Rest Assured:People as Partners

 January 25 2026

Genesis 1:26-27,Mark 10:43-45

         One of the interesting aspects of I find about being a Dad is watching my kids be involved in activities that I never had any interest in. In High School, they were busy with Orchestra and Band, two things that I never had any interest in. Yet, I still enjoyed watching them perform at concerts and football games. As they have gotten older, they now all help out with The Little Theater, which again, is an activity that is totally foreign to me. Nonetheless, for Sarah loves to sing and perform on stage, and she has since gotten Matt involved with the building of the sets and lighting for different performances. And then she also pulled in Elizabeth to help with feeding the casts during their practices. So needless to say, I now know more about theater and acting than I would have ever thought possible which is really surprising.

         Now, by going to all of the various shows that my daughter has been involved with, I have at least become aware of how the scenes in a play are set up to get the maximum dramatic effect. Perhaps this is why as I have read through the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, I have begun to sense that God too has a flair for the dramatic.In this account of how God made us, I imagine that there in the beginning, it is like we are sitting before a dark stage, where nothing can be seen and the only sound is that of fluttering wings. Then, suddenly, a voice shouts, “Light”, and suddenly, there on the dark stage appears a solitary light. Then we watch as invisible hands move onto the stage the various set-pieces. First, comes the rhythm of the light of day being separated from the night. Then the heavens are separated out, pressed upward while the waters are pushed back to reveal the earth. Quietly, there is a stirring as seeds set forth shoots, shoots giving way to stalks and the stage is quickly overrun with plants and trees of every sort and kind. Then there is a pause and as we watch we become aware that these first set pieces are homes for what God is going to create.The heavens become the residence for the sun, moon and stars. The waters are now known as the seas which swarm with all aquatic life; the skies are covered with flocks of birds. Then the earth is filled with all manner of animals, and beasts and livestock in a breath-taking array. As utterly incredible all of this is, what is more astounding is that this paradise is merely the setting for what is about to happen next for at last the voice which has exclaimed that all that has been created is indeed, “Good”, now announces that time has at at last come for God’s crowning achievement. Just as all of creation has brought forth its own kind, now God calls forth one after his own kind, in his image and substance.Can you feel the excitement as this critical moment is at last upon us? 

         Well, we need to have a proper understanding of just what a big deal we all are to God in order for us to be able to be able to rest in this world. In this season called Epiphany, we are looking at what Jesus reveals to us which is that he is been given to us by our Heavenly Father in order that we might receive from him this gift of rest. In the eleventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are to take his yoke upon ourselves, and allow Jesus to lead us and teach us, how we might have rest for our souls. When we take that yoke upon ourselves we discover that where Jesus is leading us is back to the beginning because on the seventh day of the creation story found in Genesis, we are told that God rested. As God is resting, so too we are also to rest.The key for us to be able to rest, then, is to discover in the first six days of creation the reason why we can say that God has indeed created an unshakeable kingdom for us to live in.

         Last week, we learned that the way that we can face an uncertain future is not to be superstitious but instead we are to pray to God knowing that he has created a world that will meet all of our needs. As the twenty-third Psalm tells us, if the Lord is our shepherd then we shall not want. So we pray knowing that God is well aware of our needs now just as he was aware of what is necessary for us to have life when he first created the world. Instead of fussing over the future, we instead can bear fruit that will change the future when we let ourselves be a life which brings forth more life, for life is indeed good fruit. You see, the order that God set up, there in the beginning, always ends with the life God creates being able to create more life, and God’s creation is able to sustain this ever increasing river of life. Just as God alone can create a world out of nothing he also can give and sustain life in ever increasing measure.We can rest assured that this is the truth we can be certain about.

         At last then, we come to the moment we have all been waiting for, drumroll please, the creation of humanity. God says, “Let us bring forth mankind” which in the Hebrew is Adam, which signifies, red and earth. This definition reminds us that we all come out of the soil with red blood within us. This moment when humanity is created, though, does not happen by God merely speaking a word, as he has done many times before. No, God first announces his purpose for this, his last and highest creation. God says, “Let us make Adam in our image and likeness.” Now, those who first listened to this creation story would have been shocked when they heard this statement for in the ancient world, it was only the kings who were said to be created in the image of whatever god they represented. So imagine the surprise when God says that all people have been created to represent him so that wherever people might be found, there the rule or kingdom of God could be said to exist. Instead of the other creation stories told throughout the world where it was believed that the gods ruled through the few, we find instead, that the one, true, living God has a kingdom which is to be ruled by all people. You see, in the other creation stories people told back then, humanity had been created to serve the kings as slaves. This is the very origins of the belief in the necessity of a class system where some fortunate people get to rule and the rest of the grunts get to work. Yet, surprisingly God has a very different approach, one where all people have dignity and respect for all are equally created. The foundation for God’s call that all people be treated with equity and righteousness is right here in the beginning. This is why Paul could say, in the seventeenth chapter of Acts, that our God has, “…made from one person every nation of mankind to live upon the face of the earth…”. And also why Paul could also say at the end of the third chapter of Galatians that there is neither, “…Jew nor Greek, there is slave nor free there is no male nor female for all are one in Christ Jesus…”. You see, when Jesus calls for righteousness he is merely taking us back to the beginning where we were created to live a life where all are equals.

         So the reason that no one can consider themselves to be greater than anyone else is that we all can say God has created each one of us and has he has given each person the very same purpose. It is us humans who have this great distinction of being the ones who have been created to be the image of God throughout his creation. So wherever people might be found, there is where the kingdom of God can be said to be located. Yet, even as great as this is for all of us, there is still more to our story for we have also been told that we are created in the likeness of God. Now, I have long been curious about just why this term has been added here because as most commentators will tell you, the idea of likeness is very similar to image. A clue to figuring out what it means for us to bear the likeness of God is found, strangely enough right at the beginning of this creation story, where we are told that creation was without form, and it was empty. Here again, we seem to find an unnecessary duplication until it dawns on you that the answer to why there is this form and what is meant to fill that form will be found at at some point in the creation story. So, at last we come to the part of our story where we hear about an image, the outward form of God which is to be what people are to be conformed to.  This image, then is filled with what can be considered the likeness of God, as in, just what is God’s inner quality? Just what sort of king or queen are we supposed to be, in other words? How we understand the rule of of God, is I believe, one of the essential pieces that gets missed here in the creation story.

