I Thought He Was with You

Homily: December 29, 2024

            There is a very famous movie that was released in 1990.  In the movie, the McAllister family is preparing for a Christmas trip to Paris.  The night before they are to depart, they all sit down to dinner, and their youngest son Kevin disrupts the meal.  He is subsequently sent to the attic as punishment.  During the night, they have a power outage and the next morning the family oversleeps, leading to a mad rush to make it to the airport on time.  Somehow, in the rush, Kevin is left “Home Alone”.  The family only discovers the fact that Kevin is missing when their flight is halfway across the Atlantic.  The rest of the movie divides its time between Kevin’s story of thwarting a home invasion and his mom, Kate’s story of frantically trying to book a flight and return home to find her son.

            Those who have seen the movie can understand Kate’s absolute panic when she realizes that she doesn’t know where Kevin is.  This panic is where Mary and Joseph found themselves when, on the way home after their Passover trip to Jerusalem, they discovered the fact that Jesus wasn’t with them. 

In today’s story, our English translation softens the language, telling us that Mary and Joseph were “anxiously searching”, but the word that Luke uses in the Greek is ὀδυνάω (odounow), and to give us a better sense of what Mary and Joseph were actually feeling, in the Biblical story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, after they had both died and the rich man was begging Abraham to have Lazarus put a drop of water on his tongue because he was in agony in the flames of hell, that word “agony” is translated from our word ὀδυνάω.

Yeah, Mary and Joseph were pretty upset, but I think that we need to know a little bit more about how this happened, because we can’t entirely blame Mary and Joseph.  During a typical Passover, the population of Jerusalem would increase from about 50,000 people to about 150,000 people.  Entire communities would travel to Jerusalem together in caravans because of the safety provided in numbers.  In those caravans, the women and children would travel in front with the men and young men following behind.  With Jesus being 12 years old, he was quite literally a tween.  Young enough to travel with his mother and the children, but also old enough to travel with his father and the young men.  So, it’s not hard to see how Mary may have thought that He was with Joseph and vice versa. 

Upon discovering the fact that Jesus was missing, Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem, looking for Jesus, and eventually finding Him in the temple.  Mary chides Jesus for staying behind in Jerusalem, saying “Your father and I have been searching for you”.  Jesus answers “Why were you searching for me?”  In the Greek, this is actually posed as a rhetorical question, a question with the assumption that they absolutely should have known where He was, even though they didn’t. 

So, what do we see when we look at this passage?  Do we see irresponsible parents?  Do we see some kind of adolescent rebellion, or maybe a combination of both?  No, I don’t think that we see any of that.  As a parent, I suppose it may be a little difficult to reconcile Jesus’ actions with the fact of His absolute sinlessness, but the answer to all of this lies within the text itself where Jesus says, “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

William Barclay says, “See how very gently but very definitely Jesus takes the name father from Joseph and gives it to God”[1].  Jesus’ here identifying God as His Father was something that was unique in Jewish literature.  The Bible often refers to God as “our Father” or as “The Father of Israel”, but never had God ever been referred to as Father in such a personal way.  At the tender age of 12 Jesus has already begun to develop an understanding of His singular and special relationship with the Father. 

We need to realize that this understanding is something that Jesus wasn’t born with.  His awareness of His relationship to the Father, His knowledge of the nature and scope of His mission, His understanding of His role as Lord and Savior, these are all things that developed as He grew.  This is why Luke will later tell us that “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature”.  Though divine, Jesus was still fully human.  And just like any other human, Jesus had to grow into an understanding of who He was and what He was called to do with His life. 

And the time that Jesus spent with the rabbis in Jerusalem was an important part of that discovery process.  Jesus was never going to receive a world class Jewish education in Nazareth but in Jerusalem He could sit and learn from the best and the brightest.  Jesus had come to a point where He had realized that He needed to prioritize His relationship with the Father.  This is why He stayed in Jerusalem to study, and this is why He was surprised when His parents didn’t know where He was.  Jesus was making His first steps towards adulthood, and a part of that was taking advantage of the opportunity to stay and learn while He had the chance.  But Jesus had one more year to go before He turned 13 and according to Jewish law, that is when He would become responsible for His own actions and could decide for Himself how He would practice His faith.  And so, Luke tells us that Jesus returned with His parents to Nazareth and was obedient to them. 

I believe that this story, the one and only story in the Bible about Jesus’ childhood, was included due to the importance of what happened in Jerusalem that year.  It was a year that Jesus took a major step forward into adulthood, a year that His understanding of His unique and special relationship with the Father was refined, and a year that he recognized His mandate to prioritize His mission, even over His responsibilities to His own family.  It was this attitude that would one day prompt Him to ask the question “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”  It was a year that Jesus would take a large step on the journey that would lead Him to fulfilling His calling.

Why we study the life of Jesus?  What do we hope to gain in our studies?  We study because we, as believers, are called to be like Jesus, and understanding His life and teaching is a critical part of the process of seeking Christ-likeness.  And so, I’d like to close with a thought from Clinton E. Arnold.  “What is important from Luke’s summary statement is that the life of Jesus reveals what a human life full of God’s Spirit and wisdom looks like.”[2]  The recognition of a special relationship with the Father, the desire to expand on the knowledge of one’s faith, the prioritizing of God’s mission in one’s life, all of these things that we see in 12 year old Jesus are qualities that we, as God’s children, also would do well to nurture in our own lives. 

My friend, Greg Monroe once said to me that prayer is not us asking God to do our will.  Prayer is us asking God to incorporate us into His will.  As we seek to follow Jesus and His example, may we also learn to grow into God’s will for us.

