Christmas Eve/Day December 24/25

Prayer
Abiding with you forever in glory, O God, your only-begotten child is born among us in time..  May we ever welcome your Son to the warmth of an earthly home and so open for all earth's children a path that leads us home. We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke  2:1-20

"This holiday familiarity is a particular problem for preachers. We must keep in mind that for some, the Christmas story has been regularly heard since childhood. And yet, these annual rehearsals have failed to reveal to contemporary audiences the jarring display of ancient culture the episode describes."

Commentary, Luke 2:1-14 [15-20] / Luke 2[1-7] 8-20, Joy Moore, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Nonetheless, it is to these unlikely and unworthy shepherds that the first news of the birth of Jesus is given, and not to the Kings, Caesars, and Governors mentioned at the beginning of this passage."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Luke 2:1-20, David Ewart, 2010.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

The mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazah once wrote, “Human perfection resides in this, that the love of God should conquer the human heart and possess it wholly, and even if it does not possess it wholly, it should predominate in the heart over the love of all things.”[1]  And so, the incarnation comes in Christ Jesus to conquer the human heart and to possess it wholly.  In an eternal return to the garden, God comes in Jesus to find us, once hidden on the eve of the day, amongst the flora of our garden world.  The goal, as in last week's epistle to the Hebrews, is that we might be about the work and will of God.

Today, we pause, we think, and we ponder.  What is the world around us like? What are our lives like?  We live in a time when we want to know God is present. We desire to be rid of our fear and our anxiety.  We hope, and we wish for a sign.  We don't know who to believe anymore because everything is relativized.  There seems no assurance that we won't hurdle off the fiscal and mental cliff of our time.  We feel shame and unworthiness, which we hide behind consumption and business.  We still long for some kind of love, acceptance, forgiveness, and understanding.  And, we offer our sacrifices to the God of our day, hoping perhaps this year will be different. 

I am most certain that this is not the same time and nor are these the same issues that faced the shepherds.  They were probably cold, hungry, and without shelter in the desert at night.  They were most likely a lot like most of the rest of the developing world that exists far beyond our concerns and thoughts this Christmas.

Yet into this ancient world and our world, today comes the message that the prophecy is fulfilled. God is in our midst. Do not be afraid. In fact, rejoice and be glad.  Look for God in the least of these, in the form of a child.  Here you will find him.

Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

And so all over the world, we gather on this holiest of nights to celebrate the mystical union of God and humanity in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, Savior, Messiah, Blessed One, Son of Man, Jesus the Christ Child born of a woman called Mary – Miryam of Nazareth.

I have for a long time been touched by this mystical poem from Ann Johnson’s collection of sacred poetry Magnificat of the Stable:

My soul rests confidently in the animal warmth
     And the lantern light of the simple place, Yahweh,

     And my spirit rejoices in the privacy of this time of birthing
     We share with you, O God of Creation,
     For you come alive again tonight
     In the blood and water of your people.
Yes, this is the time we have waited for.
     This is the moment of blessing.
Holy is birth,
     And you shall show yourself from age to age
     In those who enter into creation with you.
You have shown the power of a dream enfleshed
     And we are humbled.
You have pulled down all our strivings
     And lifted up this simple, common moment.
This stable is filled with good things,
     New life and happy people.
     Are those in the inn rooms as satisfied?

You have come to Israel,
Mindful of our shared nature,
     . . . according to the promise of Eden. . .
     mindful of our nature to seek the wisdom of new life together
     as long as we walk the earth.[2]

Rehearsing our sacred story reminds us of God's presence in our lives.  We are invited to this holy feast to remember that this God we believe in enters the world in human form and comes to the margins of life, to Mary and Joseph, who are essentially homeless and wandering.

We are invited on this day to retell the story of the nativity so that we may rehearse the beginning of the reign of God, where people without a coat are given clothing, where people with no roof over their heads find shelter, where people with nothing to eat are given good things.  We retell the story to remind ourselves that the work of Christians is kindness, gentleness, and hospitality, like the innkeeper.

We are invited to retell the story on this day so we remember what it means to discover a living God and how we, like the shepherds, will search for him wherever he will be; so tenacious is our hearts' hunger for God.

We are invited to retell the story so that we might be reminded of our work to be heralds of good news and glad tidings for our family, our friends, and our neighbours.

And, we are invited to retell the story because, in it, we are reminded that the child wrapped in linen and laid in a manger shall be our saviour wrapped in cloth and lain in a rock tomb.  

This is our God; this is our Messiah.  In this Christmastide, may we be aware that God has come and that we are his followers.  

For those who intentionally choose to remember, we recognize that the birth of Jesus was a prophetic challenge to the world order and that those who find they're being in his sacred story and follow his way are to challenge the world order with ethical and moral sensitivity.  We are to speak the truth and act in a world hungering for deliverance from greed, poverty, oppression, malnutrition, abuse, illness, war, and all the other dark and evil powers we have created and come to know.  It is not to Caesar Augustus or Quirinius that this God comes to, but the God we believe in comes to the lowly.  So it is that we are to open our hearts to this God that our own lowliness and shame may be transformed. So it is that we are to open our hands and lives to those around us.  We are like the angels, the shepherds, the innkeeper, and the holy family to make room for this God in our lives and, in so doing, to make room in the world for the kingdom of God.

---

[1] Quoted by Kabir Helminski in Knowing Heart, p. 4.

[2] Johnson, Miryam of Nazareth, p 81.

Some Thoughts on John 1:1-18

"If last week we met the camel hair wearing, locust and honey eating John the Baptist, this week we do a 180 degree turn and meet a whole different John."

Commentary, John 1:6-8, 19-28, Karoline Lewis, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011. 

"Much of the pain and suffering around us comes from people imagining that they are the light themselves. In psychological terms, my mind turns to Carl Jung when thinking about light and darkness within us. Jung warned of the dangers of trying to live only in our light. The shadow within is dangerous when ignored."

