A Child is Born: A Sermon for Christmas Eve

Prepare our hearts, oh God, to receive your word. Silence every voice in us but your own, so that we may hear your word. Amen.

 

The four Gospels present four unique and yet complimentary pictures of Jesus in the way they record the birth of Jesus: Matthew presents Jesus as the King of the Jews worthy of obedience and worship; Luke shows a humane Savior that brings good tidings and liberation to the poor, neglected and marginalized; Mark presents Jesus as Lord that serves in secret and thus shows a new way, free from the fight for supremacy and status; and John presents Jesus as God, who comes as the Word become flesh and shines in the darkness to bring a new beginning in this world.

 

Today we heard Luke’s version of Jesus’ birth story. Luke’s Gospel is an attempt to put in place an orderly account of the birth, ministry, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Luke wrote his Gospel primarily for a Gentile audience and focuses on the traditionally marginalized and neglected groups in First Century Mediterranean societies. Thus, Luke’s Gospel is full of references to women, children, the sick, the poor, and the rejected.

 

This special and caring focus on the neglected and rejected also features in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. Luke’s birth narrative is the longest out of all of the four Gospels and gives special attention to the role of the Holy Spirit and to the women in the story. Here the angel appears to Mary (not to Joseph as in Matthew’s Gospel) and it is Elizabeth, and then later again Mary, that each has words of praise and blessings recorded. Luke, in his human focus, records the “homeless” status of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem, the special care given to the baby Jesus as he is born, and how a lowly feeding troth becomes a crib.

 

As if to further emphasize this consistent focus of the poor and the rejected of society, the angels appear to shepherds in Luke’s account, not to the rich, privileged, and powerful wise men in Matthew’s account. It is the ordinary shepherds that witness this glorious event and became the first messengers of God’s peace and goodwill towards people on earth. The beautiful birth narrative of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel illustrates God’s relinquishing of the divine in Jesus, born amongst the poor and rejected, bringing good tidings of peace and goodwill to all.

 

So instead of singing “happy birthday to you” as we would any other baby, to celebrate the moment we happily join with millions of Christians around the world in remembering the birth of our Savior by singing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” We celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace with joy, and praise, and song!

 

And yet, despite being in a season of joy, sometimes we see and hear only the worst of what is around us, neglecting the simplest joys, and thinking that our times are so much worse than those faced by people in the past. Or perhaps we have reached the point of assuming that it's all up to us to bring the peace our hearts long for, with God not bothering to participate at all. Where are God’s caring hands in all of this desperate search for hope? But isn't Christmas about God intervening in human history? Isn't Christmas about God telling us not to give up hope after all, telling us not to believe that we are all on our own?

 

While we can't do it all, we can do something, and if we do this something together, just think of the great wonders God will work. Christmas is a tough time for many, and we are tasked as God’s children to take the message of hope found in Jesus and to spread our love and joy to others, now and all year round. Here is our biggest challenge: how do we sing and feel joy when, for example, when so many people around the world are suffering? The world just seems so dark and hostile. When there is so much turmoil, and the angel’s cry of “peace on earth” seems like more of a wish than a blessing, we who gather to sing carols, light our candles, and hear the Christmas story seem so very small against the backdrop of this troubled world.

 

In a world such as this, it is important that we become instruments of God's compassion and justice as we strive to put ourselves in God's service, to participate in what God is doing. Think about the angels singing that night, even though Rome had its boot heel on the throat of the Jewish people. Those angels sang anyway because they brought tidings of hope and of great joy. That is where we turn for help in dealing with the news on TV and on social media, and I hope that in some small way we might become tidings of great joy, and a word of hope, to those whom we meet each day. That work is the kind of music, the kind of singing together, that will change the world, and it is the melody God is calling us to join in and sing.

 

So, when you leave tonight, I pray that you will take the birth of Jesus into your hearts, and the joy and love and hope that his birth carries. In Jesus, God has brought us the light we need to shine in the dark places, to bring hope to the discouraged, insight to the lost, and the promise of peace for all those who long for it. It is this vision of the world that is indeed good news of great joy for all people.

