Teaching Sermon (Isaiah 61 & John 1)

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Advent (Mark 1:1-8)

“The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ”

In order to talk about the beginning, don’t you have to go back to the Christmas narrative? Isn’t that where the story begins?

Well, not according to the Gospel of Mark. Mark does something different than the other gospel writers. It would appear that Mark is content to begin with an adult Jesus – a Jesus who comes to be baptized by John. This, however, would be an incorrect conclusion. Mark isn’t beginning with a grown-up Jesus. In fact, he is beginning in the Old Testament. Mark begins by quoting two Hebrew prophets.

The phrase “Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight” is a reference to Isaiah chapter 40. In this chapter, the prophet Isaiah records God’s word to His people who have been exiled from their homeland of Jerusalem and are now living in captivity in Babylon. The chapter begins with the words, “Comfort, O comfort my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Isaiah is proclaiming a message of grace; the prophet is bringing the good news of salvation to the people of Israel. The people have suffered greatly. They long for deliverance. And along comes Isaiah with some of the most beautiful words of hope in scripture, “Comfort, O comfort my people.” The people have been absolved; their sins have been forgiven.

By beginning the story of Jesus with a reference to God’s people living in exile and captivity, Mark is establishing the context of the Gospel. Mark directs the good news of Jesus to those people, then and now, who are longing for deliverance from sin and captivity to the worldly structures that enslave.

We may be suffering now, but salvation is at hand; and this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Mark’s second reference to a Hebrew prophet is located in the phrase: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way.” This verse can be found in the book of Malachi, where it shows up as a reference to Elijah. Elijah was the Hebrew prophet who was to be the forerunner to the Messiah. He preached a message of repentance in order to prepare people for the coming of the Lord. He is recorded as wearing a garment of hair and a leather belt tied around his waist. Does this description sound familiar?

The similarities between the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist are neither coincidental nor trivial. Like Elijah, John the Baptist is the forerunner for the Messiah. He comes preaching a message of repentance in order to prepare people for the coming Lord. And, like Elijah, he wears a garment of hair and a leather belt tied around his waist.

One of the reasons I enjoy the season of Advent is because this is one of the few times when John the Baptist makes an appearance. Some people refer to him as a seasonal employee of the church. He shows up every year, always wearing the same camel hair garment, still eating locusts and wild honey, and still hammering away at that message “repent, be baptized, your sins will be forgiven!”

This text comes to us during the season of Advent because Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation. In these four weeks of Advent we are waiting for the coming Messiah. In this way we are like the crowd to whom John the Baptist was speaking.

And here’s the point: John the Baptist’s message of repentance is aimed squarely at us. We are to prepare for Christ’s coming by repenting of our sins.

Doesn’t that just put you in the Christmas spirit!

As if we didn’t have enough on our plate already! Mail the Christmas cards, buy Christmas presents, decorate the house and put ornaments on the tree, bake enough cookies to feed a small village, and oh yeah, don’t forget to remember just how sinful a person you are! “Bah humbug!”

No, we don’t want to spend much time or energy thinking about our sinfulness…especially during the Holidays. We are just too busy spending money we don’t have on those perfect gifts; we are too busy planning the meal that will outdo the one we served last year; we are too busy putting on that new string of lights that will make our house decorations better than the neighbor’s.

During the Holidays we are too busy with those superficial tasks that either inflate our egos or enable us to escape whatever pain we might be feeling in our daily lives.

Sinfulness in the Christmas season? Yeah, it’s there. It’s just hidden really well and we’d rather not talk about it.

Perhaps this is the gift of the Advent season – the realization that our sinfulness is, as Mark says, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. Our sinfulness is not something we need to cover up with aspirations of Martha Stewart-like perfection.

By embracing our imperfection we have room to realize the great forgiveness which is already at work in our lives. Only imperfect people can hear the words “Comfort, O comfort my people” as good news.

John the Baptist preaches a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. He is telling us to be prepared for the arrival of the Lord’s salvation. When we embrace our imperfection we realize that we need God’s forgiveness. And God’s forgiveness will never be beyond our grasp. This may not be the spirit of Christmas, as we know it in America; but it is surely the spirit of Advent.

