Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Isaiah 6:1-8
Ordinary Time
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Silence in us any voice but your own, that hearing, we may also obey your will.
What do you want to do when you grow up? We ask that question of children and teenagers. We now ask it of unemployed college graduates. What do you WANT to do? We should be asking, “What are you CALLED by God to do?” You see, we have a lazy understanding of what it means to be a Christian. We think that belonging to God is all about our being blessed with the security of the knowledge that God loves us, rather than our being claimed for God’s purposes.
Truth is, we are not really free to do whatever we want. God has a claim on your life and mine. “In life and in death we belong to God.” So opens A Brief Statement of Faith. “We acknowledge one God alone, whose demands on us are absolute.” That’s how A Declaration of Faith opens. Peace’s faith statement is this: “Our Faith is rooted in the One Triune God to whom we belong in life and death.”
So we say that God has a claim on our life, but do we really believe it? What if God asks us to do something difficult? What if life does not go as WE planned it? And the most significant question of all, “Are we actively involved in seeking God’s will for our life daily? Are we trying to fulfill God’s call?
Two prophets, who lived in different time periods, about 150 years apart, were called. They were overwhelmed, felt they could not do it, made some excuses,but God had a plan for them, and was determined to fulfill it. God promised to provide what they needed – words, courage, clean lips and lives, that they might fulfill God’s purpose. That promise is yours too.
Hear the story of Jeremiah’s call: NRS Jeremiah 1:4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."6 Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."
The call of God on Jeremiah was consecrated while he was still in the womb of his mother. Could it be that God has had a plan for you from before you were born? Can we ignore the plan of God? Sure we can. We can run away from God as Jonah did. “Preach to Ninevah” God said and Jonah jumped on a boat, but God used wind, waves, and sea creatures to bring Jonah back to the plan. So that story goes.
Jeremiah was never particularly keen to be the prophet. He did not enjoy it. You can still see him struggling with the call in old age as painted here by Rembrandt.
Jeremiah was not a confident speaker. Moses made the same argument. So did I. I live for Sunday night when the preaching is over, and I have six days before I have to stand here again. You might think I’m joking, but I can honestly say after twenty years I still don’t really LIKE preaching. Yet I’m glad for what it does to me. I don’t need to like it. It is good medicine for my soul. It doesn’t have to taste good. It makes me listen for God and lean on God more. It forces me to do what I might not do on my own -- struggle with how scripture informs life for the purpose of faithfulness.
Passion is a popular word these days, inviting us to do what feels good. Find and live your passion. That’s a primary message in our day. But the witness of scripture is often that our calling as children of God is not easy, that it is often not desired, that it is taken on reluctantly, not embraced with passion. Abraham and Sarah were called to leave their country and go to an unknown place. Moses was called to lead his people out of slavery, a bold and dangerous adventure. The disciples were called to drop their nets, leave their families, and follow Christ. Last week we heard that God gives us particular gifts. This week we learn that sometimes God pushes us to do things that we don’t really want to do, but which are good for us and good for others. Sometimes God forces a little spiritual spinach and says, “Eat it. Do it. It’s good for you.” (image) In Chagall’s rendition of Jeremiah you feel the angst. You’re not quite sure what Jeremiah sees, but we can tell he’s uncomfortable, worried.
And God says, “Stop saying you can’t when you can. You can because I’m going to help you. Don’t be afraid because I’m going to be there with you.”
Are you listening to God’s difficult call? You are not put here to do what feels good, but to become like God, to be faithful to God, like Jesus was, like Jeremiah and Isaiah were. God will touch you and make it possible for you to do what you’re called to do. Your job is to listen to God, not to your own wishes and fears.
The world tells you to do what feels right, what your mind and your friends tell you is right. The world says you should be comfortable with what you’re doing. God calls you to be faithful and grow in Christ-likeness, which is not easy. Growing in God’s ways requires knowing God’s ways. Are we in worship regularly to be fed at the table of our Lord? Are we studying our Bibles? Are we praying with discipline? The sooner in life that we realize our purpose is not to make ourselves happy (that’s called selfishness) or to make other people happy (that’s called people pleasing) The sooner in life that we realize that our purpose in life is be a God pleaser, then we will be moving toward fulfilling our calling.
What is your chief aim? Presbyterians have been saying since 1647 when the Westminster was written, that our chief end in life is “To glorify and enjoy God forever.” What is God’s purpose for your life? For the last decade Presbyterians have said our purpose is this: “To live by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the love of God, and in the communion of the Holy Spirit.” (The Study Catechism) The sooner we realize our purpose, the more we will be in the right. Note I did not say it was easy or that we’d be comfortable, but that we would be where we need to be. And there is a certain fulfillment in being in the right place with God. St Augustine said back in the 4th Century, “Our hearts are restless ‘til they find their rest in God.
Hear the story of Isaiah’s call: NRS Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I aid: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
Jeremiah’s call was tame compared to this. Seraphs with six wings, calling out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts” The thresholds shook. There was smoke in the air. Sounds a little like an earthquake. Some of us have more dramatic experiences of the presence of God. Moses saw burning bush. Paul was blinded by the light. Mary, mother of our Lord, was visited by an angel.
Do these dramatic experiences of God’s presence happen less frequently these days or are we simply blind to spiritual realities by our over-zealous rational understanding of the world? I have a hard time relating to this story of Isaiah, except for the part about feeling unclean when faced with the holiness of God and asked to speak for God. I do think that IF we are aware of God’s presence as keenly as Isaiah, we would be overwhelmed with God’s holiness. I believe and only sometimes apprehend with my mind and emotions that God is more present than we can possibly imagine. Isaiah sees things most people do not see and as quickly as he feels overwhelmed by God’s holiness and his unworthiness, the seraph flies toward him with the hot coal and purifies him with it. You see here Michaelangelo’s image of the seraph touching Isaiah’s lips. And once forgiveness of sin is offered, Isaiah can hear God saying, “Who will go for us?” Notice God does not demand that he go. God allows us to respond freely, “Yes, I am willing. Here I am. Send me.”
We sometimes live with the faulty notion that the amazing forgiveness given to us by God is just for our peace of mind, for our reassurance. God loves us, forgives us, and calls us to be the faithful people of God. God is calling you to be healed. Your healing involves moving forward to work on God’s will in your life.
It is not easy, but it is good and right, and we will not be satisfied in our inner spirit, until we are doing what God wants. It is a long process of learning to receive God’s call and live according to it. It is a daily struggle. Every day we have the freedom to ignore God or listen to God. Every day we have the opportunity to grow more and more into the people God intends us. Though it happens through God’s grace, it does not just happen. We have to work at it – not to achieve God’s love, for that we have, but to become like God who loves us, to become like Christ. Growing up physically just happens. Growing up emotionally happens with the right influences. Growing up spiritually happens by God’s grace when we are in the right environment and are intentionally engaged in it.The fancy word is sanctification – increasing in holiness. It happens when we experience God’s call and respond, saying “Here I am. Send me. Yes, I will speak your truth.”