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[1] William Barclay, “The Gospel of Luke” (Revised Edition), Pg. 30

[2] Clinton E. Arnold, “Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke”, Pg. 147

Emmanuel

Homily December 24. 2024

            I find it fascinating that the opening verses of the story of the birth of Jesus include shepherds.  Shepherds had dirty jobs.  I mean REALLY dirty jobs.  The contact with animals that these shepherds experienced in the performing of their duties rendered them ritually unclean.  And as long as they worked as shepherds, they were perpetually ritually unclean.  Let’s stop for one moment and think about what this means.  Shepherds were, as a result of their profession, NEVER permitted to set foot in the temple and never permitted to participate in worship.

And their ceremonial uncleanness also separated them from the rest of the Jewish community because, as we all know, ritual uncleanness was contagious.  If you were to touch someone who was unclean, that made you unclean also.  And not only was the shepherd’s job dirty and alienating, but apparently, the people who worked as shepherds didn’t exactly have the best reputation.  In fact, according to Jewish law, a shepherd’s testimony was inadmissible in a court of law, presumably due to the character, or lack thereof, of those who were drawn to this profession.

            And so, with this in mind, the Christmas story takes on somewhat of a new dimension.  I mean, why were the angels sent to shepherds?  God could have sent the angel chorus to anyone He chose.  He could have sent that chorus to Caesar Agustus.  In the dark of night, He could have lit the imperial palace up as if it was midday and filled that space with the sound of heavenly praise.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent the angels to the temple and to the priests to herald the arrival of their long-awaited Messiah.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent that heavenly chorus directly to the high priest’s house and let the high priest be the one to tell the world the good news about Jesus’ birth.  But He didn’t.  A few weeks back we read that Luke identified 7 of the most influential men in the Roman world, but the angels didn’t visit any of them.  Instead, it was shepherds.  Why?

            Well, when WE hear good news, who is the first person that we want to tell?  We share our good news with those who are the most likely to delight with us over the news.  And so, we share our good news first with our closest family and friends, So, God’s choice to tell the shepherds first, is telling us something about God Himself.  God first told the Good News to those who He knew would be the ones who would rejoice with Him. 

The kings, the dignitaries, the religious rulers, they weren’t going to rejoice with God over the birth of the Messiah.  In fact, they would end up opposing Jesus because he threatened their power.  And so, God sent the heavenly host to tell the shepherds, and what did the shepherds do?  When they saw the baby Jesus in the manger, Luke tells us that, “they made known what [the angels] had told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,” And what did the shepherds do after they returned to their fields?  Luke tells us that, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.”  God told the shepherds first because God knew that they would be the ones who would be rejoicing with Him.

            Isaiah tells us that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.  And Jesus truly is “God with US”.  He is not God with the kings and the well connected.  He is not God with the religious authorities.  He is God WITH US!  He is God who doesn’t require His followers to have an elite position in society.  He is God who doesn’t require elite training in the Bible or in religion.  He is God who does not require an elite income or elite status to be His follower.  He is simply God with us.  And if we ever, ever doubt our worthiness to come before God, just remember that He came to the perpetually unclean shepherds first.

            It’s not possible to read the Bible and not come away with the understanding that God holds a special place in His heart for the poor and the marginalized.  The shepherds who were rejected by the people, excluded from worship, and deeply distrusted, are the very ones that God embraced.  It’s almost impossible to comprehend the fact that unclean shepherds, led by God to a baby, lying in a sheep’s feeding trough, wrapped in strips of cloth, and in a cold and damp cave, is the way the creator of the universe chose to enter the world.  No power, no influence, no friends in high places, just Emmanuel… God with us.

            God’s kingdom is not about power and authority, though God has those things in unfathomable abundance.  God’s kingdom is about God choosing to reconcile the world to Himself.  It’s about bridging the gap between God’s holiness and our sinfulness which God accomplishes by assigning the sinlessness and goodness of Jesus to us… and making it as if our sin never happened.  And this transaction, this free gift of a loving and gracious God is available to absolutely everyone who chooses to accept God’s gift of new life in Him.

            It doesn’t matter who we are.  It doesn’t matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.  It doesn’t matter how far away from God we think we are.  It only matters where our hearts are right here and right now.  This is the message of the shepherds.  God comes to the unclean, the unwanted, the unappreciated, and the rejected, and out of the difficulties of their lives, He creates something unimaginably beautiful.  He creates a life that He teaches to love Him and to love others.

            Here is the simple truth… If Jesus was willing to be born into an environment as dismal and as smelly as a manger, there is no heart into which He will be unwilling to be born as well.

Love Grows

Sermon for December 22, 2024

            This is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and for any who may have missed it, it is the Sunday of Love, and so we will be talking about love this morning.  For us in the twenty-first century English speaking world, we express the concept of love with just one word, “Love”.  Now, the concept of love actually has several different shades of meaning and so, when we use the word, we have to interpret the thought behind the word through the context in which it is used.  Unfortunately, it’s possible to misinterpret which shade of the word is being used and given the depth of emotion contained in this concept of love, the results of misunderstanding can sometimes be problematic.  For the first century Greco-Roman audience however, there were no such issues because the Greeks actually had four different words, with four completely different meanings, all four of which we translate into the English word “Love”.  Please allow me to explain.

            First, they had the word φῐλῐ́ᾱ (Philia), a word that we would refer to as “brotherly love”.  In fact, Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love because the name “Philadelphia” is derived from the Greek words φῐλῐ́ᾱ which means love and ἀδελφός which means brother or sister.  φῐλῐ́ᾱ could best be described as the deep and abiding friendship that you would have for a brother or sister, or a closest friend.