You see, not even the people of God who had told and retold this creation story for thousands of years seemed to understand just what it meant to be like God in the way they that they ruled others.  The disciples, those who had read the creation story countless times, thought that by hanging around with Jesus, the Messiah, they were on the fast track to living the high life, sitting on the throne on either side of Jesus, I mean, what could be better than that? When Jesus heard his students squabbling over who was the greatest of among them he realized they did not know just who their God was, and therefore, they did not know what it meant for them to be created in his likeness. Sure, every nation rules from the top down through the fear of the sword yet they only do so because they believe in a false version of the way the world was created. For those who believe in the one, true, living God though, we find that we were created for greatness which is found through our willingness to serve all people. Can you imagine the look on the disciples face when they heard Jesus tell them that if they want to win first prize then they had to be willing to serve even those found way down there at the end of the line. You see, God created those who bear his likeness to serve others by fulfilling the needs that our neighbor might have. God simply did not create us so we could be king of the hill we are living on. No, to be created in the the likeness of God means that we are to be like Jesus. What Jesus tells us is that he came from his Father’s throne, and he entered into our human story and he did so as a servant. I mean, didn’t you hear Jesus clearly say that as the Son of Man he came from the throne of God to serve his brothers and sisters by giving his very life as a ransom for many? This is what it means to have a life shaped in the image of God, one that represents God as king, whose reign is found by serving others through the offering of life to all. This idea is confirmed for us by Paul who wrote in the second chapter of Philippians that we are to, “…have this same mind among us as Jesus had who even though he originally had the same form of God he did not try and make himself equal with God, but he instead he became nothing. He took the form of a servant when he came in the likeness of humanity. He humbled himself and was obedient even unto death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Jesus. God has bestowed upon him, the name that is above every other name so that at the name of Jesus every knew will bow in heaven, on the earth and under the earth.” You see, when Jesus took on flesh, he became for us the New Adam, so that even though he was king, the very Son of Man, he nonetheless, came as one of us in order to serve all of us. Jesus served us all by dying upon a cross so that we might at last get the picture, the real picture of the God we were created to represent. Now we might all agree that the way God expects us as people to rule and represent him, seems too strange to be accepted. Yet, when Jesus revealed that our God reigns through serving others he was merely stating the truth found there in the beginning. Can we not see that in the first five days of creation that God is there serving as a stage hand setting every thing up, making sure everything is in good, working, order, so that we as human beings might have all we need. What God did not do is place humans in a vast wilderness, hand them a bag of seeds and them tell them go forth and make their own own paradise. No, from the moment of our creation, God has done what God has always done, he comes to us as a servant. We hear this in what Jesus teaches us in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where he says that our Heavenly Father is like a great servant, one who will see to it that we have enough to eat and something to wear, the very basics of life. God serves us in this way in order that we will be set free to seek the kingdom of God. And just what does it mean for us to seek first the kingdom of God? Well, if we return to the beginning when we were first created we will realize that this means our life will be conformed to the image of God, and we will extend his rule by doing so in the likeness of God which means we will serve others. Putting this all together then, our life has all it needs because our God serves us, so that we are set free to go and seek out someone who stands in need of our service.

Here we might remember that when God creates life he does so in the hope that the life he creates will bear fruit, being a life from which springs more life. We as humans, are no different, yet now, because of our role as being God’s representative in his creation, this bearing of fruit goes beyond us bearing children. You see, what it means to bear fruit also means that we serve others through taking this life God gives to us and turn and serve someone else, sharing the life God has given to us with them so that there might be more life than before.This is what Jesus means when he tells us that we are to seek first the kingdom of God for when we do so then all that we need will be given to us. You see, the more we serve others, the more we will become convinced that this must be the very life we were created to live. So when we become more and more convinced that our God created a world for us where we might rule through serving others, then we will discover that we are no longer overly obsessed about our own little life. Instead, we will find that we are filled with wonder at what only our God can do, for his power and ability are just as marvelous now as they were in the beginning.

         So, there is much for us to consider when at last we read of the creation of humanity on the sixth day of creation. What God does in this story is to give us a different way to consider our world and just what exactly is our role within this world. It would be easy for us, wouldn’t it, that when we hear it written that we have been granted dominion over all living things that this means that all living things were created to serve us. Yet, as the disciples found out when they asked Jesus just where they would be seated on the throne, we too are called to consider our dominion differently. To have dominion according to God is to be a servant to all life, and most importantly, to serve the lives of the people that happen upon our way. God emphasizes the glory in which we were created when we are told, not once but three times, God created humanity in his image; in the image of God, God created humanity; male and female persons, God created them all. So when we look at the face of another we are looking at a wonder who stands at the very center of the stage called paradise, one who may not yet know the purpose and dignity that they were created to have. But we are the ones who do know how God created all people so let us live in the way God created us to live, serving all people with dignity just as God first served us.  Amen!

         

         

Rest Assured:Prayer and Providence

 January 18 2026

Genesis 1:3-24, Matthew 6:25-30

         It goes without saying that when the NFL gets closer to the playoff season it becomes more and more like a three ring circus. Nowhere is this truth so obvious than the last game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. It was all over social media that before the game, a Catholic priest blessed the Steelers end zone by sprinkling holy water over it. Many now believe that this is the reason that this the Ravens missed the field goal in the last few seconds of the game sealing the win for Pittsburgh. That in turn most likely cost the coach, John Harbaugh, his job as well. Yet, can we really say that this loss can be attributed to the actions of a priest showering the end zone with holy water? To be honest, I would rather the priest had not done what he did not because I wanted the Ravens to win, but rather I don’t like the church to be seen dabbling in what seems to be superstition. Superstition is this belief that with the right words, or the correct actions, we can perhaps change the future such as altering the course of a game so that it ends in our favor. You see, what most people, and quite a lot of Christians apparently, do not realize, is that right from the beginning of creation, God ruled out the possibility of their being any hint of their being any means to change a person’s future than simply trusting that future to God.

         When we read the account of God creating the world, as we are doing in this series of messages, we should come away with being in awe of the power of God to take an unknown future and bring forth a beautiful present. We are looking at our beginnings found in the book of Genesis because on the seventh day we hear of God resting, as he surveys all that he has brought forth, a creation he exclaims is, ‘Very good!”. You see, as God rests and enjoys this beautiful place we call home, so too he calls us to join him in resting and enjoying life. This is the very rest that Jesus desires to give to all of us as we hear in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, where he says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus invites us to take his yoke and place it upon ourselves so that we might go where he goes, back to where we originally rested with God. 

         When we listen to the story of our creation we begin to realize that the story is more than a mere telling of why our world is here for as we go through this account we are given the very means by which we might obtain the rest promised to us. Right there, in the very first words God speaks we discover that God uses unformed nothingness and empty space as his canvas on which to paint his artwork. As his power summons forth creation we find that this power also summons forth faith within us. And then we also hear of how God hovers over us, protecting his creation from the chaos, and we realize that he has never stopped protecting us from harm, for this is how he shows his love for us. Suddenly, a word is spoken, a shout is hurled into the void and suddenly there is light. Here I am indebted to the author, Rachel Booth Smith, who wrote the book, “Rest Assured”, which is the inspiration for these messages. She points out that God uses, common, ordinary, everyday words when he calls forth creation. The reason for this, she claims, is that God intentionally does not use special words or incantations that only a chosen few might learn and possibly use, as is common among those who worship false gods. No, God simply says the word, “Light”, and there is light. You see, there is no power in the words themselves, as superstitious people hope they might be able to learn in order to give them an edge. No, there is only one source of real power in the world and that source is God. Oh, people may put some stock in their unwashed football jersey being the very reason why their team had a winning season, just like some might believe that Pittsburgh Steelers made it to the playoffs because of the workings of a Catholic priest, but the story of creation paints a different picture. Only as God speaks do we become aware of who has the real power.

         Now the thought that God alone having all the power in the universe may initially be a cause for panic by us, for we might have doubts as to how God will use his power. People often joke that when others say or do something wrong that they had better watch out or they just might get zapped by lightning because we got on the wrong side of God. When I hear these kinds of thoughts I think that it is too bad that people do not know this creation story. All one needs to do is listen again to God speak, for as he brings forth the different elements of this world, God declares that it is indeed, “Good”. This is telling us that God, so unlike us, is a God of integrity. You see, God is good, and therefore, what God speaks is also only always, good. So when we say that God is good, we are not just saying that God can do good, but rather we are saying that all God can do is good because he is a good God. This is important for us to understand because when we later come to know God as love we are saying that our God loves us for this is all that our God can do. So as we begin our story, we do so knowing that creation is good because it has been brought forth from a good God who is only able to bring forth a creation which is good.