John 1:6-8, 19-28, Rev. Todd Weir, bloomingcactus.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo, As I walked out in Laredo one day, I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay. I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy; I see by your outfit you are a cowboy, too; We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys. If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy, too. (listen to it here)

I grew up listening to the Smothers Brothers, and this was their version of The Streets of Laredo.  I have always loved it.

Who are you?  I can tell you who I am by telling you my life story. Ultimately, you will guess it by my clothes and by my car and by my house...the rings on my fingers and bells on my toes.  Today's Gospel lesson asks, who are you?

To get to the bottom of this, we must take a good look at what is going on this week in the Gospel Text, especially since we have taken a dog leg into John's Gospel from Mark!

This week's Gospel reading is really in two parts. Those of you preparing a sermon (if doing so on this text) will find that it is really two different parts of John's introduction.  The text for Sunday is 1:6-8 and 19-28.

The first piece falls well within what many scholars believe to be the greatest part of the New Testament.  Raymond Brown, in his first volume, writes this about the prologue, which stretches from 1:1-18.

"If John has been described as the pearl of great price among the NT writings, then one may say that the Prologue is the pearl within this Gospel.  In her ccomparisonof Augustine's and Chrysostom's exegesis of the Prologue, M. A. Aucoin points out that both held that it is beyond the power of man to speak as John does in the Prologue." (18)

I think it is important to think of these first verses well within this first piece of writing which has both a form and a purpose. Brown breaks it up this way...  The first section is 1:1-2, This is the Word of God section which offers a poetic vision of God's very being.  The second section, verses 3-5, reveals the Word's work in creation.  It is the light shining in the darkness, shining through man's sinfulness, shining in the birth that flows from the fallen woman Eve in Jesus.  Then, and only then, do we arrive at our piece, which is nestled quite nicely here.  The third portion is verses 6-9 and is John the Baptist's, witness.  As Brown points out the second part is about the Word's work throughout creation, here that comes to fruition in the proclamation of God's incarnate Word Jesus. (Brown, John, vol 1, 18-17)  Many bloggers this week noted the difference between the John of Mark and the John of this Gospel.  I think the reason for the striking difference is primarily this Gospel's tightly focused presentation of God in Christ Jesus. The only reason to even have John in this section is to make clear he is preparing the hearts of humankind for the incarnation, and proclamation of the Word made man.  Brown tells us that following this proclamation, we return to the fourth section (continuing the ancient hymn outlined in the text), which is about the Christ of God working his mission in the world.  This is followed by the community's response.   The last of the five sections is another few words by John the Baptist, but here in 14, 17-18, is John's proclamation that the Word spoken before time is this Jesus.  He is the pre-existent one.  A radical, revolutionary, and prophetic revelation is being offered in this last section, for in this time, the common person would have understood that God is invisible, so it makes sense that the Word spoken, the Son is the only one who has seen this God.  The unique relation between Son and God not only helps with the contemporary thought of the day but it gives rise to our common understanding of who Jesus is: God's only Son.  (For my theological followers, there is a great discussion in Brown's Vol 1 on pages 35 and 36 about this last section, and it is well worth reading.)

To summarize then, we have in the first two verses of our reading a very clear focus on God in Christ. Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the Word made manifest, and the Word at work in the world.  As if marching to a drum, we hear for the first time in these very first words what we have faithfully memorized as Christians and Episcopalians who have a Common Prayer Book, and that is that the only Son of God has come into the world to save the world.  Such comfortable and hopeful words. Everything in this first section of our reading verbally illustrates that John the baptist is someone they knew but now is so transparent to the Gospel that all they see now is the coming of Christ.

On the first day of John's ministry in the Gospel, he disappears as the living Word and Jesus take centre stage. On the second day, he offers a vision of who Jesus is; he is the transparent vessel of a living Christ - of light in the world.

In this third week of Advent, a number of things are going on in our context here in the U.S.  One is what I would call the holiday breather.  We began the holiday with a Thanksgiving mad dash to fill our bellies and our shopping carts.  We redoubled our efforts to get to church. And we are now in the slump; it is the week-long Wednesday between Holiday and Christmas Day.  Unfortunately, preachers are in the same predicament.

Into this slump, we re-read a passage about John the Baptist. Now, you and I both know that is not precisely true. This Sunday's passage is very different from the last.  Brown and practically all modern scholars recognize that John the Baptist in John's Gospel is completely different from the one portrayed in the Synoptics.  He looks different than the previous version we preached on last week.  This week he is the transparent vessel of God's grace - Jesus Christ. He points only to God and to Jesus.

Just as John the Baptist in John's Gospel, you and I are, as Christians, intimately tied to who we say God is.

You might remember Stephen Colbert's radical statement that caused so much attention recently:

"If [America] is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it."

I will tell you that not being who we say we are is a crippling missionary stumbling block in a world that is seeking some kind of authentic view of God and Grace and hoping someone will be a true voice of transformation and life in a world of gifts and purchases whose shimmer and shine will fade a few weeks after their delivery.

The truth is that as Christians, we proclaim and reaffirm that the pre-existent Word of God is Jesus Christ, who is God's only son.  And that we are, as a people and as individuals (as is proclaimed in the Isaiah passage for this Sunday), inheritors of a divine relationship with the unseen God through the waters of baptism.  And, that we DO believe we are related as brothers or sisters of God's family.  And, therefore we are to treat people in a certain way, with special attention to God's most intimate friends - the poor.

We say and affirm as a defining part of who we are that we, as Christians, believe we meet God in the text of scripture and in the faces of our neighbours.

We meet God in John's proclamation. We meet this unseen God in the very speaking and retelling of the story of the incarnation of God offered here on the other side of the Jordan, just as it is offered from the ambos and pulpits of our churches.

Moreover, like John, we meet God by venturing out across the doorway of our church onto the other side of the sidewalk, where we have the opportunity to meet the living Word in the storied lives of the people we find out in the world.  We encounter God and his Son in the words of scripture, which helps us to hear the same living incarnate God spoken in the story of our neighbour.

