Baptism of Our Lord, Year A - First Sunday after the Epiphany - January 8, 2023

Prayer

As we celebrate today the mystery of Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan, renew in us our own baptism: pattern our lives on this Christ, your chosen one, the Child on whom your favor rests, the Beloved with whom you are well pleased.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.



Some Thoughts on Matthew 3:13-17

"There is something very open-ended about Jesus' experience of baptism. Rather than closing his life, it opens him to a range of experiences that he will try to understand through the prismatic realities of Servant and Son."

"Water-Fellowship, Water Joy-Divine," Expository Essay, Dr. William R. Long.

"Fulfilling of righteousness requires letting go of our personal sense of what is right and proper in order to let it be God's will that is fulfilled. For Jesus, as at the end, so too at the beginning: a deep and profound aligning of his heart and will with the will and Spirit of God."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 3:13-17, David Ewart, 2011.

"When we say that Jesus is God's son, going about the family business, we are saying not only that Jesus is like God; we are saying that God is like Jesus."

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Epiphany 1A. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

The Gospel is one directly related to Mark's account and this connection helps us to understand the import of Jesus' baptism to the earliest of Christians. It is also important in continuing the theme we spoke of during Advent which is the increasing importance and role of the prime actor Jesus in the Gospel narrative and the ever-shrinking role of John the Baptist.

Certainly, the connection between Jesus' baptism and our own has brought with it questions about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism by water. But I am not interested in this debate, but rather the importance and meaning this story has for the person of Jesus. We are able through the lens of Jesus' baptism to understand how he was viewed by his first followers. It is all too easy to get focused on us and to preach this Sunday on the meaning of our baptism. This gospel lesson is essentially a lesson about Christology.

It is the heavenly voice who makes clear that this is God's Son.

Daniel Harrington writes and gives an explanation for naming this passage the "Jesus made manifest":

...an attempt has been made to be faithful tot eh focus of the biblical account -- the manifestation of Jesus' identity at the very beginning of his public ministry. The baptism of jesus by John in the Jordan River is the occaion for the identification of Jesus by the voice from heaven. Matthew agreed with the other evangelists in this Christological emphasis.

We are given here several other ways to understand the person of Jesus: Son, servant, inaugurator of the new exodus and creation, and the one who fulfills all righteousness.

In our passage today we see these themes continued. Jesus who climbs out of the water is the new Adam (John of Nazianzus -Davies, Matthew, vol 1, 345) and like the creation narrative itself, he rises out of the waters of chaos. Jesus' own Red Sea deliverance in baptism reminds us too of the Exodus story. Remember, this story exists in between the flight to Egypt and his journey into the desert to be tested.

We have a unique opportunity in this cycle to read the story of Matthew's Gospel and to recognize that our baptisms and life as Christians are unique only in that they are deeply connected with the very person of Jesus Christ. It is in his identity, in our own Christology that our lives and our ministry have meaning. It will be all too tempting to move quickly into our own baptismal imagery in our preaching. However, we may miss an incredible opportunity to speak to the personhood of Christ and his mission in the world.

I draw our attention to our own Catechism and invite you to consider the questions and answers as they relate in a clear line from Jesus' own personhood and mission to our understanding of ourselves in the waters of baptism.

Q. What do we mean when we say that Jesus is the only

Son of God?

A We mean that Jesus is the only perfect image of the

Father, and shows us the nature of God.


Q. What is the nature of God revealed in Jesus?

A. God is love.


Q. What do we mean when we say that Jesus was

conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and became

incarnate from the Virgin Mary?

A. We mean that by God's own act, his divine Son received

our human nature from the Virgin Mary, his mother.


Q. Why did he take our human nature?

A. The divine Son became human, so that in him human

beings might be adopted as children of God, and be

made heirs of God's kingdom.

Q. How can we share in his victory over sin, suffering, and

death?

A. We share in his victory when we are baptized into the

New Covenant and become living members of Christ.

Q. What is Holy Baptism?

A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us

as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body,

the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

My hope is that we might this Sunday lift our eyes from our own waters of baptism to the heavens and draw apart the veil and explore with our members who we say Jesus is and how his uniqueness in the family of God provides the salvific Good News of God's loving embrace for all people.

Some Thoughts on Acts 10:34-43

"Beyond stereotypes, beyond deeply seeded religious segregation, Peter obeys his command, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. In a gesture of faith, a movement of complete trust, a posture of submission, Peter tells the story of Jesus, a story in which he knew very well."
Commentary, Acts 10:34-43 | Levi Holland | Post Coffee Co. A Plain Account | A Plain Account, 2017

