On The Transfiguration Of Jesus - Sermon February 19, 2012

Sermon: February 19, 2012, The Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B

Mark 9:2-9

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Today is the last Sunday of the church season known as Epiphany. The first Sunday of Epiphany traditionally focuses on the Baptism of Jesus when heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God the Father declared “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The last Sunday of Epiphany, today, traditionally focuses on the Transfiguration of Jesus, Mark’s account of which we read today. We read how Jesus shone with a bright light after which God the Father spoke from a cloud saying “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” These stories have a lot in common and both are epiphanies focusing on who Jesus is.

According to the dictionary, the word epiphany can mean one of two things. First, it can be a manifestation or appearance of a divine or superhuman being; and second it can be an illuminating realization or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder. Both of these definitions are present in the Bible’s epiphanies relating to Jesus. Today, we are going to look at the Transfiguration story. When I first got to thinking about the Transfiguration, I had a difficult time understanding what it meant and what its purpose was in the Gospel. But after reflecting on it, I think it plays a very important role with a critical message for us today.

Recall the second definition of epiphany – “an illuminating realization or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation, awe, or wonder.” Let’s look at an illustration of a transfiguration moment from the novel and popular film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The scene takes place as three companions are searching for two friends who have gone missing. They have heard rumors that a wizard known as Saruman the White is in the vicinity. He was the head of the wizard order but betrayed his friends and joined the Dark Lord. It is indeed a dark time, especially as the good wizard Gandalf the Grey is thought to have died earlier in the story. The three companions sense the immediate presence of the white wizard, and they prepare to meet him. 

Let’s take a look at the scene (begin watching at the 1:10 minute mark and continue until the 2:55 minute mark):

What they see is a wizard hidden from view by a dazzling white light, and the three who are greatly afraid, attack him thinking he is the evil Saruman the White. But he beats back their attacks, and his identity is revealed. He is not Saruman the White, but rather the good wizard Gandalf, who has apparently come back from death to claim the title of White Wizard. The three companions fall to their knees in awe and beg forgiveness for trying to kill him.

Listen to how the novel describes what happened:

They all gazed at him. His hair was white as snow in the sunshine; and gleaming white was his robe; the eyes under his deep brows were bright, piercing as the rays of the sun; power was in his hand. Between wonder, joy, and fear they stood and found no words to say.

At last Aragorn stirred. ‘Gandalf!’ he said. ‘Beyond all hope you return to us in our need! What veil was over my sight? Gandalf!’ Gimli said nothing, but sank to his knees, shading his eyes.

‘Gandalf,’ the old man repeated, as if recalling from old memory a long disused word. ‘Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.’

He stepped down from the rock, and picking up his grey cloak wrapped it about him: it seemed as if the sun had been shining, but now was hid in cloud again. ‘Yes, you may still call me Gandalf,’ he said, and the voice was the voice of their old friend and guide. ‘Get up, my good Gimli! No blame to you, and no harm done to me. Indeed my friends, none of you have any weapon that could hurt me. Be merry! We meet again. At the turn of the tide. The great storm is coming, but the tide has turned.’

He laid his hand on Gimli’s head, and the Dwarf looked up and laughed suddenly. ‘Gandalf!’ he said. ‘But you are all in white!’

‘Yes, I am white now,’ said Gandalf.

In this meeting, the companions learned that their great friend Gandalf iss still alive; that he still possesses great power; that he has taken on the mantle of the White Wizard; and that, even though a great storm was coming, the companions can have confidence that the tide had turned in favor of what was right. This greatly emboldened the three companions to continue on and do what they needed to do.

Now it is well known that Tolkien based this scene on the Transfiguration of Jesus, but only very loosely. This provides us with but an illustration of a transfiguration. So what message does the Transfiguration of Jesus have for us? The Transfiguration comes immediately after a number of conversations centered around the question of who Jesus was, and of dark times to come. In Mark chapter 8 verses 27-30, Jesus asks the disciples who people thought he was. In verse 31, Jesus tells them that he will be killed and raised again. In verses 34 and 35 Jesus warns them that they would undergo suffering in order to follow him.

Just as the companions in the Lord of the Rings must have felt pretty dejected before Gandalf’s transfiguration before them, so the disciples were probably feeling a bit overwhelmed also. They were having a difficult time understanding who Jesus was, and their presuppositions about who the Messiah was were being seriously undermined. Like all good Jews at the time, their expectation of a Messiah was of a conquering military and political hero, who would be embraced by the Jewish leaders and defeat all enemies of the Jewish people. Instead, they had Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah, yet also told them he was going to be rejected by the Jewish leaders and put to death.