This week we did a bible study with this passage at our meeting of the governing board of the diocese.  A friend and fellow clergyman said he had been praying and thinking about this passage. He realized and offered to the group that, quite frankly, we were simply to be at work being witnesses to Christ (like John the Baptist and John the Gospeller), and if we were not, then we were being witnesses for something or someone else.  In the latter, he had in mind those folks who travelled all that way to meet John the Baptist in the desert and to shut him down for not bearing witness to what they stood for.

This religious stuff is a dangerous thing.  The world right now is taking a breather from its holiday consumption. It is quiet before the holiday storm.  We have an opportunity to tell the truth.  The truth is that how we live out our holiday will reveal if we are bearing witness to God in Christ Jesus, or if we are representing something else.  Yes, what we say and what we do are incarnational symbols of the living God or something else entirely.

Religion on a Sunday like this is dangerous because when we don't tell the truth about the world we live in (the addictions we have, the way we attempt to purchase our belongings, and how we are stewards of God's things), we sell a little piece of our corporate soul to the secular world; creating a consumer faith.

How will the church, how will you, the preacher, how will the people answer the essential question asked on the shore of the Jordan River so many years ago, and which is still relevant today: "Who are you because you look like someone I once knew?"

Some Thoughts on Titus 2:11-14

"Living zealously, wisely, righteously, godly, and expectantly may, in some situations, appear as gentleness and align with the general mores of the wider society. At other times, however, that way of life may manifest as boldness and challenge to the narrative of the good life the present culture embraces."
Commentary, Titus 2:11-14, Amy L.B. Peeler, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"This passage stands out as a theological gem in the midst of the moral exhortations of Titus."Commentary, Titus 2:11-14, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

In the Epistle lesson from Titus, Paul is writing about the household code, a moral code by which the church is to live. They are to be a community. This community is to be acceptable to the society around it, and most scholars see parallels between Paul's code for community and the code for community espoused by the philosophical leaders of his day. In other words, much of what Paul offers is a reflection of basic ethics for individuals and morality for a community that is at work within a wider social construct.

That being said, there is an underpinning theology that is important and separates how the Christian community is to live from other communities.  Paul's prevailing theology looks back at God's acts and sees that our God is defined by his one saving act - the Exodus and the Sinai revelation. God is holy and we are to be God's people and God's people will be holy.  Moreover, the way of this community is defined at its foundation by God's commandments, which marks the group as special and of a higher household standard than the prevailing notion of such codes in Paul's day.  Paul adopts this saving action and the nature of God's people to the emerging Christian community.

In our passage appointed for Christmas day, we see this clearly. God in Christ Jesus has appeared in the incarnation.  Christ Jesus, in his own actions, has modelled a higher way of being in the world.  We, like the ancient ancestors of Israel, are to be formed by his example.  We are to "renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.   God in Christ Jesus is himself redeeming us even in our failure to live this life.  We are given Christ, for he gave himself fully.  Christ is redeeming us, and we are being purified by his grace.

I would add then that we are to do the same.  We are to give ourselves over to the other, we are to give ourselves over to God and to our neighbor.  The very basic and essential work is to be "zealous for good deeds."

Paul's list (which comes above and below this passage)is filled with directions for the household code.  It is true that some we would agree with and some we would not.  Yet they offer us a challenging view of a life lived in the shadow of God's saving embrace.  Most of all, we are to live no longer for ourselves but for God and for God's people.  We are the gift to this world.  As followers of Christ, we are the gift to a world in need, and we are to be about our father's work: good deeds. 

A Christmastide bereft of giving to others and, most of all, to the poor, of eating while others go hungry, of warmth and merry cheer while even more are cold, lonely, and remorse is no Christmastide at all.  

Some Thoughts on Hebrews 1:1 - 2:12

"In the city of Macon, Georgia, the Harriet Tubman African-American Museum honors the memory of the 'Black Moses,' the best-known conductor on the Underground Railroad..."

Commentary, Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, Pentecost 18, Bryan J. Whitfield, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"...Hebrews holds together a profound image of Jesus as God's very reflection with a very earthy and human figure just like us. That reinforces also our understanding of God and of the spiritual life not as something from or in another world, but as something which fully enters the here and now of flesh and blood."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary,"Pentecost 18, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"The concept of incarnation is an affirmation that Jesus really and truly does show us what God is like. When we look at Jesus, we see him embracing the ones nobody else would embrace. We see him confronting the religious people with the falseness of their self-righteousness. We see him forgiving sinners and restoring people to their right mind. And we see him freely and joyfully playing with children!"

"We See Jesus," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

In seminary, we were taught that there is no such thing as a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament. Yet, Christians have struggled to always put into context the reality of violence throughout the scripture, including in the New Testament. Somehow we have never really quite figured out how to deal with the various rules, covenants, demands, and variety of things God wants or doesn't want for us. Even Walter Brueggeman, when asked about such things, says something like, "I like to think God is getting over his use of violence." 

The author of Hebrews is certainly trying to figure out how to speak of these things and to parse clearly the trajectory of a God who is both alpha and omega while at the same time exhibiting different behaviours and desires. 

God communicates to Israel, and God communicates to us. We believe, as theologian Ben Johnson once remarked, a God who raised Jesus out of death and raised Israel out of Egypt. 

What is clear for the author of Hebrews and for Christians is that all is to be defined now through the words and actions of God through Christ Jesus. It is his work and words that are to define and radically focus our attention across the great expanse of God's communication with his creatures.

The Incarnation of God in Christ Jesus is a particular vision of God - revealing to us God's intent to be with us and to bridge the chasm between heaven and earth.  Sin and death will not be victorious over this divide. Moreover, this person of Jesus is a forerunner of our humanity.

We are in some miraculous and mysterious way to become like Jesus in this world making here heaven on earth - just like we pray in the Lord's Prayer. We are to make here God's neighborhood.

