Our Strength, God's Joy

Unless something dramatic happens, this is my last sermon at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas.It has been my honor and privilege to serve by God's grace this part of the Body of Christ. This sermon was heard on Sunday January 27, 2013.



Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Luke 4:14-21

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 Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah are wonderful historical pieces that just don’t get the attention that the prophetic books get in our weekly scripture readings. When the Church uses a series of readings that runs three years, we get only 150-some opportunities to read from the entire canon of the Old Testament. With such a large and glorious amount of material something’s going to get the short shrift, in this case it’s Ezra and Nehemiah.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are our main source of information about Israel’s return from the Babylonian exile. It’s the narrative of the transition between the first and second temples.[1] It’s a story about the return of the people and the restoration of what makes them who they are.

It’s the story of fealty to their faith and their forefathers. When rebuilding the altar and the Temple they were erected precisely on their former sites. After the completion of the altar, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles anticipating the joyful dedication of the Temple. Then came the equally joyful observation of Passover a few months later. Of course no building plan goes as scheduled; delays in the completion of the Temple were blamed on the actions of the people of the land who persistently opposed the work in Jerusalem.

The book of Nehemiah includes of a first-person narrative, traditionally called the Nehemiah Memoir, recounting his role in constructing the walls of Jerusalem, along with the social problems caused by an expanding population. There was crime, sabotage, and other issues to be handled.

So today we assemble with the nation of Israel. Ezra has been told to bring the book of the Law of Moses which the Lord has given to Israel. He read it at the Water Gate from early morning until midday to both the men and the women and everyone was attentive to the reading. Then Ezra stood, and all the people stood and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God and all the people said, “Amen, Amen.” They lifted their hands and bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Why did they worship with their faces to the ground? Scripture lets us wonder. Scripture doesn’t tell us why. It does say that the people weren’t bored to death. In fact scripture tells us they “listened attentively to the Book of the Law.” So why?

The book of Kings tells us about another reading of the Law of Moses that had an impact on the listener. The books of Judges and Kings and Chronicles show us the effects of cycles of leaders who were faithful and unfaithful to the Law. In 2Kings 22 we receive the glorious story of Good King Josiah. This story tells us of a time just before the Babylonian Exile when King Josiah began restoring the temple.

During the restoration, Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law. It was taken to Josiah who heard the words of the Law, probably for the first time ever in its entirety  When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes. Hear the words of 2Kings:

 “Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”

One possible explanation about why the people in Nehemiah’s time bowed their heads mourning and weeping is that they felt the same conviction Josiah felt that day. Bookending the exile was the reading of the Law. While it is definitely true on the front end it could well have been true on the back end, those who heard the Law were convicted by it. Without a savior, those words of conviction are damning. This is as true now as it was then. Without redemption there is no living under the law without harsh conviction.

So what I’m saying is that while we won’t know for sure, it would be within Israel’s experience to hear the Law then weep, mourn, and even rent their clothes because they know that those who came before them have not lived up to the Law’s requirements. If it’s good enough for Josiah, it’s good for the Hebrew children.

But then something happened, Nehemiah, Ezra, and all of the Levites said to them, “This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” Nehemiah further implored them to “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Today is a day of celebration because it is the day of the Lord. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. It is not for anything Israel has done or left undone, it is because the day is holy to the Lord. Their leaders implored them, “This day is sacred, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.”

There is only one way they could even hope to rejoice instead of mourn, and that is in the presence of the glory of the Lord, for the joy of the Lord is their strength.

Friends, I now implore you, “This day is sacred, this day is holy to the Lord our God. Do not mourn or weep” for the joy of the Lord is our strength. Our strength is not lodged in where we live or how powerful we are. Our strength is not in our nation or our state. Our strength is not in our jobs or careers. Our strength is not in all of the things our society holds so dear. The only source of our strength is the God’s joy.

For all those folks who want to wield the sword of God, vengeance belongs to the Lord. God’s vengeance is not our strength. “God hates…” whatever isn’t any source of strength. The Lord’s joy is our strength.