I think that we can all identify with this dejection because we probably have all felt it at some point in our lives. With all the bad news, evil and suffering in this world, how can God really be in charge? It’s a natural thing to feel this way at times. And the Transfiguration was an opportunity for God to reveal to the chosen disciples – and to us – a glimpse of Jesus in his power and his glory. Jesus took his inner circle of disciples up a high mountain with him, and the disciples probably thought that he was going to teach them some more, as they were used to. Well Jesus was indeed going to teach them, but in a way the disciples were most certainly not expecting.

Jesus suddenly was transfigured before them – his clothes became dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appeared with him. You may wonder why Moses and Elijah would have appeared. They were two iconic figures in Jewish history – Moses represented the Law, and Elijah the prophets. Let me try to illustrate what it meant for these two figures to appear with Jesus. This year is a Presidential election year. Now just imagine what effect it would have, if on Monday, November 5, the day before the election, a candidate was suddenly transfigured before us, and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln appeared at his side, thus endorsing him. Is there any doubt that that candidate would win in a landslide? This is the effect that Moses and Elijah would have had on the disciples. It would have cemented for them that Jesus represented the culmination of God’s redemption plan for Israel, whatever the Jewish religious leaders said.

But the most convincing statement of all comes from God who says “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” The disciples were told – and through them, we are told – that Jesus is God’s own Son, and that we are to listen to him. Just as Gandalf’s transfiguration had multiple messages to the three companions, so did Christ’s Transfiguration have many messages for the disciples, and by extension for us.

Jesus had already told his disciples earlier that a storm was coming – indeed he told them of his impending death and of their coming suffering. But in the Transfiguration, he revealed his supernatural power and glory. He also revealed that he was the culmination of God’s plan to save Israel. God the Father revealed that Jesus was God’s Son, whom the Father loved. In other words, the disciples were told that, despite the coming storm, the tide had turned. They could have confidence in Jesus.

Lastly, the disciples were told to listen to Jesus. This encounter wasn’t just about lifting sagging spirits, but it was also about preparing the disciples for what was to come after Jesus’ death. They needed to listen to Jesus and absorb what he taught them. This is made clear when, after the Transfiguration, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until he had risen from the dead. Why would Jesus have given such instructions? Remember that the disciples themselves had a very difficult time understanding who Jesus was, and what it meant for him to be the Messiah. It would have been very easy for significant misunderstanding if the disciples had gone around telling everyone that Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. Nationalist heros expected to drive out invaders coupled with visions of historic national heros would have been a recipe for much violence and death.  Almost certainly, people would have come to the wrong conclusion. But after Jesus had died, such confusion would not have been possible. At that point, nobody would still be confusing Jesus with the expected nationalist warrior hero Messiah who was going to conquer all Israel’s enemies.

What does this story tell us today? I think a number of things. First, while we probably shouldn’t expect to experience any transfigurations of Jesus in our lives as Peter, James and John did, we do have something that these three disciples didn’t have – the New Testament. We have the resources to learn all about who Jesus really is and was. We don’t need supernatural appearances. And just as it was vitally important that the disciples listen to Jesus and absorb his teachings in order that they would be prepared for what was to come, so we need to study Jesus’s life and teaching so that we also can be prepared for what is to come. This means engaging in Spirit led Bible study with fellow believers.

Second, there will be times when we have private epiphanies – when, during Bible study, the Holy Spirit illumines our hearts about a significant truth or aspect of Jesus that fills us with awe and joy. Such epiphanies can be a tremendous boost to our faith. But in order to receive such epiphanies, we need to be immersed in studying the Bible under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Third, we need to not only listen to Jesus, but also do what he told us to do. Fr. Eaton, an Episcopal priest friend, has commented that the Transfiguration story summarizes our job as Christians. At the Transfiguration, God the Father revealed Jesus in power and glory, proclaimed him as his Son, and told us to listen to him. So Fr. Eaton says “Here, then, is the most basic definition of the mission of the church: pointing to Jesus and telling others that the Almighty God has proclaimed who he is, and to do what he says.” So, with the power of the Holy Spirit, let’s get to know Jesus better, let’s be open to God working in us, and let’s witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ to the world. Amen.

