,
 chaos that wears us down,
 political scandal after scandal,
report after report on climate change,
news of the next hurricane, forest fire, earthquake,
all highlighting the impermanence of this life,
constantly reminding us
that in this world nothing lasts forever
except death.
 
In this we are to wait,
 Waiting is difficult,
 and Jesus doesn’t pretend that it isn’t.
 
“be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life”  Jesus says,
 and It seems an impossible task,
to be alert at all times praying,
 
the disciples certainly struggled with this
 in the garden of Gethsemane,
constantly falling asleep
while Jesus talked with his Father
before going to the cross.
 
And it was on the cross
 that Jesus died for those sleepy disciples,
 who constantly failed to follow Jesus’ teachings,
because ultimately
 whether we are alert and prepared
or have fallen asleep with exhaustion
God is going to follow through on God’s promises.
 
We know that we get distracted,
weighed down, fall asleep even.
 So we begin each year
with a call to wake up,
 to return to active waiting,
to attend to the promises of God
and renew our hope in the words that will not pass away
 
and what are those words?
The Word of God promises
 that after death comes resurrection,
 the promise that Jesus kept in his life, death and resurrection
 that means there is life on the other side of the chaos,
everlasting life.
There is hope.
 
So we wait
We watch
We pray
 
and we have hope
 knowing that God has already acted,
 and in God’s own time,
God will act again
because God keeps God’s promises. Amen

Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20
 
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”
So starts the gospel of John
 
Tonight on this Christmas eve,
 we gather to welcome the light into the world
 in the form of a baby
 born to people and in a place
 that virtually assured this baby would not be noticed.
 
 And yet thousands of years later
here we are,
 because of that baby,
 the light of the world.
 
Christians have long used the imagery of light
to represent God and all that is related to God.
 
 It is no accident that the celebration of Jesus’ entry into the world
falls at the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere
 where Christianity had its beginnings,
 
at this time of year,
when light is absent
we are keenly aware
of just how much life depends on light
and we eagerly await the lengthening of days
because we know that with the passage of time t
he light will come back
 just as we know that the sun will come up each morning.
 
In the same way we as Christians
trust that Jesus the light of the world
will return
no matter how dark or hopeless the world seems,
though we’re not as sure of the timing
we set our hope on the return of the light.
  
Now before we go any farther
we need to pause and remember
that God created the night as well as the day,
 
no one image can fully capture the reality of God,
all images have their failings
 and the failing of this one
 is that if we take it too far
we start to imagine that everything light is good
and everything dark is bad.
 
This is not Star Wars
with a clearly defined light side and dark side
 corresponding to good and evil,
God’s creation is far more complex and beautiful than that.
 
However, it is undeniable
that an absence of light
 provides cover for those who do not wish their actions to be noticed
 because those actions serve only themselves
 rather than the good of God’s whole creation
 
and truth be told
sometimes these actions are made in broad daylight
but those who witness them either think that nothing is wrong
 or they are afraid to tell others for any number of reasons.
 
Jesus the light of the world
promises that in the end,
everything will be revealed.
 
In the gospel of Matthew he tells his disciples
 “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” (10:26)
 
We are in a time where things are being uncovered
and the light is spreading,
 revealing that which has been hidden or protected by fear.
 
This is not always comfortable,
 if we are used to being in the dark
 and the light switch is flipped on suddenly
 and we are unprepared
it hurts our eyes
 but only for a moment
 
once they adjust
we can see things much clearer than before
and that momentary pain is worth the clarity the light brings.
 
God knew that it might be too much to handle
 if everything was revealed all at once
 so God started with a small spark of light.
 
 It only takes a small spark
to turn into a flame
that has the power to reveal the way through a darkened room,
or as we’ll find later illumine words on a page,
 
 if nurtured and fed
 that flame will create more and more light
finding its way to places where light has long been absent,
 revealing what has long been hidden
 bringing warmth and life.
 
The small spark that began to reveal God
 is the baby in the manger we celebrate tonight,
 noticed at first only by his parents
and then some awestruck shepherds
who had angelic help to point the way.
 
But that light grew,
nurtured by his parents and community
until the time came to start spreading the light,
and even then it spread slowly,
first to fishermen and others to whom the world paid little attention
and then to more and more people,
often the ones without worldly power,
but worldly power is unnecessary for spreading the light.
 
 The miracle of this night
so many years later
is that through Jesus
we have become carriers of the light of God
 
 in baptism the light is shared with us
and we are then called to share the light with others
 much in the same way
that we will pass the light down the pews later
(tilting the unlit candle)
it only takes a moment to share the light.
 
And if you think that you are insignificant,
 that no one pays much attention to you,
remember, that’s how this all started,
in the most insignificant way possible.
 
So on this dark night
 hear again the words of Jesus to his disciples
“You are the light of the world. A city build on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:15-16)
 
Because of the baby born this night
You are the light of the world,
within you lies the power to reveal what has long been hidden,
 to bring warmth and life to those around you
and in your own way
add to the return of light to this weary world.
 
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness did not overcome it. Amen