Worth - Christmas Eve

December 24, 2016    Christmas Eve                         Luke 2:1-20

            As I was graduating from Gettysburg Seminary in 1999 I was given the paperwork for this church.  When people familiar with upstate New York found out about it they said, “Lucky you.  They have Wegmans up there.”  My thought was, “What’s a Wegmans?” as if was a breed of dog or a type of wine.  “Oh, you just wait.  It’s the best store ever!” they said.  And off people would go raving about Wegmans.  I came to this area with high hopes for this magical place called a “Wegmans.”

            Of course Wegmans doesn’t disappoint.  They truly are an amazing grocery store chain.  I’m impressed that when I’m in the bakery section it feels like a bakery.  When I’m in the seafood section I feel like I’m in a fish market.  Produce is good.  Prices are right.  No one can complain that they put things like milk right by the door so I don’t have to walk half a mile to the back of the store where other stores put it.  Everything you want Wegmans has.  Wegmans prices are often very good, even competitive with discount grocers.  And they pay close attention to detail, right down to the grammatically correct signs at the express lines which say, “Ten items or fewer.”  Rather than, “Ten items or less.”

            One thing I notice whenever I go into a Wegmans is that I like who I am when I’m there.  I’ve talked to some of the people in Wegmans marketing department and they say they are very deliberate about that.  They want customers to feel good about who they are.  They are respected, worthwhile, and good.  Contrast that with say Aldi, where despite the fact that you may feel good that you’re saving a lot of money by shopping there, you can’t get away from feeling like a cow going down the chute in a slaughterhouse.

            Now Wegmans is not the first store to do this, and much as people around here love Wegmans, I can think of other stores that do it better.  Arguably the all-time best was Wanamaker’s, the department store chain.  If you were a child growing up in Philadelphia or New York City in the first half of the twentieth century you know what I am talking about.  While Wanamakers had a number of stores, nothing could rival the one in downtown Philadelphia and the three in New York.  I believe all the New York stores are gone, but the Philadelphia store is still open and operated by Macys. 

I had a friend in seminary, Louise Reynolds, who grew up poor in Philadelphia and remembers going to Wanamakers.  She said it was always spectacular.  Wanamakers employees were always taught to treat every customer with dignity and respect.  And everyone was always welcome there whether they were rich or poor, clean or dirty, whether they were there to buy something or not.  If you’ve ever been to the Philadelphia store you know that it is palatial.  It is built around the Grand Court which is a room so big it can hold over 10,000 people.  The ceiling of the ornate room is around 140 feet high.  The centerpiece of the room is a two-and-half-ton bronze eagle cast for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.   Say to any Philadelphian, “Meet me at the eagle,” and they know exactly where you mean. 

Wanamakers did not pipe in music for its customers to listen to while they shopped.  No, in the Grand Court is another item from the St. Louis World’s Fair, the largest pipe organ ever built.  Customers heard live music every day from some of the world’s top musicians.  No matter how bad your day was going or who you were, no matter how ugly the world was outside you could go into Wanamakers and be in a warm beautiful place with wonderful sounds and smells.

Louise especially remembered going to Wanamakers at Christmas.  She said there was a tiny train kids could ride on for free in the vast toy department.  And she remembered most fondly singing Christmas carols.  She said it felt like all of Philadelphia would turn out and cram into the Grand Court.  Thousands and thousands of people would gather and the store would hire some world famous organist and everyone of all races: rich and poor, famous and unknown, clean and dirty, virtuous or sinful would all sing together.  And you felt like you were somebody.  You felt good about yourself.  You felt like you were worthwhile; whoever you were.  That’s what Wanamaker’s wanted its customers to feel; worthwhile.

Let’s go one better in terms of making people feel worthwhile.  We’ll have to leave wonderful smells and sounds and beauty behind and step into the truly profound.  We find ourselves in a small, crude, smelly stable in Bethlehem.  There a person’s worth does not come from the surroundings, but by what happened.  In fact if the surroundings were fancy the events themselves would be ruined, for it is because it is crude that it is profound.  God comes go be in human form.  Jesus is born.

We read in Psalm 8 earlier, “Your glory reaches beyond the stars… What is humankind that you remember them, the human race that you care for them?  You treat them like gods, dressing them in glory and splendor.  You give them charge of the earth, laying all at their feet…”

Later by candlelight we’ll read the great opening words from John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

Don’t hear those words as if they were trying to be a scientific thesis, for they are not.  They are an existential statement.

Look around you and consider.  The world appears to be a big place.  We can look at our human inventions and our powers of science and building and weapons and machinery; and all of it is insignificant in light of the size of the solar system, let alone the size of the universe.  When you consider that an ordinary solar flare from the sun delivers over 300 million times more energy than all the explosives detonated in World War 2 combined, and then you consider we’re tiny beings on a little planet around an ordinary star at the edge of a galaxy… what are human beings that you are mindful of them God?  What is their worth that you even notice them?

We are so small.  We are so insignificant.  We’d be incredibly bold and arrogant to think that God would even notice our existence in the vastness of it all.  But God does more than notice.  God becomes one of us.

There is nothing more flattering to our existence than having God become like us.  There is no more profound way to say you are worthwhile than what God has done.

Wegmans and Wanamakers make everyone welcome and feel worthwhile.  Our gospel reading lists the rich and powerful: Emperor Augustus and Governor Quirinius.  It lists ordinary people: Joseph and Mary.  It brings in shepherds, the bottom of the barrel humans in those days.  All are welcome.  All are joined in Jesus’ birth.  All are worthwhile because of him.

You shouldn’t have to go somewhere to feel worthwhile.  God is with you always.  That is God’s eternal gift to you.