This is a day of sadness for this congregation, this part of the body of Christ. Unless the Spirit moves in a mysterious way, this will be the last time we will worship together. This will be the last time I share the Word of the Lord with you in this space. Upon the recommendation of the Session, the congregation has spoken. Today the Session along with representatives of the Presbytery will decently and orderly put all of our ducks in a row.

I can’t and won’t scold anybody who gets misty today. There was some wailing in December. I would be wrong to scold anyone who cried that day or who cries today. If I did, I would be the first to face the scolding as my water works flowed as much as anybody’s.

And with that, I remind you, “This day is sacred, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” We shouldn’t mourn or weep because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

During one of my sermons I once heard someone cry out “That’s easy for you to say!” Well, it wasn’t so easy that day and it isn’t so easy today either. So often words of solace are heard for what they are, just words. There is little compassion, it’s replaced by empty words.

Some might think that when after our Confession of Sin I say “Friends, believe the Good News of the Gospel! In Jesus Christ you are forgiven!” these are just so many sounds conveying nothing. Nothing could be further from the truth. We come together and we confess that we have fallen short of our Christian vocation. We confess we have sinned against God first and against one another second. These are only empty words if we make them that way.

I proclaim our Assurance of Pardon joyfully because I truly believe the Good News of the Gospel that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven. But here’s something greater than anything I could imagine: Whether I believe or not, whether we believe or not, it’s still true, in Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

This is our Assurance of Pardon, not just that in an ancient translation of the book of Isaiah Jesus read the prophecy:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Our assurance lies in the truth that Jesus read this, sat down, and told all with ears to hear “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” It wasn’t a popular statement at the time, but popularity has never been a good barometer of truth. Our strength comes from the Lord's joy and our joy begins when we say Jesus is Lord. The Lord has anointed him to bring good news to the poor, to free the prisoners, to restore sight to the blind, and to free the oppressed.

The only way I can share with you these words from Ezra and Nehemiah, “This day is sacred, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” is by saying Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in our hearing by the words of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who is the Christ. In Christ and in Christ alone are we free. In Christ and in Christ alone do we receive life eternal which is the year of the Lord’s favor.

On October 3, 2010 I stood before you for the first time. My sermon was called “Oh, the Places We’ll Go.” It was based on Luke 17, the story of the mustard seed. This is how I ended that sermon:

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go” was the last book written, illustrated, and published by acclaimed children's author Dr. Seuss before his death in 1991. About life and its challenges and written in the style of classics such as “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat,” “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” is a popular gift for high school and college graduates every year because of its whimsical style and eye to the future. It is perhaps best known for the line, “Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. (98 3/4% guaranteed.)”

Oh, the places we’ll go. For Marie and I [sic] it is a joy and our distinct privilege to come together with you and share the mission of this part of the body of Christ. We come together with you in the sight of our Lord to do the work that we have all been called to do, and it is by [the Lord’s Supper] that we all come together to be nourished by the Lord our God. Do I know the shape and direction of that ministry today? Well, this I do know: That in the light of God, through discernment of the Holy Spirit, and in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, all I can say is, “Oh, the places we’ll go.” After all, it’s 98 3/4% guaranteed.

Together we will go into God’s good creation taking the Word with us. As our acolyte Brionna leads us, where a little girl with faith the size of a mustard seed leads, let us go boldly into the world. Let us all take the light of God into the world.

It has been our distinct privilege to come together with all of you and share the mission of this part of the body of Christ. We have been nourished remembering the waters of our baptism with the infants, children, and adults who got wetter than they expected in a Presbyterian Church. We have been nourished in the holy food that satisfies the soul by the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper. In that time ministry has taken shape, changed shape, and moves into one more shape before we all leave together.

Today, one more time we will leave together behind Brionna taking the light of the Lord into the world. Let us all take the light of God with us into the world. We can do this because in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ the Gospel of the Lord is fulfilled in our hearing.

---

[1] “Ezra and Nehemiah (Books and Men),” Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Supplemental Volume, this reference from the electronic version. 