What is an interesting part of this passage is the unique and important reality that the author offers a special place for humanity within the cosmos. Using the words of the psalmist (Psalm 8:4-6), the author reminds us, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor..." I once mentioned that the angels are jealous of humanity for what we have in Jesus and in the holy communion and how special this is for us in the order of things. We are blessed as humans to experience God in and through Jesus in this world and through the inbreaking of God in the incarnation and in the bread and wine. I really got skewered online when I said this. People thought it was heresy. I am of course in good company with the psalmist, the author of Hebrews
and the Polish Roman Catholic St. Maximilian Kolbe, who once said, "If Angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion."

We are to see who God is and how God is moving in the world through Christ Jesus, as is present in scripture and in the communion itself. And what do we see? We see a God who lowers God's self and breaks God's self-open for the sake of those other than God or even godlike. God becomes one with the other and so raises the other up into the community. Here is the Gospel.

Some Thoughts Isaiah 9:2-7

"As far as I know, there is only one good reason for believing that he was who he said he was. One of the crooks he was strung up with put it this way: 'If you are the Christ, save yourself and us' (Luke 23:39). Save us from whatever we need most to be saved from. Save us from each other. Save us from ourselves. Save us from death both beyond the grave and before. If he is, he can. If he isn't, he can't. It may be that the only way in the world to find out is to give him the chance, whatever that involves. It may be just as simple and just as complicated as that."
"Messiah," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"Over the next couple of weeks leading from Christmas to Epiphany, the three readings from Isaiah come from all three sections of 'Isaiah' -- First Isaiah, Second Isaiah, and Third Isaiah. All three readings speak out of vastly different contexts.
Commentary, Isaiah 9:2-7, Dirk G. Lange, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"This commentary will explore the interpretive history leading to its presence at this powerful moment of the Christian year."
Commentary, Isaiah 9:2-7, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

The beginning of Isaiah is not all sweetness and light, but this passage holds within it a spark of hope that is to be brought to God’s people in Babylon. Here, Isaiah prophesies that in time, that which is dark will be filled with light. That those who struggle and suffer will have the mantle of slavery lifted from their shoulders. The season wherein the powers of this world continue to inflict suffering upon God’s people will come to a close. This will all be brought about by a continuation of the Davidic royal line.

This passage is particularly important to Matthew in his gospel. He does something interesting with it. Matthew weaves this passage with Isaiah 42:7. He changes the “walking” (in the original passage) to “sitting” (from 42). By doing this, Matthew links the two passages. What he is doing is reading that the light is Jesus, that Jesus is the one to continue the Davidic line, that all the nations will know and bear witness to this light, and that God’s people (all people – universally speaking) are to be brought into the light by Jesus.

What originally was read as a prophecy about the Northern Kingdom of Israel and God’s deliverance of his people enslaved to foreign powers now is read through the eyes of the Gospel as identifying the work and mission of Jesus.

In other words, the passage is about revelation - it is about the mission to the Gentiles. The light that comes into the world is the brightness of the Christ who will draw not only the people of Israel to him but the light that will, in fact, draw all people into the embrace of God.

Christ in this way is not simply a Christ for Israel, or even for Christians in our own day...but a Christ that is present in the world as ruler of all, as king of all, as lord of all. His kingdom is marked with love, mercy, kindness, and peace for all who enter and become its citizens.

Sermons Preached

Jeffrey Steals the show

Dec 25, 2011

Christmas Sermon, Christ church Cathedral 2011

Christmas Eve: Awash in God's Love and Fruitcake

Dec 25, 2012

Read More

15 Songs that Define a Life

Dec 25, 2014

Christmas sermon at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, 2014

Advent 4, Year C, Sunday December 22, 2024

Prayer
God of the everlasting covenant, as your servant David leapt and danced before the ark, so John the Baptist leapt in the womb of Elizabeth when Mary came bearing within her the promised One.  Let that Christ stand in our midst today, and feed this flock in the strength of your name.  Prepare us, O God, to be a people doing your will a nation believing that your promises will be fulfilled. We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke  1:39-45(45-56)

"According to Luke, when Mary sang, she didn’t just name those promises but entered into them. Notice, for instance, that the verbs in Mary's song are all in the past tense. Mary recognizes as she sings that she has already been drawn into relationship with the God of Israel..."

"A Promise That Changes the World," David Lose, WorkingPreacher, 2012.

"Christmas is fascinating as a place of marginalisation..."


"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Advent 4, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.


Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

The Icon of the Visitation

In this, the fourth Sunday of Advent, our Gospel lesson (Luke 1:39-56) offers us the story of Mary's visit to Elizabeth and Zechariah's home. We cannot read this lesson without reflecting on the passage before--wherein Gabriel visited and announced the coming of the "Son of God"--and that this child is to be born in the lineage of the great Hebrew King, David. We learned that this new royal son is to bring into creation a new reign, an eternal reign of God. So, what is this God doing in an unwed mother, in a small town, visiting a poor relative.

We have our doubts.  Where is this God?   Mary might have been wondering the same thing.  Wondering and pondering the meaning of this message. The angel puts her heart and mind at rest, reminding her that this is the God of the Hebrews who had done miraculous things, things that cannot be believed, things that are told from parent to child. This is the God who sent Abraham wandering. This is the God who gave Sarah a child in her old age. This is the God who brought Joseph into Egypt and protected him there. This is the God who frees them from slavery and provides for them in the desert. This is the God who returned his people to their land and built up a great city and temple, Jerusalem. This is the God of both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. This is the God who loves his people. He is inaugurating a new heavenly reign in which all the world will be invited to participate and to dwell within. "Yes", we might say, "This is the God of those who have been forgotten, who are in need, or who live on the margins.  Now I remember."

You may have doubts but our ancestral faith story tells us that nothing is impossible with this God. We might remember these words from Genesis 18:14: “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son."

In the midst of a doubt which questions where our God is, we might recall:

• Exodus 6:6 the delivery from slavery in Egypt
• Deuteronomy 4:34 “by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt”
• Jeremiah 27:5 “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth”
• Isaiah 40:10; 51:9 "Do not fear for I am with you."

