Category: Homilies

Mark 8: 31-38

I do not remember how it was with me…I was too little to remember.

• But I have watched my own four children and eleven grandchildren.
• As toddlers they all strung out three words together.
• It was something like: “I to it!”
• Independence and self-reliance come quite naturally to us.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson had beautiful things to say about life and nature and contemplation.
• But his most famous essay was on “Self-Reliance” …
• An ode to individualism and the sanctity of self-sufficiency.

Much of the American ethos is based on this notion.

• Rugged individualism:
• Paul Bunyan…the unsinkable Molly Brown and the Marlboro man.
• Yes…I can “do it by myself!”

 

Even Christianity has colluded with this individualism.

• As in the new title we have given to Jesus in the last 100 years:
• “Personal Lord and Savior.”
• As though in our contact list between our Personal Assistant and our Personal Trainer can be found:
• “Jesus…our Personal Savior.”

But this is not the Jesus we meet in our text today.

• This Jesus says: “Deny yourself…take up your cross and follow me.
• And if you try to save your life…you will lose it and if you lose it for the sake of the Gospel…you will gain it.”

 

This saying of Jesus that we are to deny the self and lose our life to gain it has been abused.

• Twisted into things like: Denying your dignity and picking up your cross of continued domestic abuse.
• Or things like: Denying your self-worth and picking up your cross of being bullied at school.

 

When Jesus says…”deny yourself” …he means denying the self that wants to see itself as separate from God and others.

• Denying the self that believes that following Jesus is a suffering avoidance program.
• Denying the self that does not feel worthy of God’s love.
• Denying the self that thinks we are more worthy of God’s love than our enemy is.
• Denying the self that thinks we can “do it by ourselves.” That we don’t need anybody.

 

What I really want us to know today is this:

• That dying to ourselves no matter how painful…will bring us abundant life.
• But even Jesus himself was not able to convince his disciples of this.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

In our text for today Jesus tried to tell Peter that the Messiah must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders and priests and be killed and after three days rise again.

• He tried to tell Peter of this great mystery of God…and Peter was not convinced.
• Peter thought Jesus had lost his mind.
• You gatta love how Peter took Jesus aside to rebuke him.
• You know…so Jesus would not lose face in front of the guys.

 

Jesus tried to teach Peter the great mystery of Jesus suffering death and resurrection.

• But Peter could not get his arms around this idea of dying to self.
• Some things just must be experienced.
• Peter…honestly…is always a stand-in for us.
• You see…Peter had not yet experienced Good Friday and Easter.

 

Peter had not experienced how at the cross God can gather up all of humanity’s violence and abusive power.

• Peter had not experienced how even his own denial of Jesus could be gathered up into God’s own self.
• And then God responding with nothing but love and forgiveness.

 

Without experiencing the resurrection…after what Peter saw as the complete loss of hope.

• Without having experienced all of this…
• Peter could not know it just by being told it would happen.
• And we are in the same boat…we cannot know it just by being told either.

 

So…there is no way I can preach a homily that will convince you that “I can do it myself” is not the way of Jesus or the cross.

• But it is in dying to self and living for God where life is to be found.
• There is simply no way I can convince you of something that must be experienced to be known.
• I cannot lay-out a sound enough argument to convince you of the mystery of how God does this death and resurrection thing.
• But I so desperately want to because I have experienced it to be true.

 

I have experienced it in the way in which God takes the messes of my own making and makes something new in me and in my life.

• Something I never would have chosen out of a catalog or created for myself.
• It may be a small piece of wisdom or an unexpected friendship or an angel in the form of a person or yet another opportunity for me to be forgiven by you.

 

I have experienced the death and resurrection of this baptismal life so deeply and so often that it is no longer a belief.

• It is a knowing.

 

So…if you know someone who is faced with extreme pain and trauma in their life right now.

• That is…they cannot manage to stop addictive behavior on their own.
• They cannot stop using alcohol or drugs.
• Or stop shopping compulsively.
• Or stop hating themselves.
• Or stop liking someone who is hurting them.
• If they are filled with false pride.
• Or filled with fear and unable to find motivation to do what they know should be done.
• Tell them there is no shame in that. 
• Because…as St. Paul said…God’s strength is perfected in their weakness.

 

Denying ourselves looks like letting ourselves off the hook for having to be God.

• As I like to remind myself.
• A big difference between me and God is that God never thinks he’s Pastor Chip.
• So…letting God be God for us means denying the cult of the self.
• Both self-aggrandizement and self-abasement.

 

So good people of God…I cannot convince you of this.

• I can only describe what it looks like.
• As your preacher all I can say is:
• This is abundant life found in the paradox of losing ourselves in Christ.
• May it be so.

Mark 1:9-15

The wilderness is a dangerous place.  You only go there if you must.

• Fierce heat…jagged rocks…wild animals…blistered feet.
• Today we read about a long and treacherous stint in the wilderness.
• Unlike his counterparts…Matthew and Luke…Mark offers us no colorful details about Jesus’s experience in the wilderness.
• We do not learn what the specific temptations were…or how Jesus responded to them.
• Mark does not even assure us that Jesus passed his desert test.
• All he gives us are two hurried sentences:
• “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
• He was in the wilderness forty days…tempted by Satan…and he was with the wild beasts…and the angels waited on him.”

 

This abrupt version of events leaves me buzzing with questions…I wonder about details:

• How exactly did Jesus spend his time?
• Was he tempted 24/7?
• Did he walk for miles each day…or camp out in one spot?
• Where did he sleep?
• What was the silence like…hour after hour after hour?
• Did he break it up by humming…laughing…shouting?
• Did he star gaze?
• Play with birds?  Chase lizards?
• As the days stretched on and on…did he fear for his life?
• Question his sanity?  Wish to die?

Mark…given…as ever…to brevity…leaves all these questions unanswered.

• But he does give us substance to cling to as we face deserts in our own lives. Here are three:
• Jesus did not choose the wilderness.
• The struggle is long.
• There are angels in the desert.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

First…Jesus did not meander into the wilderness.  He did not schedule a walk in the woods…like Bill Bryson …or plan a wilderness marathon to rack up Fitbit steps.

