Warning! Danger Will Robinson!

This sermon was delivered on Sunday December 30, 2007, the 1st Sunday after Christmas at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.

Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm 148
Hebrews 2:10-18
Matthew 2:13-23

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

From 1965 through 1968, there was a television show on CBS called “Lost in Space.”[1] “Lost in Space” was the story of the Robinson family, launched into space in 1997 in aluminum foil space suits, sent to colonize Alpha Centauri. But their ship is boarded by a foreign spy who was trying to sabotage the mission. Instead of disrupting the lift-off, his weight added just enough to the payload to throw the ship off balance and its crew off their flight path. Yes, you get it; instead of “The Swiss Family Robinson” we have “The Space Family Robinson.”

This show had all of the obligatory characters every good science fiction ship wreck show needs. Along with the stowaway there’s mom and dad, one’s a biochemist and the other is an astrophysicist. There are the kids, one older two younger. There’s the dashing military man serving as ship’s pilot. And of course, there’s the robot. Every week the family faces some peril, and when their fate is in question, seemingly without question the robot would say, “Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson!”

Though used only once in the run of the show,[2] this little phrase made it into the lexicon as an expression of warning, at least among my friends. And this week, while reading Luke’s gospel, Joseph receives warnings from the Lord. We have several suitable examples of “Danger Will Robinson.”

Joseph gets the warning about the impending doom of his family. He hears the angel of the Lord in a dream saying, “Warning! Warning! Danger Joseph, son of David (or David’s-son if you will)!” “Warning! Warning! Danger Joseph Davidson!” Joseph will also hear the word of when to return and about where to return because of the dangers of their return.

When we celebrate Christmas, there are some things we expect, and some we don’t. I expected to see a Christmas tree, but the chrismons were new to me. Every other church tree ornament I have ever seen pales to the humble construction and deep theology of these chrismons. Even more special, these were created by the children of this congregation who were taught of their meaning while making them; how wonderfully glorious, teaching and crafts, theology and pottery all in one afternoon.

At Christmas time we expect pageants. We expect the oldest kids to be Mary and Joseph, we expect the triplets to play the wise men, and we expect the cute kids who aren’t old enough to handle spoken lines to be the shepherds. Sure enough, somewhere there will be a nervous director or parent who wants everything to be absolutely perfect just as the plastic sheep rolls down the chancel steps.

We expect parties and presents and song and caroling and our reading today has nothing to do with any of these wonderful things. Any reading that includes a passage known as “the slaughter of the innocents” doesn’t seem to have the “Christmas Spirit.”

But this is the pericope, this is the lesson we read today.

The reading begins as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph leave Bethlehem. And after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

Let’s face it; Herod doesn’t seem to have any place in a Christmas pageant. King Herod was the Praetor, the Chief Magistrate, of Judea and he had been in power for over thirty years and you didn’t accumulate and keep that kind of power in the Roman Empire without knowing how to quell a rebellion or two. But Herod was more. On top of his winning personality Herod was angry, vengeful, and brutal.

So when the three wise men tricked him going home along a different route, Herod knew there was only one thing to do. So he consulted his advisors and they figured out the maximum age of the new-born king. He then sent a detachment to Nazareth where any child who even remotely close to that age was massacred. This is the slaughter, the slaughter of the innocents, and I don’t think it will be in the Christmas Pageant anytime soon.

Before he could walk, even before he could take food from beyond his mother’s breast, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of Man is surrounded in blood and death. Death and suffering are the things we read about in the Good Friday liturgy, not the Christmas liturgy, but it is here in Matthew for all to see. So why does Matthew put this here? Why is this in the Lectionary?

I have a couple of ideas. The first is that Matthew is constantly pointing to the ministry of the Christ with the cross and to the resurrection, pointing forward by looking back. Much of Matthew’s gospel contains reference to prophecy. Verse 15 shows this off noting that one of the results evading Herod was fulfilling “what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my Son.’”

First, Matthew uses the words of the prophet Hosea who says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”[3] Matthew uses the words of the prophet to tell the world who Jesus is. Then as Matthew has Jesus coming out of Egypt to save and lead the people, he looks back on Jewish history with Moses foreshadowing the movements of Jesus. Moses is the warning, Jesus is the real thing.

Another possible reason for this savage incident in the middle of a birth narrative is to show the people that in the midst of joy and hope is despair and pain. At that, Matthew’s words show that in the midst of despair and pain is the presence and the joy of the Lord.

We need to remember that Matthew’s gospel was written around 75 AD, not long after the temple was destroyed and Israel and Judea were scattered again. The Jews, including the Jewish Christians who were the people Matthew was writing for, were being cast to the wind. The temple had been destroyed. The life of pain that they knew as subjects of Rome was being increased. So even in the midst of their despair, the hope of salvation was with them. It was with them in the birth of the baby and continues to be with them years after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Yes there is danger, but yes there is more than pain. There is joy in the midst of the blood and there is blood in the midst of the joy.

