2nd Sunday After the Epiphany, Year B, January 14, 2023

Prayer

O God, you reveal the signs of your presence among us in the church, in the liturgy and in our brothers and sisters. Let no word of yours ever fall by the wayside or be rendered ineffective through our indifference or neglect. Rather, make us quick to recognize your saving plan whenever we encounter it, and keep us ready always to serve as prophets and apostles of your kingdom. 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 1:43-51

"But let the humble, gentle, patient love of all mankind, be fixed on its right foundation, namely, the love of God springing from faith, from a full conviction that God hath given his only Son to die for my sins; and then the whole will resolve into that grand conclusion, worthy of all men to be received: 'Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love.'"

An Israelite Indeed (John 1:47). Sermon by John Wesley.

"Adeste fidelis. That is the only answer I know for people who want to find out whether or not this is true. Come all ye faithful, and all ye who would like to be faithful if only you could, all ye who walk in darkness and hunger for light. Have faith enough, hope enough, despair enough, foolishness enough at least to draw near to see for yourselves."

"Come and See,""Nathaniel," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"What can we do to alleviate some of those fears that may well keep our neighbors and friends from ‘coming to see Jesus’ for themselves?"

"It Seems Like It Should Be So Simple...So Why Isn't It?" Janet H. Hunt, Dancing with the Word, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


This week we shift across to one of our Johanine readings for the year.  The passages in John's Gospel, according to most scholars, follow a carefully crafted narrative that steers people away from the proclamation of John the Baptist and towards the revelation of Jesus.
The passage also refers to the calling of the two disciples.  In reading the whole account, you can see that they bear witness to Jesus as the Messiah - the "Son of Man."  In this theme, we have the notion of the promised king of Israel being presented in the holy titles being used.  At the same time the competing notion that such a vision of Jesus' ministry is all too narrow.

Another theme has to do with the calling of the disciples.  The image of Philip and Nathaniel who being seen by Jesus, were called by him, and then the blessings of life as they do so.  Moreover, their own witness to Jesus as the "Son of Man."  Seeing and proclaiming who he is and revealing to the world that this is the one to come and see.

Now what has most intrigued me about this passage comes from Raymond Brown's text on John (vol 1, 59ff). And those are the images that are linked to this story from ancient Israel's story.  Brown illustrates well, I think that Jesus in the story is connected to the image of Jacob's ladder (shekinah), the image of the divine chariot (merkabah) of Ezekiel, Bethel itself, or the rock (the first rock God created upon which Jacob laid his head).  What a wonderful set of traditions, none of which in and of themselves are completely convincing scholastically.  Nevertheless, I love them!

What really resonates with me as I hold in tension the symbols floating in the text and the movement away from John the Baptist combined with the "seeing" imagery of Philip and Nathaniel is that we have quite a wonderful passage about Jesus as the centre of Christian life and discipleship.  Jesus is central, and he is out in the world for us to see.

What I thought is that we preachers spend a lot of time telling folks we don't see Jesus.  Think about that for a moment. We tell them we don't see Jesus in their actions, in their spending, in their lives. We don't see Jesus in the church. We don't see Jesus in the world. We don't see Jesus here, and we don't see Jesus there. Think about the last 10 sermons you gave, and I wonder how many of them spent time telling people how we don't see Jesus.

In fact, I wonder if the amount of preaching about not seeing Jesus in people's lives has to do with the number of people who don't want to listen to us preach about not seeing Jesus and so don't come to church.

What if this Sunday, we actually told our Episcopalians and those who might be visiting with us that we see Jesus? We see Jesus in them. We see Jesus in their lives and in their stories. We see Jesus out in the world. What if we made a concerted effort this Sunday to not give "Bad News" and we tried to avoid telling people how we don't see Jesus?  What if this Sunday we gave them "Good News?"

What if this Sunday, we preachers were solidly about seeing Jesus Christ out in the world?  If we, like Philip and Nathaniel, were able to tell our neighbours, brothers, sisters, and fellow churchgoers that we see Jesus and we want them to see Jesus too?

It would be news if we and our churchgoers went looking for Jesus in the world and found him in places, images, and things like rocks and said, "Look here is God out in the world. Here is how God connects us. We call this connection to the most high God - Jesus."  Generous and holy naming would become our work out in the world, and people would hear from us a new story, perhaps a story they have been longing to hear.  

Our work as evangelists is not sitting around waiting for people to come into our churches and ask us to show them Jesus, then, in some theological discourse via negativa, telling them where we don't see Jesus.  Or even worse, preaching to them about how they aren't doing it right and how we don't see Jesus at all in their lives and in the world.

Our work is to go out and generously listen, generously name Jesus in the lives of others, and generously invite people to come and see the good news as proclaimed in our Episcopal Church.

I wonder if we might together, as preachers and parishioners, promise that for the next month, we are going to take on as our Epiphany discipline the work of seeing and announcing Jesus to those around us and that we would do that with positive and affirming statements.

Some Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

"Paul stresses that the believer in Christ also belongs to that same Lord. There is no such thing as being one's own. Each of us has commitments that bind us to other persons or ways of thinking and living."

Commentary, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, Arland J. Hultgren, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"...Paul regularly shifts our focus from morality to relationships, just as he shifts our focus from law to freedom. But his notion of freedom is wise to issues of power and confronts the splitting and compartmentalization which refuses to let God be God and love be love in everything."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 2," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

This is a very important passage in the discussion of Grace. Basically, Paul's take is, simply put, that: “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

Rowan Williams once told me: "We don't experiment with our bodies."

Certainly, Paul is not speaking to our particular issues and culture wars. Paul is speaking specifically to Corinth - which was not a healthy place. It was a Licentious place.

They perhaps have embraced freedom too much. It isn't that we aren't free, but not all things are good for the body or good for the community. As one fellow blogger, Chris Haslaam, put it: "He quotes a slogan from his opponents: 'All things are lawful for me'. (They are saying I can do anything I like.) He does not disagree - for Christian living does not depend on observing a set of rules, but on God who accepts even those who break his laws – but he adds a qualification: some things may not be 'beneficial' for the person or in the community."

The issue for Paul is when the individual is enslaved by their indulgence. Christian Liberty is not a license to destroy one's body or another's. It is not to be disruptive or destroy a community for the sake of your own beliefs.

The key here for everyone to hear is that when we are too focused on our will, our want, and our desire, we are taking our focus away from God.