• The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.
• You only go there if you must.
• OK then…this detail is comforting.  Why?
• Because it rings true.
• We do not choose to enter the wilderness.
• We do not volunteer…generally…for pain…loss…danger…or terror.

 

The wilderness just happens.

• Whether it comes to us as a hospital waiting room…a thorny relationship…a troubled child…a sudden death…or a family crisis.
• The wilderness appears…unbidden and unwelcome.
• And sometimes…can we bear to ponder this?
• It is God’s own Spirit who drives us into the parched landscape amidst the wild beasts.
• Does this mean that God wants us to suffer?  That God is a sadistic? I do not think so.
• Does it mean that God can redeem even the most barren periods of our lives?
• That our deserts can become holy even as they remain dangerous?  Yes.  I believe so.

 

Sometimes our journeys with God include dark and desolate places.

• Not because God takes pleasure in our pain…
• But because we live in a fragile…broken world that includes deserts.
• And because God’s way is to take the things of death…and wring from them resurrection.

 

Second…our wilderness journeys sometimes last a long…long time.

• I have never spent forty days in solitude and silence and physical deprivation and danger.
• But I do not think Jesus’ time in the wilderness passed by quickly.
• The sense I get is that Jesus wrestled and exerted great effort against great difficulty.
• That he experienced each day as a battle of mind…spirit and body.
• The landscape itself mocked his weary senses…its fixed bleakness breaking his heart.

 

Because we live in quick-fix culture…this aspect of the wilderness is especially heavy.

• That is…we tire and despair easily.
• Why…we ask…is this pain not ending?
• Why are our prayers going unanswered?  Where is God?

Well…we need to ask a harder question:

• Why did Jesus need the wilderness?  Why do we?
• According to Mark…the heavens were torn open…and God announced Jesus’s identity loud and clear:
• “You are my Son…the Beloved…with you I am well pleased.”
• But what happened to that certain sense of identity and belonging?

I wonder…as Jesus’s wilderness wanderings stretched into week two…week three…week four?

• Did he begin to waver?
• Did the Son of God need to keep reminding himself of who he was?
• Did his Father need to nudge him each time he forgot?
• “Can you hear me now?  Can you hear that you are precious and beloved now?
• Can your identity as my own hold in this oppressive silence…here…now?”

 

Today we think about Jesus’ humanity.

• That the Son of God wrestled with his identity?  His vocation?  His relationship to his Father?
• The greatest danger Jesus faced in the wilderness was not starvation.
• Oh no…the greatest danger Jesus faced in the wilderness was amnesia.
• That he forgot who and whose he was!
• That was just too much for him to carry.

 

At his baptism…Jesus heard the absolute truth about who he was.

• “You are my Son.”
• That was easy to hear.
• The much harder part came in the wilderness.
• When he had to face down every vicious assault on that truth.
• When the memory of his Father’s voice from heaven faded.
• And he had to learn how to be God’s beloved in a lonely wasteland.

 

We too…need long stints in the wilderness to learn what it really means to be God’s beloved.

• Because the truth is: we can be beloved and broken and at the same time.
• We can be cherished and unsafe at the same time.
• In the wilderness…the love that survives is flinty…not soft.
• Redeeming…not sentimental.

Third…there were angels in the wilderness.  This is startling and comforting truth.

• A truth we recognize if we open our eyes and look around.
• Somehow…somewhere…help comes.
• And the huge stone is rolled away from the entrance of our tomb.
• Rest comes.  Solace comes.
• OK…OK…our angels do not always appear in the forms we might prefer…but they come.

 

I wonder what Jesus’s angels looked like.

• Did they manifest as winged creatures from heaven?
• As comforting breezes across the sun-scorched hills?
• As a trickle of water for his parched throat?
• As a wild animal that surprised him with a tame and tender gaze?
• As moss and ferns to lay his head upon?
• As the swirl of constellations on a clear…cloudless night?

 

What do our angels look like?

• What have they looked like in the past?
• When they ministered to us…held us…embraced us…did we hear God’s voice anew…calling us his beloved?
• What would it be like to enter someone else’s barren desert now…and become an angel for their journey?
• The wilderness is a dangerous place.  You only go there if you must.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

And so…Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day this year.

• A strange juxtaposition…
• Valentine’s and Ashes.

Valentine’s Day…in 2018…also fell on Ash Wednesday.

• It was the day when a shooting took place at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
• Seventeen students and staff were fatally shot and seventeen others were wounded in that shooting…
• It was a day of enormous heartbreak.

Father Michael K. Marsh…an Episcopal priest…tells about the first picture that he saw from that horrendous scene.

• It was a woman with her arms around another woman…
• Two moms crying and waiting for news about their children.
• We’ve seen those kinds of pictures before…noted Father Marsh…too many times.
• This one…though…was different.
• The thing that caught Father Marsh’s attention was a cross.
• One of the women in the photo had ashes on her forehead in the shape of a cross.
• Evidently…she had attended an Ash Wednesday service earlier in the day.

 

“She had been marked with a sign of mortality and the fragility of life…wrote Fr. Marsh…

• “The same sign with which you and I will be marked in a few moments…
• And she now stood among the ashes of uncertainty…fear…death…sorrow… loss.

My guess is that when those ashes were being put on her forehead earlier in the day…

• She never thought she would be standing where she was.
• None of us would have either.
• We don’t want to consider that possibility…
• Let alone face that reality.
• And yet…that’s the truth Ash Wednesday holds before us.
• “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
• It was a sobering day.

 

Christ says: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them…”

• This was Jesus’ main point of contention with many of the Pharisees.
• It was their sheer hypocrisy.
• They were righteous people…and they wanted everyone to know it!
• They delighted in making a show of their piety.

 

Jesus had no sympathy with such foolishness…

• Whether it was with ostentatious dress…
• Or loud and lengthy prayers…
• Or flashy shows of charity.

 

There was a British sitcom a few years back.

• It was called: “Keeping Up Appearances.”
• It is still being shown in reruns on Netflix and Britbox and PBS.

 

The central character is an eccentric and snobbish middle class social climber named Hyacinth Bucket.