Will you re-commit yourself today to struggling with your call from God? Will you listen carefully to God, participate in activities which increase your spiritual depth? Will you discipline yourself to live according to what you know of God’s will and way for your life? That’s what it means to be a Christian – to be continually engaged in spiritual growth, more and more able to respond obediently to God’s call. That what it meant for Jeremiah and Isaiah, prophets of God, called to speak challenging yet hope-filled truth to the Israelites, God’s people. It is not easy. It takes great effort and self-denial. It takes unflagging courage and persistence. And it is the life we are called to live, meant to live, created to live.
John Newton, author of the hymn Amazing Grace once said, “I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Let us pray with St. Augustine:
Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you; so lead us by your Spirit that in this life we may live to your glory and in the life to come enjoy you for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord who is alive with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Body Language
1 Corinthians 12:12-13:8a
Ordinary Time
Elizabeth M. Deibert
It’s been a tough couple of weeks. Hasn’t it? Though we are not there, we have scenes of earthquake victims in our heads and on our hearts. Every time we turn on the television or go online or open the paper, there’s more bad news. On top of that, as if that were not enough, we still have friends and family members struggling with illness. We have broken or difficult relationships, wounding deeply. And financial strain.
But when we remember Haiti and we know it’s not so bad. We’re not buried under rubble. We haven’t lost house and friends and family and job and city all at once. We have clean water, a comfortable bed, plenty of food and reasonable access to medical care.
Deborah Sontag of the New York Times found the Rev. Joseph Lejeune preaching last Sunday:
"Think of our new village here as the home of Jesus Christ, not the scene of a disaster," he called out over a loudspeaker. "Life is not a disaster. Life is joy! You don't have food? Nourish yourself with the Lord. You don't have water? Drink in the spirit." (Images of Haiti praying, crucifix still standing in demolished church)
And drink they did, singing, swaying, chanting and holding their noses to block out the terrible stench of the bodies in a collapsed school nearby.
So as we worship on this Sunday, our first worship service since this tragedy, as we think about what it means to be the body of Christ, we do it, knowing that part of the body is suffering deeply. And as we discussed at our session meeting on Tuesday night, we may not have all the answers to questions of God’s power and God’s love in the face of such tragedies, but we hold tightly to our faith, seeing how the Haitians are holding to theirs, even while hope of finding friends and family members under concrete is gone, even while medical supplies are insufficient to take care of the injured, even while food, drink, and shelter are all uncertain, even while burying the dead with dignity is not a possibility. But we affirm with scripture that God is our light in the darkness. We say with Paul that “We know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Those are the Apostle Paul’s words to the Romans.
But to the Corinthians, who were embattled with one another, who were using their various gifts and strengths against one another, instead of for one another, Paul had different words. To the Corinthians, who from the top of the world, where they could look down on everyone below, Paul has some challenging words about unity, not uniformity, but unity amidst diversity. Paul uses body language to help the Corinthians appreciate how each part is essential to the effective functioning of the body. He then makes it clear that no part should think itself more important than the other. He is especially concerned that the weaker members of the body receive greater attention and honor. He concludes by reminding us that no gift, nothing we do as part of the body is of any value unless it is full of love. Love is the language which makes the body whole.
Hear the word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians.
We were not supposed to read chapter 13 today, according to the lectionary, the set readings. Only the second half of chapter 12. We were supposed to stop with these words: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” But why? Just because some scholars in the 1500s divided it here. Everything in chapter 12 about the caring for every single part of the body leads to the love chapter. When chapter 12 talks about suffering together and rejoicing together, it is referring to love, as described in chapter 13.
When Paul says in chapter 12 that God has appointed all these varied gifts and he says with a rhetorical question that nobody has the same gifts and nobody has all the gifts needed, he then speaks of the very same gifts in 13 and says, “Those gifts are nothing without love. You are nothing without love. I am nothing without love.”
It doesn’t matter how much you know. You can be the most intelligent person in the world. You can be the wealthiest person in the world. You can be the most popular person in the world. You can be the most generous person in the world. You can be the most powerful person in the world. But if you don’t have love to go with that success, those smarts, that generosity, then you’re really useless.
You’ve experienced this. Some time in your life, I bet you’ve had a teacher or professor or coach who was really smart or talented, but you could tell that that teacher or coach did not really care about you as a person, so the information was just that, information with little value. But another teacher or coach, maybe less intelligent, cared enough to impart knowledge with some love, and it made a tremendous difference in your life.
A friend. I bet you’ve had a friend at some point in your life. One whom you thought you could trust, whom you thought you respected, but then in the blink of an eye, that friend tossed you away like an unwanted body part. Chop. Or perhaps you’ve been a friend who used others only for what gain they could be. Maybe you’ve treated those who could move you to higher places with greater dignity, but all for selfish gain.
Preachers – some of them are eloquent. Some of them have you hanging on every word. Beautiful quotes, just the right intonation. But if there’s no relationship to go with that preaching, it’s not much more than entertainment. If when you’re dying, the pastor at your bedside doesn’t know something of your life and family, then all that eloquence begins to fade.
Generous givers. If we give away some phenomenal amount of money to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for Haiti and we are well on our way with $3500 from a church this size, it will be of little value if we’re not praying for the Haitians, suffering with them, doing what we can in concrete ways, even from this distance. Our partnership with Beth-El is all the more meaningful because we have a relationship. We are there every Thursday, giving our hearts as well as our money and our time.
This sermon was originally intended to be a challenge to everyone to get involved in the ministries of the church. Do your part as member of the body. Step on up. Come, be a hand. Be a foot. Be an ear. But after watching earthquake victims in Haiti for ten days, all I really want to say is this: Live the body language of love. That’s all that matters. Love people. Love people. Love people more than you love yourself.
Set aside all the striving to be right, to be better than someone else, to get things done your way. There’s way too much competition in this world...striving for good grades...striving to get ahead at work...striving for attractive, sexy bodies.... striving to make it financially...striving to impress people...striving to create the perfect life. The Corinthians were striving, competing for all these things. And it doesn’t exist. There is no perfection. There is only love. Really, love is all that matters. And who shows us that best but Christ – who had it all power, intelligence, popularity and he gave it up for the sake of love.