We are not only in a spiritual relationship with God but also a physical one. Overeating, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sexual abuse, in fact, any abuse of the body (though it will be remade in the resurrection) is a divide/chasm created between God and ourselves.

We are not separate bodies and then separate spirits - we are intermingled, entwined. Our lives are as well. There is no secular and profane but instead a great connection of all things - and that connection is intimately tied to God too.

I believe all of us would agree that Paul's understanding of how the body works is a bit outdated. We know more about how we work, how our bodies get their shape, and how they go together with other bodies. We have new thoughts about what a person is and how that person is truly connected to the body and spirit/psyche.

None of this new thinking, which is important and VERY different from 1st-century understanding of biology and psychology, lessens Paul's clarity about how while we are free because of God's Grace, our freedom is not always good for us.

I think the preacher this week has an opportunity to reclaim this passage from the sexual debates and cultural debates of our time and talk about how to re-engage a spirituality that includes the body.

Some Thoughts on 1 Samuel 3:1-10

"The Lord was with Samuel, but somehow, this divine appointment does not at all diminish the totality of the human experience."
Commentary, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Roger Nam, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.


"From the very beginning, God has been fully present to everyone and everything in this world. And God is still with us because the Spirit of God still "hovers" and "resonates" over and around and in us all."
"Sacred Space," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

In our Episcopal tradition, the call of Eli and Samuel is one of those passages that are most frequently read at the celebrations of the new ministry. And, what happens is that we hijack the scripture by making it about us and how much we are like Samuel. In this way, we miss the message of the old existing religious tradition.

Let us think through the passage from a missional perspective and try to envision a word for God's church.

In a time when we flounder as a religion, it is hard to hear the word of the Lord. It becomes stale. It is a tradition of the dead instead of the living tradition. (3.1) Remember, Jaroslav Pelikan, wrote, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.” (The Vindication of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities) At such times it is hard for the people stuck to see, our eyesight, our vision, dims. (3.2) Yet God is present, and people are listening. Typically, they are different, younger, and eager. (3.3)

Note that we know quite clearly that part of what is happening is that Eli's sons are keeping the best of the offerings for themselves and not passing that along to God and to the poor. (Verse 3:13 is coming.) "For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

People who hear God's calling in times like this can easily get everything confused, believing that it is the ancient tradition and religion that is calling. So, we go, and we say...here we are. But the tradition says clearly: we did not call you. We are resting in our traditionalism. (3.4-3.8) The traditionalists sometimes have to be awakened several times by the visions and hearings of the young in order to truly realize - God is not dead. In fact, God has come calling. And, when the tradition like Eli awakes it is awakened and listens carefully. 

Eli tells Samuel to listen - and he does so respectfully. He will then speak the words to Eli and offer the vision that God has spoken. Eli receives the news faithfully. "So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.” (3:18). We are told, now that Samuel has figured out how to listen anew, that the word is with him and "none of it falls to the ground."

It will be Samuel's work to give voice to the people's cry for help and to God's desire to comfort. He will preach against systems that abuse the weak. And, when God gives in to the monarchy, he will remind the monarchy that it is their work, indeed their calling, to seek the good of the people in his care and to help God care for the weak, powerless, and hungry.

Callie Plunket-Brewton, who is a Campus Minister at the University of North Alabama, wrote:

Just as the call of Samuel sets the tone for his prophetic career and foreshadows the oracles he will deliver against the human leaders of the people, the song of Hannah represents the central focus of YHWH's leadership of the people: concern for the poor and powerless, and judgment of those who prey on the vulnerable and abuse their power.

Samuel received a vision about religion that revealed to him that it nor the powers of this world may take advantage of the poor. Ageing religions, ageing monarchies, and ageing governments lose sight that they are merely tools and vessels with the opportunity to do good. They have the power and authority to serve the weakest. So often, they chose systems of death and corruption over the other. So often, they lose sight of the reign of God. Sometimes, religions and principalities, need new prophets to help them here.

Baptism of our Lord, 1st Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, January 7, 2023

Chinese artist He Qi depicts the baptism of Jesus.

Prayer

Lord our God, O Holy One of Israel, to the waters you call all those who thirst, to the feast of your covenant you invite all the nations.  As once at the Jordan your Spirit tore open the heavens, and your voice proclaimed Jesus your well-beloved sons and daughters; lead us by your Spirit through the water and the blood, that our love for you may strengthen us to obey your commandments, and our love for one another be the victory that forever conquers the world.  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. Amen.

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


Some Thoughts on Mark 1:4-11

"Baptize me, who am destined to baptize those who believe on me with water, and with the Spirit, and with fire: with water, capable of washing away the defilement of sins; with the Spirit, capable of making the earthly spiritual; with fire, naturally fitted to consume the thorns of transgressions. On hearing these words, the Baptist directed his mind to the object of the salvation, and comprehended the mystery which he had received, and discharged the divine command; for he was at once pious and ready to obey." 

"On the Holy Theophany Or On Christ's Baptism," (4th of Four Homilies) by Gregory Thaumaturgus (3rd century). 

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We are now heading into the season which follows the Episcopal Church's celebration of Epiphany.  The first Sunday after Epiphany is traditionally the Baptism of our Lord, and the reading is taken from the Gospel for that year. As such then we see that the baptism narrative is taken from the Gospel of Mark. It actually has three parts to it. The first part is the preaching of John.  The second part is the baptism itself. The third portion is Jesus' vision.

The beginning of our reading today falls in the very earliest of passages in Mark's Gospel and it includes the tail end of John's preaching and flows easily into the baptism of Jesus.  John the Baptist is preaching that the "strong man" is coming.  The combination of Greek words and how Mark opens his narrative make it unmistakeably clear that Jesus is the eschatological (end time) figure that Israel has been waiting to arrive. John's ministry has been to prepare the people and to be a moniker of the signaling the Lord's arrival.  In language and clothing, he appears as a voice heralding a new time and a new mission. (You might refer to the post for the second Sunday of Advent to read more about this part of our passage.  You may also want to read Joel Marcus' work on Mark, page 163, specifically.)

The baptism of Jesus implies that perhaps Jesus was a follower of John the baptist. Such ideas and wrestlings with who baptizes who are age-old and should not take away from the idea that the incarnation, God in human form, comes and is present with us and that he himself is baptized.  I find myself drawn less to the idea of authority and whose student was whose and ever more closely invited to see that as John proclaimed there is a new Way being formed. There is a new structure to the world being made.  Jesus and his baptism, like our own baptism is a part of that structure.

