Sermon for April 14, 2024

Readings:

• Acts 3:12-19
• 1 John 3:1-7
• Luke 24:36b-48
• Psalm 4

Preachers like to think that we are clever and that we have much to add to the reading of God’s word, but sometimes we really don’t. Sometimes we just need to let you hear the story and then mostly get out of the way. You heard a portion from the Book of Acts this morning, but you didn’t get the whole story and I really want you to hear the whole story. First let me set the scene:

After Jesus rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, after he ascended into heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had come down on Pentecost 50 days later, the disciples were in Jerusalem still worshipping God in the temple, and still trying to make sense out of everything that they had just witnessed. Miracle after miracle that had just turned their understanding of the world upside down. They had witnessed Jesus crucified and then three days later rise from the dead. They had seen him in the flesh, not some ghostly vision, but in the flesh. They had eaten with him. This was an experience of God’s power like no other, and before this resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven he said to his disciples: YOU will receive power from the Holy Spirit. You will receive power and you will be my witnesses. And Jesus ascended into heaven. And yes, we know that 10 days later another miracle occurred, the miracle of Pentecost, and that the Holy Spirit did come down on those disciples. The disciples received power from that Holy Spirit. And shortly after that they were headed back into the temple to pray, because of course it doesn’t matter how much Holy Ghost power you have or you think you have, you still need to pray and pray regularly. 

Anyways, that is where our story from Acts this morning really begins, after Pentecost, with the disciples headed into the temple to pray.

3 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple. ³ Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. ⁴ And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, “Look at us.” ⁵ And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸ And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

¹¹ While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s, astounded. ¹² And when Peter saw it he addressed the people, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant^[a] Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus^[b] has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. ¹⁷ “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

You see, once you hear the whole story, I don’t really think I need to add much more to that. Peter and John had power, but they knew where it really came from. All of our power, as Christians comes through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In a moment, we will all stand and affirm our belief in the resurrection. We celebrate it at every mass, but of course especially at this time of year, in Eastertide. But if Jesus can do that, if Jesus can come back from the dead, then what can’t he do? Is faith in this Jesus just some fond hope of heaven, or is there real power, in this world, that can be had by calling upon his name? Can the power of Jesus really heal people, change people? Obviously, unbelievers question whether or not there is any power in Jesus’s name to actually change anything in this world, but it is surprising sometimes how much believers question it too. There are a lot of Christians who think that it is really up to us to fix this broken world of sin and suffering through our own enlightened choices. But the whole story from Acts this morning, makes it very clear that Peter and John recognized that there was real power in calling on Jesus’s name. It is power that comes from God, not from ourselves or our own piety or moral perfection. The power we have as the church is the same power that healed the man outside the temple that morning. It is the most precious thing we have to give anyone. It is still something worth more than silver and gold. 

Sermon for Easter Sunday 2024

Readings:

• Acts 10:34-43
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
• Mark 16:1-8
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Well, excellent! That’s my job done for this morning. 

If it is the preacher’s job to proclaim the resurrection and to get you all to proclaim the resurrection in return, then I’ve just done it. We can move on with this service. I know that that will come as a tremendous relief to some of you, because I am know that some of y’all are thinking, “Lord, I hope he doesn’t go on too long.” Don’t you worry. I promise this won’t take any longer than 20 or 30 minutes. I’m kidding. 

Fortunately for me, the church and our tradition have made my job a lot easier this morning, because you all have prayer books and bulletins, and you know that when I say “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” That you are supposed to say “The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” That is very helpful for me. It is also helpful that on Easter the church looks its most respectable and our proclamation looks the most reasonable. We are scrubbed up and clean. We pull out the best silver and put on our best clothes and our biggest hats. We welcome visitors and out of town family members. The music is joyful and upbeat. For a weekend at least, church seems like a perfectly natural and reasonable thing to do. The sanctuary is filled with beautiful flowers that remind us of warmer weather and sunny days spent outdoors playing in God’s beautiful creation. Who doesn’t want to celebrate the earth springing back to life again? Seems perfectly natural to me. The flowers and the springtime make our Easter proclamation of the resurrection seem so much easier. Almost reasonable and respectable. Who doesn’t appreciate the beauty of the world bursting into color again?

I love all the flowers. In fact, whenever I see daffodils, which are all over this time of year, whenever I see them, I am reminded of the first spring that I saw the rectory here. For any of y’all who may be new or may be visitors, the rectory is not the little house right here, but is about a mile away. The first time I saw it would have been when I was interviewing to be the rector of the Church of the Ascension. In any event, I remember the rectory in spring and there were these gorgeous bunches of daffodils growing right in the front garden. And they were so beautiful, but there was one little problem. They weren’t symmetrical and even; they weren’t distributed evenly along the garden border; they were concentrated in a few glorious clumps. After I became the rector and moved in, and after the daffodils had gone dormant again, I set about fixing that problem and breaking the clumps of bulbs up and distributing them all more evenly, like God himself would have done if he cared about things being neat and orderly. Well, the result of all that back breaking work is on full display at the rectory right now if any of you should happen to pass by. 

There is not a daffodil in sight! 