• Though her last name is spelled “b-u-c-k-e-t” bucket…
• She insists that it is pronounced “Bouquet.”
• She answers her phone:
• “The Bouquet residence…
• The lady of the house speaking!”

 

Hyacinth’s whole purpose in life seems to be to try to impress everyone else how upper class she is.

• She lives her life constantly “keeping up appearances.”
• From the china on her table to her elegant and much-dreaded dinner parties.
• She is usually hampered in her attempts to put on the ritz by her sisters and brother-in-law…
• Who are definitely uncultured.
• Much of the humor comes from the conflict between Hyacinth’s vision of herself…
• And the reality of her lower-class background.
• In each episode…she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to project an image of herself that does not mesh with reality.

 

In her situation…it really is funny.

• But it wasn’t funny when it came to the Pharisees.
• They were in places of religious authority.
• People looked to them to give an accurate picture of God.
• A God of love…grace…gratitude…forgiveness…non-judgement.
• Instead…all the people saw was that they had to buy their salvation.
• When…in fact…it was priceless

 

Way back in my ministry there was a senior member in a church that I served named Charlie…who mostly kept to himself.

• I noticed Charlie’s car at the church fairly frequently and we became good friends.

 

In my third year there as pastor Charlie became ill with cancer…

• And after a brief time…developed pneumonia and passed.
• Everyone at his funeral expressed kind words.
• They said things like:
• “He never complained about anything.”
• “He was always there whenever the church doors were open.”

 

A couple of months later a member of the congregation approached me about the light on the outside church sign not shining at night.

• I called the property chairperson about the need to check the light.
• The chairman told me that in all his years at the church he had never known the bulb to burn out…
• And did not even know where the key was to unlock the lid to change it.

 

A few weeks later the clock on the wall in the conference room stopped working.

• I took the clock down and it turned out that the batteries needed to be changed.
• One member said that in all her years of coming to church she never knew the clock to stop working or the batteries needing to be changed.

 

Sometime later I noticed a hinge on one of the cabinet doors in the fellowship hall was loose.

• I heard many people complain about the hinge being loose…but no one took time to fix it.
• And after several more similar incidents occurred…
• It became more and more apparent that Charlie was the one who fixed things…
• And kept things working smoothly at the church.

 

No one was aware of just how much Charlie had done.

• The quiet elderly man was the one who kept the light bulbs changed…
• The batteries in the clocks changed…
• The broken hinges repaired…
• And the list went on and on.

 

Christ appreciates that kind of service.

• It’s the kind of service where a woman quietly consoles a friend who has lost a child in a school shooting.
• It’s the kind of service in which a neighbor inconspicuously helps out someone in the community in need.
• It’s the kind of service in which an adult places a hand on a young person’s shoulder and gives much-needed encouragement.

 

It is a good thing to wear a cross around your neck or have one marked on your forehead.

• It is also a good thing to bear a cross in our daily lives.
• Bearing a cross is an act of humility and service.
• Bearing a cross is an act of commitment.
• It is an act of devotion and love.
• It is not noisy in announcing itself to the world.
• It is silent…but sincere.

Mark 9:2-9

A street corner in Louisville Kentucky has an unusual historical marker.

• It’s a cast-metal sign with a little scrollwork at the top.
• The raised letters describe the significance of something that happened at that place.
• The big capital letters at the top say:
• “A REVELATION” and it goes on to commemorate a spiritual vision.

 

The visionary was Thomas Merton…a Trappist monk and one of the best-known spiritual writers of the 20^th century.

• When Merton entered the order…he was a graduate student in English at Columbia University.
• He surprised everyone he knew by announcing he had received a call from God to become a monk.
• Off he went to the Gethsemani Monastery of the Trappist order…just outside Louisville.
• It would be his home for the rest of his life.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Merton did not always have an easy time keeping his vows.

• He had a keen interest in the world outside the monastery.
• He struggled to reconcile his contemplative life with what he could be doing out there in society…
• Working for causes he was passionate about:
• Civil rights and nuclear disarmament.
• He wrote about these struggles in several bestselling books about spiritual life.

 

On March 18, 1958…standing on that very street corner…watching the crowds of shoppers and office workers surge past him on the sidewalk…

• Merton had a vision he felt was from God.
• Here is how he describes it in his book…Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

In Louisville…at the corner of Fourth and Walnut…in the center of the shopping district…I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people…that they were mine and I theirs…that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness. I have the immense joy of being human…a member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me…now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

 

Think about it: All of us…as we run our errands…sit at our computers or open a can of soup in the kitchen…are shining brightly like the sun.

• And we do not even know it!
• If the witness of the scriptures is true…then the part of us that is most truly real is…by the blessing of God…holy.
• We are clay from the riverbank scooped up by the hands of the Creator…
• Molded into God’s own image and infused with the breath of divine life.
• Because of that…we shine like the sun.

 

Maybe that is what poet and songwriter Joni Mitchell was thinking as she wrote these lines of the song “Woodstock” made famous by Crosby…Stills…Nash and Young:

• Well…I came across a child of God…he was walking along the road.

And I asked him…tell where are you going…this he told me:

Well…I’m going down to Yasgur’s farm…going to join in a rock-and-roll band.

Got to get back to the land…set my soul free.

We are stardust…we are golden…we are billion-year-old carbon.

And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

 

Today’s reading is about Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

• Here is how a physicist might conceive of what happened:
• Jesus reached into himself to the very core of his being to that dark realm where electrons orbit nuclei.
• Deep within those minute molecules…each one a solar system unto itself…there’s a luminescent playground of subatomic particles. These blink into life for a millionth of a second — quicker than the quickest of shooting stars — before winking out again. Each bright explosion is succeeded by another…and another…until that shadowy realm is illumined by dancing energy…the holy fire at the center of all things. Reaching deep into himself…not with the fingers of his hand but with the power of his will…Jesus grasped that very light and pulled it outward — until the fire within became the fire without.

 

This is the sensation Peter…James and John experience as the cool darkness of night suddenly vanishes…pushed back by the man-shaped star standing a short distance away.