For Luke, the author of these passages, Gabriel's news is the inauguration of the final stage in salvation history; or the first stage in a recreated world.  So then, we see these very first words of Luke's Gospel--his good news to his readers--is that their salvation is deeply rooted in the story of their ancient faith ancestors.

This is true for us just as it was for the first readers of the Gospel of Luke. Do we in this moment begin to meet and know Jesus again for the first time, renewing in this, the fourth Sunday of Advent, our relationship with Jesus -- bringing our final act of preparation for Christ's birth on Christmas to a close; and opening for us a way to enter into God's eternal reign?

If this happened to me, I would rush to my closest relative's side -- and that is what Mary does -- bringing us to the Gospel for the fourth Sunday in Advent. When she arrives and tells Elizabeth, the child in her womb leaps. This reminds us of the ancient story of the leaping children in Rebecca's womb, brothers Esau and Jacob. Perhaps the leaping David before God's arc? Perhaps this is even a foretelling of the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus; and the shifting of power from prophet to savior?

Elizabeth's response is faithful as she wonders how she might be so blessed as to receive the visitation of Mary. And Mary is portrayed as a model believer, having faith and hope in God's promises to her. For Mary what we see is an individual who has accepted this news and deliverance; she is already participating in the new recreated world.  This is the meaning of "blessed" in Luke's Gospel, that she is portrayed as a faithful follower of God. Sometimes we believe the word blessed in the scriptures refers to God's blessings, here and throughout Luke, blessed refers to the idea that the person who receives the blessing is a good steward, faithful follower and believer. It is in their actions, not God's, that show forth and invite the acclamation from those who witness their faith that they are blessed. Remember God's other blessing promises from Luke 6.20ff:

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

I wonder what it would be like to go through the rest of the days between now and Christmas and, where we witness faithful people following Jesus and helping and aiding the less fortunate, doing kind work on behalf of others, working to heal those who are infirmed … what if we mentally and prayerfully marked them as blessed people in our lives? What if we actually verbalized, as does Elizabeth in our Gospel, their giftedness and told them they were blessed?

It is in this moment that Mary offers the words of the Magnificat. I imagine Mary reflecting on the story of her people and the immense sense of collision with her life this news from Gabriel, the leaping of the child in Elizabeth's womb, and the words Elizabeth offer. I cannot describe the potential of this moment. But Mary does describe it and speaks out proclaiming God's greatness and her willingness to serve the Lord and be obedient in all things. She will be a steward and disciple because of all that God has provided for her. In remembering her people's story she proclaims and glorifies God because God is compassionate and remembers that she is in fact one of God's blessed ones. Mary knows and calls out that this God keeps his promises and is faithful to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses, and all the patriarchs and matriarchs.

Mary is rehearsing Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. We see that the past work of God is begun anew in the conception of Jesus. Mighty work is done from the lowliest of people. God is continuing salvation history and fulfilling his promises made to Abraham. But the message of Jesus is a reconstituted reign and a diversified Israel where by all those who have called their father Abraham (remember John the Baptist's words from last week) are joined by all those whose baptism with the Holy Spirit by Jesus may now find their home in Jerusalem. This is not simply an ethnic heritage, but one open to the adoption of God's children not in the fold of Abraham's family.

As we meditate upon the meaning of the words of Luke's Gospel it would be too easy to see this as a past event. Yet this is our story. It is certainly my story. From my parents and faith family I inherit the story of Jesus and the ever widening circles of his reign and his grace-filled embrace. Like Elizabeth I have the opportunity to bear witness to visions of blessed people who faithfully follow Jesus and aid those who are without, in accordance with John the Baptist's proclamation.

I also have the opportunity to thank God in this the fourth Sunday of Advent for my inheritance and the gift given to me in Jesus. Still more opportunity lies before me though, recognizing that my heart leaps at the news of my relationship with the about-to-be-born Jesus. But I also have work to do. So may my words and your words be as Mary's … “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”


Some Thoughts on Hebrews 10:5-10

"During the Advent and Christmas season we have a wonderful opportunity to think through and speak about the meaning and purpose of the life of the Lord Jesus. "
Commentary, Hebrews 10:5-10, Edward Pillar, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.


"Although Jesus 'learned obedience from the things he suffered,' which implies that he grew in his understanding of the divine will, the reading for today wants us to be certain that even at the moment of the incarnation Jesus was thoroughly committed to carrying it out."
Commentary, Hebrews 10:5-10, Michael Joseph Brown, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.


"The starting point must always be: God's goodness and holiness is a gift for all who seek it - no closed doors or curtains!"
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Advent 4, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

This Sunday we come to a pastoral letter to the Hebrews.  It is one of eight epistles of which the origin is unknown.  However, it is our tradition to attribute this to Paul and the Pauline school; though unanimously this is given an unknown origin.  I think if I had to capture the ideas of scholarly thought I would say that a generous review of the text lends us to believe we have a pupil of Paul's.  That seems neither here nor there when it comes to preaching the text, but seemed somehow important to mention. 

The document itself is one of deep theology and sacramental thought.  We can imagine that the hand which has written it is thinking carefully about the old and the new covenants, the nature of Christ and his connection to the Temple, and that Jesus is the perfector of faith.  It is most likely from Jewish Christian hands that the text takes its shape.  An interesting idea emerges with the text as a whole for many scholars believe it was written for the emerging gentile Christian community.  That means, in my opinion, the text takes on an almost explanatory quality. It is as if the letter to the Hebrews is something like our catechism. It is a document that seeks to translate traditions in relationship to God in Christ Jesus to a group of people who have no inherited tradition of temple and synagogue worship at all; who in the end may only have the worship of idols as their primary context of interpretation. 

