Thoughts going in, Sunday January 12th

Matthew 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

            This Sunday the liturgical color is still white, and we're still in Epiphany mode as we observe the Baptism of Jesus. As I've mentioned in the past, there are three historic themes of Epiphany (these themes often are expressed in the different stanzas of Epiphany hymns). These are: the star guiding the Magi from the East; the Baptism of Christ; and the turning of water into wine at the wedding of Cana. Over time, the Baptism of Christ was given its own day--the first Sunday after Epiphany.

            However, *celebrating the Baptism of Jesus and *understanding the Baptism of Jesus are two separate things. This week's Sunday's and Seasons commentary offers these remarks:

            From the time Jesus first presented himself for baptism by John until today, Christians have puzzled over why Jesus had to be baptized. The act of baptism was understood to be an act of repentance and the cleansing of one's sins. John does not understand why Jesus, whose sandals John is "not worthy to carry" (Matt. 3:11) should seek to be baptized. Instead, John declares to Jesus, "I need to be baptized by you" (Matt. 3:14). Why should the Son of God, who is without sin, need to be baptized?

            Frederick Dale Bruner, in Matthew: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), says that he considers Jesus' first miracle to have occurred at his baptism. The miracle is that Jesus was humble. The divine Son of God humbles himself by allowing John to baptize him. This act of humility is an act of obedience to God and solidarity with all humankind. Jesus has no sins to be forgiven. However, for us, he goes down to the river of repentance with all the other sinners to be baptized. Jesus' baptism, his first adult act as recorded in Matthew's gospel, gives us a clear indication of how Jesus will act for his entire life. The Son of God will come down with us, on our level, identifying with our needs. His baptism, then, foreshadows how his life will end, on the cross. In his death, Jesus experiences the worst we could ever experience as mortal humans. But, because Jesus united with us in baptism, we are united with him in both his death and resurrection. The barriers that separate us from God, including the barriers of sinfulness, mortality, and death, are broken by Jesus' obedience to God, through his humility to come down to us in the depths of our humanity.

            I like Bruner's remarks on the humility of Christ, but I wish he had gone further. To me the 'secret' to understanding Jesus' baptism is in the voice from heaven: This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (v17). Regardless of which corner of the Church we're in, baptism doesn't seem like that big of a deal. It only takes a couple of minutes; a person gets a little bit wet; big deal. BUT, evidently it IS a big deal. It certainly was for Jesus, as his actions elicited the approving voice of the Father. In the case of Jesus, and building on this concept of his 'humility,' I would say that it's all about Jesus' willingness to embrace the mission; his willingness to walk the baptismal road, which for him begins at the Jordan, but ends on the cross. In other words, Jesus was born Jesus of Nazareth, but he EMBRACES his identity of Jesus CHRIST--the Christos, the Messiah, the Savior of the world... at his baptism... and this is what the Father finds so pleasing.

            Let's put it another way... often Jesus is portrayed as the 'perfect' Son of God; the one who unquestionably does the Father's will--which legalistic preachers interpret to mean that Jesus never lies, cheats or steals. These things are true, however concentrating exclusively on Jesus' moral perfection misses a more important detail... Jesus perfectly adheres to the Father's will by agreeing to, and accepting the mission of, being the sin-bearer of the world. This happens at the cross, but as I've already mentioned, the road to the cross begins THIS DAY at the Jordan with his baptism.

            And so OF COURSE the Father is pleased. Salvation, redemption, forgiveness and mercy are all proceeding as planned!

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Jan 5th

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: 6 " 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.' " 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

            Regarding this Sunday, we're presented with a certain fork in the road. Most properly it is the second Sunday after Christmas. It is also, however, the Sunday closest to Epiphany (Jan 6th). Epiphany is one of the "Greater Festivals" of the Church. It is on par with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, etc. By rights we should have special services every Epiphany--but it just doesn’t work out like that in the real world. Because of that, it's all too easy to forget Epiphany, and what it's all about. The alternative is to do what we typically do at LCHS... transfer the observance to the nearest Sunday & call it "Epiphany Sunday."

            So, to begin at the beginning WHAT IS meant by Epiphany? Very simply it's a word that comes over to us from a compound Greek word meaning "to shine forth" (literally)... or more to the point, "to be revealed" or "to be made manifest." Historically, the Church used this special day to talk about three episodes in the early life or ministry of Christ in which it 'shone forth' that he was God in the flesh. The first such shining-forth was when nature (the star) revealed to the Gentile Magi the birth of the Christ-child. The second shining-forth was at the Baptism of Christ when the voice of heaven declared him to be the 'beloved son.' And the third shining-forth was at his first public sign/miracle, the changing of water into wine at Cana. As the church's liturgical observance developed, the Baptism of Christ got it's own Sunday (the Sunday following Epiphany), so that will be our concentration next week.