The action takes place on the edges of society, in the wilderness, not in the safety of sacred space. And, the act itself challenges us to ask where are we as a church doing the work of baptism?  Where are we doing the work of heralding a new structure and a New Way to the world? Are we locked away where only a few can hear or are we out in the world, on the edges, inviting and encouraging people to see that there is a different way a new and every revealed way of being the kingdom of God?

The third part of the narrative today, following the proclamation and baptism, is the vision.  Reading through the scriptures we might remember or rediscover Isaiah 64:1-2:

Oh that you would tear the heavens open and come down
to make known your name to your enemies,
and make the nations tremble at your presence,
working unexpected miracles
such as no one has ever heard before.

The images that are before us also remind us (I think intentionally) of the deliverance of Israel from the army of Pharaoh through the waters of the Red Sea.  Certainly, this is part of our own baptismal liturgy.  But we know what is coming next... Jesus is to go into the desert wilderness for a time of temptation. 

The baptism is the launching of Jesus' ministry. It is the first cornerstone of the new structure. It is the first step along the way for every Christian.  It is a movement through the waters from sin and imprisonment to freedom and life eternal.  There is another image here that is rooted in scripture and repeated in our baptismal formula and that is the death of Jesus on the cross.

Like bookends the beginning of the Gospel offers a vision of the end, wherein here at the baptism the heavens are ripped apart, the spirit descends, and God pronounces that this is his Son.  We can compare this to the temple curtain which is ripped apart, Jesus breathing his spirit out, and the centurion making his proclamation. (Donald Juel, Mark, 34-35)  Just as Jesus is baptized here in the waters of the Jordan so does every Christian man, woman, and child find their baptism at the cross of Christ.

Today as you look out over your congregation you will see a group of people who more than likely believe that the government is not the way it was meant to work, that power rests in the hands of the most wealthy people in the country, and that the current state of politics promises no change. They sit there also with the knowledge that they work hard and help their community and their neighbors; as do most Christians which Pew research says make up the majority of those who give time and treasure for this work.  They are also worried about their future economically and they are concerned about who will take care of them. The holidays are over.  Many have returned from vacation needing a vacation and the promises of what the shopping season promised are not what they expected.

It is a lie to pretend that our world mirrors the wilderness world in which John made his proclamation or Jesus was baptized.  We live lives in the Episcopal Church that are foreign to most of the people in the rest of the world.  It seems to me there are two very real places though in this gospel that hit right in the heart of where most folks are.  The Gospel today recognizes that the world is not the kingdom of God and a new time is before us in this instance to turn, change, and make things different.  We are the inheritors of God's vision and we are the ones who by walking the Way of Jesus make so transform the world around us that we shall in the days to come experience something new and different.  We are a part of this building, Jesus is the cornerstone and we are the living stones being built up into the kingdom of God.

The second thing is this. In a world where not belonging is the norm and secret boundaries divide people clarity about living in the family of God and how you become a member is Good News.  In most places you will not be told how to belong. In most places, you will not have the opportunity to be invited to be a part.  The "in" crowd is small and not many people are sharing the secret entrance rites.  But in the family of God, everyone is a member.  In fact, the moment a person recognizes the Grace of God moving in their lives they are "in."  Baptism is the public rite of initiation which reminds them and the church that they are already God's sacred possession. They are God's sons or daughters, they are God's beloved, they are the ones upon whom Jesus breathed the breath of life, and for whom Jesus died on the cross.  Baptism is the clear sign that reminds us (not God) that we are his people and the sheep of his hand.

That my friend in the wilderness of this world is VERY Good News.


Some Thoughts on Romans 6:1–11

"Lesslie Newbigin once said that if you do not see the kingdom it?s because you are facing the wrong direction."
"Dying to Live," Bill O'Brien, The Christian Century, 2005.

"When he spoke of what happened to him on the Damascus Road, Paul never knew whether to call it being born or being killed. In a way, it felt like both at the same time. Whatever it was, it had something to do with letting go."

"Letting Go Down Here," William Willimon, The Christian Century, 1986. At Religion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

This passage from Romans is a classic conversation between the Romans and the Protestants even today! Paul is clear God is a lover of humanity and creation. God gives us grace, grace, grace.  Christ's death was a final blow that released grace into the world freely.  Grace has a simple equation in Paul's writings: the more there is sin the more grace abounds!  This is good news, my friends...this is THE GOOD NEWS. 

So Paul says, rhetorically, so does this mean that we can or should sin even more in order to receive grace?  We need to remember that one of the charges against early Christians and their communities was that they were lawless.  This argument posed would certainly lead to lawlessness.  Paul's answer to himself is "of course not."  

He then makes it clear that through baptism we die to sin and become inextricably linked to Christ's death and his resurrection.  We are raised by God and we are made to walk in the world around us in new life.  Paul is clear that as we rise up into this new life we are to respond to God's grace with (what one scholar called) "conscience-based ethical conduct."  We would not want or desire to respond intentionally to God's love, mercy, and grace with behavior other than that which builds up the body of Christ and reflects well upon the God who saved us.

I believe that Paul was clear to himself - a new life means new behaviors. Just as death with Christ is given so is life and so our lives will reflect this new behavior - our lives will look like the life of Jesus.  I think Chris Haslaam of Canada does an excellent job of capturing the Gospel of Paul as laid out in Romans with this "cliff notes version":

Just as we have been grafted on to Christ in his death, so we too will share with him through a resurrection like his (v. 5). We know that we ceased to be dominated by sin and divine wrath (“our old self”, v. 6) when we were baptised. This removed the effects of our waywardness, our enslavement to sin, but makes us ethically responsible for our actions. This is what baptism does (v. 7). Dying with Christ also includes living with him. Because Christ has risen, he will “never die again” (v. 9) – this is unique, once-for-all-time act, an anticipation of the age to come. And then the answer to the question in v. 2: Christ “died to sin” in the sense that sinless, he died rather than disobey the Father, and in the context of a sinful world. He was raised by the Father (v. 4) in order that he might live “to God” (v. 10, as he has always done.) So, as Christ is the model for our lives, and it is he upon whom our lives are grafted, we too must leave sin behind and be “alive to God” (v. 11) in Christ.