Let us pray:

Almighty Father, whose Son was revealed in majesty before he suffered death upon the cross: give us grace to perceive his glory, that we may be strengthened to suffer with him and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

All Things to All People - Sermon, February 5, 2012

Sermon: February 5, 2012, The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B
Ron Olsen


1 Corinthians 9:16-23

“I have become all things to all people.” That sounds like a quote from one of the would-be candidates as they scramble around the country rather than something St. Paul said. And, out of context, it sounds pretty shallow and insincere. But I think we do Paul a disservice if we think he’s being manipulative or insincere – though he is certainly brisk. His communication style can be impersonal – take him seriously, but not personally.

This reminds me of one of the things I admired about both The Bee and The Record – their commitment to training. I especially remember communications seminars based on personality types.

A number of consultants offer training based on personality type. The names of the types vary, but most identify four types. The names I’m familiar with are: dominant, expressive, analytical and amiable . The idea was to understand how each type of personality liked to give and to receive information, and then modify your style to fit how the customer liked to receive information and make decisions. (This was for the sales department.) I think that’s what Paul is doing – modifying how he communicates his message of Christ to fit his audience.

I’d guess Paul to be a dominant – bottom line, he’d say, “get to the point, I’ve got souls to save.” Though he probably wouldn’t have explained why he wanted you to get to the point. He would expect you to know there is only one thing on his to-do-list: bring people to Christ.

St. Peter must have driven Paul nuts… I’d peg Peter as an expressive –thinks out loud, meet him and he is your new best friend, everything is about relationships – so he is ready to leave his nets to follow Jesus when asked. This “quick to react” characteristic could also get him into trouble. For example when Jesus was walking on the water towards him: (Matthew 14: 28-31), “ And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?””

St. Thomas was definitely an analytical – they are the type of people who need a lot of information before they can act. (John 20: 24-28) Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” But the following week when Jesus showed him his hands… Jesus “said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”” He’d gotten the information he needed …his commitment to spreading the word of Christ took him to India where he was martyred for converting a high official’s wife and son to Christianity.

The last group is amiable; from the little we are told about Peter’s brother Andrew I’d classify him as an amiable … they like to get other peoples opinions, they are sensitive to others. After he and another of John the Baptist’s disciples spent the day with Jesus , Andrew went and found his brother and gave him the good news “we have found him.” Amiables want to fit in.

Along with adjusting to these personality types, Paul would also need to adjust to how much they already knew. Paul was a Jew, so he and his Jewish audience would know the Old Testament and the laws. For non-Jews he would have to explain Jewish customs.

As gentiles we are “ones outside the law,” though like Paul, we are “not free from God’s law but are under Christ’s law,” under the new covenant – the new relationship with God. Christ promised that we would join him and have life in all its fullness. Our part of the covenant is to believe in Christ and keep his commandments: Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. And to love our neighbor, not just as ourselves, but as Christ loves us.

The message is simple: Jesus came into the world to save sinners, because we can’t do it on our own. Now I know that Episcopalians are not known for evangelizing, but just for a few minutes lets pretend we are Paul – and we just happen to have our prayer book with us. We meet someone who notices the prayer book and comments that they are kind of looking for a church, but don’t know anything about the Episcopal Church. After the time and location of services what information, would we share? How about The Catechism which begins on page 845. For Dominants – I’d go directly to the “New Covenant” on page 850 – it is short, to the point and tells what action must be taken. The Creeds would answer any questions they might have. Relationships are what ring Expressives’ bells so I’d include God the Father, God the Son, Corporate worship and then the New Covenant. Analyticals are easy, start at the beginning and go through the Catechism line by line. Amiables would require the same information as the Analyticals, only they’d be best served hearing it at an inquirer’s class so they could hear what others think. Paul was not manipulative, he was just ahead of his time when it came to communicating his message.

It is not so much that Paul was all things to all people, but that his message was: Jesus’ saving grace is open to all, it is the message that is everything to all people. Amen.

The Greatest of These is Love - Sermon, January 29, 2012

Sermon: January 29, 2012, The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B

I Corinthians 8:1-13

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

A couple of weeks ago, Barbara and I were discussing which passage I should preach on today. Barbara told me that I should preach on the passage from I Corinthians because unless I explained what it’s about, you probably wouldn’t pay much attention to a discourse on something that none of us will have any personal connection to- whether we should eat meat sacrificed to idols. I mean, isn’t this one of those Bible passages that we can safely ignore? Isn’t it irrelevant to our Christian life today?