The Scandal of the Gospel

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 20, 2013, the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 62:1-5

Psalm 36:5-10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11

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

Beginning on Christmas Eve we celebrated the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said that evening, Christmas just isn’t Christmas unless somebody reads Luke’s Christmas Story. It’s just not Christmas without the annunciation of the angelic host to the shepherd boys singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The Epiphany story of the Magi coming from Mark’s gospel is also one of the great narratives of scripture. The Wise Men came guided by the star in the east. They came to worship the Lord. They didn’t quite know where they were going so they violated “guy code” and stopped to ask for directions. Then again King Herod didn’t know either, so he consulted his people and got them the directions.

There is something startling about these stories. I mentioned this about the shepherds, but I missed this point about the Magi—neither of these parties was particularly welcome in the world of the babe who is Jesus of Nazareth.

The shepherd boys were all but expendable. They were supposed to stand in the gateway of the sheep pens to fend off predators. If the wolf or the lion got to the boy it was a shame, it they got to the sheep it was worse. They were dirty little boys. They were the bottom of the society’s structure. They were the least in the community.

At least the shepherd boys were a part of the community, the Magi didn’t have that. They were gentiles. You know, the folks Paul called “the pagans who were led astray to mute idols.” This sentence, this fact, this truth didn’t even cross my mind until a pastor friend from St. Mark’s United Methodist here in Marshall shared those very words with me. The Magi were gentiles. So as far as social standing goes, as low as the boys were in the social structure, at least they were in the social structure. These Magi, these wise men, these unclean foreigners who came to worship the King of the Jews were not just outsiders; they were the representatives of the ultimate outsiders.

Whether by the angelic host or the star in the skies, it is the outsiders who receive the revelation that God is doing something new. It is the least amongst the people of the world, the children and the gentiles, who respond when the call is made. It is the outsiders who come to worship Jesus. It is those who receive the call, respond to the call and worship him that Jesus welcomes.

The events of our gospel reading happen on the third day, or as we would call it, about thirty years after Epiphany. Everybody is heading to a wedding in Cana. Jesus was invited and so were his disciples. Jesus’ mother was there too.

Weddings, the industry behind weddings is huge. I don’t know about you, but my in my family we planned our own weddings, all eleven of them. Marie did most (alright, all) of the planning for our wedding. There hasn’t been a wedding here in the past two years that has used a wedding planner either. They have all been wonderful and glorious too. They’ve been about God and the couple and the covenant of marriage, not the spectacle of the wedding.

Then we end up seeing the festivals and fiascoes of weddings on television. I like to watch those shows from time to time just to say “there but for the grace of God…” They focus on the circus that is the event, not on the true focus of the marriage celebration. Then again, there are real crime shows for some of these marriages. The sixty-five year marriage is only celebrated on TV by Willard Scott and Smucker’s Jams on The Today Show.

Weddings in these ancient of days were spectacular events! They were glorious celebrations with a holy ceremony as the focus. And as with many weddings in our time, the party that followed was generally more memorable than the ceremony itself. In that way, they aren’t so different from our weddings. There was one thing that was different, in Jesus’ day; if you ran out of food and wine at your wedding is was a sign that you did not know how to take care of your family, your friends, and your community.

In our time, it would be like getting drunk at the company picnic and making a pass at the boss’ wife, daughter, son or worse-a combination. It’s a sign that you don’t know how to take care of your business. You wouldn’t be able to be trusted at work anymore. Any hope of promotion is completely out the window. You’re the shame of the company and a laughingstock in the community.

The only real difference is back in the day you didn’t have enough where today it’s about having too much. The effects are the same though, you’re shunned by the people you need and care about the most.

Everybody knew this back in the day, so when Jesus’ mother discovered the wedding party was out of wine she knew there was trouble in River City. She called her son and told him what was happening and Jesus didn’t need etiquette classes to know what this meant. Still, it wasn’t his moment to shine and with all due respect told her so. Yet Mary was confident Jesus would do something so she told the servants to follow his lead.