The miracle of life with Christ is that though we are never free from sin we are always one step away from complete forgiveness because our God continues to reach out to us with Grace.  Paul believes that those who follow Jesus will live an intentional life - though a grace-filled one.  Moreover, that the grace received is the grace in-turn offered to all those whom we meet. We like Christ are to be forgiving and grace-filled vessels in the world.  It is not enough to live a life full after baptism it is to reflect and be grace agents in the world around us - ultimately, enabling others to discover their grafted-ness into the life of God in Christ Jesus.

OR

Some Thoughts on Acts 19:1-7

"As Mae Gwendolyn Henderson observes, What distinguishes black women’s writing, then, is the privileging (rather than repressing) of 'the other in ourselves.' ...Through the multiple voices that enunciate her complex subjectivity, the black woman writer not only speaks familiarity in the discourse of the other(s), but as Other she is in contestorial dialogue with the hegemonic dominant and subdominant or "ambiguously (non)hegemonic" discourses."

Commentary, Acts 19:1-7, Jacob Myers, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"A sermon cannot do everything, but as a congregation celebrates the Baptism of Our Lord, it is an opportunity for the preacher to speak about the many levels of baptism. One can teach, not only about its obligations (as above), but also about baptism's significance as an event where we are incorporated into Christ and, consequently, share his destiny."

Commentary, Acts 19:1-7, Arland J. Hultgren, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

It is a curious question to ask what baptism have we baptized into? The baptisms in Acts have been used for a long time to reveal the importance of connectedness with the original mission of Jesus. We might well remember scholarship that seeks to separate the mission from Jesus from the mission of John the Baptist as well. 

Liturgical language creates by amplifying meaning and providing a sense of potentiality. In this way the liturgical act is always unfinished as it moves further into the lives and community of those who participate. It is also is never a full distillation of action. We might think of baptism, confirmation, or ordination services. They are certainly liturgical events in the sense that they happen at a given time with a particular group of people. Yet we recognize in our liturgical theology that what has happened has meaning within the backward facing narrative that is active in the present past of the celebration. The action of the meaning making liturgy is one that includes the present future.  This continuation of liturgical action and meaning making continues to extend the enterprise into the future, reflecting God’s narrative into the present and into differing contexts. It also continues the work through the extension of liturgical narrative across the life span of individuals adding meaning to birth, life, work, marriage, loss, and death. Liturgy as a meaning making narrative provides a “way of experiencing” God’s narrative in the midst of a lived life. Liturgy is not an individual’s work alone, but is proper to the participation of the whole gathered community.  

Let us think how the Eucharist does not stand on its own but has the theological undercarriage of baptism always present in its nature. In her exploratory essay on” Baptism and Bodies,” Andrea Bieler points out that bodies at baptism matter. Historically and expressively what is done to the body in baptism shapes the experience itself. This is true across ancient baptismal theologies in “liturgical texts, baptismal homilies, and personal reflections.”  Baptism is a corporeal rite “such as standing naked, anointing, signing the cross, and immersion.” There is a direct connection between the baptismal ritual action, words, and embodiment that echoes the Incarnation of the Word that is made flesh and bone. The human body at baptism is dynamically connected through sacrament of water into the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. In baptism we recognize that it is the human body that becomes the site for salvation.  When we consider the baptismal rite of Cyril of Alexandria we see a bodily enactment of Romans 6:6ff. The individual is buried in the waters of baptism with Christ and raised to new life in the full body of Christ, the Church.  “In baptism the mystery of the incarnation is celebrated.” 

If we turn to Augustine’s theology of baptism we understand that two things arev happening: the Church is the embodiment of Christ that does the baptizing while at the same time it is the body into which one is being baptized. Therefore, it is an expression of two roles.  Theologian Luis Vela summarized Augustine’s baptismal ecclesiology: 

St. Augustine’s doctrine of Baptism as a sacrament of regeneration and incorporation is wonderful and extraordinarily beautiful. . . . According to the marvelous will of God the Father through the Word, in an action of both the Spirit and the Word, God incorporates humanity [into the life of the Trinity]. . . .Through Baptism, the church incorporates us into the great family of Christians, and she is our loving mother, who through Christ, the living head, structures our life and shares our ministry.  

Both Biehler and Augustine help us imagine the reality that the baptismal footprint is always at work in the action of Eucharist, which means it is not a private act. Eucharist, like baptism, cannot take place alone or in the privacy of one’s own home. Just as you are not baptized alone there must always be someone else present, so too with the eucharist. Here again proximity to others – to the gathered church comes into play. The eucharist is an embodied act, it is about consuming, but this happens only when one can receive and participate with others in a community of the faithful. Something is always missing in virtual Eucharist, especially when one person is alone in the privacy of their home: the world and other people. The Christian is always being immersed into community as part of the eucharistic act. It is never an individual act. The person is embodied in the midst of others for the sake of a particular gospel proclamation out and into the world. The eucharist, like baptism, is always enacting a dual action. It is not the individual who blesses eucharist but always the church that does so. It is also the church into which the individual is coming into community as they receive the bread and wine. Matter and spirit, knowing and being, are all connected horizontally in this action with the gathered faithful, just as there is a vertical dimension to the action of eucharist too. 

Embodied liturgies make community.

I say all of this because it is not mere apostolic hierarchy that Paul is speaking about. It is not about having the "right" baptism. Instead I propose that it is about Paul seeking to explain that when one is baptised they enter a greater community. It is not enough to be baptized by John for the individual's sake. Instead it is essential to understand that in baptism we are grafted into Christ.

The first thing we must grasp is that liturgy is not merely another action in a series of weekly actions, or even historical actions. It is an action, like baptism that, while including finite participation, is an act by the infinite within creation. Christ’s action in the liturgy and in the Eucharist itself is not a historical act because it is infinite in quality and eschatological in nature. Christ, in baptism and the Eucharist especially, establishes a “visible sacramental fellowship” that is shared during the embodied gathering of humans.  I am suggesting that it is in liturgy—where we gather together, sing, read, listen, act, receive, and celebrate in a complex sharing of schemas anchored in creation—that we incarnate God’s narrative and Christ’s visible sacramental fellowship. (See Rowan Williams's work Christ at the Heart of Creation, 56) This is a creative effect of the liturgy. It does not merely provide a word about our condition and nature; it is linked to the hypostatic union of the matter and spirit, being and knowing. Our understanding of the sacraments is that they are a link (physically and spiritually) to the infinite Trinity, and Christ specifically, within that relationship.  