Love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful or rude. Master patience and kindness and you’ve accomplished something really amazing. No envy, boasting, or rudeness. That takes constant prayer. Constant prayer. Love does not insist on its own way. That is really tough when your way is clearly the best way. Love is not irritable. More and more I learn that I must sleep more, slow down, keep tabs on my mental health, and stay in touch with God’s affirmation of love to be capable of loving others. Love is not resentful, and always rejoices in the good, not in the wrong, especially not in someone else being wrong.
It does not matter whether you are right. Even if you have the right answer, the loving thing to do is to care about someone else’s answer. It does not matter whether your needs get met. What matters is that you put your needs second to someone else’s. It does not matter whether you have made tremendous contributions to this church or any other organization (contributions of time, talent, or resources). What matters is that you cared about the people here – even those who were able to make fewer contributions.
If you die tonight, will people say, “Wow, he really loved people. Wow, nobody cared for others like her.” Be the body bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That’s the language of love, and that is how a body becomes truly beautiful, glorious, divine.
Ordinary Time
Elizabeth M. Deibert
It’s been a tough couple of weeks. Hasn’t it? Though we are not there, we have scenes of earthquake victims in our heads and on our hearts. Every time we turn on the television or go online or open the paper, there’s more bad news. On top of that, as if that were not enough, we still have friends and family members struggling with illness. We have broken or difficult relationships, wounding deeply. And financial strain.
But when we remember Haiti and we know it’s not so bad. We’re not buried under rubble. We haven’t lost house and friends and family and job and city all at once. We have clean water, a comfortable bed, plenty of food and reasonable access to medical care.
Deborah Sontag of the New York Times found the Rev. Joseph Lejeune preaching last Sunday:
"Think of our new village here as the home of Jesus Christ, not the scene of a disaster," he called out over a loudspeaker. "Life is not a disaster. Life is joy! You don't have food? Nourish yourself with the Lord. You don't have water? Drink in the spirit." (Images of Haiti praying, crucifix still standing in demolished church)
And drink they did, singing, swaying, chanting and holding their noses to block out the terrible stench of the bodies in a collapsed school nearby.
So as we worship on this Sunday, our first worship service since this tragedy, as we think about what it means to be the body of Christ, we do it, knowing that part of the body is suffering deeply. And as we discussed at our session meeting on Tuesday night, we may not have all the answers to questions of God’s power and God’s love in the face of such tragedies, but we hold tightly to our faith, seeing how the Haitians are holding to theirs, even while hope of finding friends and family members under concrete is gone, even while medical supplies are insufficient to take care of the injured, even while food, drink, and shelter are all uncertain, even while burying the dead with dignity is not a possibility. But we affirm with scripture that God is our light in the darkness. We say with Paul that “We know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Those are the Apostle Paul’s words to the Romans.
But to the Corinthians, who were embattled with one another, who were using their various gifts and strengths against one another, instead of for one another, Paul had different words. To the Corinthians, who from the top of the world, where they could look down on everyone below, Paul has some challenging words about unity, not uniformity, but unity amidst diversity. Paul uses body language to help the Corinthians appreciate how each part is essential to the effective functioning of the body. He then makes it clear that no part should think itself more important than the other. He is especially concerned that the weaker members of the body receive greater attention and honor. He concludes by reminding us that no gift, nothing we do as part of the body is of any value unless it is full of love. Love is the language which makes the body whole.
Hear the word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians.
We were not supposed to read chapter 13 today, according to the lectionary, the set readings. Only the second half of chapter 12. We were supposed to stop with these words: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” But why? Just because some scholars in the 1500s divided it here. Everything in chapter 12 about the caring for every single part of the body leads to the love chapter. When chapter 12 talks about suffering together and rejoicing together, it is referring to love, as described in chapter 13.
When Paul says in chapter 12 that God has appointed all these varied gifts and he says with a rhetorical question that nobody has the same gifts and nobody has all the gifts needed, he then speaks of the very same gifts in 13 and says, “Those gifts are nothing without love. You are nothing without love. I am nothing without love.”
It doesn’t matter how much you know. You can be the most intelligent person in the world. You can be the wealthiest person in the world. You can be the most popular person in the world. You can be the most generous person in the world. You can be the most powerful person in the world. But if you don’t have love to go with that success, those smarts, that generosity, then you’re really useless.
You’ve experienced this. Some time in your life, I bet you’ve had a teacher or professor or coach who was really smart or talented, but you could tell that that teacher or coach did not really care about you as a person, so the information was just that, information with little value. But another teacher or coach, maybe less intelligent, cared enough to impart knowledge with some love, and it made a tremendous difference in your life.
A friend. I bet you’ve had a friend at some point in your life. One whom you thought you could trust, whom you thought you respected, but then in the blink of an eye, that friend tossed you away like an unwanted body part. Chop. Or perhaps you’ve been a friend who used others only for what gain they could be. Maybe you’ve treated those who could move you to higher places with greater dignity, but all for selfish gain.
Preachers – some of them are eloquent. Some of them have you hanging on every word. Beautiful quotes, just the right intonation. But if there’s no relationship to go with that preaching, it’s not much more than entertainment. If when you’re dying, the pastor at your bedside doesn’t know something of your life and family, then all that eloquence begins to fade.
Generous givers. If we give away some phenomenal amount of money to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for Haiti and we are well on our way with $3500 from a church this size, it will be of little value if we’re not praying for the Haitians, suffering with them, doing what we can in concrete ways, even from this distance. Our partnership with Beth-El is all the more meaningful because we have a relationship. We are there every Thursday, giving our hearts as well as our money and our time.
This sermon was originally intended to be a challenge to everyone to get involved in the ministries of the church. Do your part as member of the body. Step on up. Come, be a hand. Be a foot. Be an ear. But after watching earthquake victims in Haiti for ten days, all I really want to say is this: Live the body language of love. That’s all that matters. Love people. Love people. Love people more than you love yourself.
Set aside all the striving to be right, to be better than someone else, to get things done your way. There’s way too much competition in this world...striving for good grades...striving to get ahead at work...striving for attractive, sexy bodies.... striving to make it financially...striving to impress people...striving to create the perfect life. The Corinthians were striving, competing for all these things. And it doesn’t exist. There is no perfection. There is only love. Really, love is all that matters. And who shows us that best but Christ – who had it all power, intelligence, popularity and he gave it up for the sake of love.
Love is patient and kind, not envious, boastful or rude. Master patience and kindness and you’ve accomplished something really amazing. No envy, boasting, or rudeness. That takes constant prayer. Constant prayer. Love does not insist on its own way. That is really tough when your way is clearly the best way. Love is not irritable. More and more I learn that I must sleep more, slow down, keep tabs on my mental health, and stay in touch with God’s affirmation of love to be capable of loving others. Love is not resentful, and always rejoices in the good, not in the wrong, especially not in someone else being wrong.
