Searching for Epiphany

John 1: 1-18

Luke 2: 22-35

Epiphany

After the craziness of the Christmas season, it is tempting to take the next few weeks and just relax. To no longer think about schedules already overloaded with work, family, and friends and how we managed to squeeze in time to shop and wrap and decorate as well as worship. Christmas can be exhausting physically, but it is also mentally and emotionally draining on everyone. So it is tempting to forget what comes right after Christmas, which is Epiphany.

Epiphany is the time after Christmas where we celebrate the visiting Magi, Jesus’ incarnation and baptism, his transfiguration, as well as his first miracle at the Wedding in Cana. In other words, Epiphany shows the world how God came to be with His people through Jesus Christ.  This is a very special time for Christians, but because so many are exhausted from the holidays we often do not take time to appreciate the way God came to be with his people. Jesus Christ is not a figurehead for God. He is not the poster child of the Divinity although some people like to think of him that way.

Jesus is God, made flesh. That means everything he experienced when he became a human being, God the Father also experienced. When Jesus was thirsty, God was thirsty. When Jesus was a child, he had a child’s frustrations of learning how to tie his shoes, write his name and read the scriptures just as our children have to do. Jesus became dirty and was probably yelled at by Mary when he did something she didn’t like.

When he became older, perhaps he had pimples and oily hair like a teenager. Maybe he tripped a lot because his feet grew faster than the rest of him just like other teenage boys. And as an adult, he struggled with his spirituality and humanity and the way they seemed to war against each other, just as we do. Jesus was tempted by the devil just as we often are tempted. Jesus is like us, but Jesus IS God.

And that means everything he went through, God experienced as well which brings a whole new meaning to the words, “God with us”. One of the best scriptures that describe the Epiphany of God being with us is in Luke2: 22-35 when Simeon finally sees the Messiah.

When Joseph and Mary presented Jesus to the Temple of the Lord, there was a man there named Simeon. Simeon was a faithful Jew who had been promised to see the Messiah before he passed from this life into the next. It does not say so in the passage, but perhaps Simeon was tempted to worry that he had been mistaken about God’s promise or that he had missed the Messiah because Simeon was now an old man. He had seen his family raised in the Jewish faith and now they were busy having their own children. A lot of time had passed and still the Messiah had not come. Sometimes when God makes a promise to us, we are tempted to rush the promise into fruition. We want things now rather than later. This is a human trait that comes straight from Adam and Eve. We want what we do not have and we often feel we deserve everything that God has to give, rather than being happy with what we are allotted.

So it is not inconceivable that Simeon was perhaps worried that he would die before seeing the Messiah. But finally, one day the Holy Spirit moved him to go to the courtyard of the holy temple. This part of the story is also interesting because it does not say that the Spirit tells him why he is to go there or even what the Messiah looks like. Isnt that often the way the Holy Spirit works with us as well? God often does not speak in a discernable voice that an ear can hear, but instead we feel the Lord speaking to us.

Sometimes we feel the need to call a friend we haven’t spoken with in over a year and when we do, we find out that he lost his job and feels bereft. Sometimes the Spirit will tell us not to take the shortcut we always take and later we find out there was an accident on that road. And there are other times when we feel the Spirit telling us something and we never know why. Those are the easiest times to dismiss the idea of God talking to us, because we do not see why God would tell us to do something even though we were sure at the time.

So there is Simeon, standing in the temple courtyard, unsure of why but hoping that this time he will get to see the Messiah. What do you think he thought the Messiah would look like? If God suddenly appeared in front of us right now, how would you picture God? Is God a man or a woman? Is he Caucasian, African American or Asian? Tall or short? Does God have a commanding, royal air about him or her or is God kind and compassionate looking? What does God wear? Pricey clothes from a designer boutique or faded Levis and tennis shoes?

All of these questions would have been going through Simeon’s mind as well. It makes us ask the same question of how will we know when we see Jesus? Simeon saw a young couple with a small child. There were probably many such couples. But he unerringly picked out Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. He followed his heart, he followed the Spirit where it led and even though Jesus was probably different in every way that Simeon had pictured the Messiah, he found Jesus and knew he was seeing the Messiah.

Sometimes God works in ways that are completely opposite of the way we would work. Many of us like to think that God is logical and rational, but if you ask an atheist God is anything but logical and rational. God does things differently from us so we need to work with God. We need to be open to new ideas or since the season is upon us, small epiphanies that take us where we need to be. This is a new year with new goals.

Not every thing that will happen this year will be good, logical or happy. We are going to see violence, war, natural disasters and the death of innocent people. Through all of those things, God is working. Our every day life filled with endless routine and the constant demand of time and energy from us, God is working. Simeon stayed faithful through the good as well as the bad and he was rewarded with seeing the Messiah with his own eyes before he died. We too are rewarded with glimpses of our Messiah in our life.