This is when the miracle story springs to life. Jesus has the servants bring the jugs used to hold water for the family’s ritual cleansing. He told them to fill them with water so they filled them to the brim. He told them to take some to the banquet master and again they did as they were told. And when the banquet master tasted the wine, his reaction was a rave. Wine Spectator magazine would have given it a 101. It was so good the banquet master either complemented or complained that the host held out on the good wine serving it when nobody could appreciate it.

Now let’s look at the facts. The banquet master didn’t know where the wine came from. Scripture tells us that. If the banquet master didn’t know the groom sure didn’t know, he hired the banquet master to take care of that. The guests sure didn’t know; they were just glad to sample the best, the finest wine. So who knew? The house slaves knew.

It was the house slaves who drew water. It was the house slaves who drew wine. It was the house slaves who knew that everything that happened in between had nothing to do with them. They were the only ones who knew the source of the miracle. The fullest revelation of the miracle was made not to the groom, not to the banquet master, not even to Mary. The fullest revelation of the miracle of changing water to wine was made to the weak and powerless house servants.

On Christmas Eve during the children’s time I said,

Another sign that he loves children is that as soon as he was born, the angels went and told the shepherd boys. The angel didn’t tell the President, or Caesar the Ruler of Rome. The angel didn’t tell the leaders of the temple or the Session of the church. The angel didn’t go to anyone who most people would think is important, he went to the children.

On Epiphany I could have said something similar. Instead of saying “the angels went and told the shepherd boys” I would have said, “only the Wise Men responded to the sign in the skies.” Other than that it’s the same point. Today I make that point again.

During the wedding in Cana Jesus himself made it clear to the servants that he was doing something new in the world. He didn’t tell the President, or Caesar. He didn’t tell the leaders of the temple or the Session of the church. He didn’t tell the groom or the banquet master or even his mother. He didn’t go to anyone who most people would think is important.

With what is tantamount to a wink and a nod he tells the slaves, the lowest, that something new is happening. It’s the lowest of the household who know God is doing something new.

There’s one more thing that’s important about these three bible stories; there is in each of these stories someone with greater church status in the neighborhood when these events happen. The people who were supposed to be getting the message either didn’t get the message or the message they got was lost in the mail.

We don’t know if the angels made their call to others before the shepherd boys answered. Scripture doesn’t say who didn’t answer the call, it only says who did. As for Epiphany and the Wise Men, guided by the most unusual star in the heavens, only these magi decided to follow. Thousands of thousands of other folks would have seen it and said, “Golly, that’s different” but only one group of folks decided to see what it was all about.

Even Herod’s advisors who knew the scripture thought nothing of it. They knew what it was all about, they even told Herod, but they didn’t respond to the Word of the prophets they had just read.

Today, Jesus isn’t volunteering any information, but nobody asks either. The groom doesn’t ask the banquet master where he got the wine and he doesn’t ask the slaves. Did Jesus have to close their inquisitive minds miraculously or did he just figure their minds would close on their own? Who ever looks a gift horse in the mouth? Well, if these guys had then they would have seen something new and different and the one who makes it new and different. Then again, it wasn’t his time yet, so for Jesus this was just as well.

I titled this gospel interpretation “The Scandal of the Gospel.” There are several scandals happening that we need to be aware. The first is that Jesus makes his appearances to the poor and oppressed. We have three examples of this truth in scripture since Christmas Eve. Jesus appeared to the weak and poor and the humiliated. Slaves and boys and gentiles meet the Lord. Jesus shows himself to the people who need the Lord the most.

This first truth lines us up for the second even harder truth, often people who are supposed to see Jesus first don’t. It may be for any number of a million reasons, but here is the best: The people who are doing just fine have often quit looking for Jesus. It’s human nature that when things are going good we quit looking. People begin to think they can do it on their own.

Some people quit looking for God because they’re doing fine on their own. Isaiah knows and understands this. He also warns us in 30:1,

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,

who rely on horses,

who trust in the multitude of their chariots

and in the great strength of their horsemen,

but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,

or seek help from the Lord.