Not one. There hasn’t been for years. They’re all dead. You know, we decorate with lilies and daffodils and tulips at easter because they seem to die and miraculously come back every year, but I’m here to tell you that’s not true. These plants don’t die every fall and come back to life in the spring. They just go dormant. They go to sleep if you will, but they are still very much alive. Unless of course some fool messes with them. Then they might die. Daffodils can die. Trees can die. Lilies can die. A dormant plant can come back again and again and again. That’s natural. But a dead plant isn’t coming back. That’s natural too. It’s been twelve years, and I can assure you that my daffodils aren’t coming back.

My daffodils are dead. Dead things don’t come back to life. 

And Jesus was dead.  Jesus was dead. Don’t let the flowers fool you, because there is nothing natural about the resurrection that we proclaim here today. The lilies and the daffodils, they may seem to make our proclamation reasonable and respectable; they may make the story we are telling here a little easier to swallow, but in a few minutes when we ask you to stand and affirm the church’s creed, you will be proclaiming a belief in something that as far as our understanding of the world is concerned, is completely unnatural. Dead things don’t come back to life.

Dead flowers don’t come back to life. Dead bodies don’t come back to life. The women who were headed to the tomb that Easter Sunday morning, they knew that. The disciples who were huddling and hiding in the upper room, grieving their Lord, they knew that. The people who had casually followed Jesus, who had liked his preaching, who had hoped that he would be the one to save them, but then had seen him publicly crucified, they knew that. They knew he wasn’t coming back. 

But the stone was rolled away. Jesus’s body wasn’t there. Just this figure dressed in white with this impossible, unbelievable message. He has been raised; he is not here. Who could believe that? Flowers may seem to come back to life, but dead bodies don’t. So, when the women came back from the tomb of course they were afraid to tell anyone what they had seen. Mark says that they didn’t say anything to anyone because they were afraid. Of course they were afraid. Dead bodies don’t come back to life. That is not a reasonable thing to say or believe. 

You know it is one thing for me to say “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” in here, when I know how you will all respond. But the women didn’t know how people would respond to this proclamation that Jesus is alive. Why on earth would anyone believe that? And the women didn’t believe it as first. Mary thought someone had taken Jesus away. The other disciples didn’t believe it at first. John believed when he saw the empty shroud lying on the floor, but most of the disciples didn’t believe until they saw the risen lord. It’s not an easy thing to believe. It’s not reasonable. It’s not natural. And yet this single event is the heart and soul of the good news. This event is what inspired the disciples to record the details of Jesus’s life and teachings. This event is what gave them the courage to face death, in most cases execution or martyrdom, rather than to deny what they had witnessed. And when the early church gathered to define what was our core belief, the heart of the Christian proclamation to the world, it was Jesus’s death and resurrection, this event. Our creed, which you will proclaim in a moment, that hinges on Jesus’s death and resurrection. But this has always been a hard thing for the world to accept. 

The consensus of almost everyone on Easter Sunday morning was that Jesus was dead. It fell to just a handful of women to give the minority report, the dissenting opinion to the judgement of the world, that Jesus was alive again. It takes courage to do that. It takes courage to go against the wisdom or the popular opinion of the world. It takes courage to believe the unbelievable, even when the evidence is staring you in the face and calling your name. The women were scared at first but eventually they found the courage to go and tell the other disciples. Once the other disciples had seen the risen lord, they too were afraid to talk about what they had seen, but eventually the spirit moved them to go out into the world and to proclaim the news that nobody wanted to believe. That Christ was alive. After Peter received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he went out into public and proclaimed: you know who Jesus of Nazareth is. His way of life, his deeds of power, that you know. His death and crucifixion, that you saw. But of his resurrection, we are witnesses. We are here to witness to this most unbelievable part of his story. That he was raised from the dead. That proclamation turns everything upside down. People resisted it then, as they resist it now, because accepting the resurrection means accepting that the world is not the reasonable, rational, predictable place that we thought we understood. It means accepting that there is a living God that has real power in this world and that we can encounter in the most unexpected ways. Some people are just not read to make that leap of faith. When Paul first preached to the people in Corinth, when he got to talking about the resurrection people scoffed at him; most people rejected his message, but a few people, a few people, said tell us more. 

Maybe you are one of those people here today. Unsure of the truth of this story, but willing to listen and to hear more. If that is the case then I thank God that you are here, and I pray that in some mystical way you will have an encounter with the risen Lord and that his grace will flow through you and give you the courage to believe this most unbelievable, unreasonable, unnatural story. 

Because this story changes everything. If this story is true, then the universe is more spectacular than we ever imagined. If this story is true, then God has the ultimate say over life and death. If this story is true, then everything else Jesus said is true, including his promise of preparing a place for us, so that where he is, there we may be also. That is a powerful hope, but it is an unnatural or a supernatural hope.

Despite my best efforts, or because of my best efforts, my daffodils are dead and they’re not coming back. Maybe there’s a daffodil heaven, I don’t know. But what I do know is that there’s a heaven for me. I know that because Jesus rose from the grave, came back from the dead, as the firstborn of a new creation that I get to be a part of. That is a supernatural hope that goes way beyond the joy of spring. That is a hope worth sharing, even at the risk of being the only voice proclaiming this good news. 

So Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Now go out and tell someone that doesn’t know it. Be a witness to the resurrection. You never know how someone might react. Some people may scoff at you, but others may say: “tell us more.” So, tell them more. Share your supernatural hope.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 17, 2024

Readings:

• Jeremiah 31:31-34
• Hebrews 5:5-10
• John 12:20-33
• Psalm 51:1-13

Why do the Greeks in this morning’s gospel passage want to see Jesus? 

That has been the question that has been running through my head this week as I have been reading and rereading this passage. What do these people want from Jesus? Why do they want to see him? We don’t know. The bible doesn’t tell us. 

You know, sometimes I think that the things we don’t know about the Bible are just about as interesting as the things we do know. There’s a lot that we doknow about the bible and the stories and people that are in it, but there is also a lot, a whole lot, that we don’t know. Sometimes those things we don’t know can be pretty interesting.

Today is a good example. We don’t know who these Greeks are that come up to Philip asking to see Jesus. They might not have been ethnically Greek, like Toula Portokalos in my Big Fat Greek Wedding, they might not have been from Greece, they might have just spoken Greek. We don’t really know. 

They might not have been Jewish. In fact, they probably weren’t. We know that they were at the temple for Passover. But these could have been Greek-speaking gentiles that found the Jews and their God fascinating and compelling. There are lots of those people in the bible; people that are sometimes referred to as God-fearers. Maybe it was them. Plenty of gentiles were moved by what they were told about this Hebrew God, but they just didn’t completely convert because…well they probably had their own reasons. I imagine that many of the men just didn’t make the cut. Yes, that’s a bad joke, but I’m not going to explain it further. Anyways, these people might have been gentiles worshipping the Jewish God. It’s a good theory. We don’t know.

We also don’t know where these Greeks actually came from, but the gospel writer is pretty clear that they aren’t locals. These are outta town folks. Strangers. That we do know. These Greeks are strangers. They are strangers that want to see Jesus. 

But why do they want to see Jesus? The Bible doesn’t tell us why they want to see him, so we are left to wonder. Are these just tourists in to see the big city for a week and hoping to score the ultimate backstage pass? Do they want to see Jesus just because he is a celebrity? We don’t know. Everyone that wants to see Jesus in the scriptures has some reason, but they are often very different reasons. Think about all the people who wanted to see Jesus in the Bible:

Think of short Zacchaeus, the rich man. He wanted to see Jesus. He climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. He had heard that this man eats with tax collectors and wanted to know more. He probably didn’t know that Jesus was going to ask to come dine with him though.

Or, the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She wanted to see Jesus. She was desperate for relief from this sickness. She didn’t ask to be presented to Jesus, she just wanted to touch him as he passed by. She was convinced that that would be enough to heal her. And it did.

Or, the Roman Centurion with the sick servant. He wanted to see Jesus. We often talk about the Romans as the bad guys, the oppressors, but this centurion had actually helped to build a synagogue in the village. But his servant was sick and he was desperate. He didn’t even need Jesus to pay a visit. Speak the word only. Just say the word and my servant shall be healed. And he was.

Or, the Caananite woman who came crying out to Jesus, pleading for help because her daughter was possessed by a demon. We like to think of demonic possession as being the sort of crisis that is only fit for Hollywood and special effects. But demons are probably more mundane and more common than you think. This woman’s daughter was struggling with a demon and she wanted to see Jesus. Some of Jesus’s disciples just wanted this woman to go away and stop bothering them. But she doesn’t give up. She wants to see Jesus. And she does, and her daughter is healed.

There was another rich man that wanted to see Jesus. Ran up to him and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. He was following the commandments, but it turned out that his attachment to his money and his stuff was just a little too strong for him to really become a follower.

Who else wants to see Jesus?

Blind Bartamaeus? He would love to see Jesus. He would love to see anything. He can’t see Jesus, but he hears about him. He cries out for mercy, and is healed. 

There are other people who want to see Jesus that are even more desperate. Someone they love has died or is very near death. In each case, once the person dies, the people are convinced that Jesus can do no more. They just want answers. Where were you Martha asks? Where were you when we needed you? 

Some people who want to see Jesus have hard questions for him, like where were you? Why? Why the suffering? Why death? I wonder if these Greeks in today’s gospel had some hard questions for Jesus. Did they just want the first century equivalent of a selfie with a famous rabbi, or were they looking for something far more important? We don’t know. We don’t know why these Greeks want to see Jesus. And in the end, we don’t even know if they actually get to look in Jesus’s eyes or shake his hand. We don’t know if they got to see him the way they hoped to.

What we do know, is that Jesus tells his disciples that his ministry is about more than just clinging onto life in this world. When he hears that people want to see him, he points his disciples to the cross. He talks about his own death. The people who want to really see Jesus, they will see him, they will meet him, at the cross. When I am lifted up, he says, there I will draw all people to myself. He’s talking about his cross. That is where people who really want to see Jesus will meet him. At the cross. There is no other way to understand who Jesus is and what he’s about, than seeing him through the cross. 