So for this Advent season, make sure you stop in the midst of the holiday stress and remember what it is we’re really celebrating – the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

May you experience a Holiday season free from the captivity of a Christmas of consumption. May you experience a Holiday season in which John’s message of repentance co-exists with the knowledge that Jesus is coming and your sins have been forgiven.

Amen.

The Beatitudes

I take my responsibilities as a voter very seriously; but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the election season. I’ve begun to see it as a broken system; a system which gives a disproportionate voice to the rich and powerful. Campaigning is designed for people who have no problem looking you in the eye and lying; promising the moon and the stars, if only you’ll vote for them. Of course they’ll only bother campaigning for your vote if you have a certain amount of money or represent a coveted demographic. One fact about the electoral process is that no one ever runs to represent those people on the fringes of society – the poor, the weak, the lonely, the outcast. We may hear promises made to Joe the plumber, but no politicians promise anything to Marge the homeless woman, Eddie the schizophrenic, Alice the unpopular, or Jim the drunk.

These people have no voice in our society. And it’s easy to justify our decision to keep them on the outside. We stay away from the mentally ill guy who roams the streets because he could be dangerous. We don’t invite the unpopular girl to our party because we might get made fun of by our friends. We fail to reach out to the abuse victim because the abuser happens to be a very prominent member of the community, or even the church. We stay away from the widow because there’s just too much sadness there to deal with. We criticize the war protesters and claim they are not patriotic. I’m not standing here condemning our behavior; nor could I say that I would act (or have acted) any differently. I am standing here to proclaim the good news – Jesus has looked at the outsiders and chosen them to be recipients of his amazing grace; they are blessed.

Jesus pronounces blessings on the marginalized in the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. A blessing is an announcement of God’s favor; something we often talk about by another name – grace. It is a grace that contains promises for the present and the future. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit; that’s present tense. The poor in spirit already possess the kingdom. But there are plenty of future-oriented promises (they will be comforted; they will inherit the earth; they will be satisfied; they will be shown mercy; they will see God; they will be called the children of God).

By looking with favor on the outcasts, Jesus gives them honor. In those days, honor equaled power. The Roman Empire bestowed honor to a certain caliber of man; what some today would call “manly men.” They valued men who were powerful, who conquered others in battle, who were able to take revenge into their own hands when they were wronged; they valued confidence, arrogance, wealth, and even promiscuity. The outsiders whom Jesus blesses do not meet any of these criteria; their manhood was in question and consequently they held no honor. But Jesus takes the normal social customs and turns them on them upside down. He treats the powerless as if they were the most important people in the world. He gives the outsiders a position of honor in God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven.

This has drastic consequences for how we, as a church, are to treat the outsiders. “What would it mean if we honored those whom God honors? What would happen if we stopped playing all of our culture's games for status and power and privilege? What would it cost us if we lived more deeply into justice, and mercy, and humility? And more importantly, what blessings await us on that journey?”

I had a professor in seminary that lived in a suburb of St. Paul, MN. It wasn’t a fancy suburb, but like most suburban areas over the last three decades it saw incredible growth both in population and in home prices. This professor, as he himself admits, often gets caught up with the goals of status and prestige (as is a common pitfall for those in academia). An unwritten, but widely assumed indicator of status is where the professors live. The big guns live near campus, in the affluent and charming area called St. Anthony Park.

After years of serving on staff, this professor was ready to sell his home in the suburbs and take the step towards “greatness” by buying a place in St. Anthony Park. Shortly before he was to list the home, the neighbor’s house, which had been on and off the market for a few years, was sold. The next day a man knocked on his door, introduced himself as the buyer of the house next door, and then dropped a bombshell – the man had bought the property with the intention of turning it into a halfway house.

My professor was furious. Here he had built up all this equity in his home and in once instant the value of his property was cut in half. Can you imagine the real estate listing?

“1984 split-level 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath ranch with updated appliances, granite countertops, and charming patio where you can sit and watch the recovering drug addicts and convicted sex offenders coming and going next door.”