 

Amen.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 51

Chapter 51 – Building on a Rock

 

Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall! (Matthew 7:24-27)

It's all about the foundation. In order to stand strong, we must have a strong foundation, especially in our faith. I think the problem lies in that we think we have a good strong foundation, but then when we are tested, when we are asked to go outside our comfort zone, suddenly our foundation is nothing but sand.

According to Oswald Chambers, “the way to put foundations under our castles is by paying attention to the words of Jesus Christ.” (p. 326) If you’ve been following along these last 50 weeks, you’ll know where I’m going with this. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is our instruction books; it’s the words that we can use to build our foundation. Pay attention to these words. Send time with your bible. Dig deep into the words of this sermon. It’s only with a solid foundation that when a true crisis arises that you’ll stand there like a rock.

And with this foundation of rock solidly in place, you can stand up for the oppressed, for the marginalized, for the unhoused, for the foreigner. With a good foundation, you can fight for justice and for peace.

Living out Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount will take determination, faith, love, and commitment.

Are you ready?

A Review of the Book "Night Shift" by Stephen King

Title: Night Shift

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Random House Inc

Year: 1976

505 pages

From the Back: Stephen King's first collection of stories is an early showcase of the depths that King's wicked imagination could plumb. In these 20 tales, we see mutated rats gone bad, a cataclysmic virus tat threatens humanity, a smoker who will try anything to stop, a reclusive alcoholic who begins a gruesome transformation, and many more. This is Stephen King's at his horrifying best.

Personal Thoughts: I switched from King's giant tomes to this collection of short stories to get a break from his narrative-heavy stories. I find reading short stories easier on the brain sometimes, giving me the ability to read a little faster. I will say though that these short writings of King's are just as scary, strange, weird, and nerve-wracking as his longer books! The whole collection was quite entertaining and a few of the stories even left me wanting more, wishing King hadn't stopped when he did! I suppose that's just the sign of a good story-teller.

At a Turning Point: A Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Advent

This sermon is heavily influenced by Victoria Larson from the Out of the Blue Advent Resource from BarnGeese Worship.

 

Prepare our hearts, oh God, to receive your word. Silence every voice in us but your own, so that we may hear your word. Amen.

 

As we approach the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, you can feel and see the winter weather coming. We’ve been receiving plenty of rain and rainfall warnings. The prairies are being hit by snowstorms and extreme weather warnings. The evenings are getting darker and there is less of an urge to go outside after dinner. Night has gotten longer and longer for months, with today, December 21, being the longest day of the year. You can’t help but ask, “are we finally at the turning point?’

 

There is also a lot of darkness in the world right now. War. Poverty. Homelessness. Human rights violations. Government agencies that seem to be working against the people instead of for them. I can hardly remember a time where these weren’t the headlines in our newspapers or on T.V. Such feelings of endlessness and uncertainty in our lives and in our world. Will we ever be at the turning point? How would we know if we were? How would we tell?

 

Luckily God’s perspective is broader than ours; God knows things that we couldn’t possibly predict in our limited, human capacity. Throughout Advent, we experience this tension between human uncertainty and divine promise as we are continually surprised by things coming to us out of the blue, even though God has been trying to tell us about them for ages. The readings for this Sunday give us stories that reflect this tension between uncertainty and promise, giving us two different ways that we can respond to God.

 

In the reading from the Hebrew Bible, God seeks to relieve King Ahaz’s uncertainty by sending him Isaiah to talk things through. Ahaz is navigating political upheaval, and it feels too risky to trust Isaiah’s message of divine security in the face of two powerful empires seeking to devour his kingdom. Even when God offers him a sign, Ahaz voices his doubts, not wanting to “put God to the test.”

 

Ahaz’s concerns are deeply relatable. It sometimes seems like signs from God never show up when we need them, so we learn to work without them. We figure out how to navigate our lives as a series of gentle nudges of the Spirit, as small steps along a path we can’t see. And maybe, if we’ve gone some time without a sign, without a prophet, without divine assurance, we learn about politically expedient choices: the solutions that will work even if they’re not the ones we want. Surviving isn’t the same as thriving, but it’s not nothing either.