These messages are still important to us today. There are warnings we need to listen to, warnings we need to heed. These things can’t be lost on us today. We have just celebrated the day of the Nativity of the Christ, but in this celebration of birth, death and strife surround us.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi. Bhutto led Pakistan for nearly 5 years and had just returned from self-imposed exile in Dubai. She was a leading opposition candidate for Prime Minister again who was shot leaving a campaign stop. She was injured by gunfire, but she and another twenty were killed when the shooter detonated a bomb he was carrying.

She knew the dangers of returning and seeking to lead her people, but this didn’t stop her. She heard the warning of danger, and was paid back in pain and death.

Michelle Anderson and Joseph McEnroe confessed to the brutal slaying of Anderson’s parents and four other family members, including her young niece and nephew on Christmas Eve in Washington state. We were singing Lessons and Carols and two time zones away this is happening, its own version of the slaughter of the innocents. When King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg was asked about motive he said, “In the end, what motive could you find that would make sense of the senseless slaying of the Anderson family?”[4]

Danger Will Robinson.

Just to add insult to injury, and prove that the universal church knows its own share of hostility during this season of joy, the Associated Press reported that “Robed Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests went at each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity on Thursday as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning.”[5] Priests swat one another with brooms while cleaning the church built over the site that according to tradition is the place of our dear Savior’s birth.

So this doesn’t rate next to the other two examples, but considering the religious tension that exists in this world and the violence that follows it; this story is like a pie-fight in the middle of a fire fight.

Yet, still, in his time of torment and pain, Joseph receives a warning to leave. He later receives a message when to return. After contemplating the wisdom of returning to Judea where Herod’s son Archelaus is on the throne he receives another warning of danger and returns instead to Nazareth in Galilee, north of Judea.

According to Matthew this fulfills another prophecy in a round about way,[6] “He will be called a Nazorean.” In the blood of his birth and the blood of his death, the signs of warning and danger are all around us, they are not to be ignored. Yet, in the danger there is grace of the Son of God.

Let this be our lesson, in the days of his birth, in the days of his death, and in all the days of our lives, the only constant is Jesus the Christ. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not Herod, not Archelaus, no one. We crown him with many crowns. We acclaim his authority and proclaim his work and his word in the joy of his birth and the terror of his death.

Matthew shares the prophecy of old in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He shares the joy of the birth of the child. But he is in tune with the pain of his people so he reminds his people of their pain in the violence and blood of Herod. Yet through it all, there is Jesus, the babe, the Messiah.
The only constant is Jesus the Christ.

[1] Lost in Space Episode Guide, http://epguides.com/LostinSpace/, accessed December 29, 2007.
[2] Lost in Space, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_In_Space, accessed December 29, 2007.
[3] Hosea 11:1
[4] Chilling Details Emerge in Washington Family Massacre, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22420704/, accessed December 29, 2007.
[5] Priests Brawl Inside Bethlehem Church, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22419654/, accessed December 29, 2007.
[6] Isaiah 11:1

Lessons and Carols 2007

This service of Lessons and Carols was celebrated at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Monday evening, December 24, 2007. The Presbyterian Church Book of Common Worship does not have a version of this service. Since there are many different versions of this service, I compared several different services and selected these passages and these songs for the service.

Anyone who would like to use this service is welcome, the prayers come from the Presbyterian Church Book of Common Worship or are things I have picked up from other pastors through the years. The homily is a personal composition. While I am happy with this service, I welcome anyone considering using this service to do as I did, find several, compare, and see where the theology of the service takes you, then arrange your own.

The soloist, Mr. Ken Kinser, is the Worship Leader at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.

Prelude

Welcome

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.

Good evening and welcome to this very special worship service of Lessons and Carols. All who come in the name of the Lord are welcome on this special, special evening.

Let us begin with the lighting of the Advent Candles...

We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.
Advent means coming.
We are preparing ourselves for the days
when the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.

The Lord will give you a sign.
Look, the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel (God is with us).

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness,
on them light has shined.

Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Call to Worship

Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.

Let us pray...

Holy Child, born of Mary in a barn, you identify with us in object humanity. You move among us with announcements of Good News when things look bleak; you give us a star on dark, lonely nights. Sing to us once more that, assured of your presence among us, we may forget our fear and embrace your gift of newborn life, to the glory of your holy name we pray. Amen.

Offering

During worship, we usually respond to the word of God through our offerings. Our offering this evening is taken to benefit the ministry of the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank of the Ozarks.

So do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

The love of God multiplies and blesses all that we have, and all that we give.

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

Your Word is made flesh and dwells among us, O God, full of grace and truth. For that gift and all you bestow, we say Alleluia and Amen! As we behold your glory, we commit ourselves to Christ's work. Make of us the body of Christ and dwell in us by your Spirit for the sake of the world that you love.

Prayer of Illumination

O Lord our God,
your Word is a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love,
the story of the coming of your son Jesus Christ,
that we may be obedient to your will
and live always for your glory;
by his birth in Bethlehem and his death on Calvary,
We pray in His holy name. Amen.

Homily The Story Rev. Paul Andresen

It is customary that when the word of God is read in Christian churches, it is followed by interpretation. Usually this is done through a message from the pastor. Sometimes it is done in drama or in dance.