After slamming the door on his new neighbor, the professor did what many of us might do – he rallied the other neighbors to help him file an injunction against the proposed halfway house.

While the paperwork was being prepared, the neighbor stopped by to have a face-to-face conversation. He explained his rationale for creating the halfway house, assured him that it would be well-staffed, clean, and safe, and he invited the seminary professor to stop by and see for himself. Reluctantly, the professor took the man up on his offer. He met some of the men and listened to their stories. A few days later the professor stopped by again, this time with communion supplies in hand. A few more visits meant listening to more stories, offering more prayers, and celebrating communion, again and again. Thanks to the miracle of an extremely slow court system and the thawing effect the troubled men had on his hardened heart, the injunction was revoked before it came before a judge.

My professor has suffered by worldly standards; after all, he did lose many thousands of dollars in equity, and he incurred the wrath of his neighbors when he stopped supporting the injunction. But none of these inconveniences prevent him from continuing to volunteer at the halfway house, spending hours listening and sharing with his neighbors – neighbors he has grown to love; neighbors who are truly blessed by God because they now have people in their lives who are modeling the love and acceptance which God has for them.

Modeling God’s love and acceptance is the hardest thing we can do because the world in which we live is messy. We try to make sense of our world by creating categories and labels. Some people are a success, some are a failure; some people are blessed, some are cursed; some people are worth our time and energy, some people are not.

Perhaps more than any other structure or institution, the church has embraced these categories. Throughout its history (and well into its Jewish heritage) the church has dedicated its best and brightest minds to drafting up statements which declare who is in and who is out; who is worthy, and who is not; who can take communion, who cannot; who can get married, who cannot; all the while ignoring the fundamental tenant of God’s grace – that God’s grace exists for everyone, including those we so easily toss aside.

The church must be a place that acts out the grace that God has toward all people, especially

• the poor

• the meek

• the hungry

• the peacemakers

• the unemployed

• the drug addict

• the abused

• the nerd

• the child with Autism

• the homosexual

• the single parent

• the AIDS patient.

We are called to enter into relationship with those people whom society looks down on. God has already declared his allegiance with the marginalized; God looks on them with favor and honor; they are a part of His family; they are already recipients of God’s grace. It’s time for the church to accept its role in God’s expansive family by showing respect, tolerance, and honor to the outcasts, the losers, the chosen people of God.

Psalm 23

I would like to begin by telling you about something that happened to me last week – I fell in love.

You see, for the past six weeks Lindsey and I have been biding our time, impatiently waiting for the opportunity to meet our new nephew. And last week we were finally able to spend a few days in New Jersey with Lindsey’s brother and sister-in-law, and little baby Matthew.

For five days our lives were focused on this tiny baby. Each day revolved around the continuous cycle of feedings, diaper changes, naps, and cuddle time. At some point in those five days, probably the minute I laid eyes on my nephew, I fell in love with him. By the time I arrived at the airport for the flight home, I had changed.

A picture had been building in my mind for the last ten months. I wondered, what would Matthew look like? What would it feel like to have a nephew? What kind of role would I play in his life? How often would I see him? I looked forward to seeing the whole family surround Matthew with love and support. My questions and ideas had led me to create a picture, a fuzzy image, of what life would be like now that Matthew was a part of my life. And then the second I saw the little guy nestled in his mother’s arms, it all changed. Any preconceived ideas that I had gave way to a sense of love I was not prepared for.

It’s the kind of love that is exciting and consuming. I can’t stop thinking about this little baby. I ache to be reunited. I want to be able to hold him again. Sometimes I swear that I can smell him (well, actually, I probably can, considering that he spit up on a few of my clothes!). I’m in love with someone; and everything has changed. I feel like this love has given me a heightened awareness; almost like a super-hero. Things seem more real, more personal, more emotional, more profound. The event of meeting my nephew changed my life.

There’s a pattern here that I’m sure each of you have experienced at one point or another in your lives. First there is the way things were; the daily routine; the ins and outs of life that we take for granted. Next comes an event. This event can be subtle, or profound; positive or negative; expected or unexpected. The event changes everything. Following the event is the new perspective. A line has been crossed and we cannot go back to the way things were; and often we would not want to. This event creates a new perspective which influences our decisions and relationships from that point forward.