Here then we see that baptism is a physical act that both connects us horizontally and vertically with the community of Christ followers today and with the infinite community of God. 

[The above notes are taken from my new book entitled The Embodied Liturgy.]

Some Thoughts on Genesis 1:1 - 2:4

"The Spirit who broods over the primordial waters descends on Jesus in the waters of the Jordan and names him 'Beloved.' That same Spirit then drives him out into the wilderness, the wild and wasteland (Mark 1:12)."

Commentary, Genesis 1:1-5, Kathryrn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"From the very beginning, God has been fully present to everyone and everything in this world. And God is still with us because the Spirit of God still "hovers" and "resonates" over and around and in us all."

"God is Here!" Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.

"In what ways are the writings of an ancient people and their perception of God relevant to us?"

"Writing the Back Story," Russell Rathbun, The Hardest Question, 2012.

"Today's lectionary reading is the first five verses of the chapter, but as a confession, it should be heard as a full piece. Heard in this way, it confirms that God is indeed great and the creator of all things."

Commentary, Genesis 1:1-5, Beth Tanner, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Genesis revealed for the first Christians the nature of God and God’s relationship to the creation in three ways. 

The first is the interpretation of the creative work in Genesis as a revelation of work by the eternal Word. John’s gospel offers a vision of the eternal Word at work in the creation. John’s own prologue echoes the work of God in creation. But specifically (as in Psalm 33:6 “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made), John’s Gospel ties the birth of creation to the eternal incarnation. God as Trinity is not a theological concept that comes along as a historical sorting out of Jesus’ relationship to God. Instead, a Trinitarian theology recognizes and holds that the second person is eternal – the Word is eternal. All things were created through the Word, and without the Word, nothing came into being. This is different than Sophia, or wisdom, it is instead the logos – the spoken, speaking Word that is God. See John’s Gospel 1:4-5 and 7-9. (Richard Hays offers a succinct argument which parallels and mirrors accepted the biblical scholarship, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 308-309.)

The second is that the unique incarnation of the Word, Jesus, is evidenced in power and master of the elements. Jesus storms the sea is the same God who divides the waters so Israel may walkthrough. Jesus who divides loaves and fishes is the same God who brings manna in the wilderness and water from the rock. Jesus who in his death unites heaven and earth is the same God who parts the heavens and earth. 

The third of the three passages is the “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. When speaking and looking at the coin Jesus uses the word from the creation story. He plays with the notion that God has created all things, all things are God’s. Caesar can believe this or that is his, but even in the end when Caesar lies beneath the earth everything, even Caesar, returns to God. This is a powerful and subtle statement about God having in hand all things.

Sometimes we approach the Genesis passage as if it is a stand-alone passage. But the Gospel authors and early Christians understood it as revealing not only the nature of God and the creation but the place of the eternal Word and incarnation in it. To speak of the creation is to speak of the eternal Words possession of it, and its creation through it. On this Sunday it is a perfect opportunity to find in the creation story a way of unmooring the trinity from boring sermons on doctrine and to weave the creation story into the Gospel in order to reveal the God in through early Christian eyes.

Epiphany, January 6, 2024

Prayer

This week I am including for my prayer before preaching one of my favorite hymns: Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning by Reginald Heber (118 in the 1982 Hymnal).  It was first sung in 1827 and is normally sung to the tune of Star of the East.

1. Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Refrain:
Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

2. Cold on his cradle the dewdrops are shining,
low lies his head with the beasts of the stall;
angels adore him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all. (Refrain)

3. Shall we then yield him, in costly devotion
odors of Edom, and offerings divine,
gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine? (Refrain)

4. Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
vainly with gifts would his favor secure;
richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
dearer to God are the prayers of the poor. (Refrain)

5. Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 2:1-12

"The story of the magi foreshadows later developments in Matthew's narrative. Even in infancy Jesus inspires both worship and hostility, responses that are repeated throughout the story."

Commentary, Matthew 2:1-12, Mark Allan Powell, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can choose a "return to normalcy" in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions. We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing -- the true accent of epiphany -- that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials.

"Off By Nine Miles," Walter Brueggemann, The Christian Century, 2001.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This week is unique because Epiphany falls on a Sunday and we are able to celebrate and preach on texts which normally stay hidden amongst the twelfth night celebrations. The Feast of the Epiphany has a wonderful history and traditions which are many and varied around the world. You can see some of these in the Wikipedia article on the Feast of the Epiphany - which isn't too bad.   When we lived in Mexico we remembered the feast by placing our shoes outside our door with straw in them.  Then the wise men would leave little gifts as a trade for helping them get on their way.  It has also always been our household tradition (since I was a child) to bring the wise men to the nativity scenes which were scattered around the house, and we would take down our Christmas tree.

My father always loved to ask us questions about the bible at dinner. It was like a little test. Actually he probably only had about 20 different questions but they were always enough to keep us busy thinking and figuring out the answers.  Recently I ran across an article which talked about Brent Landau's book Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem, the first-ever English translation of an ancient manuscript that tells the famous story from the Magi’s perspective. In it he shares five things you didn’t know about the Magi - this is exactly the kind of stuff my dad loved to use to trip us up.  So here are the five things Landau offers:

"1) The Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say how many Magi there were. Three became the most popular answer because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But some paintings in Christian catacombs have two or four, the Revelation of the Magi has a list of twelve Magi with names, and other Christian writings imagine an entire army of Magi!

2) Early Christians didn’t agree on where the Magi were from. The most popular answer was Persia (modern Iran), but others thought they were from Babylon or Arabia. In the Revelation of the Magi, they come from a land called Shir, which, because it is located at the eastern edge of the inhabited world, is probably equivalent to China.

3) Nobody knows what the Star of Bethlehem really was. Some early Christians thought it was an angel or the Holy Spirit, and more recent theories include a comet or a supernova. In the Revelation of the Magi, the star is none other than Christ himself in celestial form.

4) Opinions differ about how long it took the Magi to reach Bethlehem. Based on Herod’s asking of Magi when the star appeared, coupled with his subsequent command to kill all male infants under the age of two, many Christians thought it took them two years. Some imagined a much faster journey of twelve days, based on the “twelve days of Christmas” between December 25th and the celebration of Epiphany on January 6th. Their journey is even faster in the Revelation of the Magi, since the star “carries” the Magi to Bethlehem in the blink of an eye.