The cross and resurrection are how Jesus is glorified. If we want to see Jesus, if we want to know him, if we want to understand what he is about and the deeper meaning behind everything he says, that is where we have to look: at the cross and the empty tomb. They are only a few steps away from each other. We often think of following Jesus as being some long, arduous journey, but serving Jesus and following him is really just about making those few steps from the cross to the empty tomb. That is where Jesus says we will meet him. That is where he says he is drawing all of us together. We come together at the cross, at the place where pain and desperation seem to have all the power, and from there Jesus takes our hand, and walks us to the empty tomb.

Some people think that if they just dig deep enough, if they push through all the religious hocus pocus, and legends about dead bodies coming back to life, that then they will actually be able to see the real Jesus. The historical Jesus as he is often called. Despite the fact that the people who go on these quests, and the documentaries that share their stories like to present themselves as being edgy and ground-breaking, they are nothing of the sort. For centuries there have been people that have wanted to separate the historical Jesus, the rabbi of social justice and practical advice, from the Jesus of faith, the saviour of the cross and empty tomb. It is a fruitless and impossible quest though. There is only one Jesus. Everything that Jesus said or did, was written down after that first Easter Sunday, after people had seen the cross and empty tomb. Everything we know about Jesus has been handed down to us from the people who saw his risen body. The Jesus of faith IS the historical Jesus. You don’t need an inside connection to see him or meet him. You don’t need secret knowledge. And it doesn’t matter why you want to see Jesus. 

That’s the thing about the Greeks in today’s gospel: I like to sit around and wonder why they want to meet Jesus; what are their motives? Do they want answers? do they want healing? do they want their broken hearts mended? do they want hope for new life? There are so many reasons why these Greeks, the strangers, these outta town folks might want to see Jesus, but he doesn’t seem to care what their reasons are. Maybe the bible doesn’t tell us, because it doesn’t matter. Maybe it doesn’t matter why we want to see Jesus; maybe it only matters where we go looking for him. I am going to be lifted up where everyone can see me, he says. If they want to come to me, to know who I really am and what I am really about, send them there. We don’t know why these Greeks want to see Jesus, but we do know where he says they will see him: at the cross. 

Sermon for February 18, 2024

The First Sunday of Lent

Readings:

• Genesis 9:8-17
• 1 Peter 3:18-22
• Mark 1:9-15
• Psalm 25:1-9

I have here the first prayer book I ever bought. I bought this at the gift shop in one of the Oxford University colleges when I was a student there one summer and I have had it with me ever since. I even have some of the flowers pressed here that were growing outside of the Exeter College chapel. This is the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer, not the version we use here in this church, but this is still the official Book of Common Prayer in the Church of England, although many of their churches nowadays use more modern, alternate rites. Regardless of how often it is regularly used anymore in worship, it is still one of the most important books in the English language, right alongside the King James Version of the bible. Some of us have been reading a book on the history of the Book of Common Prayer, so I have been looking through this version again and remembering how wonderful it really is. 

There is one prayer, that is a part of the baptism service that I want you to hear this morning:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify Water to the mystical washing away of sin: We beseech thee, for thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon this Child; wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost; that he, being delivered from thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ’s Church; and being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally he may come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I have to say, there are many wonderful prayers in our 1979 Book of Common Prayer, but nothing in our modern baptismal rite has improved upon that prayer right there. Listen to it again, this time we will make the baby a girl:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify Water to the mystical washing away of sin: We beseech thee, for thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon this Child; wash her and sanctify her with the Holy Ghost; that she, being delivered from thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ’s Church; and being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally she may come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There is so much wonderful imagery in that prayer. Praying that the child may be “received into the ark of Christ’s Church.” And the marvelous line which follows: being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world. 

Passing the waves of this troublesome world. I have a new aspiration in life. That is going to be my new motto. To be steadfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity that I may so pass the waves of this troublesome world. It is a beautiful aspiration, but I know, and I suspect most of you know, that it isn’t always easy. Faith, hope, and charity can be hard to hold on to at times. You look around and see so much of the world drowning in despair, drowning in this troublesome world, not passing over the waves. We are tempted every day to give up on faith, hope and charity. We are tempted to see them as antiquated, quaint, inefficient, naïve, a waste of time. We are tempted by the waves of this troublesome world, we are tempted to believe that we are destined to sink. We are tempted to believe that God isn’t there, or we are tempted to believe that God doesn’t care. We are tempted to abandon God or we are tempted to believe that God has abandoned us. We are tempted to turn away from God. But this temptation is nothing new. God’s people are always tempted. God’s people are always tested. Sometimes we fail. But God never does.

Today is the First Sunday in Lent, and on this Sunday we always hear the gospel story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. Well we are tempted too. We are tempted to forget who our God is. We are tempted to forget who we really belong to. We are tempted to forget our God’s love AND to forget our God’s power. Worst of all, we are tempted to believe that we must, and that we can, save ourselves. We are tempted to forget the good news. 

Jesus’s mission is not only to tell people the good news about this coming kingdom of God, but also to make a way for them to be a part of it. God doesn’t just teach us through Jesus Christ; God saves us. That is what our God does. Our God is always trying to make a way for us to get back to him. God may give us a boat, or God may split the sea, but God will make a way. I think one of the reasons that I love that prayer so much that I was just quoting is that it says not just to the child being baptized, but to all the baptized, that you belong to a God who saves. The God who saved Noah, the God who saved the children of Israel, the God of Jesus who rose from the dead, that is your God, that is who you belong to. Nothing in this troublesome world is more important than that. That is a powerful prayer right there. That is a powerful image. The image of an ark.