It is up to us if we believe what we see. It is up to you to decide what you believe. It is up to you to have faith in God’s promises as Simeon had faith. The Lord has promised us many things, not the least of which is salvation through Jesus Christ. But the Lord also promises us new bodies and new life just as Jesus received a new body and life. The Lord promised that death is not the end, that this life we live here is merely the beginning of our time with God. And that is what the Epiphany season is all about - our time with God. It is about how the Lord has come to be with us, and our response to Jesus Christ.

You do not live and die alone as many people have said in the past. You live and die with God. Take time this Epiphany season to see what God is up to. Take time to see where God is in your life, but remember, you can only see Jesus if you are looking and listening for him.

Amen.

Take a Risk - Be Like Jesus!

Zephaniah 1: 7, 12-18
Matthew 25: 14-30

The parable today is about a wealthy man who goes away on a long journey. Before he departs, he distributes his property to three slaves. It is a great deal of money. The first slave takes the money to the market, to a wealth management firm, and invests in high-risk ventures. The second slave does the same thing, puts the money to work at high risk. Both do very well. Both reap rewards. When their master returns, he is very pleased. He tells them well done and promises that they will receive more responsibility in the future.

The third slave takes a very different approach with his money, his one talent. He digs a hole in the ground and puts all the money in the hole for safe keeping. In a time of stock-market decline, this man looks very wise. He’s not a bad man. He is a prudent, careful, cautious investor. He is not about to take chances with the money. It is all there, every penny of it, when his master returns. He is proud of himself. “Here it is. All of it, safe and sound.” For his efforts he is treated as harshly as anyone in the whole Bible.

The point of this story was not about doubling or tripling the money lest some of you might think that’s the reason the third slave got into trouble. The point of the parable is about living and taking risks. It is about Jesus himself and what he has done and what is about to happen to him. Mostly it is about what Jesus hopes and expects of all of us after he is gone. It is about being a follower of Jesus and what it means to be faithful to him.

The greatest risk of all, according to the parable is not to risk anything, not to care too deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest yourself completely, to give your heart away and in the process to risk everything. The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to play it safe by living cautiously and prudently!

Let’s play ‘Let’s Pretend’. Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization.

I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned.

Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite pandora station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned.

I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there." Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas. "What in the world is going on, man?" "What do you mean?"

"Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?" "Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, we have had a letter study every Friday since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters."

"OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?" "Do? We didn’t do anything about them."

Jesus told today’s parable because he knew soon he’d be leaving the disciples and they’d have to carry on without him. He had left them with instructions in the form of his stories and actions, but he didn’t give them those instructions just so they could memorize them. He wanted these stories and his actions to become part of who they were and he wanted them to transform their lives into living examples of the love of God.

We are also called to transform our lives into living examples of Jesus by not just memorizing the bible and being able to quote it to people, but by ACTING on Jesus’ words. We are told to be faithful to Jesus and have each been given gifts to do Jesus’ work in the world. I preached this to you a couple weeks ago, about how each of us has a gift for helping others and the church in some way.

We get into trouble when we doubt ourselves and our church’s ability to make a difference. We get into trouble when we’re so busy memorizing lines of scripture that we do not DO anything about what we’ve learned. We get into trouble when we think we know Jesus, but do not let others know Jesus by acting like him when we’re outside of these walls.

The third slave got into trouble because instead of doing something with the talent he had been given, he hid it from the world and thought he was keeping it safe for his master’s return. But a hidden talent does no one any good. The same goes for all of us. Jesus has placed you here for a specific reason. You have the ability to make a difference in someone’s life. You have the ability to transform your life, your family’s life, and your friends’ lives.

It takes faith and faith requires risk. We have to risk being laughed at; we have to risk failing; we have to risk being tired and sore and sweaty from all of our efforts. But when our efforts pay off they pay off big as they did for the first and second slave, and when the master came back he said because of what you have done you will be given even more.

Jesus risked it all for us. He’s asking us to take chances and give the Holy Spirit a chance to speak to us about trying new things and being a force of goodness in this world. It may look completely differently from anything we’ve ever done before and that’s okay. It may require us to see people in a whole new light. It may require us to join up with other churches or invite people who have never been a Christian to take part. Jesus is asking us to listen, to learn, and to grow.

Growth isn’t about money or butts in the pews. Growth is about transforming from cautious and careful into risky and unpredictable. It’s about making the world around us ask, “What’s going on over there? What are they up to? Why are they doing that?” because when they talk about us they’re going to talk about Jesus. We don’t need to get them into a pew to change their life – we’re called to change their lives outside of these walls and then they’ll come walking in the door all on their own.

How we do it is up to us. But the first and most important thing we can do is that when we say we’re a Christian then we act like Jesus. Be who we say we are and when we falter – admit we made a mistake. Honesty goes a long way towards changing other people’s opinions about Christians and God. As does an open minded outlook on what they’re going to tell you about why they don’t believe or don’t go to church. By being their friend instead of their enemy, you will show them what Jesus showed the prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners – that God isn’t here just for the good people – God is here for everyone.

