Brad Sullivan
Ash Wednesday, Year A
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Happy Lent, y’all. Today on Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent, our time of fasting and preparation for Easter. One might call Lent a time of heightened religious observance when we are more intentional about our religious practices, and so as we begin our Lenten journey, hearing the passages from Isaiah and Matthew is very appropriate. Both passages speak proper religious observance, how properly to fast, to pray, to draw near to God.
First, in today’s lesson from Isaiah, the prophet seems to be speaking to a people who are very confused about religious observance. The people ask God: “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” The people think they are very devout in their religious observance, and they probably are. So why does God seem unimpressed? His answer is very direct. “Look,” he says, “you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.”
In short, the people had devout religious observance with little or no connection to the rest of their lives. They wanted God’s blessing and so they followed the religious rules and made the appropriate sacrifices, but then didn’t treat people very well in their work lives, or their home lives, or their public lives outside of the religious establishment.
This same disconnect between religious life and the rest of one’s life still exists today. People often say they can’t behave a certain way because they are in church. People often tell me they can’t tell a certain story or use a certain word because I’m there. “If the priest hears me, then I’m really in trouble.” Now, that we try to be on our best behavior at church isn’t really a bad thing, but there seems to be a feeling that God will really notice if I say or do the wrong thing here. Once I leave these walls, I’m ok.
Such a way of life reminds me of how many of us were as children, going to bed at night, would seek protection from our bed sheets. “The monsters can’t get me if I’m all covered up,” so we wrap ourselves up tight as children, keeping the monsters away. This works pretty well for kids especially since there aren’t really monsters, but for adults thinking, “I’m away from Church, God can’t see me now,” doesn’t really work.
God isn’t pleased if we follow all our religious practices within these walls, but then treat people badly once we leave. How do we treat people outside of church? I remember a scene from the TV show “Dirty, Sexy, Money”, a show I kinda like, where a priest, collar on and everything is cussing a guy out, shouting at him, threatening him, insulting him. Then as the priest turns to leave, the other gentleman asks, “Where are you going?” “I have to go do a Baptism,” the priest replies. There’s a disconnect there.
In order to get over some of the disconnect in our lives, our Youth Minister has given the youth group these purple wristbands from “A Compliant Free World.Org.” The idea behind these bands is to help people see just how often we complain, not just point out something wrong, but complain about it, and to help us stop complaining so much. We wear the band on our left wrist, and then, whenever we complain, we’re supposed to put the band on our right wrist, and then when we consciously don’t complain about something, we can put it back on our left. We’re supposed to go 21 days with it on our left wrist to help form the habit of not complaining. In a week and a half, I have so far gone…one consecutive day without complaining. There’s a disconnect there in how I want to behave and how I am behaving, between how I behave here and when I’m not here.
So, regarding our Lenten fasts this year, thinking about what we’re going to give up, try fasting from acting differently here than from anywhere else. “You mean I can cuss and fight in church now?” Yes, if you think it’s ok to cuss and fight anywhere else. The point is, this Lent (and then hopefully beyond Lent) try making all of your life a religious observance. Don’t think God can’t see or doesn’t care just because you’re not at church, just because you’ve got the bed sheets over you. They may protect kids from monsters, but they don’t stop God from seeing or caring about what we’re doing and how we’re acting. So, this Lent, fast from acting one way in church and another way everywhere else. Make all your life a religious observance.
Now this leads us to the passage from Matthew, which I will address briefly, in which Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them…” (Matthew 6:1a) The second clause of that sentence is a very important one: “in order to be seen by them.” Jesus didn’t say hide your religious observance to make sure no one sees you. Seeing someone’s religious observance can be one heck of a witness.
Jesus advised not to flaunt one’s religious practices in order to be seen and praised for them, but we needn’t hide all of our religious practices either. “I went to church on Sunday,” is a perfectly acceptable answer to the question, “What did you do this weekend?” The problem comes when you tell people about your faith life in order to show off or to make others think you’re a good person.
Thinking about why we pray is important this Lent especially because we’ve decided to observe Lent this year at Emmanuel by each one of us praying four times a day for two minutes each time, using these prayer cards, taken from the Book of Common Prayer. If we all stick to praying four times a day, some of us will likely be praying at work or in places where other people might observe us. Don’t be afraid to let other people know that you’re praying. Doing so could start up a conversation about God. God might use you to draw someone closer to him or to draw someone back to him.
We needn’t hide our prayer. Remember, all of our life should be a religious observance, so we shouldn’t hide our faith. The danger comes when we try to be seen in order to be praised. Don’t flaunt your prayer, but don’t hide it either. Take this Lent as an opportunity to get the rest of your life more in sync with your religious life. Pray these four times each day; don’t flaunt it, but if someone sees you, let them know why you’re praying. Think about how you treat others beyond these walls. Observe the kind of fast God asked for through Isaiah, and have a happy Lent. Amen.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
All Barriers to God Have Been Removed
Brad Sullivan
Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
Today, in Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus, we have something of an opening of the relationship between God and humanity. God was made more accessible to humanity than he previously was, or God was shown to be more accessible than we understood him to be. In the passage from Exodus we heard today, Moses was going up on top of Mount Sinai by himself to talk with God. Only Moses was allowed on top of the mountain to see the Glory of the Lord up close. “The appearance of the Glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel,” (Exodus 24:17) and the people couldn’t come near because they weren’t pure, or they would die, or they were afraid. For several reasons listed in the previous chapters of Exodus, only particular people were allowed to see the face of God, to draw near to God.
These particular persons, then, were to serve as mediators between God and the rest of the people. For the people of Israel just after the Exodus from Egypt, Moses was their means for communication with God. Moses was the one who prayed to God to intercede for the people. Moses was the one who heard God’s commands to the people and then told the people what God had commanded.
Later in the cultic practices of Israel, after they had established the temple, the Israelites had many priests to offer their sacrifices to God, but again, only the high priest was allowed to enter into the inner chamber of the Temple where God dwelled above the Ark of the Covenant. Only one person among all the people was allowed access to God. While anyone could pray to God, there was still only one person who could draw near to God, to intercede for the people.
On the other hand, when Jesus went up on the mountain, he did not go alone. He took with him Peter and James and John. Presumably, Jesus, Peter, James, and John were going up on top of the mountain to talk to God. Looking to the past, Jesus should have gone up by himself, being that one person who could draw near to God, but he didn’t, he took people with him. That fact alone tells us there was a change in our relationship with God, an opening of that relationship. No longer was there only one who could draw near to God, others could go with that one.
Further, we see in the transfiguration of Jesus, a change in how the Glory of God was revealed. Rather than in a cloud, the Glory of the Lord was revealed in Jesus himself. Rather than a devouring fire on top of the mountain, the face of Jesus shone like the sun, and these three disciples of Jesus were there to witness the Glory of the Lord close up, first hand. They were not priests, they were not prophets like Moses, they had not been consecrated, and yet were allowed and even invited to witness firsthand the Glory of the Lord shining through the face of Jesus.
God was opening up his relationship with humanity. No longer were elaborate rituals needed to be pure enough to draw near to God. No longer were only a few or even one allowed to draw near to God. Regular people who wanted to draw near to God now could. The barriers of access to God had been removed.