If nothing else, I hope this is a space where you always feel worthwhile.  But my bigger hope is that you can see that because of Christ’s birth God has shown that he considers every person worthwhile.  And that you can go from here seeing that worth in every other person’s face.  Maybe you like them.  Maybe you don’t.  Maybe you agree with them and maybe you don’t.  Maybe you respect them and maybe you don’t even respect them.  But they are worthwhile enough for God to come to be born and later to die to have them.  It is not yours to determine who is or is not worthy.  That is God’s.  Our job is that when they are around us they feel like they are somebody and that they are worthwhile.

Worth, dignity, respect – the greatest gifts we can give another person.  It is what God has given us.  

Strangers with Even Stranger Gifts

December 11, 2016    3rd Sunday of Advent              Matthew 2

The stars I showed for the children’s sermon also set up our time today.  I said that this one star is called a pentagram, or sacred pentagram.  Its origins are unknown but it is certainly ancient.  I understand there are traces of it as far back as 3000 BC in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq.  Many pagan nature religions used it and it is widely used in witchcraft today.  The website Esoteric Online says that the five points originally referred to five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

If you think for a minute you realize that we met some stargazers in our gospel reading – the Wise Men, or astrologers, Magi in Greek.  And what leads them to Jesus?  Of course a star.

But the pagan astrologers are not the only people we meet in our gospel reading.  We also meet Herod the Great, puppet ruler of the Romans from 37 BC to 4 BC.  He is the father of the Herod we meet again at Jesus’ crucifixion.  And along with Herod there are the Jewish leaders.  This group also has a star, the Star of David.

Now remember that Matthew is a thoroughly Jewish writer.  Jews understood the world as composed of two types of people:  Jews, and non-Jews - or Gentiles.  And so we have those who use the pentagram as their star and those who use the Star of David as their star coming together because of new star, the Natal Star.

Artists often depict this natal star as a huge and unmistakable thing up in the sky.  But that’s an artistic guess.  Have you ever been outside in the dark where there’s no light pollution?  I like going to the Adirondacks and looking up at night and there, clear as anything, is the vast Milky Way galaxy.  The stars are beyond counting.  Only the keenest observers would note if one was new or one was missing.  I think it better to imagine this “star” the Wise Men following as something like that; tiny, minute, not grand at all.

This idea of a new star or a heavenly sign appearing at the birth of a king or a great ruler was nothing new.  Many ancient rulers were said to have heavenly signs occur at their birth.  While we may question it scientifically, this would be nothing out of the ordinary for Matthew’s readers to think.

Last week we talked about Jesus’ birth and Joseph’s role in it.  We talked about how God invited Joseph to be a part of God’s divine work and how Joseph agreed and participated in it.  I said life is not about giving to God so that God can bless you in return.  That would ultimately be a selfish business strategy.  No, life is a partnership where God invites you to be a part of his work and you can participate in it.  In doing so there is great wholeness and a deep set of joy.  But is it a easy way to live?  That is another question.

So Joseph agrees to God’s plan.  Does that mean that he and Mary went out to the suburbs and bought themselves a three bedroom house with a white picket fence, two cars, two and a half kids and a dog?  Were they in for a quiet and sedate life?

Nope.  Jesus is born and they have these weird foreigners show up with even weirder gifts.  The Bible doesn’t say how many Wise Men there were.  Since they bring three gifts church tradition has deduced that there were three of them, but it could have been two or it could have been fourteen or who knows how many.

Weird as they are, the gifts have symbolic significance.  Gold is a gift fit for a king.  Jesus will be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Frankincense is a form of incense often used in the temples.  Ancient temples were more like unrefrigerated slaughter houses than anything else.  Have you ever gotten a whiff of your garbage in the summertime when you’ve thrown some meat scraps in there?  Now imagine that on a grand scale and that’s what a temple smelled like.  Incense was burnt to help cover the stench.  Frankincense was a gift fit for a priest.  Jesus will become the High Priest, the ultimate priest who intercedes on our behalf before God.

Those two gifts are strange but okay.  Myrrh is unnerving.  Embalming fluid… If you’ve had children how would you feel if some strange man showed up in the hospital room after you’ve given birth and given you a bottle of embalming fluid for your child?  It’s downright creepy!  Yet just like we draw the natal star in the form of a cross we know what’s in store for this little baby.

Here’s the ironic piece of Matthew’s gospel.  Will Jesus ever need any of these three gifts?  While they all foreshadow what is to come in his life he will not have need of any of them.

Anyway, back to our main point.  Three strange gifts given by foreigners, then there’s another dream to Joseph about fleeing the country.  Herod gets scared and does what all tyrants do, they kill and destroy to keep their power.  To me the most troubling piece of the Christmas story is the killing of the babies in Bethlehem.  True, in those days Bethlehem probably had the population of East Victor but it is still an outrage.  Why would God work this way?  I’m not happy about it.  But we are given no answers.  We are to know this, that even though God has come into the world in a completely innocent and helpless form the powers that be feel threatened.  Will Jesus ever go on to threaten or attack these leaders?  No.  But the killing of the infants of Bethlehem give us a forewarning that the world does not like God’s ways.  Life as a part of God’s plan does not guarantee a smooth and easy passage. 

There’s no indication of how long the holy family spends in Egypt.  (There’ll be no honeymoon for Joseph and Mary!)  After Herod’s death Joseph has another dream to return home.  But as he learns more he is warned again and changes course and moves to Nazareth.

I think there is an important distinction to make between Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth and the more familiar story from Luke.  While Matthew doesn’t reject the idea, his story alone suggests that Mary and Joseph were living in Bethlehem all along.  As if they had the three bedroom house.  Then Jesus’ birth puts their lives on a totally different course.