"Our attempts to control God and keep God safely within our predetermined categories are contradicted by the early Christian preaching about Jesus."
Commentary, Acts 10:34-43, Mark Tranvik, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"On the day when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, it may, therefore, be particularly appropriate for the church to consider how the Spirit may be moving amongst us in unexpected and challenging ways and to ask how the reverberations of the resurrection continue to be manifest around us."
Commentary, Acts 10:34-43, Eric Barreto, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"May we live and work in our challenging world today--still beset by overwhelming poverty, oppression, violence, death, and much that defies God's goodness and grace--in the Easter hope of Christ's resurrection and restorative justice for all."
Commentary, Acts 10:34-43, F. Scott Spencer, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"The goal is that people might be released from sin. The Greek word usually translated "forgiveness" is aphesis, which literally means "release." A pattern of sins often brings people to a point where the sins define the present and limit the future. For a person to have a different life, the sins must no longer define the person's situation."
Commentary, Acts 10:34-43 (Baptism A), Craig R. Koester, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

This is a big Gospel kind of moment!  Cornelius walks into the house and it is clear that the Gospel and its messengers are shown by God that they are not to call others "common or unclean." (10.28)  Cornelius then offers a vision of the kingdom of God and shows himself to be a Godfearer and Jesus follower.

Peter then responds "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." And, "He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Peter is in some very real way summarizing the theme of the Gospel of Luke and Acts: the living out of the message of God to his people.  It is a miniature Gospel if you will.

Peter says:

God shows no partiality.

Those who follow God are acceptable to God.
God is lord of all and that message is spreading even now.
God appears as Jesus Christ and his ministry is one of the Holy Spirit and one of power.
Christ did good work: healing people, freeing people, and releasing people from bondage.
Salvation comes from the cross and resurrection.
Salvation is open to all people.
God's family is made up of every kind of person.

The story of Acts 10 illustrates the difficulty the church has all the time with accepting the movement of the Holy Spirit and God's willingness to accept people into the family.  This is powerful good news. Especially since without this particular moment, I would not be here myself and would not have discovered this good news of God in Christ and his love of humanity and desire to reconcile us to him.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 42:1-9

"As the divide between church and state grows here in America (and even among each other), we too may need to reimagine what it is to be a faithful people while living in an unfamiliar place."
Commentary, Isaiah 42:1-9 | Christopher Reiter | Church Planter, Jacob's Well church Boise, Idaho | A Plain Account, 2017

"This passage in Isaiah shows God speaking into the pain of exile to send a servant who will bring justice, and not to Israel only but to all nations."
Commentary, Isaiah 42:1-9, Amy Oden, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

The ministry of the Servant signifies the dawn of a new era of salvation for the people of God (42:9).
Commentary, Isaiah 42:1-9, Bo Lim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The Rabbinical reading of this passage finds that the subject, the servant, is Israel itself - the people.

"Here is my servant" is a direct reference to God's people. The prophet is telling the people (who are in exile) that God will not forget them and that God loves them. God has put God's spirit upon God's people and has watched them as they have suffered. The people of God in captivity have not lost their faith but instead, their faith has grown. God will bring about justice for them. Moreover, their life lived together will itself bring about justice on earth. Just as in previous texts, the prophet is telling them that God will make them a great city on a hill and the whole of the land will look towards their teaching.

So then we read the following in light of the people. We hear the prophet's words as promising. They will all be redeemed, they will see great things, and miracles will be worked. Imagine the prophet before the lost and suffering servants under the oppression of Babylon hearing these words:

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

This then is good news indeed.

As the messianic movement grew in Israel over some 500 plus years. It would, of course, grow as other kings took possession of Israel and ruled as foreign powers over the people. One can easily imagine how the image of the servant in the passage we have today began to morph and people hoped perhaps the prophet was speaking about an actual person who might come to save the people of God.

As the first disciples looked back at this passage and inherited the messianic hopes of their time, one can imagine it is not hard to see that the person of Jesus fit the description.

If we look at how the New Testament authors used the texts we see that it is clear they have this very thing in mind. Luke, in particular, has in mind the person of Jesus as representing in himself the people of Israel. In the opening of the gospel, Jesus is very quickly not merely as fulfilling this role but filling it as he himself is the culmination of the people of Israel. It is as if to say in Christ Jesus the people of Israel themselves are brought together in a unified offering of the suffering servant Jesus. He is both the highest offering, their greatest servant (prophet, leader), and he is at once in his body their totality. (See Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 242) It is as if for Luke this is not a denial of the people of Israel being referred to in this prophecy, but that the people of Israel culminating in the ministry of the person of Jesus. Both are to be God's suffering servant just as Isaiah prophesied, but in Christ, there is one last and final act such that no other sacrifices need be made.

Matthew in his Gospel will take this further. Not only will he see as Luke sees, but he sees the message of this passage as a message for the whole world - for the gentiles. Matthew seemingly understands as Luke that Jesus is the suffering servant within the messianic tradition and that he himself is the one mentioned here in relationship to Israel itself. In Christ are all the people. Yet, Matthew is saying ALL the people are in Christ. There is clarity here that the good news is not mere deliverance by God in Christ Jesus to the people of Israel but that the good news of deliverance is for the world. Moreover, these are themes that emerge in the baptismal imagery of Matthew. (See Hays, 177.)

Christ is God, the Lord, who created all things. Christ is the one who gives breath and who walks in the spirit. Christ is our righteousness and is the one who takes us by the hand.  It is Christ who saves us. Christ is the new covenant, and light to nations. All people will see that the blind are healed, prisoners are freed, and those who sit in darkness do so no longer. In this way, all the former things are passing away and a new story of God's people, all of God's people, is beginning in the person of Jesus.