            Next, they had the word ἔρως (Eros) which is the root of our word “erotic”.  ἔρως describes love that includes a physical component, essentially describing a love between mutually committed individuals.

            Then, they had the word στοργή  (Storge) which is love with an obligatory component, such as a love one would have for their children, or even a love one has for their country.  It’s important to note that the obligatory nature of στοργή does not detract from the depth of love felt for the beloved.  It simply means that this is a type of love that one is expected to have.

            Finally, there is the word ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη (Agape), and ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη is a word that is extraordinarily rare in its use in classical Greek literature but a word that abounds in the Bible.  In fact, ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη is used over 250 times in the Septuagint, which is the third century BCE Greek version of the Old Testament,  And it is used more than 200 times in the New Testament.  This makes ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη love one of the most common themes of the Bible.  And the meaning of the word is a love that is not self-centered, but rather a love that is outwardly directed; a love that places the needs and wants of others ahead of one’s own. 

            ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη is defined by the words of 1 Corinthians 13 which are among the most well known words in the Bible due to their being one of the most commonly read Bible passages at weddings.  Readers of this passage tend to interpret it as instructions on how we are to love, and they aren’t wrong, but that’s not the whole story.  This passage actually describes the love that God has for us.  It’s a love that is patient and kind, a love that is not jealous, boastful, arrogant, or rude, it is love that does not insist on having its own way, that keeps no record of wrongs, and that rejoices not in wrongdoing but in truth.  This passage succinctly describes the love that God has for us and is also describing the love that God calls us to have not only for Him, but also for one another.

            Our first reading this morning is known as the Nunc Dimittis, a Latin phrase meaning “now you allow to depart”, but the passage is more commonly referred to as the Song of Simeon.  Luke describes Simeon as a righteous and devout man.  It is presumed that Simeon is elderly because the Holy Spirit has promised him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes.  Led by the Holy Spirit to the temple on the day that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to perform the purification ritual, when Simeon saw Jesus, he received Jesus into his arms and praised God with the words that we just read a few moments ago.

            In Luke’s narrative, Mary and Simeon are the only ones who actually hold the baby Jesus.  That’s not to say that others didn’t (I can’t imagine a father not wanting to hold his son!), but these are the only two whose actions were important enough to be mentioned in Luke’s narrative.  But why do we think that is?  Our reading today tells us that Simeon “took” Jesus into his arms, but the sense of the word that was used is that Simeon “received” Jesus into his arms, giving us the image of an infant being gently handed to a loving grandparent.  And upon taking the child into his arms, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Simeon says something that is truly revolutionary.  He says that, not only will this child be the glory of His people Israel, but also that He will be a “Light of revelation to the Gentiles”.  In these words, Simeon prophetically reveals God’s loving plan to reconcile to Himself, not only the Jewish people, but all of His beloved children.

            This universal love of God for His children is echoed in our passage from Matthew today.  Matthew speaks of the compassion that Jesus had for the crowds because they were helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

            The week before last, my girlfriend and I took a trip to Manhattan to see the Rockette’s Christmas spectacular and to see the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center.  I have been living is New Jersey for over 50 years and I had never done either of these things.  Never in my life have I ever been in a traffic jam, on foot, on a sidewalk.  There were so many people walking, so many people stopping to take pictures and selfies, so many people trying just to get from point A to point B, that the foot traffic on the sidewalk came to a complete standstill.  It took us over 45 minutes to walk 5 blocks. 

If you are watching the TV show “The Chosen” (and if you aren’t, you really should check it out!), the episode where Jesus is trying to get to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter looks very much like my trip to Manhattan.  Time and time again the Bible tells us about the enormous crowds that followed Jesus, and how they would press in on Him from all sides, and how He occasionally would try, often unsuccessfully, to get away from the crowds just to find a little solitude.  But as I read today’s passage, I can look at the crowds that followed Jesus in the light of the human traffic jam that is Manhattan at Christmas time, and the impact of Jesus’ statement that the harvest was plentiful was really brought home to me in that image.  Massive crowds, following Jesus, seeking answers to questions when they are not exactly sure what those questions even are. 

Harassed and helpless indeed.  And while Jesus devoted a good chunk of His time to trying to help people not only to find those answers, but to understand the actual questions themselves, He couldn’t do it all by Himself.  And so, Jesus, with compassion and love for those who were seeking answers, asks us to pray that the Lord will send out workers for the harvest.  And there’s a little bit of irony in this because we actually end up praying for ourselves.  Because WE are the workers for whom we are praying.  Jesus calls us to seek out with compassion and love the harassed and the helpless, that we may begin to be the ones who help to provide answers and clarity for them.

And it’s here that we run squarely into the heart of our call, because it is here… in this reading, that Jesus tells us why he does what He does.  Did anyone happen to catch it?  Matthew tells us that, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.”  Jesus’ mission is about far more than just obligation.  And it has absolutely nothing to do with the metrics of how many people did we save today.  Jesus didn’t just die for us, He lived his entire life for us.  Everything He did was centered on reconciling us to God, and everything He did, was done from an unshakable foundation of ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη love for each and every one of His beloved children.

I have a confession to make.  I am a complete social media geek.  I spend way too much time on Facebook and Quora, but I really like spending time on those apps because they give me an opportunity to share my faith, and that is something that I do rather often.  Not too long ago, a dear friend of mine, a committed believer who always seems to be seeking to expand the knowledge of his faith, forwarded a post questioning the universality of God’s love.  The premise of the post was that God’s love is reserved only for those who accept Him, leaving us to presume that God doesn’t love those who don’t accept Him.  I began my rebuttal to this post by quoting 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting ANYONE to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance.”  And I said in my reply that I believed that the answer to the question of “does God’s limit His love” would be found in discovering who are the “anyone” and who are the “everyone” that are referred to in this passage.  It turns out that the Greek word that is translated “anyone” is τινας (tinas) and parsing the word isn’t particularly helpful because in some verses in the Bible it does mean all people but in some other verses it means only certain people.  But the word used for “everyone” is different.  The “everyone” is translated from πάσας (pasas), and every use of this word that I could find in the Bible clearly means “all” or “every”.  This word is an emphatic statement of inclusion, and Jesus uses it three times in today’s reading. 