Tonight, we do something special. Tonight, we interpret the written word of God through song.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) Directory for Worship tells us “Song is a response which engages the whole self in prayer. Song unites the faithful in common prayer wherever they gather for worship whether in church, home, or other special place.”

So tonight, in this holy place, we will hear the story of the birth of our Lord told in Lessons and Carols.

Let us hear the word of God and let us respond in prayer and in song.

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
Hymn: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Isaiah 11:1 4a, 6-9
Hymn: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Micah 5:2-5a
Hymn: Bethlehem Morning, Ken Kinser, Soloist

Luke 1:26-35, 38
Hymn: To a Maid Engaged to Joseph

Luke 2:1-7
Hymn: Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus

Luke 2:8-20
Hymn: Angels We Have Heard On High

Luke 2:21-33
King of Glory, Ken Kinser, Soloist

Matthew 2:1-11
Hymn: O Come, All Ye Faithful

John 1:1-14
Hymn: Silent Night, Holy Night

Charge and Benediction

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
As we celebrate His birth,
Let us celebrate new life in Him.

And may the blessing of triune God almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
remain with you always.
Amen.

Hymn: Joy to the World!

Absurd Requests

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday December 23, 2007, the 4th Sunday in Advent.

Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Reverend Doctor Kathryn Roberts is an Old Testament scholar and an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. One of her sermons is called “Uh oh, It’s an Angel.”[1] She contends that whenever someone sees an angel in the Old Testament it’s to announce a pregnancy. See an angel, uh oh, someone’s pregnant. I won’t argue with her either.

In Genesis 16, Hagar leaves her mistress Sarai who has been abusing her because she is carrying the child of her husband Abram. Mind you, Sarai gave Hagar to her husband so she could bear him a son, but that didn’t prevent the green monster of jealousy from raising its ugly head. Hagar is abused for doing as her as her mistress commanded. Yeah, that’s gratitude.

While Hagar is making her sojourn into the wilderness, she receives a visit from the angel of the Lord while she is resting at a spring on the road to Shur. The angel says to Hagar, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The messenger of the Lord tells Hagar to return to the woman who is abusing her. Now tell me, what would you say to the angel?

Sure, the angel promises her son will be the father of a great multitude, but the angel also promises he will be a wild ass of a man with his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him. This still doesn’t sound like a good deal to me. I sure wouldn’t want my sisters to be involved in this sort of a situation.

Hagar returns to her mistress and bears her husband a son, Ishmael. Ishmael means God hears.[2]

Hagar receives a horrible request, and complies naming her son after the act of mercy she receives in the wilderness, God hears.

About twelve years later, Abram, since renamed Abraham, receives three visitors from the wilderness.[3] He welcomes them to his camp and invites them to stay for a meal. When the three men agreed to stay, Abraham directed his people to set a feast before them. Curds and milk were laid out along with bread made from his finest flour. A choice calf was slaughtered and prepared and put before them, all the while, Abraham waited off to the side tending to the needs of the men.

When they finished this fine meal of veal they were pleased with the hospitality and courtesy Abraham showed. So in his honor, one of the men said that he would return in about a year and Sarai, now called Sarah, will bear Abraham a son. She was in the tent, but she heard the prophecy. She was on the near side of 90 years old and she was going to bear her 100 year old husband a son. This messenger’s word made her laugh out loud.

But she carried a child and she bore a son. She named him Isaac which means “He laughs.”[4] A 90 year old woman bears a son, I’d be laughing too, but I would be laughing because of how outrageous this is, not because of how funny it is.

There are other examples in the Old Testament, birth announcements coming from messengers and travelers from the Lord, these others include the birth of Samson.[5]

Samson is promised by an angel of the Lord to a woman known in scripture as the barren wife of Manoah. (How’s that for a name to be known by for all eternity?) An angel of the Lord appears to her and promises a son who is to be kept holy and prepared to serve the Lord as a Nazirite. Of course Manoah doesn’t believe a word that his wife tells him about this most unlikely birth, not without hearing from the angel of the Lord himself. So the angel appears to Manoah and confirms the prophecy. She too bears a son and names him Samson. Samson means Sun or the Sun’s Man.[6]

Samuel’s mother Hannah receives the announcement of his birth from Eli, an old man of a priest in the temple, and he thought she was drunk. But as soon as she showed she was praying in earnest and not bombed out of her skull Eli bid her to go in peace. You’re drunk! Oh, no you’re not, you’re going to have a baby, now get out of here and have a nice day. What kind of an absurd conversation is this? Thank you for your kind words O prophet. As I said, she named her son Samuel, which means “name of God.”[7]

But the Old Testament isn’t alone with these odd birth announcements. Luke gives us the astounding annunciation of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son.[8] Zechariah was a priest and a righteous man, and his wife, Elizabeth was unable to bear children. One season, Zechariah was chosen to take the incense into the Holy of the Holies, and while there he was greeted by the angel of the Lord who told him “do not be afraid for your prayer had been heard.” He was told his wife Elizabeth would bear him a son.