Holy Name ABC January 1, 2022

IHS (also IHC), a monogram or symbol for the name Jesus, is a contraction of the Greek word for Jesus, which in Greek is spelled IHΣΟΥΣ in uncial (majuscule) letters and Iησους in minuscule letters and is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as Iēsus, Jēsus, or Jesus.

Prayer

Dear Morning Star, come to earth and with us dwell, help us greet you in our swiftly changing year, and respond with joy and penitence sincere. You bear upon you, in your birth, our sin and take a human name of Godly precedence most dear. Bearing the Holy Name of Jesus, God of our salvation, step with us into hazard and prosperity, bringing peace with every stride and grace to every broken life.

(Based upon Episcopal Hymnal 250, Jaroslav Vajda, 1919)
written by C. Andrew Doyle


Notes about the day and its lessons.

This year, the feast of the Holy Name falls upon a Sunday and takes precedence to our normal cycle of readings. The Gospel falls within a repeat of the readings for Christmas Day and so many of the themes may continue. If you didn't get to preach Christmas eve, maybe you can wind your text backwards and say what you thought should have been said then!

This is a link to the Episcopal Church Glossary describing the history and purpose of the day.

Some Thoughts on Luke 2:15-21

The Gospel Text for this Sunday

Luke 2:15-21

The text adds but this one verse to the Christmas Eve lesson and it is to this I believe a preacher might find a goodly amount to say: "After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

From the homily of Pope Francis on the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, 2014. It was preached in part celebration of the Jesuit order and its founder Faber:

The heart of Christ is the heart of a God who, out of love, “emptied” himself. Each one of us, as Jesuits, who follow Jesus should be ready to empty himself. We are called to this humility: to be “emptied” beings. To be men who are not centred on themselves because the centre of the Society is Christ and his Church. And God is the Deus semper maior, the God who always surprises us. And if the God of surprises is not at the centre, the Society becomes disorientated. Because of this, to be a Jesuit means to be a person of incomplete thought, of open thought: because he thinks always looking to the horizon which is the ever greater glory of God, who ceaselessly surprises us. And this is the restlessness of our inner abyss. This holy and beautiful restlessness! (Here is the whole text)

God, surprises us with the incarnation. It is this incarnation and the name of Jesus, our salvation, that we celebrate. 

This particular feast is a feast of glory. It is the worship of God who empties God's self to become lower than an angel and who brings forth salvation to all humanity. This is a gift of grace waited upon by many a generation, and for whom this generation still longs. 

Yet we search for so many other ways to be delivered. So many other lesser gods, fixit plans, we are literally scammed by the multitude of our cultural and contextual offerings. All who desire fealty to their badge and icons.

We worship so many lesser Gods and give them so much of our time and wealth. We are so open to their many misgivings, slights, and public misdemeanors; while, at the same time, recommending them to friends. Meanwhile, we are closed to the possibility of God. We are closed to the imagination and creativity of God. We are closed to wanting to learn more about God and the person named Jesus. 

To follow Jesus, is to reverse our ordered life and place it under the headship of Christ. To become curious about the God we follow more than the church we attend. To discover the mighty acts of God, more than the political allegiances of today. To proclaim God's name with lips of praise, to share what we have, and do good works because our minds are restless with the name of Jesus and all that it entails. 

Holy Name is not only a feast, it is a challenge for those who awaken a desire to follow the most high God.

Some Thoughts on Galatians 4:4-7

"So insidious is Sin that even the good gifts of God, like the Law (Galatians 3:21) or even the gospel, can be easily misused."
Commentary, Galatians 4:4-7, Erik Heen, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"The Spirit that God pours into all our hearts is a Spirit of compassion. It is a Spirit that embraces us and makes us a part of a family defined by God's love. It is that compassion that gives us our meaning and purpose in this life."

"Love Came Down," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.

The New Testament Text for this Sunday

Galatians 4:4-7

The theologian Robert Farrar Capon in his book on parables (Kingdom, Grace, Judgement, 2002) offers that God in Christ comes to us in the incarnation as both our savior and judge. But his act of redemption and reconciliation is one of grace, forgiveness, and mercy. He judges with love and so we are presented to God through the eyes of our beloved Jesus. It is the eyes of his heart that redeem us.  

Capon though also says that it is our renunciation and rejection of this coming which judges us guilty. It is our rejection of the spirit of God in our hearts, it is our rejection of our forgiveness, and the rejection of Jesus AND our focus upon the law which in the end finds us guilty. 

Paul in Galatians is offering a vision of God who comes and blesses and redeems us. Jesus undoes the power of the law over us. Jesus enables us to be God's children. We are no longer slaves to the law. This is our new reality.

However, the truth is the longer we live focusing upon the law and our own failure and the failure of others - the longer we struggle outside the family. Our message is clear God loves. God forgives. God invites us. In this season of incarnation may we offer a message that does the same and enables us to live in the grace which has come into the world. 