            For now, there are some interesting things going on both textually and thematically in our reading from Matthew. It should be mentioned that Matthew's Gospel is the *only one that mentions this event. He says very little about WHO these guys are. They're not really "kings" (as in the carol "We Three Kings"); nor does the term "wisemen" properly describe them. In the Greek they are simply called Magi--hence most modern translations default back to that term. But who are Magi? That's a toughie.... because the term had some specific nuances, but also some very general application. It helps to remember that in the ancient world all of the stuff that we would call WISDOM, PHILOSOPHY, MEDICINE, ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, and even ECONOMICS... all fall under the ancient concept of "magic." This is special knowledge of wonder passed on within private castes of the learned. Those of such castes then frequently became important 'advisors' among the ruling class of their country. These men, however many there were, evidently were of such a caste. Many questions remain unanswered, however. Were they on their own or were they representing their government, etc. etc? Matthew doesn't tell us.

            Interestingly, according to Matthew they show up asking for the one born "Kind of the Jews," which rightly disturbs Herod. As historians remind us, Herod was a usurper who was given that very title by the Roman Senate and who tried to legitimize himself by marrying a princess from the ruling class and having all other rightful claimants to the throne banished or killed. But Matthew does something very interesting in the text. He goes from talking about a born-king of the Jews (vs 2) to talking about the 'Messiah' (vs 4). In other words, Herod doesn't enquire if another, closer, claimant to his throne has been born, Herod jumps right to the [proper] conclusion that the King of all Kings has been born--the Messiah.

            There are a lot of interesting directions this text can take in terms of a sermon. At the very least this is the tale of 2 kings... Herod and Jesus. Herod is in his comfortable quarters in Jerusalem--one of many opulent royal residences. Jesus, fresh from being born in a stable is now living in a shack in Bethlehem. Herod is outward, worldly, power. Herod is the power of this world which automatically sees itself as incompatible with Heaven's power come down. Herod represents everything that will align itself in bitter combat against Heaven's power come down. Yet, for all of his opulence and for all of his worldly authority, Herod's power is also quite temporary. Christ's power, the power of goodness and grace, the power come down from heaven to be "God with us" is forever.

Cheers,

TM

            

Thoughts going in, Sunday Dec 29th

Matthew 2:13-23:  13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

There is a LOT going on in this week’s Gospel reading—both liturgically and textually. Liturgically, it’s the first Sunday after Christmas which, unless it falls on January 1^st, is observed in the Roman Catholic Church as the “Feast of the Holy Family.” The Revised Common Lectionary (*our roadmap of readings) doesn’t use the language of ‘holy family,’ however, it follows the Roman lectionary almost verbatim in the Gospel readings, giving at least implicit agreement that the emphasis of the day should be the holy family. As a sidenote, these verses from Matthew also commemorate the martyrdom of the “holy innocents,” the children needlessly slaughtered by Herod. Their day of commemoration is always December 28^th on the calendar. In other words, we’ve got one text being used for more than one ‘occasion’ on the liturgical calendar… but since the focus of SUNDAY’s liturgy is the holy family and not the holy innocents, I’ll confine my comments to the former.

            The Roman Catholic emphasis on the holy family as a liturgical celebration is relatively recent. It was born in the 19^th century. The story goes that as the world was becoming more and more secular, and as the family unit seemed to be disintegrating, the Church wanted to lift up the family of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mother, and St. Joseph the Guardian of our Lord as an example par excellence. They were an example of mutual love and support, as well as paying critical attention to the leading of God in their lives. Mary responds behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Joseph receives divine guidance and follows it without question. Jesus says, I must be about my father’s business. Each in their way are true both to their vocation as family member and as individual member of God’s higher plan and purpose.

            The lesson we take from this, then, is to see how we in our Christian vocation(s) can do the same. While it may seem strange to our modern sensibilities to think of the 19^th century as a time when the family was crumbling (compared to what we see all around us today), the emphasis doesn’t seem like a bad one. There **is a holiness to the family, and something that can be lifted up and celebrated as an example of God’s activity in our lives at the micro level, and in creation at the macro level.

            There are also, however, other things going on in the text. Whether this is read as a commemoration of the holy innocents or as the flight of the holy family, regardless Matthew chapter 2 gives us the stark DARKER side of Christmas. The angels sing peace on earth good will toward men, but Herod and the powers of darkness want nothing to do with God’s offer. In this sense, Matthew 2 offers us a stark real-world reminder that while the wrapping paper is still strewn all over the living room floor, while the Christmas leftovers are still in the fridge, and while the tinsel is still on the tree… DEATH and EVIL are still out there, all around us.