         What we also learn about our good God is that his words are used to not only to create, but his words bring forth order. God speaks and Heaven is separated from Earth. God speaks and the waters subsides  and dry earth rises up. God also speaks forth the names for all that he brought forth, for a name speaks to the purpose for whatever it is that God has created. Earth is called earth because it is dry land. The Seas are the waters God gathered together. So as we read this account, we begin to see a picture of the good order of God’s creation, each piece fashioned and crafted to fulfill the role given to them by its name. It is good for us to read of this moment of perfection found here at he beginning because it tells us that we are on the right track when we sense that our world is terribly, out of order. This story of creation is supposed to create in us a tension between this glorious ideal we read of and the world we currently find ourselves in. Yet, because we also know that all power is held by God, then we also know that the answer to setting things right can never happen through some magic spell or through a sprinkling of holy water. This is what Jesus speaks about in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where he tells us, “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the people of the nations do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not pray like this. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him.’ You see, what Jesus is saying to us is that we do not have to need any special words in order for us to be on the good side of God for we know from his creation that all God has is a good side. This goodness is witnessed in God’s creation because God has created all that we could possibly need. This is so evident right here at the beginning, even before humanity was ever spoken into life.

         So, we are to have the assurance that this is a world where God thought of everything that we might need. God has created a home for us that is missing nothing, it is lovely and beautiful, generous and predictable.When we find in this first ten verses of this first chapter of Genesis is that God first, has made homes for the various inhabitants to dwell in. So, where God calls into existence the light named Day and the darkness he called Night, we then find that in the fourteenth through the nineteenth verses that this is where the sun, moon and the stars make their home. Then when God creates the Earth and the Seas we find in the twentieth verse, that this is the home where swarms of living creatures will cover the earth, where birds will spread through the skies and where fish will swim in the waters. You see, this order is to be witnessed by us so that we understand that just like them, we too belong here. Listen to Jesus again, from the sixth chapter of Matthew, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of greater value than the birds?….Consider the flowers of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin yet I tell you, not Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. So if God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not clothe you…?” You see, Jesus is here taking us back to the beginning, to where the care and order of God is so evident. The goodness of God is seen in his knowing the needs of every created being and then supplying exactly what is necessary for them to have life. 

         So what the story of creation speaks to us about is that we are to know that our God is a God who not only speaks life into being but he is also a God who knows all of these living creations and what they need today for life. You see, the story tells us that God did not simply call into being living creatures without knowing what they would need before hand. The key evidence of God’s overflowing abundance found in his creation is found when his creations begin to  bring forth of fruit. In the twelfth verse of this first chapter we read, “The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to their kind.”  We also see God surveying the living creatures filling both Earth and Sky, and not only calling them, “Good”, but we hear God speak a new word, a word called blessing. Verse twenty-two tells us that God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the birds multiply upon the earth.’ You see, these environments God spoke into being not only supplied all the need for those creatures God called into being but God created so much abundance that the beings God called into life were themselves, able to bring forth even more life. So this creation has been made so that regardless of the infinite number of beings being brought to life, God’s goodness is able to provide for all of them.

         So, the creation that we live in does indeed have an order and a structure that is good for the God who has brought it forth is good. We have a God who speaks and where nothing once was there is suddenly something in its place. This God speaks again, and his words take and organize what he has created by separating and dividing each element. God speaks again and  all that he had made now has a name so that all that God created might be known according to the purpose God has for it. Yet, God is not done speaking for he speaks once more, and his blessing is placed upon the life forms he created, causing the life found in his created world to have more life spring forth from them. So at last, we find that God’s creation overflows with life. And God surveys all that he has made, and he declares that it is good. 

         So, this is the way God has ordered our world, a world in which there is a home for us, a place where we might be at rest. When we consider what God has called forth into being, we can begin to understand that God has designed our world to have life and to have life, abundantly. The order of God is seen to be that he creates a world where life is brought forth with the final hope being that this life would bear fruit; life springing forth from life. So what we find in our creation story is that the world we live in with all of its our anxiety and worry, does not have to be like this. You see, the reason why we can trust God for all of our needs is found in the end goal God has for all of life which is that there will be fruit. I mean, think about it; If God has created life to bear fruit, and if God has created the right environment for this to happen, then it just makes sense that God, through his creation is going to be able to supply not just what we might need but God will also supply whatever fruit our life might bring forth. No mater the infinite amount of life that may result, God promises that all will live, all will be blest, for all is good.

         So when we live in this world which seems to be out of order, we need to recall just what it means for our world to at last be in good, working, order.We live every day in this tension between knowing that the world is broken and knowing that God desires a world that is at last restored and ordered once more. Paul puts our dilemma like this in the eighth chapter of Romans, “The whole creation has been groaning  together in childbirth until now.” As Paul further tells us, creation is waiting in hope to be set free from its bondage of corruption, this brokenness that seems so evident. This is the stark reality we are aware of when we utter our prayers to God, for as Paul concludes, that just as the whole creation is groaning we too are to groan in prayer. Just as all of creation is longing to be free from the brokenness and have the original goodness at last be the norm, we too long for the original good order we see portrayed in our creation story to be the world we live in.

         As we have seen, the original order that we witness in the beginning, has life springing forth at God’s command, and this life, in turn, bears fruit, bringing forth life just as our good God first brought life into being. Now while we may not have a magic spell, or some superstitious ritual we can utter in order to bring this broken world back to its original glory, what we can do is to consider the brokenness of our world, our life and those we share life with. As we come to pray, we must keep in mind the order we see in the beginning, and then consider that as all life has as its ultimate goal to bring forth fruit, just what fruit am I bringing forth? Is the fruit of my life, good, as all fruit was, there in the beginning?I guess it should come as no surprise that at the end of his teaching on prayer, Jesus speaks to us about bearing fruit. In the fifteenth through the twentieth verses of the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus , tells us, “Every healthy, well-ordered tree, bears good fruit, but if the tree is diseased, it will bear rotten fruit.” We can figure out from the good we find in the creation story, that good fruit is fruit that has life so that by this fruit more life might be seen. So Jesus is telling us that we should have a life which is a life-giving life, the kind of life where more life is seen to flow out of this life God has give to us. When we understand that this is what it means to bear fruit then it is not much of a leap, to understand that being fruitful for us is very much the same as being merciful, for both entail us having a life that longs to bring forth more life. As a good God first brought forth a world full of the fruit called life, so too in order to be ordered in this good way, we must be willing to bear the good fruit of life. When we do this, I believe that we will once again begin to sense the hope to which God first created this world for we will have a life that has been not only created by God but we also have a life organized by God, and a life named by God as being, good, and very good!Yet, the speaking of the blessing of God over our life only happens as we are willing go forth to bear good fruit. You see, only as we bear good fruit, will we know we have a life that is ordered by God. Only by living out this order will we at last be able to trust the God who has called this order into being and at last, we will find rest in this world! To God be the glory. Amen!