This is not to say, however, that God had changed who he was. Nor were Peter, James, and John seeing the Glory of a different Lord in the face of Jesus, than Moses had seen on top of the mountain. Moses and Elijah being on top of the mountain with Jesus and the three disciples show Jesus to be the same Lord they had served and witnessed. The biggest problem Moses and Elijah faced as prophets of Israel was apostasy. For Moses, the people of Israel made a golden calf and began worshipping that instead of God. For Elijah, the people began worshipping the Canaanite god Baal, rather than God. Keeping the people of Israel focused on worshipping God, the Lord, rather than other false gods, was of primary importance to both Moses and Elijah, so you know if they were there with Jesus on the mountain top, then the same Lord was being revealed when Jesus was transfigured as when Moses was up on mount Sinai and Elijah was up on mount Horeb.
So, the same God who was revealed to Moses and Elijah was now being revealed to the disciples in the face of Jesus. The relationship of God with people was opened. Some would say, however, Jesus actually closed or narrowed the doorway to God. You may know some people who feel that way. Looking at the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, we can see why some feel that Jesus closed the door. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.’” (John 14:6) While stating you can only get to God through Christ, remember, Jesus is God, the same God served by Moses and Elijah.
Therefore, God is the way to God. We don’t need priests or mediums, or prophets like Moses to talk to God for us. We can all talk to God. We can all draw near to God. In Jesus, God allows us to come near to him by coming near to us. With God as a wholly transcendent God, people devised elaborate rituals to gain access to God. Animals were slaughtered to make ourselves pure. Certain people or places were seen as the access points to God. God was seen as a God who was inaccessible, beyond this world, or at least invisible and hard to witness. In Jesus, however, God became accessible to humans by becoming human, not through ritual or sacrifice on our end.
Ritual, sacrifice, and particular persons had been used to communicate with God because God was seen as so far above us, that we couldn’t raise ourselves up to be with God. So, in Jesus, God came down to our level, or showed he was already here among us. God showed us that he is here with us and will always be here with us. While still accessible through a person, the difference between the person of Jesus and the prophet like Moses is Jesus is not someone other than God. By becoming human, God became accessible to humans. The glory of God was revealed in the face of Jesus, showing that Jesus was and is God.
God, the infinite, became finite, while remaining infinite, and by doing so, he became infinitely accessible. God is accessible through Jesus because Jesus is God. In other words, God is accessible through God. We need no mediator. We need no ritual or sacrifice to connect to the transcendent God because God is here with us, the infinite made finite. God was physically here in the person of Jesus, and we need no mediator between us and God because our mediator to God is God himself. Rather than putting up a barrier to God, Jesus tore all barriers down.
There are many, however, who still like ritual, who find various rituals helpful in communicating with God. To that, I think Jesus would say, “fine.” Rituals can still be helpful. While we can simply talk to God as easily as we talk with one another, just like talking to the person of Jesus, many find simply talking to God to be rather difficult. Many especially find hearing God to be difficult, and this is because the way in which God often speaks to us.
Look at the example of Elijah. Elijah was up on the mountain, a prime place to meet God, and while there, Elijah heard a cacophony of sound: a whirlwind, an earthquake, a fire, but God was not in these. Rather, God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice. That still small voice is often hard to hear. That still small voice may come to us today in many forms, in many places, in our daily lives, in the city, in the voices of people we meet, but we are often so distracted by noise that we fail to hear or recognize the still small voice. Many of us, therefore, still have rituals we practice not in order to gain access to God, but to quiet things down so we can hear God. Many of us still need some ritual not because God is inaccessible, but because we can often be distracted.
For example, I cannot hear a word my wife says to me if the television is on. For us to communicate, there must be a certain amount of ritual: I must turn off or mute the TV. The only barriers to communication between my wife and me are the barriers we put up ourselves. In the same way, the only barriers in communication between each of us and God are the barriers we put up ourselves, and sometimes we have to work to take those barriers down. Often we need to help each other to remove those barriers, but from God’s end, all barriers have been removed.
Maybe Jesus still feels like a barrier. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as Father or Mother. Fine, do so. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as the human person, Jesus. Fine, do so. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as ethereal Holy Spirit. Fine, do so. All access points are open. Maybe you prefer to be out in nature to talk to God, or maybe you prefer to be in the city to talk to God. Maybe you prefer to be alone or maybe you prefer to be with people to talk to God. Fine, do so. Talk to God. Listen to him. God has removed all barriers, so talk to God, and listen, listen to what he has to say. Amen.
Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
Today, in Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus, we have something of an opening of the relationship between God and humanity. God was made more accessible to humanity than he previously was, or God was shown to be more accessible than we understood him to be. In the passage from Exodus we heard today, Moses was going up on top of Mount Sinai by himself to talk with God. Only Moses was allowed on top of the mountain to see the Glory of the Lord up close. “The appearance of the Glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel,” (Exodus 24:17) and the people couldn’t come near because they weren’t pure, or they would die, or they were afraid. For several reasons listed in the previous chapters of Exodus, only particular people were allowed to see the face of God, to draw near to God.
These particular persons, then, were to serve as mediators between God and the rest of the people. For the people of Israel just after the Exodus from Egypt, Moses was their means for communication with God. Moses was the one who prayed to God to intercede for the people. Moses was the one who heard God’s commands to the people and then told the people what God had commanded.
Later in the cultic practices of Israel, after they had established the temple, the Israelites had many priests to offer their sacrifices to God, but again, only the high priest was allowed to enter into the inner chamber of the Temple where God dwelled above the Ark of the Covenant. Only one person among all the people was allowed access to God. While anyone could pray to God, there was still only one person who could draw near to God, to intercede for the people.
On the other hand, when Jesus went up on the mountain, he did not go alone. He took with him Peter and James and John. Presumably, Jesus, Peter, James, and John were going up on top of the mountain to talk to God. Looking to the past, Jesus should have gone up by himself, being that one person who could draw near to God, but he didn’t, he took people with him. That fact alone tells us there was a change in our relationship with God, an opening of that relationship. No longer was there only one who could draw near to God, others could go with that one.
Further, we see in the transfiguration of Jesus, a change in how the Glory of God was revealed. Rather than in a cloud, the Glory of the Lord was revealed in Jesus himself. Rather than a devouring fire on top of the mountain, the face of Jesus shone like the sun, and these three disciples of Jesus were there to witness the Glory of the Lord close up, first hand. They were not priests, they were not prophets like Moses, they had not been consecrated, and yet were allowed and even invited to witness firsthand the Glory of the Lord shining through the face of Jesus.
God was opening up his relationship with humanity. No longer were elaborate rituals needed to be pure enough to draw near to God. No longer were only a few or even one allowed to draw near to God. Regular people who wanted to draw near to God now could. The barriers of access to God had been removed.
This is not to say, however, that God had changed who he was. Nor were Peter, James, and John seeing the Glory of a different Lord in the face of Jesus, than Moses had seen on top of the mountain. Moses and Elijah being on top of the mountain with Jesus and the three disciples show Jesus to be the same Lord they had served and witnessed. The biggest problem Moses and Elijah faced as prophets of Israel was apostasy. For Moses, the people of Israel made a golden calf and began worshipping that instead of God. For Elijah, the people began worshipping the Canaanite god Baal, rather than God. Keeping the people of Israel focused on worshipping God, the Lord, rather than other false gods, was of primary importance to both Moses and Elijah, so you know if they were there with Jesus on the mountain top, then the same Lord was being revealed when Jesus was transfigured as when Moses was up on mount Sinai and Elijah was up on mount Horeb.
