Lent 2: Jesus Answers What We Haven't Yet Thought to Ask

John 3:1-16

CONTENT

Introduction

Good morning friends. It is great to be with you on this second Sunday of Lent. Over the next several weeks we will look at snippets from the Gospel of John. These different vignettes challenge some of the assumptions that people had about the Messiah. Today we encounter Nicodemus coming at night to speak with Jesus. He thought he was solving one problem, but in the discussion he learned about a problem greater than he understood. Jesus then solves for the problem that Nicodemus didn’t even know he was asking about.

         Like a good spiritual director, Jesus pointed out how Nicodemus needed more than what he was asking for. In our life with Christ, this is a helpful paradigm for prayer. We come to God with our sincere questions, but fully ready to embrace an answer to a question much deeper than the one we we’re asking.

         As we look at John 3, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.”

I. 1-2  Naming the problem

         This motif of light and darkness is all throughout the Gospel of John. This week we encounter Jesus meeting with a religious leader in the dark. He comes in spiritual darkness to the light of the world; he also comes under the cloak of darkness because of the risk to being associated with Jesus. John 3 calls Nicodemus a leader of the Jews which I take to mean he was likely a member of the Sanhedrin. This is sort of like a small-scale coalition government. This was made up of different parties that were at odds with one another. Nicodemus knew about Jesus’ cleansing of the temple in John 2 and as a Pharisee, he probably wouldn’t have been bothered that much about it; he may have even cheered him on. Only the Sadducees benefited from the economics of the temple system.

         Nicodemus is risking something by coming to Jesus in this way. I’m sure the Sanhedrin has had discussions about Jesus. Jesus is a threat to one group because he is trying to overthrow well-established religious systems in the temple. He is a threat to another group because he claims to be a king and son of God. He is a threat to another group because he claims to be the rightful interpreter of Moses. Yet there is something in Nicodemus that is so curious about Jesus that he is willing to come and find answers for himself.

         Nicodemus meets Jesus and says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus doesn’t have a famous teacher He followed and He doesn’t really fit anyone’s paradigm for what a teacher in Israel should look like; nonetheless, Nicodemus recognizes that there is something about Jesus’ ministry that comes from God. I wonder what he was hoping to discover? Was he hoping to discover someone who could tell him the future, or innovative hot takes on the law, or a plan to overthrow Rome, or justification that his political faction was right amidst the coalition group of the Sanhedrin? I can’t help but wonder if there were some mixed motives? Yes, he wanted to know more about Jesus, but I also wonder if he wanted to know more about how Jesus viewed his particular tribe. We cannot be certain.

         We all come to Jesus with good desires clouded by mixed motivations. I think it is encouraging to see Jesus’ posture. He doesn’t turn Nicodemus away, but invites him into a better question. You and I will come to Jesus with very good longings and desires to see something of the kingdom of God. And sometimes, and maybe often, those good desires are clouded by all kinds of unhelpful beliefs, values, and misguided assumptions. Jesus doesn’t say “come back when you’re a bit more grown up spiritually.” He blesses the desire with a question to help us see the kingdom more deeply.

II. 3-13 The Spirit’s Deconstruction and Reconstruction — Problematizing the problem

         Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom unless they are first born from above. Some translations will say “born again”, but there is some intentional ambiguity in the Greek word that allows for both. I think the emphasis lies more on being born from above. Nicodemus asks Jesus how it is possible to be born from above. We cannot crawl back into our mothers wombs!?! This concept of being born from above is a new category for our friend Nicodemus. It doesn’t compute.

         Jesus then mentions the Holy Spirit, comparing the Spirit’s work to the wind which blows where it wishes. In our house, when it gets to be about 65-70 degrees, I love to open up our door to our backyard and open up our window to the front yard to get the cross breeze to blow through our house. The problem is that the wind will blow through our nice, tidy piles of papers on the desk or artwork from our son. When the wind blows, those piles go everywhere!! I remember one day I had the windows open and the wind blew everything. I started putting the piles back together and I found a few important papers that I’d been looking for. I like thinking about the Holy Spirit in this was as a gentle disruptor, taking down our neatly stacked ways of being for the purpose of illuminating something we’d forgotten about or lost.

         Nicodemus was an older man with an air-tight theology — until he met Jesus. It wasn’t about which tribe of Judaism got it right. It wasn’t about being in the right family, or among the physical children of Abraham. God was doing something new. The need was deeper than a correct interpretation of Moses, or a just sacrificial system, or the overthrow of foreign aggression. The need went to the darkness of the human condition as an invitation to all peoples to experience the light of the world. It’s an invitation to become what God has made us to be as his image-bearing children. And when this is true, some amount of deconstruction has to take place. And the Holy Spirit is a gentle and wise disrupter.

         We all have places that need to get reconstructed. When I was in an evangelical and very baptist seminary in Dallas, I remember being very curious about this Anglican tradition. I had some questions and my pastor at the time connected me with a friend of his who was an Anglican priest. When I met him, he very kindly gave me a Book of Common Prayer and I said, “You know, I like everything about this, but I just can’t get over this infant baptism thing. Is it possible to be Anglican and not hold to infant baptism?” He smirked, and kindly said, “Well I haven’t really met any clergy that oppose it before.” I could have carried on with my trajectory assuming that I knew something that the church was ignorant about, but the Holy Spirit began to blow over the caverns of my soul and I started researching the logic of infant baptism. This opened a whole new world to me and it opened me up to the Spirit’s work in baptism. And now as a dad, it has changed the way I parent. Contrary to some of the toxic teaching out there, a child is not a viper in diapers and all the other bad parenting philosophies that flow from such an anthropology. That theology has been completely deconstructed by infant baptism. Instead, these are little image bearers baptized in the Holy Spirit whom God has given his grace to. Each one of us in our baptism is an adopted child of God, born from above, and the sins and disordered affections and attachments are not who we are, but outside distractions that distort God’s image in us and pervert our view of the world. We all have our own places that need deconstruction and reconstruction. It is the work of the Spirit to blow through and disrupt the piles so that we discover important things long forgotten on our journey of discovering the kingdom of God.

         Nicodemus, in the darkness of night, was meeting the light of the world. And when the light goes on in the darkness it is painful to our eyes and takes us time to adjust. And Jesus is patient and kind as Nicodemus will definitely need time for his spiritual eyes to adjust.

III. 14-16  Solving the real problem

         Our passage ends with Jesus teaching Nicodemus something about Israel’s Scriptures. He brings up an episode from the book of Numbers[1] where after complaining in the wilderness God sends poisonous snakes which bite the people and they are at death’s door. God has Moses erect a bronze snake on a pole. People are to stare at the snake and they would be delivered. Nicodemus came wanting to talk about Jesus’ educational background and Jesus is like “actually let’s talk about new birth, wind, and snakes”. This is not about Jewish tribalism or the overthrow of an earthly empire. Humankind has been infected with a disease of wickedness more insidious and pervasive than anyone is aware of. Jesus’ ministry as the light of the world is related here to his death on the cross. I like what one writer says, “The darkness (and those who embrace it) must be condemned, not because it offends against some arbitrary laws which God made up for the fun of it, and certainly not because it has to do with the material, created world rather than with a supposed ‘spiritual’ world. It must be condemned because evil is destroying and defacing the present world, and preventing people coming forward into God’s new world...”[2] And the new world that Jesus is talking about is explained in one of the most famous verses in all of the new testament, which we read this morning. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.”

Conclusion

         Nicodemus came in the darkness to mitigate the risk from his colleagues who embraced the darkness as he engaged his questions with the light of the world. In this conversation, his questions, which represented his good desires clouded by mixed motives, were given space by Jesus, who welcomed them and used them to invite Nicodemus into something far more deeper and transformative. Nicodemus needed to let go of his tight theological grid in order to allow the Spirit to show him the work of Jesus and if he would do that he would begin to see the problems of the world as they are so that in Christ he could begin to see himself and the world around him rightly ordered as it should be. As we consider John 3 this Lent hold onto it as an invitation from Jesus to come to him with your questions, to begin to trust the Spirit to deconstruct the darkness and let the Holy Spirit rebuild us as we embrace the light of the world.

Let us pray:

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path we may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

[1]                Numbers 21:8-9.

[2]                Tom Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-10 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 34.

Lent 1: God's Testing is Formative, Not Punitive

Matthew 4:1-11

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning my friends. It is great to be with you this morning. This 40 day season of Lent is where we join Jesus in the wilderness. We are invited to be cleansed of the unhealthy things that have taken root in our lives. The wilderness is a place of preparation for deeper life with God in the mission he calls us to. Today’s Gospel passage is all about Jesus in the wilderness and the clarification of his call in his baptism. As we look at this text together, let me pray for us.

         “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.”

I. Preparation— Into the wilderness to be tested — 4:1-2

         Jesus had spent almost 30 years living in his hometown, taking up the family trade, and preparing for all that God had in store for him in his public ministry through decades of everyday life. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had just been baptized by John and experienced the manifestation of God affirming his sonship as Messiah and the one Israel had been looking for. Right after Jesus’ baptism, Jesus is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. And why? This was preparation. The English translation of “tempting” and “temptation” is pretty unfortunate here. This Greek word, like any foreign word, has a whole range of meanings when it comes into English. God is not leading Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted with evil. God is not tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone with evil. He does, however, allow us to be in situations where we are tested. It is like a parent helping their child gain independence through trying something hard. Imagine a parent helping their child ride a bike. The child is nervous and says “what if I fall?” The parent tells them that that might be the reality, but even adults fall. Then the parent assures their child that figuring out that bike will open up a whole new world of fun and possibilities; the fall will be worth it. The child finally figures it out and the joy that moment brings is only surpassed by the joy they get when they’re out riding. Testing from God is not punitive, it is formative.