             

Rest Assured: Of Puzzles and Pictures

 January 11 2026

Genesis 1:1-2, John 1:1-5

         These early cold days of the new year causes me to remember when the winter days got to cold for us kids to play outside, my Mom would often get us to help her put together jig saw puzzles. You learned quick to find the corners but sometimes, like when the puzzle was round, you had to make sense of these pieces in other ways. You had to look at the picture on the box and begin to sort the pieces by their color. As I think about putting puzzles together, you know, without the picture on the front of the puzzle box, the task of putting the puzzle together would be almost impossible.Sure, you might be able to find the corner pieces but to figure out the the picture hidden there among the mess would be prove to be extremely difficult.

         In much the same way as putting a jig saw puzzle together, to figure out this life we find ourselves in requires a picture which can assist us to put the pieces together. In this series of messages called, “Rest Assured”, we are discovering just what Jesus reveals to us, which is that he has been given to us so that we might experience a life marked by rest. This is the promise Jesus gives to us in Matthew eleven, verse twenty-eight, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me , for I am gentle and lowly in your heart and you will find rest for your soul, your very life.” Jesus teaches us that when we unite ourselves with him then we will discover just what picture is there on the outside of this box called life. We at last can rest when we know just what life is supposed to look like and perhaps more importantly, we can also know where we fit in this picture Jesus lays out for us. You see, what it means for us to be yoked with Jesus is that we are bound to him so that where he leads, we will feel strangely compelled to follow. So as Jesus walks on those ancient paths which lead to our rest, we do not need to know the way for Jesus will be for us the very way we can get to this promised rest. As we follow Jesus, then our life becomes a moment by moment trusting upon the leading of Jesus. Jesus is for us then, not just the way that leads us to our promised rest, he is in all actuality, our very life because his life has consumed our own as we have allowed him to lead us is into the true picture of our promised rest. When we at last, look upon this picture, we find that it is the very image of Jesus himself. And we also find that we are able to fit into this picture when we become conformed to the contours of the piece of the puzzle called Jesus, for he is our truth about this puzzle of life. You see when Jesus is for us the way, the truth and the life as we find in the fourteenth chapter of John, the result for us is that we are able to rest as we abide with him. 

         Now the truth Jesus is leading us to is the very truth found in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, the story of creation.You see, Jesus is telling us the original back to the future story because where he is leading us to is to a future where the original creation found in the beginning is our ever present home. You see, what Jesus also reveals to us is that he was there right at the beginning when chaos gave way to creation. This was the mind blowing realization of the early church. I mean, listen to Paul, in the eighth chapter of First Corinthians who writes, “…yet for us there is one God, from who are all things, and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.” Paul could further write in the opening verses of Ephesians that our Heavenly Father has chose us in Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world. These amazing statements of faith given to us by Paul, of course come from what Jesus himself has revealed to us. In a prayer Jesus spoke on the night he was betrayed, as found in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus is heard to say, “Father, I desire that they also, all those whom you have given to me, may they be with me where I am, to see my glory, the glory which you gave to me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” So Jesus, by own admission, clearly tells us that he had a front row seat when chaos became creation. Jesus, as John records in the first chapter of his gospel, is indeed the Word made flesh. The Word is the same word John also tells us was there, in the beginning, within God, one with God. 

         So we trust the leading of Jesus because he is as we hear at the beginning of the book of Revelation, “…the Alpha, the beginning of all things and he is the Omega, the end of all things.” When we take what we now know about Jesus, that he existed in the Father’s love before creation and through him the creation came to exist, we can now look at the creation story with new eyes. This story begins with a statement about God; God alone is the one who created everything, the heavens above and all of creation here on earth, so that what is written here in Genesis is an account of what God alone has done. Now it is also important that we remember that this account was originally a story told perhaps around a campfire at the end of the day. It is a story whose telling brought hope to the people of God when God was forced to throw them out of the land promised to them because of their rebellion and idolatry. God told his people that they needed to spend seventy years being slaves to the Babylonians and only then would he bring them back to live in Judaea. This time span is important because after seventy years most of the people who left for Babylon would have died there. What it appears God is doing is raising up a new generation who might at last be the obedient people he expected them to be. So, the task set before the people of God was that they had to instill their faith into their children otherwise there might not be anyone left to live in the land promised to them by God. This was no easy task, either, because they would be raising their children in a hostile environment, one where the story of many different gods could be heard on every street corner. Again, this sounds quite familiar, doesn’t it? You see, the people of Babylon had their own creation stories, yet they were vastly different than the one held to be true by God’s people. God, I believe, understood that this would happen when his people found themselves in exile and he may have even welcomed a side-by-side comparison to these other, so-called gods. You see, in all these other stories, the world always begins as a mess for the gods to clean up and sort out. For the worshippers of false gods, the world has always been a mess, it is currently mess, and it will remain a mess, so just pick a god who you believe will be the best ruler over the mess we find ourselves in. Such a dismal state of affairs would never have been any great source of rest and peace for those who clung to such stories.

         Well, even though the people of the ancient world did not have much to hold fast to in the stories they told about creation, we can, nonetheless understand why they told these stories of their beginnings. You see, in the quiet evenings, there around a fire as they thought about life, the people would think of questions that they struggled to find answers to. As they looked in wonder at this world they lived in, people would quite naturally be curious as to just whose fingerprints were on these marvelous works they witnessed throughout nature? Then they may have thought, if there was one who had made this world, why had he made this world like he did? Why did there seem to be an order to the workings of this place we call home? And then it makes sense that people would ultimately begin to consider, just why they were here, just why had they been given a life here in this place? Then, like many of us may have wondered ourselves, they may also have searched for the answer to the question,  “Does my life have a purpose or is my life just some random event void of any meaning?”.

         The story of Genesis is the story is a narrative which gives us answers to questions such as these. You see, for those who first heard this story, the question of how creation came to be was not even a question they would have thought about. While many people today still try and use the story found in Genesis to explain how our world came to be, this simply is not the focus of this creation story. Perhaps the people who first listened to this creation story held to the wisdom found in the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, where God declares that just as , “..the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts…”. What this is telling us is that there will be many aspects of creation that will be beyond our comprehension and we must simply accept that this is how it must be. Yet even so, what the creation story found in Genesis does do is to answer those nagging questions about this life we have as people here on earth, questions that no scientific endeavor can give us the answers to. Here in Genesis is found the reasons why God created this world we live in and just what purpose we have as people who live within that creation. In other words, the creation story in Genesis gives us a pretty good picture to help us figure out this puzzle called life.

         So, in the beginning, we are told that the earth was without form, and it  was also empty, a scene of absolute nothingness. Here is where creation begins, with the waiting for God to do what only God can do, to make something exist where nothing used to be. What we can know about God right here in the beginning, is that he alone has the ability to create life out of nothing. This is a great comfort for us to realize, because here is the God who can take the nothingness that causes us to be afraid and through his power, the nothingness gives way to something. God calls us to know him as this sort of God so that we trust him even in the face of an unknown future, for what greater unknown future could there be then the one found right here at the beginning. 

         We are told next that the Spirit hovered upon the waters. The image we are to have is that of a bird which is hovering as they build their nest, a place for new life to spring forth from. Now, the people who first listened to this story would have also recognized that the Spirit appearing as a bird hovering over their nest, is the very same image given to them on the night of Passover. The night of Passover is the night when God brought the last plague upon Egypt so that the king who held the people of Israel captive would at last grant them their freedom. This plague was that the angel of death was going to go throughout the land of Egypt and in a single night, take the life of every firstborn child and animal. The only ones who would be spared were those who had painted the doorframe of their homes with the blood of a lamb as God had instructed them. The people of Israel waited in their homes on that terrible evening, prepared to go when the time came for them to be free at last. This is why they ate their roasted lamb and their unleavened bread with their sandals on their feet and their staff in their hands. And as they heard the cries go up from throughout Egypt, the people of Israel who had obeyed God’s instructions found that God had hovered over their homes protecting them from the angel of death which passed over them. On this night the people of Israel discovered that their God is a God who places himself between them and death, the God who can bring life out of a night of death. 

