A Life that captures the world’s attention

 January 24 2021

Luke 5:1-11

         When my wife Jennifer and I decided to get married thirty five years ago we didn’t have a clue at first where we were going to spend our honeymoon. Then, as luck would have it Jennifer won a cruise and a stay at Disneyland from a local travel agency that was opening up. So, honeymoon problem solved. Then we had to figure out just where we would stay on our way down to Florida. Well, again we were blessed because friends of ours were big patrons of Praise the Lord Ministry. Does anyone remember that? You know, Jim and Tammy Baker. He was as slick as a used car salesman and she was was made up to the nines with big puffy hair. They felt compelled by God to create what was called the Heritage in South Carolina. Their plan was for this to be a water park, and theme park with an enclosed mall and hotel.  Since our friends had given so much to Jim and Tammy they received two free nights at the Heritage which they graciously gave to us and which also we enjoyed very much.

         Now, while I am very thankful to have had the experience of staying at the Heritage, still on looking back on the whole Jim and Tammy Baker ministry I can’t help think their whole ministry was rather cringe-worthy. Do you know what I mean by cringe-worthy? It is one of those things that is so embarrassing, or awkward or upsetting that when you think about it it makes you cringe. I really liked the stay at the Heritage park but having to explain that it was part of Jim and Tammy Bakers ministry just makes me cringe. I cringe because their ministry was in retrospect rather embarrassing and awkward. As it turned out Jim Baker had used many of the donations that people sent in for his own use and he was also involved in a sexual scandal. So, yeah that whole ministry of theirs was pretty cringe-worthy.

         Well, as it turns out the history of Christianity is kind of filled with these cringe-worthy moments. Probably at the top of the list of these cringe-worthy moments is how people interpret our scripture for today, you know the one where Jesus tells his disciples that they will be fishers of men. When Christians have heard this phrase, “fishers of men’ they have just let their imaginations run wild. Many see this term being fishers as meaning evangelism. So what you end up with is all these messages on evangelism and witnessing that use different types of fishing to promote Christianity. You have your fly fishing, there’s deep-sea fishing, catching fish in nets and using bigger nets to catch yet more fish. Now while we have to admire the enthusiasm that people have for catching people for Christ what might be important is to stop and consider this whole fishing metaphor from the fishes perspective. If the fish are unsaved people imagine all these fishing ideas from where they stand. There is something about being hooked and dragged into a boat that I imagine most people might find more than just a little cringe-worthy.

         What is surprising is that most commentators just rush to a judgment as to what Jesus meant instead of stopping to let the scriptures tell us just what this whole fishers of men thing is really all about. Somehow, going slow and listening to the story seems to be a better way of looking at it then just coming up with yet another explanation of just what it might mean for the disciples and us to be fishers of men.

         So, keeping all this in mind then lets take a fresh look at our scripture from the fifth chapter of Luke. In order to begin though we need a little context of what has come before this moment in the ministry of Jesus. Last week as you my recall Jesus was tested in the wilderness by Satan and it was there that Jesus defeated Satan through his proper understanding of what it means to be a Son of God. This victory of Jesus you might remember centered on three main ideas that are found in the sixth and eighth chapters of Deuteronomy. These ideas are first, that as people we need to hear the word of God to be fully alive. Unlike the rest of God’s creatures, we as God’s highest creation we need to find our security in the trustworthiness of what God speaks to us. Only as we are secure in the promises of God are we set free to love others as God commands. The second idea is that as God’s people is that the world is set free from the domain of Satan through our worship and service of God. This service is the service of the priesthood of all believers whose purpose is to bear the name of God just as the High Priest had always done within the Temple. The third idea is that we are to swear by the name of the Lord. We are to know that the name of the Lord, that our God is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness, this is the one thing on which we can stake our life. If we have any uncertainty in who God is we will inevitably put God to the test, something God hates because it blasphemes his holy name.

         So, it is these three ideas that defeated the devil and following this defeat, Jesus leaves the wilderness and we find that now he has authority over the demons, the minions of Satan, who possess some of the people surrounding Capernaum, a town on the Sea of Galilee.  When Jesus rebuked the demons, telling them to be silent and to come out of the man in whom they possessed, the people were amazed saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out! So, here we see, just like we heard in the story of the testing of Jesus, the emphasis on the Word of God. And as in the testing of Jesus, we see the victory of Jesus over the devil, in his authority to rebuke demons.

         With this we come to the beginning of the fifth chapter of Luke where in the very first sentence we read that the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear what? The came close of Jesus so that they might hear the word of God. The word of God found in the testing of Jesus, the same word that is found in the rebuking of the demons is here heard speaking to the crowds who swarmed to listen to Jesus. Now, when the crowds threatened to push Jesus out from the shore into the waters of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus simply got into the boat of Simon. Now, stop for a moment and imagine that you are Simon, sitting in your boat after a long night of fishing listening to this man called Jesus speaking the word of God, what Luke calls the good news of the kingdom. Suddenly, Jesus stops, grabs the ropes on the side of Simons boat and heaves himself aboard, no asking permission just hopping aboard like he owned it. Once aboard, Jesus asks Simon to put out a little and once Simon did what Jesus asked him to do Jesus sat down and continued to speak the word of God, teaching the people who had come to listen to him. Now, when Jesus had finished speaking, we are told, Jesus told Simon to take his boat out into the deep waters and once there Jesus instructed Simon to let his nets down for a catch of fish. Now, you have to wonder just what was going on in Simon’s mind when this total stranger begins to tell him, a person who had been fishing his whole life just how he should now go about fishing. What is recorded, is Simon telling Jesus that they had fished all night and had caught nothing. This, I imagine was perhaps the polite version of what was going through Simon’s mind. Yet strangely enough Simon agreed to do as Jesus said which as most of us know is really hard to do, this taking advice from someone who has never done your job. So, Simon having taken his boat out into deep water lets down his nets just as Jesus told him to do.And as the story tells us, that when they had let down the nets, the nets filled with such a large haul of fish that the nets began to tear apart. There were so many fish that it took two boats to haul them all to shore.What happens next though is also very interesting because there in the midst of this incredible fish story we find Simon, not dealing with the nets or the fish but instead Simon is found kneeling at the feet of Jesus. You see, Simon is not blinded to what has just happened; he realizes that in some mysterious way, God had caused a miracle. There could be no other explanation for it and if God had worked a miracle then Jesus most assuredly was a man of God. In that moment not only did Simon begin to have some inkling of who Jesus was but he also could give an honest assessment of who he was, a sinful man. So many times we want people to confess that they are sinful people before they accept Christ but here we discover that perhaps people need to encounter the holiness of Jesus first in order for them to grasp their own sinfulness.