         And this is what Jesus is brought to. The Spirit brings him to the wilderness to be tested. Jesus has not done anything wrong to deserve it. In fact, this testing was to the end that Jesus would know his sonship and connection to the father more fully.

         This narrative is supposed to bring our minds back to Deuteronomy where Israel is tested over the course of 40 years in the wilderness prior to entering the land of Canaan. In all the ways they had failed the test, Jesus would be victorious.

         Jesus reminds us that being in the wilderness is no fault of our own and that in wilderness seasons, when our faith is tested, God’s love still rests on us and his aim is our preparation for a deeper experience of His presence and to become fully human in Christ. Seasons of testing and hardship, or privation and destitution, are the seasons that will ultimately strengthen our relationship with Jesus and our resolve to live into what God is calling us into. 

II. Being Lured away with temptation 4:3-10

         In the wilderness we will find ourselves subjected to demonic distractions like Jesus was. Satan uses three partial truths to attempt to derail Jesus from the mission God has called him into. First, he points out a good, god-given need and invites Jesus to meet the need in the wrong way. Second, he asks Jesus to test God. Finally, Satan invites Jesus into the right ends through the wrong means. All of these are instructive for our formation in seasons of trial.

         a. Meet good needs the wrong way 4:3-4

         Satan comes to Jesus in verses 3-4 nearing the end of Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness. Jesus has a very real human need — to eat. Satan, recognizing this need, invites Jesus as the Son of God to turn the stones into bread. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 to say, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus submits himself to this hunger in order to learn dependence on the God who takes care of his people.

         Jesus did not overcome the devil through miraculous shows of power, but through humility and forbearance. This makes me think back to about 2019 when we were considering planting a church. I remember someone telling me “it will be hard and it will take years”, but they were telling me this to tell me not to do it. They provided me with two different job openings where I could take an easy way out and get a nice rector job somewhere. As Ashley and I prayerfully considered and talked, we felt like God was really calling us to do this. It would be hard, but if I had taken the easy way out I would have missed good, hard, albeit sometimes painful, and necessary lessons in God’s love and my formation. I would have also missed the goodness of what God is doing in this church. When you prayerfully step into the hard thing God is calling you into, whether that is mending a relationship, humbly admitting fault for something, writing and advocating for vulnerable people at great cost to yourself, or stepping into a new vocation, there will be voices that encourage you to look for shortcuts. Instead, it is in our spiritual hunger that we humbly learn dependence on the God who loves us and we learn to overcome our adversary through patience and humility, in companionship with Christ.

         b. Putting God under my authority and on my terms (making myself Lord) 4:5-7

         After one failure, the Devil comes again to Jesus and in a vision he brings Jesus to some pinnacle on the temple. Jesus is still in the wilderness, not actually in Jerusalem.[1] Satan tells him to jump off because Scripture says that for those who trust in the most high, the angels will catch them so they don’t dash their foot against a stone.[2] He isn’t totally wrong. There has to be some truth to this verse and God’s protection of his people for this to be compelling enough to be a test. Jesus answers by quoting Deut 6:16 about not putting the Lord to the test.

         I find it insightful that Satan and the powers of darkness that war against our souls can do so using what seems like a “plain reading of scripture”. Here is where their Scripture interpretation fails: they are using Scripture to try and place God under our Lordship and authority. It’s like thinking that if we do everything just right, then we’ll avoid suffering. We might use a verse like Prov 3:5 “in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” However, to claim these kinds of maxims as a promise is to attempt to place God under our authority. It ignores the suffering that Jesus went through and does not make space for our own.

         Instead, we join in the patience of our Lord to hold space for waiting on God and not claiming proof-texts to test God in our impatience. There is a deeper formation that we’re often not aware of.

         c. A Faustian Bargain 4:8-10

         Having gone through two somewhat subtle temptations, Satan comes less subtly. In another vision, Satan brings Jesus up to a mountain where he can see all the kingdoms of the earth. If Jesus would bow down to worship Satan, all the nations of earth would be given to him. He is offering him dominion as king of all kings, and the proposed route to this ultimate goal is to bow down before God’s enemy. Jesus quotes again from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 13 where worship and allegiance is to be ascribed to YHWH alone.

         There is something called a Faustian bargain, which comes from a 16th century German legend. A man named Johan Faust trades his soul to the devil for 24 years of absolute pleasure. The essence of a Faustian bargain is to sacrifice ultimate good for short-term gain. Jesus’ baptism had committed him to the path of servanthood and the path of the cross as the ultimate path to redemption, resurrection, and the glory of kingship. Would this be given up by switching allegiances to gain it quicker and circumvent suffering?

         Satan comes to us with similar compromises. Some would rather bring christendom through physical force than compel people by humility and a life transformed by Christ. Some might avoid productive personal conflict by taking personal grudges to the impersonal sphere of social media. Some would rather spend their mental energy on the evils “out there” to keep from looking at the brokenness “in here”. Some resort to high-control in our relationships or belongings to mask how out of control we feel inside. All of these things are a faustian bargain as we long rightly for the blessing and glory of God, but do so without the suffering and cross of our Savior.

         Our baptism calls us to renounce the devil and turn to the Lord who saves us daily. Satan’s aim in the wilderness is to distract us and take us fully off course from God’s purpose in each of our lives.

Conclusion: The devil leaves, God attends, we are prepared. 4:11

         Jesus didn’t defeat the devil by his own show of strength or bravado. He defeated him through humble, patient, dependence on the Lord who delivers. And ultimately the devil left and he was attended to by God’s angels. Jesus’ testing, and our testing, is not punitive, but formative. This season ultimately allowed him a deeper experience of the love and presence of God even though in the midst of it God may have felt very distant. His constancy, clear sense of mission, and humility allowed him not to get distracted by the voices telling him to take the easy way out, or to lean on God’s “clear” promises about success without suffering, or to make a bargain with evil for short term gain. These voices are very active for each one of us, but God calls us into the wilderness because like a parent who loves us, he wants us to grow and to experience something deeper of his presence than we would have understood before. He wants to make us fully human in the Messiah. And in this patient dependence, the devil will eventually leave. Let’s come clean to Jesus about the ways we’ve tried to take our destiny into our own hands and learn dependence on the Lord who loves us as we we bless the wilderness for what God will do in it.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

[1]                Cf. another visionary visit in Ezek 8:1-3; 11:24.

[2]                Psalm 91:11-12

Ash Wednesday: God's Nature is the Foundation of Forgiveness

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good evening friends. Welcome to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. I find this to be a helpful 40 days each year to pause, examine, and recalibrate. It is a chance to make sure we’re on the right track. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the opportunity to put together furniture from that blessed Swedish store, but I have. And I can remember starting the process of putting together a dresser. I spent about 45 minutes putting things together when I realized that I reversed two of the boards and so all the work I’d done had to be completely undone before it could be redone again. Oh how frustrating it was. And sometimes life happens this way as well. We start off following Jesus, making decisions and forming habits each day. Our vocations, prayer lives, our friendships, the daily routines, our parenting patterns, habits of leisure, exercise, and coping patterns become hardened as we grow comfortable with the composite results of the many decisions we’ve made over the course of years. We find ourselves heading the wrong direction and we have to start over.

         Tonight we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. And yet, God is the one who formed us from the dust of the earth and loves us, dusty icons though we are. This season begins with the God who created us in love and whose love invites us to turn towards him and return. The ways we have gotten off track, the things we’ve built incorrectly, the harms we have caused in thought, word, and deed, are not beyond God’s grace to heal. Contrition, almsgiving, fasting, and prayer are not displays of piety to bypass our pain and harm, but invitations to be restored by the God who loves us and gave himself to death on a cross for us, to raise us with him and restore us to perfect communion with him that begins now and lasts eternally. He invites us to reorient ourselves to his kingdom through rhythms that lead to genuine repentance.

God’s love is the basis for our repentance

         In Joel 2, which we read earlier, the prophet describes the Day of the Lord, and compares it to a locust plague. The destruction of the Babylonians was described like locusts who would come into Judah’s territory and decimate everything. The text says that before the locusts the land is like the garden of Eden and after they pass through they leave a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them. There is a concept scholars talk about though with Old Testament prophecy, which is the concept of conditional prophecy. Sometimes when things sound like promises in prophetic literature they’re actually invitations for Israel to repent so God may do the opposite of what was predicted. And Joel 2 is an example of conditional prophecy.

         This is why we encounter verses 12 and following, where the LORD tells Judah to return with all their heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning. They are called to rend their hearts and not their garments. They are familiar with what religious rituals to carry on doing, but God isn’t interested in empty ritualism; instead, His is interested in a heart that is beginning to turn towards him for his help. And all of this is possible because the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounds in steadfast love. He relents from punishment. This is who he is. It functions like an old covenant creed and it shows up in the torah, here in Joel, and in our Psalm reading tonight. God’s character is the foundation of the possibility of forgiveness.

         I like the way that verse 14 is rendered in the New Living Translation, “Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before.” It is more certain than it sounds. The idea is that they need to begin the process of repentance and see what God will do.