The church isn’t a pleasure cruise; it’s not a warship; it’s an ark that is carrying precious cargo to a new world and there is always room on board for more. Take a moment, if you will and look up. Look at the roof over your heads. Ignore any dust, cobwebs, or peeling paint please and just look at the architecture of this roof. It kind of looks like a boat turned upside down over your heads doesn’t it? Use your imagination for a second. The top of the roof could almost be a keel couldn’t it? Well this part of the church out here is called the nave and it comes from the latin word for ship. The church is a ship. The church is an ark. God brings us through rough and stormy waters, through the waters of death, into a new life to reign with him. 

It never ceases to amaze me how one little prayer can say so much. Prayers like that are so wonderful, because when I am tempted to despair about the world I am sailing through, I read that prayer and I am reminded not only of who my God is, but I am reminded of who I am too and where I am headed. 

Sermon for January 28, 2024

Readings:

• Deuteronomy 18:15-20
• 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
• Mark 1:21-28
• Psalm 111

People are astounded at Jesus in the gospel this morning, even before he casts the demon or the unclean spirit out of the man in the synagogue. Even before Jesus performs this miracle people are astounded at his teaching because he is teaching and preaching as one with authority. Authority. Jesus is talking to folks as if what he says actually matters. He is talking to folks, not as some speculative, starry-eyed philosopher asking “what if” questions; he is talking to folks as someone who has more than just questions, but also answers. Jesus has answers and Jesus has authority. That is what astounds people. That is why they start following him.

Now if you are paying attention on Sunday mornings and listening to Jesus in the gospel, then you will know that Jesus doesn’t always give folks straight answers; he often answers people with more questions or stories, but still he speaks with authority and that authority is demonstrated in his actions. He has more than knowledge; he has power. 

One wonders what kind of anodyne, lukewarm sermons the people in Capernaum must have been used to. Certainly there had been bold and gifted prophets in the past. And certainly there must have been plenty of faithful rabbis teaching and interpreting God’s law, but was there anyone who could stand up and speak authoritatively and compellingly? And in comes Jesus, talking to them like he knows what he’s talking about and like what he has to say to them actually matters. Can you imagine having a preacher that has important things to say and actually knows what he is talking about? 

Don’t answer that. That’s a rhetorical question…sort of.

I can imagine that there are many people in churches today that would be quite sympathetic with the people of Capernaum, with clergy rambling on at length without any discernible point whatsoever, trying to be inoffensive to everyone, without making any clear claims about God or truth. Preaching like they have never read the scriptures, or don’t particularly care what they have to say. Obviously, I don’t think that happens here, but I know it happens. Religious folks either lose their zeal or they become zealous about the wrong things, but either way they lose touch with God’s revelation. They lose the fire of conviction and then they lose their power. But that is not how Jesus spoke. Jesus spoke with authority. Jesus offended people. Jesus made claims about God and truth. And then he demonstrated to people that there was power behind those words. It is true that Jesus left many questions unanswered, but he does answer some and he does so with the authority of the son of God. That is why people are astounded by him, and that is what has drawn people to Jesus throughout the ages. 

Jesus’s words have power and authority. The demons and the unclean spirits in this world know that, but how often we forget it. 

There are, of course, always prophets and preachers and rabbis and priests who will say MORE than what God has told them to say. This is what I mean when I talk about religious folks who become zealous about the wrong things. There’s a reason why Moses had to threaten death to any prophets speaking falsely on behalf of God in our Deuteronomy passage this morning. There are always those who want to definitively know more than what God has revealed to us. There are those who want to put words in Jesus’s mouth or God’s mouth and have him say things that he didn’t say. There are folks who will say that things are God’s will when we have no idea if they are God’s will or not. There are folks who will project onto God their own values, their own ideas, and their own politics. It has always been this way, and it is not just preachers, but average, everyday religious folks do it too. We have folks who want to speak about things with an authority that they don’t have.

Well, our response when we encounter priests and prophets claiming too much authority to speak on behalf of God is often to do just the opposite. We humans are always prone to being reactionary. If I think that some Christians go too far and say things they shouldn’t say or make claims that they can’t make, then my reaction may be to do just the opposite and say nothing, believe nothing, and to make no claims about God or truth. But you see, that’s not helpful either. Jesus came into the world, teaching and preaching, as one with authority. Through his miracles and demonstrations of power, and chiefly through his death and resurrection, Jesus confirmed the authority of his teaching, so his words still speak with the authority of the son of God. Those of us who claim the name Christian and profess to be followers of Christ, we may not be able to say more than Jesus says about God and truth, but we dare not say less. 

Jesus still speaks as one with authority and there are still people in the world that need to hear his words and experience his power. We have authority, as Christians, to share Jesus’s words with the world. We have the authority to share the truths that he has revealed to us. We have the authority to answer the questions that Jesus answered. Maybe we can’t, and shouldn’t, answer every question, but we do have some answers. We may not have a blueprint of heaven, but we do have a vision. It is possible to share one without claiming to have the other. It is possible to answer some questions, without pretending to have the answer to every question. That is the tightrope that we are all challenged to walk as Christians. It is definitely true for priests and prophets that we can’t say too much, but we shouldn’t say too little, but it is true for all of us as well. 