         Once again we must pause to think about what has just happened. When we meditate on the story so far we begin to realize that this incident with Simon is just like the rest of Lukes account, centered on the word of God. We must remember what Isaiah tells us about the word of God in the fifty fifth  chapter where we read, “God tells us that the word that goes out of his mouth will not return to him empty but it shall accomplish that which he purposes and his word shall succeed in the thing for which he sent it.”  Jesus spoke the word of God to Simon, the word that told him to go into deep water and there let down his nets.  This word accomplished exactly what Jesus knew that it would, an abundance of fish in the nets of Simon. When Simon reluctantly placed his faith in the word of God he realized in a personal and profound way, the faithfulness of God through the word God spoke to him through Jesus. In experiencing the faithfulness of God, Simon would have also realized that what had driven his life before this moment was not faith in a trustworthy God but instead what drove his life was the fear, anxiety and worry which he had felt after fishing all night and ending up with nothing. Without fish how was Simon to feed his family, how was he to pay the bills and for lack of a better word, keep his life afloat? In the midst of his worry and anxiety, there came Jesus speaking of the word of God, how this word is the one absolute bedrock trustworthy voice in a world where there is much shifting sand. Yet, I suppose Simon thought, this word seemed more like a fantasy when his worry and concern were his cold hard reality. Knowing all of this then we can understood his sudden response of confessing his sinful nature there on a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

         So, here we have a sinful Simon and a holy Jesus and what comes next is somewhat surprising because Jesus does not really confront Simon about the reality of who he is, a sinful man. There is no brow beating, and there is no stating of the forgiveness of the sin of Simon. No, all Jesus tells Simon is to not be afraid. Jesus is getting at the root of Simon’s sinful nature, his fear and tells him to be done with letting this fear run his life. Why does Jesus tell him this? Jesus tells Simon not to fear because he has shown Simon in a profound and miraculous way that he can live a life of faith because the word of God has proven to Simon beyond a doubt that God is a God of utter faithfulness. And this is where we at last come to the call of Jesus that from this moment on Simon would be a person who catches men. Now at first blush you have to admit this sounds like a cringe-worthy thing to tell Simon. What in the world does Jesus mean that Simon was going to be a person who catches people? Well, the word used here that is translated as “catch” is actually used quite often in the New Testament but it is used to describe the action of Satan. In the second letter to Timothy we read in the second chapter, “God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of truth so they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.”The word, “snare” is the same word translated as “catch” in our story of Jesus and Simon. How, we might ask does the devil snare people and capture them? Well, if you go back to the Garden of Eden, what we find is that Adam and Eve are lured and captured by the serpent when he, in his questioning, causes them to doubt whether they should listen to the voice of God or whether they should listen to the inner voice of their desires. Here again the issue is whether or not to trust the word of God.Satan’s method of capturing people is to create doubt and fear  in their hearts so that they do not place any faith in what God has spoken to them. Jesus teaches about this in his parable of the sower. This is the story that Jesus tells that is about him proclaiming God’s word. Jesus says his proclaiming God’s word is like a gardener who scatters their seed. Jesus goes on to say that as many people know, some of the seed will never sprout and grow because it gets snatched away by the birds. This, Jesus explains is like the word of God because those who hear the word of God and do not understand it these are the ones that the evil one comes to and snatches the word of God that has been sown in their hearts. So, the key to whether or not a person is caught by the devil or not is whether a person understands the word of God. To understand the word of God means that they find wisdom in placing their faith in what God has spoken. So if the devil captures those who do not understand then it follows that those who do understand are in some way captured by the word of God. So I believe that when Jesus tells Simon that he was going to catch men what he was referring to is that now that Simon has profoundly seen the wisdom of placing his faith in the word of God he was to live a life that demonstrated this wisdom to others. When others witnessed the life of Simon they would take the word of God that they had heard and they would understand the wisdom of placing their faith in this word of God. This word of God which described the kingdom of God would have captured their imagination setting them free from the fear, anxiety and worry that controlled them. What Jesus was asking Simon to do is what God asked his people to do when they entered the Promised Land as we hear in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, “Keep my commands and do my commands, in other words place your faith in my word, so that these will be your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples , who when they hear all these statutes will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” You see when the people of Israel listened to the word of God and their lives reflected the wisdom of doing so then their actions captured the attention of a watching world. This is what, I believe, Jesus was calling Simon to do. Jesus was telling Simon, you have seen the wisdom of placing your faith in the word of God. Now, I am asking you to live out this wisdom and understanding so that the attention of those who watch you will be captured by what you say and do and they will desire the wisdom and understanding that you have. Then when they hear the word of God the devil will no longer steal God’s word from their heart. The devil once again will be defeated because now the people who hear the word of God will understand and God’s word will be treasured in the hearts of those who hear it.