         Sometimes we become aware of our brokenness and we get really comfortable with it. I was listening to an interview where they were talking about people who appear successful. Their superpower is that they can do a lot and do it well. And yet doing a lot and doing it well is often a drive and addiction, or coping strategy for keeping someone from dealing with the heartaches and hurts so that they become truly human again in Christ. Our allergy to suffering is mitigated by our drive to perform. And then we learn to believe that if we just keep going we’ll be fine because beginning to repent and heal is to admit that we’re broken and that kind of vulnerability is scary because we might lose our superpower. Lent is a great invitation to become fully human, admit the brokenness, and begin turning toward the Lord and to rest on his faithfulness. His character is the foundation of our hope.

Repentance and spiritual rhythms are to orient us to God’s kingdom

         Jesus teaches us something very similar in Matthew 6 which we read tonight. He cautions his follower to watch how they keep their religious observance and spiritual rhythms. There is a way to do a checklist of duties that make us look alright and completely miss the substance of the real work of repentance. The nature of prayer in the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6 is to form us and reorient us to the kingdom of God and where God is at work in our world. Fasting, giving alms, and prayer are the three spiritually foundational habits of Lent. In the end, they are for our formation more than appeasing God’s desire for moral people.

         Their aim and goal is to attune us to God’s work. It reminds me a bit of when Ashley and I had a community garden plot a long time ago. The whole thing was covered in crab grass and we both recognized the problem. Because she and I are wired the way we are, I started scraping off the grass at the surface level with the broad end of a pick axe. I was perfectly happy to throw some seed down and some top soil on it. Now I did do that for part of it, but within a few weeks, plants came up, but so did the grass. Ashley, on the other hand, took to the shovel and went deep. It was slow work, but substantive work. Her work did not cover as much square footage, but where she dug, the grass did not grow back. And in the long run, I had to go back and do it her way. It was harder to see the progress on the slow and substantial work in the short-term, but in the long run, this was the only way to have a healthier garden. I think we often just scrape at the surface spiritually. 

         When someone comes to me for confession, if they say “I want to confess my pride,” then I will invite them to tell me what pride looked like for them. Vague senses that something is wrong is a good start, but the roots go deep. We need to spend time with where our overreactions and deep sensitivities are. We need to examine our places of insecurity, fear, and cynicism. How many times do we make a joke about something and with a smirk on our faces, we subtly communicate that someone’s opinion is not only unwelcome, but that they are a deeply flawed individual for holding to their conclusions? The religious habits that form us and please God are the ones done with integrity. They work heuristically. As we come to an awareness of how we are going the wrong way, then we begin to honestly come to the Lord with a desire for him to rightly align our desires, thoughts and loves. Even the smallest of desire for repentance is met with the fullness of the grace of God because of who he is. Then as we are formed through these rhythms, we begin to move the right direction, build the right way, become rightly aligned with God’s love and his will. In other words we learn to long for God’s will and love what God loves.

Conclusion

         This Lent, let me encourage us to be vulnerably broken before the Lord because God’s very self is compassion and he longs to meet us in his grace. Admitting our brokenness is not to give up our superpowers; it is to become fully human. As you receive a bit of ash on your forehead this evening and you hear the words “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”, be encouraged that God longs to restore you to the dusty, image-bearing, icon he has made you to be.

Transfiguration: Fellowship on the Mountain of God

Matthew 17:1-9

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning friends. It is great to be with you on this final Sunday after the Epiphany. This morning we have some hills and mountains talked about from our Scripture passages and I want to tie together some of what happens on these mountains to help us see how following Jesus is connected to his glory, his rule and reign, being made known among the nations.

         When I was about 18 or 19, I lived in Sonoma County in California. I used to mountain bike a lot, and I would often my bike out and ride this 10 mile course along a vineyard-lined highway from Santa Rosa to Kenwood, to a mountain called Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. Once I got there, the last mile and a half would be rough as I made my way straight up the mountain. I loved climbing that mountain on my bike. My legs burned as I went up through the dappled light of tree-lined mountain road. I’d crest the final incline where the trees would break, the sun would shine through, and I found myself on the top of a mountain range that overlooked another two smaller mountains. You can see the view up on the screen. This is is a picture from that mountain.

         I’d sit and look out at Mount Hood with the breeze blowing in my face and cooling me down. I loved the opportunity to sit in the dirt, hear nothing but the wind, feel the sun on my body, the dirt on my hands, and watch the world continue to move along below my feet. I don’t know about you, but I often need moments like these in God’s creation that remind me that I do not make the world turn. When I bike or hike I make it a point to stop at some point, breathe deep, and remind myself of this. I can really appreciate the ancient world who would often build worship places on mountains because there was this sense of the mountain being the place where God dwells. Even in the early church, some of the Fathers picture Eden being planted at the top of a mountain.[1]

         Our mountain passages this morning remind us of the God who is at work, that we can trust, and that it is not us who make the world turn, but Him. On these mountains, God’s glory is made known, covenants and people are established, and the way of Jesus is clarified. God’s rule and reign, and the glory of his resurrection, is extended to all, through our participation in Christ’s death and sufferings. To join in the glory of the transfiguration, we must understand both mount Sinai and the hill of Galgotha. These mountains give us a composite picture of a life of following Jesus. As we look at these passages together, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.”

1. Exodus — Mt. Sinai — The Meal on the mountain and salvation to the nations

         In Exodus 24, God has delivered his people out of Egypt, and now invites them into a covenant. God comes to Mount Sinai in a cloud with thunder and lightning. The people go up, the elders go a bit further, other leaders go even further, and Moses goes up alone to write down God’s words. God has taken the initiative to establish this agreement with Israel as their God and king. Moses is going to take God’s words and read them to the people and they will agree to this agreement.

         The agreement is solemnized and ratified in verse 11 between the two parties with a covenant meal.[2] The people said yes to following the LORD who wanted to make them into a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and a royal priesthood, a people who would display the goodness of God and invite others into this life. The meal on a mountain is extended to all nations in Isaiah 25:6 when God says, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” The meal on the mountain becomes a theme that is found in the book of Revelation and is extended each week in our Eucharistic celebration.

         God is establishing a people for his own possession, to display the goodness of his glory as king. Every language, people group, race and heritage, and family is being brought under the rule of our Lord Christ to become one people who are to the praise of his glorious reign. I think sometimes we’d rather push someone off the mountain than invite them to sit next to us at the table. Consider the spaces we find ourselves in deep disagreement; bring them to the level of conscious awareness; and begin to engage one another with curiosity. I know there are a million and one hot-button issues, like gender and sexuality, immigration, parenting styles and education choices, etc. Sometimes, even as the priest here, I feel like I’m walking on eggshells, but I’m trying to work on allowing someone to talk and then to enter into some of these spaces with curiosity rather than an agenda. It’s like the prayer of St. Francis: I want to seek to understand more than to be understood. It is totally countercultural, but if we need to start here to invite people to the table rather than pushing God’s image-bearers off the mountain.

2. Transfiguration — Mt. Tabor — Jesus is one greater than Moses to deliver his people

         The one greater than Moses has come to us on a new mountain in the Gospel this morning. Jesus invites Peter, James, and John onto the mountain with him. This is either on Mount Hermon or Tabor, we’re not sure. There are several parallels to the Sinai event: Certain companions come up the mountain, there is a cloud that overshadows, and an appearance of the glory of God. The details aren’t meant to be a one-to-one connection. This Jesus is the prophet like Moses, but greater than Moses. This was a taste of the glory of the kingship of the son of Man that was prophesied about in the book of Daniel.

         If you want to know the way of this Son of Man, we are reminded to listen to Him. He is the one who gives God’s commands in this new covenant. As they descend the mountain, there will be a lot of things the disciples will not understand and their only hope to seeing God’s kingdom in the valley of demons is to listen to the Son. We all need rhythms of stillness and silence to be saved and delivered from the daily darkness. I don’t mean physical silence necessarily. I mean that we need regular rhythms of handing over to God what feels turbulent and grievous, to name sin that has gotten calcified, and to meditate on how Jesus is God’s love revealed to us. I was talking with someone the other day about how these rhythms remind me of going to the dentist. I go every 6 months because I need someone with special tools to chip off all the stuff from my teeth that has hardened. Even though that plaque feels like it is part of my teeth, it isn’t! Spiritually, sin and disorder attach to our selves like plaque and calcify and we need regular rhythms of being with Jesus who wants to scrape it off and say “This is not you. Let me take that from you.”

         The way we access those spaces is by being honest with ourselves about what’s broken. I remember someone telling me a story from when they spoke to their counselor about why they was getting a certain reaction from their child when they said things a certain way. I have permission to share this. The counselor told them, “Hey, you’re kid is two. You probably look big and scary.” My friend was so embarrassed by not figuring that out himself. Once he brought that to conscious awareness he could begin to ask the Lord why his reactions were a certain way. Was he wanting to feel in charge to compensate for feeling weak and out of control? Was he worried his child would turn out a certain way if he didn’t react with some harshness? Eventually he realized that there was an insecurity there and in an attempt to feel in control, he asserted himself a certain way that made his child feel scared. This was pride and manipulation that was not him, but it had perverted and distorted how he was showing up. He worked on this with Jesus so he could recognize that feeling before it manifest in words or bodily reactions. It started to get better. Listening to Jesus can be so hard, but it is the only way to make it through the valley of demons below.

3. The Cross and Resurrection — A Hill outside Jerusalem

         The mount of transfiguration is necessary in light of one more hill mentioned in Scripture: the hill on which Jesus was crucified outside of Jerusalem. Jesus’ glorious reign as king over all and his reign going to the nations was not accomplished through a blood bath against the rebellious, but through his own death on the cross.