Woe to those who rely on themselves and their stuff. Instead we are called to respond to the Lord our God, and when we do we will see the first verse from our Old Testament reading:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,

till her vindication shines out like the dawn,

her salvation like a blazing torch.

Only when we rely on God for our vindication, only when for the world’s sake we cry out to the Lord, only when we do these things will our salvation burn like the dawn, like a blazing torch.

Still, there is one more scandal we need to remember; a scandal so ripe that it was the greatest controversy of the ancient church. Jesus came, fully human and fully divine-these qualities distinct yet inseparable from one another-he came to show us the way. It is up to us to know just how poor we are. Only then might we stop relying on ourselves and rely on the Lord our God. It’s not our boot straps; it’s the thong of the sandal we are not worthy to untie. Now that’s a scandal.

Raise Us to Live Our Baptismal Vows

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 13, 2013, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, the 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 43:1-7

Psalm 29

Acts 8:14-17

Luke 3:15-17, 22-23

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

I want to share our prayer for illumination one more time, “God, your voice moves over the waters, immerse us in your grace, mark us with your image, and raise us to live our baptismal vows empowered by the Holy Spirit and the example of Christ our Lord in whose name we pray.”[1] I do love that prayer. It’s not original; at least I didn’t write it. It comes from a book of prayers I often use. This Baptism of the Lord Sunday, this prayer strikes a chord with me, “Raise us to live our baptismal vows”.

Just a couple of Sundays ago we celebrated Mathieu and Chelsi’s baptism. In the service I used the baptismal texts from the Book of Common Worship.[2] These liturgies and prayers were written by the Theology and Worship Ministry Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It’s a long name, but it’s a long book.

Some people, many people write their own texts for these celebrations, but I usually don’t. I freestyle in the prayers for the people, but on the whole I use these prepared texts because they carry years of study and history. They carry the thoughts and prayers of Presbyterians stretched across space and time and I find that beneficial, especially when it comes to celebrating the sacraments.

Our text from Luke this morning comes in two distinct sections, the confession of the Baptist and the presence of the Trinity.

What’s glorious about the first section is the joy of the people. They expect the savior. Not knowing he’s already 30 years old, they expect the savior any day to come and save them. They’re looking hard. They look hard because life is hard. When life is hard the people need a savior.

The Israelites were oppressed. They lived in fear every day. They needed a savior to take them from toil and suffering to the land of milk and honey. They praised the Lord. They praised the one who is, the great I AM. Still, they needed a savior, the promised savior. So when they found someone who ruffled the feathers of the people in charge, they wanted to know if he was the one.

To quote the Rolling Stones, John says, “It ain’t me babe.” John knows the savior is coming and he knows he’s not the savior. Knowing who we are is still important for all of us to know today. In the baptismal vows of small children and infants we ask parents:

Relying on God’s grace,

do you promise to live the Christian faith,

and to teach that faith to your child?

Then to the congregation we ask:

Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ,

promise to guide and nurture these communicants

by word and deed,

with love and prayer,

encouraging them to know and follow Christ

and to be faithful members of his church?

Answering the question asked of John the baptizer, we also answer “are you the Messiah?” with a simple “no.” We are the people who come to the Messiah. We come to receive the waters of our baptism. We come to remember the waters of our own baptism.

We come relying on God’s grace to live and teach our children. We come as members of the church of Jesus Christ promising to guide and nurture those receiving their baptism.

This is who we are, we are recipients. We are the ones who are blessed. Any blessings we have and share come from God alone; it doesn’t come from our doing. Blessings though come with commitment. Another part of the liturgy goes like this:

As God embraces you within the covenant, I ask you

to reject sin,

to profess your faith in Christ Jesus,

and to confess the faith of the church,

the faith in which we baptize.

Notice the order of these statements, it’s important. Yes, I ask those being baptized to reject sin, profess faith in Christ, and confess the faith of the church—the faith in which we baptize. As I ask, the only authority I have comes from God. As God embraces us within the covenant of Baptism, only this covenant makes rejection, profession, and confession possible.