         Just as we saw in the testing of Jesus when the word of God is understood as being necessary for life then what follows is the worship and service of God. This is what we see next in the life of Simon. Simon in his willingness to follow 

Jesus was saying that Jesus as Lord was worthy of his life. Now he would live his life in service to him. In so doing Simon challenges all of us. We must ask ourselves, do we understand the wisdom of placing our faith in the word of God? Do our lives capture the attention of others so they might want to understand God as we do? And is God worthy of our life and is it God that we long to serve? May God find us as faithful to him as he has been to us. Amen!

         

 

 

Welcome to the Wilderness

 January 17 2021

Luke 4:1-13

         I have been writing messages for Sunday worship services off and on now for around twelve years now and it never ceases to amaze me how the scriptures open up and give guidance and hope to what is going on in our world. The scriptures always have something to say to us, sometimes they speak to our personal belief, sometimes they help us understand who we are as a church and sometimes they speak to what is going on with our living life out there in the real world. As I considered what scripture to use for this Sunday I didn’t go with what the lectionary had chosen for today, the story of Jesus preaching his first sermon in front of his hometown folk and instead decided to speak on what is known as the temptation of Christ. The reason for choosing this story of Jesus in the wilderness over Jesus in his hometown synagogue is that right now it just seems as though there are many followers of Christ who sense that at this point in history that these are testing times. Testing is a much better translation of what Jesus is going to experience out there among the wild things and when we understand this then this story relates better with our real life experience.It just goes without saying that these are testing times for all of us. Next Wednesday marks the one year anniversary of the first Covid-19 case here in America and here, a year later over three hundred eighty thousand people have died from this dreaded disease. Even though we now have a vaccine the disease continues to spiral out of control in many places throughout our country, hospitals are running out of room, doctors and nurses are overworked, nursing homes continue to be hotbeds for the disease. This disease has wrecked the economy resulting in many people unemployed, business being shuttered and hundreds of thousands face evictions. So, yes these are testing times that weigh heavy on our hearts.

         Not only has the disease hit us hard but our political climate has also been stressful to watch and be a part of. We are facing a time of great political uncertainty as we prepare to change the leadership of our country. There are many followers of Jesus that through what they speak of and say on social media appear to be quite anxious, concerned and worried about the future. Like Jesus in our scripture for today we seem to be finding ourselves in the wilderness, in a place of chaos, a place of desolation and hardship. This is why this story of Jesus is so incredibly helpful to us because as Luke records it, Jesus did not just haphazardly find himself wandering out in the wilderness; no, we are told that Jesus was led there by the Holy Spirit. The wilderness, far from being a God-forsaken place is in all actuality a place where God goes ahead of us, a place where God can discover just what is kept in the innermost chambers of our heart.

         You see, the story of Jesus is a re-enactment of an earlier trek into the wilderness by God and his people when after they left the slavery of Egypt and walked through the baptism of deliverance through the Red Sea. There God led them deliberately out into the wild places. God explains his motives for doing so in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, where we read, “You shall remember the whole way God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.” So, welcome to the wilderness, here is where God himself has brought us in order that first we might be humbled. To be humbled is to bring us to the point where amongst the chaos we find ourselves in we no longer arrogantly believe that we are in control. The wilderness is the place where when life no longer makes sense we at last yield ourselves to God. What we discover in our humility is the truth that while God opposes the proud he instead gives grace to the humble. The wilderness then prepares us to receive God’s grace, his generosity. But first, as we read in the story of Jesus we have to be emptied in order that God might have a place for that which he desires to give to us.

         As we read in the fourth chapter of Luke after Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, we are told that Jesus fasted for forty days. This was much like Moses who after coming down from Mount Sinai and finding that the people of Israel were worshipping the golden calf, threw down the tablets with God’s commands on them and went back up on the mountain. There Moses fasted for forty days to prepare himself to intercede and pray for the people of Israel so that God might have mercy upon the people who had sinned so horribly. Jesus, having been anointed as God’s new high priest would have also known that he also needed to prepare himself to intercede for God’s people as well. When his forty day fast was over we are told that Jesus was hungry. Jesus, perfectly God was also perfectly human who had, like us, very human needs. This tells us that it is alright for us to hunger, to have longings. We may not have a need for food but we may hunger and long for other things without which life seems incomplete. As we learn from our story of Jesus in the wilderness, it is not wrong to have these hungers, but it is rather how we deal with these hungers that matters. It is when Jesus acknowledges his hunger this is when Jesus hears the voice of the accuser, the devil, say to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” Now, what we find here is that what this testing is about is just what does it mean to be the Son of God. This term,”Son of God” meant more than just one who was begotten of the Father. In the language of the day, Son of God meant one who was rightfully obedient to do what God expected. We hear this in what once again we find in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. There we are told, that we are to know that as a a man disciplines his son, so God disciplines us. This discipline is God teaching us to keep his commandments, walk in his ways, and to fear him. Yet even knowing this, we still must know the ways of God before we can walk in them. What the devil’s voice speaks about is an alternative way to think about God and his ways. In this first test, the question that is being asked is this: what is it that we need to live and how does God fulfill this need? Is God merely to be the one who provides what we need to eat, our basic needs or is there something more that we need from God? Jesus in his answer makes it very clear that we need more than just food to satisfy our hunger, that indeed we need something that only God can provide. Jesus states the scripture from again, the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Here we learn that while we are much like the rest of God’s creatures needing food and water to survive, we unlike the rest of God’s creatures also need the voice of God to live. As those who, as we are told in the eighth Psalm, are created a little lower than the angels and not a little higher than the animals, we are created to fulfill God’s purpose for us to be a living image of God. This means that we have an awareness of our existence that no other creature has and it is this awareness of our life and ultimately our death that can cause us, apart from God, to be anxious and worried and fearful. Apart from God, our attempts to overcome this anxiety by frantically seeking more, more food, more everything will ultimately fail. What we need is to first find a place of security, a place of absolute trustworthiness to set our lives upon. This is what we find in the word of God. As it is recorded in the fifty fifth chapter of Isaiah, God tells us that the word that goes out of his mouth will not return to him empty but it will accomplish that which God purposes. God’s word shall succeed in the thing for which he sent it. This is the certainty that we must build are lives upon. So, while God indeed will supply all our needs what we need from God is more than this. We need to hear his word, to find in God the satisfaction for our deepest longing for security, to find our rest in his sure and certain promises.