         N.T. Wright says it this way, “Learn to see the glory in the cross; learn to see the cross in the glory; and you will have begun to bring together the laughter and the tears of the God who hides in the cloud, the God who is to be known in the strange person of Jesus himself. This story is, of course, about being surprised by the power, love and beauty of God. But the point of it is that we should learn to recognize that same power, love and beauty within Jesus, and to listen for it in his voice—not least when he tells us to take up the cross and follow him.”[3]

         In this week, as we move from the glory of Jesus on the mountain, to journeying with Jesus, to obedience to the point of death on the cross, I invite us to consider what it means for God to be made glorious in people who take up their cross with Jesus; people who risk humiliation to follow God and love like Christ; people who long for the glorious vision of resurrection and are willing to listen to Jesus when it is costly in order to find his glory in the kingdom of God. 

Conclusion

         On this day which focuses on the transfiguration, we’ve looked at three important mountains. We have looked at God’s desire for relationship with his people on mount Sinai, we’ve seen the glory of God revealed in Jesus on Tabor, and we’ve considered the glorious cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem. God is creating a banquet to bring all kinds of people into, and we are reminded of it each week. Let’s become a people who invites others to the table in curiosity rather than pushing them off them mountain; a people who spend time listening to Jesus, seeking to understand more than to be understood; a people who take seriously the call to follow Jesus and love well in obedience when it is potentially humiliating and costly. It is in doing these things that God’s glory is made known in these weak vessels and will go to the nations in our lives and in the lives of the people around us.

Let me pray for us:

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

[1]                St. Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise.

[2]                NIV Application Commentary.

[3]                Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 16-28 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 15.

4th Sunday of Epiphany: Distractions from Obedience to the Lord

Micah 6:1-8

CONTENT

Introduction

Good morning dear friends. It is great to be back in person with you. I know this has been a really weird week with different routines, kids at home all week, and other challenges. All that to say I’m really glad to be back worshiping with you this morning.

         Today’s reading from the book of Micah and I want to look at it this morning because I think there are some helpful things for us in it. Our passage today reminds us that sometimes we make following the Lord too complex, but the complexity is strategic; we create complexity to keep us from the simple, but difficult task, of doing what is truly right and good in the Lord’s sight. It is hard because we have to be honest about what we’ve done or left undone, or face those wounds we’ve walled off to keep safe, and we have to do what is right and good even when it is costly. Rather than do the hard work God calls Israel and us to do, we would rather fill our lives with distractions (even ministry distractions) that God has not asked us to do to keep us from addressing hard things. It is something we are all tempted to and this is why Micah 6 is a great reminder to us as well. As we look at this passage, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and redeemer. Amen.”

The case brought against the people (6:1-5)

         The prophet Micah is prophesying in the first half of the 8th century and the beginning of the book puts this over the time period of the reigns of the vice-regents, Jotham and Ahaz, and then King Hezekiah. Tiglath Pileser III started a fresh campaign and pressure that would culminate in the fall of Samaria in the north in 722 BC where the northern kingdom of Israel was pretty much destroyed. This happened while Ahaz and Jotham were reigning over Judah in the south. Hezekiah, who would reign after them, would form an anti-Assyrian coalition with with the Palestinian and Syrian subject states. It would keep them safe for a time, but even the south would come to be taken later by the Babylonians in the 7th century.

         This is a period of relative wealth and ease for Judah as they have successfully staved off the Assyrian threat. The surface-level peace and relative economic prosperity have become a double-edged sword spiritually. Micah is a covenant mediator and social and religious commentator on Jerusalem during this time where Sargon II takes the northern kingdom and as Judah forms alliances with foreign nations to ensure security.

         Micah starts with a legal proceeding where God calls Israel to bring their case against God, “Rise, plead your case.” God asks Judah a question “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!” God lays out his saving acts. He rescued them from Egypt, he gave them leaders, he did not allow foreign enemies to conquer them, he brought them across the Jordan river. This passage is used for us every year in our Good Friday service. The reproaches begin with this question “O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Testify against me.” They end with, “I opened the rock and gave you drink from the water of life, and you have opened my side with a spear. I raised you on high with great power, and you have hanged me high upon the Cross. O my church, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Testify against me.”

         God is inviting people back to covenant relationship. God is not sitting up somewhere stewing in anger or terrified by the anxiety about how bad a failing Judah will make him look. God confidently and mercifully invites them back while holding in tension the fact that he will not be mocked and he wants to make them into his covenant people. He has been seeking their good, but they have consistently walked away from the goodness God has for them and what he wants to make them into. We do this do. It is the very nature of sin and why it is both subtle and destructive. God has the same invitation to us to come and pay attention to all he has done for us. Look at his saving acts and ask what things, people, relationships, addictions, habits, patterns, and thoughts are drawing us away from knowing his love in Christ. Don’t paper over them with placebos and platitudes, spiritual bypassing, or even ministry opportunities. Do the simple work of being honest, no matter the cost.

The defense: Entering the Lord’s presence improperly (6:6-7)

         Verses 6-7 change genre and form the peoples’ response. It’s like they are saying “God, how much is enough!?” They could bring a calf a year old. In other words, they’ve made an investment of time and money to rear this calf for a year in order to offer something costly to the Lord. Or should they offer God ten thousand rivers of oil? Would God be more pleased if they could offer him something greater and more expensive? If they could do big and great things for God would he then be pleased with them? Would that be enough? Or the most extreme example. The people ask if they should give their own firstborn for their transgressions. God had condemned human sacrifice, but this didn’t stop Judah or Israel from trying it. King Ahaz himself, during Micah’s ministry would offer his own son to the god Molech. It was an extreme and despicable rite that in this context is very ironic. They’ve gone so far their own way that they’ve now viewed apostasy as a pleasing offering. After all that God has done Judah is eager to sacrifice a lot of stuff to make sure that God gets the honor due his name. It’s almost like they’re saying, “Geez God, how many sacrifices does it take to make you happy?” It almost feels like a critique on any notion of “do great things for God and he will be pleased and bless your life.” And Micah is saying, that that is entirely the wrong question. There is no amount of zeal or sacrifice that will cover up a life of injustice, rebellion, misguided autonomy, and spiritual neglect.

The simplicity of pleasing the Lord (6:8)

         There is no amount of work we can do for God or for the church or to try and make God look good that will atone for a life of injustice and moving away from God’s presence. It’s the age old lie of the garden where shame forced Adam and Eve to say “I am bad” and to move toward fixing their own problems themselves. Instead of turning away from them, God turns toward Adam and Even in invitation to ask where they have gone? The difference between guilt and shame is that guilt, within a securely attached relationship, invites someone into repair for the wrong they’ve done. It is useful. Shame, by contrast, tells someone that they are bad and it moves people into isolation. God does not shame his people, but here in Micah and elsewhere, he does account for the wrongs they’ve done so that they experience a sense of guilt that moves them to his kind invitation back into the goodness for which they were made.

         Here’s my translation of vers 8: “He has told you, humanity, what is good, and what Yahweh requires of you: only to do justice, and to love covenant faithfulness, and to walk circumspectly with your God.” First they are called to do “justice” which often is used in Scripture as a call to our responsibility to take care of the weaker members of society: the poor and vulnerable, the immigrant and foreigner, the widow, and the orphan. It insists on the God-given rights of others because this is God’s very character and disposition toward his people. God’s people are to love covenant faithfulness. A lot of translations will say mercy, but this word is really about faithfulness to the covenant that God has established with his people. He has done everything to deliver his people, to bring about their well-being, and to make them a chosen nation, royal priesthood, and kingdom of priests. They are to love the process by which they become what God has called them to be; however it is often easier for them to rely on their own ways or the ways of the nations towards an inadequate vision of prosperity. The beatitudes are like a preamble of a new covenant. We are called to grow in love with Jesus’ words to us and following him to become more like him.

         Finally, he says to walk circumspectly with your God. Humility is inferred but not explicit. The idea is that this person is taking great care in the small details of how they walk with God. There is humility in submitting yourself to the will of God and not doing things from your own reactions and proclivities. The call to walk circumspectly is an invitation to bring God’s will to bear on the entirety of our lives.

         When we choose to see the image of God in all people, when we are patient in prayer and learning facts rather than being driven by addiction to scrolling and rage-bait, when we seek to discover healing and name wounds accurately, when we allow guilt to move us toward relationship rather than heaping shame on ourselves in isolation and allowing false narratives to drive us away from the love of God, then we will find ourselves in the state of counting ourselves fortunate that Jesus promises in the beatitudes. It is simple, but it is also difficult and costly. Judah had offered God everything except for what God actually asked for. We are tempted to do the same. Chuck DeGroat has a great little paragraph that illustrates the point: ““I’ve learned a thousand ways to cope,” a retreat participant once told me, “and they’re all easier than healing.”...That’s the lie, I thought to myself when I heard them. That’s the root of the ancient fallacy, one we’ve acted on for time immemorial. We’ve fallen for the lie that a bit of drink here and an hour of scrolling there will quell the deep ache of our hearts, the lie that keeps us from attending to what’s happening within, where our wounds fester. But it’s here, in our spaces of self-soothing and our places of pain management, that God once again meets us.”[1] I’d add to this, along with Micah, that even ministry, community service, and other good things can distract us from dealing with the simple and costly obedience that God asks of us.