 

Ahaz shows us a way of dealing with uncertainty that feels clear and strong and decisive, but there’s no room in it for a sign from heaven or a promise from God. Here’s what happens next: Isaiah’s prophecy holds. God’s promises come true. But Ahaz is no longer a part of them. He’s on a different path now, and he’s taking all of Judah with him. None of this means that God abandons Ahaz or Judah, but it does mean that Ahaz has lost his chance to become part of what God was offering. What if Ahaz had said yes instead?

 

In Matthew, we have the beginning of Jesus’ birth narrative and a different response to God’s messenger than we found with Ahaz. When Joseph learns of Mary’s pregnancy, he plans to dismiss her quietly. It’s the right thing to do, both socially and politically. Joseph feels like it’s his only option. It’s the choice that will work, whether or not it’s the thing Joseph wants. Enter God’s angelic messenger.

 

The angel tells Joseph of a future he can’t yet perceive. In the belly of the woman to whom he is engaged, God is knitting salvation, cell by cell. In the darkness of Mary’s womb, an old promise is taking on new flesh, and this child will save the people from their sins. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” says the angel.

 

What if Joseph had said no? What if he’d done the smart thing, the proper thing? What if he hadn’t let God come in and wreck the neatly-arranged-if-not-ideal future he had planned? If Jospeh had said no, he would have been in the same situation as Ahaz – a lost chance to become part of what God was offering. Instead, Joseph says yes, and becomes the earthly father of God the Son. In turn, Jesus claims the title of Son of David, wrapping himself in Joseph’s genealogy (which immediately precedes today’s gospel text in Matthew). God the Son took flesh within a family and a faith that shaped the human who he was in a way that mattered profoundly.

 

God’s purpose for creation is unavoidable, but that doesn’t make our choices inconsequential. Many times in our lives we find ourselves at crossroads, not knowing which path to take. We sit at that intersection, hoping that we will choose the right direction. We look for signs from God, but perhaps we don’t recognize them, or they aren’t what we are expecting. In the end, we make a choice, and that choice comes with consequences. Are we Ahaz, choosing the ignore the signs and thus missing out on all the good that God brings? Are we Joseph, accepting God’s message and bearing the difficulties the next 33 years brings, knowing that God’s path was chosen?

 

It’s hard to know when we’ve arrived at a turning point. And it’s hard, too, to accept the invitation to be part of a future that we can’t yet perceive. It’s hard to take those first few steps into an unknown future, where we don’t know the end result. It’s hard putting all of our trust in God’s hands, knowing that God is working in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. But that is exactly what God is doing through us, through our lives, through our community. God is inviting us to trust, to have faith, and to accept the guidance that God is offering.

 

St Peter’s has had a few turning points over the last handful of years, and we have more yet to come in 2026. Many of these intersections in the road came as a surprise. Some of them, maybe not as much. But each time, you have had to sit at the junctures and discern what was God’s will for this parish. Choices have been made, and consequences followed. This will be no different in the months to come. God invites us to join God in an unknown future with the knowledge that God will walk with us, no matter which path we choose.

 

Throughout Advent, we’ve read the stories of God’s invitation over and over again. God goes to Elizabeth and Zechariah and says, “You.” God goes to Mary and says, “You.” God goes to Joseph and says, “You.” God is actively inviting us to share in God’s work in the present. God is coming to us now and saying, “You.” You personally. You specifically. It is you whom God has been waiting for, you whom God is inviting into the turning points that, right now, only God can see.

 

When your invitation comes, what will you say?

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 50

Chapter 50 – Lord, Lord

 

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

“If you think of nothing but Christ, and do not set yourselves to do his words, you but build your houses on the sand,” says George MacDonald. (p. 317) In these verses, Matthew is telling us that simply calling out the Lord’s name won’t get you anywhere. There is no foundation to your life if you simply put God’s name in your mouth only when it benefits you.

To have God as your foundation, you must do more than just live in God’s name; you must also work in God’s name, doing the things that God wants you to do. Superficiality will get you no where with God. Using God’s name in vain will get you no where with God. It is easy to say your works are in God’s name, but it is hard to be sincere about it. If you are insincere in your work, then your foundation will be like sand, and you will sink or collapse.