         Next, in the story of the testing of Jesus, we read that the devil took  Jesus up and showed him all of kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to Jesus, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then worship me, it all will be yours.” So, once again, the devil is speaking to Jesus about a different understanding of what it means to be a true child of God. Can one consider themselves to be God’s people and in the same breath have actions that mimic the ways of the world? At question is just what is true power and glory. We must also understand  that the reason for desiring to obtain such power and glory is to find a way to secure one’s future.Now, it is perhaps hard for us to imagine that God’s people would be found to be on the side of the evil one but listen to what Jesus tells to a group of Pharisees in the eighth chapter of John, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murder from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So, here were people who thought they were faithful believers in the one true God who were found out to be instead in the very grips of the evil one, the one who is a murderer and a liar from the beginning. Jesus knew that the evil one was their father because they were people who held murderous thoughts and told lies to achieve their goals. Their lives were much like what is described in the fourth chapter of James, “What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. James goes on to say that to live like this is to be a friend with the world and if one is a friend of the world then they are an enemy with God. So, it becomes clear that the test that the devil is giving to Jesus is whether Jesus will bring his kingdom about through force, through the taking of life instead of the giving of life, through the telling of lies instead of being the voice of the truth. This is how the people of Israel, God’s own people believed that they could bring God’s kingdom here on earth, through a violent overthrow of the Roman Empire. Yet, in doing so they would be no different then all of the other kingdoms of this world which lay under the rule of the evil one. No, Jesus refuted the devil, this is not how God’s kingdom comes upon the earth. Quoting from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, Jesus says that it is the Lord God that we should worship, it is God that we should fear and it is God alone we should serve. The word translated as “serve” is a word that is used for priests. This is the way of true glory, the way that finds God worthy of our life, the way that knows there is no higher honor than to humbly serve our God, faithfully bearing his name before the world. When we live like this then we will be part of God’s world transforming plan. Jeremiah, in the fourth chapter of his book understood this when he wrote, “If you swear, “As the Lord lives,”, in truth, in justice and in righteousness, then the nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory.” This is the way of Jesus, a way that comes through worship and serving God. This is the promised future we find in the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation where we read that a great multitude from every nation, from all tribes, people, languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, the robes of the priests, with palm branches in their hands worshiping, crying out, “Salvation belongs to  our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” This is the way Jesus knew that the evil one one day would be conquered forever.

         Well, the devil was not finished with Jesus just yet. He took Jesus to Jerusalem to the temple and sat Jesus on its highest point some four hundred feet high. The devil quoting the ninety first psalm, told Jesus to throw himself off because as it is written , “God will command his angels concerning you, to guard you. The hands of the angels will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Here again the devil is stating a false understanding of the ways of God.  This false belief held that God is our power we need for self-preservation. Surely, no matter what happens, God will be there to see us safely through it, right? So, go ahead and jump Jesus its going to be alright, God has this, doesn’t he? Jesus’ answer is yet another quote from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy where we are told, “You shall not put the Lord God to the test.” What this means is that if God is supposed to preserve our life then the assumption is that God hasn’t been preserving our life up until then which is completely false. So, every near death scrape becomes a moment when we wonder if God going to show up or not, this is the test we will put God through. God in no uncertain terms rejects being tested like this because it blasphemes his holy name. If the name of God is that he is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness, if this is who God is, his unchanging character, then we never have to wonder if God is going to be there for us. When we know this then no longer have to be concerned for keeping our self safe because we are set free to give ourselves fully to God knowing that no matter what our life is safe with him. 

         When we know that this last temptation happened in Jerusalem we can begin to see that Luke has arranged his telling of the testing of Jesus in this way to point us to that place where Jesus proved the truth that was in his heart, the place called Calvary. There Jesus placed his faith in the will of his Heavenly Father,  the will found in his holy Word. There at Calvary, Jesus found his Heavenly Father worthy of his very life, being the good servant who was obedient even unto death. And there at Calvary Jesus offered up his life, not seeking to preserve his life but rather to give his life as a ransom for many because he knew his life was safe in his Father’s hands. This was proven true when three days later Jesus stepped out of the grave. So, the testing in the wilderness directly connects to the victory of Jesus at the cross.

         And so it is with us as we find ourselves in what perhaps feels like a wilderness experience. The experience of Jesus should let us know that if this is where we find ourselves God is ahead of us leading us into this place. God brings us into these experiences in order to test us, to see just what is in our hearts. God wants to know if we understand that we need more than just the bare necessities to live that to be truly alive we need a relationship with the God who speaks his truth to us. Only his word can offer the security that we crave. It is here in the wilderness that God seeks to know if we are trusting the ways of the world, the ways of force and power to secure our future or are we trusting that this simple act of worship and service to God can be the ways the world is set free from the devil’s dominion.  Lastly, it is here in wilderness that God seeks to know if we have built our life upon his unchanging name, that we live boldly because we are absolutely certain our God is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness even when called upon to carry our cross for him. We live knowing that life is not about self preservation but is instead about the greatest love of all the laying down of our life for others. When we know these truths and live these truths then we also know that we have passed the test. So, stop for a moment and consider just how is it going, this testing of what is in your heart? Do you need to change your answers as to who God is and how you believe in him knowing the true answers that Jesus gives to us? May what God finds within our hearts be pleasing unto him. Amen