It does not matter whether you are right. Even if you have the right answer, the loving thing to do is to care about someone else’s answer. It does not matter whether your needs get met. What matters is that you put your needs second to someone else’s. It does not matter whether you have made tremendous contributions to this church or any other organization (contributions of time, talent, or resources). What matters is that you cared about the people here – even those who were able to make fewer contributions.
If you die tonight, will people say, “Wow, he really loved people. Wow, nobody cared for others like her.” Be the body bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That’s the language of love, and that is how a body becomes truly beautiful, glorious, divine.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Beloved by God
Isaiah 43:1-3a
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Sermon by Rev. William J. Kemp
For many years, William Willimon was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is now a United Methodist Bishop in Alabama. He tells the story of how as a high school student going out on dates his mother would bid him goodbye with weighty words, “Don’t forget who you are.” “You know what she meant,” he says. “She did not mean that I was in danger of forgetting my name and my street address. She meant that, alone on a date, in the midst of some party, in the presence of some strangers, I might forget who I was. I might lose sight of the values with which I had been raised, answer to some alien name and engage in some unaccustomed behavior. ‘Don’t forget who you are,’ was her maternal benediction as I left home.” 1
Fred Craddock is from the Disciples of Christ tradition and has been a teacher of preachers for many years. He tells of an experience he had as the “chaplain for the week” at the Fannin County Hospital in Georgia. A baby was born the week he was serving as chaplain – a rather unusual experience in that little 30-bed hospital that is usually filled with elderly patients.
It was about nine o’clock in the morning and he saw a group of people gathered, looking through the nursery window. He took a peak and saw the tiny baby that had caught the attention of the clan of people gathered about the window.
Craddock asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?” “It’s a girl,” the reply came quickly. “What’s the name?” “Elizabeth.” “Who’s the father?” “I am,” came a voice from the middle of the crowd.
Because Elizabeth was crying at the top of her lungs, Craddock thought that perhaps the new father was concerned, and so he said to the young man, “Don’t worry. She’s not sick. It’s good for babies to scream and do all that. It clears out their lungs and gets their voices going. It’s all right.”
The young father replied, “Oh, I know she’s not sick. But she’s mad as all get out.” Craddock replied, “Really? You think she’s mad?” The young man replied, “Well, wouldn’t you be mad? One minute you’re with God in heaven and the next minute you’re in Georgia.”
Taken aback by that comment, Craddock replied, “You believe she was with God before she came here?” “Oh, yeah,” was the immediate reply. Craddock said, “You think she’ll remember?”
The father said, “Well, it’s up to her mother and me and the whole the church to see that she remembers and never forgets God.”2
Baptism is one of the gifts of God’s grace that helps us to remember. In baptism we hear our name in a way that we don’t hear it when we read the words our parents filled out on our birth certificates. We hear it pronounced by the voice of the Lord that is over the waters; a voice that is powerful and full of majesty.3
What do we hear? “I have called you by name, you are mine.”4 Yes, those words were first addressed to the nation, Israel, at a time when she felt beat up by everyone, including God. The comforting words of the prophet reminded the people that neither flood nor fire, no any of life’s trials, would overwhelm them so they need not be afraid. “I will be with you … I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”5
Because of Jesus, we can still hear the prophet’s words, but in a most personal way. I have called you William John, you are mine. You are my beloved son. Yes, that word was heard first by Jesus at his baptism. It was his ordination to ministry, his empowerment for ministry, a ministry that brought the same word to each and every person he touched: You are God’s beloved child, with you God is well pleased.
Isn’t it a bit much to say that God is well pleased with us, imperfect and disobedient people that we are? No, because God doesn’t make junk and God always looks more at what we can become than at what we have done. Jesus trusted God’s love for him completely. He loved God completely. No wonder he turned the world upside down. Don’t you think that if we trusted completely God’s love for us and, in turn, loved God completely that we could do the same? Jesus said if we believe in him we would do even greater works than he did.6
In baptism, God calls us by name! Maya Lin who is the designer of the Vietnam Memorial explains why her remarkable work has come to have such a strong grip upon the emotions of the American people. "It’s the names," she said, "the names are the memorial. No edifice or structure can bring people to mind as powerfully as their names." I remember an old Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown says, “I love [humankind], it’s people I cannot stand.” Not so with God. God not only loves humankind (“For God so loved the world”7) God loves each and every one of us – by name! (“that God gave his only Son”).
Not only does God call us by name, in our baptism God says, I like you. I really like you! Judi Creneti tells me that at the end of every session of Godly Play (the Sunday School class for first and second graders) the children gather in a circle, hold hands and say, We are God’s beloved children. WOW! For children to hear that each and every week (and where else will they ever hear such a word except in the Christian community?) and for them to grow up believing that word can only help them to develop a healthy sense of self-worth as well as to learn to value everyone else as a child loved by God.
One of our jobs as a congregation is to help them remember that, by helping them to remember their baptism and by remembering our own baptism. A few weeks ago, Pastors Elizabeth and Tricia sent us all an e-mail urging all of us to acknowledge “the privilege of spending time with our younger people and sharing our lives and learning with them … Know that it takes a village or better, a whole church family, to raise children well. We, as a congregation, communicate the love of God to them by the depth of our care.” Then they listed all the names of our children, youth and college students.
Here, gathered as we are in the name and good company of Jesus Christ, everyone can sing as we can sing no where else:
I count if I am ninety
Or nine of just a baby
There’s one thing I am sure about
And I don’t mean maybe.
I am the church…8
Unfortunately, over the centuries Christians have preferred to argue about baptism, such as its theological meaning, the proper age at which it should be administered and the amount of water used. This year we read the story of Jesus’ baptism in Luke’s gospel. It might be better if we only had his version because it is wonderfully ambiguous and void of details that might lead to heated arguments. We don’t know from Luke if John actually baptized Jesus, that is only inferred, or if it took place in a river, or if Jesus was sprinkled, poured or dunked. Luke simply writes, “Now when all the people were baptized and Jesus also had been baptized …” Luke focuses more on what happens after one is baptized. Read the whole third chapter. “What should we do?” the crowds asked.9 Luke’s short answer can be heard in a verse from the prophet Micah: “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”10 For Jesus, his baptism led him to enter a life of prayer so he could grow in relationship with his heavenly Father.
A Presbyterian and a Baptist were arguing. The Presbyterian asked the Baptist if he considered a person baptized if he was immersed in water up to his waist. “No,” said the Baptist. “Do you consider him baptized if he is immersed in water up to his neck?” Again the Baptist’s answer was: “No.” “Well now,” said the Presbyterian, “suppose you immersed him up to his eye-brows? Would you consider him baptized then?” “No,” came the answer. “Well, then, there you have it!” said the Presbyterian. “It’s only the little bit of water on the top of the head that counts!”