And once we stop making church be only for the goody two shoes of the world, we create an open space and a safe place for everyone to co-exist while getting to know Jesus. That’s transformational right there.. a place for everyone to be loved and no one will be judged.. what a promise we could offer the world if we lived and loved just like Jesus!

Amen.

Procrastination and Transformation

Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25
Matthew 25: 1-13
There is a fable which tells of three apprentice devils who were coming to this earth to finish their apprenticeship. They were talking to Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and to ruin humanity. The first said, "I will tell them that there is no God."
Satan said, "That won’t delude many, for they know that there is a God." The second said, "I will tell humans that there is no hell."
Satan answered, "You will deceive no one that way; humans know even now that there is a hell for sin." The third said, "I will tell humans that there is no hurry."
"Go," said Satan, "and you will ruin humans by the thousands." The most dangerous of all our delusions is that there is plenty of time.
In the passage on Matthew today, we read about 10 virgins who were all the same. They each had a lamp filled with oil, they were all dressed as part of the bridal party, and they were waiting outside for the bridegroom to arrive. Back in that time, it was customary for the bridal party to wait for and greet and then follow in the bridegroom rather than the bride. But as sometimes happens in weddings, something went wrong and the bridegroom was late.
The ten virgins all fell asleep while waiting only to be awoken by a shout, “He’s coming!” and they immediately wake up and began to trim their lamps. However, out of the ten women, five of them had run out of oil and had no reserves with them. The other five women, not knowing when the bridegroom might come and this not being their first long wait, knew to bring extra oil just in case. The five ladies who did not have oil asked them to share, but they refused and so they went out looking for more oil and missed the bridal procession into the house, only to be turned away by the bridegroom when they finally came back.
This parable Jesus tells the disciples is about how the kingdom of heaven will be at the end of the age when Jesus comes back. He is telling us that we need to be prepared for that time and there are things we can do to be prepared for when he arrives. No one knows the day or the hour, not even Jesus himself, but we are to be prepared anyway.
What does that mean for us as individuals and as a church?
As a people we need to know the signs to look for and we need to know what God is expecting of us. That means reading the bible more often than on a Sunday morning during church. We should be praying and listening for God’s voice. Every one of us has a connection to God that strengthens the more we pray and read the bible. If we want to know God, then we have to be speaking and listening to God. It also means we should not be afraid to be who we are as God’s child. It means we are to embrace opportunities to speak of our faith and how our lives have changed since we have become faithful disciples of Christ.
As a church, it means we constantly need to be working toward God’s goals and not our own. We need to look around our community and our towns and our country and this world and asking, “Where is Jesus? What is Jesus doing? What does he expect from us and what would he tell us to do if he was here? Who would Christ be ministering to?”
In football they have a huddle, the goal of the huddle is to give you thirty seconds to call the play. Sixty thousand people watching you huddle, and they don’t mind you taking thirty seconds to call the play. They understand that you have to get organized, that each player needs to know where they should be and where they are going to go after the snap.
A huddle is a necessary part of playing the game. But let me inform you if you do not already know, sixty thousand people do not pay $80 a ticket to watch you huddle. See, people don’t come to football games to watch the huddle. They want to see if their team can overcome the opposition who is daring them to snap the ball and move down the field to score. What they want to know is does your practice work?
Now what Christians often do is get high on their huddles. We gather together on Sunday morning and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and we go nuts over the huddle! We say, “Boy did we have a huddle!! My quarterback can call plays better than your quarterback.” And boy do we go off on the huddle. But what people don’t seem to understand is, that the huddle is so that we can play the game. The effectiveness of our church cannot be measured by how well we do on Sunday morning. The test of the church is what it does in the marketplace. What we need today is churches that are representatives of Jesus Christ not only when gathered but when scattered.
Sometimes as a church, we get caught up in maintaining the status quo. The programs we’ve done for years, the committees that have existed since the church opened, the same materials for Sunday school and the same special programs every year. All great things, but sometimes we get so caught up in doing them we stop looking around and stop asking those vital questions that Jesus wants us to ask. We stop wondering what new things we may try and what new experiences we can have when we pause and look around.
As disciples of Christ and as a church, we are called to transform our lives into a holy experience. We need to not just be saying the right words, but doing the right things to help this world to know Jesus Christ in word and deed and spirit. The ten virgins all started out on equal footing, but when the bridegroom took longer than normal, the cream rose to the top. The wisdom of the five women showed over the foolishness of the others. They knew to be prepared, just as we are to be prepared for the long wait. Jesus may take another 5 years to come back or another 5,000 years and in the meantime, we are still called to transform our lives and the lives of those around us by spreading God’s word and sharing God’s love with everyone we meet. But that means a lot of work on our parts. That means thinking ahead and staying diligent. It’s not something many of us enjoy doing. Tim Hansel in his book "When I Relax I feel Guilty," writes some insights of what most people want from God.
"I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please."
If we would be totally honest, the idea of transformation really scares us. That is because we know that such a radical change would be quite uncomfortable. We realize that with transformation comes a major overhaul of our lives and priorities. But that is what we are called to do. Transform our lives by being intentional about the things we do as a people and as a church. We are called not to stay too long in the huddle, procrastinating and thinking we have all the time in the world to make changes. Instead we are called to always be the person God sees when looking at us and the only way to do that is by knowing the scriptures, praying to God, and sharing what we have learned with those around us. Then, when the time comes for the bridegroom to appear we will all be ready and able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Amen.