Seeing Jesus in a new light

 January 10 2021

Luke 3:15-22

         Well, as we move into this new year, we as a church also move into a new season which is called Epiphany. Epiphany is kind of a strange word which is actually formed from two Greek words, epi and phainen. Epi means on or to, and phainein means to show, to bring to light and together they give us the meaning of coming into the light or better the light coming onto us. Epiphany then is the light coming on much like we see in cartoons when someone has an idea they have a lightbulb go on in their head. We sometimes call this an a-ha moment, when something we previously didn’t understand we suddenly have an insight and the light goes on for us. This idea is what we hope will happen for us with Jesus. Now, that Jesus has entered into into our world at Christmas we have to figure out just who he is and what is he up to. We need the light to once again to go off in our heads and have an a-ha moment where we suddenly realize the profound nature of just who Jesus is. It is significant, I think that Epiphany is a season of the church, a time set aside every year when our hope is that once again the light will go on, that once again the Jesus that has perhaps become so familiar, so commonplace for us will suddenly appear to us in a much greater way. The church rightly understands that we need time every year to re-examine just who this Jesus is, just what it is that he is up to, just what it is about him that his coming to us was and is a world changing event.

         So we begin by pausing and asking ourselves just who is Jesus? People have a lot of different ideas about Jesus but unfortunately many of them are mere figments of their imagination.This past week we watched as the most unthinkable act occurred in our Capital where a mob overran the Capital building. As I looked at all the images that were put out on social media of that event, images of crazed people charging at the police, scaling the walls, breaking down the doors, there amongst the image of a gallows with a noose there was also a cross. My first thought when I saw this was a song that my kids picked up from Sesame Street, “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn’t belong.” I say that because if these people had known Jesus, if they had truly known about the cross they would have known that this setting was the exact scenario that Jesus and his dying on the cross came to abolish. The angry mob had more to do with the angry mob that cried out, “Crucify him” than it had anything to do with the one who was crucified.

         So, you see there are dark images of who we think Jesus is that must be brought into the light. It is in the light that we can see clearly the strangeness and unique nature of Jesus that in the darkness of our minds becomes easy and familiar. Nowhere is this more evident than in our scripture for today. It is the old familiar story of John the Baptist, you know that crazed man out there in the Jordan wilderness, wearing a coat of camel hair and eating locust. We know this story quite well, or do we? When you begin to examine the life of John a little closer, in the light of what God wants us to reveal to us and what you discover is that there is a lot about John that just does not add up. John’s birth is given to us only here in Luke’s gospel because, I believe that Luke wants us to understand that John comes from a long line of priests and Luke shows that John’s lineage goes back to Aaron, the first high priest of Israel. So we have to ask just why is John not found in the Temple following his family business of being a priest?

         Another odd aspect about John and what he is doing at the Jordan is that he is performing the ritual cleansing bath normally only done for Gentiles, non-Jews who are converting to Judaism however John is preforming this rite on people who know themselves as Jews. Isn’t that just a bit weird? In other words, what is implied is that John considers that the Jews he is calling to come to the Jordan are in essence no better than those who are not Jewish. So this makes us ask just what determines just what it means to be a Gentile, to be a non-Jewish person? Just what is it about the people John lives with that points out that they are living no differently than everyone else. Well, Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount gives us three definitions of what it means to be a Gentile, a person of the nations in a spiritual sense. The first defining feature Jesus tells us is in Matthew, the fifth chapter, the forty seventh verse, is that the Gentiles are those who only love those who love them. This is the root of tribalism, to just hang out with those who have your back and to say the hell to everyone else. The second identification of what it means to be a Gentile is found in the next chapter of Matthew where Jesus states that the Gentiles, the people of the nations are those who heap up empty phrases when they pray because they believe that that they will be heard for their many words. Now, it is hard to understand just what Jesus is getting at but in the next part of his teaching he tells us that there is no need for them to do so because we have a Heavenly Father who knows what we need before we ask him. The important part of what Jesus tells us is that our Heavenly Father knows what we need not necessarily what we want. You see, the empty phrases and many words are signals of an attempt to manipulate God into yielding to ones demands of their desires. One more defining feature of the people of the nations is that they are people who are frantically searching for what to eat, what to drink or what to wear. This is what Jesus explains further in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where he says that they do not know that there is no reason for them to be so anxious or worried because they have a Heavenly Father who will faithfully provide all that they need. It is here that the teaching of Jesus comes full circle so to speak, because instead of seeking after what they need they should instead be seeking the kingdom of God. This kingdom is one where people love not just those who love them but they love as their God, the king loves, loving even those who hate them. You see, the root of why the Gentiles only love those who love them stems from their anxiety and worry and their dissatisfaction with what God provides. Now, knowing this, we can understand that the reason that John was performing the ritual bath required for Gentiles on his fellow Jewish folk is that they had become people who loved only those who loved them, they had become anxious and worried people and they had become manipulative with God, not satisfied with his provisions but demanding that God lend his power to their fight against the Romans. Yet, how could God do so if he was a God who loved even them, sending the rain and the sunshine upon them, caring for even them, the enemy called Rome.

         What John had been enlightened by God to see is the truth found in the fifth chapter of John’s first letter, is that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The power that the evil one has over the people of this world is sin. It is as Paul writes in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Romans, where he admonishes them to not let sin rule in your mortal bodies to submit yourself to its passions. So, we see how sin is a ruler, a controller of the hearts and lives of people. The rule of a ruler is ultimately enforced by the threat of death and through this threat the ruler makes his subject submit to the desire of the ruler.  What sin as our ruler tells us is that we are under attack, that we are vulnerable and at risk arousing in us the passions of fear, anger, greed and resentment. These are passions that tear apart the very fabric of society. The reason why we need to understand sin as the ruler of a world under the dominion of the evil one is that John, quoting from the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, proclaimed that now was the time to prepare the way of the Lord, prepare the way of the true king, the one true ruler to rule over us.