Our lives are full of such events, including: graduation, marriage, a new pet, a new job, moving, and even death.

In the Christian faith we tend to make big deals out of events. We celebrate birth by baptizing the newborn. We have baccalaureate services for graduation. We have a liturgy for marriage. And of course, we hold funerals for those who have died. We make a big deal out of these events because we recognize that from that moment on, everything will change. With every event, with every change, the church offers scripture with one constant message: Christ is with us, guiding and protecting us, and showing us the way.

The twenty-third Psalm offers us such a message.

“The Lord is my shepherd.” As shepherd, God provides for and protects the flock. But this shepherd is not some distant figure. The Lord is not a shepherd; or even the shepherd. The Lord is MY shepherd. This is the most personal and intimate use of this metaphor in the entire Old Testament.

“I shall not want.” This is a statement of faith and trust that God alone provides and protects, in this life and the next.

“He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Again, this is a statement of faith and trust that God alone provides and protects. God alone has the tools and the means to keep us from evil. This is not an empty confession or a new idea. The psalmist knows about God’s provision and protection from the story of the Exodus, where God led the Israelites out of slavery, saving their lives and providing for them along the journey.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup is filled to the brim. Surely goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life and I shall return to the house of the Lord forever.”

The twenty-third Psalm is a regular companion to funeral services; where we mark the event of the passing of a loved one and acknowledge as a community that nothing will be the same. We recite these words, almost as a mantra against the power of death which haunts us. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing….I will fear no evil, for God is with me….I shall return to the house of the Lord forever.” The Psalm is itself an event; a line that distinguishes between the way things were and the way things will be. When we engage in scripture we are changed because we are shown the love that God has for us. Once we get a taste of that, there’s no going back.

Last year I worked as a chaplain in a hospital. As I made my rounds I would ask patients if they would like me to read scripture to them. Gertrude always asked me to recite Psalm 23. I would begin alone, but she would always join in, her voice gradually gaining strength as words of the King James language boiled up from her memory and formed on her lips. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters; he restoreth my soul.” Each time we recited the psalm she would smile, look up to the ceiling and conclude with the words “thank you.” Not directed to me, but to God. This psalm was a life-changing event for Gertrude; a life-changing event that she returned to day after day. For her, the psalm was an event where she could finally see God face-to-face, and she fell madly in love; so much so that her world changed. And so did the world of those who worked with her; because her love could not be contained. One day Gertrude was gone, but her presence was still being felt by everyone who had the privilege of working with her while she was sick.

Life is full of events which shape the future of not only our own lives, but also the lives of those around us. The church will always be alongside you, ready to help celebrate the events, eager to share the news that through the ups and downs, God is with you, protecting and providing for you.

And now I catch myself living in two worlds. There is the world which has been dramatically altered by my love for my nephew. But this new world is also filled with anticipation and expectation for the next big event – the birth of my own child; an event which will undoubtedly change the course of my life and fill me with love that I cannot even imagine. I am so thankful that the church will be there through the whole process, continually celebrating the events with me and reminding me that God is leading me to the places where I will not want or fear, where goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

Amen.

Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35)

In Bible study this week we talked about forgiveness. What was amazing is that all of us ended up talking about different people that have hurt us. There were occasional stories of forgiveness and reconciliation; but there were definitely more stories of ongoing pain, hopelessness, fear, and anger; feelings they could not get rid of because no forgiveness had taken place.

We have all been betrayed, lied to, ignored, or victimized. Some people deal with the pain by pushing it down to the depths of their soul, where it can be avoided. Sometimes we blame ourselves. We might think, “That person didn’t really mean to hurt me” or “I’m making a bigger deal out of it than I should” or “I should just get over it.” We move on without reconciliation; we hope the pain will go away. Other people cannot ignore the pain because it is too overwhelming. Sometimes it even shows up on their bodies – as bruises from abuse or side-effects from illness. Or, the pain becomes a mental barrier. We just cannot take one step forward because the pain has us pinned down to the ground. In these cases we cannot move on without reconciliation.