Stumbling Blocks

Deut 34: 1-12
Matthew 22: 34-46

I was speaking with someone the other day and the fact that Moses never made it to the Promised Land really seemed to disturb them. I remember them saying something like, “Well, that doesn’t seem fair!”. It becomes even more disturbing when a person continues to read the rest of the passage and notices that the author says there was never again a prophet like Moses, one that had spoken to God face to face.

The story pretty much moves on from there with Joshua being the new leader and Moses buried outside the Promised Land. The more we ponder this passage, the more irritated we might become. God let’s Moses SEE the Promised Land with his own eyes, but then tells him he will never enter, and sure enough Moses passes away.

This is a man who for forty years, has put up with some serious crap from the people and some serious tests by God. Moses had to deal with the stress of getting the Hebrews together in Egypt, convincing them to leave all they have ever known and once he gets them on board, then he has to face down a pharaoh. This is not just any leader of a nation – this is a man considered a god to his people and telling a god anything is asking to be killed. But Moses does it and God backs him up with the ten plagues.

Then, once he gets the Hebrews free to head out into the wilderness, the Pharaoh sends out soldiers to get them back. Can you imagine the ridicule Moses would have endured when he tells them that his staff is going to part the waters so they can cross? Now they are across, the soldiers are dead and the Hebrews start complaining that without food or water, they will die out here. Moses goes to God and I can just hear him saying, “Look, they have a point. I trust you, I do, but they are scared for their families. Can you throw us a bone? Preferably one with meat on it!”

So God gives them manna and dew to drink in the mornings, and quail to eat at night. Then they get to Mount Sinai and while Moses is up on top of the mountain speaking to God and receiving the Ten Commandments, the Hebrews have begged Aaron to create for them a new god to worship since it was taking too long for this one to come through for them. Moses comes down, lugging these heavy, beautiful stone tablets to see a glittering calf being worshiped. In a fit of anger, he breaks the tablets and throws a huge temper tantrum. Think of this, once he has calmed down, realizing what he has done, he knows he has to go back up the mountain and say to God, “Um.. so.. the tablets got broken, because I broke them when I was angry… and um.. can we have some new ones please?”

Moses was a mediator. He had to constantly mediate between the Hebrews and God. One would do something the other didn’t understand and Moses would have to interpret it to the other. Moses led a hard life, and every now and then his anger got the best of him. The moment where God had had enough of Moses’ temper was with the water and the rock. The Hebrews were very thirsty and once again complaining about God not taking care of them (because apparently 40 years of food and water from heaven just wasn’t enough to convince them).

God told Moses to speak to the rock and water would gush forth. Moses, being angry at the Hebrews’ lack of faith, frustrated with God about how long it was taking to get to the Promised Land, struck the rock twice and water gushed forth. But because of how he disobeyed God, God told Moses that he would never enter the Promised Land. While God appreciated all that Moses had done, God was tired of Moses’ anger and the way he lashed out when his temper was up.

But when you look at all that Moses had done for so very many years – it still seems like if anyone earned the Promised Land- it was Moses! But this character flaw of his continually got the better of him. So are you as disturbed by the way Moses’ life ends as I was? What can we learn from Moses’ story?

This was a man like no other, blessed like no other and yet, even he was not able to please God fully. I was reading a book the other day where the author told a story about her mother asking her who her favorite biblical character was and she refused to tell her. She said that at 8 years old her favorite character was Moses because he always managed to disobey God and not get into trouble. But of course she didn’t want to tell her mother that! The sad truth is that Moses did get into trouble. He was shown the goal he had worked forty long years for, but he was never allowed to fully obtain it. Moses died with regrets even as he would have been proud of all he had accomplished.

Now, I know what we can learn from this story. How many of us let character flaws continually drag us back to our old ways? How often do we say we will never do that again, whatever it is that we know is wrong, but then somehow we find ourselves doing it anyway? Perhaps you are quick to anger like Moses and you do and say things you regret when you’ve calmed down. Perhaps you tend to worry too much about things you cannot fix, and allow that worry to control your life. Perhaps you depend on alcohol or drugs when you should be depending on God. Perhaps you spend too much time working and not enough time with your family. Perhaps you like to overeat when you’re feeling especially emotional. Perhaps you have moments of such sadness that no matter what is happening around you, no one can reach you. Whatever it is, we all have a character flaw, we all have a thorn in our side that continually plagues us throughout our life.