         Here once again in John’s proclamation we encounter yet another oddity because he speaks of the coming of the Lord yet wasn’t God already there? Wasn’t God’s presence to be thought to dwell in his Temple? I mean how does God come to a place where he was already thought to have been? Here is where the location of the Jordan gives us a clue to this mystery. The Jordan as we remember was the boundary that was crossed by the people of Israel when they left behind their wilderness wanderings to live in the land promised to them by God. But there was more to the this gift that God was giving to them than just a place to live because what God had desired is that in entering this land that they would enter his rest. This is what we learn in the ninety fifth Psalm, where in the last two verses we read, “For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “they are a people who go astray in their heart for they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath “They shall not enter my rest.” So, what entering into the Promised Land was supposed to be was a symbolic entrance into a life of peace that comes through following faithfully the ways of God. Only by trusting God, understanding that he is a Heavenly Father who provides all that is needed and finding contentment in his provision, only then could people find freedom from their anxious restlessness. This is why, I believe that the people of Israel had flocked to the Jordan to heed the cry’s of John because they were anxious and restless. They came seeking relief and as John was telling them they would not find relief until they came under a new rule, the rule of God their king. Yet for this to happen they had to prepare the way for their king to come to them. This meant that they had to place their faith in the ways of God, to act as he commanded them to act and only then would they discover the reality that God promised to them. As John explained, those who had two coats were to share one with someone who lacked a coat. Those who had food were to share their food with the hungry. They were to let go of their demands which were nothing more than a cover for their insecurities and be content in what God had provided to them. They were to seek his kingdom and only then could they discover that they lived under a new rule, a new king who had come to them through faith. 

         This then is what we must first understand so that when we come to the baptism of Jesus we see this act in its proper setting. Yet once again we are faced with another oddity that requires some unpacking. By this I mean that as we clearly read in this account of John, his baptism in water was a baptism of repentance, a turning away from the rule of sin to live under the kingship of God by faith. If this is true then why is Jesus baptized because as we know he was without any sin of which to repent? These are the questions we must learn to ask to bring this life of Jesus out into the light so that we understand just who he is and what he came to accomplish because the answer to his baptism is quite surprising. The baptism of Jesus was different in many ways from all the others that John performed. First, we are told that the heavens opened up and from the heavens the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. Secondly, there came a voice from heaven declaring, “You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” This was the voice of the Heavenly Father making a public statement about who Jesus is that Jesus is the beloved Son of God and that as this beloved Son of God his Heavenly Father is well pleased with him. This declaration by the Heavenly Father is very similar to the beginning verses of the forty second chapter of Isaiah where we read God telling Isaiah, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him he will bring justice to the nations.” I believe that God is pointing us to this verse to help us figure out what was going on with this baptism of Jesus. Jesus in that moment was consecrated as God’s servant. A servant of God in the Bible was known as being a priest and as a priest Jesus was anointed not with oil, as was done with the high priest at the Temple, but with what the oil represented, the very Spirit of the holy God. So, where the baptism of repentance performed by John was to be an ending, an ending to living under the rule of sin, the baptism of Jesus was a beginning, the beginning of a new priesthood, what we call in the church the priesthood of all believers. The old priesthood represented by the Temple had become corrupt and was destined to be destroyed as John alluded to several times. As John said any tree that did not bear good fruit was to be cut down and thrown into the fire. This saying is understood as being the destruction of the Temple as we learn in the story of the fig tree that bore no fruit that Jesus cursed and destroyed as told in the eleventh chapter of Mark. The Temple which represented the Law of Moses proved that the limitation of all law is that no law can change the heart.People can outwardly adhere to the law all the while being quite unlawful in their hearts. This unlawfulness of the heart though cannot remain hidden because what is stored in our hearts eventually comes out in what we say and do. So it was with those who worshipped at the Temple. For them Temple worship became the means for their attempt to demand that God be their means to achieve victory over their enemy, the Romans something God was  opposed to. This hatred of their enemies was the bad fruit which would lead to the destruction of the tree, the Temple which would come at the yielding of the axe at the hands of the Roman army.

         God’s answer then was to send his Son Jesus, to be his high priest, to be his new Temple where his Spirit, his glory could reside. In the seventeenth chapter of John, what we read is what is often called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. There on the night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed with his disciples. His final words tell us of what was his primary purpose was as being the new high priest. Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father that he had made known to his disciples God’s name and he would continue to make this name known in order that the love which the Heavenly Father had loved Jesus his Son might be in his disciples, that Jesus himself might be in them. This was his purpose as high priest to bear the name of God. As we recall, God spoke his name to Moses in the thirty fourth chapter of Exodus, where God tells him that he is a God merciful and gracious, a God slow to anger, a God abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who by no means clears the guilty. So, when Jesus was baptized and anointed by the Holy Spirit he was declaring that his purpose, his public ministry was to be one who was going be a living representation of the truth of who God is because when people knew the truth of who God is, when they knew God as the fount of all grace and mercy, that they knew God to be patient with them, when then knew this God was a God of love that was bedrock solid, when they experienced this God as the one who could always be trusted that it was his promises that were true forever, then the passions of fear, anger, greed and resentment could be forever left behind. This was the life of Jesus, whose priesthood was seen most clearly upon the cross where Jesus our high priest placed his very life upon the cross as a once for all sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. There Jesus demonstrated that the fear of death no longer has to rule over us, for the rule of love is stronger than the grave. This our resurrected high priest proved to us.