There are lots to learn from this text and we’re skipping hours’ worth of details.  But let’s stick to this.  Similar to last week, notice how Joseph and God interact.  God does not lay out the whole plan from the beginning.  It comes to Joseph bit by bit.  But Joseph is not just a passive player either.  I’m sure he doesn’t go to Egypt and twiddle his thumbs until he gets another dream.  Look verses 21-22, “Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.  And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.”

Joseph retains a great deal of autonomy.  He is not God’s well-trained dog who gets his slippers and newspaper when he comes home from work.   God and Joseph are partners in accomplishing a larger goal.

I do not think that God wants to take over our lives and utterly remove our individuality.  Then we’d just be robots.  God wants to be with us, work with us, and together get things done.

We say Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.  We do not say God overpowering us.  We do not say God ignoring us.  We say God is with us.

What are the first words spoken by a human in Matthew’s gospel?  It goes to the pagan astrologers and they say, “Where… Where is the child…?”  They want to know where to find God.  Our answer today is that God is with us everywhere.  The last words of Matthew’s gospel go to Jesus, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”

Our lives as Christians is not a matter of place, where.  It is a matter of purpose.  What are God and you going to do together?  

A Baby Story About the Dad

December 4, 2016      2^nd Sunday of Advent               Matthew 1:18-25

In trying to understand what makes a person who he or she is I think we’d all agree it is something of a mix of nature and nurture.  Certainly you’ve gotten the genetic material of your parents.  That goes a long way to shaping who you are.  It’s complicated because there are dominant and recessive genes, but it shapes you.  You may have done the same activity in high school biology that I did – where you look at things like your eye color and how your ears attach to you head and whether or not you can roll your tongue and realize all of this is because of genetics.

Of course there is also nurture.  How you are raised also has a major impact on who you are.  Many of your thoughts and feelings about things comes from your experiences.  Some things are serious, like your ability to form safe relationships as an adult.  And some things are trivial.  I learned from an early age that anyone who lived under my father’s roof was going to be a fan of Philadelphia sports teams.  That was non-negotiable; and perhaps to my father it was also not trivial!

Nurture can also have a big impact on our body’s biology.  I’ve heard that circumstances can have an impact on some of our genetics.  For example, without certain nutrients some genes are unable to activate.

Last week we read Jesus’ genealogy.  You’ll remember it was a long list of mostly boring people with a few juicy bits thrown in.  Something I pointed out, and a couple of you also mentioned, that the genealogy goes to Joseph, not Mary.  If Joseph had no part in Jesus’ conception, then what’s the point of a genealogy to Joseph?  Shouldn’t it be a genealogy to Mary?  The other genealogy of Jesus that is recorded in Luke also goes to Joseph, not Mary.

That’s a potentially big problem.  The birth story of Jesus that we read today gives us an answer.  In order to hone in on it lets notice what is not in the story.  There’s no shepherds, no heavenly host of angels singing.  There’s no over-full inn and a birth in a barn.  There isn’t even a star, at least not yet.  Even the place, Bethlehem, hasn’t been given yet.  Matthew wants to draw our attention to something else, something I fear we overlook too often.

I’m going to suggest that if you’re given over to trying to create a theology of Jesus’ based on where his genetic material comes from then you’re quickly going to run into a ditch.

Though it may be impossible for us with our knowledge of genetics today, we have to set them aside and at least temporarily place ourselves in the worldview of Matthew.  In that worldview the mothers’ body was seen as the vessel to bring to life the material of the father.  If you were to ask Matthew how Mary’s genetics came into play in the creation of Jesus, he’d look at you blankly.  He wouldn’t know what you’re talking about.  It would make no sense to him.  I think I can safely say that the biblical writers understood Mary’s body as a vessel that she willingly allowed God to use to be born, and nothing more.  What actually happened I cannot say, but from the point of view of the Bible Mary gave no genetic material either.

Okay, if that’s the case then does Jesus’ genealogy matter at all?  To our way of thinking, maybe not.  But at least in Matthew’s way of thinking it was vitally important.  Remember, who we are is a combination of both nature and nurture.  Our genetics and our environment combine to make us.  It is nurture that Matthew’s Christmas story focuses upon.

In Luke’s gospel Mary takes center stage and Joseph is in the background.  In Matthew’s gospel it is Joseph who takes center stage.  We learn in verse 18 that Joseph and Mary are engaged.  Engagement those days was different from our understanding of engagement today.  Today engagement is a step before a legal marriage.  In those days engagement was a legally binding arrangement between two people.  Unfaithfulness was considered adultery and the engagement could only be broken by death or divorce.  They didn’t really have a marriage ceremony in those days for common people.  Only the wealthy would have a big ceremony.  For most common people like Joseph and Mary your marriage began when you starting living together – as Matthew points out, “…Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together.”  Even look at verse 19.  Matthew starts the sentence with the words, “Her husband Joseph…”

Mary being pregnant at this point would probably raise no one’s eyebrows; except of course Joseph’s who knows full well what he has and has not done.

Moving on in verse 19 we learn that Joseph is aware of the pregnancy but he is a righteous man.  Righteous here does not mean stuck up and superior.  It means he is a just, kind and considerate man.  He knows what the law says about what should happen to Mary.  According to Deuteronomy 22 Mary should be executed for her crime.  Probably with a torn and broken heart and out of consideration for this woman he still loves deeply, he decides not to press charges and instead do the only decent thing he can – divorce her quietly.

Would that God had stepped in sooner, for it would have been great if Joseph had been let in on God’s little plan from the beginning, but only now does he have a dream that explains what is going on.  If I’m honest I don’t like it when God does this kind of thing!  I wish God would include all the players right from the beginning.  But I am not God and I do not understand all things.