Come on, people of God. In this hate-filled and fear-filled world, aren’t there better ways for us to direct our energies? I confess that I abbreviated the lectionary reading from Isaiah 43 by ending with verse three. After the bulletin was printed and the power point finalized, I realized that was a dumb decision. The fourth verse reads, “Because you are precious in my sight…”
Precious! I have not seen the controversial movie, Precious, but it has been on my list of must-see-movies ever since I read a short article by Barbara Bush in Newsweek11 in which she encouraged people to see it. Her interest in the film grows out of her life-long devotion to fighting illiteracy.
Precious is the story of an obese and illiterate African-American teenager growing up in poverty in the 1980s. One columnist writes, “Precious is an ode to refusing to die. She is a girl struggling to live an unlivable life, 16 years old, illiterate, sexually abused by both parents, mother of two children (one with Down Syndrome) sired by her father, physically and verbally beaten down by her monster of a mother and yet, somehow unable to give in to the idea that she is nothing and her name, nobody.”12
I wanna say I am somebody. I wanna say it on subway, TV, movie, LOUD. I see the pink faces in suits look over top of my head. I watch myself disappear in their eyes ... I talk loud but still I don't exist
Mrs. Bush writes that what saves Precious from a life of despair is a teacher who helps her learn to read and write. At one point Precious expresses the feeling she has that nobody likes her. “But I like you,” the teacher protests. And she says it in a way that reveals she doesn’t say just it to make Precious feel better, but because she really does like her. It confirms my long held conviction that teaching is among life’s higher callings.
I wonder if Precious would have been able to learn to read and write if she didn’t have a teacher who really liked her. And I can only imagine how her life could be transformed to the nth degree had she heard this word from the Creator of the universe: Precious, do not fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name, you are mine … you are my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased. To hear that word and to feel it in the refreshing and cleansing waters of baptism is the difference between life and death. Our calling, the highest calling anyone can have, is to remember our baptism, to remember that we are the daughters and sons of the living God and to regard every person in the way that God has regarded us, whether or not they have been touched by the waters of baptism.
1 Remember Who You Are, (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1980), p. 105
2 Craddock Stories, pages 126,127, adapted
3 See Psalm 29, the appointed Psalm from today’s lectionary
4 Isaiah 43:1
5 Isaiah 43:3
6 John 14:12
7 See John 3:16
8 Song by Avery and Marsh
9 Luke 3:10
10 Micah 6:8
11 December 3, 2009
12 Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, November 25, 2009
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Sermon by Rev. William J. Kemp
For many years, William Willimon was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is now a United Methodist Bishop in Alabama. He tells the story of how as a high school student going out on dates his mother would bid him goodbye with weighty words, “Don’t forget who you are.” “You know what she meant,” he says. “She did not mean that I was in danger of forgetting my name and my street address. She meant that, alone on a date, in the midst of some party, in the presence of some strangers, I might forget who I was. I might lose sight of the values with which I had been raised, answer to some alien name and engage in some unaccustomed behavior. ‘Don’t forget who you are,’ was her maternal benediction as I left home.” 1
Fred Craddock is from the Disciples of Christ tradition and has been a teacher of preachers for many years. He tells of an experience he had as the “chaplain for the week” at the Fannin County Hospital in Georgia. A baby was born the week he was serving as chaplain – a rather unusual experience in that little 30-bed hospital that is usually filled with elderly patients.
It was about nine o’clock in the morning and he saw a group of people gathered, looking through the nursery window. He took a peak and saw the tiny baby that had caught the attention of the clan of people gathered about the window.
Craddock asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?” “It’s a girl,” the reply came quickly. “What’s the name?” “Elizabeth.” “Who’s the father?” “I am,” came a voice from the middle of the crowd.
Because Elizabeth was crying at the top of her lungs, Craddock thought that perhaps the new father was concerned, and so he said to the young man, “Don’t worry. She’s not sick. It’s good for babies to scream and do all that. It clears out their lungs and gets their voices going. It’s all right.”
The young father replied, “Oh, I know she’s not sick. But she’s mad as all get out.” Craddock replied, “Really? You think she’s mad?” The young man replied, “Well, wouldn’t you be mad? One minute you’re with God in heaven and the next minute you’re in Georgia.”
Taken aback by that comment, Craddock replied, “You believe she was with God before she came here?” “Oh, yeah,” was the immediate reply. Craddock said, “You think she’ll remember?”
The father said, “Well, it’s up to her mother and me and the whole the church to see that she remembers and never forgets God.”2
Baptism is one of the gifts of God’s grace that helps us to remember. In baptism we hear our name in a way that we don’t hear it when we read the words our parents filled out on our birth certificates. We hear it pronounced by the voice of the Lord that is over the waters; a voice that is powerful and full of majesty.3
What do we hear? “I have called you by name, you are mine.”4 Yes, those words were first addressed to the nation, Israel, at a time when she felt beat up by everyone, including God. The comforting words of the prophet reminded the people that neither flood nor fire, no any of life’s trials, would overwhelm them so they need not be afraid. “I will be with you … I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”5
Because of Jesus, we can still hear the prophet’s words, but in a most personal way. I have called you William John, you are mine. You are my beloved son. Yes, that word was heard first by Jesus at his baptism. It was his ordination to ministry, his empowerment for ministry, a ministry that brought the same word to each and every person he touched: You are God’s beloved child, with you God is well pleased.
Isn’t it a bit much to say that God is well pleased with us, imperfect and disobedient people that we are? No, because God doesn’t make junk and God always looks more at what we can become than at what we have done. Jesus trusted God’s love for him completely. He loved God completely. No wonder he turned the world upside down. Don’t you think that if we trusted completely God’s love for us and, in turn, loved God completely that we could do the same? Jesus said if we believe in him we would do even greater works than he did.6
In baptism, God calls us by name! Maya Lin who is the designer of the Vietnam Memorial explains why her remarkable work has come to have such a strong grip upon the emotions of the American people. "It’s the names," she said, "the names are the memorial. No edifice or structure can bring people to mind as powerfully as their names." I remember an old Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown says, “I love [humankind], it’s people I cannot stand.” Not so with God. God not only loves humankind (“For God so loved the world”7) God loves each and every one of us – by name! (“that God gave his only Son”).