            In that sense, the message of this text is **not that God protects his own. That was the temptation of Satan to Jesus years later. Go ahead and throw yourself off this cliff, God will protect you. The Bible is full of examples of God’s non-intervention of Evil’s plans. I have no doubt that good, godly women suffered loss and experienced horrific grief in the events of Matthew 2. The lesson stands as a stark reminder. The savior of the world has come; he has had his life divinely preserved at this **moment… but the presence of DEATH & EVIL in the story serve as a reminder. The Savior comes not for silly, mundane, or sentimental reasons…. Rather, the Savior comes because this world is wracked by DEATH & EVIL. The Savior comes because there is such a profound NEED for him to come.

            Christmas tragedies are always the saddest. On the other hand, they always remind us that Christmas is no sentimental Hallmark Card event. The world is a very dark place, in dire need of this Savior born in Bethlehem.

Cheers,

TM

No thoughts this week...

This Sunday, Dec 15th is the preschool program -- hence we're off the usual schedule for the week.

Thoughts going in, Sunday Dec 8th

Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' " 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

            So much of the very essence of what Advent is all about can be found in these verses and in the ministry and message of John the Baptist. John enters the Advent stage every year on both the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of Advent, and while his message is always the same, it's never passé. It's always timely, always relevant.

            This year's glimpse at John comes from the Gospel of Matthew. Two matters strike me as being of primary importance from this text, with a 3rd item being also worth mentioning. Beginning with the 3rd, almost as a sideroad, vs 1 seems to me to be more than just a travelogue:  In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness.  Why in the wilderness? It's interesting to me that when we put the whole Bible under a microscope and look at some of God's most profound revelations; some of God's most powerful miracles; and some of God's most important actions within human history, they frequently happen in the wilderness. Some have commented on the spirituality of the wilderness... stating that it is only when we strip away the glitter and glitz of worldly life that the soul is prepared to listen to God. This may very well be. I also think there's a metaphor going on here. Since the Fall, the image of God has become so lost to us, or so scarred within us, that when a message comes form him, when he speaks, when he reveals himself to us, it is so wholly different to us that it constitutes a wilderness experience--something far flung from our normal beaten paths. Regardless of whether we see the wilderness as a matter of spirituality or metaphor, given the past history of God's action(s) it sort of makes sense that as the clarion call to PREPARE is issued by God's prophet, it would happen in the wilderness.

            So much for the sideroad observation. The two key elements of the passage, then, in terms of my reading and in keeping with the Advent theme, are REPENTANCE and URGENCY. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near, John states in vs 2. Repent is one of those bible/church words that gets used all the time, but which is rarely fully understood. It is probably best understood in terms of a specific wrong. If I throw a rock through my neighbor's window and break it, REPENTING would be to feel sorrow for my action, make restitution to my neighbor, and resolve never to do it again. Repenting, in that sense, is basically the 'fixing' of an individual wrong. That understanding is not incorrect. But the problem becomes, how do you apply REPENTANCE to a whole life, or better yet, to the lives of a whole group of people? In this sense it's helpful to expand on the meaning of repentance. It can also mean the setting right of what is broken. A broken arm, for instance, is not functional in the way in which it was intended. It is, literally, mis-aligned. It cannot do what it was created/intended to do. It cannot embrace the vision it was created/intended to embrace. In a way, a broken arm is very selfish. It can only think of itself; it can only just hang there and do nothing. Repentance in this case would be to FIX that which is BROKEN; to properly align it; to re-form it so that it CAN do what it was created/intended to do; so that it CAN embrace the vision it was created/intended to embrace; so that it can be less selfish and more open. I think the healed broken arm metaphor more closely gets us to what repentance of life is all about, and for that matter, what group repentance is all about. Advent's rekindling of John the Baptist's message invites ALL to cease being a chaotic scattered group living chaotic scattered, broken, lives, and to become FIXED; walking together toward God and seeing the things that are part of God's vision (which, btw, always includes those in economic hardship physically speaking).

            The second great element from this passage, then, is URGENCY. John says in vs 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. That's urgency talk. Frequently the losing coach of a football team, when addressing the press afterwards, will lament that his team "had no sense of urgency." John's message about the ax being at the root of trees is "apocalyptic"... end-times-ish. But it's easy to get lost in 2000yrs of history. It's easy to say, "Bah, they've been spouting this stuff for 2 millennia and there's still no 'end times'." But that's missing a very important point. The bible tells us that life, all life, is a vapor. It's here today and gone tomorrow (James 4:14). The urgency of Advent, therefore, is not limited to merely thinking in terms of "end times." The urgency of Advent is that YOUR LIFE and MINE are finite. We are always precariously balanced between life and death; we were born with a terminal illness that could strike at any moment. The life of the WORLD lulls us into forgetfulness, but the clarion call of the Advent prophet John shakes us awake. We need to have lives characterized by repentance, and the time for that is NOW.

cheers,

TM