Our deliverance is real. May we live it.

Some Thoughts on Philippians 2:5-11

The New Testament Text for this Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11

"Like Timothy and like Paul's audience, leaders and members of our own congregations are called to imitate Jesus by refusing to insist on their own prerogatives or status, whatever they may be, and serving others in humility."
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Shively, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"What's in a name? From a biblical perspective -- everything!"
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Paul in this passage uses a first century Christian hymn (possibly even one they would have known) to urge the members of the community at Philippi to have the same mind as Christ. That means that they are to seek to not insist on their own way or their own rights (determined by their social status) but they are to become lower than their stations. Like God in Christ Jesus they are to seek to become power-less and to serve.

Paul invites them to not be better than the other - this is not after all a quality that Christ illustrated.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is serving that one is great. It is in taking the lower seat that you shall be known. It is in washing feet and loving each other regardless of station. It is feeding the poor who have no right to be fed and healing the sick who have not fulfilled the law. It is in eating with those who are not worthy to be eaten with. It is in loving those whom you would not dare to love.  These are the qualities by which you will be known as a follower of Jesus.

This is the work of Christ that they are to continue in the world.  

People will talk about a lot of reasons why our church is failing.  They will ponder the reasons why we are shrinking in numbers.  I think in the end it is because we don't do these things very well.  

We do not have the same mind as Christ Jesus and are unwilling to become low. We actually regard equality with God as something to be exploited and lorded over those to whom we do not believe deserve such equality.  We are unwilling to empty ourselves. We will not serve God or his mission over our own needs and desires.  We are quick to take the highest seat. We are not eager to wash each other's feet - especially not the feet of the poor. We are unwilling to hold back or deny ourselves. We will not sit with those unlike us.  We will not dine with those we don't agree with. We will not be seen with those who are not like us. We are wholly unwilling to do the hard and difficult work of following Jesus as Jesus has invited us to follow.

Perhaps this is why Paul has us squarely figured out.  The truth is like the Philippians what is so bad about our church. It is a comfortable place, for comfortable people, comfortable in our going out and our coming in.  Yet Paul may have us figured out...comfortable is not a whole lot like the ministry and character of God in Christ Jesus.

Some Thoughts on Numbers 6:22-27

The Old Testament Text for this Sunday

Numbers 6:22-27


This passage is a wonderful passage, and includes many a clergy's favorite blessing:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

It continues with this statement:

So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes:

These are among the oldest continuously-used words of blessing ever. We recite them daily at the beginning of the morning service. Some say them last thing at night. We use them to bless our children on Friday nights. They are often used to bless the bride and groom at weddings. They are widely used by non-Jews also. Their simplicity, their cumulative three-word, five-word, seven-word structure, their ascending movement from protection to grace to peace, all make them a miniature gem of prayer whose radiance has not diminished in the more than three thousand years since their formulation. (Link whole essay here.)

This passage and Rabbi Sacks help us to understand the very importance of the naming, the importance of kinship to the most high God. The beauty of the passage and the beauty of his nature in and outside traditions.

Here is a taking upon one's self God's blessing, receiving it and becoming remade by its very gift. 

If we take Pauline theology as enlarging the great mission to include all people, then we have indeed a great blessing far beyond the people of God.

But there is more. I refer back to the essay by Rabbi Sacks:

Why then does the blessing for this mitzvah and no other specify that it must be done with love? Because in every other case it is the agent who performs the ma’aseh mitzvah, the act that constitutes the command. Uniquely in the case of the priestly blessings, the Priest is merely a machshir mitzvah – an enabler, not a doer. The doer is God Himself: “Let them place My name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.” The Kohanim are merely channels through which God’s blessings flow.

This means that they must be selfless while uttering the blessings. We let God into the world and ourselves to the degree that we forget ourselves and focus on others.[6] That is what love is. We see this in the passage in which Jacob, having fallen in love with Rachel, agrees to Laban’s terms: seven years of work. We read: “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her” (Gen. 29:20). The commentators ask the obvious question: precisely because he was so much in love, the seven years should have felt like a century. The answer is equally obvious: he was thinking of her, not him. There was nothing selfish in his love. He was focused on her presence, not his impatient desire.

There is, though, perhaps an alternative explanation for all these things. As I explained in Covenant and Conversation Acharei Mot – Kedoshim, the ethic of character.

The key text of the holiness ethic is Leviticus 19: “Be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” It is this chapter that teaches the two great commands of interpersonal love, of the neighbour and the stranger. The ethic of holiness, taught by the Priests, is the ethic of love. This surely is the basis of Hillel’s statement, “Be like the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them close to Torah.”[7]

That ethic belongs to the specific vision of the Priest, set out in Genesis 1, which sees the world as God’s work and the human person as God’s image. Our very existence, and the existence of the universe, are the result of God’s love.

Here then is no mere altar blessing for those who do not receive communion, no mere blessing for the people, or something taken lightly. Instead here is a very holy act, the gift of the blessing is meant as both a theological statement and way of living for the giver and the receiver. I don't think I will give it in the same way in the future. 