Not only does God call us by name, in our baptism God says, I like you. I really like you! Judi Creneti tells me that at the end of every session of Godly Play (the Sunday School class for first and second graders) the children gather in a circle, hold hands and say, We are God’s beloved children. WOW! For children to hear that each and every week (and where else will they ever hear such a word except in the Christian community?) and for them to grow up believing that word can only help them to develop a healthy sense of self-worth as well as to learn to value everyone else as a child loved by God.
One of our jobs as a congregation is to help them remember that, by helping them to remember their baptism and by remembering our own baptism. A few weeks ago, Pastors Elizabeth and Tricia sent us all an e-mail urging all of us to acknowledge “the privilege of spending time with our younger people and sharing our lives and learning with them … Know that it takes a village or better, a whole church family, to raise children well. We, as a congregation, communicate the love of God to them by the depth of our care.” Then they listed all the names of our children, youth and college students.
Here, gathered as we are in the name and good company of Jesus Christ, everyone can sing as we can sing no where else:
I count if I am ninety
Or nine of just a baby
There’s one thing I am sure about
And I don’t mean maybe.
I am the church…8
Unfortunately, over the centuries Christians have preferred to argue about baptism, such as its theological meaning, the proper age at which it should be administered and the amount of water used. This year we read the story of Jesus’ baptism in Luke’s gospel. It might be better if we only had his version because it is wonderfully ambiguous and void of details that might lead to heated arguments. We don’t know from Luke if John actually baptized Jesus, that is only inferred, or if it took place in a river, or if Jesus was sprinkled, poured or dunked. Luke simply writes, “Now when all the people were baptized and Jesus also had been baptized …” Luke focuses more on what happens after one is baptized. Read the whole third chapter. “What should we do?” the crowds asked.9 Luke’s short answer can be heard in a verse from the prophet Micah: “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”10 For Jesus, his baptism led him to enter a life of prayer so he could grow in relationship with his heavenly Father.
A Presbyterian and a Baptist were arguing. The Presbyterian asked the Baptist if he considered a person baptized if he was immersed in water up to his waist. “No,” said the Baptist. “Do you consider him baptized if he is immersed in water up to his neck?” Again the Baptist’s answer was: “No.” “Well now,” said the Presbyterian, “suppose you immersed him up to his eye-brows? Would you consider him baptized then?” “No,” came the answer. “Well, then, there you have it!” said the Presbyterian. “It’s only the little bit of water on the top of the head that counts!”
Come on, people of God. In this hate-filled and fear-filled world, aren’t there better ways for us to direct our energies? I confess that I abbreviated the lectionary reading from Isaiah 43 by ending with verse three. After the bulletin was printed and the power point finalized, I realized that was a dumb decision. The fourth verse reads, “Because you are precious in my sight…”
Precious! I have not seen the controversial movie, Precious, but it has been on my list of must-see-movies ever since I read a short article by Barbara Bush in Newsweek11 in which she encouraged people to see it. Her interest in the film grows out of her life-long devotion to fighting illiteracy.
Precious is the story of an obese and illiterate African-American teenager growing up in poverty in the 1980s. One columnist writes, “Precious is an ode to refusing to die. She is a girl struggling to live an unlivable life, 16 years old, illiterate, sexually abused by both parents, mother of two children (one with Down Syndrome) sired by her father, physically and verbally beaten down by her monster of a mother and yet, somehow unable to give in to the idea that she is nothing and her name, nobody.”12
I wanna say I am somebody. I wanna say it on subway, TV, movie, LOUD. I see the pink faces in suits look over top of my head. I watch myself disappear in their eyes ... I talk loud but still I don't exist
Mrs. Bush writes that what saves Precious from a life of despair is a teacher who helps her learn to read and write. At one point Precious expresses the feeling she has that nobody likes her. “But I like you,” the teacher protests. And she says it in a way that reveals she doesn’t say just it to make Precious feel better, but because she really does like her. It confirms my long held conviction that teaching is among life’s higher callings.
I wonder if Precious would have been able to learn to read and write if she didn’t have a teacher who really liked her. And I can only imagine how her life could be transformed to the nth degree had she heard this word from the Creator of the universe: Precious, do not fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name, you are mine … you are my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased. To hear that word and to feel it in the refreshing and cleansing waters of baptism is the difference between life and death. Our calling, the highest calling anyone can have, is to remember our baptism, to remember that we are the daughters and sons of the living God and to regard every person in the way that God has regarded us, whether or not they have been touched by the waters of baptism.
1 Remember Who You Are, (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1980), p. 105
2 Craddock Stories, pages 126,127, adapted
3 See Psalm 29, the appointed Psalm from today’s lectionary
4 Isaiah 43:1
5 Isaiah 43:3
6 John 14:12
7 See John 3:16
8 Song by Avery and Marsh
9 Luke 3:10
10 Micah 6:8
11 December 3, 2009
12 Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, November 25, 2009
Sunday, January 3, 2010
"Whose Party is This?"
EPHIPHANY
Grant Lowe
What is this about?
The Gospel is for all: Gentile magi, the inclusive Gospel.
God’s acts are available for all who are able to discern them
Reconciliation.
Hope.
IDENTITY DISRUPTED
As we sit here in our comfortable pews this morning I want to ask you to go in your mind’s eye with me back in time and think about the situation of those early Christians, those people who were part of the church before there really was a “church”. The very first ones, the apostles, were all Jews, they had lived out their lives following Jewish laws and customs, repeating the prayers, going up to the temple, making the required sacrifices, looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. These Jews had followed this Jesus from Nazareth, believed him to be the one they had looked for over the centuries, and their hopes were dashed at the crucifixion and then beyond imagination by the resurrection. In their excitement their enthusiasm spread to others, their circle of believers grew their fellow Jews and even the Romans who occupied their land made fun of them, ridiculed them, and derisively called them “christianoi” as an epithet. But the followers of Jesus were excited by the resurrection and the awesome experience of Pentecost, so nothing would slow them down, and so they grew rapidly in numbers. That rapid growth of the followers of Jesus the Christ was followed by new persecutions of Jews and Christians, and many fled the persecution but they spread of the news about Jesus wherever they went, beyond Israel into the provinces with their dominant Greek culture. So now people who had not been part of the Jewish community were responding to the Gospel. The Jewish didn’t work for these new folks. They were accepting Jesus as Lord and savior but they weren’t Jewish and hadn’t been circumcised and didn’t abide by all the rules. Now imagine yourself a new member in the congregation at Antioch and reading Matthew’s manuscript as a new members manual and you read there the very first people to worship Jesus were not even Jewish, but were foreigners, outsiders to the faith, like you maybe. What does that tell you?