All of that is an aside, because the key thing in the whole passage is verse 21, “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The name Jesus means “Yahweh helps,” or, “God saves.”  The Hebrew pronunciation of Jesus is Yesua, a shortened form of Yehosua.  Jesus was a common name of the time.  There was nothing special about it, and indeed there are other people named Jesus running around in the Bible.  Perhaps the best known in Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus, son of Abbas, the man Pilate releases, instead of “Jesus BarJoseph”, Jesus, son of Joseph.

Nevertheless the name has significance.  In both Hebrew and Greek the name for Jesus is the same as Joshua.  You may recall that it is Joshua that takes over after Moses’ death and leads the people to the Promised Land.  Some scholars believe Jesus was a popular name in the 1^st Century as Jews sought to have a new Joshua arise who would overthrow the Romans.

In the New Interpreter’s Bible commentator Eugene Boring makes an all-important point about Joseph naming Jesus.  He says, “The angel gives as explanation for Mary’s pregnancy, announcing the divine act that has already occurred.  Based on this, a command follows: ‘You shall name the child, accepting him as your own and adopting him into the Davidic line as an authentic “son of David.”’” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, Pg. 134)  That is why the genealogy is important.  The Son of God’s nurture comes from the line of David, and comes at the hands of a just, kind and considerate man.

In Matthew’s day naming something was important.  To name something was to have power over it, to create its identity.  Here we see Joseph working along with God’s plan.  God is at work.  Joseph is a willing participant.

I think the birth story of Jesus is to teach us that about how God works.  God acts, we are invited to be willing participants.  If we won’t, God will still get his work done.  But if we will, then we get to rejoice in having Immanuel, God with us.

Sometimes Matthew is criticized as being a product of patriarchy and not caring about Mary – making her only a passive vessel in the story.  That is an unfair critique.  Women will play a significant part throughout Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life.  And contrary to the norms of the time, you’ll remember from last week that Matthew listed five women in the genealogy.

Nowhere does Matthew give us a cute baby story about the birth of Jesus.  Jesus comes where God and people work together.  This sounds like a great and wonderful way to live, and indeed it is; at least I hope you find it so.  But not all is bliss.  Next week we’ll look at the rest of Chapter 2 and we’ll discover that some unexpected people come to Jesus, but some people are threatened.  Death will come to innocent people because some stand opposed to God’s plan.  May we never be found among them.

Who's Who? But Who Cares?

November 27, 2016    1^st Sunday of Advent               Matthew 1:1-17

The genealogy of Jesus may seem like just a long list of hard to pronounce names, and who really cares?  But when we look at it more closely we find a lot of important lessons for our lives.  As we read through Matthew’s gospel we’re going to discover a lot of things about him.  Among them is that he’s a very tidy writer and likes to put things in good order.  He wants us to know Jesus ancestry and so it puts it at a very logical place, the beginning!  Matthew’s gospel isn’t the only place in the Bible that gives a genealogy of Jesus. Luke’s gospel does too, but Luke starts elsewhere and puts the genealogy at chapter 3.

In coming weeks I’ll give you a handout about the structure of Matthew.  We’ll discover that Matthew likes structure and he’s written his gospel around a very sophisticated pattern.  We get a hint of that with the genealogy.  He wants us to recognize patterns with Jesus ancestors: fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and fourteen generations between then and Jesus.

Much as Matthew might love structure, he apparently didn’t do well in math.  If you count out the generations you realize he doesn’t actually list fourteen generations in each segment.  The third segment contains only thirteen generations.  Nevertheless fourteen was a very important number for Matthew.  Fourteen is the numerical value of King David’s name in Hebrew.  It is also twice times the ideal number of seven.

Whatever the case, if we critically look at Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus we do discover other problems.  It doesn’t match up with Luke’s genealogy at all.  There’s no reconciling the two.  Plus not only is Matthew’s math off, the divisions of 14 generations aren’t equal.  The first covers 750 years, the second covers 400 years and the third covers 600 years.  He also skips four kings and one queen.

What does this mean?  Does this mean that Matthew’s genealogy is bogus and Matthew isn’t a reliable source for information?  No.  Let’s use this as a lesson to understand more about Matthew.

Matthew’s gospel was most assuredly written for a Jewish  audience who had accepted Jesus as the Son of God and converted.  As we go through the gospel we’ll discover how they are being persecuted for their conversion; persecuted primarily by other Jews who reject Jesus.  And we’re going to find just how fear-filled their lives are.  They’ve come to be believers.  It’s hard to say they’ve converted to Christianity because Christianity is in its infancy at this point and there’s no real structure.  But Jesus said he’d return.  They thought it would be soon, but his return is delayed, which heightens their fears all the more.

Most biblical scholars believe Matthew was written around the year 80.  Prior to the year 70 Jews who had converted to Christianity appear to have remained welcome among Jewish communities.  There’s evidence that Jewish Christians would still worship with Jews in the synagogues on the Sabbath – which was Saturday.  Then on Sunday the Christians would have a second worship.

But if you remember your history well you’ll remember that in the year 64 Rome burned.  Emperor Nero, who was probably insane, was looking for a scapegoat.  Christians got blamed and persecution of them began.  Still, this didn’t affect outlying areas like Judea a whole lot.  But then in the year 70 the Romans burnt the temple and totally destroyed Jerusalem as punishment for Jewish revolts.  It was a tumultuous time for Jews.  They cast Christians out of their synagogues and the two religions went their separate ways.

Well discover that as Jesus predicted, families were torn apart.  Friendships were destroyed.  A lot of people were being hurt.  This is the life of the people Matthew is writing to.  There are a few fundamental things he wants these people to know.  The way he’s structured the genealogy speaks to that.

He wants his readers to know that what is happening is not really chaotic.  It is orderly.  It is part of God’s orderly and structured plan. 