So, the same God who was revealed to Moses and Elijah was now being revealed to the disciples in the face of Jesus. The relationship of God with people was opened. Some would say, however, Jesus actually closed or narrowed the doorway to God. You may know some people who feel that way. Looking at the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, we can see why some feel that Jesus closed the door. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.’” (John 14:6) While stating you can only get to God through Christ, remember, Jesus is God, the same God served by Moses and Elijah.
Therefore, God is the way to God. We don’t need priests or mediums, or prophets like Moses to talk to God for us. We can all talk to God. We can all draw near to God. In Jesus, God allows us to come near to him by coming near to us. With God as a wholly transcendent God, people devised elaborate rituals to gain access to God. Animals were slaughtered to make ourselves pure. Certain people or places were seen as the access points to God. God was seen as a God who was inaccessible, beyond this world, or at least invisible and hard to witness. In Jesus, however, God became accessible to humans by becoming human, not through ritual or sacrifice on our end.
Ritual, sacrifice, and particular persons had been used to communicate with God because God was seen as so far above us, that we couldn’t raise ourselves up to be with God. So, in Jesus, God came down to our level, or showed he was already here among us. God showed us that he is here with us and will always be here with us. While still accessible through a person, the difference between the person of Jesus and the prophet like Moses is Jesus is not someone other than God. By becoming human, God became accessible to humans. The glory of God was revealed in the face of Jesus, showing that Jesus was and is God.
God, the infinite, became finite, while remaining infinite, and by doing so, he became infinitely accessible. God is accessible through Jesus because Jesus is God. In other words, God is accessible through God. We need no mediator. We need no ritual or sacrifice to connect to the transcendent God because God is here with us, the infinite made finite. God was physically here in the person of Jesus, and we need no mediator between us and God because our mediator to God is God himself. Rather than putting up a barrier to God, Jesus tore all barriers down.
There are many, however, who still like ritual, who find various rituals helpful in communicating with God. To that, I think Jesus would say, “fine.” Rituals can still be helpful. While we can simply talk to God as easily as we talk with one another, just like talking to the person of Jesus, many find simply talking to God to be rather difficult. Many especially find hearing God to be difficult, and this is because the way in which God often speaks to us.
Look at the example of Elijah. Elijah was up on the mountain, a prime place to meet God, and while there, Elijah heard a cacophony of sound: a whirlwind, an earthquake, a fire, but God was not in these. Rather, God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice. That still small voice is often hard to hear. That still small voice may come to us today in many forms, in many places, in our daily lives, in the city, in the voices of people we meet, but we are often so distracted by noise that we fail to hear or recognize the still small voice. Many of us, therefore, still have rituals we practice not in order to gain access to God, but to quiet things down so we can hear God. Many of us still need some ritual not because God is inaccessible, but because we can often be distracted.
For example, I cannot hear a word my wife says to me if the television is on. For us to communicate, there must be a certain amount of ritual: I must turn off or mute the TV. The only barriers to communication between my wife and me are the barriers we put up ourselves. In the same way, the only barriers in communication between each of us and God are the barriers we put up ourselves, and sometimes we have to work to take those barriers down. Often we need to help each other to remove those barriers, but from God’s end, all barriers have been removed.
Maybe Jesus still feels like a barrier. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as Father or Mother. Fine, do so. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as the human person, Jesus. Fine, do so. Maybe you prefer to talk to God as ethereal Holy Spirit. Fine, do so. All access points are open. Maybe you prefer to be out in nature to talk to God, or maybe you prefer to be in the city to talk to God. Maybe you prefer to be alone or maybe you prefer to be with people to talk to God. Fine, do so. Talk to God. Listen to him. God has removed all barriers, so talk to God, and listen, listen to what he has to say. Amen.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Was Isaiah Really Talking About Jesus?
Brad Sullivan
First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;” we hear from Isaiah. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” which we hear from Matthew clearly echoes Isaiah. The passage from Matthew, God’s proclamation after Jesus’ baptism, is clearly linked to the passage we heard from Isaiah. Jesus is God’s servant, whom he upholds, his chosen, in whom his soul delights. Jesus lived as Isaiah’s prophecy stated.
“He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench…” (Isaiah 42:2-3a) Jesus was not a violence inciting revolutionary, trying to gain power for himself through a political revolution. Jesus did not try to overrun his enemies through military conquest. He did not take a broken world and break it even more by forcing justice on people through physical coercion.
“He will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Isaiah 42:3b) Jesus brought forth justice by relying on God. Jesus prayed for himself and others, and led others by serving them. Jesus cast out demons, he healed people, and he followed what he believed was God’s will even when doing so meant great personal sacrifice. In this way Jesus brought justice. Jesus taught the true way, another rendering of the Hebrew word for justice, the true way. Jesus taught, preached, and lived the true way, establishing His way of life on earth.
“He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. (Isaiah 42:4) Jesus brought the true way of life to the Gentiles, the nations, as well as to the Jews, and Jesus did not stop until his work was accomplished.
So, again, Jesus’ life clearly points to Isaiah’s prophecy, and God’s proclamation at Jesus’ baptism clearly point to Isaiah’s prophecy. On the other side of that coin, however, does Isaiah’s prophecy clearly point to Jesus? Well, no, I don’t think it does. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” Gee, could you vague that up a little bit? Who is God’s servant? It is Isaiah? Is it the people of Israel? Is it some unknown person in a crowd to whom God was pointing? We don’t know.
While Jesus’ life clearly points to Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah’s prophecy does not clearly point to Jesus. Otherwise, you’d think Isaiah’s prophecy would have said: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. His name is Jesus of Nazareth, and he’ll be born in Bethlehem in a little less than 600 years.” Fortunately the prophecy wasn’t quite that specific. I say fortunately because if the prophecy was that specific, then the prophecy would have little to say to any of us.
We would know Isaiah was a great fortune teller, a great predictor of the future. Instead, we know Isaiah as a great prophet, a teaching and exhorting prophet, teaching us even today something about God’s justice, God’s true way. We know from throughout Isaiah God is a God who loves justice. In Isaiah 58 for example God tells the people of Israel what kind of worship he wants, worship through sacrifice and fasting, no. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed to free, and to break every yoke?”
Seeking after and bringing forth justice is true worship of God. It makes sense, then, that God’s servant in whom his soul delights is one who faithfully brings forth justice. Further, without a clear referent in Isaiah as to who God’s servant is, we could say that anyone who faithfully brings forth justice is God’s servant in whom his soul delights. Anyone who faithfully brings forth God’s true way is God’s servant in whom his soul delights.
Might I be committing heresy here, somehow diminishing Jesus by saying Isaiah’s prophecy wasn’t only for him or by saying somehow that Jesus is not unique. No. Can you imagine Jesus sitting around remorsefully thinking, “Oh, you mean that prophecy isn’t just about me?” I have a feeling Jesus wants Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled as many times and in as many people as possible.