There is a greater beauty in the blessing over the water. We have made our intentions. We have made our promises. We have made our renunciations. We, we, we; but in the blessing over the water we are reminded not of who we are today, but who we have been since the beginning. Our liturgy reads:

In the beginning of time,

your Spirit moved over the watery chaos,

calling forth order and life.

In the time of Noah,

you destroyed evil by the waters of the flood,

giving righteousness a new beginning.

You led Israel out of slavery,

through the waters of the sea,

into the freedom of the promised land.

In the waters of Jordan

Jesus was baptized by John

and anointed with your Spirit.

By the baptism of his own death and resurrection,

Christ set us free from sin and death,

and opened the way to eternal life.

We thank you, O God, for the water of baptism.

In it we are buried with Christ in his death.

From it we are raised to share in his resurrection,

Through it we are reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Friends, this is who we were, who we are, and who we will always be. We are called to remember this as we remember our baptism. We are called to remember who calls us, who blesses us, and who has shared this blessing with us since before the beginning.

As for the second half of our reading, this carries a blessing all its own. This is the first presence of the Trinity in Luke’s gospel. In this setting, Jesus stands in the Jordan while the Spirit descends bodily like a dove and the voice of God speaks.

Luke’s gospel adds a blessing not found in other Baptism of the Lord readings. In our reading from Mark[3] last year, only Jesus can see the Spirit and hear the Father. It’s the same way in Matthew’s gospel,[4] not so in Luke. Luke says the Spirit descended bodily. Luke shares the voice of God with the crowd. Unlike these other gospels, in Luke’s it seems that everyone in the crowd witnessed the Trinitarian appearance.

This is joyous; the first part of our reading tells us to know who we are. This part tells us who God is in person and in voice. Again, from the Book of Common Worship:

Obeying the word of our Lord Jesus,

and confident of his promises,

we baptize those whom God has called.

In baptism God claims us,

and seals us to show that we belong to God.

God frees us from sin and death,

uniting us with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection.

By water and the Holy Spirit,

we are made members of the church, the body of Christ,

and joined to Christ’s ministry of love, peace, and justice.

Continuing from the Thanksgiving over the Water:

We give you thanks, Eternal God,

for you nourish and sustain all living things

by the gift of water.

Send your Spirit to move over this water

that it may be a fountain of deliverance and rebirth.

Wash away the sin of all who are cleansed by it.

Raise them to new life,

and graft them to the body of Christ.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon them,

that they may have power to do your will,

and continue forever in the risen life of Christ.

To you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God,

be all praise, honor, and glory,

now and forever.

In the waters of our baptism, we are nourished and sustained. In the waters of our baptism we share the sacrament Jesus shared. In the waters of our baptism we receive a blessing which Christ received. We pray “Come holy Spirit” so that these simple waters may be a fountain of deliverance and rebirth. In the waters of our baptism we give praise, honor, and glory to the one God in three persons now and forever.

It is in the name, in the power of the Triune God that I say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

So today, through rich images and remembering the waters, the day we celebrate Jesus the Christ’s participation in a sacrament he did not institute or even need, we celebrate that before we can choose Christ, Christ chooses us. Today we celebrate grace freely given. We celebrate entering new life through the covenant God has established. We celebrate entering new life through the covenant only God can establish.

God raises us above all we can be on our own and lifts us to the life that was intended. In embracing that covenant we live by the words of the liturgy, “We choose whom we will serve, by turning from evil and turning to Jesus Christ.”

When I use the word liturgy, most people think of the words and the prayers spoken during worship. Most consider liturgy just the words that span across the worship service bridging the prayers to the hymns to the sermon. If this is all we use the liturgy for, that’s all it is. But liturgy is so much more.

Liturgy is a Latin word meaning “work of the people.” Liturgy is work, it is something we do—not something we say. Liturgy is one of the ways we are raised into our baptismal vows. In those vows we pray,

O Lord, uphold your child by your Holy Spirit.