         So here at the beginning of Genesis, we have a similar image of God placing himself between the emptiness and nothingness of chaos and this something of life that he is getting ready to bring forth. What we can know about God, in just these first few verses of our creation story, is that the glory of God is seen as he begins with utter nothingness which we discover is no match for God’s ability to replace that emptiness with the wonder of his creation. So we can rest assured that God indeed can take the nothingness of our empty hands and fill them with the very wonder of his creation. Yet this is not all, for God is also found to be like a bird hovering over what he is bringing forth, covering his creation with his very self so that the chaos cannot damage it.The image may even suggest the truth that all of God’s creation is always covered by the wings of our creator God for we are never told that God has, at some point, stopped watching over that which he has brought about. So, again, what we have come to know about God is that he is a God who covered over his creation with his wings right at the beginning and that he continues to do so which is an amazing comfort for those looking for rest. 

         So, the story of creation begins with the faith that the canvas upon which God works is the vast expanse of nothingness, that which is without any form, totally empty So, the something of life that God is bringing forth has as its cornerstone, the power of God to do what seems so utterly impossible to us. This is the base upon which creation is launched. Then we also learn that God himself covers over us just like a mother bird protecting her young, and this protection is as eternal as God himself. Right here then, the picture of life is seen to be framed with the power of God as its lower edge and the love of God as its top edge. When this is revealed to us by Jesus, then his promise of rest becomes much more believable, doesn’t it?

         At last then, we are ready in our creation story to witness the formation of our universe, and just what does God do in order to bring order out of the void? The amazing answer is that God simply speaks. Into the nothingness where even sounds to not exist, incredibly a voice cries out, “Let there be light”. Then there was, indeed, light where only nothing had been. The power of God to take nothing, the dark emptiness of the chaos that threatens us and create something right there, the light, is all done with a word. A simple word that anyone can speak but when spoken by God, this familiar word suddenly has a strange power to bring forth a new reality. This is the same word that John tells us was there with God, and in God, and all things were brought forth through this word, the very word who took on flesh and has come to live with us. In this word was held life, what John records as being the light for all people. This life, held within that word, this is the light that has come to shine in the darkness, and yes, we are certain that the darkness has not, and will not ever overcome this light, this life of the one we know as Jesus. In this light, the picture we need to solve this puzzle called life can at last be seen. So, let us rest knowing that the God whose power and love were there at our beginnings is the same God, with us today and for all eternity. Praise the Lord! Amen!           

         

Rest Assured: Are You Ready to Rest?

 January 4 2026

Matthew 11:20-30

         Happy New Year! Can you believe that once again we find ourselves facing another brand new year? Well, the good news is that right here, at the beginning of yet another year, the wisdom of the church calendar proves to be very helpful. If you remember back to the beginning of the season of Advent we said that this is when the church has its new year according to the church calendar. What we learn during Advent is God’s plan to give us a hope and a future. This plan, we also discovered, was also tied to God’s plan to give us peace through our willingness to to be at peace with our neighbors. This then, was followed by the joy of God causing us to rejoice no matter what our circumstances. Finally, above all, God longs for us to know the the certainty of his love for all people, a love that binds our life together with the life of God so that we might know God. So there in Advent we waited for these promises God made to us to become at last real to all of us. We longed for the day when our life might at last be filled with hope, that we could find a way to experience a lasting peace, that joy could bubble up within us and love at last would be the very way of life for all people. This day arrived at last, the day we know as Christmas, the day when the baby Jesus was at last born. Here at last was the long awaited king in the line of David who would usher in an era marked by hope in the hearts of all people, a time of lasting peace, an age of abounding joy and steadfast love. This is the truth that Paul understood so well for he writes in the first chapter of Second Corinthians, that Jesus is the, “Yes”, to all of God’s promises. 

         What this means for us as we face this new year is that instead of being filled with dread and despair, we can instead greet this new year with a living hope within us. Instead of expecting a year full of drama and stress, we instead are ready to experience peace as we seek the peace of others. We can also know that this does not have to be a year of chasing after every new thing that we believe will bring us happiness because we now know where a deep and abiding joy can be found. So, yes, this is the year that love is going to rule our life. We can look at this year so differently all because we have been given a gift whose name is Jesus.

         So, we have gone through the season of Advent, which was the four weeks of the church calendar, and then a new season called Christmas began when the birth of Jesus was celebrated. The season of Christmas lasts only twelve days as we might know from singing the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. So, beginning on the seventh of January we enter yet another season which the church calls, “Epiphany”. This is just a fancy name for revelation. If we remember again how we lit candles during Advent what we are to understand is that with the coming of Jesus, the Christ child, a light has come into the world. Now at last we what previously had been hidden from our eyes because of this worlds darkness is at last revealed to us in the light of Christ. The season of Epiphany, then,  is a time for us to consider just what has been revealed now that the light and life of Jesus has entered into our world.

         As I considered how to explain this season of Epiphany, I was reminded of a story about our first daughter, Elizabeth, when she was a mere six months old on Christmas. This was such a fun time to take and show her off at all of the family gatherings. Well, something rather funny happened when we took Elizabeth to a Christmas party for Jennifer’s relatives. Jennifer had a cousin whose son, Andrew, was around eight years old that Christmas. Andrew was a very bright kid who was always thinking. It became obvious that Andrew was pondering quite a bit about this new baby that everyone was fussing over because he stood and looked at Elizabeth then exclaimed, “What does it do?”. You see, Andrew just could not figure out what all of the excitement was about this doll baby who did nothing more than eat and fill its pants. I believe that there just might be a lot of people who are much like Andrew when they celebrate yet another Christmas. They look upon the manger scene and see the baby Jesus asleep on the hay, and they too wonder, “What does it do?”. Much like Andrew wondered about this six month baby called Elizabeth, so too I imagine many people after Christmas are left wondering about this new born child named Jesus.They desperately want to ask, just why in the world is everyone fussing over this baby born in a little backward village named Bethlehem?

         Now if, say, one of those people who are thinking back on Christmas and wondering just what was all this celebration was really all about, and they came to you, what might you be able to tell them about Jesus? Just what exactly does this Jesus do? Without much thought we might explain that Jesus is our hope for eternal life, you know the gift given to us so that we might not perish and have eternal life. Yes, this is a very good reason to get excited about Jesus but what if this person goes on and asks you, but what does this Jesus do for me here, in this life I’m living right now? They are rightly wondering, is this Jesus of any earthly good? So, just what answer might you give to someone who asks you if Jesus has any bearing on this life we are living, right here, right now, in all of the mess we so often find ourselves in? 

