Today's Sermon

I am copying and pasting my sermon from today for public comment. I think Gram was a little confused by it. Another woman said, "I think there were 5 or 6 good sermons in there." Not sure if that meant she thought it could be shorter or that I didn't develop any one idea too well. (She may be right on that point...) Lets see what you think...

Halloween spills into Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving into Christmas. It has long been lamented that Thanksgiving, for example, cannot be truly appreciated because of what retailers have done to it - no sooner has Halloween ended than Christmas trees, decorations and toppers are available in, of all places, Lowe’s home improvement warehouse!

The church is guilty of a similar eclipsing. The start of the Christian year may be Advent at the beginning of December, but the quintessential holiday Christians celebrate is Resurrection Sunday. This is perhaps appropriate. Part of Jesus’ reason for coming as a child at Christmas was to settle a debt we could not pay - to offer himself as the atonement for our sin. But if we think this is the ONLY reason Jesus had to come to earth, we are preaching an anemic gospel.

Had Jesus only needed to die on the cross for our sins he would have likely come to earth in some extravagant production - down through the clouds for all to see. He wouldn’t necessarily have needed to come as a baby. He wouldn’t have needed to grow up, go to school, learn a trade, and he certainly wouldn’t have spent three years in ministry. After his baptism he would have needed only go straight to Jerusalem and incite the religious authorities to detest him and begin planning his demise. He would have wasted no time getting to the cross, and he certainly wouldn’t have needed to rise again. I have often heard it said that a gospel preached without a resurrected Jesus is empty. Just why is that? If we focus on Easter and forget Christmas we loose it altogether.

To get an idea of why Jesus had to come as he did we must return go the garden. Eden - indeed, the world - was perfect when it was created. After each thing was created - the light, the land and sea, even humankind, God declared it good. Listen to what was said of us when humankind was created, (Gen 1.26-28)
“God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature
So that they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, the Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them;
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of the Earth.”

Of course, this did not last long. After eating of the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil, Adam and Eve’s sin cursed not only themselves, but the whole of creation. Because of the sin of the serpent he was cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals - to slink on his belly and eat dirt all the days of his life and was set at enmity with man. Because of Eve’s sin, womankind was cursed to endure pains in childbirth and to be lorded over by her husband even though she would want to please him. And because of Adam’s sin, mankind was cursed to labor on the earth in pain and toil. As we are told in Genesis 3.17-19,
“The very ground is cursed because of you (speaking to Adam);
getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;

-a quick aside - I guess women can’t really hold the pain of childbirth over her husband and children, can she, if the pain is comparable as this says? Anyway...let me start this again...

you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
Notice how humankind’s sin cursed the earth - all of creation - the ground damned to produce thorns and weeds. As chief among created beings, created in the image of God, humankind was originally meant to rule the earth - prosper, reproduce and be responsible for everything in it. But because of our disobedience have come into the world pain, domineering, labor and toil just for sustenance.

The very next pericope in Genesis brings us to Noah and his family. Noah alone, of all the people on earth, pleased God. Genesis 6.5-7 says,
“GOD saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil - evil, evil, evil from morning to night. GOD was sorry he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart.
GOD said, ‘I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds - the works. I’m sorry I made them.”
All this was the responsibility of humans. As caretakers of creation our actions have doomed the Earth. Human evil alone placed the whole of creation at odds with God. And so the flood was sent to start anew - a sort of second creation.

After the flood God promised never to send another flood to destroy the earth, sealing the promise with the rainbow, and gave instructions to Noah and his sons, blessing them,
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature - birds, animals, fish - will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else.”
But just as this second creation was not as glorious as the first, there is already a stain of the fall on it - instead of being responsible for creation we see that every living creature will be afraid of us - the curse of the serpent extended to every living creature.