Give your child the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,

the spirit of joy in your presence,

both now and forever.

This is how we begin to live into our baptismal vows, through the gifts we have been given, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear and joy in the presence of the Lord. This is how we are upheld so that we may live our baptismal vows. This is how God raises us so that we can live our baptismal vows. This is our choice—whether or not to live our vows or not; and if we so choose, how to live into them. According to the Book of Common Worship, this is how we must choose to live our vows:

With joy and thanksgiving

we welcome you into Christ’s church

to share with us in his ministry,

for we are all one in Christ.

On this Sunday, we remember this wonderful celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. We pray that we may be raised up to live our baptismal vows. Today we also remember the vows we took at the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. We don’t do this so we can earn salvation. We don’t participate in this sacrament for its magical properties, because there are none. We choose to do this because we choose to share life, the life the Triune God shares with us, as we first see in this moment, in this act.

We remember, we share, and we live our baptismal vows because God—Father, Son and Spirit—God chose us before we could chose God. For this we pray “God, raise us to live our baptismal vows empowered by the Holy Spirit and the example of Christ our Lord in whose name we pray.”

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[1] “Revised Common Lectionary Prayers,” Consultation of Common Texts, editors. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002, page 55.

[2] Book of Common Worship Texts from: The Theology and Worship Ministry Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, “Book of Common Worship.” Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, pages 403-414.

[3] Mark 1:4-11

[4] Matthew 3:13-17

Truth, not Facts

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 6, 2013, Epiphany Sunday.

Isaiah 60:1-6

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Ephesians 3:1-12

Matthew 2:1-12

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

Fables are short, self-contained, fictional stories. They can be written either in verse like a poem or in prose like a narrative tale. One of the hallmarks of the fable is that they feature animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or even forces of nature that are given human qualities like verbal communication skills. The other hallmark is that fables illustrate a lesson, morals which are often added to the end of the story in a pithy maxim.

The most famous fables in the West are Aesop’s Fables. We’re all familiar with his fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” I could say more, but all I have to say is “Slow and steady wins the race” and we’d know all we need to know to recognize the fable and its moral.

There’s something special about fables as a literary form that’s important for us today, it’s that fables are a fictional literary genre. When you read the story of the tortoise that plods along slowly but surely to the race’s finish line, defeating the swifter but less goal focused hare who napped along the way; we must come to know that no matter how much “truth” this story contains, it is completely devoid of facts. Starting with talking animals there is not a fact in the whole story.

This story is so truthful that looking at it a little differently, we could rephrase the moral to say “the race is not to the swift.” If that sounds familiar it’s because this version of the moral of this story is biblical. It’s found at Ecclesiastes 9:11.

This sounds counter-intuitive, how can we have truth without facts? Aren’t good facts found at the root of truth? I can’t deny this really. I like facts. I spent way too much time in school to not appreciate things like the Pythagorean Theorem and E=mc². I even love “I before E except after C or when it sounds like a long A as in neighbor and weigh or some weird words like weird.” Sometimes though, stories like fables contain greater truth than all of the facts in the world.

So let me say this again, the truth is not always laden with facts. The best example of truth without facts is here to your left in the chancel, our crèche, our nativity scene.

Let’s begin with the rustic barnyard setting. It was highly unlikely that the place where they stayed was a stand-alone structure. Bible scholars say that the place where the animals stayed was more likely a cave than a barn. So this lovely shingled feature was not where Jesus our Lord was born.

Usually in most nativity scenes you will see the whole thing set up from the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means coming, but everyone has already arrived. Just to add one more historical inaccuracy our nativity scene has had the magi, the wise men, present from the beginning. Epiphany is the day in the church calendar when we celebrate the coming of the wise men after the birth of the Christ child, so their early arrival points to other issues.

The first issue is the time of the arrival of the magi. They didn’t show up on the heels of the shepherds like every Christmas pageant would have us believe. They arrived sometime later. When did they arrive? Scripture gives us a clue about that.