5) A number of answers were proposed for how the Magi knew that a star signified the birth of the King of the Jews. Many Christians thought that they knew the prophecy of Balaam, a prophet who predicts in Numbers 24:17 that “a star shall come out of Jacob.” In the Revelation of the Magi, the Magi are descendants of Seth, who learned about the prophecy of the star from his father Adam -- since the star used to stand over the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden."

So, let us now turn out attention to the actual text for this Sunday's Gospel.  Not unlike Luke, Matthew gives us a time frame for Jesus' birth. We are told that magi or some kind of astrologer or dream interpreters were paying attention to the night sky and so they understood from their studies that a king had been born.  This, of course, takes us back to both Isaiah 60 and even further back to Numbers 24.  Numbers 24:17-24 prophesies that “... a star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel”, and that this ruler will conquer surrounding nations.

So we see in this birth a new reign of God is revealed, a new king coming into the world. This king will draw many to him, even wise men and the nations will bow down to him.

This is certainly cause for alarm if you are the local earthly king and so Herod's fears and anxiety are woven into the tapestry of the story.

It foretells the reality that this God-king is not found in high places, or among the royal families of the day, rather he is found in the lowliest of places. He will threaten the mighty not with great armies and power but with peace and love.  It is the lowliest place Bethlehem, it is the poor family, it is the barnyard stall and the poorest of means that reveals the lordship of Christ.

In seminary, I learned a wonderful word: Heilsgeschichte. It is a German word that means salvation history.  One of the things I love about Epiphany is the many levels in which the passage from Matthew is working.  The first is the tradition found in Numbers, the Psalm, and Isaiah.  These are the ancient heilsgeschichte prophesies which reveal something to us about the person of Jesus.  Then there is the context of the story in which the signs and symbols are presented and God in Christ Jesus is revealed to the magi by way of a language and imagery which they can understand.  Then there is the first community to hear or read Matthew's good news of salvation. The narrative is reinterpreted again and reveals to them the nature of this new community founded upon the Christ; who will draw to him a varied people.  Then there is our community today.

So, we ask ourselves how does the church present the revelation of the good news of salvation today?  How are we revealing Christ and his work? We are challenged I think to continue the sharing of the story in a contemporary form and through contemporary images.  We are to use contextual narratives to reveal the reign of God.  We are to remember that the kings were not fooled by the aristocratic means of Herod nor his court or majestic realm, but rather the integrity of the message of God's lordship was found in the humblest of places, the poorest of families, and the weakest of citizens - a child.  Our preaching and teaching of the salvation history of God will always be measured by the parallel life of our church's mission in the most marginal of settings with the weakest of people.  AND vice versa, our mission will always be measured by the presentation of salvation history through the unique offering of God in Christ Jesus through the eyes of our own church's tradition.

It is a both-and proposition. We are about the work of revealing this God and the uniqueness of Christ, to do this in word and work, in such a way that both the shepherds and magi of our day may be drawn to him.

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 3:1-12

"The need for unity and equality continues to paralyze both the human family and the Church."Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Israel Kamudzandu, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2019.

"The writing style of the author of Ephesians seems at first glance more sing-able than preach-able. Set it to music and let the organist have at it!"
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"The great celebration of the Incarnation, according to Paul, flows into the great celebration of the church."
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Amy L.B. Peeler, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"'Mystery' is the term that runs throughout this passage from Ephesians. It fits the day in the liturgical year because an 'epiphany' is a manifestation of something. And in this case what is revealed has been a mystery."
Radical Gratitude, lectionary-based stewardship, Northwest United Methodist Foundation. (.pdf)
Commentary, Ephesians 3:1-12, Craig R. Koester, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Here is no cringing model of humility before a God who is looking for people on which to put his feet. Rather here is a theology which sees God wanting us to be bold, confident and forthcoming."
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

A cave painting of Paul found in Ephesus in Turkey.

We find in the letter to the Ephesians that Paul's ministry to the Gentiles and his belief that God had called them into the family of Abraham as equal members of the church has led to his imprisonment.  In our passage, this Sunday Paul is telling the community about his work.  His words tap into the revelation that is also present in the Gospel for Epiphany.  Paul writes, "In former generations, this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."

Like Paul, the community at Ephesus is invited to participate in the sharing of this revelation.  Paul talks about how God was revealed to him.  And, he repeats his conviction that both Jews and Gentiles are to be at work in the saving activity of sharing the good news of salvation; of Christ and his kingdom.  Paul does a little work in translating the salvation history for the church at Ephesus, the heilsgeschichte, he talks to them about the revelation of old and God was at work to draw other nations to him.  The prophets of old and the apostles of his day offer a vision that all are invited to be co-heirs, co-members, and co-partners.  (In Greek each word begins with syn as in synchronous.)

It is here that we find something unique and important to the Gospel in our tradition as Christians who are Episcopalians.  Paul was an unlikely choice, he offers, to be an evangelist of this gospel.  But that is the point.  The good news of salvation is that all are invited into the work of evangelism (sharing the good news in words) and mission (sharing the good news in work).  More importantly, this salvation story has always come to the least likely people, the most unexpected persons, and the ones to whom the powers of the day never expect much of anything - other than remaining in their place.  The newcomers to the family, in this case, the Gentiles, are always to be integral members of the family.  

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power.⁸Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ,⁹ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things;¹⁰so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.¹¹This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,¹²in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Paul, a Jew, has become an unlikely evangelist to the Gentile.  His work is to share the abundant "riches" of Christ with whoever will listen.  He is to tell the salvation story, that from the beginning God's plan was established, those who are outside of the family of God now have a place as an integral part of the ever-evolving family of God - the new community - the new Israel.  The work of the community, the church at Ephesus, the work of the Christian community today, the work of the Episcopal/Anglican church is to share the good news of salvation (all are welcome and included) and the uniqueness of Christ (he is a light to the world and a challenge to the powers of this world).  

Whenever I read Paul I am constantly challenged to wonder who are the gentiles in our context?  It is not us! We are more like the Abrahamic family, the Jews in Paul's letter.  So, who are the ones who this day stand outside the family of God, who are we being challenged to invite in? Who are we to offer the story of salvation history - a salvation history that includes them?  I think this is the most challenging aspect of our faith. You and I are the most unlikely of evangelists, yet you and I have been given the revelation and offered a vision of God's unveiling salvation history.  As unlikely as we are, we are the ones to carry the banner today and to invite the most unlikely of recipients into the family.  I find that is always good news for them, the "other", and rather challenging news for us.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 60:1-9

"We often call it the 'bridge' We look at the gap, or chasm, between the text and the contemporary situation, while wondering how we can leap from the inspiring words of scripture to the present reality."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Charles L. Aaron, Jr., Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2019.