Matthew is written to Jewish Christians and draws much connection between Jesus and their Scriptures, especially the prophets. However, Matthew also continuously makes the point that God’s revelation in Jesus is intended for all people, beginning with the story of the magi. The Jewish faithful, taught to keep certain customs and rules to maintain their identity when that identity was being threatened in their exile experience in Babylon but Jesus didn’t recognize those boundaries, so he told the story of the good Samaritan and commented that the Roman military officer exhibited faith greater than any he had seen in all Israel. The dividing walls are being destroyed. Mathew conveys this in dramatic terms in his gospel beginning with the story of the magi, goyim, ethnos, non-Jews who came and paid homage to the Christ, therefore God intended the Gospel for all. Jesus would actually have dinner with people proper folks would have nothing to do with. “We are God’s special people, Abraham is our father” they said and John the Baptist says, I paraphrase “Don’t give me that! God can raise up children out of the stones of the ground as children of Abraham.”
Jesus says “I tell you many will come from the east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven”.
The magi came in reverence, with gifts fit for a king, they were submissive. Matthew makes this point up front in our face with the story of the magi, astrologers, outsiders to the faith, not children of Abraham, foreigners.
RECONCILIATION ON A PERSONAL LEVEL
Jack Rogers, former moderator of the GAS tells the story of being in Puerto Rico in a beautiful sanctuary of a good size church in an urban area. The pastor of the church was showing him around and told the story that one of his elders was the head of a labor union which was on strike against a corporation the VP of which was a member of the congregation. The feelings were running high. The corporate VP came to the pastor and asked him to bring communion to her mother who was very ill. Presbyterian practice is to have an elder accompany the pastor in celebrating the sacrament in the home. The session there had a rotation of the elders for serving communion to shut ins and it was the labor union leader’s turn. The pastor said if you want to avoid this service I will find someone to take your place. The labor leader replied “If I cannot do this I do not deserve to be an elder”. The pastor and elder arrived at the home at the appointed hour and when the corporate VP opened the door she was at first shocked by whom she saw. Then both she and the labor union leader wept and embraced. Being able to put animosities aside because of our common loyalty to Christ; that is reconciliation.
What is the significance of Jesus Christ in a religiously pluralistic world?
Let me conclude by saying that the changes taking place in our world, the anxiety of war and bloodshed, the continuing economic slowdown, the cults of extremism that arise in times of change and instability, these changes may shape the style of our mission. They will not of themselves diminish our zeal to continue to offer Good News to a spiritually hungry and hurting world. The strength and effectiveness of our ministry together will only be determined by our own hearts and how we respond to Christ's call in our time.
New times teach new duties, and the Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung gives us some clues about how the church can be faithful in a changing world.
The church of the future is NOT a church
that is indifferent in its faith, shallow in its thinking, or timid in its action;
or that is captive to its history, always putting on its brakes,
or suspiciously defensive when called to act boldly;
or that is closed to change or blind to problems;
or that is quarrelsome, impatient, or unfair in its internal dialogue;
or that is closed to what is happening in God's world.
In short, the church that bears faithful witness to Christ in the future will not be the church that is dishonest.
The church of the future IS the church
that relies upon God's Grace and Wisdom;
that proclaims a God it does not fully know;
that knows the power of God and is in touch with its own weaknesses;
that is strong in faith, joyous,
and able to be thankful even with uncertainties about everything save God alone;
that is filled with intellectual desire beyond its ability to know;
that has spontaneity and animation, and shows fruitfulness in its worship;
that has courage to take risks.
In short, the church that will bear faithful witness in the future is
the church that is honest.
Let me take a moment to comment on our last hymn, which is unusual in several respects. The word for God in this hymn in Gitche Manitou, in the Anishinaabe languages of the Algonquin, Ojibwa and others
Manitou is a common Algonquian (Anishinaabe) term for spirit, mystery, or deity.
Gitche Manitou means "Great Spirit" in several Algonquian (Anishinaabe) languages. The term was also utilized to signify God by Christian missionaries, when translating scriptures and prayers, etc. into the Algonquian languages.
Gichi-manidoo, Great Spirit, is the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life, and is sometimes translated as the "Great Mystery." Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection.
According to Anishinaabe-Ojibwa tradition, what became known as Mackinac Island in Michigan was the home of Gitchie Manitou. The people would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.
This is the same term found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha,
The term manitou refers to the concept of one aspect of the interconnection and balance of nature/life. Everything has its own manitou— every plant, every stone and, since their invention, even machines. These manitous do not exist in a hierarchy like European gods/goddesses, but are more akin to one part of the body interacting with another and the spirit of everything; Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection..With the coming of Christian missionaries and their need to translate the idea of monotheism, "Gitche Manitou" meaning "Great Spirit" was coined. Gitche Manitou has been seen as those cultures' analogue to the
Christian God
The "Huron Carol", found in our Presbyterian Hymnal, is a hymn written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Herons’ in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is based on a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton.
The hymn uses imagery familiar to the Herons’ in place of the traditional Nativity story. Jesus is born in a "lodge of broken bark", and wrapped in a "robe of rabbit skin". He is surrounded by hunters instead of shepherds, and the Magi are portrayed as "chiefs from afar" that bring him "fox and beaver pelts" instead of the more familiar gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Just as Paul took an Athenian god to proclaim the Gospel, so the Jesuit missionaries took the Huron word for Great Spirit, and used it to show how God communicates with us through the Christ.
In the United States, the song was included as "Jesous Ahatonia" on Burl Ives's 1952 album Christmas Day in the Morning and was later released as a Burl Ives single under the title "Indian Christmas Carol."
God has given us a mission, if we are willing to accept it. I don't believe we are called to a narrowly "religious" enterprise, but to bear witness to the lord who calls us to carry glad tidings to a tired and hurting world; and to live out in our lives our understanding of the profound unity of the peoples of the earth and God's continuing creativity in the world.
Amen.
Grant Lowe
What is this about?
The Gospel is for all: Gentile magi, the inclusive Gospel.
God’s acts are available for all who are able to discern them
Reconciliation.
Hope.
IDENTITY DISRUPTED
As we sit here in our comfortable pews this morning I want to ask you to go in your mind’s eye with me back in time and think about the situation of those early Christians, those people who were part of the church before there really was a “church”. The very first ones, the apostles, were all Jews, they had lived out their lives following Jewish laws and customs, repeating the prayers, going up to the temple, making the required sacrifices, looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. These Jews had followed this Jesus from Nazareth, believed him to be the one they had looked for over the centuries, and their hopes were dashed at the crucifixion and then beyond imagination by the resurrection. In their excitement their enthusiasm spread to others, their circle of believers grew their fellow Jews and even the Romans who occupied their land made fun of them, ridiculed them, and derisively called them “christianoi” as an epithet. But the followers of Jesus were excited by the resurrection and the awesome experience of Pentecost, so nothing would slow them down, and so they grew rapidly in numbers. That rapid growth of the followers of Jesus the Christ was followed by new persecutions of Jews and Christians, and many fled the persecution but they spread of the news about Jesus wherever they went, beyond Israel into the provinces with their dominant Greek culture. So now people who had not been part of the Jewish community were responding to the Gospel. The Jewish didn’t work for these new folks. They were accepting Jesus as Lord and savior but they weren’t Jewish and hadn’t been circumcised and didn’t abide by all the rules. Now imagine yourself a new member in the congregation at Antioch and reading Matthew’s manuscript as a new members manual and you read there the very first people to worship Jesus were not even Jewish, but were foreigners, outsiders to the faith, like you maybe. What does that tell you?