So we come to the plainness of this Sunday's readings.  We are immediately aware that God is not interested any longer in burnt and sin offerings.  Jesus, as the great high priest who sits in the temple of heaven, then teaches that while the law has required such offerings, that the new revelation is one that is about doing God's will.  The old sacrifices were good things but we now understand good things come of God in Christ Jesus.  It is as if to say the old sacrifices, which were good, where never enough. They never quite did the job. In part they were insufficient because we as humans were not transformed by them, in part they were a kind of crutch that we used continually; never quite taking on new behavior. 

In Christ Jesus, whom we sacrificed, we have made our final offering.  God needs no more of this; instead we are to be about God's work in the world.  Christ is the final offering. Quoting from Psalm 40 the author explains that God prefers an obedience rooted in the body, in life, that is incarnational.

I don't believe this does away with the old way of making good offerings so much as it says, enough, now we must be at work. God has finally wiped the slate clean.  We are made ceremonially clean, we are being perfected, we are being made whole...not through our own work but by God's work in Christ Jesus.

I wonder what "sacrifices" we believe we are making this Advent and Christmastide?  What is the ultimate purpose of them?  Do we believe that all the gifts and giving will provide us with new relationships and love?  Will this be the best Christmas ever because somehow the sacrificial credit card purchases will make it so?  For the Christian we are perhaps deeply torn.  Who doesn't like the gifts and the giving and the receiving? I do to be sure. But what this passage may remind us of this Fourth Sunday of Advent is that it is only in the giving of ourselves to one another that true and real transformation is possible. It is only in the work of the body, soul, heart, and mind that we find bound to our families, friends, and neighbor.  There is nothing in this world that will either bind us to one another or to God which is not found in the ultimate example of a God who comes into the world and gives so completely of himself.

Some Thoughts on Micah 5:1-5

"Micah's oracle speaks to a world that is caught in the bewilderment of violence, uncertainty, and economic disruption."
Commentary, Micah 5:2-5, Anne Stewart, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"By pondering the image that Micah sets out rather than leaping to the assumption that this coming savior is the Christian Christ, the preacher can look for the correspondence between disparate ages of human history with divergent needs, all being saved by a God who is justice, kindness, and humility itself."
Commentary, Micah 5:2-5, Melinda Quivik, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Christmas is a time when the gaping holes in the fabric of our 'family ties' become painfully apparent. It is a time when we desperately need restoration and healing in those most basic human relationships. The future Micah and Mary looked forward to is a vision of the restoration of the whole human family. It is also a time to embrace the restoration and healing God has promised to the whole human family in our families by treading lightly and showing a little extra consideration."
"Embracing Restoration," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Let us refresh our memories. Micah was an 8th century prophet from Judah. He was most definately in line with other Sinai prophets in that he was independent from the Temple. The land is occupied by foreign armies - the Assyrians. And, leadership in the land was corrupt. The people had abanonded much of their belief in the God of Israel and were turning to the multiple gods of the land while bribing their way through life in order to gain protection and benefit from the broken governing and economic powers of their day. In the midst of the brokenness and sin, Micah calls the people back to hope and to mercy and justice.

He suggests that God will not hold the hand of the foreign powers until there is a return to faithfulness by the people. 

When the people and the land remember the God who created them and freed them, then the people will know peace. Then will the shepherds care for the sheep - their people.

The passage has import far beyond the contextual meaning of Micah's own day. As Christians when we look at this passage what we hear is the prophetic reality that peace and the new shepherd will come and his name will be Emmanuel - God with us. This is what the magi quote when they visit Herod...this passage from Micah. Matthew places these words in their mouth along with the powerful understanding that rulers will seek out this particular shepherd. (Matt 2:1-6) (Richard Hays, Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels, 146). There is nothing less than the reality that God in Christ Jesus comes into the world to challenge the leaders of the world. (Hays, 186-187)

In other words, the messiah is the one Micah foretells. He will challenge Herod and all the powers and authorities of the world. He will restore the people by caring for them as the shepherd king he is to become. No longer will foreign armies, corrupt officials, oppressive powers, and false promises form lesser God's be the order of the day. The Christ, born in Bethlehem is the one to vanquish the powers of this world and the next....even death will not have the last word.

Micah's prophesy tells us that it is here, in Bethlehem, in that little town of Judah, that the true king shall come. 

Sermons Preached

Waiting for Christmas is like Waiting for a bus in Milan
Dec 25, 2012  Sermon preached at Trinity and St. Mark's Houston, fourth Sunday of advent 2012

Advent 3, Year C, December 15, 2024

Prayer
Lord our God, already in our midst and yet to come, your presence delights us even now as we long for your peace.  Winnow from our lives the chaff of selfishness and sin.  Sow in us a harvest of gentleness and generosity, for we rejoice in you, even as you exult and sing for joy over us. We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 3:7-18

"Caught between eschatological judgment and messianic consummation, the crowds hear John speak of a role in the coming kingdom they can play. It demands neither renunciation nor asceticism, neither pilgrimage nor sacrifice. Rather, participating in God's new kingdom is available to them where they are, requiring only the modicum of faith necessary to perceive the sacred in the ordinary."

Commentary, Luke 3:7-18, David Lose, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"Do we need to be told that it is a good thing to be elated, to be glad and happy? Some, who see Christianity as something dour and serious, need to hear it."

"First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Advent 3, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.


Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We continue this week the story of John the Baptist's proclamation of baptism; and we are aware that the Word of God comes in the wilderness. We remember the uniqueness of this baptism as a metanoia or turning that is essential bedrock within the catholic tradition and universal expression of our church. While there were many prophets in that time and scholars recognize that baptism was not unusual, we see in the Gospel a self differentiation for the follower of Jesus in the Lukan community that sees baptism as a primary way a Christian marks their choice to follow Jesus. We can easily imagine in this unique combination of accepting an ordered life in the manner of Jesus and the water of baptism as a cleansing ritual the growth of our understanding that our sins are forgiven and life is forever changed.

John the Baptizer is not offering us an opportunity to adopt his way of life where home is the desert, clothes are skins, foods are grasshoppers and wild honey, there are no alcoholic beverages, and prayer with fasting mark the hours of the day. John is offering us in his proclamation and act of baptism an opportunity to turn away from our previous life to a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are being offered an opportunity to follow God in Christ Jesus.