Now, as had been the case for Abraham and Sarah, Zechariah was old and according to scripture, Elizabeth was “advanced in years.” When told of his wife’s pregnancy, he asked the angel “How shall I know this?” Zachariah is told “I am Gabriel, who stands before God.” And because Zechariah would not believe Gabriel, the angel took Zechariah’s ability to say anything. He was mute until his son was born and named John. John means “God is gracious.”[9] This is the man who will become John the Baptist.

So by the time we get to today’s narrative from Luke, we’ve pretty much established that Dr. Robert’s presumption has merit, not just in the Old Testament, but in the gospels too. See an angel, uh oh, somebody’s pregnant. Oh, and by the way, it’s going to be an unusual pregnancy. Just who do these angels, these messengers, think they are? They take the lives of ordinary people and place on them extraordinary demands. These are some outrageous commands.

Imagine being a ninety year old woman and being asked to bear the child of the promise into this world, or her hand maid getting abused while bearing the son who was the presumed child of the promise. Imagine telling the Lord in prayer that if you bear a son you will dedicate him to the temple as Samuel’s mother did, or being told by the angel of the Lord that you will bear a son and you will dedicate him to the temple as Samson’s mother did.

In my humble opinion, the most absurd of these requests comes in today’s gospel reading. Joseph has just learned that his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant. Now, they hadn’t known one another so he couldn’t have been the father, so who was? I’m not sure it really mattered to him, whoever on earth was the father could be the father. He was ready to be done with her.

Then just as he had resolved to do this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Now, I may be a little too much of a twenty-first century man, but if I had heard that, I would have been looking for the speaker and the camera. My fiancé is carrying the child of the Holy Spirit? Yeah, right sure. Where’s Candid Camera? Am I getting Punk’d?

What kind of absurd notion is this?

Then he gets his next absurd request from the Spirit: “She will bear a son, and you will call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus means God is salvation.[10] Then the Spirit continues, but the people will call him Emmanuel.” Emmanuel means God is with us.

How absurd is this? Joseph’s girlfriend is pregnant, she’s carrying the child of the Holy Spirit, he’s going to call him Jesus (the first century equivalent of Bob) and they (whoever they are) will call him God with us.

Forgive me if I find this a little absurd.

We have heard this story so many times. We know how it ends, both on Christmas morning and again on Easter morning. We have heard this story so many times that it is easy to lose the wonder of the day and the time and the events, and lose just how utterly absurd these requests are. This morning, it is that outrageousness I want us to recapture.

What Hagar, and Abraham and Sarah, and Manoah and his wife, and Hannah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, and Joseph hear from the Lord’s messengers is so wild that there is no way on earth this could be happening, but it has. The lunacy of these events is beyond our ability to imagine, and each is more absurd than the last, but we are to keep believing. And that’s the message: In the world of the Lord our God, what we are asked to do for the advancement of the Kingdom can be pretty darned absurd.

Whether it’s raising children who will become a great nation, like Ishmael and Isaac, or children set apart for service to the temple, like Samson and Samuel, or the herald of the Prince of Peace or the Prince himself, John and Jesus; the Lord, directly and through messengers, makes demands upon us that are wild and outrageous and absurd. And we can’t allow ourselves to gloss over this absurdity because we have heard the stories so many times in the past. The Lord has always made absurd requests of the people and this will not end any time soon.

A couple of weeks ago, two members of the Presbytery of Arkansas’ Committee on Ministry came to the Session meeting for the Presbytery’s triennial evaluation. They come to check on the church, but for more than any other reason, they come to help us focus our mission as the church in the community and in the world. They asked three questions, questions to help us focus who we are and what we do as the Body of Christ:

What are we living for?
What are we willing to die for?
What excites you?

When seeking the prayerful answer to these questions, don’t be surprised if the answers seem absurd. The God of this world is able to do infinitely more than we can ever hope or imagine, and this same God comes upon us as the Holy Spirit to anoint us to participate in these wild, outrageous, and absurd activities.

Yet, we must also be discerning about the answers we hear. I will not advocate someone entering into much less returning to an abusive situation. And I have difficulty finding the wisdom and the glory of women with so much love to give not being able to bear children. So with a discerning ear, we have to ask God through prayer—individually and in groups—for the answers to these questions. And we have to listen to hear the answers when they come. And we have to remember, the answers may look nothing like we expect them to look.

Today, through the power of the Spirit who dwells within us and feeds our faith, we testify that the Lord of Lords comes to earth in a manger as a little baby. A baby born of a virgin comes to save us, Jesus saves. We will call him Emmanuel, God with us.

So now, let us follow the example of Joseph, the man who heard one of the most absurd requests and wonderful prophecies imaginable, let us do as the messengers of the Lord command us.

[1] The actual title is “Oh Shit, It’s an Angel,” but I’m not going to say that in worship.
[2] Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, entry for Ishmael, entry #10117
[3] Genesis 18
[4] BDB Lexicon, Isaac, entry #8121
[5] Judges 13
[6] Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Samson entry.
[7] BDB Lexicon, Samuel, entry #10049
[8] Luke 1:5-25
[9] http://www.babynames.com/name/JOHN accessed December 23, 2007
[10] A Boy Named Jesus, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=93040353, accessed November 19, 2007.

He Asked

If not for ice on the roads south of Springfield, Missouri, this sermon would have been delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on December 16, 2007, the Third Sunday in Advent.