Conclusion

         The community of faith has preserved Micah’s prophetic works as a timeless treasure to call us to repentance and hope in the God who invites us to know him and his love for us. God has done everything to save us and he calls us to put down all the things we use to distract ourselves from healing our wounds and finding true peace in Christ. The work is simple, but it is hard, and it is costly. It begins in each of our hearts as we walk very carefully with Christ. God has turned his face towards us and invites us to be at home in his presence: to grow in our knowledge of his love for us and others, and in the hard work of addressing our wounds, to become the good image-bearers he has made us to be.

Let me close by praying again for us this collect for this Sunday: “O God, you know that we are set in the midst of many grave dangers, and because of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant that your strength and protection may support us in all dangers and carry us through every temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

[1]                Chuck DeGroat, Healing What’s Within, 155.

2nd Sunday After Epiphany: Follow Jesus and Discover the Kingdom of God

John 1:29-42

CONTENT

Introduction

Good morning friends. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. On this 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany we hear John the Baptist’s reflection on the baptism of Jesus, and his invitation to some of his disciples to follow Jesus. I love the question that Jesus poses to John’s disciples. He asks, “What are you looking for?” That question feels like a continual invitation from Jesus to be honest about what we are looking for in a Savior. In asking the question honestly, we start to identify our worries, doubts, insecurities, hurts, the things we want rescue from. It is an invitation to journey with Jesus so that the glory of his rule and reign grows our vision for who he is.

         Looking for the Son of God is about the journey and not the destination. As we look at our Gospel text this morning, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.”

29-34 John’s commentary on Jesus’ baptism

         The Gospel of John assumes we know the details of Jesus’ baptism. Unlike the other gospels, it does not give us the narrative details. Instead the emphasis is on the signs that Jesus is Messiah. John mentions this intriguing phrase “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” John’s whole baptism ministry was to the end that someone who would be baptized would be revealed as the Messiah that Israel anticipated. This whole business about John not knowing Jesus probably has to do with the fact that John’s knowledge of Jesus as Messiah had not been fully filled out until Jesus is baptized. 

         John knew that the Messiah would be the one to come and bring God’s justice to God’s people. The suffering part was not quite as clear. In early Judaism there were passages about the Messiah suffering on behalf of God’s people to deliver them from sin, like Isaiah 53. There were also passages that spoke about the Messiah coming like a victorious king to deliver God’s people from foreign oppression, like Micah 5:2. How these two images of the Messiah came together was a mystery during the baptism ministry of John. In fact, some teachers of Israel thought that there would be two Messiahs — one to suffer and one to reign.

         John recounts that when he had baptized Jesus that he saw the vision of God revealed and the Spirit resting on Jesus in the form of a dove. He concludes and testifies that this is the Son of God. He calls him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John brings together the suffering Messiah imagery and the victorious Messiah ideas together in ways that would only make sense after Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead. This imagery is fully laid out in Revelation 5:11 where the elders and angels sing “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” John’s ministry is now coming to a close as Jesus’ begins to ramp up.

         Cyril of Alexandria says it this way: “No longer does John need to “prepare the way,” since the one for whom the preparation was being made is right there before his eyes...but now he who of old was dimly pictured, the very Lamb, the spotless Sacrifice, is led to the slaughter for all, that he might drive away the sin of the world, that he might overturn the destroyer of the earth, that dying for all he might annihilate death, that he might undo the curse that is upon us...For one Lamb died for all, saving the whole flock on earth to God the Father, one for all, that he might subject all to God.”[1]

         John’s ministry was beginning to come to an end. The one he hoped for had come. John would eventually be killed and he would not see the fulness of what he predicted on this side of eternity. Things did not unfold as he thought they would, but his life is a foundational testimony to the life and ministry of Jesus. His life pointed people to Jesus, not matter what this might mean. This was certainly true for his two disciples mentioned next.

35-39 “What are you looking for?”

         In verses 35-39, on the “next day” after John’s baptism of Jesus, two of John’s disciples see Jesus walk by. John says “Look, the Lamb of God!” and invites these disciples to follow Jesus. One of these two disciples is identified as Andrew, Simon’s brother. The other one is left unidentified. As they begin following Jesus, Jesus poses this question to them: “What are you looking for?” In the context of the story, I wonder if they look at each other a bit bewildered. “What do you mean what are we looking for? We are looking for the Messiah, the one who is going to destroy our enemies, make God’s people upright again, the one our teacher John spoke about...” and so on.

         Jesus’ question to them is included by John here as a question for us. What are you looking for? Andrew and this other disciple had to follow Jesus for some time before they really learned what they were looking for. They were looking for someone to deliver them from their disordered loves, their bondage to spiritual darkness, death, false narratives they’ve been told, and much more. It would take time for them to name these things to know what they were really looking for. Following Jesus is the beginning of asking the right questions and shaping our desires so we can ask rightly “What are we looking for?”

         They ask Jesus the Rabbi where he is staying. They want to continue this conversation over dinner. Jesus answers them, saying “Come and see”. It is a genuine invitation. He wants them to come and see and expand their vision of the ministry of the Messiah.

         This reminds me of following Jesus in the church. I remember beginning to attend an Anglican church and someone walked me through Holy Week. I intellectually understood what was going to happen and thought it was neat, but it wasn’t until I went through a Holy Week with the church that I really experienced the goodness of God in it. Experiencing something of the quick move from joy to rejection, the moments of darkness and silence, the joy of the fire and the resurrection. Easter made so much more sense because of both the liturgy and experiencing it in the lives of my church family. Life with Jesus is not just a mental assent to an image of the Messiah, it is an expansion of our vision of the Messiah’s work as we follow him and taste and see that the Lord is good. Jesus invites us to come and see His work. He invites us because like Andrew and this other disciple, he wants us to follow him.

40-42 Peter is invited to come and see

         One of these two disciples of John the Baptist is named. It is Andrew, who is the brother of Simon, whom Jesus will call Peter. Andrew is so excited about his discovery of the Messiah that he is compelled to go and invite his brother. Andrew brings Simon to Jesus to meet him. Jesus meets Simon and renames him Cephas, which is Aramaic for stone. This is instructive as we think of discipleship.

         Andrew followed Jesus. He spent time listening to him and learning from him. I’m sure he asked him a lot of questions. He took it all in. He allowed his time with Jesus to reorder his world and paradigms. He was now internally convinced that this was the anointed, the Messiah of God. He wants to bring others not to an intellectual understanding, but into the same deep inner knowledge and reorienting relationship with Jesus that he himself has experienced. To do this he needed to bring Simon into Jesus’ presence and Jesus begins to reframe Simon’s reality starting with a new name. 

         Discipleship is ongoing, not immediate. We follow Jesus and we begin to ask him questions along the journey: “Why am I in pain? Why are people inflicting pain on others? Have I messed up this relationship beyond your ability to bring healing? Am I still doing your will if I’m not doing the same job anymore? Why has my family member caused me so much harm? Where are you right now?!” And to these Jesus has this same beautiful invitation: “Come and see — because I want you to follow me and see what the kingdom is like.” And as we grow in a knowledge of God’s love and how he rightly orders the world, we are compelled to invite others to come and meet this Jesus with us. We are not superior to others. We are fellow pilgrims discovering Jesus on the road home.

         Some have speculated that the Gospel writer, who never mentions himself by name, is the other unnamed disciple of John the baptist. We can’t know for sure. But it would make sense of why there is so much Aramaic. John the Evangelist is possibly recounting these foundational first-hand moments and using the Aramaic he was accustomed to using with Jesus: “Rabbi” in Aramaic to “teacher” in Greek. “Messiah” in Aramaic to “Anointed” in Greek. “Cephas” in Aramaic to “Peter” in Greek. John is perhaps recounting these moments as he remembers them but inviting his Gentile readers into the story through translating the phrases to something more familiar for his audience. This day he is remembering was foundational for his journey with Jesus and it invites his readers, as Andrew does his brother, to come and follow Jesus, to refine their questions (and ours) in light of a relationship to this good Shepherd, to experience the kingdom of God, to discover what we are truly longing for and to expand our vision for Jesus’ ministry and the story he is telling of the kingdom of God in our lives.

Conclusion

         Today’s Gospel is all about an invitation to follow Jesus, what we call becoming a disciple. John the baptist had his view expanded of Jesus’ ministry. His disciples, Andrew and the other — possibly John the apostle— had their vision of Jesus’ ministry expanded. Peter is invited to learn the ministry of the Messiah. Through all of these lives you and I are also invited to come and see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We are invited to ask “What are you looking for” and then we are invited to be surprised as Jesus walks with us in life’s complications and expands our vision for his kingdom and proves himself to be our good shepherd along difficult paths. All of us are pilgrims together learning to ask better questions of Jesus as we walk with him, listen to him, and as he reorients us as we follow Him. And as we follow Him, we are invited into a deeper experience of the love of God, to taste and see that He is good, and to invite others to journey with us as we walk with Jesus.

Let us pray:

Grant, Almighty God, that the words we have heard this day with our ears may by your grace be grafted in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of a righteous life, to the honor and praise of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]                Cyril of Alexandria, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.

The Baptism of Jesus: Chaos No Longer Reigns

Matthew 3:13-17

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning friends. It is so good to worship with you all this morning. On this first Sunday after the Epiphany we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. The moment of Jesus’ baptism was reminding me this week of when I collected rocks as a kid. I have these opals that I got when I was little. If you let them dry out, they look completely unassuming, like a normal rock, but once you put them in water they shine with amazing colors, and if you were to turn the lights off and shine a black light on them, they will radiate with amazing neon hues. It reminds me of Jesus’ baptism because what we have is an unassuming picture of a man being baptized, but then what happens is the curtain is pulled back and the glorious vision of heaven in the ministry of Jesus is revealed. The kingdom is inaugurated and sheds light on the rest of his ministry.