It is very possible that some of these words, which make up the synoptic tradition, are deeply rooted in the earliest Christian documents of sayings and traditions. Sometimes this document is called Q.

We know in the Gospel of Luke that the religious leaders of the day will reject John's baptisms (7.30 and 20.5). Nevertheless, crowds of people looking for a savior come out to the Jordan to hear the message and receive the baptism. They come out to a wild place where a wild man resides in order to take a sacramental journey into the wild places of life.  They come to wash as a pilgrimage mile marker towards ever new and transformed life.

They are met there by the wild John the Baptist calling them vipers! Jesus also will call those who live questionable lives with alternative and destructive intentions vipers (23.33). The people who come to John are recognized by him as people who are in need of change. They are in fact creatures of the desert place and the washing may prepare them for the coming kingdom, and deliverance from the wildness of this world into the grace of the coming reign of Christ.

We might well remember Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians 1:10 where Paul says, "you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming”.  In baptism we are choosing to follow a particular God with a particular way of life.

In verse 8 we see the word “repentance," metanoia. The word in Greek literally means returning, or coming back to the way of life charted by the covenant between God and Israel. See also Exodus 19:3-6 (where God commands Moses to tell the Israelites “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation”); 24:3-8; Jeremiah 31:31-34 (“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts ... they shall all know me ... I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more”).  This baptism is a mark that the person is choosing to live a changed life.

John the baptizer is demanding right living based on a sincere search for God’s will (Matthew 7:15-20; Galatians 5:22-23) and suited to the promise of repentance. We see this ancient covenant connection and the life of our faith ancestors throughout Luke's Gospel and Jesus teaching as we are reminded of “Abraham our ancestor”. See also Luke: 1:54-55, 72-73; 3:34; 13:16, 28-29; 19:9; 20:37; Acts 3:13, 25; 7:17, 32; 13:26; 26:6; 28:20; John 8:33, 39; Romans 2:28, 29. We are then named a desert people who have found our life and our faith in the bosom of God and deep within the well of his heart. For those who choose to live a life oriented on the Christ and his reign we see the promise and potential of a life lived not in scarcity but the bounty of grace which promised manna from heaven, that the lilies be clothed, that the poor would have good things and the hungry fed.

Verses 10 - 14 are unique to Luke's Gospel. Here we see the Gospel's proclamation that right living has to do with sharing what we are given, and that it is characterized by a special concern, sensitivity and action on behalf of the poor. Jesus in Luke's Gospel will speak clearly about stewardship of possessions and so central was this to Jesus' teachings that we see it mirrored throughout the Acts, see Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-35.  It is a funny thing in my mind that righteous living today has taken on new meaning.  Here it is clear that such a life lived post baptism is a life lived in service to neighbor and the least of these - God's friends.

We get a sense of the rich and the poor being unified in this proclamation of change and baptism, and in their ministry one to another. We cannot read verse 12ff without remembering here we are to hear of the story in Luke's Gospel of Zacchaeus the tax collector who gives half of his possessions to the poor.

So powerful was John's message and such a figure of hope and transformation was he that others believe he may be the messiah. John the baptist was far more a messenger of hope than one of judgement to be sure.   So it is the last verses of this passage that we see him continue to refocus our attention, beginning in verse 15, on the coming of Christ who ultimately will provide the Holy Spirit to the baptism of water.

How often do we move into positions of power or authority or ministry and the glory which rightly belongs to Christ comes to us? In this advent season we are challenged to remember the humility of the Christ family as described in the Gospels and be challenged to do as John the baptizer does and point forward to the Christ who is truly working in us and our life together greater things than we can ask for imagine.

As I think about these verses and the opportunity to preach this weekend, I am wondering how the season of Advent can serve to reorient our lives to our baptismal promises? How can our time, in the midst of preparations for Christmas celebrations, help us to see that we are to change, take a step back into the life of Christ? That we are called and challenged to live a particular life of continuous returning to the desert and waters of baptism for refreshment in a life's long journey. When we come to this place of Advent, we are to realize our place within the faith family of Abraham and seek not only to be reconciled with our Jesus but also to be reconciled with the notion of right living which is plainly: to give to the poor, and to aid those who go without.

Americans spent over 8 billion dollars on Halloween.  Americans will spend some $504 billion (2009 retail amount) to celebrate Christmas according to Gallup (see chart here).  The in breaking of God in the person of Christ might just cause us to pause and realize that only $10 billion would ensure clean water for every human being in the world, and $13 billion to keep folks from going hungry. Yet today I heard that safety net agencies that do just this work have seen a 10% decrease in funding.  Certainly these are numbers to make one pause in the face of Zaccheaus who gives away half of what he possesses to the poor. What if we lived out the charge and hope of living for our neighbor.  John the Baptist offers us not only a vision of a Christmastide incarnation but a transformed world of a new community - the kingdom of God.


Some Thoughts on Philippians 4:4-7

"This is proof that tensions in congregations are no modern problem. The focus on God is the best remedy when no longer ultimate, but preliminary concerns start to dominate our agendas. It alone guarantees "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" (4:7) -- and hence empowers us to overcome human differences."
Commentary, Philippians 4:1-9, Christian A Eberhart, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"This is proof that tensions in congregations are no modern problem. The focus on God is the best remedy when no longer ultimate, but preliminary concerns start to dominate our agendas. It alone guarantees "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" (4:7) -- and hence empowers us to overcome human differences."
Commentary, Philippians 4:1-9, Troy Troftgruben, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.

"When we tire of the endless struggle to master our anxiety by summoning our own inner resolve, let's acknowledge that we've come to the end of our human abilities and need to call for help."
"Let's Do This!" Alyce M McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2014.