"As we celebrate this festival, affirming the message that God’s presence is fully manifested in Jesus, whom Matthew pictures being born in Bethlehem, and to whom the nations gather bearing gifts, what forms of darkness do we confront?"

"Gathered at the Light," Bob Cornwall, Ponderings on a Faith Journey, 2019.

"Preach it, talk about our hope in God's ability to remake our fractured world, and to reconcile on earth what has already been reconciled in heaven"
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Michael J. Chan, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"Every prophetic oracle is spoken within a historical context. I believe that, as preachers, we must always begin from this simple but poignant realization."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Bleak midwinter seems a fitting stage for this lectionary text that likely dates to the early days of Israel's return from Babylonian captivity. Those days are cast easily in hues of grey..."
Commentary, Isaiah 60:1-6, Christine Roy Yoder, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Here are the words from the passage that stands out so clearly to me on this day:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

This is just a beautiful and amazing passage of hope. It is a passage that reminds the hearer of God's presence and God's ultimate design of embrace. It is a passage of worship and glorification of God. It is a passage of beauty with a rich woven tapestry of images.

Isaiah is offering an image of the future. It is an image that suggests that once again the people who return from Babylon will have a great city. It may not be a shining city on a hill presently, but it will be in the future. Isaiah is casting an image of a city at the center of trade and power. 

Writing about the same time as Jeremiah was...this part of Isaiah is speaking about the return of the people to a city ravished by war and left with a small population. Isaiah is prophesying in line with Jeremiah, that God will have the last word...not the conquering Babylonians. God imagines Isaiah continues, a great city restored beyond its original glory and so too a people restored.

Walter Brueggeman plays with this image of the great city and the difference of nine miles between Jerusalem and Bethlehem when he writes,

"Matthew is not the first one to imagine three rich wise guys from the East coming to Jerusalem. His storyline and plot come from Isaiah 60, a poem recited to Jews in Jerusalem about 580 b.c.e. These Jews had been in exile in Iraq for a couple of generations and had come back to the bombed-out city of Jerusalem. They were in despair. Who wants to live in a city where the towers are torn down and the economy has failed, and nobody knows what to do about it?"

and..

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and Bethlehem, with its modest promises. We can choose a “return to normalcy” in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions. We can receive life given in vulnerability. It is amazing—the true accent of epiphany—that the wise men do not resist this alternative but go on to the village. Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning, and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials. 

Bethlehem is nine miles south of Jerusalem. The wise men had a long intellectual history of erudition and a long-term practice of mastery. But they had missed their goal by nine miles. It is mind-boggling to think how the story might have gone had Herod’s interpreters not remembered Micah 5. 

Our task is to let the vulnerability of Micah 5 disrupt the self-congratulation of Isaiah 60. Most of us are looking in the wrong place. We are off by nine miles.(See his article here: Brueggemann, Walter, "Off by Nine Miles," The Christian Century, 2001.)

What is interesting about Matthew's use of the text that it is more than a prophetic link to the past. It is more than a story lifted from one part of scripture into another part. It is more than a simple analogy...the wise men are looking in the wrong place...so too we are looking in the wrong place...

Let me pause to say that Brueggeman is brilliant here. He is tapping into one of the key Gospel paradoxes. The king does not come as a king just as his victory will be defeat and life will come from death! Jerusalem our happy home is not a restoration of a past projection but a complete turning over of the past ideas about the centrality of religion and where God resides. 

But there is more here. Matthew uses this part of Isaiah to point out that Jesus' mission is to the gentiles. This is an expansive move on Matthew's part. (See Richard Hays, Echoes, p175ff.) The Gospel author is setting the stage firmly in these first passages that Jesus has come not only as a messiah for the people of Israel but that Jesus' mission is cosmic in scope and meant for all people.

The Gospel author does this by tying in Isaiah 9:2 and 42:7 with 60. He draws in this story from the servant passage (42:7) and the fulfillment of light for the gentiles (9:2).

The passage is not merely about where we shall find our spiritual home but where the world might find its deliverance. The Gospel is good news for the whole world and it challenges us to see that our transformation is linked to the poor, the lame, and the dying. It is linked to the small town of Bethlehem - the least of outposts. The world's deliverance is linked to the restoration of people who today find themselves enslaved by powers, principalities, and systems. It is linked to children. 

We will often seek to find our light and our deliverance in many places - most of which are connected more to the powers of the world's corrupt machinations. We are challenged not only to look in a different place but that such a different place is itself meant for the whole world. 

First Sunday After Christmas, All Years

Prayer

May we welcome this mystery of your love and thus delight in the joy that will be ours as children and heirs of your kingdom. 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 1:[1-9]10-18

"For an alternative approach, rather than helping our hearers to see the light of Christ shining in the darkness, preachers might help them to hear Jesus as God’s love song, singing life into the world’s babble, chaos, and voices of death."

Commentary, John 1:1-14, Craig a. Satterlee, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"The gospel message does not go forward without witnesses like John, and one of the tasks in this sermon is to help show what it looks like to point our fingers towards Jesus. In the age of talk of missional churches, how does that work out practically? How can we point towards Jesus in mission in such a way that others come to know him and come to know and love God?"

Commentary, John 1:(1-9), 10-18 (Christmas 2), Ginger Barfield, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"It would be truly horrendous to be in the hands of an all-intrusive God who never left us alone, and who, when it came time to send his messiah, sent one who ruled the earth like some heavenly Mussolini. In the very unobtrusiveness of the light of Christ, God honors our finite freedom."

"Penetrating the Darkness," Ronald Goetz, The Christian Century, 1988. Atreligion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



I like how Raymond E. Brown approaches this text. There is first the Word with God (1-2). The opening verses of this Christ hymn used to frame an entrance into the Johannine Gospel are 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-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, there is the Word and Creation. “All creation bears the stamp of God’s Word,” Brown writes. (Brown, 25) Here we see the author 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 fulfil 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, certainly this seems on the author’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 our creations' explicit purpose to glorify God.