Ask yourself this question posed by Mr. MacDonald, “What have you done this day because it was the will of Christ?” (p. 318) Have you fed the hungry or clothed the naked? Have you forgiven those who can’t forgive you? Have you turned back to save your enemy even though they might not have done the same for you?

Simply stating that you are Christian, that you follow Jesus, that you believe in God is not enough. Yes, we have salvation by faith alone, but faith without works is dead. “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” (James 2:26) Jesus calls for us to not only have faith, but to act on the faith, to work on being in right relationship with each other in order to have right relationship with God.

A Review of the Book "The Doctor and the Apostle" by Jeffrey A Nelson

Title: The Doctor and the Apostle

Author: Jeffrey A Nelson

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Year: 2020

124 pages

From the Back: What could a first-century church planter and tentmaker who helped forge the earliest years of a new religious movement possible have in common with a British time traveling alien who first appeared in the 1960s to teach children about history?

    Doctor Who has been a beloved science fiction franchise for over fifty years. Paul's letters have been around for quite a while longer, with the earliest ones that he wrote dated less than a generation after the life of Jesus. Both have inspired and instructed people on how to live and have stoked the imagination for what individual and communal life can be in their own way. And both were or are deeply flawed, sometimes struggling against their own tendencies or those of others in order to help bring about something greater for their respective worlds.

    The Doctor and the Apostle explores the similarities and differences between Doctor Who's title character and Paul of Tarsus, comparing and contrasting the stories of each. Whether a fan of one or the other or both, the reader will gain a greater understanding of the possibilities of a life of faith, as well as a deeper appreciation of how pop culture and Scripture may help inform one another.

Personal Thoughts: Pop culture plays an important part in our lives, and often it is used to teach us lessons that perhaps we wouldn't have learned any other way. It wouldn't take much thought to call up in our memories television episodes, movies, or songs that carried a heavy or important message, or both. Using pop culture to study scripture seems to help makes sense of things.

    I'm a big fan of the original showing of Doctor Who, although I have yet to watch the reboot of it. I have read many articles, however, about the powerful lessons found within the episodes. This small book does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting The Doctor and Paul with brief descriptions of episodes and little snippets of scripture. Which means you don't have to have ever watched the show to understand the lessons that Jeffrey Nelson is teaching us. It was an easy read and I highly recommend it. It's made me ponder whether or not I could write something similar using Star Trek, especially Deep Space Nine.

A Review of the Book "Daring to Share" by Sandra Beardsall, Mitzi Budde, and William McDonald

Title: Daring to Share

Author: Sandra Beardsall, Mitzi Budde, and William McDonald

Publisher: Pickwick Publications

Year:2018

170 pages

From the Back: Multi-denominational congregations offer rich soil for new interpretations of what it means to be a church. These parishes have chosen to covenant together for worship, service, ministry, mission, and nurturing of faith across two or more denominational traditions. Daring to Share tells their stories, investigates their practices, and proposes a fresh vision of church for the 21st century. This book equips ordained and lay leaders for the formation and flourishing of such ministries. It describes five models of partnership, analyzes the parish life cycle, interprets how worship works, addresses constitutional and governance issues, and reflects theologically on the intersection of diversity and unity.

    What can we learn from these congregations? Studying their particular witness, struggles, and promise for the future fills a gap in both congregational studies and contemporary ecclesiology. Multi-denominational parishes are more than a convenient way to revitalize congregational ministry. They present new opportunities and approaches for sharing the gospel. Ecumenical convergence meets demographic realities to suggest a mission strategy that will transform local practice and, perhaps, the church itself. By daring to share, these churches challenge a fractured world.

Personal Thoughts: With the decline in both membership and clergy, shared ministries may be the future of the church. It feels like this is such a new idea, but it turns out, according to this book, it's actually an old idea! What was specifically interesting was the work put in for ecumenical shared ministries. While we are truly one church under God, our doctrines and theologies keep us apart quite often. To be able to work through those differences to create strong and vibrant parishes is absolutely incredible.