• They shield their eyes with their forearms.
• They must look away or be blinded.
• But they have seen just enough to know it is their master…as they have never seen him before.
• From this shadowy realm emerges a voice…beautiful beyond all beauty and infinitely old:
• “This is my Son…the beloved…listen to him!”

 

And with that…the light winks out…restoring the mountaintop to its natural darkness.

• A few minutes pass before their eyes fully adjust to the blackness.
• In time…they see again the moon and the stars winking down at them.
• Silhouetted by their celestial light…they see their Lord walking toward them.
• A mere man as he has always been.
• Yet…now…more than a man.

 

Who dwells on a mountaintop…anyway?

• There is no living to be scratched there…from the piles of rock at the summit.
• There is no spring of water…no roof to shelter under.
• Unless it is a rude lean-to of the sort Peter offers to build.
• Mountaintops are not for dwelling.
• They are for visiting…and for visions.
• Can we carry such visions down from the mountain…
• As we pick our way back down the winding trail…to the plain where people dwell?

 

In just a few days…on Ash Wednesday…it will also be Valentine’s Day:

• That gentle holiday of flowers and hearts and boxes of chocolates.
• Of dinners by candlelight.
• And…for the young…stacks of those punched-out cardboard valentines.
• Exchanged with everyone else in the class.
• Maybe…too…a handful of those chalky heart-shaped sweetheart candies stamped with:
• “CRAZY 4 YOU” “BE MINE” “Kiss ME” “TRUE LOVE” “SWEET PEA”.

 

It is easy to be in love on Valentine’s Day.

• Well…at least…to play at it.
• It is far harder to sustain committed love for another person…over time.
• Through all the ups and downs and crazy detours of life.

 

Peter Marshall was thinking of just this sort of love…love for the long haul…as he spoke these words to a couple on their wedding day:

• We are souls living in bodies. Therefore…when we really fall in love…it’s not just physical attraction. If it is just that…it won’t last.
• Ideally…it’s also spiritual attraction.
• God has opened our eyes and let us see into someone’s soul.
• We have fallen in love with the inner person…the person who is going to live forever.
• That’s why God is the greatest asset to romance.
• God thought it up in the first place.
• Include the Lord in every part of your marriage…and God will lift it above the level of the mundane to something rare and beautiful and lasting.

 

The secret to loving another deeply and well is the matter we have been considering today: Spiritual vision.

• Such vision…which depends not on the eyes at all…
• Permits lovers to glimpse their beloved…ever so briefly…as the spiritual being he or she truly is.
• It matters not that the measured stride of the beloved grows halting.
• Or the grip grows weak.
• Or the eyesight grows dim.
• For that spiritual being is ageless.
• Its blazing form is eternal…unchangeable.

It is like the epiphany…the mystical vision…experienced by Thomas Merton in 1958…as he stood at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville.

• Those people around him…he perceived…were not as they seemed.
• It is a rare and precious thing to glimpse such glory.
• Yet…now and again…we too may be so blessed as to catch a flicker of the way things really are…
• In this God-dreamed universe of passionate…fiery love!

Mark 1:29-39

Simon Peter’s Mother-in-law in our gospel passage sets a shining example for us when we reflect on service…on serving.

• She was touched by Jesus…raised up by him…healed and saved by him.
• And her response to this love and care?
• We are told that when the fever left her…she began to serve.
• The Greek word for service is “Diaconia.”
• Which is where the word “Deacon” comes from…one who serves.
• In our scripture passage…the word indicates food service.
• So…literally it means this healed woman got up and “waited on” them.
• Our passage says that the whole city was gathered around the door.
• How would you like to get up out of bed after you have been ill and find the entire town at your door in need of being served and fed by you?

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

OK then…what might that look like?

• I mean…to wait on Jesus…to serve Jesus…to be a waiter or waitress for him?
• What would that look like?
• What might Jesus…as a customer…be ordering?

 

Well…pictures this…Jesus saying:

• “I’d like to start with a portion of Isaiah 2: Let’s have people beat their swords into plowshares…and their spears into pruning hooks so they shall never learn war anymore.
• And then…as a main course…how about some of Matthew 22: Loving God with one’s whole heart…soul…mind and strength…and loving one’s neighbor as oneself?
• I also have a taste for Matthew 28…seeing that the hungry are being fed…the thirsty satisfied…the strangers welcomed…the naked clothed and the sick and the prisoners visited.
• And then…for dessert…how about some fruit from Galatians 5: Fruit of the spirit maybe…a plate of love…joy…peace…patience… kindness…goodness…faithfulness… gentleness and self-control.”

 

That is what I picture Jesus’ order to be.

• But Jesus does not really “order” us…rather…he invites us.
• He invites us to follow his example…the example he set as one coming not to be served…but to serve.
• We are invited to be Deacons…those who wait on others…those who bring to others the healing…grace and love that they have received from Christ.
• We are invited to be Deacons of light…of hope…of reconciliation in a world that is too often dark…broken and in despair.
• We are invited to be servers…to attend to and to care for those who are in need.
• Rabindranath (Rob-in-dra-nath)Tagore writes:
• “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold…service was joy.”

 

This passage about Peter’s mother-in-law bothers me because she does not have a name in the story…so I will name her “Grace” after my own mother-in-law.

• And she was THE quintessential mother-in-law.
• The thing I love about Grace is that she knew what you do with hands which have received the healing touch of God.
• Grace used those very hands to serve.
• She immediately became an agent of what she had just received: grace and mercy and healing.
• Not as an act of obligation…or law or social expectation but as an act of freedom.
• So…every person who Jesus healed was conscripted into the Kingdom of God so that they may go and do likewise.
• Oh my…It is a spiritual pyramid scheme!

When Grace sees a whole city’s worth of sick and demon possessed outside her door…

• I like to imagine her pushing up her sleeves and touching and healing and loving and speaking truth to all of them.
• She transmits what was given to her.  She gets up and serves.

 

I was counseling with a woman from my congregation many years ago.