Remember, at Jesus’ baptism, God spoke the words, “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” and by speaking those words, God pointed to Isaiah’s prophecy, calling that prophecy fulfilled in Jesus, and in our baptisms, we are baptized in the name of Jesus as followers of Jesus.
Do you think Jesus would want his followers to worship him through praise only and not by continuing the work Jesus did? Jesus taught his followers to live as he lived, to bring forth justice as he brought forth justice. Jesus wants that prophecy fulfilled. Remember also that true worship of God is to bring forth justice. Living a life, therefore, that fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy does not diminish Jesus, but is the highest worship of Jesus. For Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled in Jesus’ followers is for Isaiah’s prophecy to continue to be fulfilled in Jesus.
So, when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are baptized as fulfillers of prophecy, or at least potential fulfillers of prophecy. When we are baptized, we are granted forgiveness of sin so there is nothing to separate us from God, and we are raised to the new life of grace so we can continue as God’s beloved, his chosen, in whom his soul delights.
We can choose, of course, not to follow after Jesus. We don’t have to be God’s servants in whom his soul delights. God does not force us by coercion. Just as God’s servant does not bring forth justice through coercion or force, neither does God force us to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. He gives us the gift of forgiveness of sin. He raises us to the new life of grace, and he let’s us decide whether or not we want to be his servants.
God is just, and kind, and wonderful. We get to decide if we want to be God’s servant. Now, being God’s servant sound like it might be difficult, and Jesus even assures us being God’s servant is difficult, but think about Jesus’ life. Do you get the feeling Jesus was generally joyful or miserable? Jesus had a difficult life being God’s servant, and Jesus had a wonderful, beautiful, joyful life being God’s servant. Think about those words, God’s servant in whom his soul delights…sounds pretty good.
A joyful life of service to God, that’s the life into which we are baptized. Actually, we’re baptized into a life of forgiveness and grace, and we’re invited into a joyful life of service. Through our baptism, we’re invited to have Jesus’ life fulfilled in our lives. Through our baptism, we’re invited to have Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled again and again. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Isaiah 42:1-3) Amen.
First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;” we hear from Isaiah. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” which we hear from Matthew clearly echoes Isaiah. The passage from Matthew, God’s proclamation after Jesus’ baptism, is clearly linked to the passage we heard from Isaiah. Jesus is God’s servant, whom he upholds, his chosen, in whom his soul delights. Jesus lived as Isaiah’s prophecy stated.
“He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench…” (Isaiah 42:2-3a) Jesus was not a violence inciting revolutionary, trying to gain power for himself through a political revolution. Jesus did not try to overrun his enemies through military conquest. He did not take a broken world and break it even more by forcing justice on people through physical coercion.
“He will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Isaiah 42:3b) Jesus brought forth justice by relying on God. Jesus prayed for himself and others, and led others by serving them. Jesus cast out demons, he healed people, and he followed what he believed was God’s will even when doing so meant great personal sacrifice. In this way Jesus brought justice. Jesus taught the true way, another rendering of the Hebrew word for justice, the true way. Jesus taught, preached, and lived the true way, establishing His way of life on earth.
“He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. (Isaiah 42:4) Jesus brought the true way of life to the Gentiles, the nations, as well as to the Jews, and Jesus did not stop until his work was accomplished.
So, again, Jesus’ life clearly points to Isaiah’s prophecy, and God’s proclamation at Jesus’ baptism clearly point to Isaiah’s prophecy. On the other side of that coin, however, does Isaiah’s prophecy clearly point to Jesus? Well, no, I don’t think it does. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” Gee, could you vague that up a little bit? Who is God’s servant? It is Isaiah? Is it the people of Israel? Is it some unknown person in a crowd to whom God was pointing? We don’t know.
While Jesus’ life clearly points to Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah’s prophecy does not clearly point to Jesus. Otherwise, you’d think Isaiah’s prophecy would have said: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. His name is Jesus of Nazareth, and he’ll be born in Bethlehem in a little less than 600 years.” Fortunately the prophecy wasn’t quite that specific. I say fortunately because if the prophecy was that specific, then the prophecy would have little to say to any of us.
We would know Isaiah was a great fortune teller, a great predictor of the future. Instead, we know Isaiah as a great prophet, a teaching and exhorting prophet, teaching us even today something about God’s justice, God’s true way. We know from throughout Isaiah God is a God who loves justice. In Isaiah 58 for example God tells the people of Israel what kind of worship he wants, worship through sacrifice and fasting, no. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed to free, and to break every yoke?”
Seeking after and bringing forth justice is true worship of God. It makes sense, then, that God’s servant in whom his soul delights is one who faithfully brings forth justice. Further, without a clear referent in Isaiah as to who God’s servant is, we could say that anyone who faithfully brings forth justice is God’s servant in whom his soul delights. Anyone who faithfully brings forth God’s true way is God’s servant in whom his soul delights.
Might I be committing heresy here, somehow diminishing Jesus by saying Isaiah’s prophecy wasn’t only for him or by saying somehow that Jesus is not unique. No. Can you imagine Jesus sitting around remorsefully thinking, “Oh, you mean that prophecy isn’t just about me?” I have a feeling Jesus wants Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled as many times and in as many people as possible.
Remember, at Jesus’ baptism, God spoke the words, “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” and by speaking those words, God pointed to Isaiah’s prophecy, calling that prophecy fulfilled in Jesus, and in our baptisms, we are baptized in the name of Jesus as followers of Jesus.
Do you think Jesus would want his followers to worship him through praise only and not by continuing the work Jesus did? Jesus taught his followers to live as he lived, to bring forth justice as he brought forth justice. Jesus wants that prophecy fulfilled. Remember also that true worship of God is to bring forth justice. Living a life, therefore, that fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy does not diminish Jesus, but is the highest worship of Jesus. For Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled in Jesus’ followers is for Isaiah’s prophecy to continue to be fulfilled in Jesus.
So, when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are baptized as fulfillers of prophecy, or at least potential fulfillers of prophecy. When we are baptized, we are granted forgiveness of sin so there is nothing to separate us from God, and we are raised to the new life of grace so we can continue as God’s beloved, his chosen, in whom his soul delights.
We can choose, of course, not to follow after Jesus. We don’t have to be God’s servants in whom his soul delights. God does not force us by coercion. Just as God’s servant does not bring forth justice through coercion or force, neither does God force us to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. He gives us the gift of forgiveness of sin. He raises us to the new life of grace, and he let’s us decide whether or not we want to be his servants.
God is just, and kind, and wonderful. We get to decide if we want to be God’s servant. Now, being God’s servant sound like it might be difficult, and Jesus even assures us being God’s servant is difficult, but think about Jesus’ life. Do you get the feeling Jesus was generally joyful or miserable? Jesus had a difficult life being God’s servant, and Jesus had a wonderful, beautiful, joyful life being God’s servant. Think about those words, God’s servant in whom his soul delights…sounds pretty good.
A joyful life of service to God, that’s the life into which we are baptized. Actually, we’re baptized into a life of forgiveness and grace, and we’re invited into a joyful life of service. Through our baptism, we’re invited to have Jesus’ life fulfilled in our lives. Through our baptism, we’re invited to have Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled again and again. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” (Isaiah 42:1-3) Amen.