Isaiah 35:1-10
Psalm 146:5-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Once I mentioned how much I like the John Cusack movie “Say Anything.”[1] It’s the story of Lloyd Dobler, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who asks out Diane Court, the prettiest, smartest girl in the school. At the big High School graduation party, this most unlikely combination caused a classmate to ask Lloyd, “I don’t know you very well, you know, but I wanted to ask you—how’d you get Diane Court to go out with you? Lloyd answered, “I called her up.”

How’s that? How did Lloyd Dobler get Diane Court to go out with him? He called her up and he asked. Nothing drastic, nothing earth shattering in the question. So the conversation continues, the classmate asks Lloyd, “But how come it worked? I mean, like, what are you?” The answer: “I’m Lloyd Dobler.” No bragging, just a simple matter of fact. He’s Lloyd Dobler.

I’ll say this for the writer and the actors, the simple elegance of this scene betrays the tension, fear, and anticipation that Lloyd felt in the first place when he asked Diane out on the date.

So John and his disciples want to know, they need to know, so they are sent with a question: “Are you the one who is to come? Or are we to wait for another?” It’s almost the classmate’s second question all over again, “I mean, like, what are you?” This is surely the question, “Oh, Jesus of Nazareth, who are you? Are you the one?”

As we read a couple of weeks ago, John had promised everyone who had come to the Jordan that while he was there to baptize with water, one who is more powerful is coming after who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. In the verse that immediately follows, we read, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” John knew who Jesus was. Matthew’s gospel tells us that John would have prevented Jesus from being baptized by him saying, “I need to be baptized by you.”

John knew who Jesus was. The story of the Baptism of Jesus ends with a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” John knew who Jesus was, but Jesus wasn’t doing the things he had expected the Christ to do. Jesus wasn’t doing the Messianic stuff, the Holy Spirit and fire he had expected wasn’t coming. Where’s the brimstone when you need it?

Of course, John’s expectations of a Messiah who would come with fire weren’t his own creation. There was a long history of prophets who had prophesied the coming of the Messiah with fire. Our reading from Isaiah promised God will come with vengeance and with terrible recompense. Isaiah promised divine retribution coming to destroy the enemies of God. We’re talking about fire and the Holy Spirit here.

The conventional wisdom of the day was that the Messiah would come to free the nation from its oppression by conquerors. Freedom from Rome, freedom from Babylon, freedom from Egypt, the Jews expected a military and political leader who would free them from the traditional shackles of the world and restore the Kingdom of God on earth.

But with everything John knew, knowing Jesus is the Christ, what Jesus was doing didn’t meet his expectations for the acts of the Messiah. He knew Jesus was the answer, but where’s the fire? Where’s the vengeance? Where’s the terrible recompense? Where’s the divine retribution? Where is the destruction of the enemies? John’s in prison. He isn’t long for this world, and I am guessing he is feeling the pressure of prophecy and the weight of the cosmos upon him, so he sends his disciples to ask. “Are you the one who is to come? Or are we to wait for another?”

Jesus answers John’s disciples. “Go and tell John what you see and hear.” He tells them don’t ask me, see for yourself and tell your master, your Rabbi, John what you see. “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

In a simple sentence, Jesus reminds John’s disciples of the miracles he has performed in the name of Holy God, to give glory to God. Jesus reminds John’s disciples of the blessings he spoke to the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus even reminds them of what Isaiah said later in the passage we read today, “The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!”

Jesus tells them exactly who he is. And if he isn’t what they expected, that wasn’t his concern. Maybe they should take another look at their expectations.

Jesus is exactly who he is, he is exactly who he says he is, and he isn’t Lord of creation to meet others expectations or desires. We all have an idea of who God is, but that may not be who God is at all. So how do we find out who God is? We do just what John did, he asked, so we ask.

But we must beware of asking. To get good answers we need to seek good questions. In “The Grifters,”[2] John Cusack plays a man named Roy Dillon who wants to become a grifter, a con man. So Roy went to an old con man, a legend in the field, to learn from him. When the man decided to accept him as a student, Roy asked for a lesson. The legendary grifter asked for twenty dollars and Roy gave it to him. The legend pocketed the bill and said, come back tomorrow and I’ll teach you some more.

The con man taught this lesson, ask, and people will give. You can take advantage of people just by asking them. As much as this is a lesson of life, it’s not a righteous lesson. So as we ask, we have to seek—we have to discern the righteous lessons from those that will lead to terrible recompense and divine retribution.

Yet we are fortunate, one of the joys of our questioning is that we have the source of the answers. Scripture is the word of God. Its authority is in the fact that the Bible is the authoritative historical witness to Christ. It is the testimony of those who actually saw and witnessed to the saving acts of God in history.[3] The Bible is worthy to be called Holy Scripture because it conveys, mirrors, or reflects what is authentic and valid about God and God’s works.[4]

Of course we have to beware, there are lessons that are easy to take that are incomplete, or not really there at all.