Very importantly, he does not want his readers to feel like Jesus has abandoned them just because he hasn’t returned as quickly as they had hoped.  Remember always, Matthew likes patterns and he writes with structure.  He wants his readers to know that God didn’t just pop into the world for a short time and then just pop back out after the resurrection.  No, the genealogy shows how God has deeply rooted himself into history – into our history.  Even though the genealogy goes to Joseph, and thus shows no actual DNA connection to Jesus, for Matthew this is an important connection.  Our human story and God’s story are one in the same.

And though the genealogy itself doesn’t point it out, Matthew wants us to know that God is still very much with us and that our story is still God’s story.  Matthew begins the gospel with a genealogy and do you remember the final words of the gospel?  Jesus says, “And remember, I AM with you always to the end of the age.  Matthew’s fearful community is not lost or forgotten.  They are not unimportant to God.  And the same goes for us too.

Now let’s take a little time to look at the actual people in the genealogy.  Some of them you may recognize.  Matthew starts with Abraham.  We know him.  He’s the one God made the covenant with that his ancestors would become God’s people.  We also know Isaac and Jacob.

We recognize some of the kings: David and Solomon.  Josiah may stand out.  He is arguably the most righteous king in all of Jewish history.  There are a number of people that we do not know, but you’ll find their names in Old Testament stories.  And then there are a lot of people recorded nowhere else.  We have no way of verifying them at all.

Some of the people in the genealogy are very virtuous – like King Josiah and Boaz.  And some not so much – like King Solomon.  Many of the kings listed were just plain bad.  Some people are manipulative scoundrels like Jacob.  Some, like Abraham, are filled with faith.  Some are killers like King David.

All in all, we ask ourselves, is Jesus’ genealogy one of picture perfect virtuous people?  Is God willing to claim only the righteous?  No.  Rich/poor, good/bad, known/unknown, all are included.  God wants us to know he is rooted in the same messy reality we live in, not something perfect.  God will come into this world as a human connected to all the imperfections of the past.  God embraces and claims as his own both our good and our bad.

There’s one more thing I want to point out about the genealogy.  It’s almost all men as you’d expect a genealogy from that time.  But strangely, four women appear, and a fifth is eluded to.  If you know these women well you’ll know there is a common thread among them.  And believe me, if you are a woman you do not want to be among them!

There’s Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho who turns traitor against her own people to help the Israelites conquer the city.  Bathsheba isn’t mentioned, but she’s eluded to in verse 6 where she’s called the wife of Uriah.  You probably know the less than virtuous stuff that went on between her and King David.  Still, if you’re creating a movie you can depict it and still get a PG-13 rating.

Then there’s Tamar.  We find out about her in Genesis 38.  I won’t give details because we like to keep sermons family friendly.  You’ll have to read about her yourself, but again, if you’re making a movie, you can depict her and still pull off a PG-13 rating but you’re flirting with R territory.

And then there’s Ruth.  I simply can’t talk about what goes on when she meets Boaz.  We read about her in Ruth chapters 2 to 4.  While the author there uses euphemisms to refer what she and Boaz got up to in the dark, if you’re a movie maker and you want to do the scene justice, let’s just say you may go beyond an R rating. 

So what company does that put the fifth woman, Mary, among?  The notes in my study Bible say that the women all have “irregular sexual unions” but are considered important for God’s plan.  Who knew there was so much spice in Jesus’ ancestry!?!

With Jesus firmly rooted into our reality Matthew has prepared us for him to be born, which we’ll look at next week.

King???

November 20, 2016    Christ the King Sunday                        Luke 23:33-43

At the beginning of the service I said that our Bible readings aren’t what we would expect for Christ the King Sunday.  Kings are strong and triumphant people.  We’d then expect Bible texts about Jesus in power and triumph.  Stories about the resurrection would seem to fit.  There we’d see Jesus triumphing over death and we I could create a sermon that says that if you are a faithful person you too will triumph over death.

But our Bible readings are not about the resurrection.  The passage from Luke that we read is about the crucifixion.  This is the opposite of triumph.  This is failure – complete and total failure.  Why this text to celebrate Jesus as king?

Or probably far more important is this question.  Who cares?  When our lives are focused on Thanksgiving and Christmas what does the fact that… a long time ago in a country far far away a Jew named Jesus was killed by being nailed to a stick along the side of a road?  How on earth does that have anything to do with me?  Good question.

If you picked up a Star Wars theme when I said, “a long time ago in a country far far away…,” that was deliberate.  I think that can help us get at the answers we need.

Star Wars is written around the idea that there is a supernatural force that some people can harness to accomplish their will or overcome adversity.  The force can help them overcome almost impossible odds and do things that are nothing short of miraculous.  When harnessed for good evil cannot hope to triumph.  The good guy, with the force as his ally, always wins in the end.  There’s a sacrificial part to it too.  Star Wars fans can certainly point out characters who sacrifice even their lives so as to empower others more effectively.

Many people see their Christian faith in the same way.  They think there are powers of evil at work in the world and that if they do things the right way there are supernatural powers of good that will help them.  They believe that if they harness the correct powers of prayer, and worship, and Bible study that God is sure to help them when their cause is just.  Success may not be easy.  It may require some sacrifice, but it is assured.

They even believe that some people are more skilled at harnessing the powers of good than others are.  I can think of a number of times when I’ve been in the hospital because someone is seriously injured or dying.  Family and friends show relief when I walk into the room.  They ask me to pray to God to save their loved one.  Their sentiments and their fears are understandable.  I don’t want to mock anyone in that terrifying situation, but I also want to say, “If you think that because I arrived more effective prayers will begin rising to heaven you’d better find yourself a better pastor!”  I can’t swing the future or call upon supernatural powers that are going to overcome the present reality.  God’s will will be done and neither I nor anybody else has the power to change that.