         This will be the beginning of the ministry of the Messiah and what unfolds in Jesus’ ministry has the full energy and work of the Triune God behind it. In the baptism of Jesus the rule and reign of God is made known to the powers of darkness, creation anticipates its renewal, and the Trinity reveals its working in our salvation. As we look at Jesus’ baptism this morning, let me pray for us:

“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, o Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.”

1) Jesus comes to be baptized — to bring justice and undo the powers of darkness. (3:13-15)

         Jesus is roughly 30 years old when we meet him at this point and he is going to begin his public ministry. He has come from the North in Galilee, and makes the trek to Judea to see John. This is no accident. It’s about a 70 mile walk, so Jesus is very purposeful in making this trip to begin his ministry. John had just finished preaching to the crowds about the Messianic figure to come. He is talking about final judgment, the winnowing fork and getting rid of the chaff, and this Messiah’s future baptism being one of the Holy Spirit and of fire. This crowd is primed to see something miraculous.

         There’s something recognizable about this Jesus, but initially this image is quite unimpressive. John greets him with the recognition that Jesus is the one he was talking about. He should be baptized by Jesus, not the other way around! How can Jesus come to John’s baptism which is for repentance and the forgiveness of sins when Jesus is one who has committed no sin? There has been a lot of ink spilled over this problem throughout church history. There are a couple of important things to think about here. First, he could have come with the full manifestation of his glory as the king who will judge, but instead, his kingship begins with the humble identification with penitential humanity. He will join them in their trials and sorrows, even being made fully like them in their death. John the Baptist would have been the big celebrity in this moment, and Jesus begins his ministry without any show or pomp at the waterside with the rest of troubled humanity.

         The second thing to name is the sacramental quality of this act. Hilary of Poitiers says this: “He had no need for baptism. Rather, through him the cleansing act was sanctified to become the waters of our immersion.” This is perhaps intertwined with what it means when Jesus tells John that he has to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. John’s question is why would Jesus need to be baptized? Jesus says, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” He isn’t talking about some reformational idea of personal justification. That would be anachronistic and completely foreign to early Judaism. He is talking about the arrival of God’s kingship where all that has been turned upside down by sin, injustice, and death will be put right again. The baptism is the beginning of the display of God’s kingship. Jesus is baptized to begin to put an end to the powers of darkness and evil. This is how the judgment will come about that John had predicted before Jesus showed up!

2) Jesus is baptized — To make holy the waters and bring new life. (3:16)

         Second, Jesus is baptized to sanctify the waters and bring new life. If you look at a lot of Eastern icons of the baptism of Jesus, he is not fully submerged in the water. As far back as one goes into the Old Testament, the waters are always mythologically representative of chaos. This is why in Psalm 29 the LORD is said to sit enthroned over the flood. Whether we’re talking about the flood of Noah or the floodwaters destroying Assyria in Nahum, or even back to creation itself where the waters represent the formless and void chaos before creation is rightly ordered, the waters are representative of a destructive force of chaos. Jesus is not fully submerged by them because he created them and will not be overcome by them. Instead, by entering them he has sanctified the waters so that what was an instrument of death becomes the material means of new life thereafter.

         Jesus’s baptism is a cosmic renewal that points to the renewal that all creation longs for. All creation longs for its proper use once again and here Jesus restores the waters so the Spirit who hovers over the waters, utilizes them to restore God’s image in God’s image bearers.

         As Jesus comes up from the waters the text says that the Spirit of God descended like a dove and was alighting on him. There are several images coming together here and this is certainly not comprehensive, possibly both the Spirit who hovered over the waters of chaos and the dove that came back to Noah. This is the only place in the New Testament where the Spirit is compared to a dove and when we think back to Noah, the dove that had been sent out after the flood returned with a symbol of new life that signified the renewal of creation. Here again the Holy Spirit comes as the one who effects the new life and this begins the ministry of Jesus. The arc of the narrative of the Messiah’s glory as king will be marked by miracles, but also by deep betrayal, falsehoods, the powers of the kingdom of darkness, death, and descent into Sheol. And yet the Spirit is alighting the entire ministry so that what comes through His death is resurrection, the conquering of death, renewed creation, and new life for the followers of Jesus who will reign with him in his glorious kingdom which begins here at this baptism. We join him through baptism in a death like his so that we are raised with him in a resurrection like his. We are brought into His kingdom so that we might reign with him. What began as a familiar, but unimpressive image of the Messiah coming for baptism has turned into a full-blown theophany on the level of God coming at Mount Sinai.

3) The Trinity is involved in transferring us to this new kingdom — Sonship and reigning (3:17 // Isa 42 // Ps 2)

         Jesus was baptized to destroy the powers of chaos, death, and evil. He was baptized to sanctify the waters and bring us and all creation into new life and renewal. Finally, His baptism brings us into a new kingdom. In verse 17 the voice of the Father in Heaven ratifies the kingship of Jesus with a declaration “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. This brings together two important Old Testament images. First, we read Isaiah 42 today which has the Spirit of God falling on God’s chosen servant that will bring the deliverance about for God’s people. This verse does not use the language of sonship, but Psalm 2 famously does, which is where God says “You are my son, today I have begotten you”. And this psalm is a famous enthronement Psalm for the Davidic ruler as a son of the Divine Ruler, YHWH. The Servant of God and Son of God are manifested here in the person of Jesus, spoken by the Father, illumined and empowered by the Spirit. The life of the Triune God was showing forth from the waters. Everything that happens from here on out is to the end that Jesus rules and reigns as king over all.

         The image of Jesus ruling and reigning over all as judge is still true, but what is more important is how he gets there. He begins with this full identification with broken humanity and lives the rest of his ministry out in the light of the life of the Trinity. He will see triumphs and miracles, he will have people walk away, he will be misunderstood and betrayed, he will take moments to be off in fellowship with God in prayer, he will be surrounded by noisy crowds — All of this is framed by the God’s manifestation and ratification of his kingship here at his baptism.

Conclusion

         The same is true for us. Baptism, for us, is nothing less than a ratification of the victory of God for his people. In the baptism of Jesus the rule and reign of God is made known to the powers of darkness, creation anticipates its renewal, and the Trinity reveals its working in our salvation. What is true cosmically is true personally for each one of us and I want us to have this at the forefront of our remembrance today as we support Caedan in his baptism. As Caeden comes to be baptized you are seeing someone renounce sin, evil, and darkness, to turn from the kingdom of darkness and who is being brought into the Kingdom of the Son. He is going to be given the Holy Spirit and the rest of his days are framed in the light of the Spirit’s work and his story is connecting the dots of the manifestation of the reign of Jesus the Messiah in his life and in the lives of those he meets. Each one of us is called to pray for him and renew our own vows as we remember what God has done for each of us in this same baptism we share with him. As we remember the baptism of Jesus, remember your baptism. Remember that your story is part of this cosmic renewal where God is making his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Let me pray for us:

Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy thought can drag down; an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose can tempt aside. Bestow upon us understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and faithfulness that finally may embrace you.  Amen.

Epiphany: The Longing of the Magi and the Glory of Jesus

Matthew 2:1-12

CONTENT

Introduction

            Good evening friends. It is so great to be with you to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. This season is actually older in the church’s calendar than the feast of Christmas itself, but because it doesn’t always fall on a Sunday, it doesn’t get nearly as much attention. Epiphany is an important season that draws us into the revealing of the glory of God in bringing heaven and earth together in the rule and reign of Jesus. This day focuses on the Magi in the western tradition. Then we continue the theme as we look at the revealing of the glory of God in Jesus’ baptism, in the turning of water into wine, and the transfiguration. The second to the last Sunday of this season we call world mission Sunday and it highlights that God’s glory is still going out to all the nations through the Church, which is his body. As we look at our Gospel passage today, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, Amen.”

King of the Jews (1-6)

            St. Matthew begins his infancy narrative quite differently than St. Luke. There is no mention of a manger or animals, shepherds, or angels. Instead, we arrive at the place where Mary and Joseph are with their baby, Jesus, in Bethlehem. The timing of this happens under king Herod, who was an Idumean, a group of people descended from Esau and the Edomites who were forcibly converted to Judaism a few hundred years before by the Maccabees. He was an exceptional builder and administrator, but also a cruel tyrant, of whom it has been said that it is better to be Herod’s dog than his son. He was someone who was quick to put an end to anyone he perceived as a political threat.

            Jesus was born into this culture of warring madness and it makes it all the more striking that some Magi come to Herod and ask “Where is the child who was born king of the Jews?” These are pagan astrologers who worked in the Royal court, often associated with Babylonia, but their location is ambiguous. The point is that they are Gentiles. These Gentile rulers have come to pay homage to the king of the Jews. Herod, though, claimed this title as his own, so you can imagine Herod’s surprise when astrologers from the East follow a divine light in the sky to find a king of the Jews — who was presumably not him.

            Herod’s reign was about himself and his own preservation. By contrast, the rule of Jesus as king of the Jews was to be for the good of the nations. Matthew highlights the nature of Jesus’ kingship as one of a tender shepherd by quoting Micah 5:2 about the rule of the Messiah and bringing it into conversation with 2 Sam 5:2 which contrasts David’s shepherding rule with the tyranny of Saul. Jesus would be king of the Jews to the benefit of the nations around them.