Godly American men, people of God used scripture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries to justify slavery of Africans to oil the economic machinery. Since time immemorial godly men have used scripture to deny godly women a place in church leadership. As Presbyterians we have only in the last 100 years elected women Deacons and only in the last 50 women Ministers of Word and Sacrament. We must pray, we must seek, we must ask, but we must also discern.

Last week two members of the Presbytery of Arkansas’ Committee on Ministry came to the Session meeting for the Presbytery’s triennial evaluation. They come to check on us, but for more than any other reason, they come to help us focus our mission as the church in the community and in the world. They asked three questions, questions to help us focus who we are and what we do as the Body of Christ:

What are we living for?
What are we willing to die for?
What excites you?

He asked. And these questions are a starting point for us to see who we are and what we are willing to do as the body of Christ in the community and in God’s good creation. As for the answers, well, we have to ask the questions. With a discerning ear, we have to ask God through prayer—individually and in groups—for the answers to these questions. And we have to listen to hear the answers when they come. And we have to remember, the answers may look nothing like we expect them to look.

John asked if Jesus was the one. Jesus, in a way only Jesus does, said “Yes I am, just look around and see the Kingdom of God blossoming around you. It may not be what you expected to see, but it is what my Father expects me to do.” John’s disciples left to spread the Good News of Jesus. We need to ask: Who are you, O Lord? What are we living for? What are we willing to die for? What excites you? What excites us?

Advent is upon us. Jesus is coming. As for me, I am excited. Now, let us spread the Good News of our God who reigns now and for all generations.

[1] Crowe, Cameron, “Say Anything.” Gracie Films, 1989.
[2] Westlake, Donald E., based on the novel by Thompson, Jim, “The Grifters.” Cineplex—Odeon Films, 1990.
[3] Authority of Scripture, Richardson, Alan, “Interpreters’ Dictionary of the Bible.” 21st Printing 1992. Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1962
[4] Authority of Scripture, Barr, J. “Interpreters’ Dictionary of the Bible—Supplemental Volume.” 13th Printing 1996. Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1976.

Love Rains-Love Reigns

This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on a rainy Sunday December 9, 2007, the second Sunday in Advent.

Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

I love the rain. I love to sit and watch it as it falls from the skies; listen to it as it hits the rooftops. As a little boy, our neighborhood didn’t have storm drains, it had ditches between the road and the sidewalk, and in the heavy thunderstorms I would watch them flood.[1] The ditches would begin by having some water in them and all of a sudden, a wall of water would roll and they would be filled to overflowing. There was a sense of awe as the majestic torrent of water rolled down the slope of the hill from our house toward the neighbor’s and beyond.

Our Call to Worship carries this image of majestic rain:

He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure,
from one generation to another
He shall come down like rain upon the mown field,
like showers that water the earth.
Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous deeds!
And blessed be God’s glorious name forever![2]

The Lord God comes like the rain upon the mown field, draping it with the moisture and nourishment it needs for life.

In the water there is birth, and in the water there is rebirth. In the water there is life and in the water there is death. In the water there is the warmth of being washed and in the water there is the peril of being washed away.

Our Call to Worship reminds us that the Lord God shall come down like rain upon the mown field, like showers that water the earth. Last week’s gospel reading reminds us that in the time of Noah the Lord God lifted the waters which wiped away nearly all of creation. And in these waters we find John the Baptist.

In the gospel, we find John coming from the wilderness to the Jordan crying his mission, his vocation, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”

John comes as a modern day Elijah. Nearly 900 years after the sudden departure of the prophet in the wilderness, John comes from the wilderness proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As Elijah before him, John comes with a new way of looking at the world, a world that he comes to like no one has seen in an eon. John comes in a shirt woven of coarse camel’s hair, tied with a leather belt, and eating the foods of the poorest of the desert people, locusts and wild honey. There is nothing refined about him. He comes undeniably like thunder from a lightning bolt that strikes across the street. His message, his mission, his vocation is a radical turning from the ways of old and will not be denied, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

A crowd comes to him, some of whom have come because of this radical message, some of whom have come because of his outrageous spectacle. He welcomes all who come, but some he welcomes with joy, others he greets with a rebuke; “You brood of vipers. Who warned you?”

His warning gets even more dire as he instructs, he warns his listeners to bear fruit worthy of repentance, or suffer the consequences. “Beware,” he says, “the ax is lying at the root of trees so every tree that does not bear good fruit and cast into the fire.”

John warns us as we enter his sanctuary in the wild to take the bath he is offering to beware. The Lord, the one who initiates this washing, will clear the threshing floor. The good grain, the fruit of the land nourished by the water and the soil will be separated from what remains. The grain will be sent to the barns, the chaff burned in the unquenchable fire.

Our identity as Christians depends on the story of the Gospel. The Gospel is the best, most authoritative way that we have of knowing who the Lord is in the history of the Christian community then and now. The Gospel gives us the story of who Christ is and who we are in Christ. And the word of God gives us a common story of the vision, the rituals, and the symbols of our life together.[3] In this, the story of Matthew’s story of John shows how we are introduced to the community and how Jesus welcomes us to the community.

The most important ritual we practice for welcoming a new member to the community of Christ is baptism. The most important ritual we who have been baptized can practice is remembering our baptism. In this, we remember who we are as the assembled body of Christ in the church. Through this remembrance, the church shapes us.