• As she began to speak…her voice was flat…with little emotion apart from a pervasive sadness.
• She said: There are no medical issues…my health is good. There are no financial problems. We put our boys through college at a state school and we can pay our bills.
• I had a job until a couple of years ago when I was laid off. It’s just that I feel that most of the nice things that will ever happen to me have already happened.
• I’m getting older. Neither of my boys has a serious girlfriend…but even if they did…and even if I approved of the girl and her family…I like to think I would enjoy going to their wedding…but then what?
• Two nice days in the next thirty years? And if I didn’t get along with the girl’s family…I wouldn’t even have that.

 

Well…I was not sure how to respond.

• Clearly…this woman was bored with her life…
• But telling her that would not have been very helpful.
• After telling the woman that I appreciated her coming to talk…
• I pointed out that: If her life was lacking in drama…it might be because she was operating with a limited cast of characters:
• Herself…her husband, and two children.
• But were there no other family members…no friends…no organizations she belonged to?
• I thought she might consider reaching out to include a few more people in her life.
• And if she was not comfortable taking the first step to do that (I suspected she was not) there were all sorts of ready-made groups she could join.

 

My concern was that she spoke only about what other people were or were not doing for her.

• I did not hear anything about what she was doing with or for others.
• Yet that might be the exact thing to start changing…the easiest way to feel better about her life.

 

I have been a pastor for a long time.

• I have provided ministry to a lot of people who were hurting.
• Women and men whose spouses had died or had left the marriage.
• People grieving the death of a child or the loss of a job.
• People whose deteriorating health left them unable to do things they once enjoyed.

 

In every case…I gave them one rule and it almost always worked:

• The best way to feel better about yourself is to find someone to help.
• The widow…the parent whose child has died or is critically ill…
• Those people not only have the right…
• They have the almost magical power to say to someone else who is hurting…
• Something that doctors and clergy are not able to say:
• I know what you are going through because I was there. Let’s talk about it.

 

And so…we become Jesus’ mouthpiece…Jesus’ hands and feet.

• There is no personal treasure to be had…there are only gifts to be shared.
• God’s desire for the wholeness and healing of all creation was inaugurated in a world changing way in the life of Jesus and it continues through all of us.
• Our hands are what God must work with here.
• And that is what Peter’s mother-in-law teaches us this morning.
• Hands that…no matter what our story is…have as much to receive as they must give.
• And God wants us to be healed for the sake of our own wholeness…
• But also…because there is a lot of healing to be done out there.

Mark 1:21-28

When the unclean spirit encounters Jesus…the spirit cries out:

• “Have you come to destroy us?”
• Jesus was teaching something new…in a new and authoritative way.
• The people were probably all wondering:
• “Has Jesus come to destroy what we know and bring us something new?”
• The unclean spirit…confronted with Jesus’ authority…was afraid of being destroyed.
• When Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to leave the person…the unclean spirit put up a fight.
• Verse 26 says: “And the unclean spirit…convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice…came out of him.”

 

We do not talk much about unclean spirits and demons in the Lutheran church…or in American Christianity in general.

• But not believing in demons has hardly eradicated evil in our world.
• And…even if we do not call them unclean spirits or recognize demons in our midst.
• We all have had the experience of something destroying us.

 

We really do not know what the New Testament means when it speaks of casting out evil spirits.

• Is it referring to mental and emotional illness?
• Would physical problems with unusual manifestations such as epilepsy have been considered demonic in a pre-scientific world?
• Most scholars are convinced that this is the nature of so-called demon possession in the Bible.
• It refers to people who are suffering from mental…emotional or even physical problems that cause them to act differently from the norm.

 

Like I said…all of us have times in our life when we are confronted with problems and emotions that overwhelm us.

• We visited a monastery in Greece… many years ago… perched high on a cliff several hundred feet in the air.
• The only way to reach the monastery was to be suspended in a basket which was brought to the top by several monks.
• The monks pulled the basket up with ropes and pulleys.

 

The ride up the steep cliff in that basket was terrifying.

• I became exceedingly nervous about halfway up as I noticed that the rope by which I was suspended was old and frayed.
• With a trembling voice I asked the monk who was riding with us in the basket how often they changed the rope.
• The monk thought for a moment and answered matter-of-factly:
• “Whenever it breaks.”

 

There have been times in my life when…emotionally…I have been suspended in that basket.

• I was at the end of my rope and feared it would break.
• Perhaps you have had that experience too.
• There is comfort in knowing that we have a friend who can heal brokenness of any kind…
• Whether it is physical…emotional or spiritual.

 

But here’s the thing I really want to say:

• Out of the womb…before we do anything wrong and before we do anything right…
• God has named us and claimed us as God’s own.
• But immediately…other things try to tell us who we are and to whom we belong.
• They all have a go at telling us who we are.
• But only God can do that.
• Everything else is temptation.
• And so…I would propose to you that demons are defined as anything other than God that tries to tell us who we are.

 

Before we had a chance to do anything at all…God looked at us and saw that we were good.

• God loved us and called us his own.
• So many things in this world try to tell us we are something else.
• That we are not precious…that we are not good.
• Those lies are the destroyer in our soul.
• In the presence of Jesus…those lies will quake in their boots.

 

What is it the world is telling you about yourself today?

• Is it that you have not done enough?
• Or…that you have messed up so much you cannot be forgiven?
• Or…that the world is telling you everything is just fine right now…when really God is calling you to dig deep and make some changes.
• Whatever it is…all those falsehoods are cast out in the presence of Jesus.
• Seeing what is real…changes everything.

 

In the presence of Jesus…the truth that we are beloved children of God will win out over whatever the world tells us about ourselves.

• Those lies may not go down easily.
• They may hold on and put up a fight.
• But…the love and truth of Jesus will cast all those things out.
• We just need to bring them into the light.
• Jesus casts out the things that destroy.

 

The unclean spirit recognized Jesus’s authority.

• The Greek word for “authority” comes from the word that means “out” or “from” and from the word that means “to be.”
• Authority is about who gave you being…or about who sent you.
• The unclean spirit recognized the source of Jesus’ authority:
• “I know who you are…the Holy One of God.”
• The crowd gathered around Jesus recognized that he taught with authority.
• But it was the unclean spirit that recognized where the authority came from.
• It was from God.

We live in a noisy world with a lot of voices trying to convince us to listen to them.