Without exploring the whole of Israel’s narrative between Noah and Advent, I will highlight one more aspect of our shared heritage - The Abrahamic covenant. At 100 and 91 years old respectively, Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the son of the covenant. Isaac was still young when God instructed Abraham to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. We all know the story well - “God will provide himself a lamb,” Abraham comforted a confused Isaac. And he did. As the knife was raised above Isaac, the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham and provided a ram caught in the thicket in Isaac’s place. Because of Abraham’s obedience in this and other tests he entered into covenant with God - covenant that would make his line great and a blessing to all nations of the Earth. At Mount Sinai God provides us with the details of the covenant - our end of the bargain. Ten commandments God writes on stone for the people and are kept in the Ark of the Covenant, but there are also many other laws God gave that day. Such as, “If someone hits father or mother, the penalty is death. If someone uncovers a cistern or digs a pit and leaves it open and an ox or donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit must pay whatever the animal is worth to its owner but can keep the dead animal” and so on. We move now to Exodus 22 to a very interesting set of laws in verses 21-24,
“Don’t abuse or take advantage of strangers; you, remember, were once strangers in Egypt.
“Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. If you do, and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them seriously; I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans.”

God’s part in this relationship? God was to bless Abraham and his descendents - out of him would spring many generations, more numerous than the stars, out of his lineage would rise kings, and through him all nations of the earth would be blessed. Quite a promise to a man with a barren wife!

Between Mt. Sinai and the first Christmas day there were many things that took place, but we have a pretty good foundation now for where I am going. God created the world and humankind as its caretakers. Humankind rebelled and so cursed the entire earth, but God was already working on the remedy for human sin - he made a covenant with Abraham to foretell of his promised deliverance from our wretched state. The earth was created perfect and our job was to care for it, but after the fall and the flood we were given to lord over the land and all the animals within it would fear us and heed our commands. At Sinai we were told our end of the bargain - we are to keep his commands and thus stay in his good graces, and as I highlighted, care for the orphan, the widow, and deal justly with strangers because we were once strangers in Egypt.

It was a few hundred years I believe between Sinai and Christ’s coming - well, 42 generations between Abraham and Christ according to Saint Matthew’s account. Think of the first to know of Christ’s birth. Who were they? Luke tells us angels announced to shepherds on a hillside the birth of a Savior, Messiah and Master. In case you are wondering, shepherding is not for the elite. Pre-exodus, Abraham’s large entourage included shepherds but they were lowly slave boys. Angels appeared to shepherds proclaiming Jesus’ birth as a happy event for the entire world! Then back to Matthew - Wise men (or scholars, as the Message translates it) from the east have come some distance to worship the newborn king of the Jews. I say they travelled some distance because the Wise men have observed the star for many months at least - when they hoodwink Herod he orders all male babies two years and younger be killed to protect his claim to the throne. And this age - two years - was a number he learned from the wise men who had described their observations of the star and when it first appeared. Another thing to think about - I have done a search for mention of a star in the Hebrew scriptures to see what they believed this star in the east corresponded to and why they thought it heralded the birth of a King of the Jews - nothing. As Matthew records, Herod, after being told of the star by the wise men, gathers his scholars to learn where this child would be born and so points the wise men to Bethlehem because of Micah’s prophecy, which says,
“Its you, Bethlehem, in Judah’s land,
no longer bringing up the rear.
From you will come the leader
who will shepherd-rule my people, my Israel.”
But you notice there is no mention of a star to tell us of this great event occurring. Whose scriptures were the wise men reading, then? Their own? But that would mean God had worked through pagan scripture to point these particular scholars to a particular star at a particular time so they would be to Jerusalem by the time Jesus was born. If the wise men had not come there would have been a great many other prophecies unfulfilled as Matthew tells us - prophecy told us Jesus was called out of Egypt and that he would be called a Nazarene - both moves of Jesus’ family prompted by angels’ warnings in dreams to Joseph, and both set into motion because the wise men had visited Herod and not kept their deal with him. So we have the first parties to know of Jesus’ birth in shepherds, young boys, maybe slaves and wise scholars of another nationality altogether. Can you see how perhaps Matthew is trying to say Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham - because of YOU all nations of the earth will be blessed?

So Jesus grows and matures. He is baptized by John in the Jordan, led into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan and attended by angels. When he emerges he is a different person - a man on a mission. Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God, Mark quotes Jesus, (1.14-15)
“Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”

Notice Jesus does not immediately run to Jerusalem. For three years he is in the wilderness of Galilee, in Nazareth, keeping away from his ultimate demise in Jerusalem. He spends time teaching, preaching, traveling from place to place healing the sick, raising the dead and delivering the possessed of their demon possessors. This three years is in contrast to a week’s worth of time that ends in his resurrection from the dead. In fact, this is all before he claimed he was the Messiah sent by God.