         So, here at the baptism of Jesus we see who Jesus is as the one that day at the Jordan who was anointed our high priest. He was anointed to be the servant of God, the high priest who knew his purpose as being to bear the name of God. Yet he came to not just be our high priest but more importantly for us to be the founder of a new priesthood of which we become a part of when we are baptized by water and the Spirit just as Jesus was. The truth of this is heard in the words of Paul in the sixth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians where we read “But you were washed, you were cleansed, you were made holy.you were made righteous, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.” This is what has happened to us when we were baptized. When it states that we were made holy and righteous in the name of Jesus, this is the name of God that he bore as the priest of God. And now as his priests we are charged with bearing that same name, bearing the very reputation of the truth of God. In other words, what do the people in your world know about the truth of who God is through what you say and do? You see this is God’s plan to transform the world, to create a priesthood who will bear the truth of who he is to the world because when the world truly knows who he is they will be set free from the rule of sin to welcome in the true king, our Lord, Jesus God’s anointed one.Amen!

In His Father’s House…

 January 3 2021

Luke 2:41-52

         Well, for most of us the celebration of Christmas is over even though the season of Christmas officially doesn’t end until the sixth of January. For us this means that all of decorations, the many different manger scenes, and the multitude of Christmas paraphernalia must be gathered up, wrapped up and put away for another year. The ornaments and the lights on the three week old Christmas tree must be taken off and wrapped up and put away as well and the tree unceremoniously hauled off to the woods. So, at last the house goes back to its normal state and Christmas for another year becomes just memories to ponder and to cherish. Yet as we put away the outer trappings of Christmas for another year I believe that we have to be careful to, in our haste to get back to normal, put away the very essential meaning of Christmas that in the birth of Jesus God at last has begun the new creation, Jesus being the new Adam who is born from above. You see, it is easy to say, yes, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus but so what? Let’s just get on with life and leave that manger scene behind but in doing so we would fail to follow how this new life, a life born from above grows up and transforms the world into which it was born.

         This is what Luke is getting at in what seems to be a somewhat strange story of Jesus going on what appears to be quite an eventful family vacation. To make sense of just why Luke has even told this story and to figure out just what is meant by this story we have to make sure that we have not packed the birth of Jesus away with our Christmas decorations. Luke wants us to remember that because the conception of Jesus was different, that Jesus was born from above through a creative act of the Holy Spirit that this meant that Jesus was different from this moment on. Even though he appeared to be just like any other baby wrapped up in swaddling clothes, Jesus had a holy difference about him right from the start. Here in the story of Jesus and his strange family vacation Luke is reporting just when those around Jesus started to become aware that this kid was definitely not like the others.

         The story begins with Luke telling us that Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus were preparing to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover. Now, right here we must pause to consider that Lukes gospel is a story that has as its bookends, the feast of Passover. It was when Jesus was twelve when his family went to Jerusalem that those around him began to see that Jesus was unique and it was at another Passover celebration that those around Jesus began to understand on a much deeper level the vital importance of that unique nature of Jesus. There at that later celebration of Passover some twenty years after the first, Jesus would become known as the very Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. So it is this last celebration of Passover that gives this first celebration of Passover by Jesus and his family its true significance.

         The family of Jesus went to Jerusalem to observe Passover because they were devout Jews who adhered to the Law of Moses. As it is written in the sixteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, in the month of Abib on the Israel calendar all of the people of Israel were to offer a Passover sacrifice to God at the place where the Lord chose to make his name dwell which at the time of Jesus was the city of Jerusalem. Passover was a feast of remembrance, a time to recall how God brought his people out of Egypt by night, the night when the angel of death came upon the households of Egypt taking their firstborn but spared the households of Israel because of the blood of the lamb placed upon the door posts of their houses. As the people of Israel ate the sacrificed lamb as a family on that night of their freedom so through the ages Passover was always a family celebration, a time for younger generations to hear again and again of how God rescued his people from the slavery of Egypt.

         So, this is the reason for this family adventure. They were heading to Jerusalem to stay with their extended family who lived there, to sacrifice the required lamb and to celebrate Passover just as they had done so many times before. But this year was going to be different because when Mary and Joseph left to go back to Nazareth, Jesus stayed behind. Now it sounds kind of bad that Mary and Joseph wasn’t aware that Jesus had been gone for three days but in their defense we must remember that for safety sake they would have been traveling with a large group of friends or family. So it was easy for them to assume that Jesus was hanging out with his cousins or the neighbor kids. What we have to ask ourselves is why would Luke record that the time that elapsed until Jesus was found was three days? For those of us who know the rest of the story we know that three days points to the resurrection, and we have to wonder if Luke wasn’t giving his readers a few breadcrumbs to help them to get the meaning of his story. If three days points to the resurrection and the resurrection revealed that Jesus was truly born from above in the power of the Holy Spirit then, yes, Luke has given us a very important clue to help us figure out our story. 

         Well, when Mary and Joseph finally caught up with Jesus they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Luke goes on to tell us that all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Now there is a lot to unwrap in these few short sentences. First, we have to remember that Jesus is twelve. This means that according to our schooling he would have been in sixth grade. Do you remember what you were like in sixth grade? Does any sixth grader have any interest at all in hanging out in the teachers lounge during recess? Probably not. I mean, just how in the world would any kid hold up their end of the conversation they would have with not just an adult but a teacher, somebody who is supposed to know what they’re talking about. It goes without saying that there is a certain level of intimidation for kids when they decide to try and talk to teachers. So, this expected fear that is quite normal doesn’t seem to show up in the life of Jesus.

         Secondly, most kids know that if they do something without asking their parents for permission that its not going to end well. I mean Jesus had to know sneaking off to hang out with the teachers and priests was probably going to upset his parents just a little. I can only imagine the conversation Mary and Joseph had as they turned around and headed back to Jerusalem. They were probably torn between thoughts of worry and a desire to bring wrath down upon their disobedient child. I suspect that Jesus had to know this yet for some reason he proceeded with his plans. So, in knowing this then we know that there was something greater, something that was worth the expected pain that would come with his disobedience that motivated Jesus to do what he did. This something was worth so much to Jesus that he was willing to, if not break one of the commandments, strain it awfully hard.