Christmas Day

"The fourth gospel is all about the community indwelling with each other and with God. It is not about the individual's appropriation of Jesus, but rather God's appropriation of humanity through Christ and how God lives in the greatest intimacy with his followers. All through the gospel, the words are plural, not singular."
Lectionary Blogging, John 1:1-18, John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2010.

Prayer

In this most gentle dawn, O good and most gracious God, we have hastened to behold the wonder that has taken place, for the goodness and loving kindness of our Savior has appeared.  Give us words inspired enough to make known the mercy that has touched our lives, deeds loving enough to bear witness to the treasure you have bestowed, and hearts simple enough to ponder the mystery of your gracious and abiding love.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.


Some Thoughts on John 1:1-18

Christmas morning this year falls on a Sunday. The brave and faithful will sneak out of their homes before gifts, some with children in hand, to hear the story of how God became man. 


I like how Raymond E. Brown approaches this text offering a vision that if John is the most beautiful of New Testament texts then the prologue must assuredly be the pearl within the Gospel.  This is the reading for Christmas day.

Brown is clear...there is first the relationship between the Word that is with God (vs 1-2). The opening verses of this Christ hymn used to frame an entrance into the Johannine Gospel is brief and it is completely, or I should say “seemingly”, uninterested in a metaphysical conversation about the nature of God. It is however very clear that Salvation history begins with the relationship between God, revealed through the living Word, and Man. Quite simply God reveals God's-self to us in the work of creation – and by John’s usage here; creation also reveals something about the salvation of man as well. Creation is by its very nature a revealing act. (John, vol. 1, 23, 24)

Secondly, we have in the prologue the relationship between the Word and Creation. “All creation bears the stamp of God’s Word,” Brown writes. (Brown, 25) Here we see the author of John reflecting and re-imagining the opening lines of Genesis. We can see that what is clearly of importance is that creation itself existed primarily for the glory of God and the revelation of who God is. The problem is that the creation is broken; it does not fulfill its purpose as God intended. It is not a sustainable creation. Instead, it is one where there is a constant battle to supplant the power and revelation of God. We can return to the creation story in Genesis to see this played out as an eternal truth, certainly, this seems on John's mind. However, it is not really that hard or difficult to see and imagine as we read the paper or watch television how humanity has created a non-sustainable kingdom for ourselves, and that we wrestle for power with God placing our needs above creations' explicit purpose to glorify God.

We might even reflect on how quickly all of the Christmas season's preparations are quickly consumed! How many minutes did it take?

The third portion of our Gospel selection is the portion where we are re-introduced to John the Baptist. I say reintroduced because we spend several Sunday’s reading passages from Mark and John recently that dealt with him and his ministry. Yet here we get a slightly different attempt to speak about how John responded to the living Word, the Light in the world. How he was clearly not the one everybody was looking for, but how he dutifully gave witness to the revelation of God. Moreover, John the Baptist called everyone to a time of preparation and repentance for the light itself, the living Word was entering the world.

We come to the final and fourth portion of our reading and we return to the relationship between God and humanity; specifically in how the community of God (God’s people) respond to the living Word. God is dwelling with his people. He has made a “tent”, he is incarnated, and he is present within the community. (Brown, 35) The images here in this last section return not to Genesis but play on our remembrances of the Exodus and the idea that God came and dwelt among the people as they made their way in the wilderness.  I am reminded of Habakuk who mans his station in order to have a vision of God or Naham who retells the story of how God dwelled with Abraham, and now dwells in the Temple.  God has returned over and over again to be with his people. Now in the story of Mary we discover that God has come not only to dwell with his people, but to dwell as a person. 

 Here is an expressed intimacy between God and people. God is not simply outside, having wound the clock tight and is now letting it run. On the contrary just as God was intimately involved with creation and the people of Israel, God also is involved in the new community post-resurrection. God has come and is dwelling with the people in wisdom and in truth. God in the living Word is making community within God’s tent and is revealing himself and the purpose of creation to all those who would call him by name: Jesus.

I have found over the years that the Christmas morning service is perhaps one of the most intimate of services in the Christian year.  Holy, and present is the living Word. I hope you as you preach and offer a vision of Sunday worship post our evening celebrations of God incarnate remind people of the incredibly intimate God we worship and how the God news of God dwelling with us is truly Good News. News that all creation is groaning to comprehend and embrace.  As Christians and as Episcopalians gathered together in the early morning hours of Christmas day, it is a message of comfort and joy that draws us closer to God and closer to one another.

Merry Christmas.

 

Advent 4, Year A, December 18, 2022

Prayer

God of mystery whom no eye can see, you yourself have given us a sign we can behold: the virgin is
with child and bears a son whose name is Emmanuel, for God is with us. Plant within our hearts your living Word of promise, that, into a world grown weary of empty dreams and broken promises, we may bring forth the living presence of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.



Some Thoughts on Matthew 1:18-25

"Our lives are marked, since baptism, by the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier, who directs us continually to our neighbor, to the other to live in harmony, everyone attentive to the needs of others (as we have witnessed in the three previous pericopes from the epistles)."

Commentary, Romans 1:1-7, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.