• They might speak in a way that makes us think they have authority.
• But where does their authority come from?
• We need to exercise discernment.
• Just because a voice is loud does not make it right.

 

We ask that Jesus cast out anything that tries to tell us we are anything less than God’s children.

• We ask that we have discerning ears so that we recognize the voice and leading of God.
• We ask that we live our lives in such a way that others will see God at work through us.

Mark 1:14-20

There are no new baby boomers being born right now.

• Family…religion…tradition…roots…heritage are not the primary motivators for church as they were in the previous century.
• People move around…change jobs…change careers…keep their options open.
• Very few hang around long enough in one job to receive a gold watch at retirement.
• In fact…there is very little loyalty to a job or a company any longer.
• Loyalty is to oneself…and ones resume.

There is a fluidity about life…relationships…careers…and skills…that keep people moving.

• And this has serious implications for what church will be and how it will operate in the years to come.

 

Our culture is no longer full of multi-generational families living in one house or one neighborhood.

• Nor is it characterized any longer by family businesses handed down from generation to generation.
• There may be a few…but it’s not like it used to be.
• It is no longer a foreordained conclusion that the oldest child will join his or her parents in the family business.
• And we don’t expect our own children to follow in our footsteps.

 

This was not true in first century Galilee where families did stay in one location and make the family business their livelihood.

• Camping on the Ionian Sea in the Greek Peloponnese…many years ago…
• There was a fishing village next to our campground.
• And every night Susan and I would walk over and eat super with the village…a large extended family.
• They cooked their day’s catch outside on open grills.
• We ate and were filled…and it was good!
• It was a close-knit extended family.
• This family and village had been there for centuries.

 

Who knows how many generations the Zebedee family were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.

• Chances are it is what they had been doing for centuries.
• They knew the Sea of Galilee like they knew the back of their hands.
• They knew where the best fishing spots were.
• The best time of day to make a great catch.
• It was hard work…but it was a good secure life.
• It enabled them to provide basic needs for their families and to enjoy their community.
• A place where they knew and were known by everyone.
• They had their routines.
• They were settled into a predictable life.

 

And then one day all that changed.

• As they were going about their usual tasks…a stranger appeared and said:
• “Follow me…and I will make you fish for people.”
• There was someone in the family who said: “Have you lost your mind?
• You cannot leave your family and friends and this fishing business that has been here for generations.”

 

Mark says of Peter and Andrew: “And immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

• And on down the road when they encounter James and John…the same thing happened:
• “They left their father Zebedee in the boat and the hired men…and followed him.”
• Only when you think about the sort of life Peter…Andrew…James and John had enjoyed…
• And the totally unknown future Jesus was inviting them into…
• Do you understand just how earth shattering this story is.
• Leaving everything you have known…all your security…your family…and following Jesus.

 

Think about Abram and Sarai (Abraham & Sarah) …the first to be called by God.

• They left their family and home to set out on a journey with a destination known only to God.
• “Leave your country and your father’s house” …God said… “and go to the land I will show you.”
• And they did…like Peter and those first disciples later.
• None of them had it all figured out before setting foot outside the city limits.
• None of them knew what lay ahead…what might happen…where they were going…or what they would do when they got there.
• But they heard the call to follow…to go…and it was enough.

 

That is what faith is…taking the first step without having to know how it all turns out.

• And we do it all the time…really.
• We take wedding vows not knowing where the relationship will take us.
• We bring children into the world…with no idea of who they will be or how they will change our lives.
• In most of the events of our lives we move in faith because we can never know the outcome or control the future.

 

“Follow me” is an invitation into a relationship that is both engaging and costly.

• It is an invitation to a journey…not just a conversation.
• It is about doing things as well as about believing things.
• It was not enough for Jesus to say to his disciples: “Let me tell you about the way.”
• He had to say: “I am the way…follow me.”
• And so…without knowing all the answers…Peter…Andrew…James and John got out of their boats…left their nets behind…and walked down the road with Jesus.

 

Well…Just like Abraham and Peter…Andrew…James and John…we have all been there.

• For some reason…we have been asked or motivated to relocate.
• Sometimes it is because of illness…or a loved one…or retirement…but most often it is a job…a career…a vocation.
• And we leave some nets behind.
• I mean…we leave stuff behind.
• We have garage sales and take many trips to our local thrift store.
• I mean…it is a tour de force.
• And then the hard and difficult part: leaving friends and neighbors and family members…those we love.
• I mean…do you dislike moving as much as I do?
• The anxiety…the fear…the not knowing…the new book of life.
• All of the: “where will I…buy groceries…get my car fixed…my hair done…my primary care physician…my dentist…my school…my church…my hardware store.
• How will I ever meet new friends.

 

And then…we arrive in our new place.

• And discover that God is already there when we get there.
• Having sent angels to help us with all our many questions and doubts and fears and concerns.
• During our lunch together following worship…I invite you to share stories about leaving nets behind.
• And tell about those angels on the other end of your journey.
• And how God was there for you.

 

Often…we will have no idea where we are going…we will not be able see the road ahead or be certain where it will end.

• Because we never really know ourselves completely…we may not be sure that we are following God’s will.
• However…if it is our desire in all we do to please God…to follow Jesus…
• Then God will lead us by the right road.
• And we can trust that even in the most difficult of times…God will be with us…
• Will never leave us alone…and we need not fear…only trust.
• And there will be those who think we have lost our minds! And that’s OK.
• Because that will mean we have made room for the mind of God.

John 1:43-51

In our gospel Jesus engages Philip and Nathanael.

• In the process…both men become Jesus’ disciples and experience joy.
• In the paragraphs preceding our reading John the Baptist and his followers call Jesus:
• “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
• Jesus then calls two disciples…
• One of whom is Andrew.
• Andrew then goes and finds his brother Simon.
• He tells Simon about Jesus and brings him to meet Jesus.
• Jesus then changes Simon’s name to Peter (Petros – stone or rock).
• And in this way…initiates him into his band of followers.

 

This pattern continues…

• Jesus travels to Galilee and immediately finds Philip.
• Jesus calls Philip to follow him and Philip does so.