And so, upon whom did Jesus have compassion?  Πάσας, everyone.  To whom was Jesus called to bring the Good News of our reconciliation to God?  Πάσας, everyone.  And upon whom are WE called to have compassion?  Πάσας, everyone.  And to whom are we called to bring the Good News of our reconciliation to God?  Πάσας, everyone. 

God’s love knows no bounds, has no limits, is withheld from no one.  If indeed the call to the believer is a call to Christ likeness, then the call to us is to love exactly as Christ loved.  Both in the scope of HOW we love, as we seek to love selflessly, giving of ourselves to others out of compassion for their needs and their situations. And also in the scope of WHO we love, as we seek to love inclusively out of compassion for each and every person, because every one of them bears the image of the Living God.  This is the essence of ᾰ̓γᾰ́πη (agape).  This is the essence of love.  This is what it means to love as Jesus loved.  To love without limits, to love selflessly, and to withhold that love from no one.  From the manger to the cross, Jesus showed us what it means to truly love.  Let us go and do likewise.

Prepare the Way Part II

December 15, 2024

            Last week we spoke about making straight the way for the Lord.  We discussed the importance of learning to evaluate where are our valleys, our feelings of inadequacy or helplessness?  Where are our hills of ego and status-seeking and where are our crooked places of distractions and indifference?  Last week our focus was on identifying the problem.  Today the focus is on addressing the problem.

            John the Baptist had a tough task in front of him.  In the Jewish common theology of the first century, salvation was a matter of birthright.  In the mind of the first century Israelite, if you were Jewish, you were automatically an heir to an unbreakable promise from God that you were accepted into His kingdom.  But that isn’t exactly what the Bible says, and so, John doesn’t mince words.  “You brood of vipers” he said.  And the Greek word that he used is :  Γεννήματα (Yeneemata), which actually means to beget or to bring forth.  Here, John is calling those who have come to see him not the children of God, but the children of vipers.  And then he asked them “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

            What wrath?  For his first century Jewish audience, they thought of themselves as children of the Promise, God’s chosen people.  And so, John’s challenge was to teach his listeners that being a descendant of Abraham was worthless unless their lives reflected Abraham’s righteousness as well.  Dr. Doug Scalise teaches us that, “One of the central elements of the Old Testament covenant is the generational promise, which begins with Abraham, continues with Isaac and Jacob, and is extended through them to all of their descendants.  But John says that this promise is meaningless, apart from repentance. In other words, claiming the promise of Abraham without the faith of Abraham simply doesn’t work. John is changing the game, and his preaching challenges his hearers to [understand that change]. [1]  John illustrates his point by telling the crowd that God could make descendants of Abraham out of the stones that surrounded them, if He so chose. 

The message that John the Baptist was bringing was revolutionary.  For a first century Jew even to consider the fact that they may not be resting comfortably in God’s good graces was unthinkable.  And so, John continued, “Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.  Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” You see, John knows that those who think of themselves as “good people”; the important, the wealthy, the well connected, and the self-righteous, are the most difficult people to convince of their need for a savior.  John knew that he had to convince the Jewish people that something they had believed for their entire lives was wrong.  And John knew that an ordinary teacher was not going to be able to accomplish this, which is why John needed to be recognized as having the authority of a prophet in order to speak, and to be heard. 

            Apparently, John’s message reached enough of his listeners that some of them began asking him, “What must we do?”  John’s answer shouldn’t have been news to his listeners.  94 times Old Testament authors repeat the command to care for the poor, and so, John tells the crowd, ““He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”  Dr. Judith Jones says, “John’s words show that he views poverty neither as an accident nor as the fault of the poor. In his time, as in ours, the earth produced more than enough goods to feed and clothe everyone. The problem then and now is that the resources have been grabbed up by a very small percentage of the population. John called not only the wealthiest but also the merely comfortable to treat their accumulation of goods as directly related to the seriousness of their repentance. How we get money and how we use money exposes what we value. Economic issues are spiritual issues. If we ignore God’s commands to practice social and economic justice, how can we claim that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? If we prioritize our pleasures above our neighbors’ basic necessities, how can we claim to love our neighbors as we love ourselves?” [2]

            Last week I mentioned that God was about to do something brand new, and that John is the herald of that message.  In Jesus, God teaches us that righteousness is not about what we do, it’s about who we are.  Reversing Dr. Jones’ comment, when we truly love our neighbors, their needs will become a priority to us.  When we truly love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will, in the words of the prophet Amos, “Let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.  And we will do these things simply because it is within our new nature in Christ to do so.

            And then, from the crowd came two additional questions.  First, the tax collectors asked, “What should we do?”.  Tax collectors were despised by the Jews because they were viewed as traitors, working for the hated Romans.  To make matters worse, Tax collectors had a guideline from Rome about how much tax they were required to collect and their pay was included in that amount, but tax collectors routinely collected more than the required amount, and then pocketed the difference.  John told them to collect no more than they were required to collect and to stop padding their paycheck with the extra money they were taking from the taxpayers.  Next, a group of soldiers asked, “What should we do?”  Roman soldiers often used their position of authority to extort money from people, threatening to have them jailed or worse if they didn’t pay up.  John told them to be satisfied with their wages and not to intimidate or falsely accuse anyone. 