    If your parish is beginning to consider shared ministry, whether it be inter- or extra-denominational, I truly recommend that you pick up this book and give it a read. There are some amazing ideas on how to work together without anyone feeling like they got bulldozed. I think my understanding and my work within the shared ministry in which I began my priesthood would have been much different if I had had knowledge of Daring to Share. 

A Song of Joy: A Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Prepare our hearts, oh God, to receive your word. Silence every voice in us but your own, so that we may hear your word. Amen.

 

The third Sunday in Advent is a rare moment when Protestant churches pay a little attention to Mary, mother of God. Mary is the first Christian – the first one to say “yes” to God’s crazy scheme to save the world through an unmarried Jewish teenager from the sticks. She is present at key points in Jesus’ ministry and even at his ascension and at Pentecost. She is a friend of the poor, mother of believers, the one who taught Jesus to pray and who teaches us.

 

The Canticle from the Gospel of Luke heard today is all about Mary. It’s her song of joy that is part of her resounding “yes” to God. Her beautiful song of praise is commonly called the Magnificat, from the Latin for “magnify.” Mary magnifies the Lord, proclaiming God’s greatness and rejoicing in God as Savior. She begins with God’s actions in her own life, for in choosing her to be the mother of the Messiah, the Mighty One has indeed “done great things for” her.

 

In Luke’s Gospel, we are told that Mary spent three months early in her pregnancy with her relative Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with her child, a child that would become John the Baptist. In the lines leading up to Mary’s Song of Praise, Elizabeth had just welcomed and honored her, saying, “blessed is she who believed.” Mary now recognizes with awe that not only Elizabeth, but all generations will call her blessed. But how blessed is she, really?

 

God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah, but in practical terms what does that mean for her? She is not from a family that can afford expensive food or clothing. She is a nobody, a peasant girl from a small village. Her friends and neighbors see her as a disgrace because she is unmarried and pregnant. Even Joseph was going to dump her. According to Matthew 1:19, “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” Being the mother of the Messiah is scarcely an unmixed blessing. She will bear the unspeakable grief of watching as her son is rejected, shamed, and crucified: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel … and a sword will pierce your own soul too”.

 

Despite all this, Mary praises God for honoring her. Imagine the kind of strength it takes to praise God for upheaving her life, a life foretold to lead to a mother’s worst fear – outliving their child. Not to mention the fact that her child’s death will be utterly gruesome. I say again, despite all this, Mary praises God for honoring her. Mary sings about the God who saves not just souls, but embodied people. The God she celebrates is not content merely to point people toward heaven; God’s redemptive work begins here on earth. God fills the hungry not only with hope, but with food. Rather than being satisfied with comforting the lowly, Mary’s Lord lifts them up, granting them dignity and honor, a seat at the table, and a voice in the conversation.

 

At the same time, God shows strength by disrupting the world’s power structures, dethroning rulers, and humbling the mighty. Clearly such saving acts are good news for the poor and lowly, but what does Mary’s song mean for the wealthy and the powerful? Is there nothing but judgment for them?

 

Though judgment and salvation may seem like opposites, they go hand in hand. Those who stand in awe only of themselves and their own power will be judged. Yet by bringing them down – by emptying and humbling them – God is saving them. When they turn their gaze from themselves and their own accomplishments, when their awe is directed to God – then there is mercy for them, too. When God empties the rich of their excess and fills the hungry with good things, the result is not social reversal as much as it is social leveling. The rich and powerful are stripped of their arrogance and taught to love their neighbors as they love themselves. Thus God provides for the poor and honors the humiliated. When the arrogant are scattered and the powerful brought down, then every person has access to enough of the world’s resources, and no one has too much. Every person is treated with dignity and respect, and no one uses power to harm.

 

Ultimately, Mary’s song, The Magnificat, is a cry for justice. The rich, the proud, and the powerful who will all be brought down and scattered away, empty, are those who make it impossible for the hungry to be fed and the impoverished to be lifted up. James’s letter also reminds us to be aware of the suffering that is caused by the world’s corrosive and corrupting values. When James exhorts his readers to wait for the coming of the Lord, he not only instructs them to wait with patience, he presupposes that they are doing so in the midst of suffering. To read James in the season of Advent is to take time to pause, reflect, and recognize where in our lives we are unprepared to welcome Christ anew, and what values and choices have closed us off to Christ’s presence in our midst. Reading James in the rhythm of the liturgical year is a corrective that cuts through the distractions of the “holiday season” and calls our attention back to Advent. James reminds us that this liturgical season of preparation is also a season of repentance and penance that must take seriously the suffering in our midst. Waiting patiently for the day of the Lord is, as James’ entire letter suggests, a time for recognizing the values that shape our lives and communities and recalibrating them, as need be, so that they may be in accord with the wisdom that is from above.