Monday, December 31, 2007
New Year's Resolution - the Joy of the Gospel
Brad Sullivan
First Sunday after Christmas, Year A
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Happy New Year, almost! Does everyone have their new year’s resolutions set, maybe a new gym membership which you’ll use till March, or maybe you’ll give up some bad habit, or start doing something you’ve always wanted to try. It’s a new year so maybe it’s time to make a change; find something that isn’t working and fix it. These changes could happen any time. There’s nothing magical about the New Year, it’s just a change of date, but the New Year feels like a fresh start, a chance to find something in our lives which is draining life and replace it with something that gives life.
This idea of a new start was something of what Isaiah was feeling when he wrote the words we heard today. “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10a)
Do you get the feeling Isaiah was maybe a little bit excited? The people of Israel had suffered so much hardship, and finally the time of their captivity was coming to an end. They were going to be restored. They were returning to God. God was returning to them. There truly was a new beginning for the people of Israel, and Isaiah was ecstatic with hope and joyful expectation for the future. I wish we could just bottle up Isaiah’s words and drink them into us, that we could have that joy he felt inside of us, that joy of Christmas, of God coming and living among us as a human being. Like the New Year, the end of one time and the beginning of something new, the birth of Jesus was the end of one age and the beginning of a new relationship between God and people.
So, Isaiah’s words are very fitting at Christmas. Isaiah wasn’t writing about the coming of Jesus into the world when he wrote the words we heard today; he wasn’t writing about Jesus, but Isaiah’s words were none the less true with the coming of Jesus. With the coming of Jesus into the world, we will greatly rejoice in the LORD, our whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed us with the garments of salvation, he has covered us with the robe of righteousness. Something new has dawned. Jesus was born 2,000 years ago, and his birth is still new. The Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us is still new, still full of hope and joyful expectation. The birth of Jesus is still able to transform our lives.
Having said that, I realize looking over this last week, the ability of Christ to transform lives, to transform our world, may seem diminished. There’s been a lot of bad things going on this week. The local news reported murders here in Houston even on Christmas Eve. Then, on Thursday, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated, and the riots that followed killed dozens more people and left the country torn even more apart.
There is darkness in the world. There is darkness in our lives. Christmas reminds us that in Jesus’ birth, light has come into the world as well, as we heard today from John. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5) That may seem little comfort to people whose loved ones were killed this Christmas or to the people of Pakistan. The light of Christ may be a great comfort. Either way, tragedy always seems even more poignant when it strikes so close to a time of joy like Christmas.
The light shines in the darkness and yet there is still darkness. How can that be? Shouldn’t the birth of Jesus make everything alright? One would hope, but we still have choices to make in our lives. God still lets us make choices, and sometimes people still make very bad choices which hurt those around them.
No matter how dark the world may seem, however, the light of Christ, the light of the Word of God, is still here. We may feel overcome, at times, by the darkness, but remember, the light is still here in the world with us. Jesus is that light which darkness cannot overcome. Even with darkness such as we have seen this last week, we can hope and even be joyful in the Lord. We can have joy amidst sorrow. As this year comes to a close and the New Year begins, we can sing out our joy just as Isaiah did. We can share the light of the Gospel to help others know the joy of Christmas. Jesus is our joy and our hope for a transformed world and for transformed lives.
A new you in the New Year: that’s been the slogan for the Fellowship of the Woodlands, a church whose commercials I’ve seen on TV several times since Christmas. This church has been capitalizing on the idea of New Year’s resolutions with these commercials, and they’ve been featuring their gym. They’ve been trying to share the joy of Christmas, and yet they seemed to be trying to draw people into their church through physical fitness, the message seeming to be you can transform your life with our church via our gym.
Now, at first, I was puzzled, not upset, but maybe concerned, that a church would seek physical fitness as its primary method of transformation and sharing the Gospel. I thought, but what about the light of Christ, don’t y’all have something more to offer than a gym? I realized, however, the Fellowship of the Woodland’s gym is probably not their primary method of transformation. The gym was a way of attracting people to the church. Using people’s New Year’s resolution for physical fitness was a way to attract them to the church. Then, being a part of that Christian community, hearing the Gospel, encountering the light of Christ is the way people’s lives will be transformed. I don’t know if that is the case, but it sounds reasonable.
Come for a workout, and we’ll offer you something more. Maybe this sounds like a bait and switch, but why not? There’s enough darkness out there. If someone can share the light of Christ by way of a gym, the why not? Take people’s new years resolutions and use them to attract people to the Gospel. Why not? Take the excitement we feel and the hope we feel at the coming of the New Year and then tie that hope and excitement to the Gospel. Why not? The Gospel is from where our hope and excitement truly comes.
The Gospel is what’s really going to transform our lives in the New Year. Our New Year’s resolutions will hopefully improve our lives, they should, that’s kinda the point, but the Gospel can transform our lives as we start this New Year. Jesus is the light which will shine in the darkness in the coming year. So, if you’ve got a new year’s resolution, tie it to the Gospel. Realize as we start this New Year, God is with us. As we seek to make changes in our lives, God is with us.
Try making that joy your New Year’s resolution, or try attaching joy to your New Year’s resolution. Whatever you’ve decided to do in this New Year, whatever changes you’ve decided to make, tie the Gospel to those changes. Whatever hope or expectation you have for the coming year, tie that hope and expectation to the Gospel. Remember the light of Christ along with your New Year’s resolutions, and remember the joy of Isaiah: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10a) Amen.
First Sunday after Christmas, Year A
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Happy New Year, almost! Does everyone have their new year’s resolutions set, maybe a new gym membership which you’ll use till March, or maybe you’ll give up some bad habit, or start doing something you’ve always wanted to try. It’s a new year so maybe it’s time to make a change; find something that isn’t working and fix it. These changes could happen any time. There’s nothing magical about the New Year, it’s just a change of date, but the New Year feels like a fresh start, a chance to find something in our lives which is draining life and replace it with something that gives life.
This idea of a new start was something of what Isaiah was feeling when he wrote the words we heard today. “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10a)
Do you get the feeling Isaiah was maybe a little bit excited? The people of Israel had suffered so much hardship, and finally the time of their captivity was coming to an end. They were going to be restored. They were returning to God. God was returning to them. There truly was a new beginning for the people of Israel, and Isaiah was ecstatic with hope and joyful expectation for the future. I wish we could just bottle up Isaiah’s words and drink them into us, that we could have that joy he felt inside of us, that joy of Christmas, of God coming and living among us as a human being. Like the New Year, the end of one time and the beginning of something new, the birth of Jesus was the end of one age and the beginning of a new relationship between God and people.
So, Isaiah’s words are very fitting at Christmas. Isaiah wasn’t writing about the coming of Jesus into the world when he wrote the words we heard today; he wasn’t writing about Jesus, but Isaiah’s words were none the less true with the coming of Jesus. With the coming of Jesus into the world, we will greatly rejoice in the LORD, our whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed us with the garments of salvation, he has covered us with the robe of righteousness. Something new has dawned. Jesus was born 2,000 years ago, and his birth is still new. The Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us is still new, still full of hope and joyful expectation. The birth of Jesus is still able to transform our lives.