            It’s interesting to note here that, while both tax collectors and Roman soldiers were among the most despised of Israel’s inhabitants, John doesn’t tell them to quit their jobs… but rather to do their jobs in a way that exhibited ethics, and justice, and even love towards others.  Donald G. Miller says, “This counsel of John is not to be thought of as mere moralizing, nor as salvation by works.  Had he stood for this he would not have broken with the religious leaders of his day.  He is not saying that if [people] are generous, honest, and faithful, they will thereby earn the right to become members of the coming kingdom.  He is rather saying that if one acknowledges [their] unworthiness and accepts God’s gracious gift of entrance into the coming kingdom, [they] will show [that gratitude] by ethical behavior [towards others].  This is not the ethics of legalism, but the ethics of gratitude”. [3]

            Can we see the distinction here?  A changed heart that loves and honors others can only be achieved by a transformation of that heart that is brought about by the Holy Spirit.  In recognizing the hopeless situation that we face before God as a result of sin, we turn to Him asking Him for His gracious forgiveness.  And this forgiveness results in μετανοίας (Metanoias), which is the Greek word that we translate “repentance”.  But μετανοίας means to have a transformative change of the heart, or to have a completely new perspective on our lives that alters the way we think and the way we act.  In short, we become an entirely new person; a person recreated, bearing not only the image of God, but also bearing the image of God’s heart.

            I said before that the “good people”, the important, the wealthy, the well connected, and the self-righteous, are the most difficult people to convince of their need for a savior.  This principle didn’t just apply to the Israelites of the first century.  This principle is universal among humans.  And so sometimes harsh language such as John used is necessary to jolt people out of their presumptive righteousness. 

            And so, the pressing question for us this morning, and for every minute of every day, is “what must we do?”  Well, as we discussed last week, we must prepare the way for the Lord in our own hearts.  We must set aside our insecurities, and our egos, and our distractions, and our indifferences, and we must devote time to prayer, asking God to let His Holy Spirit make the transformative changes in our lives that are necessary in order for us to become productive and faithful citizens of His kingdom. 

            And as God is going about the business of changing our hearts, we can practice.  We can practice loving others, even to the point of seeking to place their needs ahead of our own.  We can practice kindness, and empathy, and forgiveness.  And we can practice justice.  We can recognize the places where the word’s systems create injustice, and we can become a strident voice advocating for fairness and equality in our community and in our world.

            John’s language over the last two weeks has been apocalyptic.  “The wrath to come”, “The axe is at the root”, “baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire”!  John is making it crystal clear that a new world is coming, and that that world will be very different from the one we now inhabit.  The Rev. Chelsea Harmon said, “If the world is ending, it’s best to live the way of the world that is to come; because then, we will at least recognize ourselves when we are in it.  As people who are washed and cleansed by God’s own transforming hand, we’ve already begun to be different, living from the core of goodness that is Christ within us, rather than our selfish motivations which so often control us.  We will see that the fruit of our ordinary faithfulness was actually the fruit of God’s kingdom coming, here and now; the purifying for eternity has already begun by the work of the Holy Spirit!” [4]

            Rev. Harmon asks an excellent question.  “When this world ends and all that is left of us is what is of God and his Kingdom, will we be able to recognize ourselves?”  Will the fully transformed person that we will become closely resemble the person that we are today?  Or will so much more transformation be necessary that we won’t even recognize the new person that we will become? 

            These are good questions; questions that we should give some thought.  A few weeks ago, I made a comment about theologians liking to say that the kingdom of God is eschatologically here, meaning that the kingdom of God exists in two places at once.  One is the kingdom that is the blessed future hope of every follower of Christ, and the other is the kingdom that is present among us in the here and now.  And as citizens of that kingdom in the here and now, it is our quest, our responsibility, our fondest desire, that we should manifest kingdom living to the fullest of the ability that God grants us through the Holy Spirit.

            But every bit of this is built on the foundation of gratitude for what God has done for us through Jesus.

            The other day I saw a meme on Facebook that had a Philip Yancey quote.  And I love Philip Yancey.  He was talking about the thief on the cross, and he said, “In one of his last acts before death, Jesus forgave a thief dangling on a cross, knowing full well the thief had converted out of plain fear. That thief would never study the Bible, never attend synagogue or church, and never make amends to all those he had wronged. He simply said “Jesus, remember me,” and Jesus promised, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’ It was another shocking reminder that grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us.” [5]  It is this grace, this entirely unmerited and extravagant grace, that prompts our response of gratitude.  God has done for us, in Jesus, that which we could never have accomplished on our own.  God has given us life and has reconciled us to Himself, making us beloved citizens of His kingdom.  With that in mind, is there any part of our lives that we should be unwilling to give Him in return?

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[1] Doug Scalise, “What Should We Do”, BrewsterBaptistChurch.org

[2] Dr. Judith Jones, Commentary on Luke 3:7-18, WorkingPreacher.org

[3] Donald G. Miller, The Layman’s Bible Commentary: Luke, Pg. 45

[4] Chelsea Harmon, Luke 3:7-18 Commentary, CEPreaching.org

[5] Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Quoted on Facebook

Prepare the Way

Sermon December 8, 2024

            There were a lot of things that the Romans were really good at.  One of these things was building roads.  There are Roman roads that were built hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth that are still in use.  Try to imagine what the Garden State Parkway would look like after 2400 years without maintenance!  Roman engineers started by digging a trench about three feet deep and then building retaining walls on the sides.  They then built the road in layers with a base layer of compacted sand or gravel and a 12-inch layer of concrete that was made from volcanic ash and quicklime.  Then there was another layer of concrete mixed with gravel, and then that was topped with two layers of stones.  The roads were cambered or arched to provide drainage.  In wet areas the roads were elevated to prevent flooding and they used a drainage system to disperse the water runoff.  Roman roads were made to be straight or only gently curved in order to prevent the possibility of people hiding around curves to set an ambush, and except in special circumstances, roads were limited to grade increases or decreases of no more than 8%.  To accomplish this, hills needed to be flattened, valleys needed to be filled in, and the route had to be carefully planned so the road would be as straight as possible.