"...our task as preachers is in part to help people identify the ways God is calling them to newness of life in service to Jesus Christ, and at the same time to see the ways God has never been absent from their lives."

Commentary, Romans 1:1-7, Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2007.


"Anyway, it seems to me that the translation "God is with us" doesn't completely capture the sense of the Hebrew. The words suggest that "God is in common with us people" -- or "God is one of us." In this sense, John captures the sense with "The Word became flesh and lived among us" (1:14a)."
Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen, at CrossMarks Christian Resources.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

The stage is set and Matthew is our guide: "Now the birth of the Messiah took place in this way." The Genesis of the Messiah took place in this way...

Daniel J. Harrington, a Roman Catholic priest, and scholar, in his text on Matthew's Gospel, points out a few important pieces of information that help to make sense of the Birth narrative.

1. Jews of Jesus' time understood marriage as a civil contract. Joseph and Mary and their families have rights.
2. Betrothal had legal consequences and was arranged through elders in families, and the two parties were in their early teens.
3. In Matthew's Gospel the two are living separately, Mary with her parents. Joseph visits from time to time.
4. Reviewing Deut 22:23-27, we understand that at first glance Mary has broken the betrothal and should be put to death. We don't know how often this was carried out.
5. Divorce proceedings were typically easy and included a written document.
6. An angel who is a messenger comes to visit Joseph.
7. Such a visit most often was described in ancient times through dreams. In continuity with other great leaders of Israel the angel gives a message with the identity of the child and the name. We see this with Ishmael, Isaac, Solomon and Josiah.
8. There are many questions about lineage and birth. Is the idea of Jesus' virginal conception a response to a charge of illegitimacy or is what leads to the charge? Regardless, early Christians believe in the virginal conception of Jesus and it remains one of the oldest and most ancient traditions about Jesus and his birth. (Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 36ff)

All of these things are important because the point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the ancient tradition of Israel. Matthew, as an author, will use this theme throughout his text: 1.23, 2.5, 15, 17, 23; 3:3; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:14, 35; 21:4; 26:56; 27:9. (Harrington, Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 38) Just as in last week's comment from Jesus that John the Baptist belongs to a prophetic age, here in today's reading we see that Jesus himself is the culmination of and the new beginning for Israel.

It is out of this theme of fulfillment that Joseph becomes for us a major character of the Advent season. Joseph is almost the "everyman" of the Gospel. I imagine him not unlike many of the new members of the Matthean community or new members today. Like Joseph, they had some sense of the past. Like many others, Joseph is a good guy. He is wrestling with some pretty weighty stuff. He is struggling to understand and discern how to take the next steps in life. He has a religious experience. He becomes aware that God is with us - specifically with him. God is Emmanuel. Joseph awoke, and his awakening was in more ways than one. He decides to take different a course and to follow the Word of God that came to him.

Some might want to go into a discussion about the creed and belief in the virgin birth. I love that conversation - see the discussion below on Isaiah 7. But I think a more interesting conversation if you are preaching on Matthew 1:18, is a train of thought about how Joseph represents the life of one entering into community with other Christians and Jesus. I find it revealing to sit and ponder the idea that in this reception of the message that God is with him and the reception of the incarnation, Joseph goes from being a man who, within his rights divorces a woman, to the earthly father of Jesus and a key actor in his lineage and birth. What a precarious moment this is! What an amazing view of how one person's action determines the future. In this way perhaps was we see is Joseph playing the role of Ahaz in the Isaiah passage. Or, perhaps he plays the role of a Jew wrestling with the message of the Gospel. Still, perhaps Joseph becomes like you or me who wrestles with the prophetess' child and the message of his birth?

As N. T. Wright explains - it's complicated:

"If the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke had never existed, I do not suppose that my own Christian faith, or that of the church to which I belong, would have been very different. But since they do, and since for quite other reasons I have come to believe that the God of Israel, the world's creator, was personally and fully revealed in and as Jesus of Nazareth, I hold open my historical judgment and say: If that's what God deemed appropriate, who am I to object?"  "God's Way of Acting," N.T. Wright. 

I am sitting in my study at home as I write this and looking at one of the many manger scenes dotting our shelves and tables. It is Joseph who is there - not someone else.  He like us chooses to say, "yes."

As our Gospel began "Now the genesis of the Messiah took place in this way..." we can see how the genesis of the incarnation takes place in the life of Joseph. We might look at our own lives and see how the genesis of God was rooted in our lives or is taking place in our lives. How is the arrival of God in our lives remaking our own story and our own narrative? How is the incarnation of God the fulfillment of our life lived up until this moment?

God is with us; this is the foundation of the Good News of Salvation. God is in common, in communion, with his people.  The incarnation is the fulfillment of our past and the promise of our future. It changes our perspective on the world and changes what we do with our lives. The incarnation changes our relationship with others and causes us to act differently, perhaps even going against what is justly our right. The incarnation is a powerful revelation and in this season of expectation, Joseph stands before us as one transformed by its message, meaning and invitation and in that moment of action Joseph reshapes the narrative of Good News. Yes, Joseph is everyman and he is a symbol of our potential and possibility. He is a symbol of faithful action deeply rooted in the message, the Word of God, which proclaims: God is with us, together we are reborn, together the world is changed and the continuing narrative spun and re-spun.