No, we can’t ignore it, and no, it isn’t irrelevant. What we need to do is peel back the outer skin of the story so that we can get to the heart of the message. Scripture passages sometimes remind me of cutting up a clove of garlic. First of all you need to unwrap the skin around the bulb, in order to get at the individual clove. Then you need to peel the clove before you can dice it up and add it to what you are cooking. Today’s passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is just such a passage. In order to understand what Paul was trying to say, we first need to understand the context of this passage.

Biblical scholars believe that Paul wrote his letter to the church at Corinth in response to a letter that he had received from them. This is made clear, for example, at the beginning of chapter 7, where Paul writes “now for the matters you wrote about”. This Epistle is also sprinkled with phrases such as “you say” and “now about” before Paul begins to address an issue. Our reading begins with “Now about food sacrificed to idols” and Paul continues addressing this issue in chapters 8, 9 and 10.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians deals with a number of specific topics, such as factionalism, lawsuits, spiritual gifts, and food sacrificed to idols. There are, however, some overarching themes that seem to run through all of the more specific issues. These themes are an overbearing pride on the part of some at Corinth in their supposed great knowledge, a creeping into the Church of the rampant paganism that was present in the ancient city of Corinth, and some people misusing their freedom in Christ to do things which were destructive to the community at large.

The specific focus of today’s passage has to do with the eating of food sacrificed to idols, and so we need to ask what the big deal about this was in ancient Corinth. Well, we first need to understand some things. In the ancient world, few people ate meat because it was rather expensive and considered a delicacy. At many of the ancient pagan temples, animals would be ritually slaughtered as sacrifices to the gods, however, only a few select organs were actually needed for the ritual and so the temple would butcher the rest of the animal and use the meat in two ways. First, the temple would sell the meat in the marketplace, and temple meat would normally be a cheaper but better cut than the non-temple meat. Second, the temple would hold feasts in honor of its pagan god. These feasts were not like a church potluck of today. In those days, pagan religion was the civic religion, which every good citizen was expected to follow. So these would be public affairs, like official community events. However unlike community events of today, these feasts would have been held in honor of a pagan god.

Now we need to think about the early Christians in Corinth. The early Corinthian church was made up of a very diverse group of people, two groups of which are particularly relevant to today’s passage. One group was made up of relatively recent converts from paganism, hot on fire for the Lord, but still very young and immature in their Christian lives. They would still be very spiritually sensitive to any involvement with paganism, and might be seriously undermined in their faith if pressured into following, what they believed, were pagan practices. Another group were older converts from paganism, and many of these people seem to have been attracted to the freedom that Christianity brought. This group was also inordinately puffed up with pride thinking themselves to be exceedingly knowledgeable about the Christian faith, yet apparently lacking love and pastoral concern for their fellow believers.

It would appear that the prideful Christians, in their supposed knowledge and freedom, had argued that since idols were false, there was nothing special about the meat that had been offered to them, and that Christians could therefore freely eat whatever they wanted and could attend whatever temple feasts they wanted. The new sensitive converts, however, Paul knew still seemed to believe that the pagan gods had some power, and that they would somehow be affected by eating meat sacrificed to idols. What’s more, the faith of these new converts could be irreparably harmed if they were pressured into eating such meat, since their consciences told them it was wrong. We all know that when we ignore our consciences when they tell us we are doing something wrong, it becomes easier and easier to ignore them. Our conscience acts to convict us of our sin, and when we ignore it, we are shutting out God from our lives.

So what was Paul to do? Should he simply reassert the theological truth that idols are false, chastise the weaker Christians, and let the chips fall where they may? Thankfully, Paul does not do this. His response is aimed primarily at those who were puffed up with pride in their supposed knowledge and freedom. He begins by bursting their bubble of pride, saying that “knowledge puffs up while love builds up.” In other words, boasting of great knowledge without showing love just shows you are full of hot air, and that you don’t really understand what God is all about. Paul writes that pride in one’s supposed knowledge is not what Jesus Christ is all about – rather love is what the Gospel is about.

Paul then affirms the theological truth that idols are false and points out that only the God of the Bible is true. He states that there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made and through whom we live. Note that in this reply, Paul does not compromise on the truth of the Christian faith, but he does insist that the lens through which we see the faith, and through which we act out our faith, must be one of love.

So let’s look at how Paul applies these principles to the issue at hand – that of eating meat which had been sacrificed to idols. He begins be affirming the truth, but in a pastoral way. He reminds the overly proud Christians that some of their weaker fellow believers don’t yet fully understand that idols have no power and that if they would bow to peer pressure and eat food sacrificed to idols, their consciences would be seriously harmed and they could lose their faith. Paul even throws in a little wisdom of his own - saying that food doesn’t bring us closer to God and that abstaining from controversial idol meat won’t hurt you.