         Well, if you listened carefully to the scripture for today, you will know that Jesus indeed has something to give to all of us, today. In our scripture we do find that Jesus himself is telling us just what has been revealed when he was born as one of us. Like all of the stories found in the Bible, the background circumstances prove to be very important and this is true for the scripture we read here in the eleventh chapter of Matthew. We find that Jesus has done some powerful and amazing works in the cities that are located around the Sea of Galilee. As we may recall, Jesus healed the sick, going from place to place because the crowds had grown so large. Yet in spite of these people seeing the evident power of God at work among them, they, nonetheless, refused to allow this witness to affect their hearts. God had shown up in their midst in a demonstration of power and healing and the reaction of those who saw these miracles was a yawn, and maybe a shrug of their shoulders. They easily turned back to their life like nothing had ever happened. But something great had happened, heaven invaded earth so do course, Jesus was angered. Jesus was shocked by the unwillingness of these people to let their minds be transformed by what had been revealed to them. Can you begin to understand the crisis that arises when God reveals himself to us in power? As we enter into a season when we ask the question, “Just what has God revealed to us in Jesus?”, we have to expect that we will become different people when we witness the power of God.

         Jesus, yes, was rightly outraged by the refusal of these towns to be affected by what they had witnessed. So he takes the truth about judgment day, and he brings it to bear upon that very moment when these people turned their backs on God. Jesus reaches back to the infamous story of Sodom, found in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, where God judged this town worthy of destruction all because he could not find ten righteous men living in that city. Jesus states that on judgement day that it was going to go better for the citizens of Sodom than for those who had seen his miracles and went home unmoved. You see, they, unlike Sodom, had indeed witnessed the mighty acts of God in their midst, yet such displays of power had borne no fruit in their lives.

         Now it is right here that our story takes a strange turn because Jesus goes from pronouncing judgment on these unrepentant people to being caught up in a moment of intimate conversation with his Heavenly Father. Here, again, we have yet another revelation. We discover in the words of Jesus that the reason why it was that so many people refused to be transformed after witnessing the works of God. You see, God, our Father, hides his grace from those who think they have life all figured out. No, God rightfully, gives his grace only to those who are actually interested in his plan, that great goal that God has for all people. This is why Jesus tells us that the ones God is looking for are those who know themselves as being children. Just like we laugh at a child telling their parents just how they intend to live their life, so God too must be shocked by our arrogance when we believe we can demand that he support the plans we might have. Like children we must know we are utterly dependent on our Heavenly Father. We must come with our hands held out ready to receive a gift. After all, this is the way Jesus approaches his Father, for in his prayer he reveals to us that all things have been handed over to him. Can you see the Son standing before his Father, his hand held out in anticipation to receive? So too, we must follow this posture of Jesus. Jesus in childlike obedience takes what is given to him by his Father. Jesus then turns, and he offers his gift to all who come to him as a child, hands held out ready to receive.

         You see, when we receive this gift from Jesus, this grace of God, we come to know something of the goodness of God. Through the receiving of this gift we have come to know that, as James says in the first chapter of his letter, every good gift, and every perfect gift comes down to us from our Father above, the one whose face never turns away from us. So, yes, we can come to know ourselves as those Jesus has chosen to share his life with us, an unbelievable honor. All of this leads us to the moment when Jesus tells us these well-known words, “Come to me all you who labor and are carrying loads that are way to heavy for you to bear, I am the one who will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me. I am gentle, lowly in heart. With me you will find rest for your soul, your very life. My yoke is easy; my burden is light.” At last we come to the whole point of what Jesus is getting at which is that he is the gift which really does, keeps on giving. Jesus is the gift given to us by our Heavenly Father, the only one who is able and willing to give to us something called, rest. You see, Jesus did not need the gift of prophecy to see which of those who had seen God’s power and had refused to repent. All Jesus needed is to look and see that these people were restless. They were walking around with the weight of the world bearing down upon them. There they were, rushing about, fussing over what they were going to have for dinner, and what they were going to wear, becoming consumed by all of the concerns of their life and it was wearing them out. Who says that the Bible doesn’t connect with real life, right? You see, the reason why Jesus was so upset by their lack of enthusiasm with what God was up to, is that the result was so tragic. Here God was holding out a way for his people to find relief from this nagging restlessness that overwhelmed their life and instead they chose to stick to their own wisdom and understanding. A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, and such was the situation Jesus witnessed, people living in a hell of their own making, refusing to try something different. It simply did not have to be like this. God had stepped into their situation and he offered them a gift named Jesus. Yet, they were so busy wringing their hands over their situation that they could not simply stop and hold their hands out to receive what God had to offer, the gift of Jesus who held out the gift of rest for all of them.

         So the answer to the question, “ Just what does this baby do?”is this: This child named Jesus, is a gift from God, the Father, who offers to all the gift of a life marked by rest. We should not be surprised by this offer of Jesus to give us rest though, because what Jesus tells us here in the eleventh chapter of Matthew is a mere retelling of what we find in the sixth chapter of Jeremiah. There God tells his people, “Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” This truth that God reveals to us about rest is further found to be very similar to what God spoke to Moses after the tragedy of the Golden Calf. In the thirty-third chapter of Exodus, Moses prays for the people of Israel so that God’s wrath would not be upon them. Moses pleads with God to remain with his people, reminding God of the grace he had shown to him. Moses says to God, “ Now that I have received your grace, please show me your ways, your ancient paths, so that I may know you, so that I might continue to receive your grace. Remember that this nation is your people.” God responds to this prayer of Moses by telling him, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”. Where the sin of God’s people abounded in their worship of the Golden calf, God’s grace abounded even more, for even to these sinful people, God holds out the possibility for them to know his presence and experience his rest.

         What we find when we go searching for a better understanding of this idea of rest is that it is rooted in the story of creation, where on the seventh day, we are told that God rested from his labors. This is the very reason why the people of God were told to rest every seventh day and call that day holy because this is what our holy God did there in the beginning. In the next several weeks, in this series of messages entitled, “Rest Assured”, we are going to consider, more closely, just what has been revealed to us in this gift of Jesus. We are going to consider just what does it mean for us to receive this rest offered to us by Jesus. What might it mean for us to enter into this new year and not be wore down from all of the concerns, anxiety and worry that can come over us as we look to an unknown future. I love this quote by the Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom who says that we should, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” As we set out on this new year, let me ask you, “Are you ready to trust this unknown future ahead of us to the God that we know?”. “Are you ready to stop wringing your hands and instead simply hold out your hands out, like a child, saying, “Rest, please!”, and then expect that Jesus will lead us to rest in the Father’s arms. So, are you ready to put the yoke on, and unite yourself with Jesus as he walks the ancient paths, knowing that he is leading us to find rest in a future yet unknown? I pray that this is the year that you experience Jesus as the one who gives us the rest we all are searching for. To God be the glory! Amen!

         

Ready or not? Written in Love

 December 21 2025

Jeremiah 31:31-34

         I have to make a confession that might surprise some people, which is this: I don’t really like having a live Christmas tree. What you have to know, when I say this, is that Jennifer and I have had close to forty live Christmas trees decorate our home over the years. Even so, I don’t really like having to go out on a snowy day to the tree farm and pick out a tree which you hope will not be too big but will be anyways. Then when you bring it home and get it in the tree stand and find that it is impossible for this tree to stand upright. Of course, you will have to turn the tree just so in order to hide the gaping hole that you swore was not there when it was cut down. After that you get the ladder out to place the star up top and watch as the star droops to one side because as the branches are too weak to hold the star up. And on it goes, the fun with light strands and the placing of ornaments and of course, the daily watering. So, you are right to ask, just why do we keep on getting a live tree? The answer is that this whole messing around with a live tree is an important part of our family’s Christmas story.  You see, for our family, the placing of a live Christmas tree in our house, has now become a part of the story that we have come to treasure despite the hassle and the mess. Our family loves to tell and retell the stories about the many different farms we have gotten trees at, even cutting one down on the way back from bringing Sarah home from college. We have had trees that came loaded with poison ivy, and trees that were so crooked at the base the only way to steady them was to wire them to a screw in the window molding. One time when the Christmas tree fell over, a special ornament was broken so we had to get a rush order on a new one to get it here before the arrival of Christmas. So, yes, these live Christmas trees are simply an indispensable part of our family’s Christmas story.