 

Jesus’ call is “Follow me.”

• It is a call to a way of life!
• It is not a call to an intellectual creed or philosophy.
• It is a call to a relationship!

 

Well then…how does Jesus find the people whom he calls?

• His method is simple.
• He simply walks around.
• He simply lives his life.
• He walks around and engages the people with whom he has contact.
• This is the 21^st century…this is the 1^st
• In other words…in the 21^st century…we do exactly what Jesus did in the 1st century.

 

I follow the Jesus’ model in the same way.

• As such…I simply go about my day.
• In prayer…yammering…to myself…self-talk.
• I walk around and reach out to those who cross the threshold of my life.
• I have no agenda other than to be friendly and helpful to the men and women whom I meet.

 

My daily prayer is this:

• “Lord…in my journey today…who will you place in front of me?
• Who will you place in my path?
• Who needs to make a claim on your love through me today?
• Who needs to discover your joy today?
• Bring them into my path.
• ”

 

Try out this prayer as you move through your day.

• Through the halls of your school.
• The spaces of your place of employment.
• The check-out line at your grocery store.
• Your seatmate on the airplane you are flying on.
• The person sitting across from you in the waiting room.
• You will be surprised by what occurs.

 

Jesus continues to call his disciples today.

• Jesus is constantly on the move.
• Leading his people to spread God’s joy…grace…mercy and justice.

 

Our gospel reading models sharing the Gospel in a way that comes naturally to us.

• We do not have to create a new vocabulary or mimic the words of others.
• Philip just describes Jesus as he experienced him…and this is enough.

 

Why is this enough?

• Our personal story is sufficient because it is ultimately Jesus’ love who engages the other person.
• We matter-of-factly say:
• “This is how my life used to be…and let me share with you how my life is now.”
• And the response just might be:
• “I want what you have…I want the peace and joy that you have.”
• And we say:
• “Come and see.”

 

Our daughter Jennine was six years old…and we decided she was old enough to have her room redone a bit.

• You know? New paint. New bedspread. New carpet. New pictures.
• And when we were changing what was hanging on her walls there was a crucifix hanging there.
• Well…we were going to thrift shop the three or four pieces of artwork.
• But she insisted on giving her four-year-old brother the crucifix.
• We said:” But your brother really doesn’t know what that is yet…he’s too young to know.”
• And our daughter said: “Yes…he does know what it means!”
• And we said: “How do you know that he knows what it means”?
• And she said: “He knows because I told him what it means…
• I taught him how to sing…Jesus loves me…this I know.”
• “Come and see.”

 

And my son in law.

• He was shopping at Target and noticed a woman with her child being knocked and pushed around by a man who apparently was her husband.
• When her husband disappeared to another part of the store my son in law gave her his business card and said:
• “Call if you need help.”
• And a couple of weeks later she did call.
• My son in law referred her and her child to a safe house.
• “Come and see.”

 

The Gospel is not about convincing the world with our words and deeds.

• It is about inviting others into an relationship with Jesus’ love.
• Jesus is the one who engages.
• And we are Jesus’ hands and feet.
• We merely issue invitations to others to come and see.
• And Jesus does the rest.

 

“Teacher…where are you staying?”

• I am sleeping under the bridge with the homeless who have no one…who have no place.
• I am sitting at the same table with the poor kid no one wants anything to do with.
• I am watching TV with an elderly couple who live alone.
• I am holding the young woman who is terrified of the surgery she is facing.
• I am with your children when you are not there.
• I am with your spouse when you are apart.
• I am with you when you are feeling lost and alone.
• I am putting my shoulder to yours in bearing your crosses of illness…despair and catastrophe.

 

Where am I staying?

• Come and see.

Matthew 2:1-12

There is a popular meme (idea) that pointedly claims that if there had been “Three Wise Women” instead of “Three Wise Men” they would have:

• Asked for directions…arrived on time…helped deliver the baby and brought practical gifts.
• Mary might have appreciated a month’s supply of diapers.
• They would have cleaned the stable…made a casserole and there would be peace on earth.
• And if they were Lutherans…they would have brough a red Jello salad.

 

Anyway…the word “Epiphany” refers to something “made manifest” or “revealed.”

• When you come up with a brilliant idea…you might say that you have had an “epiphany moment.”
• Today…the word “Epiphany” communicates to us the “showing forth” or “the revelation” of Christ in the world.
• Epiphany takes its themes from the journey of a group of pagan magi who left familiar territory to find the Christ child and explore this child’s authenticity for themselves.
• And so today offers a rare opportunity to rescue the magi from their fixed places in the annual Christmas pageant…
• And restore them to their biblical roles as key witnesses to both the threat and promise of the Christ child.

 

The story of these wise men is only found in the gospel of Matthew.

• And…Matthew does not say that there are three wise men…nor does he call them kings.
• Three kings from the Orient bringing gifts to Jesus in a manger is a charming story…
• But it’s not actually the one we find in the Bible.
• A closer reading of Matthew shows that we have no idea how many people were there.
• The Holy Family most likely opened their doors to an impressive entourage that included the Magi themselves…a half dozen…A dozen?).
• Plus…their servants and the attendant luggage.
• With this group were the pack animals and a few camels.
• The neighborhood must have been abuzz.

 

And we don’t know how far east they came from. (Lebanon? New Jersey?)

• And they were not
• They were Magi…as in magicians.
• And not the cute kind you hire for your kid’s birthday party.
• Yet history made them out to be kings.
• Maybe because of the reality that they were magicians is too distasteful.
• Since no one really wants the weird…slimy…circus guy to be the first to discover the birth of our Lord.
• But the Epiphany story of Herod and his infanticide reveals a God who has entered our world as it actually exists.
• Not as the world we often wish it would be.”

 

In Matthew…the emphasis is on Jesus’ mission…entering the deep brokenness of this world.

• Among Matthew’s Jewish community…they were finding it difficult to accept that God came for all…and not just a few.
• They were clinging to the idea that if you want to follow Jesus…
• To be one of his disciples…you had to first be a Jew.
• And if you were male…then you had to be circumcised.
• Then if you were to become Christian…you had to continue to fulfill all the rules of the law…like food laws.
• So…Matthew…right at the start…includes this unusual story.
• And…this is the mystery…that God…this infant King…
• Is now revealed to all
• And God has come to transform all human history…all peoples of all

 

The wise men in today’s gospel…who came to seek the baby…were the epitome of Gentile idolatry and religious hocus-pocus.