Paul finishes up the passage we read today by repeating the principle that love trumps knowledge. Even though there is nothing inherently wrong in eating food sacrificed to idols, Paul makes it clear that that isn’t really the issue. Instead, for Paul, the issue is the effect that some Christians eating such food would have on their weaker brothers and sisters. Their consciences told them eating idol meat was very wrong, and they might have been encouraged by peer pressure to do it anyway. Thus these weaker colleagues would violate their consciences by doing something they thought was a serious sin, and this would contribute to their falling away from God.

Think about it – suppose your young nephew, who has always looked up to you but who previously has had problems with alcohol abuse, comes to visit you. You learn that he has just converted to the Baptist faith and is on fire for the Lord, but you also learn that he believes that all drinking is of the devil. Would you, knowing how much he looks up to you, then pull out a beer in front of him, and laughingly tell him not to be such a tea-totaller and to join you with a brew? You could be destroying his conversion. No, you would wait, and out of love for him, abstain from drinking when he is around. And, maybe, after he has had time to mature as a Christian, you could talk with him later, and explain your point of view.

Paul writes that the momentary pleasure we might have in exercising freedom isn’t worth the soul of our brother or sister. And this is the very important principle that we can learn from this passage and apply to our own lives. We all have choices to make in our lives. While some things God has clearly commanded us to avoid, there are many things that are permissible. But we completely miss the point of the Gospel if we just focus on all the things we can do, and forget about loving one another. Rather, an integral part of the Gospel is to give over everything to God, to subordinate our freedom to the Gospel, and certainly, never to insist upon our rights and freedoms when to do so would undermine the faith of a fellow believer.

This message is particularly relevant to us today. We are barraged on all sides by messages telling us that it is all about us – what we want, what we deserve. Companies tell us in their advertising that our primary focus should be on pleasing ourselves – indulging ourselves with material goods. Politicians of all stripes tell us that we should insist on our civil liberties, no matter the cost to others. They tell us that we should get to keep all of our money, and make everyone else pay instead. Think of some of the early American slogans – “live free or die” and “Don’t tread on me.” Our culture is one in which we are expected to demand that our rights and freedoms are pre-eminent. But Paul tells us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ points to a more excellent way. That way says that even when we are right, even when we can legitimately claim a right or a freedom, we should not do so, if it would be a stumbling block to the faith of a brother or sister. Rather the guiding principle for Christians is not personal freedom, but love.

And so a little later in this letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes the famous chapter on love. Let’s turn to it together as a fitting conclusion for today’s sermon – 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Paul writes:

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Amen.

Let us pray:

Lord, you have shown us so much love, coming down from heaven to live amongst us, and suffering death on our behalf. We ask you to send your Holy Spirit on us today, that we might love each other as you have loved us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

REJOICE: It's Advent - Sermon, December 11, 2011

Sermon December 11, 2011 Third Sunday of Advent, Year B

John 1:6-8, 19-28 and Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Today’s Gospel reading features John attempting to explain to the Jewish religious leaders by what authority he was testifying about the coming Messiah. It is important to know that, according to historians of the time, John the Baptist had developed quite a large following among the people. The Roman historian Josephus even wrote of John as being a more important figure that Jesus. Quite clearly, John’s pronouncements got the religious leaders wondering if he was claiming to be the Messiah himself. So they sent some officials to ask him. John told them that he was not.

The officials then correctly perceived that John was announcing that the Messiah was near. Now the Jews believed that the Messiah would be preceded by a return of the prophet Elijah. If you know your Old Testament, you would know that Elijah did not die, but was taken up into heaven by God, and the Jews thought that his return would presage the coming of the Messiah. So they ask John if he is Elijah, but John denies that also. Well this perplexes the officials and they finally just ask “Who are you?” They want to know what John’s credibility is.

The reason for their confusion is that the Jews had a very fixed idea about what the Messiah would be like. I came across one Jewish website describing what Jews expect to see in a Messiah. According to this site, the Jews believed that the Messiah would be a great political leader descended from King David, well-versed in Jewish law, a charismatic leader, a great military leader who will win battles for Israel, a great judge, and above all, a human being, not a god.