It is our presiding sin, the one that seems to trip us up and prevent us from making it to the Promised Land on our own just like Moses. We wonder how we will overcome it and we worry and stress about how we are not good enough to get to heaven because we cannot seem to get over this lifelong sin.

Moses may not have made it to the earthly Promised Land, but God certainly had a table prepared for him in heaven. Moses was given his heavenly reward by being faithful to God even though he got angry. God does not ask us to be perfect and without sin. That was Jesus’ job description because God knew none of us could do it. If not even Moses, the one person that got to speak to God face to face could do it, God knew no one else could live a life free of sin either.

It doesn’t mean we ever stop trying. As Christians, we are called to spread the good news and be faithful to God through our love of Jesus Christ. Being faithful takes effort – just ask Moses! Sometimes we stumble along the path, but we get through our hardship, we get through those moments of weakness knowing that Jesus is walking this path with us. This journey through the desert is not one made alone – Moses knew that and we know it too.

If we hold on to our faith, if we hold onto our love for Jesus and our love for our fellow human beings, God will be able to forgive us those character flaws. God will be able to forgive us our sins when we continually come back with red cheeks and downcast eyes. The journey we take is not an easy one, and sometimes our deserts last a good, long while and we become disheartened. But the one reassurance I can give to you is that no matter where you are in your journey you are not alone. You have never been alone. Jesus stays close to you and even when you are at your darkest hour, the light of his love will get you to the Promised Land. It may not be on your terms, it may not be on your time schedule, but Jesus will help you get there.

Amen.

Clothed in Christ

Exodus 32: 1-14
Matthew 22: 1-14

Jesus is always telling us what the kingdom of heaven is like to try to show us the way we are to live our lives. The kingdom of heaven is what we aspire for; it is the ultimate goal of a Christian’s life and can only be attained when we live life with the same attitude as Jesus Christ.

Some people think that means we should always be kind and never have a harsh word to say about anyone. They think that Jesus was all rainbows and lollipops and cotton candy sweetness, but a close reading of the scriptures shows us that Jesus was anything but sweet. Jesus was blunt and bold and he cut right to the heart of a matter with his parables about life and the kingdom of heaven.

In today’s passage we learn about a king whom had invited guests to attend his wedding, but the invited guests do not come. Worse, when the king sends more servants to try to cajole the guests to the celebration, they beat and kill the servants which enrages the king. The king retaliates by killing the murderers of his servants. So far, this does not sound like a sweet tale told by a sweet, gentle man. This is a parable meant to awaken us to our wicked ways and our often lazy attitude toward our obligations.

The king is God who throughout the centuries has often invited the Israelites to live better lives through a covenantal relationship with God. First with Abraham and then with Moses and then with David, God continually extends a hand out to Israel, inviting them to partake in a better life than the one they are living filled with envy, pride, and greed. However, the Israelites continue to ignore God and God’s invitation. They worship other gods. They hurt innocent people. They cheat each other and lie to their loved ones. They commit murder and adultery and blaspheme in the temple.

God does not give up on them. God continues to send prophets and invitations, but the people not only turn away, they kill the prophets and as Jesus is aware they will soon kill him too!

Jesus tells us in the parable that God does not give up. Instead, he punishes those who have killed his people and the king then has his servants go out into the streets and find anyone they can, both good and bad, and invite THEM to the wedding instead. There will be a celebration, the king is determined to see it happen.

This part of the parable sounds more like the Jesus we have come to expect! Obviously, the people that the servants are collecting are the gentiles. They’re us. The invitation to eternal life has now been extended not only to the Jews, but because of Jesus we are also given the invitation to come and participate in the wedding celebration. All people, both good and bad, are invited to make an appearance and help celebrate this occasion! This is the Jesus we understand and expect. The loving, kind, generous Jesus that we love to think we know so well. This is the God we’re comfortable with. The one that would do anything for us and even though we sometimes sin, our God loves us and forgives us and welcomes us back with open arms.

Oh.. wait. Jesus isn’t done speaking yet. Jesus isn’t done teaching us yet. As the king is walking through the banquet hall, he sees the many people celebrating and is pleased with them. The good and the bad are mixed together and in their wedding finery, no one would know that any of them were not there by their own merits, but instead are there because of a generous, unearned invitation by a kindly king and his dutiful servants.

The wedding finery that we Christians are supposed to put on is the term we often use called being clothed in Christ. When we are clothed in Christ, God does not see our sinfulness, but rather sees the blood Jesus shed for us and God loves us the way God loves Jesus. That is why it is so important for us to know who Jesus is because if we are going to be like Christ, then we must know Christ fully. We cannot be clothed in the wedding finery if we cannot find it. Or if we only know a part of Jesus, it would be like coming to the wedding with our dress on, but no shoes on our feet or coat on our backs.