Having said that, I realize looking over this last week, the ability of Christ to transform lives, to transform our world, may seem diminished. There’s been a lot of bad things going on this week. The local news reported murders here in Houston even on Christmas Eve. Then, on Thursday, Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan was assassinated, and the riots that followed killed dozens more people and left the country torn even more apart.
There is darkness in the world. There is darkness in our lives. Christmas reminds us that in Jesus’ birth, light has come into the world as well, as we heard today from John. “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5) That may seem little comfort to people whose loved ones were killed this Christmas or to the people of Pakistan. The light of Christ may be a great comfort. Either way, tragedy always seems even more poignant when it strikes so close to a time of joy like Christmas.
The light shines in the darkness and yet there is still darkness. How can that be? Shouldn’t the birth of Jesus make everything alright? One would hope, but we still have choices to make in our lives. God still lets us make choices, and sometimes people still make very bad choices which hurt those around them.
No matter how dark the world may seem, however, the light of Christ, the light of the Word of God, is still here. We may feel overcome, at times, by the darkness, but remember, the light is still here in the world with us. Jesus is that light which darkness cannot overcome. Even with darkness such as we have seen this last week, we can hope and even be joyful in the Lord. We can have joy amidst sorrow. As this year comes to a close and the New Year begins, we can sing out our joy just as Isaiah did. We can share the light of the Gospel to help others know the joy of Christmas. Jesus is our joy and our hope for a transformed world and for transformed lives.
A new you in the New Year: that’s been the slogan for the Fellowship of the Woodlands, a church whose commercials I’ve seen on TV several times since Christmas. This church has been capitalizing on the idea of New Year’s resolutions with these commercials, and they’ve been featuring their gym. They’ve been trying to share the joy of Christmas, and yet they seemed to be trying to draw people into their church through physical fitness, the message seeming to be you can transform your life with our church via our gym.
Now, at first, I was puzzled, not upset, but maybe concerned, that a church would seek physical fitness as its primary method of transformation and sharing the Gospel. I thought, but what about the light of Christ, don’t y’all have something more to offer than a gym? I realized, however, the Fellowship of the Woodland’s gym is probably not their primary method of transformation. The gym was a way of attracting people to the church. Using people’s New Year’s resolution for physical fitness was a way to attract them to the church. Then, being a part of that Christian community, hearing the Gospel, encountering the light of Christ is the way people’s lives will be transformed. I don’t know if that is the case, but it sounds reasonable.
Come for a workout, and we’ll offer you something more. Maybe this sounds like a bait and switch, but why not? There’s enough darkness out there. If someone can share the light of Christ by way of a gym, the why not? Take people’s new years resolutions and use them to attract people to the Gospel. Why not? Take the excitement we feel and the hope we feel at the coming of the New Year and then tie that hope and excitement to the Gospel. Why not? The Gospel is from where our hope and excitement truly comes.
The Gospel is what’s really going to transform our lives in the New Year. Our New Year’s resolutions will hopefully improve our lives, they should, that’s kinda the point, but the Gospel can transform our lives as we start this New Year. Jesus is the light which will shine in the darkness in the coming year. So, if you’ve got a new year’s resolution, tie it to the Gospel. Realize as we start this New Year, God is with us. As we seek to make changes in our lives, God is with us.
Try making that joy your New Year’s resolution, or try attaching joy to your New Year’s resolution. Whatever you’ve decided to do in this New Year, whatever changes you’ve decided to make, tie the Gospel to those changes. Whatever hope or expectation you have for the coming year, tie that hope and expectation to the Gospel. Remember the light of Christ along with your New Year’s resolutions, and remember the joy of Isaiah: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10a) Amen.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Don't Skip to the End too Quickly
Brad Sullivan
Fourth Advent, Year A (RCL)
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 7:10-16Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7Matthew 1:18-25
There are just two days left till Christmas, and time is running out to take care of all your holiday shopping needs! That’s certainly one approach we could take as near Christmas. There are certainly plenty of times we’ll hear that or a similar message in the next couple of days. I’d like to suggest a slightly different approach to Christmas as we finish our Advent preparation. Advent is almost over, the waiting and the anticipation, almost done, and most of us know the Christmas story well so we can already hear it in our minds, but today we still have this fourth Sunday of Advent, this last Sunday of preparation before the big day. So, my suggestion for how to approach Christmas is, stay in Advent for another couple of days. Looking at the Gospel story, I’ll explain why we don’t want to jump to the end too quickly.
For four weeks now, we’ve been preparing, hearing stories about the preparations for Jesus’ birth or preparations for his ministry, and today, we heard about some of the final preparations, God preparing Joseph and Mary for the birth of Jesus. “Joseph, son of David,” said the angel, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20b)
This must have been ever so slightly puzzling to Joseph and something of a relief for a man who thought his fiancé had had an affair with another man. Here Joseph was all excited, about to be married, and it turns out his fiancé is pregnant, presumably with someone else’s baby…at least he knew the baby wasn’t his.
So what does Joseph do? Matthew says he was going to dismiss Mary quietly rather than expose her to public disgrace. This tells us something about the character of Joseph, the kind of man he was. Matthew calls him righteous. You could also call him merciful and kind. That may not come across nowadays to us, hearing that he was going to dismiss Mary, but taking a look at the laws and customs of the times, Joseph was doing a wonderful thing.
According to the religious laws of Israel, Joseph had every right, and some might even say an obligation, to have Mary stoned to death for her apparent adultery (the other guy too, if they could find him). At the very least, Joseph could publicly denounce Mary. These were the legal and religiously expected things for Joseph to do. Instead of calling for her death and public disgrace, however, Joseph decided to dismiss her quietly. He was simply going to say goodbye and let her go on with her life, maybe with the presumed father of her child. Who knows?
The point is Joseph was a kind, merciful, seemingly even tempered, and righteous man. Further, we know by his acceptance of and obedience to the angel’s message that Joseph was a faithful man who trusted in God and followed God. Basically, Joseph was a really good choice to be Jesus’ father. God didn’t choose anyone to be the parents of Jesus, he chose Mary and Joseph. God chose people who were righteous, kind, merciful, and who had faith in God, the kind of people who would be loving parents to their son and who would raise their son according to the laws and faith of Israel.
Beyond telling us something about Mary and Joseph’s character, then, the Gospel story today tells us something about the nature of God. God loves us enough to trust himself to two human parents. Coming down here to live among us, to send his son, to send himself to live as a human being among us took enormous trust on God’s part, trust that these two parents would love and care for the child. So we see God loves us enough to trust us with his son, and we also see the love God has for his son in so carefully choosing the parents. In seeing the care and love God has for his son, we then see an aspect of what the phrase, “God is love,” means. We see the love of Father for Son, the love of parent for all of us, his children. We see this love in the gifts God gave at Christ’s birth, the gift of loving parents to Jesus and the gift of Jesus to us.
Knowing then, that God has given us this gift, knowing already the full story of Christmas, I want to take one more look at the passage we heard from Matthew. “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23) This was Matthew’s note to the reader, quoting Isaiah, so the reader would have an idea of who Jesus was and would be. Joseph may or may not have had this passage of scripture in his mind when the angel announced Jesus’ birth to him, but let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Joseph did think of the passage from Isaiah about the virgin bearing a son and calling him Emmanuel. Joseph still probably didn’t know Jesus was the Son of God. He knew Jesus would be special, but I don’t think he was singing “Joy to the World, the Lord [God] is come.”