Matthew is written to Jewish Christians and draws much connection between Jesus and their Scriptures, especially the prophets. However, Matthew also continuously makes the point that God’s revelation in Jesus is intended for all people, beginning with the story of the magi. The Jewish faithful, taught to keep certain customs and rules to maintain their identity when that identity was being threatened in their exile experience in Babylon but Jesus didn’t recognize those boundaries, so he told the story of the good Samaritan and commented that the Roman military officer exhibited faith greater than any he had seen in all Israel. The dividing walls are being destroyed. Mathew conveys this in dramatic terms in his gospel beginning with the story of the magi, goyim, ethnos, non-Jews who came and paid homage to the Christ, therefore God intended the Gospel for all. Jesus would actually have dinner with people proper folks would have nothing to do with. “We are God’s special people, Abraham is our father” they said and John the Baptist says, I paraphrase “Don’t give me that! God can raise up children out of the stones of the ground as children of Abraham.”
Jesus says “I tell you many will come from the east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven”.
The magi came in reverence, with gifts fit for a king, they were submissive. Matthew makes this point up front in our face with the story of the magi, astrologers, outsiders to the faith, not children of Abraham, foreigners.
RECONCILIATION ON A PERSONAL LEVEL
Jack Rogers, former moderator of the GAS tells the story of being in Puerto Rico in a beautiful sanctuary of a good size church in an urban area. The pastor of the church was showing him around and told the story that one of his elders was the head of a labor union which was on strike against a corporation the VP of which was a member of the congregation. The feelings were running high. The corporate VP came to the pastor and asked him to bring communion to her mother who was very ill. Presbyterian practice is to have an elder accompany the pastor in celebrating the sacrament in the home. The session there had a rotation of the elders for serving communion to shut ins and it was the labor union leader’s turn. The pastor said if you want to avoid this service I will find someone to take your place. The labor leader replied “If I cannot do this I do not deserve to be an elder”. The pastor and elder arrived at the home at the appointed hour and when the corporate VP opened the door she was at first shocked by whom she saw. Then both she and the labor union leader wept and embraced. Being able to put animosities aside because of our common loyalty to Christ; that is reconciliation.
What is the significance of Jesus Christ in a religiously pluralistic world?
Let me conclude by saying that the changes taking place in our world, the anxiety of war and bloodshed, the continuing economic slowdown, the cults of extremism that arise in times of change and instability, these changes may shape the style of our mission. They will not of themselves diminish our zeal to continue to offer Good News to a spiritually hungry and hurting world. The strength and effectiveness of our ministry together will only be determined by our own hearts and how we respond to Christ's call in our time.
New times teach new duties, and the Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung gives us some clues about how the church can be faithful in a changing world.
The church of the future is NOT a church
that is indifferent in its faith, shallow in its thinking, or timid in its action;
or that is captive to its history, always putting on its brakes,
or suspiciously defensive when called to act boldly;
or that is closed to change or blind to problems;
or that is quarrelsome, impatient, or unfair in its internal dialogue;
or that is closed to what is happening in God's world.
In short, the church that bears faithful witness to Christ in the future will not be the church that is dishonest.
The church of the future IS the church
that relies upon God's Grace and Wisdom;
that proclaims a God it does not fully know;
that knows the power of God and is in touch with its own weaknesses;
that is strong in faith, joyous,
and able to be thankful even with uncertainties about everything save God alone;
that is filled with intellectual desire beyond its ability to know;
that has spontaneity and animation, and shows fruitfulness in its worship;
that has courage to take risks.
In short, the church that will bear faithful witness in the future is
the church that is honest.
Let me take a moment to comment on our last hymn, which is unusual in several respects. The word for God in this hymn in Gitche Manitou, in the Anishinaabe languages of the Algonquin, Ojibwa and others
Manitou is a common Algonquian (Anishinaabe) term for spirit, mystery, or deity.
Gitche Manitou means "Great Spirit" in several Algonquian (Anishinaabe) languages. The term was also utilized to signify God by Christian missionaries, when translating scriptures and prayers, etc. into the Algonquian languages.
Gichi-manidoo, Great Spirit, is the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life, and is sometimes translated as the "Great Mystery." Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection.
According to Anishinaabe-Ojibwa tradition, what became known as Mackinac Island in Michigan was the home of Gitchie Manitou. The people would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.
This is the same term found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha,
The term manitou refers to the concept of one aspect of the interconnection and balance of nature/life. Everything has its own manitou— every plant, every stone and, since their invention, even machines. These manitous do not exist in a hierarchy like European gods/goddesses, but are more akin to one part of the body interacting with another and the spirit of everything; Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection..With the coming of Christian missionaries and their need to translate the idea of monotheism, "Gitche Manitou" meaning "Great Spirit" was coined. Gitche Manitou has been seen as those cultures' analogue to the
Christian God
The "Huron Carol", found in our Presbyterian Hymnal, is a hymn written in 1643 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Herons’ in Canada. Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). The song's melody is based on a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton.
The hymn uses imagery familiar to the Herons’ in place of the traditional Nativity story. Jesus is born in a "lodge of broken bark", and wrapped in a "robe of rabbit skin". He is surrounded by hunters instead of shepherds, and the Magi are portrayed as "chiefs from afar" that bring him "fox and beaver pelts" instead of the more familiar gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Just as Paul took an Athenian god to proclaim the Gospel, so the Jesuit missionaries took the Huron word for Great Spirit, and used it to show how God communicates with us through the Christ.
In the United States, the song was included as "Jesous Ahatonia" on Burl Ives's 1952 album Christmas Day in the Morning and was later released as a Burl Ives single under the title "Indian Christmas Carol."
God has given us a mission, if we are willing to accept it. I don't believe we are called to a narrowly "religious" enterprise, but to bear witness to the lord who calls us to carry glad tidings to a tired and hurting world; and to live out in our lives our understanding of the profound unity of the peoples of the earth and God's continuing creativity in the world.
Amen.
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