Peter Bower says, “Throughout history, the place of baptism has been regarded as a bath by which we are cleansed of sin, a womb from which we are reborn, a tomb in which we are buried with Christ and from which we are raised with him.”[4]

The images of water and the font are awesome, mystical, and varied. We reaffirm our baptismal vows because baptism “is the symbol of initiation into the household of faith, a sign of cleansing from sin, and a dramatic proclamation of dying and rising with Christ. Baptism is a Christian’s ‘ordination’ to the ‘royal priesthood’ and the mark of belonging to a community of saints that extends beyond time and space. Baptism signifies the presence of the Holy Spirit working among us to comfort, strengthen, and empower us in God’s service.”[5]

In Christ, we are baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit. We are cleansed in the water and blood of Christ our King for salvation. Baptized in water we are together with Christ in the tomb and together with Christ in his rising. Baptized in water we are God’s children born of the Spirit.[6]

Baptism as practiced by Christians is a radical response to the salvation given us by grace through faith. It is a means of identifying with the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. It is a radical sign of identifying with the community of God as the Body of Christ. In this sign we come to identify ourselves as the people of God. It is the first sign of coming to Christ, a motion begun by Christ long before our birth.

As the Lord God comes like the rain upon the mown field, covering it with the moisture and nourishment it needs for life, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper cover us with the moisture and nourishment we need for our lives. And today, as we remember our baptism, we as the people of God come to share the meal Jesus shared with his disciples.

This is the meal he gave the apostles and the disciples. It is the meal we celebrate when

Through the words of the prophets
the Lord promised the people the Redeemer,
and gave hope for the day
when justice shall roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.[7]

As the waters introduce us to the community of the body of Christ, the supper nourishes us to do the work of the body of Christ.

The old song says,

Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn to the sky.
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears from on high.[8]

Tears fall from on high; these tears are the waters of our baptism. These are the waters John bathes us in while we are confessing our sins. These are the waters of our birth as we leave the womb, just like the fully human fully divine Jesus left the womb of his mother Mary. These are the waters of the tomb, the death and new life we come to in the water, at the cross and in the resurrection.

The love of God rains over us like the water of John’s baptism. The love of God rains over us with the glory and awe of the baptism of fire, the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. And the sovereignty of God reigns over us all as it has since the beginning. Jesus comes with the peace and love of God coming to earth to be human as we are and to be with us in community. Through this movement of the Triune God’s sovereign love; we are called to be the body of Christ in the church universal, through the love of God in the waters of our baptism, and by the power of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of fire.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Love reign o'er me.

[1] Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes do still freak me out, but a regular heavy t-storm, that can be pretty cool stuff.
[2] Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Book of Common Worship. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, pages 693, 694.
[3] Westerhoff, III, John, A Pilgrim People. Seabury Press: Minneapolis, 1984 in A Baptism Sourcebook. Archdiocese of Chicago, Baker, Robert J. Editor. Liturgy Training Publications: Chicago, 1993, page 156.
[4] Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Companion to the Book of Common Worship, Bower, Peter C., Editor. Geneva Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 2003, page 161.
[5] Ibid, page 155.
[6] Saward, Michael A., “Baptized in Water.” Hope Publishing: Carol Stream, Illinois, 1982.
[7] Ibid, The Book of Common Worship, page 130.
[8] Townshend, Pete, “Love Reign O’er Me,” from Quadrophenia by The Who, MCA Records, 1973.

Be Prepared

This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on December 2, 2007, the First Sunday of Advent.

Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Boy Scouts have a motto, be prepared. This explanation about being prepared comes from the Boy Scout Handbook:

“Be prepared for what?” someone once asked (Lord Robert) Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,

“Why, for any old thing.” said Baden-Powell.

The training you receive in your troop will help you live up to the Scout motto. When someone has an accident, you are prepared because of your first aid instruction. Because of lifesaving practice, you might be able to save a non-swimmer who has fallen into deep water.

But Baden-Powell wasn’t thinking just of being ready for emergencies. His idea was that all Scouts should prepare themselves to become productive citizens and to give happiness to other people. He wanted each Scout to be ready in mind and body for any struggles, and to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges might lie ahead.

Be prepared for life - to live happily and without regret, knowing that you have done your best. That’s what the Scout motto means.[1]

Be prepared, this motto is on every Boy Scout rank insignia after Tenderfoot. By the time a Scout reaches the rank of Eagle, this concept is ingrained in every fiber of their being. The goals of scouting are to help see that Scouts are prepared for emergencies, for service, and for life.

In our reading today, Jesus tells his disciples and the others who were around listening that they are to be ready; be prepared because the Son of Man is coming. We won’t know when because the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour. For that matter, the Son doesn’t even know; so be prepared. Jesus doesn’t say “Get ready,” Jesus says, “Be ready.”

So what is it going to be like when the Son of Man comes? It will be a day just like any other day. Jesus uses the example of the flood from Genesis as a model for the coming of the Son of Man.