If Joseph thought of the prophecy from Isaiah, thinking of “Emmanuel,” God is with us, didn’t mean Joseph then made the intuitive leap that Jesus was God’s son. There was likely no understanding that Jesus was true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, and that through him all things were made. (from the Nicene Creed)
Assuming Joseph recognized the prophecy which the angel was quoting, Joseph would have known the angel was quoting Isaiah, from the passage we heard today. Further, Joseph would have known Isaiah was talking to Ahaz, a not very good king of Judah, who, hundreds of years before, was being assaulted by several other nations. Isaiah seemed to be telling Ahaz that in a few years, the nations that were threatening Ahaz would no longer be a threat, and God would be with Judah once again. You see, Ahaz had turned to idolatry and abandoned God, so it was felt that God had more or less abandoned Judah.
Joseph might have known all this. He might also have known that the king after Ahaz, Hezekiah, was a great king who followed after God and led the people of Judah to follow after God. So, shortly after Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz was made, the prophecy seemed to have come true. God was with the people of Judah and they had some rest from the nations that were threatening them.
So, that being the case, assuming Joseph had this history and prophecy in mind, Joseph was still probably not expecting that the child in Mary’s womb was the co-eternal Son of God. Here this prophecy from Isaiah was coming true again in some new way, and so Joseph was probably expecting something great, some kind of big change and God coming in a new way to be with the people of Israel, but Joseph and Mary didn’t know the full story of Jesus’ birth. They knew the Lord was coming and that the Lord’s coming had something to do with the birth of Jesus. So, they were waiting, and probably really excited to see what was going to happen. What was Jesus going to do? Who was he going to grow up to be? How was he going to save his people from their sins? Mary and Joseph’s advent must have been very exciting, full of anticipation and wonder, maybe with a little fear and uncertainty in the mix too, but I’m guessing they probably couldn’t wait to see who Jesus was going to be and what Jesus was going to do.
So, as we approach Christmas this year and wind down with the last two days of Advent, I invite you to approach Christmas as Mary and Joseph might have, not knowing the full story. I know you know the Christmas story, but you don’t know what Jesus is going to do in your life this year. That’s how I recommend we spend these last two days of Advent. We may have some final preparations to make, some last minute shopping or sending of Christmas cards, but try not to let that overshadow the excitement of Christmas. We know Jesus is coming, or our remembrance of Jesus’ coming is coming, but we don’t know what Jesus is going to do. We know the story of Christmas; we know the Nicene Creed, true God of true God, but we don’t know the full story. We don’t fully know who Jesus is even now. So get excited. Jesus is coming. What’s he gonna do in your life this year? What’s he gonna do in our life at Emmanuel this year? Amen.
Fourth Advent, Year A (RCL)
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 7:10-16Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7Matthew 1:18-25
There are just two days left till Christmas, and time is running out to take care of all your holiday shopping needs! That’s certainly one approach we could take as near Christmas. There are certainly plenty of times we’ll hear that or a similar message in the next couple of days. I’d like to suggest a slightly different approach to Christmas as we finish our Advent preparation. Advent is almost over, the waiting and the anticipation, almost done, and most of us know the Christmas story well so we can already hear it in our minds, but today we still have this fourth Sunday of Advent, this last Sunday of preparation before the big day. So, my suggestion for how to approach Christmas is, stay in Advent for another couple of days. Looking at the Gospel story, I’ll explain why we don’t want to jump to the end too quickly.
For four weeks now, we’ve been preparing, hearing stories about the preparations for Jesus’ birth or preparations for his ministry, and today, we heard about some of the final preparations, God preparing Joseph and Mary for the birth of Jesus. “Joseph, son of David,” said the angel, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20b)
This must have been ever so slightly puzzling to Joseph and something of a relief for a man who thought his fiancé had had an affair with another man. Here Joseph was all excited, about to be married, and it turns out his fiancé is pregnant, presumably with someone else’s baby…at least he knew the baby wasn’t his.
So what does Joseph do? Matthew says he was going to dismiss Mary quietly rather than expose her to public disgrace. This tells us something about the character of Joseph, the kind of man he was. Matthew calls him righteous. You could also call him merciful and kind. That may not come across nowadays to us, hearing that he was going to dismiss Mary, but taking a look at the laws and customs of the times, Joseph was doing a wonderful thing.
According to the religious laws of Israel, Joseph had every right, and some might even say an obligation, to have Mary stoned to death for her apparent adultery (the other guy too, if they could find him). At the very least, Joseph could publicly denounce Mary. These were the legal and religiously expected things for Joseph to do. Instead of calling for her death and public disgrace, however, Joseph decided to dismiss her quietly. He was simply going to say goodbye and let her go on with her life, maybe with the presumed father of her child. Who knows?
The point is Joseph was a kind, merciful, seemingly even tempered, and righteous man. Further, we know by his acceptance of and obedience to the angel’s message that Joseph was a faithful man who trusted in God and followed God. Basically, Joseph was a really good choice to be Jesus’ father. God didn’t choose anyone to be the parents of Jesus, he chose Mary and Joseph. God chose people who were righteous, kind, merciful, and who had faith in God, the kind of people who would be loving parents to their son and who would raise their son according to the laws and faith of Israel.
Beyond telling us something about Mary and Joseph’s character, then, the Gospel story today tells us something about the nature of God. God loves us enough to trust himself to two human parents. Coming down here to live among us, to send his son, to send himself to live as a human being among us took enormous trust on God’s part, trust that these two parents would love and care for the child. So we see God loves us enough to trust us with his son, and we also see the love God has for his son in so carefully choosing the parents. In seeing the care and love God has for his son, we then see an aspect of what the phrase, “God is love,” means. We see the love of Father for Son, the love of parent for all of us, his children. We see this love in the gifts God gave at Christ’s birth, the gift of loving parents to Jesus and the gift of Jesus to us.
Knowing then, that God has given us this gift, knowing already the full story of Christmas, I want to take one more look at the passage we heard from Matthew. “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23) This was Matthew’s note to the reader, quoting Isaiah, so the reader would have an idea of who Jesus was and would be. Joseph may or may not have had this passage of scripture in his mind when the angel announced Jesus’ birth to him, but let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Joseph did think of the passage from Isaiah about the virgin bearing a son and calling him Emmanuel. Joseph still probably didn’t know Jesus was the Son of God. He knew Jesus would be special, but I don’t think he was singing “Joy to the World, the Lord [God] is come.”
If Joseph thought of the prophecy from Isaiah, thinking of “Emmanuel,” God is with us, didn’t mean Joseph then made the intuitive leap that Jesus was God’s son. There was likely no understanding that Jesus was true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, and that through him all things were made. (from the Nicene Creed)
Assuming Joseph recognized the prophecy which the angel was quoting, Joseph would have known the angel was quoting Isaiah, from the passage we heard today. Further, Joseph would have known Isaiah was talking to Ahaz, a not very good king of Judah, who, hundreds of years before, was being assaulted by several other nations. Isaiah seemed to be telling Ahaz that in a few years, the nations that were threatening Ahaz would no longer be a threat, and God would be with Judah once again. You see, Ahaz had turned to idolatry and abandoned God, so it was felt that God had more or less abandoned Judah.