         The third strange thing about this scenario of Jesus in the Temple hanging out with the learned folk was that he had anything to say at all. I mean we have to wonder just why was it that when these people who studied the scriptures extensively, why were they amazed at what Jesus had to say? I believe that the answer Luke wants us to come up with was that Jesus was born from above. It wasn’t that Jesus was some kind of child prodigy; no, it was that Jesus was a very different child all together. What this encounter Jesus had with the teachers in the Temples reveals is something that Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before Jesus came upon the scene. In the fifty fourth chapter of Isaiah, we read an astonishing prophecy that reads, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children.” Isaiah wrote that this is what would be the result of the arrival of the promised Servant-King that Isaiah speaks of throughout his book. So, when we know of this prophecy, then it helps us make sense of why Jesus had answers that amazed people. What Luke is telling us is that Jesus, as one born from above is also one who is taught from above. It wasn’t the great homeschooling that Mary and Joseph had given him; no, it was that the Heavenly Father had been teaching him all along. This explains why his answers were so mind blowing to these teachers in the Temple. And as Isaiah also records, this teaching of Jesus by his Heavenly Father was also why Jesus was so at peace with his decision. Jesus had peace because he was at peace with his Heavenly Father, trusting him and following his call even if it meant that it meant not heeding the call of his parents to head home.

         Now when Mary and Joseph finally catch up with Jesus they of course were a little weirded out, seeing their twelve year old hanging out out the big wigs of the Temple. Not only that, their twelve year old was holding his own with them, understanding more than anyone expected. Yet being the good parents that they were, they laid into him demanding to know just why he had treated them like he did. Didn’t Jesus know that his parents were worried sick over his wandering off? Now, again most kids know that in moments like these it’s a good thing just to shut your trap and go with your parents in silence. Yet once again though Jesus demonstrates that he is not your normal kid because his reply is, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house? Maybe Mary had forgotten the strange way that Jesus had come into this world or perhaps it was that she just did not know all the ramifications that went along with the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus. It is hard to say if she or Joseph could have put all the pieces together and knew that yes, Jesus was the son of the Heavenly Father and yes since this was true, of course Jesus would want to hang out in the Temple because as everyone knew the Temple was God’s house. But I think the reason for Jesus stating that he had to be in the Temple because the Temple was his Father’s house was more about who he knew he was than whether his parents knew who he was. Here in this answer of Jesus, it is clear.that he knew that he was born from above, that he had a Heavenly Father and this Heavenly Father’s house was the Temple. It was this knowledge that was the seeds of the contention the people of Israel would have with Jesus. For the people of Israel, people who had not been born from above, the Temple for them was a means for them to manipulate God so that they could get what they demanded of him. You can imagine how unseemly it would be for any child to watch as people would try and manipulate their parent to give in to their demands. So it was for Jesus, who loved his Heavenly Father. You see, Jesus was not only born from above but he was also taught from above and because he was taught from above he had peace. You see, what the people of Israel demanded from God was to bless their warring madness. How could this be so when as Jesus proved, what God desired was to teach them in order that they might be people of peace? This is the peace that Jesus demonstrated as the Lamb of God willing to lay down his life and shed his blood upon the cross a perfect once for all sacrifice as God’s Servant-King. This Jesus did so that we also by faith in what he has done for us might be like him, born from above. Now we too can know God as our Heavenly Father because the Holy Spirit in us cries out Abba, Father. And like Jesus we too can be taught by God. The result of letting God teach us is that like Jesus we too can have peace.  We can have peace because at long last we are no longer at war with God. We can have peace because we are no longer at war with ourselves and others. When we yield to the teaching of God then we no longer have to tear others down to make ourselves appear bigger. No, when God teaches us then we will learn the ways of love because God is love and all his ways are love.

         This is all of the out growth of that strange incident that Luke records about the early days of Jesus. Luke also goes on to say that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. It seems kind of vague to say that Jesus grew in wisdom and we are left wondering just what does this mean. We know that wisdom is the opposite of foolishness and since most of us don’t really have a desire to be a fool we try to make wise choices. I mean who really wants to look back on this year and say wow, I did a whole lot of foolish stuff this past year, way to go. Yet because we know Jesus grew in wisdom we can look on his life and discover what wisdom looks like. James, the brother of Jesus writes in the third chapter of his letter, that the wisdom from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. This wisdom from above is the characteristic of a life that is born from above , a life that is taught from above by God. But as the life of Jesus demonstrates this life of wisdom is something that is a living thing, a growing thing that must be nurtured and looked after.

         So as we ponder on this young life of Jesus on this the first Sunday of this year we can see that it is a fitting scripture to begin the year with.This is a good time to ask ourselves if we know with certainty that we have been born from above by faith in Jesus Christ? Does the Spirit of God in us make is cry out Abba, Father? This is a good time to ask ourselves are we being taught by God? Are we listening to the teachings of Jesus and obeying what Jesus taught? Perhaps this is the time to re-read the gospels to hear the words of the Son of God once again. We must not forget that the way that we know that we are being taught by God is that we have peace in our life, that we are known as peaceful people. Can you say that you are at peace with God, at peace with the people in your life and at peace with yourself? Finally, if you are honest can you say that you like Jesus are growing in wisdom, the wisdom from above? Is your life becoming more pure, kinder, gentler in your dealings with others? Are you known as being a reasonable person, a person of mercy and a person whose life is one that brings glory to God? These are important for us to consider because the days we are given, days that grow into months and years, are one of the most precious gifts that God gives to us. We show appreciation to God for the gift of life and of time by bringing heaven on earth by being born from above, by being taught from above and by living a life that bears the wisdom from above. To God be the glory! Amen!