The Nations will come to him (tie into great commission) (7-12)

            Herod tells the Magi to go find the child and bring back word of where he is. He probably wouldn’t trust a Jew with this task seeing that the Jews would be eager to meet their Messiah, but these pagan rulers really had no skin in the game. The star appears again for the Magi who follow it to a house in Bethlehem where they find Jesus and Mary, his mother. The light of the world was born in dark times and yet we see the beginning of the nations streaming to the light in the little town of Bethlehem. One of the church Fathers, St. Chromatius, says it this way: “A boy he is, but it is God who is adored...The Son of God, who is God of the universe, is born a human being in the flesh....He is heard in the voice of a crying infant. This is the same one for whose voice the whole world would tremble in the hour of his passion. Thus he is the One, the God of glory and the Lord of majesty, whom as a tiny infant the magi recognize. It is he who while a child was truly God and King eternal....”

            The Magi pay homage to this child and offer him their gifts, a foretaste of great commission where Jesus, after the resurrection, will tell his disciples to go into all the nations and make disciples. These Magi are warned in a dream about the schemes of Herod and they go home another way. The story has an important lesson for us about the reign of God. Reconciliation with God and one another is only possible under the Lordship of Christ. It is true of pagans and Jews, it is true of warring nations, it is true of groups of people, it’s true of households, it is true of our own relationship with the God who made us. Herod is an imposter who ruled by fear. Its like he was whetting his sword while he was being nice to the Magi. He shows us that there is a cruel kind of niceness that is manipulative and self-serving and will not produce real reconciliation. Jesus offers us something more difficult, but more real. Humility is the beginning of the kingdom, not denial or the appearance of opulence, not defensive posturing or violence, but humility, honesty, and contrition. This is how the glory of Jesus spreads.

Conclusion

            On this Epiphany and in the season after Epiphany, we are invited to explore the goodness of the glory of Jesus who is our kind shepherd-king. We join the Magi in offering him the fruit of our lives to experience the reconciliation he brings. We join the disciples in being discipled so that we can make disciples. The work begins in our own hearts as we ask God to restore and reconcile what is broken. This is the process of Jesus taking us out of the darkness and bringing us into his glorious light. Let me pray for us as we close:

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Second Sunday of Christmas: Did We Just Forget Jesus?!

Luke 2:41-52

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning friends and Merry Christmas. We are nearing the end of Christmastide and this morning we get a fascinating window into the childhood of Jesus. This glimpse into the 12-year-old Jesus shows us something of the clarity that Jesus had about his own call. He takes the initiative to expand his parents’ own view of his ministry. As I’ve thought about this passage this week, I think that something it teaches us is that we need to stay where Jesus is; he will break through norms and expectations we have; and when he does this, it is an invitation to ponder rather than to go back to what is comfortable or familiar.

         As we look at our gospel passage together, let me pray for us “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.”

1) Forgetting Jesus: Regardless of our piety we can move along and lose a sense of where Jesus is confidently ministering vv. 41-45

         In our Gospel passage we meet Jesus as a pre-teen. He isn’t old enough to make his covenantal vows (which would have been 13), but he is starting to learn the vows he will make. This is a season for him of intensified catechesis as he prepares for manhood. Mary and Joseph make their way to Jerusalem for their annual pilgrimage. Normally it is only required that the male from the family go on this pilgrimage, but the fact that Mary and Jesus come with him tells about the piety of the holy family. They are devoted to God and want to raise their son with a sense of rootedness in the tradition of the Torah.

         When people travel up to Jerusalem they do so in caravans for safety. It was likely their caravan had people they knew and trusted. It was a two-day walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem. They would walk a day, stop in the middle, stay overnight, fuel up, and hit the road again, arriving on the second day. After the seven days in Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph join the caravan and make it a day’s journey toward Nazareth. Perhaps they thought Jesus was with the other kids or friends in the caravan. He’d turn up when they got to their stop. But to their surprise, when they get to their stop, Jesus is nowhere to be found! Mom and dad are terrified!

         The text doesn’t blame the parents at all. In fact, some have even wondered if Mary might have been the source of this narrative. Perhaps Mary had written his down in her journal of memorable moments from Jesus’ childhood and then told Luke about it later. We don’t know. But this is certainly memorable.

         There is a helpful lesson for us in this. Mary and Joseph were incredibly pious god-fearing people and somehow they still ran along and left Jesus behind. I wonder if there might be a word of caution for us to look for where Jesus is and not to charge ahead and just assume he is in this or that scheme with us. There are so many directions we want to go, good things we want to start, but we often forget to ask if Jesus has asked us to go there or to do that thing. It’s a helpful caution for those of us who like to charge ahead and accomplish a great many things.

         I remember working on a website and was hoping to keep that job while I helped as an associate to plant another church. The reality is, though, that I couldn’t keep three jobs and fundraise for the thing I felt God was calling me to do. God in his kindness allowed our grant money to run out for the website. It was really painful. I tried to get an NEH grant and didn’t get the votes I needed, but looking back, I would have tried to push ahead on too many things, so God’s “no” to that project was a kind invitation to something else that felt more risky, but it was the very place he was at. Perhaps you’ve also experienced God’s no to something meaningful. It is painful.

         I can’t tell you the 5 easy steps to find Jesus in decision making and I’m distrusting of anyone who can; but what I can say is that the first step to locating Jesus is to look for him. One of the tools that I find really helpful is to have a regular examen. St. Ignatius of Loyola has a really helpful one that is simple to use. Just search for Ignatian examen and you’ll find it. It is a great tool for decision making. This is a great way to pause and make sure you are paying attention to where Jesus is in your day and what he is asking of you or not asking of you.

2) Breaking expectations (the surprise of Mary and Joseph) vv. 46-47

         We have seen how this text encourages us not to forget Jesus. Now we’ll look at how Jesus breaks our expectations. Joseph and Mary know their Old Testament and the prophecies about the Messiah. We have recorded miracles about shepherds and Magi visiting them. We have heard about angels coming to them at various points. What we aren’t told much about is the day-in-and-day-out raising of this child. They do this trip every year and for the last 5 or 6 years, since they got back from Egypt, there had been no problems.

         Mary and Joseph in their anxious fear make the long walk back to Jerusalem and they find Jesus in the temple area listening to the teachers and engaging with them. When they find him they don’t say “how could we have done this to you?!” Instead, Mary says, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you with great anxiety!” We definitely see the humanity of his parents here. The words that Jesus offers to his parents are a mild and respectful rebuke, and offer us the whole reason this story is recorded. Jesus says “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” It could also be translated “about the things of my Father?”

         These are the first words of Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke. They occur well before he is baptized and begin his public ministry. There is an incredible security and self-understanding involved in this 12 year old which likely came from what his parents told him about himself! Little kids are kind of a mirror for how we parent. When your kids are like 4 or 5 you’ll watch them put their stuffies to bed the way you bed them to bed. You’ll see them exhort or rebuke their dolls or stuffies the ways you’ve exhorted or rebuked them. In those first 6-7 years they receive a lot of scripts about themselves and the world around them. When Jesus says this to Mary and Joseph, I can imagine a bit of embarrassment as Jesus has just echoed back the things he has learned about himself from them back to them. But they didn’t expect it to look like this!

         That is a helpful reminder in following Jesus. Jesus cannot be constrained by our images of him or what he can do. As we follow Jesus, he will lead us to places we never thought we’d go, but he is also with us in wherever he leads. And as we walk with Jesus, we join in his confident rootedness not in the tasks we accomplish or the vocations we have, but in our relationship to God.

3) Pondering Jesus: Take note of where Jesus shows himself strong and faithful vv. 48-52

         We looked at searching for Jesus and not moving ahead without seeking him. We looked at how following Jesus will often change our expectations, and how our rooted position in His love is enough to ground us in those times. And finally, we join Mary in pondering Jesus. When the shepherds had visited and told her about the testimony of angels, we had this phrase about Mary pondering these things in her heart. After hearing Jesus tell her and Joseph something they believe but hadn’t fully teased out yet, she tucks it away for later. An early commentator, the Venerable Bede says this, “As before, when she conceived the Word itself in her womb, so now does she hold within her his ways and words, cherishing them as it were in her heart. That which she now beholds in the present, she waits to have revealed with greater clarity in the future. This practice she followed as a rule and law through all her life.”[1] The virgin Mary exemplifies discipleship here and invites us into the same. She had born the Word and now is hearing and marking the words and teachings of The Word, who is now growing up before her very eyes.

         The text, to clarify any confusion, does mention that Jesus went back with them to Nazareth, that he was obedient to them, and that as the years went on, he increased in wisdom and in divine and human favor. Mary made a note of this event and it was an opportunity for wonder at what was being done through Jesus. She could have tried to control things and tried to fit Jesus into her image of the child he had always been. She could have kept her mind closed off to what God was doing, but she opened herself to a bigger vision of the Messiah and to do this with her own son is a great act of faith.

         Jesus is engaging with the teachers in a way that shocks people because it is so profound. Mary and Joseph’s anger and anxiety gives way to wonder as they contemplate who this child is becoming. It is a great invitation to wonder and marvel at the work of Jesus. Make it a habit to note the ways God has surprised you and been at work. Perhaps this is with the cultivation or re-cultivation of a surprising friendship, a conversation that encouraged you, the provision of your spiritual or physical needs, a surprising word of encouragement or challenge, a drawing from a child, or just a silent moment where God felt near despite the turbulence outside. Ponder these things in your heart and trace the story of the work of the Messiah.