Do I completely understand demons, unclean spirits and the forces of evil in this world? No I don’t, but I do know that Jesus has power over them. Do I have the authority to say whatever I want about God? No I don’t. But I do have the authority to share what Jesus says. No more, no less. His words actually matter. His words have real authority. And it is his words that people really want to hear whenever they come through those doors. All of our power and authority as Christians, come from his words.

Sermon for January 14th, 2024

Readings:

• 1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20)
• 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
• John 1:43-51
• Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

The Apostle Paul, in his characteristic style, is trying to tackle how some folks are misunderstanding the Christian faith. Is Christianity meant to be a more strict, or less strict version of Judaism? How are Christians meant to relate to God’s law? What should direct and drive Christian behaviour? What is the relationship between Christian freedom and Christian responsibility? These are some of the very practical questions that Paul addresses in his letters, including his letter to the Corinthians that we heard a moment ago. Funny thing is, Paul was addressing these issues with the Church in Corinth a couple thousand years ago, but these issues and these questions are still very much present in our own day. They aren’t irrelevant.

I know that there are many people in the world that think that church (and possibly religion in general) is either one of two things: a get out of jail free card that offers a pie-in-the-sky promise of heaven for those who subscribe to the correct beliefs, OR an ethical system of dos and don’ts that is primarily designed to make nice people nicer. Plenty of people look at us and think that that is what Christianity is about: no rules or all rules. There may be many faithful Christians who see their faith as being about one of those two things: Correct beliefs or correct actions. Believe the right thing and go to heaven, or do the right things and go to heaven, or even more common nowadays for those who strain to believe in an afterlife: do the right things and make heaven for ourselves. But what if I told you that it’s not an either/or situation? What if it isn’t a choice between believing and doing? What if it isn’t a choice between waiting for heaven and trying to make the world a little better? What if belief and action are married to each other and walk hand in hand? 

What I think Paul really wants the Corinthians to understand is that in Jesus Christ God has revealed his love to us in this most astounding way. God has shown us self-sacrificial love. Christ offers himself as a sacrifice for human sin. He fulfills but does not negate the law. He offers us freedom from this cycle of sin and death that we get trapped in. The same God that led the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, offers us all a way out of slavery to the forces in this world that dominate us. Sometimes the forces in this world that dominate us are very personal demons. Maybe it is addiction or anxiety or greed or anger. We live in a world filled with good things, including amazing food, but any of those things, when taken out of perspective or out of balance, can dominate us. That is Paul’s point. Christ offers us freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. We have this amazing promise of forgiveness of sin and everlasting life, and we have been given a foretaste of this resurrected life in Jesus’s resurrection, but that tremendous gift still calls for some response from us.

There was a biblical scholar named John P Meier, who once wrote that “if religion is grace then ethics is gratitude.” “Radical demand, flows from radical grace.” If religion is grace then ethics is gratitude. What that means is that if our religion, our belief system, teaches us that in history and in our own personal lives, God has shown us unmerited grace, meaning God gives us love, forgiveness and salvation that we don’t deserve, then our ethics, or how we live our lives, the code of conduct that we willingly subscribe to, that should be a reflection of our gratitude for that grace. God acts first. God gives us life. God knows us, God calls us. God offers us forgiveness, love and salvation. That is all grace. God’s work in the world is grace. When we stand up and recite the creed, which is the core belief of our religion, we are reciting and retelling a short history of God’s grace. God acts first.

But does an encounter with that grace change us in any way? Does it change how we live moving forward? God may indeed act first, but does that mean that everything we do as humans is irrelevant and bears no consequences? The Apostle Paul certainly didn’t think so. Jesus didn’t think so either.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he talks about being free from a rigid and narrow understanding of God’s law. He talks about being free from this idea that in order to be saved we must fulfill God’s law perfectly, meaning that we must be faultless in our actions. If, in Christ, we are free from that kind of slavery to a rigid interpretation of law, does that then mean that we should just do whatever we want? Paul doesn’t think so. All things may be lawful for me, he says, but not all things are beneficial. Just because you can do something and get away with it, doesn’t mean that you should. We live in a very free society here in our country, and that is indeed a blessing, but with freedom comes responsibility. There are many, many things that are perfectly lawful for us to do, but that doesn’t mean that we SHOULD do them. It doesn’t make them good for us, or for anyone else. 

Christianity is not just about rigid adherence to a bunch of rules; nor is it about willfully just doing whatever the heck we want, regardless of the consequences to ourselves or others, just because we are confident that God has an ultimate place for us in his eternal kingdom. It is about freedom AND responsibility. A responsibility that comes from gratitude, NOT guilt. We are called to be people who witness to God’s grace, not only with our lips but in our lives. We are people who value rules and traditions, NOT because we think that our eternal salvation is contingent upon adhering to them, but because we find in them wisdom. They are good for us and they help us to not be dominated by the forces of this world, even our own demons and desires, that would dominate us. If Christianity is about grace, then the Christian life must be about gratitude. If my life means so much to God, then it should mean something to me too. If your life means so much to God, then it should mean something to me too. That is Christian ethics in a nutshell. Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean that we should.