 

James’ letter along with Mary’s song magnifies the Savior who loves the whole world with a love that makes creation whole. God’s saving judgment is for all of us, bringing us down from the pride that fills us with ourselves until we can’t see either God or neighbor, bringing us up from the shame that distorts our worldview and convinces us that no one, not even God, could love us.

 

The mother of the Messiah has experienced God’s blessing. Mary’s blessing, like ours, is a cross-shaped blessing, a blessing that brings true freedom, the priceless gift of God’s salvation.

 

As is sung by Steve Bell, in his song called “Magnificat”:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

And my spirit exalts in God my Saviour

For He has looked with mercy on my lowliness

And my name will be forever exalted

For the mighty God has done great things for me

And His mercy will reach from age to age

And holy, holy, holy is His name

(Listen to the song HERE)

Resources

"Pilgrim Year: Advent" by Steve Bell

"Mary, Elizabeth, and The Magnificat" by Deacon Sherry Coman in Canada Lutheran

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 49

Chapter 49 – False Prophets

 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20)

Scot McKnight urges us to turn this text back to ourselves like a mirror and ask, “Am I the false prophet of this text?” (p. 310) I will admit that sometimes I’m guilty of this – being patient, kind, compassionate, and all the other qualities that make me a good priest while I’m at the office, the church, or in collar…but then at other times, I’m impatient, easily angered, and other not-so-nice qualities. In these times I pray to understand why this is happening and what I can do to rectify it.

False prophets are found elsewhere in our world; they are all over the place. Have you ever watched a baseball player hit a homerun and when he gets to home plate, he points to the sky in thanksgiving? Or how about when a natural disaster occurs and someone goes onto social media and declares that God sent the disaster to wipe out *insert any marginalized group here*? And then there are the megachurches…

According to Gene Davenport, false prophets are often sincere, truly believing themselves to be messengers of God. (p. 312) However, these same people often think that every problem has a simple solution. A quick quote from the bible and all will be well again. False prophets will tell you that nothing needs to be done during a crisis because God will take care of it. Pray it away! (Whatever “it” may be.)

But life isn’t that simple. Life is messy. Life is complicated. So, beware of false prophets who tell you that prayer alone will help. Jesus tells us that bearing good fruit, having action behind your prayers, is what will get you through this messy and complicated life.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 48

Chapter 48 – Two Ways

 

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) 

Throughout this book, there have been many great theologians, prophetic voices, and other inspirational sources. This chapter begins with quoting directly the first section of the Didache. This is not a source I recognized so I did a bit of Googling (yes, that’s now a verb.)

“The Didache (did-a-key), Διδαχή, or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is an early Christian text that most scholars date to the first or early second century.” This document was used as a manual for basic Christian living. The first chapter of this document is titled “The Two Ways” and talks about the way of life and the way of death. The piece quoted in our book from page 303 to 305 comes from The Way of Life and sounds pretty much like reading Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. The Way of Life is to love God, love yourself, love your neighbour, and follow the commandments set out by God. The Didache lays out exactly how you would go about living The Way of Life.

The second way is The Way of Death. According to the Didache, the Way of Death is being sinful and doing all things that leads a person away from being righteous. Essentially the opposite of all the things found in the Way of Life. At the end of this section of the Didache, it says, “Beware, lest anyone lead you astray from this way of righteousness, for he teaches apart from God. For if you can bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you cannot, do as much as you can.”

How often are we walking the thin line between perfection and failure? We expect so much out of ourselves. It’s hard to live up to our own expectations! But God doesn’t expect perfection. God expects us to try the best we can, ask for forgiveness when we fail, and then to get back on our feet and keep going.