            When a Roman emperor was planning a visit to one of the provinces, the first thing that would happen, far in advance of the visit, would be Roman engineers traveling to the area to make sure that the roads and accommodations were perfect, and building new roads was a part of that job.  The engineers would literally make straight the way, cutting through hills and building up the valleys; all to see to it that the emperor had a pleasant and uneventful journey. 

            And so, the language of today’s passage would have been well understood by Luke’s first century audience but is not something that we would understand in the same way without having learned a little bit of that cultural background.  Luke is using this imagery that would have been familiar to his audience to make a point about John the Baptist’s ministry, but there is more that we yet need to understand. 

            In Jewish antiquity, events of significant importance would almost always be accompanied by the voice of a prophet.  From Moses to Malachi, God spoke to His people to guide them, to encourage the, to warn them, and to chastise them.  Prophets arose every time Israel faced an important or catastrophic event from Moses leading the people out of Egypt, to Deborah prophesying during the conquest of Canaan.  From Samuel and Nathan during the reigns of Saul and David, to Joel, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah before and during the fall of Israel and Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah before and during the fall of Judah.  Obadiah and Ezekiel prophesied during the captivity of the Israelites and the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi accompanied the Israelites back to the Promised Land at the end of the exile.   The appearance of prophets at these critical times shows just how active God was among His people.  And as we look at the stories of these prophets, we find that time and time again they are introduced to us with the same phrase, “The word of the Lord came to…” fill in the blank.  But after Malachi, there was a period of over 400 years with Israel not hearing the voice of a prophet.  And so here, Luke has gone out of his way to identify John the Baptist as a prophet.  Something new and important was about to happen and so God was once again speaking to His people.  The word of the Lord came to John.

            Now, Luke has been universally recognized as a thorough and meticulous historian.  Over the years, things that Luke wrote, names, places, titles, and such, were thought to be either inaccurate or fabrications, but archaeology has consistently found proof of the accuracy of Luke’s reporting.  The famed archaeologist Sir William Ramsey was a harsh critic of Luke until he studied him.  And as his archeological work began revealing the truth about Luke’s writings, Ramsey became convinced of Luke’s accuracy, wrote several books about archaeology’s ties to Luke, and was knighted for his work on the Bible. 

And so, today’s reading, in typical Luke fashion, meticulously identifies the exact time frame of the beginning of John’s ministry.  The 15^th year of Tiberius Caeser’s reign, while Pilate was governor of Judea. Luke also mentions the Tetrarchs Herod, Philip, and Lysanias, and identifies Annas and Caiaphas as High Priest.  But I think that Luke has more in mind here than just establishing a timeline.  Because when Luke places the beginning of John’s ministry in the 15^th year of Tiberius Ceaser’s reign, he unquestionably identifies that ministry as beginning sometime between October of the year 27 and September of the year 28.  But here, Luke has named seven men, seven men representing the height of political and religious power.  And yet as powerful as these people were, God was about to do something here that was earth shaking far beyond anything any of these men could have hoped to achieve.  Dr. David E. Garland said, “These rulers appear to have far more influence than John, but they have no inkling that the foundations that supported their thrones and murderous ideologies would be shaken to the core because of what would happen in an obscure corner of the empire beginning with an obscure prophet.  This list reveals that Roman political dominance over the world does not control the story but a transcendent power does – God’s eternal will.  God was moving in ways that would dethrone them.” [1]  And so, into their world comes a man, a man with no money, no political power, no influence, and yet this is the man to whom came the word of God.  This is the man about whom the angel Gabril spoke, when he said that John would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.  This is the one about whom Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist”.  The great reversal has begun!

John is a prophet.  And John is here to announce something entirely new.  Something that we are going to talk about… next week.  So stay tuned!  But for today, I would like to focus on the image that is being drawn here about preparing the way for the Lord.  Flatten the mountains, raise the valleys, and straighten the roads.  Luke’s first century listeners understood that imagery, and now so do we.  But what does it mean?  

Well, what things are standing in the way of our relationship with Jesus?  What are our valleys?  When are the times when we feel inadequate or helpless?  You know, there’s an old saying that God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.  When we feel like we are not up to the task of sharing the Gospel, or feeding the hungry, or loving our enemies, these things can be the valleys in our lives.  But John tells us to lift up those valleys.  We have to trust that we don’t need to be afraid of sharing our faith because when the time comes, the Spirit will give us the exact right words to say.  We have to understand that God is not calling us to feed EVERYONE, He is just calling us to do our part; to care for those who God puts in our path.  If we have trouble loving our enemies… well, we all have trouble loving our enemies.  But we can start by praying for them and maybe eventually our prayers for them may end up healing us!  Satan loves it when we feel inadequate because those feelings of inadequacy can paralyze us and keep us from being effective servants of the Gospel.  So, lift up those valleys!  We need to learn to recognize the areas in our lives where our feelings are preventing us from living to glorify God.  And we need to pray on these things because God is faithful to equip us with everything that we need in our service to Him, if only we ask.  Let us make our valleys exalted.