The third portion of our Gospel selection is the portion where we are re-introduced to John the Baptist. I say reintroduced because we spent several Sundays reading passages from Matthew 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 that he dutifully gave witness to the revelation of God. Moreover, that 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) responds 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. Here, too, 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 is 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.

Some Thoughts on Galatians 3:23-25; 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.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

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 on 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. 

May we know in faith our deliverance is real. May we receive it in remembrance of the first Advent and Jesus' birth? May we live it.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 61:10-62:3

"The mission given to the prophet of Isaiah 61:10-62:3 is still needed today, so long as the world is populated by those who are brokenhearted, mourning and in captivity."
Commentary, Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3, Michael J. Chan, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"In other words, the people as a whole will be entrusted with the former monarchical function of administering God's justice and righteousness in the world."
Commentary, Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3, J. Clinton McCann, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"The messages from both Isaiah and Luke have some points in common. As well as the overwhelming joy in the coming of the lord to his people, both have an ethical note to them."
The Old Testament Readings: Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3. Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.


"This "righteousness" stands, likewise, in parallel position to the "salvation" of the previous clause. There, again, the salvation to be achieved by the Messiah is metaphorically portrayed as "garments" (bigdhey-yesha^Ñ [BDB, 447]) with which He has simply "clothed" us [BDB, 527). The hiphil perfect of lbshis, here likewise, employed with the force of a present perfect explaining the basis of the future joy of the church."
"Christmas 1b - Exegetical Notes on Isaiah 61:10 - 62:3," Douglas MacCallum Lindsay Judisch, Concordia Theological Seminary (LCMS - Indiana).

Oremus Online NRSV Text 

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord..." sings out the prophet. The people are to be delivered and have been changed through their estrangement, captivity, and enslavement in Babylon. The prophet sings out in joy in receiving the God who abhors injustice. The mixed images of wedding garments and the continued eschatological imagination of Isaiah play on the joy and heighten the joy. The prophet "is completely absorbed in his intense expectancy, and it is clear that he will continue to speak until the dawn of the day of salvation." (See the comments by Australian exegetes on this passage here.) The passage is about the present and future joy of the people at God's deliverance. 

I suggest the passage is a character of prophetic joy. 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us that the Greeks and the Romans believed in fate. He gives this example:

This was a major difference between ancient Israel and ancient Greece. The Greeks believed in fate, moira, even blind fate, ananke. When the Delphic oracle told Laius that he would have a son who would kill him, he took every precaution to make sure it did not happen. When the child was born, Laius nailed him by his feet to a rock and left him to die. A passing shepherd found and saved him, and he was eventually raised by the king and queen of Corinth. Because his feet were permanently misshapen, he came to be known as Oedipus (the “swollen-footed”).

The rest of the story is well known. Everything the oracle foresaw happened, and every act designed to avoid it actually helped bring it about. Once the oracle has been spoken and fate has been sealed, all attempts to avoid it are in vain. This cluster of ideas lies at the heart of one of the great Greek contributions to civilization: tragedy. (See Sack's article on prognosticating the future here.) 

There is a present fatalism in our society too. Superhero movies and comics promise a Greek ethic of fate.

Against such fate, I suggest prophetic joy stands out. Sacks speaks about how joy is such an "unexpected" word used by the prophet Moses, and I would add Isaiah. Not unlike the Israelite's escape from Egypt and their wandering in the desert, the Babylonian captivity and the feelings of God's silence have been anything but categorically joyous. I offer that Isaiah, like Moses, reminds us that prophetic joy is what "the life of faith in the land of promise is about." No less than a return and commitment to an old Israel is Isaiah's imagining. (See Sacks' article on Moses and collective joy here.) Rabbi Sacks reminds us of the ancient Deuteronomic instance of the idea of collective joy.

The central Sanctuary, initially Shilo: “There in the presence of the Lord your God you and your families shall eat and rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deut. 12:7).

Jerusalem and the Temple: “And there you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns” (Deut. 12:12).

Sacred food that may be eaten only in Jerusalem: “Eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites from your towns – and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to” (Deut. 12:18).

The second tithe: “Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine, or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice” (Deut. 14:26).

The festival of Shavuot: “And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His name – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows living among you” (Deut. 16:11).

The festival of Succot: “Be joyful at your feast – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns” (Deut. 16:14).

Succot, again. “For seven days, celebrate the feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete [vehayita ach same’ach]” (Deut. 16:15).

Sacks suggests that even given the journey that has been made by the people, Moses emphasizes joy because he has a vision of the whole course of Jewish history unfolding before him. Sacks paraphrases this moment "It is easy to speak to God in tears. It is hard to serve God in joy. It is the warning he delivered as the people came within sight of their destination: the Promised Land. Once there, they were in danger of forgetting that the land was theirs only because of God’s promise to them, and only for as long as they remembered their promise to God." The point being made is that left to any one of us the promise and joy will be forgotten. This is then a collective act of joy. again Sacks writes, "What Moses is articulating for the first time is the idea of simcha as communal, social, and national rejoicing. The nation was to be brought together not just by crisis, catastrophe, or impending war, but by collective celebration in the presence of God. "

I want to pull from Sacks' work the idea of collective joy. Isaiah is offering a prophetic joy in that he is inviting the people to look up and see the horizon before them, and like Moses before, he is suggesting that the work of joy is collective. I propose then that far from being a joy experienced by individuals, scriptural joy is prophetic and collective. 

Then prophetic joy is collective. It is about what God has done and what God will do. Christ adds a new dimension to this collective prophetic joy by making it present in the world through the incarnation. It is true that the Old Testament (Indeed Moses and Isaiah, but we might add Hosea and Malachi, too) offer a vision that the collectivity of joy means sharing with the poor and hungry. Prophetic joy is a collective act not simply because the tribe comes together but because the family shares the goodness of the joyful table with others. “Be joyful at your feast – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows who live in your towns” (Deut. 16:14). See also Hosea 9:4 and Malachi 2:3. 

The prophetic joy of Christ and the incarnation is not a mere congregational event but one intended from the earliest days to not be mere individual deliverance or religious corporate observance. The prophetic joy of Christ is meant to look behind and look forward. But from the perspective of Scripture (old and new), it is to be collective in the moment of its reading. A prophetic joy that is transformed into a collective joy that includes strangers, fatherless, motherless, widows, lost, and lonely.