Some Thoughts on Romans 1:1-7

"Our lives are marked, since baptism, by the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier, who directs us continually to our neighbor, to the other to live in harmony, everyone attentive to the needs of others (as we have witnessed in the three previous pericopes from the epistles)."
Commentary, Romans 1:1-7, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.


"...our task as preachers is in part to help people identify the ways God is calling them to newness of life in service to Jesus Christ, and at the same time to see the ways God has never been absent from their lives."
Commentary, Romans 1:1-7, Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2007.


"Such transforming power, which Paul frequently associates with the Spirit (as in 1:4) and in which he experiences the living presence of Christ, draws its energy from God's compassion, which is so radical and far reaching in Paul's mind that it breaks down all barriers, including those erected on biblical principles."
First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Advent 4, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.


"We watch God's redemptive work playing out in the arena of everyday life, this insistence God has on redeeming people to love God and one another (cf. Romans 13:10), and we realize it is something we can count on, something we can trust."
"Light Switches & the Obedience of Faith," Pilgrim Preaching, Mary Hinkle Shore, 2010.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

The passage appointed for Sunday is a typical introduction to a letter which is common in most writing of this time. Paul, of course, has added to the greeting revealing both who he is, who he believes God is and what he is to be doing.

In the first verses, Paul is clear that he is a servant to God.  His work is the work of serving and doing the work which God gives him. He is an apostle. He is chosen and the Holy Spirit is upon him and he is to give it to others.  He is in particular given such gifts not by his service (he did not earn them) but rather by and for the purpose of sharing God's Good News of Salvation.

Paul then offers a bit of preaching.  Scholars believe this is possibly early church confessional stuff. God has been at work bringing about this moment of Good News for a long time.  Jesus himself and Jesus' mission was foretold and revealed in the holy scriptures - here, of course, he is speaking about the Torah most likely and some of the traditional texts (there is not yet an Old Testament collection as we know it.)  Jesus is from the line of David and a royal king, and he is God in the flesh, God's very Son.  This is proven by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. It is proven by the resurrection from the dead.  This God in Christ Jesus is Lord of Lords.  (Romans, Fitzmyer, 228)

Paul then returns to the format with a continued greeting.  He offers grace to fulfill our work which is the sharing of God's Good News through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We respond to God's Grace with our own obedience to the work.  We do it all as a response to God's sacrifice for us and so we in turn sacrifice for the Gospel.  We belong to Jesus Christ, our lives and our ministry is Christ's. We are with grace to share this with others.  This is Paul's work and like Paul, this is the work of the people in the Roman Church.

"To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul is clear about who he is. He is clear about who God is. He is clear about what his work is and he is clear about what that work is for the church.  We are Christ's and we are to be at work for Christ.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 7:10-17

"Whenever we rush to attach ourselves to another protector out of fear that we will lose what we so desperately wish to retain -- our way of life, our nation state, our individual safety -- our hopes in these intermittent protectors are forever destined to be dashed. The hope of the birth at Christmas is that God is with us in the midst of our greatest fears. "
"The Hope of the Birth," John C. Holbert, Patheos, 2010.


"The lection for this week reminds us this week that God indeed is with us. Even in this day and age when fear runs amuck, we have no need to fear for a small child has proven to us that God is with us and that God is faithful to his promises.
Commentary, Isaiah 7:10-16 | Brent Neely | Pastor, Cape Elizabeth Church of the Nazarene | A Plain Account, 2016.

"God's sign of a child surprised a king and an unwed father named Joseph. This sign matters in a world that continues to worship a vengeful God who can crush our enemies."
Commentary, Isaiah 7:10-16, Barbara Lundblad, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"This is a very challenging chapter to interpret, much less to preach, in part because it requires that one be familiar with a number of related texts (Isaiah 7:1-9; 8:1-8; 2 Kings 16)."
Commentary, Isaiah 7:10-16, Barbara Lundblad, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

"Isaiah 7:15-17 is a bundle of ambiguities, ambiguities that pose some of the most baffling problems of interpretation in the bible. Do curdled milk and honey symbolize plenty and felicity or want and adversity? Should the vv 15 and 16 be construed in the sense, "when he knows," or "in order that he may know"? Do good and evil in vv 1 and 16 refer to moral right and wrong or to that which is pleasant and painful? Is the age at which one learns to reject the evil and chose the good at one, twelve, or twenty years of age? Is the sign given to Ahaz one exclusively of threat, one exclusively of promise, or does it embrace both? If it embraces both, are the threat and the promise relate sequentially or do they happen concurrently? (Gene Rice, Journal of Biblical Literature
Vol. 96, No. 3 (Sep., 1977), pp. 363-369)

By the fourth century, the Christian theologians were arguing over the texts. Eusebius of Caesarea's writings reveal this and that this is one of the passages they discussed and argued about.

So let us take this passage carefully, respectfully, and with an eye to our text's history and tradition and see where it leads us.