If you're interested in reading The Didache for yourself, follow this link:

https://legacyicons.com/content/didache.pdf

Be Prepared: A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent

Prepare our hearts, oh God, to receive your word. Silence every voice in us but your own, so that we may hear your word. Amen.

When Cass told me she was coming here for my induction service, I gave myself a deadline of her arrival to get as much of the rectory set up as I could before she got here. When she told me she was bringing mystery guests with her, there was suddenly a new and joyful pressure of making sure I was prepared. I set to hanging artwork, making beds, gathering chairs, and putting away everything I wasn’t going to get to in bins and stored in a couple of currently unused rooms. Once that was done, I cleaned the house from top to bottom and filled the fridge and cupboards with food. While it wasn’t perfect and I didn’t get everything done that I wanted, when the first guest arrived, I was as prepared as I was going to be.

I’m sure many of you have similar stories of preparing for guests in your home. They say that nothing cleans a house better than incoming guests! This kind of preparation, while hard work, is easy to do when you know the date of your guest’s arrival. Perhaps some of you have family coming for Christmas so you know that everything needs to be prepared by December 20^th. Or maybe you’re going on a trip and so you have preparations to make for that, knowing the date and time of your departure. Or maybe you’re going for surgery and have a preparation list the doctor has given you to do ahead of time.

These are all some examples of how, with a specific timeline in mind, we can get ourselves prepared for the event. But what if we don’t know the date of our guest’s arrival? That’s how it is with Christ. We know that Christ is coming. We’re waiting on the edge of our seats for his arrival. But we ask ourselves, when is he coming and how do we prepare? Let me introduce you to John the Baptist, the man who calls out to us, “prepare the way of the Lord!”

Following the genealogy and a relatively long birth and infancy narrative during the first chapters of Matthew, the writer jumps ahead over the decades to the time of Jesus as an adult, starting with an introduction to John the Baptist. We are in a desert area of Judea, east of Jerusalem, on the banks of the Jordan River. People from all over the place have come down to see this strange man dressed in strange clothes eating strange food. Word has gotten out that he is proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is near and that we need to get ready. What does he mean? Why is he calling for repentance? Why are folks letting him dunk them in the river? Worst of all, why is he goading the Pharisees and Sadducees? Calling them a brood of vipers?! That’s not going to go over well!

If you read the rest of chapter 3 and head into chapter 4, you will read about the baptism of Jesus by John and the Temptation in the Wilderness, all leading to the ministry of Jesus, which doesn’t begin until the middle of chapter 4 of Matthew. Throughout the first 4 chapters, Matthew makes several connections between John the Baptist and Jesus as Messiah. Jesus and John are cousins so they’ll of course have familial connections, but it goes deeper than that.

The book of Malachi closes with a divine promise, in which God declares: “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” Matthew makes the connection between that promise and John the Baptist. For Matthew, John signifies the return of Elijah: “He is Elijah who is to come.” We know this because of how John is dressed. The “clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt” is how prophets were described to be dressed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. God has sent John ahead of Jesus so that he could give instructions on how to prepare for Jesus’ arrival. Not his cousin Jesus, but Jesus the Messiah.

Advent is a time to prepare for remembering and re-experiencing the birth of Jesus, and to prepare for the second coming of Jesus and the final manifestation of the Realm of Heaven. Throughout Advent, the church thinks afresh about how to join God in the movement towards a world that is more like the realm of heaven. And who better an Advent guide than John the Baptist, whose instructions for preparation are condensed into one word: “Repent!” John’s message is that the time has come to repent because the agent through whom God will affect the transformation from this age to the next is now revealed. Repentance is the first step towards joining Jesus in the community moving towards the Realm of Heaven.

The root meaning of “to repent” is “to turn” or to have a dramatic change of mind and direction. To repent is turn away from the values and practices of the old age such as idolatry, violence, injustice, exploitation, slavery, and scarcity. To repent is to turn away from those sins and turn towards the values and practices of the Realm of God. Repentance includes feeling sorry for one’s personal sins, but it is much more than a simple apology. Repentance is the action behind the apology. Repentance also underscores that change isn’t necessary for change’s sake, but rather that change is necessary because we’ve become aware that our actions are out of step with God’s deep desire for peace and equity for all God’s people and for the whole of creation. Repentance, in short, is realizing that you’ve been traveling one way, that God is pointing you a different way, and that you humbly change course accordingly.