The language gives us an indication. Scripture says that the magi came looking for the child. Verses nine and eleven say very specifically they came to the place where the child was. Scripture didn’t say infant, it said child. This had to be intentional. If Jesus had been an infant they would have come to see an infant, not a child. The word scripture uses depicts a child who had yet to reach puberty. So Jesus must have been between the ages of two and twelve.

Here’s another wonderful not-fact, we just sang “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” It’s a great hymn, I love it. I’ve loved it since I learned it in grade school. Now ask yourself this, why do we say there are three kings? That’s not in scripture. A biblical scholar from the late 600’s and early 700’s named Bede established the number of magi at three. Don’t get me wrong, Bede, also called the Venerable Bede, was a saint of the ancient church. He has status in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches. In computer speak we would say he works across platforms. But as for establishing the number, he probably chose it based on the number of gifts, one King for each gift. So it’s a logical choice, it’s just not supported in scripture.

Historians would be want to remind us that no matter how many kings there were, they would not have come alone. They would have come with an entourage for protection if nothing else. These were dangerous roads. Further, it could have been a good many kings or just two. The only hint we have from scripture is the plural word magi. We know there were at least two.

Here’s another obsession, were these magi “wise men” or “sorcerers,” or “magicians?” In fact, the only word that isn’t used in scripture to refer to magi is “king.” (That kind of ruins the whole “we three kings” thing, doesn’t it?) In our language it matters, there’s a tremendous difference between what we would call a “wise man” and a “sorcerer.” But when these words were written, when these were originally read, the difference didn’t cause a scandal. They do today; if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have any trouble calling these three “wise men” “sorcerers.”

So let me apologize if I burst your bubble. The way that we celebrate Epiphany just doesn’t add up to the facts of the situation. It’s a great story, a wonderful tale, it’s just not factual. So here’s our duty, if it’s not factual, what’s the truth in the story.

So here’s an important question, “Are the facts, at least the way we often read them, important to the truth?” I say no. I say that sometimes we get obsessed by facts or missing facts that in the end don’t end up meaning a hill of beans.

Were there three kings or not? It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Did they show up on the heels of the shepherds like in a Christmas pageant or not? It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Were they kings or sorcerers? It didn’t matter to the folks who heard this story in its original language. To them it didn’t really matter, did it?

One important truth we can take from this reading is that everybody is seeking something more important. Everybody is seeking something more significant than the lonely unexplored life that people who don’t know Christ live. These travelers sought Christ; this is probably the most important truth we can learn. Just like all of us everyday, they came looking for Christ.

So how did the magi know to come to seek Jesus? They saw a star and they followed it. Somehow, someway, they received the word of the Lord saying, “Come, follow me.” Was it by a voice the way you are hearing mine right now? Maybe, maybe not, we’ll never know. Did they get the same news the shepherds got? Again, scripture doesn’t say so we don’t know. None of this diminishes the truth that God called to them and they answered.

The last lesson we need to take came from our Ephesians reading, “[Christ’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Christ came to us and he intended the church to take the Word of God to the world, the Word of God that is accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today, this congregation fulfills this purpose; this congregation celebrates Epiphany with the ordination and installation of new Elders to the Session. Two members of this congregation step out in faith of being selected by the Lord, elected by this congregation, and ordained into leadership in this part of the body of Christ.

They come faithfully in the name of the Lord to use their gifts for good of this congregation and the church universal. And we come in faith and trust that through our acts and our words their ministry will be blessed by the glory that arrived in Bethlehem, was crucified at the place called the Skull, and arose from the tomb.

This is truth. Facts help paint the picture, but facts can paint a multitude of pictures. Scholars say that Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare has several different morals. I mentioned two of them myself. People interpret and reinterpret the words of scripture to shade all sorts of opinions. The same facts have been used to create many different religions.

We need to go beyond facts to find the truth. The moral of today’s scripture, just as we heard in today’s children’s sermon is this, “Wise men seek him still.” Pithy and found at the end, it has the hallmarks of a good moral. Truthfully, we are all seekers and when we find the Lord our God we must worship, just like those wise men so long ago.