Before the flood people were doing what people do every day. They were just taking care of business. They ate and drank. They negotiated the terms of marriages and celebrated weddings. It was business as usual. Of course, Genesis tells us that just before the time of the flood “The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”[2]

Sure, it was business as usual, but business was wicked.

Except for Noah and a remnant of creation, the flood swept it all away. “(The LORD) blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth.”[3]

Merry Christmas everybody! Today is the First Sunday in Advent. This is the day we put the chrismons on the tree and hunt for the Wise Men as they make their way around the sanctuary until they reach the crèche on Epiphany.

And yes, this is the lectionary reading. I’m not preaching this on a bet.

So what are we to do to be prepared?

First and foremost, we are to live our lives. Jesus tells us that when the Son of Man comes, people will be doing what people do, just like in the time of Noah. He says that two men will be working together in the field. He says that two women will be grinding meal together at the mill. People will be doing what people do, just as we do. We get up in the morning and go to work each day. We go home and we tend to our chores. We love our families and we raise our children. So what’s the difference between the ones who are taken and the ones who are left?

The difference is knowing that it’s not “business as usual” as the rest of the world lives its life. We are to be awakened to living our life in the glow and the power of the Lord filled with the Holy Spirit as the body of Christ. And this is a life we are called to live now, because the Lord will come, and come when we do not expect him.

Jesus tells his listeners that the Son of Man will come like a thief in the night. If we knew when a thief was coming into our home, we would be awake and alert. We would prevent our homes from being entered and robbed. But since we don’t know when, Jesus tells us to be awake, to be alert.

This week, Sean Taylor, a defensive back for the Washington Redskins football team, was murdered, shot in his home during a burglary. Immediately after it happened there was a lot of speculation about the circumstances of his death.

As a young man Taylor knew his share of trouble. He was arrested for (and later acquitted of) driving while intoxicated. He had also been arrested for assault and battery with a handgun in 2005.

Antrel Rolle, a childhood friend and member of the Arizona Cardinals football team said, “They’ve been targeting him for three years now.” and “He lived his life pretty much scared every day of his life when he was down in Miami because those people were targeting him.”

There was speculation that, Rolle’s fears had come true, the people who targeted Sean Taylor had gotten him. Sports radio programs were filled with callers who said that this was a matter of lifestyle determining deathstyle, [4] speaking is as if it were a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Does lifestyle determine deathstyle? I say yes, but not in the way Mr. Rolle or the callers thought.

Sean Taylor once had a dangerous lifestyle, but he was moving past that time in his life. He was maturing. He was cutting his ties with the people who had been trouble in his life; the people Mr. Rolle feared were out to get him. Some suspected that he didn’t get out of his old life soon enough, and this old lifestyle had determined his deathstyle. But I disagree. We need to look past this old lifestyle and into his new lifestyle.

Mr. Taylor gave an interview to ESPN radio about eight months ago, not long after the birth of his daughter. I was unable to find the direct quote, so I hope I this paraphrase will do him justice. The birth of his daughter had given him a new perspective and he thanked God for what he had. Taylor said that he had come to see that he had been blessed. He also said that if he died tomorrow he would have no regrets.[5]

He saw love in the eyes of his baby daughter. He saw new possibilities. He saw new life. He didn’t see his old life anymore, he saw new life. He was living a life not for his own desires, but for something else, something different, something important.

And I say that if his lifestyle defined his deathstyle; it was his new life, not the old. His death was no longer defined by some thug life as so many pundits suggested. His death was defined when he rose from his bed to defend his family against a home intrusion burglary. His death was not by the hands of his old contacts as Mr. Rolle feared. His life passed defending his girlfriend and their daughter from danger. His death was caused when he saved his family from intruders. His death was in the name of life.

In the radio interview he said that he was ready to go if he had to. I am sure he didn’t want to go, but he was prepared when his life was taken. He didn’t expect the hour to come, but he was ready. He didn’t expect a thief in the night to take his life, but he was prepared. He was ready because he was living in the light of love and family, not in the darkness of violence and death. He was prepared. He was ready.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell said we are to be prepared for any old thing. Sean Taylor changed the direction of his life and was ready to meet the challenges of life and death with the strong heart Baden-Powell talked about describing the scout motto. Sean Taylor thanked God for the blessings he had received. These men set examples of preparedness worthy of following.

Advent is the season where Jesus is coming. He is coming as a baby in a stall in the City of David. He comes joining us as we live this life. He is also coming as a grown man, up the hill at the place called the Skull. He is coming to the place where he will lay down his life for the sin of all creation, death in the name of life.

So give thanks and live in the light and the love of God. This is how we prepare for life on earth, and the life eternal. We are not told to get ready, we are told to be ready because the Son of Man is coming, he is coming indeed.

[1] BSA, Boy Scout Handbook, 11th edition, publication number 33105, 1998, page 54.
[2] Genesis 6:6-7 (NRSV)
[3] Gensis 7:23
[4] Heard on the Jim Rome program, November 28 and 29, 2007. This statement did not reflect Mr. Rome’s views but those of people who called and sent email.
[5] Reference to the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio. I saw the quote on ESPN’s SportsCenter and heard the quote discussed on the Jim Rome radio show, but I was unable to find the direct quote to use it in the sermon.