In Matthew 18:21 Peter asks, “How many times must I forgive my brother who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Seven times is a good guess. We can assume that Peter thinks his answer will receive a pat on the back from Jesus because he knows Jesus is big on forgiveness. To suggest that someone should forgive up to seven times? Well, that’s quite a generous number. I love Jesus’ response, “Peter, you’re not even close. You should forgive seventy times seven.” In other words, “don’t even try to keep count.”

Jesus’ emphasis on forgiveness should not come as a surprise. After all, the Hebrew scriptures which he studied are full of announcements of God’s forgiveness. Throughout its two thousand year existence, the Christian church has struggled to embrace the message of forgiveness in the Old Testament. But once we open up its pages we find beautiful texts like Psalm 103 which says. “God is full of compassion and mercy; God does not punish us even though we deserve it; In fact, God treats our sins as though they are as far away from us as the east is from the west.”

And here’s the overarching theme – God has not limited the forgiveness which God shows us; therefore we are not to limit the forgiveness we show other people.

To emphasize this point Jesus tells a parable. A servant owes his king an outrageous amount of money – a debt which is impossible to repay. The king offers one solution – selling the man, along with his wife and children, into slavery and taking all his possessions. This was not uncommon practice and is arguably better than the alternative – the death penalty. The servant begs for more time to repay and the king ends up forgiving the unpayable debt. The servant uses his newfound freedom to go to a fellow servant and unmercilessly collect a measly sum of money from him. For failing to forgive as he had been forgiven the king hands the servant over to be tortured until his original debt would be repaid.

And what is the moral of the story? Well, verse 35 says, If you don’t forgive others as you’ve been forgiven, God will hand you over to be tortured. Yikes!

Now, what we need to remember is that parables are ways of speaking about God by using words, concepts and illustrations which people encountered in their daily lives. Since God transcends our worldly words, concepts, and illustrations, parables always fall short of providing adequate explanations.

The shortcomings in this parable are blatant and could be dangerous if not addressed. In the first section of scripture Jesus commands us to forgive countless times because God forgives us countless times. However, the parable speaks of a king who forgives only once; a king who offers forgiveness only after it is asked for. It also speaks of a king who revokes his forgiveness based on the plea of other people. God’s forgiveness is not limited; God does not wait for us to ask for forgiveness; and God certainly would not revoke the forgiveness. This much is explained elsewhere in Matthew and repeatedly throughout scripture.

In this parable Matthew is using words, concepts and illustrations from the context of the Roman Empire. God’s kingdom is so radically different than the Roman Empire that it is difficult to use words that apply to both. This parable is a victim of its limited vocabulary. It falls short of depicting the radical grace of God.

Fortunately Matthew has provided us with a narrative which does effectively communicate the importance of forgiveness – the cross! The debt we have amassed as sinful beings is incalculable. This is the debt which Jesus paid on the cross. Jesus has forgiven our debts without calculation or reservation; and we didn’t even ask for it. The lesson is that we are to forgive with the same enthusiasm. We are to forgive others even when we know they are wrong.

When you think about it, there really is no other option than forgiveness. What other options would there be? Revenge? Is that really an option? Have you ever gotten revenge and felt good about yourself? Ignoring the situation never works either. We can tell ourselves to ignore something or someone, but the pain always comes back. Forgiveness is the only option because it is the only way we can truly be free. Jesus has forgiven us and we are free. With freedom comes power. Will we use our power to oppress people, or to spread freedom throughout the world?

The most poignant question which I heard in Bible study this week was: “How do I know when I have really forgiven someone?” What does forgiveness look like? The best answer I have heard is that forgiveness means wishing someone well. When I forgive someone I have to hope that good comes their way. Forgiveness is not always forgetting. Forgiveness is certainly not disregarding consequences. Forgiveness does not mean that we risk our safety by allowing poisonous people to have their way with us. Forgiveness is always a positive force. Forgiveness is a way of living that preserves the life of you and you neighbors.