So think about it. The Jews were expecting the Messiah to be preceded by one of Israel’s best known prophets, Elijah, returning to earth announcing his coming. And surely, it would be pretty hard to miss a great charismatic political and military leader. People like that don’t just appear out of the woodwork. Just think if someone began to declare to Republicans that their long awaited 2012 presidential candidate had finally arrived. Most pundits would be asking themselves who this person was – would it mean that one of the star candidates who had previously declined to run, changed their mind? Or perhaps, a successful general, businessperson or Senator had decided to run after all. Most pundits would be able to draw up a list of 25 people tops, and they would know that the mystery candidate would have to be one of those people.

Well, you can imagine why the Jewish leaders of the time were puzzled by John and why they wanted to know who he was. They must have thought that John was either a dangerous fraud or else that John knew about a potentially very powerful rebel leader that they didn’t know about. Of course, neither was true.

John replied by claiming Old Testament prophecies to substantiate his claims. Specifically, he refers back to the prophet Isaiah, who authored many prophecies that looked forward to the Messiah’s coming. However, the Jewish religious officials ignored this response by John and continued to press him for his identity. Then John makes a truly remarkable statement. He says to them “among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me…” In other words, John tells the religious officials that the Messiah is among them, but that they don’t recognize him.

As we learned, it would have been impossible not to have known a Messiah who was going to be a charismatic political and military leader. Such leaders don’t just appear out of thin air. If such a person was reputed to exist, you would have had to either know the person, or know of them. But John declares that the Messiah is among them but that they don’t recognize him. How can this be? The problem is that the Jewish leaders ignored John when he pointed them back to Scripture. Had they been willing to go back and re-read Isaiah with fresh eyes, they might have realized how mistaken they were. So if we want to learn about who Jesus really is, we need to follow where John is pointing – back to Isaiah’s prophesies. What does Isaiah tell us about Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah?

Well, I could stand here all day and talk to you about this subject, but we only have a few minutes. So let’s just look at a couple of passages. First, let’s look at John’s actual quote from Isaiah – “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” This comes from Isaiah chapter 40. Chapter 40 begins saying “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for.” Then the words that John speaks are included as the voice of the Lord’s herald, after which Isaiah writes “the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Thus, what John was declaring was that he was indeed the herald to the Messiah’s coming, but that the foretold Messiah would come to pay for Israel’s sins.

Isaiah chapter 53 tells how the Messiah will pay for our sins. This chapter tells us how Jesus will accomplish the great promises that we will hear about in chapter 61. And it is in chapter 53, that we see how it was so easy for the Jewish officials not to see the Messiah when he was right in their midst. They were looking for a dashing and charismatic leader, while Isaiah tells us that the Messiah “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” People like that typically don’t get noticed. But Isaiah doesn’t stop there – he continues beginning at verse 4 “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The final passage in Isaiah that we will look at is today’s Old Testament reading. We read from Isaiah 61, a passage that Jesus made a point of selecting to read from in Luke chapter 4, after which he declared “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was identifying this passage from Isaiah with himself. This passage tells us that Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and to comfort all who mourn. He has come to bestow on those who grieve a “crown of beauty instead of ashes”, the “oil of joy instead of mourning” and a “garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” In other words, the purpose of Jesus coming is to put things right again and to bring us joy.

There are many prophecies looking forward to the Messiah that can be found in the Old Testament. We talked about a few of them today. I have passed out to you today, the lyrics to Handel’s Messiah. The Messiah is truly an Advent masterpiece and I would encourage everyone who has never yet done so to attend a performance of the Messiah this Advent. And pay close attention to what is being sung. The lyrics are taken completely from the Bible, and include many of the Old Testament references to the coming of the Messiah. So I would encourage you sometime this Advent to either attend a live performance, or listen to it on CD or the radio and read the lyrics while you enjoy the wonderful music.

Advent is the time that we look forward to the coming of our Messiah and prepare our hearts and lives for his coming. This, the third Sunday of Advent, is known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is Latin for “rejoice” and is the Sunday in Advent that we focus on joy. We read in Isaiah 61 that Jesus has come to bring us joy. On reading Isaiah 61, I thought of a passage near the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, after the hobbits Frodo and Sam have just destroyed the evil ring of power by casting it into Mount Doom. They are caught in a sea of lava that the ring’s destruction has brought about and pass out thinking that they are about to die. But in the next scene, Sam wakes up in a sunlit room and sees the great wizard Gandalf, who he thought had died, standing over him. Gandalf asks him how he feels, and listen to what happens then:

But Sam lay back, and stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped: ‘Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?’ ‘A great Shadow has departed,’ said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from bed... "How do I feel?" he cried." Well, I don't know how to say it. I feel, I feel" --he waved his arms in the air-- "I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!"” (J.R.R. Tolkien (2009-04-17). The Lord of the Rings (pp. 951-952). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.)