If “The Force” from Star Wars was a reflection of Christian theology then we would have Jesus rising from the dead as our Bible readings for Christ the King Sunday.  But we don’t.

Scripture wants us to see Jesus’ kingly and most powerful moment was not in performing miracles or healing people or using divine power, not even in triumphing over death in the resurrection, but in being wrongly crucified; and not making use of divine power whatsoever.  If there was such a thing as the Force, Jesus could certainly have used it.  But he didn’t use that escape route.

Something deeper and more significant is going on here.  Our second reading from Colossians had the verse, “For in [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”  (Colossians 1:19-20)  The word “pleased” is the Greek word .  Indeed it means to be happy with, to be well pleased, or to take delight in something.  In other words, it is God’s delight to come to earth as a limited and mortal human.  And not just delight to come to earth, but delight to reveal the fullness of God’s nature to us – even as that meant crucifixion.

Why do we call Jesus king?  It is not because he was popular, nor because he could do miracles.  It’s not because he would eventually be raised from the dead.  He is king because of his love for us.  And this was not a grudging, almost hateful, demanding love.  It was a delight-filled, a joy-filled love.

Look at the crucifixion scene as our gospel writer Luke lays it out for us.  In the previous verses Jesus has been tried and sentenced to death.  He’s been mocked by soldiers and flogged nearly to death.  He’s forced to shamefully carry a cross – his own means of death – to the execution site.  He fails at it and someone else is compelled to carry it.

With no details in the story at all Luke simply says they crucified him along with other criminals.  He’s taunted and mocked by passers-by, by the religious leaders, and even by one of the criminals with him.  It’s got to be bad when even a bad guy mocks and rejects you with his dying breath.  If ever there would be solidarity you think it’d be then.

What are Jesus’ responses? 

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

And to a criminal, “You will be with me in paradise.”

            This is the role God takes on with delight!?!  This is how much God loves us?  Humans at their worst, yet God loves us so much that at our worst God still wants to be with us.

Have you ever loved someone or some cause so much that your devotion, even if costly, didn’t seem to hurt much?  Have you ever loved and cared about something and given yourself over to it even if it would never win you praise and no one would notice?

One summer I lived at seminary and picked up a job assisting Guy Kump, one of the maintenance workers.  He was responsible for cleaning and preparing several of the seminary’s buildings for the upcoming fall semester.  There was nothing spectacular or stand-out-ish about him.  He wasn’t particularly smart or great at conversation.  But he did have a passion for cleanliness, especially floors.  Any floor under his care was going to come out spotless.  I remember helping to strip and wax the vast marble floor at the front of the chapel.  After a couple days work and seven coats of wax the floor reflected like a mirror.  It reflected so much light that it almost hurt your eyes.  Overall the chapel is a very beautiful building and visitors often oohed and ahhed when they entered.  A floor that reflected like a mirror was just a part of it all.

If the chapel was magnificent, the seminary compensated with the dorms and apartments on campus.  Old, out of date, and dingy; they were hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  Walk into some of those buildings and you wondered whether the place was coming or going.  But when it came to cleaning and prepping them, Guy Kump saw them as no different than the magnificent chapel.  Floors were scrubbed and cleaned and then waxed with numerous coats.  Students entered and paid no attention to the fact that their floors shone too.  No one noticed how hard Guy worked there.  But to him the darkest most forgotten corner with its worn out old tile was just as important as the marble in the chapel.  I saw him love each and every inch and it was cared for equally.  I think I can safely say that those floors were a part of Guy’s own sense of self.  He found fulfillment and wholeness for himself in the oft overlooked role of being a janitor.

Perhaps that’s a trite example of selfless love, especially compared to the crucifixion, but if you’ve ever felt that way about something you know what I mean.  No matter how much you give and how much it costs, somehow in doing so you find your very own self most complete and fulfilled.

When my colleagues and I met to talk about sermons for today one of them said she wished she could be as loving as Jesus – to be so filled with love that she could genuinely forgive people who were in the process of humiliating her and then killing her.  But she couldn’t.  She knew we were called to mirror the love of Christ, but it would never happen.  She simply couldn’t be that loving.

While we are indeed called to have such selfless love, the good news is that while we are certain to fail, it is not our ability to love that saved us.  The good news is that we are delighted in.  No matter how bad, or shameful or disgusting or unlovable we think we might be, no matter how guilty we may feel that Jesus’ love for us is so superior to our ability to love, we are so loved by God that for God’s own sense of fulfillment God willingly, and in some sense even joyfully, suffered crucifixion to save us.

You are not loved by God reluctantly.  God did not grudgingly die to save you as if you were a burden he was forced to bear against his will.  While horrific and painful, saving you was God’s good pleasure and joy.  His gift.

This gift is what makes Jesus king.  This gift is not seen in resurrection.  It is seen in crucifixion.  Though it happened a long time ago in a country far far away it is God’s resounding Yes! to you, for this day and for every day.  May you always know how much you are loved and how valuable God finds you to be.

Politics, Power and God

November 13, 2016    26^th Sunday After Pentecost    Luke 21:5-19

I know you’re probably sick to your ears with politics and political analysis, but I’d like to walk with you down the political lane of first century Jewish politics.  Imagine yourself a Jewish leader living near Jerusalem.  Things aren’t great, but things are going well enough.  Your country has long been a territory under the control of Rome.  You don’t like that, but you’ve learned that if you keep your head down, do your work, pay your taxes, and don’t cause trouble the Romans don’t bother you.

But there’s this really bizarre dynamic going on.  While the Romans definitely are in charge, the Herod family pretends to be the ruling family of the Jews – the Jewish monarchy.  For the last few generations there has been a King Herod.  Interestingly though, while the Herods are technically Jewish they probably don’t have an authentic Jewish blood line.  So they can’t be in the line of David and thus legitimately be the king.  But neither you nor anyone else dares to look into that too much.  Those who oppose the Herods or get too nosy somehow always end up dead. 