         You see, a person’s whole Christmas experience is often captured by the Christmas story they hold dear. So, yes, even if the Christmas tree is a real mess, it nonetheless remains a vital part of the story of our family tells about Christmas.This is why that even though I may not always like having a real tree, I can still admit that the Christmas story we tell would simply not be the same without having one.

What we also all know so well, is that these Christmas stories that we love, are our stories, and no one else’s. So if you want to know us and the stories we treasure then there is no better way than to take the time to listen to the stories that we share, and this is never more true then when is comes to our Christmas story.  Now what is also interesting about so many of the stories that make up our Christmas story, is that very few, if any, ever get written down yet they are hardly forgotten. No, the truth is that these stories are written down just not with ink. No,  stories like our Christmas story, we might say, are written in love on the tablets of our hearts, the very treasury of all we hold dear.

         You see, the very reason why we treasure the stories that tell of our life together is because of the love we have for each other. Only love is able to bind us together and unite us in the stories we tell, and this is the reason why we can say that love is the very ink that writes these stories upon our hearts. Perhaps this idea will help us make sense of our scripture for today. There we hear God tell Jeremiah about this new covenant that he is going to make with his people. God reveals that this new covenant will be not be written on stone tablets like the covenant sealed at Sinai. No, this new covenant will instead be written, strangely enough, upon the  hearts of God’s people. We are left wondering just what might God be writing there upon our hearts? I believe that the answer is found in yet other profound claim by God in this scripture where he tells us that in the coming days all people will know God from the person held in the lowest esteem to the those due the greatest honor. The way we will know God will be just as we know each other,  through listening to the story God is speaking. Now, it makes sense, doesn’t it, that these stories God tells to us are going to be held by us to as something to be treasured because they tell us of God’s great love for us. So there upon our hearts we will write the story that God is telling because we will want to speak of of his love forever. Our scripture tells us that the story that we have heard from God, the story that we treasure, the story of his love for us which causes us to love God in return, this story is called a covenant. A covenant, quite simply, is the name for this relationship of love that we have with God. This means that the story written on our hearts in love is not just a story of knowing God, but rather this story that we treasure is the story of knowing who we are, God and us, united together forever. 

As we wait for the coming king, God speaks to us about our life together, a life marked by hope for we now have a certain future which God gives to us through his power. All God asks of us is to trust him. We must trust God that he is indeed able to bring life out of this dead end way of being that we have found ourselves in. This is how our story, the story of God and us united together, has its beginning. Well, as God continues with his story we discover that he desires that we experience a life of peace and rest. Yet God also wants us to know that such a life cannot be found by living apart from the rest of the world. No, God insists that we get busy doing everything we can to make the lives of our neighbors experience the same peace we are searching for, for when our neighbors live in peace then we too will find peace and rest. So now we find that this story we have with God has become intertwined with the stories of our neighbor as we take their longings and and we weave them into our story with God. The story God speaks to us, though, is far from over for he adds that we must catch hold of the joy in his heart. We are to become aware of how our God blesses our lives, even in the worst of circumstances. These blessings turn us toward God in gratitude and thankfulness. By faith we witness the joy of the God whose goodness radiates over us and in the flame of his joy we rejoice. So, yes, through us listening to all God has spoken to us have indeed come to know God. And not only that, but we also have stories of our experiences living with God, trusting him as we have gone along. These stories that we treasure in our hearts are stories that we can say are indeed, written there in love. This love is what writes the story of our relationship with God, a new covenant which binds us together forever. .

Now this sounds all well and good, doesn’t it? Yet as we are all so well aware, the world we live in is a world filled with many stories. These other stories we listen to can create fear and doubt to creep in, making us wonder about our future, destroying our hope. The peace we pursue is difficult in a world where it seems that everybody has an axe to grind. And joy, this is perhaps the most difficult of all because the world demands so much of our attention, we forget to be grateful for all that we do have been given by God. So to be honest, this love between us and God can become strained, as we begin to listen to every story except for the one story that really matters, the story God is speaking to us. So it is good that our God knows us so very well, because when our love stops writing our story, this is when God tells us again of our Christmas story, the Christmas story which speaks of God’s great love for each one of us. This Christmas story tells of how our God gave us a gift, a gift which forever speaks of God’s great love for all of us. When we hear this Christmas story we remember once again, that when our love grows weak and cold, God’s love is strong enough and certain enough to hold our relationship with him together, forever.

So, let us once again hear the Christmas story, the story of the long awaited king, God’s anointed one, the Christ, the one whose candle we are now ready to light. But first though, let us hear these familiar words of the Christmas story. Here is the story which tells of how God so loved all of us, that he gave us all the most precious gift, the gift of his own dear Son. God did this all so that we might know of a love that refuses to let us go. So, listen once again to the first few verses of the second chapter of Luke, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governed of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and she laid him in the manger, because they found no other room available.”  

         This story about the birth of Jesus never gets old, does it? We have heard it so often we probably could recite it by heart if asked to do so. Yet, what is not recorded for us in this story is what Mary and Joseph kept within their hearts. You see, the reason why Mary and Joseph were part of the Christmas story is that they had first listened to the story God was speaking to them. As we hear in the first chapter of Luke, Mary heard of how God was going to bring forth the long awaited king who was going to bring righteousness and justice to the world, and Mary wanted to be part of this story. Mary became part of this story by simply saying “Yes”, to God when God called her to become part of his Christmas story. Joseph also listened to the story God spoke to him, and Joseph also said, ‘Yes” to God, and so he too played a role in the Christmas story. You see, the story of the giving of Jesus to the world is a story which required that Mary and Joseph respond to God with love. 

Now most people who have heard the Christmas story may never have realized that they too, just like Mary and Joseph, have a role in the Christmas story. You see, the Christmas story tells of how Jesus is sent to us to be for us the, “Yes”, to all of God’s promises just as Paul tells us at the beginning of the first chapter of Second Corinthians. When God, so very long ago promised that a king would be born from the dead legacy of King David, God gave Jesus to be the, “Yes”, to this promise. Likewise, when God promised to give people a hope and a future,  God gave us Jesus to be the, “Yes”, to this promise. The peace God promises us that we are to make with our neighbors finds its, “Yes”, in God’s gift of Jesus. And yes, God promises to fill us to overflowing with joy and this promise as well, finds its,”Yes”, in God’s gift of Jesus. Then at last we discover that what binds all of these promises together is the promise of God’s love to us, the promise that we at last might know God, and have a relationship of love with him, God and us united forever together, a promise fulfilled by the, “Yes”, of God’s gift called Jesus.