Unfortunately, sometimes this is exactly what happens to us. We think we know who Jesus is and we think we know who God is and we’re so sure that we are getting into heaven, into that ultimate wedding feast. In our sureness, we overlook parts of our character and actions that do not match up with Jesus and we get into trouble. This is exactly what happens to the poor man the king sees as he walks through the banquet hall.

There he was, mingling with all the others decked out in their wedding finery, but this man had no such clothes on his body. He walked around as if it was a normal day or a normal party, and then the king noticed and asked him, “How did you get in here without the proper wedding clothes?” The man has no response for the king, he is literally speechless to be caught not wearing what he should be wearing and the king has the man thrown out of the celebration where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The ending of this parable is harsh. It even seems a little cruel. Why would Jesus be telling us that THIS is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like?! How could God turn away that poor man for not wearing the proper clothes? Why would Jesus, our good and loving and kind Jesus, allow God to treat a person in such a cold, cruel manner?

Again, this parable is a warning and a wakeup call. Jesus reminds us that it is not enough to just say we are Christians, we must act like Christ. We must not treat others with disrespect and we must try to live up to our obligations such as working hard to spread the gospel and create peace in the world. The man who was thrown out was thrown out because he said he belonged, he said he was the king’s guest but could not even bother to put on nice clothes for the celebration.

We do that sometimes. I’m a Christian! We declare loudly for all to hear, but when our nephew who is constantly annoying us asks for advice, we pretend we’re too busy to listen. We say we love everyone, but that coworker that took the position you wanted is somehow always the butt of every joke you make and you’re the first person to spread the bad gossip about them. We say we’re supporters of the church, but when someone calls to ask us to be on Consistory or a committee, we tell them not this year or I don’t think I’m the right fit for it or I don’t have time.

Here’s the truth about Jesus: he sees us and he knows us. Jesus is kind and loving and generous, but Jesus is no pushover. He knows and understands that sometimes we get lazy and ambivalent about what it means to be a Christian. Jesus tells us these parables not to be cruel or cold, but to give us yet another opportunity to change our ways. To change before we become the man at the banquet, underdressed and about to be thrown out into the darkness. Jesus does not want that for any person. It’s why every person in this world is invited to the wedding, both good and bad. It’s why we get a million second chances because it is never too late to be clothed in Christ. It’s never too late to become the person God knows we can be.

Jesus loves us, and Jesus is our teacher. As every parent raising a child can attest, part of teaching is being strict even when it hurts because it helps us grow and it helps us change into better people who understand there are boundaries and rules to follow. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus’ heart hurts that that man was thrown out of the wedding celebration. There is also no doubt in my mind that if we do not act the way we should, if we do not follow the commands of God to love one another that we will be the one thrown out for we will not be wearing the clothing of Christ.

That is a risk I’d rather not take.

Amen.

Reaping a Fruitful Harvest

Isaiah 5: 1-7
Phil 3: 4b-14

Planting a garden begins long before a seed is placed in the ground. The gardener envisions the desired harvest and then selects the finest quality seeds. The soil is prepared and enriched so that the garden will return the highest yield. Space, sunlight, and water requirements are all considered when planning the placement of each vegetable and fruit. By the time the ground is tilled and the seeds planted, much hope has been invested in a garden that is yet to grow.

So the gardener waits, watches, and waters, looking for the first sign of growth. With sprouts come stems, then stalks, as leaves begin to spread – an indication of growth but no assurance of a harvest. This is the ongoing risk for a gardener: no assurance of a harvest. So if seeds fail to sprout, or plants grow wildly beyond their row, becoming entangled with other plants, or the fruit that hangs from the vine sours in taste and there is no harvest, the garden is plowed under and a garden for a new season is planted.

Who is at fault for a failed harvest – the gardener or the garden? This is the question we’re left asking after reading the passage in Isaiah today where God is the gardener with a garden filled with wild grapes instead of a yield of healthy grapes. As we know, the grapes that God had so tenderly looked after and grew with such care and attention are a metaphor for humanity. God created us, God shared knowledge and wisdom and promises with us, and instead of growing up strong and wise, filled with righteousness and justice we went our own ways down wicked and wild paths.

Who is at fault for this? Is God not a good enough gardener? Has God not given us enough blessings? Has God somehow failed in attending to our needs and therefore God is at fault for us growing up wild? Or is humanity at fault? God has given us the freedom of choice, the ability to choose our path, but promises that if we follow Jesus’ ways that we will be given the greatest of blessings: that of a life of righteousness and justice that does not end upon our deathbed, but instead we are given eternal life.

In this passage, God is in pain. God wants so much for us to choose God’s ways, but we continually turn away causing God untold grief at our refusal to see the goodness and mercy and grace that makes up our Creator. God has painstakingly tried to make it clear that if we choose to love and follow God that there is something beautiful to be gained in the relationship between creator and creation.