You know that in the previous century the Herods helped the Romans solidify control of Jewish territory and as a result the Romans have appointed a Herod ancestor as “King of the Jews”.  Because of this even though the Romans technically rule the Jews have some degree of autonomy.  That’s good.

And whether they’re legitimately Jewish or not, the Herods have definitely invested in Jewish interests.  At the time of Jesus the temple had been under a construction and expansion project for over 40 years.  The temple itself was not a very big building – little larger than our sanctuary.  The Herods had beautified it with gold and marble.  They’d added courtyards and walls; enough to make it an awe inspiring spectacle.  By the time of Jesus the temple complex sprawled over 20% of the land inside the walls of Jerusalem.  It could hold its own against any temple or arena in Rome or Athens or wherever.  The Herods had raised Judaism from an obscure backwater religion into national prominence and recognition.  Jerusalem was worth going to because of the great Jewish temple!

But there was a dark side to the Herods.  Those who opposed them always ended up dead somehow.  The Herods were not good humble Jews.  They lived it up.  And their tendency to marry, divorce and remarry made Hollywood stars love lives seem simple.  The Herod family tree looks more like a plate of spaghetti than anything else!

If you were a Jewish leader you had to play a very delicate game.  You needed the Herods.  You had to keep them happy, but you were appalled by them too.  You made compromises.  You made deals, trying your best in a very difficult political landscape.  Any mistake could bring about disaster.  And you had more than just the Herods to worry about.  Judaism itself was not a unified religion.  The sect of the Pharisees didn’t put much store in the temple or your leadership in Jerusalem.  The Pharisees had been creating these local gatherings called synagogues.  They had their own beliefs and appointed their own leaders.  They tended to question the central authority of Jerusalem.  And they were growing.

There were oddball groups like the Essenes – ultra ultra strict and orthodox, these groups rejected you altogether.  They lived out in their own communities in the wilderness.

There were also Zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans by force.  They needed to be kept in check or else the Romans might crack down militarily.  You’d lose the tenuous existence that you’ve created.

And then there were these oddball movements that would spring up under charismatic leaders.  Jesus of Nazareth was one of them.  You never knew what these groups would do.  You kept an eye on them.

All-in-all, being a Jewish religious leader required good business and political skill.  So much was at stake.  So much could go wrong.  God had called you to keep the faith and preserve the traditions.  You had a lot of responsibility; yet not much power.

I say all this because it helps us to understand the complexity of their situation, and also maybe realize some parallels to our own lives.

Now listen to Jesus’ words to his disciples from the gospel reading:  “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”  That is flabbergasting news.  The temple, destroyed?  The temple, the home of God, the center of Jewish faith; gone?  People for centuries had sacrificed greatly to build and maintain it.  People had died to preserve it.  How could God allow such a thing?  Did God not care how hard people had worked to create a fitting place to represent God’s presence?

Look at what had happened.  Without condemning the faith behind the temple, Jesus criticized what it had become.  Instead of being a place of grace and mercy it had become a system of manipulation and oppression.  While the Herods were generous it was really a tool for their political gain.  They wanted power and the only way to get it was if the Jews supported them.  From the Jewish side there was benefit from the Herods too.  Not only did they provide generous support they also preserved some semblance of Israel as an independent nation. 

God doesn’t need to work that way.  God does not need money or politics savvy or armies to do his will. 

In the ‘60’s of the first century there was growing dissent among the Jews.  Rebellions and uprisings were happening against the Romans.  Charismatic leaders were whipping up followers and they appear to have been teaching that the time to overthrow the Romans was then.  They taught that God wanted and needed them to overthrow the Romans – by their power it would be done.  And so if their hearts were pure and their goals were just if they acted God would grant them success.  They were wrong.  And in the Roman crackdown Jesus’ prophecy became reality.  The temple was destroyed.

How does God get his work done?  Through political elections?  Last week at the Men’s Breakfast we considered who Jesus would have voted for.  I said that if Jesus was given the ballot he probably would have written in, “Dad”.  But of course as Jesus says God’s kingdom is not of this world.  It does not work that way.

Jesus goes on to teach his disciples that there will be wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines, and all sort of dreadful portents.  What are they to do about them?  They are to do nothing.  They are to neither work to support and create them nor try to stop them.  When persecuted and put on trial for their faith are they to put together an ace legal defense team?  Does God need lawyers to get his work done?  Nope.

Jesus wants his followers to know a very simple truth.  Following him isn’t hard.  It isn’t complicated.  It doesn’t take business savvy nor political savvy.  (That’s a slam against both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton if you missed it.)  You don’t have to be smart, or pretty, or strong, or rich, or charismatic.  You simple do: what is good, what is right, what is just, what is loving, what is up-building.  And if you are uncertain or have doubts, then err on the side of mercy and forgiveness. 

Ultimately Jesus calls on his disciples and all of us who follow after them to see other people as full human beings worthy of dignity and respect.  In that God’s work is done.  God’s will is accomplished.

We pray “thy kingdom come” but that cannot happen with an election.  It happens within ourselves when we make it real around us.  Mother Theresa said, “Spread love everywhere you go.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”

Truth and Thankfulness

November 6, 2016      All Saints Sunday                     Ephesians 1:11-23

Election Day is on Tuesday, but I don’t have to remind you of that.  I think we’re all exhausted by it all, and I don’t believe any of us are actually running for public office!  Perhaps my biggest fear is that when it’s all over it won’t be over.  I don’t mean the possibility of contested election results.  I mean that grid-lock and political maneuvering will continue.  It seems like partisan ideology has completely eclipsed pragmatism.