• They were not models of religious piety.
• They were magicians…astronomers…stargazers…pseudo-scientists…fortune-tellers…horoscope fanatics.
• But Matthew makes them the heroes in his first story following the Savior’s birth.
• The wise men should not be there.
• They are heretics. They don’t worship the right God.
• They are the wrong race…the wrong denomination…the wrong religion.
• They don’t know how to worship correctly.
• Certainly…they give the child gifts of gold…frankincense and myrrh.
• But those are elements used in their magic.
• They would have been much better models of unbelief and false trust than models of faith…trust and worship.
• But…Matthew wants to make it very clear that Jesus came for all people in this very broken world.
• And that is why these wise men are found in this gospel.
• That should give us pause as we continue to share God’s inclusive love…hospitality and welcome.

 

God not only sent his Son into this violent and faithless world to live in it…but also to save it!

• God comes into the world and shines a brilliant star for all people.

 

But here is the extremely hard part:

• God also comes into the world for the Herods…the crazed men who walk into schools and shoot and kill innocent teachers and children…the terrorist…even our enemies.
• For every single one of us…God comes to shine a light that no darkness will overcome.
• It is how we accept and share and reflect that light that matters.

 

God enters a world that is deeply broken and not filled with peace.

• But enters a world that is deeply loved by God.
• A world that God finds worthy of saving.

 

The wise men who journeyed to Bethlehem exposed God’s intention…

• And desire to welcome all into the joy of God’s presence.
• May we continue to be transformed and reflect the light of such infinite and inclusive love.

Luke 2: 22-40

Today’s gospel reading has a wintry feel to it.

• It seems designed for a dark night…a cold night.
• You might expect the presentation of our Lord at the Temple…the ritual purification of the child Jesus and his acceptance as a member of the people of Israel…to be a joyous event.
• And…in a way…it is.
• But there are undercurrents throughout the story that hint at a tragic dimension to the occasion.

 

It reminds me of Frosty the Snowman when I was a kid.

• The song lyrics had a tragic dimension for me.
• Christmas was over and so was poor Frosty.
• Frosty the Snowman
  Was a jolly happy soul
  With a corncob pipe and a button nose
  And two eyes made out of coal.
• But then: Oh…Frosty the Snowman
  Knew the sun was hot that day
  So he said: “Let’s run…and we’ll have some fun.

Now…before I melt away.”

• Poor frosty…poor me…back to school. The same old grind.
• As I said…the story has a tragic dimension.

 

That is…Jesus’s presentation is the culmination of Simeon’s life…and the end of it.

• The righteous and devout old man had learned from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
• But now that the day has come…the old servant of the Lord knows that his time has ended.
• He has been dismissed in peace…and his part in the story of God and the people of God is almost at an end.
• He will melt away.

 

But first he has some news to deliver.

• That Jesus is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel.
• And to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.
• So far…so good…but then he adds to Mary that “a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
• The uncomprehending parents are amazed.
• Even more when the prophet Anna approaches and begins to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

The news is so profoundly mixed…that it is hard to imagine how Joseph and Mary could respond to it.

• Joseph cannot help but be aware that his own presence in the crowning moments of the story is not alluded to.
• Indications are…that this good…gentle man who was willing to spare Mary shame and disgrace…
• Will not see the redemption of Israel through the child who is…by his mercy…and yes…his obedience to God’s call…his son at least in the eyes of the Lord.

Joseph knows only that the story will go on…and that…like Simeon himself…he has played his part…and he will melt away.

• But Mary? Mary is promised nothing but that a “sword will pierce her soul.
• We know this…because we know how the story turns out.
• The sword will not be literal.
• It will be the mother’s agony of seeing her beloved son rise to great heights.
• Only to be disgraced and executed by the tortuous methods of the Roman Empire.
• A death reserved only for rebels and traitors.

 

What are the parents to make of this prophecy…glorious and dire…terrifying and yet hopeful…culminating in the redemption of Israel?

• What on earth is going on with this reading?
• How can the redemption of Israel be welcomed if it comes with so much loss?

 

The following is a glorious and dire…terrifying and yet hopeful event…in my own life…among many…I will share:

• It happened in front of my apartment in the city when I was in seminary.
• One night a young woman walked rapidly past my apartment being followed by a car.
• The driver was talking to her…or shouting…two students going in the opposite direction paused as though concerned.
• The woman hurried on…and the car kept pace…clearly following her…the students would have helped…but had no haven to offer.
• Leaving my own door ajar so I would not be locked out…I ran to catch up with her.
• And then slowed so that she would not be frightened by my approach.
• “Can I help?” …I asked… “Would you like to use my telephone?”
• She paused…not sure of me and not quite understanding.
• I repeated the offer of assistance.
• The car had turned around and was coming toward us.
• Then a warm smile appeared on her dark face and she relaxed.
• “Thank you so much” …she said … “but the people in the car are my friends.
• And we are just looking for number 56 on this street.”

 

This is one way of saying just how the redemption of Israel can be welcoming when it comes with so much loss.

• It is the warm smile of a dark face on a nighttime city street.
• It is surprise at being so wrong concerning someone we had every right to expect to be just one more frightened person…one more victim.
• It is to be surprised by life at times and places where all our previous experience has prepared us to expect death.

 

The faithful one is betrayed…the man of peace is beaten…the healer dies…and they lay him in a tomb.

• It happens all the time…and it is so normal.
• And it is why the students and I were sure that the people in the car were harassing the woman walking the sidewalk.
• It happens all the time.

 

What does not happen all the time is to find the tomb empty.

• What does not happen all the time is the reversal of what is usual.
• What does not happen all the time is an empty tomb or a smile instead of harassment on a nighttime city street.

 

What does not happen all the time is  Frosty the Snowman waving goodbye and saying:

• “Don’t you cry.

I’ll be back again someday.”