Have you ever painstakingly put together a project and followed all of the rules only to have everything collapse for no real reason? When my cousin was about 10 years old, he received a ten gallon aquarium for Christmas. He eagerly read the book that came with it and began to follow the instructions to create the perfect aquatic environment for his fish. He assembled the filter, washed the gravel, bought the plants and fish. Everything was prepared as well as it possibly could have been and he was so excited to see his aquarium come alive. What he did not know at the time were some snails had smuggled themselves in with the plants. They soon overran the environment. So did a few guppies the girl next door brought over. Worse, no matter how diligently he fed the fish, they seemed to prefer eating each other than the fish food! Within a few months, his excitement and enthusiasm waned and the aquarium was dissembled and placed in the garage.

It’s a hard lesson to learn. That sometimes we can do everything right and still everything goes wrong. We’re the right fit for that new job, but a new hire gets it instead of us. We raise our children to love the Lord and to obey the rules, but sometimes they decide to test the limits society has placed upon them and end up in jail and with a bitter heart that does not believe in God. We invest our money in many different ventures like we’re told to do, and we follow our tax accountants advise to the T and when the market crashes like it has in the past we’re left without a retirement.

Isaiah tells us that God understands. God was a vigilant vinedresser. No effort was too great to expend upon this crop of grapes. A very fertile hill is chosen, the vineyard is dug and cleared of stones, choice vines are planted, and both a watchtower and a wine vat are constructed. All of this careful attention is performed with one hope, that excellent grapes will be produced.

The project fails. The grapes grow wild, just as if the garden had been left alone. The exemplary efforts of the vinedresser have no effect. The environment could not have been more favorably prepared for growth, yet something goes terribly wrong.

In times like this, we are forced to reevaluate our identity, goals, and relationships. It is difficult when we do the right thing yet are forced to live with the consequences of other people’s poor decisions. And sometimes it is our own poor decisions that God is left to deal with. This passage is a warning to us. Yes, God wants many good things for us, but God does not want us to use these blessings only for our own gain and prosperity.

You see, the yield God was hoping for from his vineyard was that we would take the care and love we’ve received and share it with those around us. The fruit we humans are to produce are the fruits of righteousness and justice. The care we receive from God is supposed to be reflected in the care we give to others. The relationships in our lives should be healthy and happy and loving in the same way God’s relationship is supposed to be with us. God is not content until the blessings we receive are shared equally with everyone.  If the fruit of justice and righteousness are not produced, the result according to Isaiah is that God will allow us to run wild and leave us to our own devices.

How scary is that?! If we’re allowed to do as we please, humanity has proven time and again that we will do the wrong things. We will be selfish and hateful and spiteful and arrogant. We will destroy whole villages when we go mining for gold and oil and coal. We will destroy the environment and demolish rain forests in our efforts to gain more land and prosperity. We will pollute our oceans with oil from wrecked ships and with garbage we throw out as if no one else lives on this planet. We will destroy whole countries in an effort to gain power and prestige and we will destroy ourselves with our self-centeredness.

God is calling us away from all of that and calling us back to righteousness; to living in a way that makes God proud to call us God’s children. God is calling us to understand that there is more to this life than the limits we place upon ourselves when we think it’s all about power, wealth, and recognition. When we see Christ in every person we meet we begin to recognize that we’re here for a higher purpose than having the best clothes, haircut, and entertainment devices. We’re here to love one another with the same fierceness and care that God shows us, and that can only happen when we turn back to God and give thanks for what we’ve been given.

When we recognize that all we have is not because we did it on our own, but because God has given us these abilities; we are able to recognize that these blessings are not just for us alone. They’re for every person we encounter. And when we start to look at the things we have as things to be given they stop controlling us, and become a tool to help the world. We become kinder and more generous and the love that shines from our hearts will make those around us take notice. And when they start to ask questions, you’re given the chance to show them a God who is not dispassionate and uncaring, but fiercely loving and attentive toward all of humanity.

If we start producing the fruit of righteousness and justice – we can change the world!

Amen. 

Love and Sin

Exodus 12: 1-14
Romans 13: 8-14

For 2,000 years the Bible, often unaided by any human intervention, has transformed the lives of those who read it, many times dramatically so. St. Augustine is a good example. For most of his life he was a famed academic in the Roman Empire. He was very successful in rhetoric, a noble profession. But he lived a thoroughly dissolute, self-indulgent, immoral life. The time came when he began to consider the claims of Christianity.

He was alone in a garden one day when he heard a child singing out a line from a game: "Pick it up and read, pick it up and read." He turned to his copy of the Scriptures, which was opened to Romans 13. His eyes were drawn to the following words: "Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Deeply convicted, he surrendered to Christ, and the Roman rhetorician went on to become the Christian bishop of Hippo, the greatest theologian after Paul, and one of the most formidable intellects of Western civilization.