This is what Isaiah 61 points to in Jesus. Jesus came to the world to take away the great Shadow of sin from our lives, and to bring us great joy by making everything that is sad come untrue by reuniting us with God our Father. Rejoice!

Let us pray:

Lord, we are commanded to Rejoice in you always. Advent is the time for us to prepare ourselves to receive your Son, our Savior. On this Gaudete Sunday, we ask you to prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which His presence will bestow. Whatever our circumstances, give us the joy of your Son Jesus Christ, as we look forward to the great celebration of His coming to earth as one of us. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

98th Annual Christmas Bazaar - Saturday, Dec. 3

Come join us for the 98th Annual Christmas Bazaar!

When: Saturday, December 3, 2011 from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Where: St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Galt, California (corner of 3rd and B streets)

• Featuring hand-crafted items and baked treats.
• Christmas gifts for family and friends.
• Enjoy good conversation and light refreshments.

For directions see directions to St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

Sermon November 13, 2011

Sermon  November 13, 2011  Proper 28, Year A

Matthew 25:14-30 

James Wirrell

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Today’s Gospel reading is a parable, or story, that Jesus told his disciples concerning stewardship in the end times.  It is one of a series on this topic.  Now just to orient you, in terms of time, we are living in the end times.  No, not as some radio preachers would have you believe, but rather in that Jesus could return or call us home at any time.  This series of parables start in Matthew chapter 24 and continue through chapter 25.  They all feature a character representing God going away somewhere and who will return somewhat unexpectedly.  They also feature characters representing us exercising good or bad stewardship over something.  The overall message is to be prepared and practice continual good stewardship over that which you are responsible so that you will be ready when God returns and calls you to account.

Two weeks ago, Barbara and I had one of those weeks where bad news about our friends just kept coming in unrelentingly.  Ron had serious complications with his eye surgery; a priest friend of Barbara in the diocese collapsed, hit her head on the floor and died from the resultant brain injury.  Another friend told us of her friend who had just suddenly died at age 52 of a brain aneurism.  Another friend we heard had had a heart attack over the summer, and yet another friend had discovered that her cancer had spread to her brain.  All of this news made me think about today’s Gospel reading, which I had been reading over in preparation for today’s sermon.  I thought to myself that none of us knows when our time will come and when we will be called to account for our stewardship of what God has entrusted to us.

Now you might ask yourself what it means for God to call us to account for our stewardship.  Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we are saved by grace alone and not by works?  Didn’t Jesus already die for our sins?  So why were the first two servants in today’s parable rewarded for their good work and the third servant condemned for his poor work?  Or were they?  Let’s consider what it means for God to call us to account.

There are a few things we need to understand about this parable.  First, the translation we heard today speaks of the servants being given five, two and one bags of gold.  The original text actually indicates that the first servant was given an amount of money that was worth 100 years wages for a common laborer, the second servant an amount worth 40 years wages, and the third servant an amount worth 20 years wages.  These were not small amounts of money.  Second, note that the departing master gave money to the three servants according to their abilities – thus the point of the parable is not to condemn people because of their lack of ability.

The first two servants took the resources they were given and made good use of them – each of them doubling the amount by the time the master returned.  When the master returned he heartily congratulated them before telling them that because they were faithful with a few things, they would be put in charge of many things.  This implies that the master was training his servants, and that those who practiced good stewardship would be given even more responsibility.

The third servant hid away the resources he had been given and just sat on them.  Note that the first two servants actively managed the resources they had been given, and, given the amounts involved, this probably took up most of their time.  Thus, their time was spent on their master’s business.  The third servant, in contrast, by hiding away his resources, would have spent his time on his own business, and not on his master’s.  When the master returned, this third servant attempted to justify his inaction.  Most English Bibles translate the servant’s response to his master as being “I knew you were a hard man”, but it is important to know that the Greek word used for “hard” connotes someone who is ruthless, merciless, unpleasant and mean.  So this third servant is claiming that he was afraid to do anything with the resources entrusted to him because he thought his master was a mean jerk.

The master’s response to this suggests that he saw this servant’s response as being an insincere excuse.  The master replies to the servant by calling him lazy and saying “if what you say is true and I am greedy and ruthless, then why didn’t you at least invest the resources in a bank and, at a minimum, earn some interest on it?”  The master’s retort makes it clear that he doesn’t think that the servant is telling the truth, but rather was trying to excuse his laziness.  And it is only after hearing the untruthful excuse that the master became really angry with the servant. 