Next, what are our hills?  What are the things in our lives where ego and status-seeking hinder our love for one another?  When we see a poor person, when we see someone who is homeless, dirty, and disheveled, when we see migrants crossing the river in a desperate attempt to make a better life for themselves and their families, do we feel repulsed?  Are we quick to blame the poor for being poor; quick to blame the homeless for not picking themselves up and bettering themselves; quick to blame the migrant for not following the rules?  Or are we looking at these people and seeing the Imago Dei, the image of the Living God, OUR God, dwelling within them.  A huge part of the love that we are called to have for others is built on empathy.  Until such time as we knock down the hills of our ego, we will lack the ability to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, and until we are able to do that, it will be impossible for us to love in the way that we are called to love.  Let us make our hills low.

Finally, where are our roads crooked?  Where do we get distracted or thrown off course?  What are the things in our lives that interfere with our focus on Jesus or our focus on living faithfully?  The world is full of distractions, and sometimes we need to force ourselves to set those distractions aside in order to create time for prayer, for worship, for service.  Being a child of God sometimes requires a re-prioritizing of our lives.  In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul wrote, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”  This re-prioritizing of our lives is exactly the sacrifice to which Paul was referring.  The Christian Missionary Jim Elliot once said, ““He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose”.  Let us pray that we are able to set aside our distractions and take the time that we’ve saved to instead become fruitful bearers of the Good News of the kingdom.  Let us make our roads straight.

            John preached a message of repentance.  His message is grounded in the idea that our encounter with the Living God who we meet in the person of Jesus will affect us in such a profound way that it alters how we think and what we do.  Donald G. Miller says, “When the multitudes flocked to John to be baptized, he insisted that the rite was of no value save as it testified to a deep inner change of the heart.  This change of heart, however, was not some dramatic act far removed from the common round of life.  It was to be manifested by living in hope of the coming Kingdom in the ordinary tasks of every day.[2] 

            My dear friends, we are in the process of becoming new creations.  As God continues to touch our lives, He is transforming our hearts into hearts that will someday look just like His heart.  Hearts that have the capacity to love others, even those who are difficult to love.  Hearts that are broken when we see that some of God’s children are hungry, or homeless, or exploited, or abandoned.  Hearts that long for justice and fairness and equality. 

            And so, as God’s Holy Spirit works in us to bring about this transformed heart, let us participate in that process by bringing low our hills, exalting our valleys, and making straight the way for the Lord.

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[1] Dr. David E. Garland, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 152

[2] Donald G. Miller, The Layman’s Bible Commentary: Luke, Pg. 44

Signs and Portents

Sermon December 1, 2024

            What in the world is going on here??  Here we are in the beginning of Advent with Christmas and the joyous birth of Jesus right around the corner and our reading today is telling us that, “People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”  Why are we reading apocalyptic literature like this right before Christmas?  Wouldn’t we really rather have a nice reminder about the baby in the manger; maybe an animal or two with a heavenly chorus thrown in for good measure?  No pun intended.

            Well, today is the first Sunday in Advent and our word “Advent” comes from the Latin “Adventus” which is a word that means “to arrive”.  And so, appropriately, Advent is the time for us to be preparing for the arrival of the Christ Child.  But… let us not forget that the birth of Jesus in a manger is not going to be His only Advent.  There is a second arrival that is yet to come, and today’s reading is addressing that Parousia, or second coming of Christ.  So, in spite of the fact that this discussion may seem a little out of place in this otherwise joyful season of Christmas, there are some great reasons to talk about these things now.

            As Christians, we are pretty familiar with the Christmas story.  Even non-Christians are familiar with at least part of it.  Popular culture has seen to that, whether it is through the story that is silently told by a creche or the ubiquitous Christmas songs in the stores, or through Linus’ wonderful narrative in the Peanuts Christmas special.  We are familiar with the events of Christ’s first Advent, but our familiarity with the first Advent stands in stark contrast to the myriads of questions that surround the second one. 

            We spoke just two weeks ago about the Olivet discourse, and we discussed the critical importance of being able to separate the true from the counterfeit.  That concept of finding truth was carried through our lesson last week and expanded, and now this week, Jesus is telling us how holding on to that truth is going to sustain us through all manner of worldly events.  “There will be signs,” Jesus said.  Signs that will sometimes point to anguish and perplexity.  I don’t have to tell you that there is no shortage of trials in this life.  We need look no further than our weekly prayer list to know that sometimes people struggle; sometimes all of us struggle.  And facing difficulties is never, ever, an easy thing.

            In today’s lesson, Jesus is giving us the bad news first, but as He talks to us about the trials that the world is going to face, there is something really interesting that’s hidden in this passage.  When Jesus tells us in verse 27 that people are going to be “apprehensive of what is coming on the world”, He doesn’t use the standard Greek word for “world” which is κόσμος, (Cosmos) he uses the word οἰκουμένῃ (oikoumene) which is a word that refers not to the whole world in general, but specifically to the political and economic forces within the world.  So, with this in mind, let’s take a look at that text again.  The concern of the people is about how these things that are happening are going to affect the politically and financially connected.  But for those who are seeking the truth, the political and the financial should be of much less consequence.  Because our focus as believers isn’t on political power, and most of us aren’t managing huge portfolios.  As those seeking the truth, our focus should be on truth seeking.  And when Jesus says to us, “When these things begin to take place”, these things that are causing the world all of these concerns, we should “stand up and lift up [our] heads, because [our] redemption is drawing near.”  Jesus is reminding us of our place as ambassadors in this world; reminders that we do not belong to this world, but that we are a part of the kingdom of God, even in the here and now.

Have you ever started reading a book, and before you have finished the book, you skipped to the end to see what happens?  Sometimes you really just want to know how the story ends.  Well, as Christians, we have kind of skipped to the end of the book, and we do know how our story ends.  We don’t know when, but we do know how.