Sermon for Christmas Eve 2023

Readings:

• Isaiah 9:2-7
• Titus 2:11-14
• Luke 2:1-14(15-20)
• Psalm 96

Every year at this time we set up our creche, our nativity scene, right underneath this pulpit. It was the most convenient and the most prominent place we could put it, and it is fitting really since the good news, the gospel, which is what the pulpit should be all about, that begins here. This is the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be the Messiah, the Son of God. At least, that is the story that these statues are pointing us to. On the one hand, they are really just plastic. Molded plastic with some paint. And they are imperfect and fragile. This angel’s wing is chipped. Part of Mary’s robe is cracked. One of the wisemen is a little damaged. It’s a beautiful set, but that is what happens over time with material things, including our own bodies; they get a little worn and banged about, and these statues are just material things. But on the other hand, I think most of us would recognize that they are much more than that.

When you pass by this scene later, you won’t look here and see molded pieces of plastic and paint. You will see Joseph, and Mary, and Jesus. They are symbols. They are material things, we can see them and touch them, but they point us to and remind us of something that we can’t see or touch. Despite whatever jokes I may sometimes make, none of us was actually at the birth of Jesus. No one here saw him in the flesh, with our own eyes; no one in here held Jesus in our arms. But tonight, these very fragile, imperfect, material things can direct us to, and help us to see, something that our eyes don’t have the power to behold. 

That may sound very philosophical, but the truth is, that’s what happens every time you look at a photograph or a picture of a loved one that is no longer with you. Material things have power and meaning. Whether they are a piece of photographic paper or molded statues of plastic and paint, material things can point us to things that are harder to see and impossible to hold onto or contain. Material things are NOT meaningless. If you don’t believe me, then go and look in the face of any child tomorrow morning.

There are quite a few presents under my Christmas tree tonight. Most of them aren’t for me, which is as it should be, but I will still find joy in them. Presents, which are of course material things, can bring you joy. I’m here to say it. They can be a source of joy whether you are getting them OR giving them. They can be a gift of joy to you either way. Material things can give you some measure of joy. Joy is one of those things that is hard to nail down. It is an experience that isn’t always easy to define and it is impossible to fully control. Joy can come in odd and unexpected moments in life. Joy isn’t a material thing, it is an experience or an encounter that is more than a simple emotion, but a whole bunch of emotions and thoughts rolled together. Joy is spiritual. I think that joy is an encounter with the love of God. Material things are not the same thing as joy, just like this statue is not the same thing as Jesus, but they can help us to encounter it.

Now you might be expecting me to stand up here tonight, and like Charlie Brown, rail against the materialism of our society and the commercialism and consumerism of Christmas. You might be expecting me to chastise you for all of the shopping and the partying and over-eating. You might be expecting me to drone on about all the suffering in the world. But I’m not going to do any of that. Stealing joy never alleviated anyone’s suffering. Besides, I don’t want to be too much of a hypocrite, because I can be something of a materialist myself. 

I appreciate material things. Whether it is a good piece of cake or roast beef, nice china on a beautifully set dining room table, a comfy sweater, a good book, a sharp kitchen knife, or watching my son play with his stuffed giraffe; material things can bring me joy and I won’t deny it. 

You see, there are two types of materialism though. There is the materialism that finds joy in material things, and there is the materialism that thinks that material things are all that there is. The first can be a real problem when it leads to greed and avarice and ignoring the material needs of others. It can lead you astray. It can lead you to thinking that joy can be marketed or found in the wrong things, it’s not completely benign, but the second type of materialism is far more devastating because it destroys joy all together. It destroys all emotions, including love. If the material world is all that exists, then things like joy are just an illusion: chemicals crossing neural pathways with no deeper meaning or significance. Well I might be guilty of being the first type of materialist, but not the second. 

While I love science, and have benefitted greatly from some of its advances, it is only really good at describing things that can be seen and touched and even that it does very imperfectly. But there are things in this world that can’t be seen, touched or measured. I think that there is more to this thing called life than just one long chemical reaction. There is meaning and there is mystery. There is love and there is joy. In a universe that could simply be chaos, there is actually order. We live in a world where pieces of plastic are actually much more than just pieces of plastic. Isn’t that amazing?

The story that is told by these statues, the story we tell here tonight, is that in the fullness of time, in the middle of the story of our existence, the ultimate spiritual thing, the God of all the universe, became one with the ultimate material thing, a human life. God was born among us. Heaven and Earth meet in Jesus Christ. It is an improbable and magical story that defies easy explanations, but it is a story that I believe to be true. It is a much better story, and I think a more believable story, than the meaningless, joyless story that is told by the world in so many ways. It is a story in which material things, including flesh and blood, have meaning and value to God.Material things are not God, that is idolatry, but they can help us to encounter God. They can point us to God and to spiritual truths and realities and stories that don’t get old. They can connect us to future generations and past generations. They can bring us joy and in the process remind us of the source of our ultimate joy. Christmas is a complicated time of the year filled with so many emotions: love, grief, anxiety, frustration, fear, stress. My prayer for all of you, is that whether you are celebrating alone or with family, whether there are many presents under your tree or none, my prayer is that you will find in at least one of the material things you encounter, a symbol of God’s love and that you will realize in that moment that God has come to meet you and that there is a world of reality beyond those things which we can see and touch. Material things have the power to do that. They aren’t meaningless you know. 