So the problem is not with the third servant’s rate of return on the investment but rather with his attitude to and relationship with the master.  The lazy servant obviously did not have respect for his master, because when the master left he simply buried his bag of gold and ignored it.  Then when his master returned, he tried to justify himself with a deceitful excuse.

So what does this parable tell us today?  Well, when the master left, he gave each of the three servants resources of which they were to be stewards.  All three servants were given the opportunity to serve the master.  The master even apportioned the resources according to the abilities of his servants.  In the same way, God has given each of us everything that we have, and He expects us to be good stewards of everything that He has given us.  The two faithful servants took their master seriously and devoted their lives to investing their resources in service of their master.  This is what God calls us to do also.  And if we live our lives devoted to God and what God would have us do, we will be investing our resources wisely.  And God will say to us “well done, good and faithful servant.”  Not because this service earns us our salvation, but rather because this service shows that we have accepted God’s invitation to be in relationship with Him.

The lazy servant, however, hid away the resources he had been given and instead spent his time on his own affairs.  This action by the lazy servant shows that he did not desire an ongoing serious relationship with his master.  What’s more, when his master returned, this servant insulted his master and lied to him with a false excuse.  How we treat the resources that God has entrusted to us says a lot about our attitude towards God.  If we don’t use those resources to further God’s kingdom on earth, but instead spend our time on other things, it is a sign that God is not our priority.

So to return to our question - what does it mean for God to call us to account for our stewardship?  When God looks to our stewardship and listens to how we explain ourselves, He will know whether we want to be in a relationship with Him.  Those who want a relationship with God, will go experience an even deeper and richer relationship.  To them, as the Gospel reading says “will be given more, and they will have an abundance.”  But those who think that they can put God in second place and have just a superficial relationship with God will realize that in reality they have no relationship with God at all.  These people will, in the end, even lose their false belief that they can have a superficial relationship with God –  as our reading says “for those that do not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

So let us turn our hearts towards God and a deeper relationship with Him, practicing stewardship over that which God has given us to reflect where we have set our hearts. 

Let us pray:

Oh God, we acknowledge that all that we have is given to us by You.  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to show our commitment to you by exercising stewardship over all that you have given us.  Lord, send you Holy Spirit to us that we might exercise that stewardship in ways that are pleasing to you and in furtherance of Your Kingdom.   We ask this in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Pastor's Reflections - July-August Newsletter

Dear Saints of God,


Summertime….and the living is easy…but faith can be challenging or even difficult at the best of times. On the Second Sunday in Pentecost we celebrated two wonderful baptisms when Keira and Mason Ramirez were baptized. Our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures was the story of God testing Abraham’s faith by asking Abraham to take his only son to the region of Moriah in order to offer his son as a sacrifice.

Abraham follows God’s instructions and when he and Isaac get close to the place for the sacrifice, Isaac asks his father; “Where is the burnt offering for the sacrifice?” Abraham answers, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” I have little idea what was going on in Abraham’s mind, but somehow Abraham knew enough about God that he knew God would provide. Sure enough the story has a happy ending for Abraham and Isaac (if not for the lamb.)  Abraham experienced God’s provision and named that place “The LORD will provide.” I believe God will provide for us this summer, this year and for the rest of our lives.

God is the kind of God that offered His one and only Son for us. Only God Himself could die in our place and pay the penalty for our sin. Perhaps this Abraham and Isaac story is a foreshadowing of how God will indeed provide for Abraham and for all of us.  If God had not become the sin offering for us, we would still be dead in our sins and trespasses.

The apostle Paul puts it like this; “Before you became Christians and/or before you were baptized you were slaves to sin. But through our new life in Christ we have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” (Romans 6) The bottom line is that we will either serve God or we will serve ourselves and sin. No matter how far we try to run from God, we cannot be independent beings. We were created to be in a relationship with a loving, holy and self sacrificing God. Before her baptism young Keira put it this way; “I want to be baptized because I love God and God died for us; so who wouldn’t want to be baptized since He did this for us?”

I am thankful for new life in Christ, for Keira and Mason’s baptisms, for the privilege of gathering with God’s people each Sunday, for God’s unlimited faithfulness, and for God’s provision for health and abundant life in Him.

May you too be thankful this summer even when the summer living isn’t all that easy.

With love in Christ,

Pastor Barbara Elizabeth+