         So Jesus, the, “Yes”, to all of God’s promises, is given to us at Christmas. All God asks of us is this: “Will you say,”Yes”, to Jesus? God wonders, will we be like Mary and Joseph who first listened to the story God spoke to them and then said, “Yes”, to God’s invitation to be part of this great story that began at Christmas. You see, the story of Christmas continues even today because all people are invited by God to enter into this story about a new king named Jesus given to us by God so that justice and righteousness might reign upon the earth. This king is given by God as a gift which expresses his deep love for every person. And all God desires is that we respond to his love by simply saying “Yes”, in love, to the one who is God’s, “Yes”, to us, this Jesus given to us at Christmas. Like all Christmas stories, our saying, “Yes”, to God may make our life a mess. Luke records that the world didn’t even have a place for Mary and Joseph on the night they needed one the most. But what Mary and Joseph did have is a place in the story God is telling, this story begun at Christmas. Just like God had a role for Mary and Joseph to play in this story he is telling, he also has role for each one of us. God invites all of us to be part of this story that began so long ago at Christmas. So today is a good day to become part of the Christmas story. Let us, right now, discover that our hope is indeed found in Jesus; that our rest and peace has been born in Jesus; and our abundant joy is  caught from the joy radiating from the very face of Jesus. 

(Lighting of the Christ Candle) As we light the Christ candle, we witness that Christ, our king, has been born. So now is the time for all of us to know Jesus as being for us the very, “Yes”, to all of what God has promised to us. 

Here we normally conclude the lighting of the Advent candle with a prayer. Today, though, we are going to do something a little different. We are going to take a moment for all of us to have a time of quiet prayer. This is simply a time for us to respond to the Christmas gift of Jesus. During this time, I am going to play the beloved Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. Instead of singing along, try instead to listen to the story it tells.  At the ending of the third stanza, we hear, “where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.” So, perhaps instead of singing this line we should be those meek souls who invite Jesus into our life, saying, “Yes”, to the one who is the one who is the, “Yes”, to all of God’s promises. Let us today enter into the story God is speaking, the one he began at Christmas so long ago.

Ready or Not? Catching Joy

 December 14 2025

Jeremiah 31:10-14

         It sometimes surprises people when I tell them that I got my start in ministry by doing youth ministry. One thing I could always count on is that when it came time to get serious and have a quiet time of prayer or communion, inevitably someone would break the silence, usually by passing gas or burping. Upon hearing such noises, there would begin this internal struggle as each kid tried really hard to be on their best behavior all the while desperately wanting to burst out laughing.The race was on to see just who will be the first to start snickering under their breath, which sets the whole room laughing. You see, all it takes is to have just one kid begin to lose their composure, and get the giggles and suddenly the room is filled with great silliness.

         What this memory from my days reminds me of is this truth that joy is something that is caught. Joy happens when the snickering of one person sets off this chain reaction of laughter and giggles in the whole group. Perhaps this what makes joy different from happiness, for while joy is caught, happiness is often bought. Our country was founded on the ideal that we desire the right to pursue whatever makes us happy. So for those of us who call themselves the people of God, this ideal should leave us conflicted, for as we learned last week, what we are called to pursue is peace. We are to  be busy working on restoring the relationships around us, helping our neighbors to have a life free of those deep, nagging longings. We are to talk to God about any needs, or struggles that our neighbors are going through. As we pray to God we also must remember that God may even use us to help restore our neighbor to a life of contentment and ease. You see, seeking the rest and peace of our neighbor is the outcome God expects of people living righteous lives.We are to follow the lead of God who rested after creating the world. God was pleased and delighted with all of his labors, saying that thy were indeed, “Very good”. God tells his people in exile that as they wait for the coming king that they were to spend their time working at restoring their relationships so that they too could be people who rested from their labors, looking out upon their world and stating that it was indeed, “Very good”.

         So if we are all gung-ho about pursuing peace as God desires we do as we wait, then what happens to the happiness that the rest of the world believes we should be pursuing? Well, here we must remember that where happiness is often bought, joy, on the other hand is caught. You see, the joy of our God is the flame which sets our souls ablaze with joy. Consider the candles we have lit every week. The candle of hope is lit to witness that the hope we long for has been found through our faith in God and his plans to restore our relationship with us. Then we lit the candle of peace to make the claim that we are going to pursue peace with our neighbors. If God seeks to restore his relationship with us after the way we have treated him then if he desires that we get busy restoring the relationships in our life, how can we refuse to do so? 

Now when we trust God and place our faith in his plans, can you imagine the smile on the face of our God? And when we are working hard to get to know our neighbors and we talk to God about them instead of just making life all about us, can you see the glow on our heavenly Father’s face, as his children are contented and at peace? Of course God bubbles over with joy when his people at last begin to grasp his beautiful vision for all humanity. So when we look into the face of our Heavenly Father and see his joy, how can we not rejoice? We are to experience and know for ourselves the truth declared in Zephaniah, the third chapter, the seventeenth verse, “The Lord your God rejoices over you with gladness, he settles your soul by his love, he exults over you with loud singing…”. This is how God desires to be known by all of his children. The question that we must ask ourselves is, is this how we know God? The laughing, singing, God who overflows with love for all of us?

         In our scripture for today, there is an unusual Hebrew word found in the second half of the tenth verse. There we read, “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, I will give them gladness in exchange for their sorrow.” In the phrase, “I will turn their mourning into joy”, the word normally translated as being joy is a Hebrew word which actually means something deeper than the emotion of joy. What is being expressed in this word is the feeling to go from a situation of death and loss and being transported to a time where God is extravagantly blessing his righteous people. This is a joy where our grief is quickly forgotten replaced with an overwhelming sense of the Lord’s goodness.This is what Jeremiah is writing about when he states that the people of God, “…shall come and sing aloud on the hills of Zion. They shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord…”. You see, what brings us to this experience of being overwhelmed by the greatness and goodness of God is for us to simply pause to consider how gracious and good our God is to all of us.

         In this season of Advent we are in a season of waiting, a season to remember that the world was once waiting for the promise of God to at last happen. God promised that a new king was coming to bring about justice and righteousness all over the earth. God gave such a promise to his people even though he was sending them into exile, to live as captives of Babylon. In this strange land surrounded by people with different customs and lifestyles, the people of God were called to find hope and pursue peace. Yet, the question on their minds was just how could they be expected to endure such a terrible loss, the death to the life that they once knew? Everywhere they looked they were reminded of the high cost of their sin. Here the people were to remember what God had told them. God promised to take their sorrow and replace it with an experience of being extravagantly blessed by God right here in Babylon. So instead of looking at our circumstances, we are to instead called to gaze upon the goodness of our God. When we begin to focus on what God has blessed us with instead of focusing on what the world has taken from us, this is when we are on our way to catching joy. You see, when we count our blessings instead of counting the days, we will soon behold the one who gives us all of those blessings, and we will see that our God is radiant with goodness. When we bask in this radiance of our God how can we not become radiant people ourselves, joyful in the presence of our joy-filled God?

         During this Advent season when we wait the coming of the Branch, the new king out of the dead stump of King David’s legacy, we must let our joy be the indicator of where our focus lies. If we begin to let the world with all of its wrongs, with all of its sorrow and turmoil, become what we fixate on then it should come as no surprise that we will find the fire of our joy growing cold. So when we realize that our joy is being replaced by ba-humbug grumpiness, then we need to once again draw our attention to the goodness of God. Instead of counting all of our grievances, let us instead count our blessings. Our focus needs to be on what we have been given instead of just what it is we feel we need in our life. As we read today, we should be radiant over all of the goodness God has given to us. And then as we are overwhelmed by the ways God has blessed us we are to realize that God has done so all because he rejoices over us. The face of our Father lights up anytime we take time to meet with him. And there, before the fire the joy of our God, the flame of our joy is set ablaze. So, yes, rejoice and again, I say rejoice! Amen!