Anyway, enough of my political opinions.  It seems like one thing almost all politician do very well is lying.  Perhaps it’s a partial truth, perhaps it’s wishful thinking to win votes, or perhaps it’s a downright lie, but they all seem to do it very well.  There’s nothing new about this.  One of my favorite quotes comes from St. Augustine from 4^th century Rome, “I was preparing to recite praises of the emperor, most of which were lies, and by so lying win favor from those who knew [that they were lies].”  (Confessions, VI.6)

Politics is dirty business.  I often fear that anyone truly honest and upright wouldn’t stand a chance.  Like the two men walking through a cemetery looking at the tombstones.  One tombstone read, “Here lies John Smith, a politician and an honest man.”  To which the one man said, “Isn’t that sad.  They had to bury two people in the same grave.”

The world of business can be similar to politics.  You have to think ahead and strategize, even planning for a compromise.  I remember when we building this sanctuary we had to submit a landscaping plan to the town for approval.  Bruce Boncke pointed out that no matter what we put down the planning board will ask for more.  Therefore, deliberately make it lean so that when they ask for too much more we can appear to compromise; which is actually ending up with something practical.

Politics, business and just about everything in daily life involves posturing, maneuvering and compromise.  We learn it at an early age.  How many of you put on a ‘dating face’ to impress someone you like, hoping that the other person will fall in love with you; and only after that would you then start to show your flaws?

On All Saints Sunday there is good news for us when we turn to our Ephesians text.  Unlike politicians who lie to us, God does not.  It’s the straight honest truth.  It’s the truth about our eternity, which is a good thing indeed.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”

This is true praise of God – not a political surrogate inventing praise for a person he or she is getting paid to make look good.  There’s no need to exaggerate on God’s goodness.  God simply is good!

“…he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world…”  This is not a doctrine of predestination as some people like to take it.  It is a statement that God has the past, the present and the future in hand.  All is surely going according to God’s design.

“…to be holy and blameless before him in love.”  Some read this and get the image of someone spotless and nice – perhaps too nice to be likeable.  But that’s not what is intended, for people who are too nice aren’t effective at anything.  No, this means people of character, integrity and goodness who work hard for the betterment of others around them.

“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  If this came from a politician we’d think they were buttering someone up.  But again, this is true praise of joy and thanksgiving from a genuine disciple to our God who really is that good.

“In him we have redemption through his blood…”  This is actually business language.  Just the way you redeem a coupon or redeem a product rebate so it is that our souls are bought by Jesus.  The price was his own blood.

I donate blood frequently.  Of course it’s a sterile and almost painless process, and very different than Jesus’ crucifixion, but even so I consider it a valuable gift.  I want it to be used well – to help someone in need.  I wouldn’t donate blood if it was going to be dumped out or wasted.  Christ’s crucifixion is a valuable payment for someone valuable to God – you. 

If we jump down a little bit, “With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure…”  What is this mystery?  Does it mean we get inside information as to how the election will turn out?  No, it means that we know what God is up to.  God is drawing all of creation to himself in love and mercy.  That is God’s plan for the fullness of time.  It means that we are heading for a time when lies and manipulation leveraging every situation to get the most out of it will be no more.  It means peace and safety and comfort.

The test from Ephesians tells us.  God’s plan, literally his “stewardship” for us is to gather all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  In other words God isn’t involved in some limited disaster zone clean-up plan.  God is drawing it all into one great thing.

The next verses speak of us receiving an inheritance, or I prefer to translate it as we are part of a heritage.  That reminds us that what we do is not just our own work in our own lifetime but something that we pick up from those who have gone before us and something that is passed on throughout history for as long as God allows creation to continue.

The letter to the Ephesians continues with praise for them for the work that they do.  We live centuries later and thousands of miles away but we too accomplish good work.  Our church budget shows some of the obvious work:

–support for the larger church and it’s work in the world,

-support for missionaries nearby and far away,

-support for world hunger,

-support for our local food cupboard, and on and on.

Support is more than money.  There’s hands-on support for the Victor Farmington Food Cupboard and regular food donations and donations to special projects like the Thanksgiving baskets.  There’s hands on support to the Neighbors in Ministry to Seniors program, Community Lutheran Ministries and other local needs.  I suppose that list could go on and on too.

There’s also support from the building and grounds that we maintain.  Because of us groups like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, AA, Community Chorus and others have a place to use at no cost.  We empower them to be benefits to the community.

Of course we also have tenants who pay us – the YMCA, Weight Watchers, plus couple music teachers and other groups.  Even though we receive benefit for their use it is also a sharing.  This building wouldn’t be much use to the glory of God if we restricted it and it sat here empty most of the time.

And of course there is this building’s intended use – as a place for spiritual growth and worship.  Worship services, Sunday school, Bible studies, Holy Yoga, and a work area for projects.

            In all the world you have to earn things.  You have to work.  You have to get things by your merit.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Earning things is a great way to appreciate what you have.  But it can also become exhausting and mistakes are costly.  Over the door we have the sign, “Sinners Only.  This is a Space of Grace.”  And indeed it is.  Here you do not earn.  Here you do not merit.  Here is a safe space of grace.  It is a space for you and for all of God’s children.

            Like the Ephesians who responded to God’s grace by being gracious and giving, so do we.  That is the straight truth with no political spin.  We are blessed to be blessings, and indeed we are; always striving to improve.

            May the saints who have gone before us and completed their pilgrimages on earth inspire us to do the same.  May we embody God’s grace in this world, and may we let God make meaningful use of ourselves each and every day to his glory.  In God’s time we will rejoice fully when God draws all things to himself and creation is complete.  Our God has a great and glorious future in store for us.