Conclusion

         As we close this Christmas season out together with a story of Jesus as a preteen, His first words of the Gospel are an invitation to us as well to be rooted in the love of God: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”. We are reminded that we should stay where Jesus is. Don’t forget about him and move too far too fast, or even in the wrong direction. As you look for Jesus, be open to the fact that he will expand our vision for his work and his kingdom as he does things differently than we would have imagined. Finally, take time to ponder his mysterious working rather than returning again and again to what is comfortable.

Let us pray:

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

[1]                Taken from the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.

Feast of the Holy Innocents: The Incarnation and the Hope for Grieving Humanity

Matthew 2:13-18

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning friends. Welcome to Corpus Christi Anglican Church. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the vicar here, and I’m so glad you’re here on this 4th day of Christmas. After the celebration of Christmas day, the next three days in the church calendar are commemoration days. The first is the stoning of St. Stephen, the second is the exile of St. John the Apostle, and finally, today is the slaughter of the holy innocents by Herod. The church has often referred to these people on these days as the Comites Christi, the companions of Christ. They embody three kinds of martyrdom: 1) Those who willingly took up their cross and it cost them their lives, 2) Those who willingly took of their cross and suffered for it, though not to the point of death, and 3) those who took up their cross without having the ability to choose to do so.

         I know it might feel really strange to have these heartbreaking commemorations in the middle of the happiest season of all, but if you are at all acquainted with the brokenness this world and the cruelty of sin and evil, then you can appreciate that the joy is not in the season itself, it is in the incarnate son of God coming to triumph over the darkness. One writer says it well: “God knows the evil and suffering that plague our world and has dealt with it decisively in Jesus Christ. In a world of darkness and death, the God revealed in Christ brings light and life.”[1] In our Gospel passage we see the light of God coming into the world as one who is a new Israel, the holy remnant, and the branch of Jesse. As we look at our Gospel passage together this morning, let me pray for us: “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.”

1) Contrast of Joseph and Herod — How to respond to fear (Hos 11:1)

         Jesus is the idealized Israel who will be brought out of Egypt. At this point in the Nativity story, Jesus is perhaps 1 or 2 years old and he has just been visited by the Magi from the East who offer him their gifts. The Magi leave and the story focuses in on Joseph. We are not told much about the life of Joseph in the Gospels, but this event gives us a window into his faithfulness as a follower of God. An angel comes to him in a dream warning him about the evil schemes of Herod. The angel tells him to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt. 

         Here, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus by night for a trip that is, at minimum, a twelve hour walk. They have gone from these miraculous moments of joy where shepherds and angels are declaring wonders, where Magi are following a star to find them, to fleeing as refugees under the cloak of darkness. Just as Mary is obedient to the will of God, so Joseph also shows us his characteristic obedience to following the Lord’s command.

         Egypt was a natural place to go since it had a large Jewish community and even an alternate temple set up there. But there is a theological reason for being there. God was making a new Israel in the person of Jesus to come forth out of Egypt. This is what St. Matthew means by quoting Hos 11:1 “Out of Egypt I have called my son”. It is a reference to Israel being brought out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land. What Israel was penultimately, Jesus becomes ultimately as he typologically fulfills what they were supposed to be.

         Joseph’s willingness to take his family to Egypt on God’s command makes him an ideal father for the Messiah, someone to emulate. He is a contrast from the tyrannical Herod who is set on destroying any potential political rivals and has no regard for the plan of God. Darkness is rising up and trying to destroy the light of the world, but the light escaped by night to Egypt and thwarted the powers of evil. I like how NT Wright describes this scenario: “Before the Prince of Peace had learned to walk and talk, he was a homeless refugee with a price on his head...”[2] And this is how our king began his reign. God was preserving the light so that justice and true freedom would be brought to the world.

2) The threat of God’s kingdom to the powers of darkness — Tragic death of the infants (Jer 31:15)

         Jesus is the idealized Israel who will be brought out of Egypt. Jesus is also the holy remnant will be brought back from exile. While the Holy Family is in Egypt, Herod attempts to get rid of the Messiah by ordering that boys two and under in Bethlehem be executed. It is so horrible to consider how someone could consider indiscriminate infanticide; and it is very in line with what we know of Herod. This atrocity doesn’t even show up in documents outside the Bible and this is because on the level of atrocities Herod committed, this is actually less worse than others. This is someone who had his own wife and children executed out of a paranoid fear that they would usurp his power. Someone in Roman history once said it was better to be Herod’s dog than his son. Herod is a pawn of the kingdom of darkness and shows us the disdain and disregard of tyranny against human life that is so endemic of the spiritual forces that war against God’s good creation.

         Matthew mentions that this massacre stands in a long line of moments that fulfill Jer 31:15, but it carries a special significance here. God is not the author of this tragedy, but this tragedy was not unforeseen by God either. In the midst of a very joy-filled passage about the new covenant we hear about the voice that is heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be consoled because they are no more.” It was in Ramah that the exiles were gathered for their march to Babylon in 586 BCE.[3] Ramah was in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, who was one of Rachel’s two sons. And while Bethlehem would have been in Judah’s rather than in Benjamin’s territory, this is the place near where Rachel was buried.[4] This is why Rachel is pictured as weeping over the holy innocents in Bethlehem.

         Her weeping is for the grief over the loss of her children. And in its context, it also anticipates God bringing her children home. Grief and hope are both honored and sit side-by-side in the prophetic imagination. The tragedy in Bethlehem was real. It is a loss no one should have to bear. It also is endemic of the battle raging between the light of Christ and the darkness of the ruler of this world. This battle still rages on. It happens in the injustice carried out by tyrannical despots. It happens through the injustice of broken systems and institutions. It happens in the harm done by family and friends. It happens in the loss of hope when dreams are not realized or when we receive unplanned and tragic diagnoses. It happens in the words we say that we wish we could take back or the words we wish we had spoken. There are certainly times to join Rachel in weeping for her children. And when we join Rachel in her weeping, we can hold the tension of also joining her in her hope because God will bring his kingdom about in the midst of darkness.

         In her excellent book on the Christmas season, the Rev. Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin says this about this event, “When the Christ child grows up, he will gather the girls and boys of Israel in his arms and proclaim God’s blessing over them. As the the holy innocents died involuntarily in the place of the infant Jesus, so the end of Matthew’s Gospel reveals the innocent one dying voluntarily in the place of all. It is only in his victorious resurrection from the dead three days later that Rachel, and all weeping mothers, find hope. Death — even this kind of unthinkable death— does not get the last word.” In this child there is hope.

3) The hope of Jesus even when we can’t see it yet — The wisdom of going to Nazareth and the plan of God (Isa 11:1 — the branch)

         We have seen Matthew picture Jesus as the new and ideal Israel as well as the new and ideal remnant. The final picture we have is that he is branch from the tree of Jesse. The Holy Family has spent a few years as refugees in Egypt at this point. We don’t know how old Jesus is when they return but he could have been as old as 5-7 years of age. It is interesting to think that Jesus spent his preschool and kindergarten years in Egypt.

         Joseph’s life had been turned upside down by this child. And despite a path he wouldn’t have chosen and years in exile because of his son, he remains faithful to the Lord. The Angel of the Lord appears to him in Egypt to let him know Herod has died and Archelaus is now overseeing Judea. He can go back. Joseph is no fool. Archelaus isn’t much better than Herod. He was so violent and oppressive that even the Romans, even the Romans!, would come to depose him and replace him with someone else. Rather than bringing his family in near proximity to another bloodthirsty tyrant, he brings the blessed virgin Mary and Jesus to the insignificant, backwater town of Nazareth.

         St. Matthew finds the significance of this moment in Isaiah’s prophecy: “He will be called a Nazorean”. This is an allusion to Isaiah 11:1 which talks about a shoot that will come from the stump of Jesse and a branch (נֵצֶר) will grow out of its roots. The word play is on being a Nazarean, and the word for branch “a Nézer”. In Isaiah hope seemed lost as the tree was cut down, but hope would spring up from the felled tree as a shoot would come from the stump. I preached on Isaiah 11 back on Advent 2 if you want to go back and listen to that sermon. Here we see God making good on his promise that hope is not lost. The branch of Jesse has shot up from the tree that was cut down.

Conclusion

         Jesus entering into the pain of the human predicament began before he uttered a word. He has parents raising him who say “yes” to the Lord’s will at all costs and their faithfulness was part of the plan of the light entering the darkness and not being overcome by it. The feast of the death of the holy innocents invites us to hold hope and grief in tension. We live in the liminal space where the darkness of sin and death exists side-by-side with the breaking in of the new creation that is dawning. Mourning and hope can be held in tension and live in the same space for the follower of Jesus. Jesus is the new Israel, the righteous remnant, and the branch who will conquer. He is emmanuel, God-with-us, and the darkness won’t overtake him. Rather than simple answers, we hold onto God’s promises as he gives us his presence. The victory that Christ has won will be our own ultimately and as we wait in the tension of hope and grief, we sing and pray with candles lit, lamenting in hope, defiantly proclaiming that Christ is Lord, clinging to his promises, and tuning in to the glimpses of light where brokenness is restored as a foretaste of the ways he is making all things new.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, out of the mouths of children you manifest your truth, and by the death of the Holy Innocents at the hands of evil tyrants you show your strength in our weakness: We ask you to mortify all that is evil within us, and so strengthen us by your grace, that we may glorify your holy Name by the innocence of our lives and the constancy of our faith even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who died for us and now lives with you and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

[1]                Emily Hunter McGowan, Christmas, 98.

[2]                Matthew for Everyone.

[3]                Jer 40:1.

[4]                Gen 35:16-20; 48:7.