Once named that way, of course, repentance can get pretty daunting pretty quickly. I mean, goodness, there are so many things I could repent of, we as a community and nation could repent of, even we as a species could and should repent of.

•           Pollution and climate change.

•           Poverty and food scarcity.

•           Racial and gender injustice.

•           The lack of clean water.

•           Crime and violence.

•           And the list goes on.

I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it! It’s mighty tempting to give up on the whole repentance thing, hunker down with our current and comfortable friends and biases, and get back to watching our favorite television series on Netflix.

But on this 2^nd Sunday in Advent, consider an element of your life of which you would like to repent – that is, change direction.

•           Is there an unhealthy relationship you want to repair or address?

•           Can you imagine using your time differently and toward better ends?

•           Is there some practice or habit you might take up that would produce more abundant life for you or those around you?

I’ll give you a few moments to ponder those questions.

Now, can you identify an element of our communal lives that needs repentance?

•           How can we help that repentance?

•           Volunteer at a local charitable agency?

•           Get to know someone who is quite different from you – ethnically or politically or generationally – and try to build a more robust community?

If we can think of repentance more concretely and, indeed, engage in just two acts of repentance – one personal, one more communal – we might go a long way in redeeming not just repentance but Advent itself. Because Advent has shrunk, I think, in our imaginations. For too long we’ve concluded that Advent, otherwise known as the month of December, is the season when we are scolded for not preparing for Christmas adequately – slow down, stop buying presents, make time for church, don’t get caught up in the holiday glitz. Do you know what I mean?

We’re so worried about the spirit of Christmas disappearing, but what about the spirit of Advent. The preparation of making room for Christ’s arrival, to be surprised again that God was and continues to be willing to enter into our lives and history and take on our vulnerability in order to give us hope. The God we know in Jesus comes down out of heaven to take on our burdens and give us hope by being with us and for us, not screaming repentance but inviting a more abundant life and helping us to see in the face of our neighbor not a competitor for scarce resources but a sibling in Christ.

If Advent is a time to slow down, it’s so that we can have more authentic life, not less Christmas. Advent is a season of hope. And if repentance takes hold, then it will lead to peace. It will place the neighbour before us, so that we might be in peaceful relationship. Advent is a time of multiple preparations – for a baby to be born; for the baby, grown into a man, to begin his ministry; and for the Messianic Son of Man, crucified and resurrected, to return. This 2nd week of Advent causes us to remember that because of Jesus we can experience a Christmas free from turmoil and chaos. Regardless of our circumstances or our situations, Jesus offers us peace and hope that passes all understanding.

 Amen.

Resources

"New Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament" edited by Daniel Durken

"'Matthew for Everyone" by N T Wright

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 47

Chapter 47 – The Golden Rule

 

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew (7:12)

 

The Golden Rule is something that most of us will have learned in our lives, even if our family had nothing to do with religion. Being kind to others doesn’t need a person to have a religious belief. The Golden Rule is a universal ethical principle stating that you should treat others as you would like to be treated. It requires reciprocity and empathy. It has universal application in that the principle applies to all human relationships. As well, despite all of their perceived differences, most religions have a Golden Rule. Here are a few examples:

·         Christianity: “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” (Matthew 7:21)

·         Judaism: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

·         Buddhism: “Do not hurt others in ways you yourself would find hurtful” (Udanavarga 5:18)

·         Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty: do nothing to others that would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5:117)

·         Islam: “None of you believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” (An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith 13)

·         Baha’i: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Udana-Varga, 5:18)

·         Confucianism: “When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.” (Li Ki 28.1.32)

But we must remember that the Gospel is not a set of legalistic rules. The Gospel is a gift from God meant to guide our spirits in the way of following the Golden Rule. As Roger L Shinn states, “Love, mercy, forgiveness, the spirit of the Beatitudes – here we find the spirit in which Jesus meant the Golden Rule.” (p. 299)