This leads me to ask what is a sin? In Augustine’s eyes, before he began to know Jesus Christ, he did not consider his life sinful. We could quibble about the definition of a sin and about what makes something sinful. However, I have to think that a sin is whatever keeps us from God. If there is anything in our lives that keeps us out of God’s arms; anything that keeps us from going toward God – then that is what is sinful, regardless of what anyone else says. Sin separates us from God. God is not sinful and will not accept anything sinful.

Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we may enter heaven instead of being cast out. Jesus didn’t just whitewash our sinful pasts to make them look clean, he took all that sinful behavior away. Most of us in here today understand and accept that part of our faith. We understand that sometimes we will lie or speak hatefully or maybe even fudge our tax return and that when we come to God with these sins, Jesus will make it right with our Father in heaven.

In fact, I have to say perhaps we are all a little too accepting of this part of our faith. Perhaps we have gone from being truly repentant to just being lazy. There are many kinds of sin. There are many ways to sin. One of the things I’ve always envied about the Catholic religion is their ability to organize and simplify certain things about God and Christianity. Catholics have categorized their sins into venereal and mortal. Basically they figured out there are some sins that we all do and then there are the special sins that require a bit more effort on humanity’s part. I think we are all comfortable being forgiven for the really bad stuff so that sometimes we forget to pay attention to the not so bad sins.

We become comfortable with the news we see on television or read about in the newspaper. We start seeing nothing wrong with three deaths to gang violence last night or when a mother shakes her baby to death. We begin to accept that sometimes children go to bed hungry in this town and we accept that there are others that have the brains for college, but lack the funds so they will work at Sheetz for the rest of their life when they could have been a doctor. We accept the homeless in the cities and the children that grow up without direction from their parents. We shake our heads at the gangs and the violence while talking about how it was different when we were kids. We say things like, “Teens didn’t act like they do now; we respected our elders.”

We forget what brought us to the point we are at. We forget that many of the kids that are in gangs join so they won’t be picked on in school because some parents didn’t teach their children to ignore differences and to accept everyone. We forget that because the economy isn’t prospering that many parents are working when their children come home and so now many teenagers have no role models to teach them how to be responsible. We forget how every generation of children and teenagers rebel against their parents in some way and we tell ourselves we never did the same thing.

I’m not sure how we get to the point where gunshots and screams are okay background noise. I’m not sure how we start to accept that twenty soldiers were killed in Afghanistan this weekend. I’m not sure how we allow children in this town to go without food in their stomachs and I don’t know how we accept that some children will just not have the guidance they need while others will have more guidance than they could ever want. And I’m really not sure how we can look Jesus in the eye after we die and say that we did all we could for these people.

These are the people that will never ask the church for help. These are the people that don’t even know that the church COULD help. If there was ever an untapped source of humanity it is the people that live right outside these walls. In every town and in every city, churches are surrounded by needy people. Every day that a church ignores that need is a day the church has ignored the chance to change a person’s life by showing them the transforming and life changing love of Jesus. When we help someone that cannot do anything for us, we show them the true love of God because God does everything for us when we have nothing to give in return.

You see, this passage today is a reminder that the love of Christ is all encompassing. It is a reminder to us that love is the fulfillment of the laws that God has created and love is about caring for others more than we care about ourselves. Love is the essence of discipleship, the basis for transformation. Love involves all we are and do, individually and as faith communities every single day.

Love defines the attitude, behavior, and norm by which the Christian community takes account of its life. This love has two feet: love of God and love of neighbor. Loving God and loving our neighbors are inseparable. If you do not love your neighbor you are not loving God and if you love God you will love your neighbor because God IS your neighbor. We do not help others to put butts in the seats of this church. We help them because that is the right thing to do. We help because that is what Jesus calls us to do. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors.

What is a neighbor? Not just the person across from you in the street. Think of someone that annoys you. Someone that constantly does things that hurt you. Think of someone so completely different from you that they could be from another planet. These people are your neighbors. They are to be loved with the same fierceness as we love ourselves and our family.

We are to be the light of the world. We are to be the voice that cries out, “You are God’s beloved child!” We are to be the ones that change a life by offering Christ’s Good News. And every day we pretend that is not our mission, every day when we say we are too tired or too busy or we don’t have enough money to make any real difference is a day that we go away from God instead of toward God.

And that is the danger of sin. It takes away our urgency to help others. It takes away our ability to be kind and compassionate to those less fortunate. It takes us away from God and God’s voice that reminds us that our mission is about making sure every single person has the chance to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It takes away from our commitment to our families and to our community and it distracts us from our purpose.

We are here in these pews to worship the Lord. We worship by praying and singing. We worship by offering ourselves to do Christ’s work. It is not for others to do. It is not for another church to do or another mission group. It is our work. It is our duty. Christ’s great commission before he ascended into heaven was to spread the gospel to all four corners of the earth. And that means our mission is clear – we need to educate the person across the street from us just as much as we educate the people across the world from us. With every person we help, that is one more person who may help us spread God’s word and that is an exciting thing to realize!

Amen.