As the end times approach and the world’s political and financial systems come crashing down, as the people who are IN the world are panic stricken over what is happening, followers of Jesus will know that the time of our redemption has finally come.  And while the rest of the world is looking downcast, fearful of how these apocalyptic events are going to impact their lives, Christians will be looking up because we know that the kingdom of God, that which we have hoped for, for our entire Christian lifetime is finally at hand. 

Let’s take a quick look back at the beginning of Luke and you can tell me what you see.  Mary’s Magnificat, the song that she sang when Elizabeth blessed her and her unborn child, is filled with references to scattering the proud and bringing down rulers, to filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty, to exalting the humble. John the Baptist called the people who came to be baptized by him a “brood of vipers” and asked them “who warned [them] to flee from the coming wrath?”  In His very first sermon Jesus claimed that He had been anointed to “proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and give sight to the blind”.  Theologians have referred to the coming kingdom as “The Great Reversal”.  God never intended for His resources to be hoarded.  He never intended for people to exploit others for personal gain.  The kingdom will restore God’s planned order of things.  The financial and cultural hills will be made low, and those valleys will be exalted.  Pastor David Cotton once said, “Good news for the poor is always bad news for the rich”.  And those who have taken advantage, those who have exploited others for personal gain, those who have substituted greed for love, are finally going to be called to account for their actions. 

The coming kingdom of God will abound in love, in compassion, in empathy, in justice, in fairness, and in equality.  Those who are unable or who choose not to live as people of the light are going to be left out.  It’s not a pleasant thought.  But here is the truth… that even the worst of those people, are still to be loved by us.

Christians are called to be messengers. We are called to be the ones proclaiming the coming kingdom.  And we are called to exhibit kingdom living in our lives right here and right now.  Because our actions need to be consistent with our message if we expect anyone to actually hear us.  And here’s the thing that we always need to remember.  We never know when our actions are going to have an eternal impact on another person. 

One of the best friends I have ever had was a guy named Roy Williams.  Roy was a black guy and Roy was a Christian, but not just any Christian.  He was a member of a really exuberant church. I know, I went with him once.  You think MY sermons are long?  Great music though!  Roy was also the single most joyful person that I have ever met.  He was always smiling, had a great sense of humor, loved a good joke, and was relentless in sharing his faith with me.  But he was never, in the four years that we were best friends, never once overbearing or “preachy”.  He was just joyous… and always delighted to be talking about his faith.  Roy is one of the three people in my life who are responsible for my having become a committed follower of Jesus.  I may never have made that commitment if it wasn’t for Roy.  But Roy and I lost touch with each other before that ever happened.  And so, I can’t imagine any way that Roy would know the impact that he had on my life, or on my faith.  In a way, this makes me really sad, because I wish that there was a way for me to thank him.  But I also know that Roy was thoroughly familiar with the fact that while we plant the seeds, it’s God who brings the increase.  And Roy was just completely happy to be the guy who was doing the planting.

We are called to love.  We are called to be joyous.  We are called to live lives that reflect the goodness and the kindness, and the love of God.  And our faithfulness to do that may be the only opportunity for someone who seems destined to be left out of God’s kingdom, to be welcomed instead. 

And so, we celebrate Advent both commemorating the historic birth of Jesus and anticipating the future coming of Christ on the clouds of glory.  Pastor James Laurence says, “[Today’s] scripture readings – help us to focus on the deeper preparation that we are called to undertake this time of year. They remind us of the spiritual preparation that is needed to get ready for the return of our Savior.” [1]

Yes, difficulties will come.  But we have already read the end of the book.  Warren Wiersbe says, “Our Lord’s admonition to His people is, ‘Don’t be terrified!’  These things must come to pass, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent them.  This does not mean that God’s people are submitting to blind fate; rather it means they are yielding to the plan of a loving Father who works all things ‘after the counsel of His own will.”  [2]  William Barclay says, “The Christian conception of history is that it has a goal and at that goal, Jesus Christ will be Lord of All.  That’s all we know, and all we need to know.” [3] 

For those of us who are facing difficulties let me just say this:  When reading the story about the death of Lazarus, we find that before Lazarus died, Jesus already knew that He would be raising him from the dead.  When Jesus visited Mary and Martha after Lazarus had died, Jesus walked with them to the tomb. And what did Jesus do?  The Bible tells us that He wept.  But He wasn’t crying for Lazarus.  Because He knew that in just a few minutes Lazarus would be alive again.  He was crying because He was moved by the grief of His friends.  This is the God we serve.  A God who walks with us in our darkest times, and cries with us in our grief.  No, our trials will never be easy, but we do know that we will never face them alone.

Finally, we return once again to a discussion about truth.  In the Matthew parallel to today’s passage, Matthew says, “False messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”  This is why Jesus has called us to, “Be always on the watch, and pray that [we] may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that [we] may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”  Because when all is said and done, that’s the plan, isn’t it?  To stand before Jesus?    As Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

My friends, it’s Advent!  As we prepare to receive the newborn king into our lives, let us tell His story!  As we receive His love and His grace, let us reflect that love and grace to the world.  And as we contemplate His second coming, let us be watchful, let us wait patiently, never allowing ourselves to be fooled, always being cognizant of the truth, and let us pray the prayer that the saints have been praying for centuries, “Amen, come Lord Jesus”.

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[1] James Laurence, “There Will Be Signs”, MyPastoralPonderings.com

[2] Warren Wiersbe. “Be Courageous”, Pg. 97

[3] Billiam Barclay, “The Gospel of Luke (Revised Edition), Pg. 261