Sermon for December 10th, 2023

Readings:

• Isaiah 40:1-11
• 2 Peter 3:8-15a
• Mark 1:1-8
• Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

The Prophet Isaiah is preaching to some tired and hopeless people. 

By the time you get to the 40^th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, the cities of Judah, including Jerusalem and the surrounding area, all of that had long ago been laid to waste and destroyed. The temple, the ultimate symbol of God’s presence, that had long ago been destroyed. The Judean people, many of them at least, have been living in exile in Babylon for ages. As a matter of fact, this part of the Book of Isaiah isn’t even addressing the same people that the beginning of the book addressed. Those people are dead. This is written to their children and descendants. This is a message to people with very little hope. Their ancestors made bad choices and they are suffering for them.

You see, the first part of the Book of Isaiah, is one warning after another from the prophet to the leaders of the Kingdom of Judah. It is one warning after another about how all their schemes and plans to save themselves and save their kingdom from invasion are going to fail. Isaiah calls them out for not putting their trust in God, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Corruption is rampant. Leaders are incompetent. Everyone is just looking out for themselves. No one cares for one another. People are worshipping foreign Gods. There is no cohesion to the society and the nation has become terribly weak. Isaiah warned them. Over and over he warned them. Put your faith in God. Don’t trust in your own strength. Listen to God. But the people didn’t listen. Not to God and not to Isaiah. And all their schemes failed. Politics and foreign alliances and material wealth didn’t save the Kingdom of Judah. The temple was destroyed and the people were hauled into exile. The kingdom was no more. 

But by the time we get to this point in the Book of Isaiah, that was a long time ago. People have given up hope. Our leaders failed us, we couldn’t save ourselves, and we are starting to wonder if God even exists at all, and if he does, if he even cares. To these tired, hopeless children of a failed state, this is what the prophet has to say:

All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.

That is a message of hope. It is a message of hope to people that may not know what to hope for. Isaiah tells these people where their true hope really lies. People are not constant. All people are grass the prophet says. They come and they go. Their words are not always trustworthy, but the word of God, that stands forever. The word of God will stand forever, Isaiah says, and he says it to people that may be wondering if God even exists. 

God is coming Isaiah says, get ready. Be comforted in this news, but also be prepared. He is coming both as a mighty ruler and as a gentle shepherd. With the same arm he can knock down the mighty and lift up the lowly. He can be just and merciful at the same time. Your God is not dead. Your God has not forgotten. Your God is coming to you. And soon all of Jerusalem is going to proclaim, God is here! God is here and that is good news. What a message.

To people who are tired. To people who are hopeless. To people who have grown cynical with the world. To people who have been betrayed or oppressed. To people who have tried to save themselves over and over and over and just can’t get out of their own way. To people that don’t know who or what to trust. To all of these people, this is good news. Human failures come and go but the word of God lasts forever. That is good news. God has not cast off his children or forgotten them. He’s just waiting for them to get tired of trying to do everything for themselves and to turn to him for help. God is making a way for his children to return to him. That is good news. That is also repentance. The ability to go back.

It’s good news. You know we often think of repentance like it is a bad thing. I mean, it’s good when other people do it, it’s just bad when we have to do it. Repentance sounds like bad news, like giving up something you love, or getting caught doing something colossally stupid. But how many of us have wanted to go back and do something differently when we have seen the consequences of a bad choice or a wrong action? Sadly, in life, time only flows in one direction. We don’t usually get the chance to go back and start over. We don’t get to be born again and start life anew, or at least we might think that we can’t. But the scriptures sometimes tell us a different story. We may not think that the future holds much hope, but the scriptures frequently remind us that God has bigger plans. God hasn’t given up on us and there is a way for us to return to him when all our hopes in humanity and our own strength have proven to be misplaced. That is good news. But Isaiah’s message to people living in exile was just a foretaste of the good news that was really coming. There was more.

When Mark wants to tell his story about the good news of Jesus Christ, the messiah, the son of God, he goes back to Isaiah and he makes a direct link between Isaiah’s good news to the people living in exile, and to John the Baptist’s message to the people at the Jordan river. John’s message is a message of good news. Repentance is good news. Repentance is good news, because it means we can always turn back to God. We can be born again; we can start over. Our story isn’t over yet. God isn’t dead and God isn’t done with us. That is good news. It was good news to the people living in exile; it was good news to people looking for hope down by the Jordan river; and it is good news for us today. 

The story we tell here, isn’t just about something that God did once. It is about something that God does over and over again. God saves us. When humans prove to be as constant as grass, God is dependable and unchanging. God is not dead and God is not done with his children. That is the message of Advent, that is the message of Christmas…it is the message of Easter as well. Throughout the year and throughout the ages, that is the good news that the church has been entrusted, like Isaiah, to share. When the world seems to be at its darkest and all seems lost; when we are confronted with our own failures and limitations; when we are tired and hopeless, we are reminded that God has not forgotten or abandoned us. God is always about to break into our world and into our lives and he has made a way for us to enter back into his loving arms. It is called repentance, and it is good news.