"Paul is not just advocating the power of positive thinking. This about more than technique and persuasion. It is about filling one's mind with what Paul sees as the signs of God's life - not so that will feel good, but because this is another way of filling oneself with God's life and so allowing God's life to flow through us to the world around us."
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 19, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

This week we continue with Paul's letter to the Philippians.  Paul's message is one of clarity: the second coming of the Lord is near, so be at peace rather than be divided.  Not unlike our own congregations or our own church, the church community at Philippi was concerned that perhaps the coming of Christ was not so near.  Perhaps they would die before its coming.  Paul himself finds himself in the midst of being mediator with other congregations who are in conflict.  Here in Philippi he finds a peaceful community and I believe he intends to capitalize on their faith and care for one another in order to persuade them to fear not and stay united as they work and wait for the Lord.

The idea that the "lord is near" is not a new one is scripture.  Paul here writes:

"⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

Yet as we think about the whole of scripture we might remember that Adam and Eve knew the Lord was near and they hid.  Abraham was told that the Lord was near, so he prepared himself.  Moses found out that the Lord was near, and was told to free God's people.  Ruth heard that the Lord was near, so she was faithful.  Kind David found that the Lord was near, so he built a temple.  Mary was told the Lord was near, and she named him Jesus. Andrew was called and found that the Lord was near so he became a fisher of men and brought others to Jesus.  Peter was near to the Lord, and became the Lord's rock.  Mary Magdalene and Joanna were told that the Lord is nearby in Jerusalem, and they rejoiced.  Paul himself came upon the Lord in a flashing light and became the Lord's messenger.  Indeed the whole of scripture is a narrative which describes for us the response of human beings to the nearness of God, the nearness of the Lord. 

Paul says, if you believe the Lord is near, then act with gentleness to everyone.  When we believe that our God is present we should not worry or be anxious for anything.  Instead when we believe God is present we are to pray, be thankful, and speak to God.  Only then, I believe, do the lions of life seem not of so great a concern.

God's presence in the Lord Christ brings the follower peace, a peace that at times does not make sense given our surroundings and context.  It will not be the most obvious response given our culture or our economy.  But when the Christian believes and acts out of their belief that the Lord is indeed near then the world is changed. We are changed.  We are part of the change in the lives of other people.  Out of habit the Christian is to believe and wait upon the Lord and his presence. 

For the Christian Church, now living in the several centuries from the community at Philippi, we are to be ready to greet our lord in the pew at church and in our lives and workplaces. We are to be ready to greet the presence of the Lord in our neighbor and in our enemy.  We are to seek out the presence of the Lord in every human we encounter.  In so doing we are at peace and we bring a peace which makes no sense into the world. 

How will we respond to the presence of the Lord? This seems to be the question our text offers us this week.  How will we respond (not to a God of a far off place or a God who is not yet here) to a God who is present now. 

In this passage I am challenged not so much to focus upon the waiting of Advent for a Christmas return of Christ, but rather to be challenged to see that what I am waiting for, the one I seek, the peace I crave, the reality of very-God is already present in my life.  The waiting isn't over so much as a Christian I don't have to wait any longer to respond to the Good News of God in Christ Jesus that is present in the here and in the now. Moreover, I have the opportunity to shift my life lens from seeing not enough to being thankful for all I am and have.  Surely, these are the thoughts that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.

Some Thoughts on Zephaniah 3:14-20

"This reading from Zephaniah is marked by hope, rejoicing, and reprieve, but it comes from the end of a three-chapter book in which the first two chapters consist of horrific warnings."

Commentary, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Melinda Quivik, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"This Sunday, we speak of joy, the joy of a people redeemed and restored, but also the joy of a God who is deeply invested in the life of the world."

Commentary, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Kathryn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text

Our selections for Advent for the Old Testament readings are taken, as you have now discovered, from passages that remind Israel of God's hope for them. A number of reflections on line focus on the idea that "joy" is a particular part of the present circumstances for Zephaniah and his people. 

14 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. 

However, I think that the first several chapters indicate the difficult challenges and fears of the people. We only get to the joy in the midst of the warnings and through redemption.

As a culture we are continually attempting to find and purchase joy somehow. Even now our culture is in the midst of a great buying frenzy. Yet these purchases and actions will bring little fulfillment in the end. So we, like those who receive Zephania's message are in need of a little redemption. The church is in need of redemption.

Melinda Quivik, liturgics and homiletics scholar writes:

Zephaniah's announcement of the Lord's resolve to save the people carries line-by-line descriptions of why this renewal is necessary. The promise rests on the need for rescue. The flip side of the joy that is to happen on the Day of the Lord is present as each phrase of promise is coupled with the negative it implies, reminding the hearer that disaster has come as reproach for failings, oppression exists, the lame and the outcast suffer alone, shame needs to be changed into praise, an in-gathering is required because the people are scattered and fortunes have been taken away. This is an accounting of the inevitable inability of human life to follow the commands of the Lord. This is an accurate depiction of our need for God. Law is not just command but reality.

What is difficult is to believe, I think, as the church or as individuals that our salvation truly lies outside of ourselves. I believe it is so hard to think that God might really have a hand in it all. So it is that this passage reminds us. On that day when all that you purchased fails you... On that day when all your plans come to nothing...On that day when your machinations for self preservation and self reward are found lacking... On that day when you, if you can get to the bottom, on that day then you can hear for the first time:

"Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing 18as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. 19I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. 20At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.

Part of the power of the readings and their combination together is that we are not only receiving the hope of God in the incarnation and salvation birthed into the world, but we are understanding that none of our efforts have brought us to any sense of betterment, none of our work has had the end results planned. No, in fact only in having a good look at our present circumstances do we see that God is with us and there to save.

Sermons Preached

Turn Turn Turn
Dec 14, 2015 Advent 3 C brings us to the banks of the Jordan river. What are you looking for? What answers do you seek? And, are you willing to hear them if you don't like them?

A Little Hobbit Theology: fear not
Dec 18, 2012 Sermon preached at Trinity Galveston Advent 3 2012, post Sandy Hook, Newtown shooting.