Rabbis teach that in this text God gives a sign to Ahaz in the midst of the threat of war. The sign promises that the kings who oppose Ahaz will not be victorious. Here we then get the verse: “before the child knows enough to refuse evil and choose good the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken” Isaiah 7:15

If you read the "whole book" as my professors used to tell me, you will find out that the prophecy is fulfilled in the following chapter! The child is the prophet Isaiah's son, “he (Isaiah) approached the prophetess and she conceived (tahar) and bore (taled) a son and God said to me: Name the child “Maher-shalal-hash-baz” which means (the spoil speeds the prey hastens). For before the child shall know how to cry my father my mother the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Sammaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.” Isaiah 8:4 This is brilliant by the way because Isaiah and the Prophetess have a son. Hold on to that gem for a bit.

It is clear that the woman, the prophetess, is a young woman, a maiden, she may be a virgin, she may not. The text does not make that clear. We will come back to this nugget too. 

The child will quickly mature and at a young age, he will know the difference between good and evil. It will be in those times that the prophecy will be fulfilled to Ahaz and those who threaten will threaten no more. 

“Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel.” Isaiah 8:18

The passage includes amazing texts like God is with us, the child will be born to a young woman  (Immanuel –עמנואל).[4] Although this name mean ‘God is with us” it does not mean that the child will be divine. It is very common for biblical personality to have names that include God and part of their name. For example, (Daniel –דניאל) means “God is my Judge.” The implication was that God would be with Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah in their fight against their enemies.

Isaiah refers to this when he says, “Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not stand, for God is with us (Emanu El).” Isaiah 8:10  “Thus God saved Hezikiah (son of Ahaz) and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria.” 2 Chronicles 32:22

We must be wise and understand that the text has a biblical history and meaning in the time in which it is read. It is a revelation to Ahaz and Isaiah. It has deep meaning all on its own. Even without a new testament.

The text is clear, the God who created the world, who gives breath to its every day, the God who was with Abraham and Moses, the God who freed the people of Israel, and the God who was with them as they wandered in the desert and eventually returned home is the very same God that is with Ahaz and speaks through both the prophet Isaiah and the prophetess. The message is purposeful and it is part of the overarching theology of Israel and Christianity. God is with God's people Israel.

But here is where we must understand a larger revelation. It is a revelation that does not set Israel's revelation aside but understands clearly that Israel's revelation was not the whole story. It is a revelation that understood that indeed God has been and was with the people. That this prophecy not only was given but came true. And, that the prophecy itself continued. In other words, the prophecy had meaning in that day when it was given to Ahaz and it continued to have meaning. Just at the prophecy revealed who God had been and how that revelation was being played out in the life of Ahaz and Isaiah, so too the prophetic message continued to be revealed - God is with us.

As the people of Israel tried to make sense of the birth and life of Jesus of Nazareth they looked towards the scripture that they so well knew. It Matthew the gospeller who picks up this thread and weaves it well into God's story. It is Matthew's gospel that looks back and lifts this text up and brings it into the narrative.

As he tells it the new prophetess is Mary who will make claims of God's presence with the people once again. In Luke, she will be the one who says:

I’m bursting with God-news;    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.God took one good look at me, and look what happened—    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!What God has done for me will never be forgotten,    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.His mercy flows in wave after wave    on those who are in awe before him.He bared his arm and showed his strength,    scattered the bluffing braggarts.He knocked tyrants off their high horses,    pulled victims out of the mud.The starving poor sat down to a banquet;    the callous rich were left out in the cold.He embraced his chosen child, Israel;    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.It’s exactly what he promised,    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

That is the translation of Luke 1:46ff from the Message...love that version! But, while Luke's testimony gives Mary the words, it is Matthew's version that reveals that God is with Mary, this young woman, this virgin, and so is with God's people again. Moreover, as the new testament sought to understand Jesus and write theology they saw that this revelation was more than a word to a prophetess but that it had new meaning. As they understood the resurrection and God's presence in a new way they understood the message was more than a prophet's words and a prophetess' child to Ahaz - this was about God being birthed into the world in the very unique person of Jesus.

In Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, Richard B. Hays writes,

The reader who recalls the context of the prophet's words in Isaiah is drawn to recognize the analogy: Israel at the time of Jesus' birth also stands under foreign imperial domination. Matthew's identification fo Jesus as Emmanuel signifies that his birth is a sign: those in Israel who trust God's promise will see in Jesus a harbinger of salvation (the heir who will restore the Davidic line)...(163-164)

Just as Ahaz has no faith in this prophetic birth so shall many not understand the broader and greater revelation of the person of Jesus. Just as Ahaz didn't imagine God was present or that he and the kingdom of Israel could truly be delivered by God...so too people reading Matthew for the first time, or today, may not imagine this is true - that God came into the world to save it.

Paul understood this in the broadest sense as he explained theologically that God's promise of presence belonged to Israel and the new people of Israel through the gentile mission. God's presence in the world in the unique person of Jesus and God's continuing presence meant that the promise had come true that God would gather all people to God's self.