Our Gospel lesson from Luke this morning shows us how Jesus intended to show his Messiahship - not through his death as that time had not yet come - but through his acts of mercy.
“Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard:
“The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised
The wretched of the earth
have God’s salvation hospitality extended to them.”
Think of the orphan and widow language of Moses’ law - do you hear an echo here? “The wretched of the earth have God’s salvation-hospitality extended to them?” In heralding the Kingdom of God Jesus is in effect pushing back the curse, one miracle at a time. Pain, sorrow, marginalization, fear, shame, even demons flee before him. Do they flee before us?

Before getting ready for the day yesterday I was thinking about our society of materialism. I thought I needed more jeans this year so I asked for a few for Christmas. I ended up with four new pair! Four pair of jeans to add to the drawer of jeans I brought back with me from school. Two pair have a color that is still in style but the fit is not, so I prefer not to wear them. Another I bought with a gift certificate from Christmas last year but I ended up home with them before I realized they had holes in them - purposefully! There all shades of colors, (denims, blacks, etc) different washes of blue or black, different degrees of stressing and distressing, and now holes! Then there are the host of non-jean pants in my closet. How many of you who are older than me had so many things in your closet as a child or young adult? I have often heard it said that each child had two sets of clothes - one for work and play and the other for school. Was there something inadequate with that system? I can’t imagine there was. We are concerned with saving the environment now, which as stewards of the earth we should all be concerned about, but here we are buying dozens of pairs of pants for each child, and each adult, wearing them one day and then throwing them in the hamper - if we are concerned with the environment won’t we wear the pants a few times and then wash them? Shouldn’t we stop buying so many jeans in the first place? I really should find out who said this quote because it is very striking - something to this affect, “The pair of pants hanging in the closet that you never wear are not yours - they belong to the person on the street who has none. Shame on us for leaving them there!” We are hoarders in America. Further, we invest in companies that make the latest style of jean because we know people will be out buying them for themselves or their children - but do they have the money to buy $80 or $90 jeans? Not to mention the practices the company employs in Taiwan where the jeans are actually made... We are caught in a trap of materialism and can’t seem to get out. Do the Amish and Mennonites have the answer? Some days I think they do.

This is just an example of the bondage we find or put ourselves in - the same that result from the fall and humankind’s disobedience. The same Jesus was crusading against in his three years of ministry - disease, sickness, evil of all sorts.

When we tell our story to others, what do we say of our deliverance? Do we give them some grand monologue in three and four-syllable theological terms about our justification or sanctification, then describe our stance for or against John Wesley, Calvin or Luther on this or that minute point? Or do we tell people plainly how Jesus delivered us from self-condemnation, drunkenness, smoking, illness, disease, or other obsession? Which is more relatable, more powerful? Furthermore - what do we do to combat materialism, substance abuse, poverty, hunger, homelessness and disease? Are we really disciples of Jesus if we preach a gospel of reconciliation with a wrathful God and are not working right alongside Jesus to turn back the curse any way we see it?

I visited a Greek Orthodox Church in Kentucky this fall and was I ever blessed! The congregation is still small and meets in a strip mall storefront just 10 minutes from campus. The sanctuary is decorated with beautiful gold icons of Jesus, and a few others. There are no pews in this church save a bench all around the room for the feeble - children and adults stand in the center of the room participating in the worship service. The whole service is in plain chant - the prayers to begin, the congregational responses, the epistle and gospel readings. The most impressive part of the service to me was the gospel reading itself. Until a certain time everyone is standing in families all around the room participating in the service in their own little groups - until the Priest grabs the large gilded book containing the gospels. At this point, he picks it up off the lectern and brings it down to the floor where the congregation is standing. Everyone in the group gathers to the front of the sanctuary as one body, where the Priest is, chanting through the day’s reading from the gospel. The symbolism is rich - God sent his only son from heaven to earth to dwell among us - listen to John’s rendering of this, (1.14)
“The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into our neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.”

True, Jesus died taking the penalty of our sins on himself - but he lived so that we might live. He lived to show us how to live. He died to satisfy God’s holy need for blood to forgive sins and pass over us, but he rose again to prove that he was indeed the Son of God and to enable us, as he was enabled by God, to (Matt 28.18)
“Go out and train everyone we meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Amen.