Joseph might have known all this. He might also have known that the king after Ahaz, Hezekiah, was a great king who followed after God and led the people of Judah to follow after God. So, shortly after Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz was made, the prophecy seemed to have come true. God was with the people of Judah and they had some rest from the nations that were threatening them.
So, that being the case, assuming Joseph had this history and prophecy in mind, Joseph was still probably not expecting that the child in Mary’s womb was the co-eternal Son of God. Here this prophecy from Isaiah was coming true again in some new way, and so Joseph was probably expecting something great, some kind of big change and God coming in a new way to be with the people of Israel, but Joseph and Mary didn’t know the full story of Jesus’ birth. They knew the Lord was coming and that the Lord’s coming had something to do with the birth of Jesus. So, they were waiting, and probably really excited to see what was going to happen. What was Jesus going to do? Who was he going to grow up to be? How was he going to save his people from their sins? Mary and Joseph’s advent must have been very exciting, full of anticipation and wonder, maybe with a little fear and uncertainty in the mix too, but I’m guessing they probably couldn’t wait to see who Jesus was going to be and what Jesus was going to do.
So, as we approach Christmas this year and wind down with the last two days of Advent, I invite you to approach Christmas as Mary and Joseph might have, not knowing the full story. I know you know the Christmas story, but you don’t know what Jesus is going to do in your life this year. That’s how I recommend we spend these last two days of Advent. We may have some final preparations to make, some last minute shopping or sending of Christmas cards, but try not to let that overshadow the excitement of Christmas. We know Jesus is coming, or our remembrance of Jesus’ coming is coming, but we don’t know what Jesus is going to do. We know the story of Christmas; we know the Nicene Creed, true God of true God, but we don’t know the full story. We don’t fully know who Jesus is even now. So get excited. Jesus is coming. What’s he gonna do in your life this year? What’s he gonna do in our life at Emmanuel this year? Amen.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Making Sacrifices to Keep God First
Brad Sullivan
Second Advent, Year A (RCL)
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Today, I’d like to talk about the corporate nature of our lives as Christians and the practices of our faith in the context of repentance as we prepare for Christmas. When John the Baptist was preaching and calling for people to repent, he wasn’t talking to individuals. He wasn’t saying, “You there, you sir need to repent.” Rather, John the Baptist was saying “Y’all repent. All of you, repent.” The word he used even, for repent, was second person, plural, not addressing any one person. John was calling the people of Israel to repentance.
The people of Israel seemed to have forgotten who they were; they had forgotten their corporate identity. Their identity was a people who had been set apart by God as his people, and they were to put God first. Individuals were to put God first in their lives as a part of the larger community of Israel which was to put God first. This meant sacrifice on the part of the people of Israel, cultural sacrifice. Israel was not like other nations. There were some things the Israelites could not do as the people of Israel. They had cultural practices, dietary restrictions, a faith, and a worship life which set them apart from the other nations.
Being set apart from the practices of other nations was not snobbery on their part. They had customs and practices to keep them focused on God, to keep God first in their lives. Throughout their history, when they began adopting the customs of other nations, they ended up losing sight of or forgetting about God. By adopting the practices of other nations, the people of Israel would become like other nations, nations which didn’t follow God. As their behavior changed, so did their beliefs. Stopping their own practices and behaving like other nations led to worshipping like other nations and believing like other nations. Time and again, the people of Israel ended up worshipping idols, rather than God, and time and again, prophets would call the people of Israel back to worshipping God alone.
So John the Baptist was calling the people of Israel to repentance. All of you Israelites together, stop following the practices of other nations and begin following the way of life given to us by God. John was calling for corporate repentance to a way of life lived by individuals within the community of the Israel.
Hearing John’s call today, then, we too are called to corporate repentance. Like the people of Israel, we are being called to examine how the practices of the world around us have taken over the practices of our faith. How have we let the world in which we live push aside the practice of our faith? Some practices of our faith are daily prayer, scripture reading, service to others, corporate worship, and others. For an example of how we let the culture around us interfere with the practices of our faith, I am going to talk about corporate worship, and how we sometimes allow other things in our lives to get in the way of Sunday worship. Let me be clear, before I go on, this is an illustration, not a condemnation. With what follows, I am illustrating how we allow other practices to stop our faith practices and how that can be damaging to us.
Coming together for Eucharist or any worship on Sundays is a central piece to our corporate life. As Christians, worshipping God together on the day of Resurrection is an important way we practice our faith. There are many things, however, which we allow to prevent us from coming together for the Eucharist on Sundays. Maybe we’re tired, maybe we’re out of town. We have sports, shopping, a myriad of other activities which we just don’t want to have to give up. Now I realize some people work, and some have little choice in their jobs, but there are still many things which we simply allow to stop us from worshipping. There are things which individuals decide they would rather do than come to church.
Realizing we have this clash of cultures, worshipping on Sundays and other things happening in our lives on Sundays, we need some kind of solution. One solution is to have services at a different time, that way we can have our cake and eat it too. There are many problems, however, to this way of thinking, and the mindset is basically this. “Worship gets in the way of other things in my life. I don’t want to give up those things so you should change when we do worship.” To say, ‘hold worship at another time so I can go do other things,’ however, is to seek church and worship as a consumer, rather than as a part of a community who worships together.
Worship is not something which the clergy do for the laity. Clergy do not hold services for the laity to come to and be fed as passive observers. We don’t come to worship the way we come to movies or other diversions. We come together in worship as a community. Clergy come simply as one part of the community to worship together with the community.
When we as individuals stop worshipping with the community on Sundays, the whole body suffers. As a people, we begin to lose our identity as followers of Christ. Following Christ, worshipping God, living lives of service to others become things we do rather than who we are. We stop being held together as a community and become a group of individuals who consume what we like. Put another way, when one of us removes our self from the community, the Body of Christ suffers loss, and the individual atrophies spiritually, emotionally, as a person. When we allow other priorities to stop us from prayer and service, we stop being who God called us to be.
We were called to be not just individuals, but a whole people, the Body of Christ. We were called to worship God together, to support one another with daily prayer, to seek opportunities to serve others. We were called to be a light to the nations. As Pastor Janie reminded us last week, put on the armor or light. Together, we put on the armor of light. How can we put on the armor of light? How can we, as a community, repent? How can we prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight? Having talked about corporate worship, I am going to talk briefly about daily prayer and service to others.
If you would, please open your prayer books to page 75. Daily Morning Prayer is just what the name implies. The service is designed as a corporate service, but it can still be done as individual prayer, praying not only for self but also for the community. Praying Morning Prayer takes some preparation initially. There are some different prayers for the different seasons of the church year so you actually need to read the small italicized print to get through the service, but it is a wonderful prayer service and worth every amount of effort to familiarize yourself with it.
Look now at page 84. Part of Morning Prayer is to read and pray over scripture, the Psalm or Psalms appointed for the day and the Lessons appointed for the day. These are found at the back of the prayer book. Turn to page 934. Here you have the Daily Office Lectionary. These are readings for every day of the year arranged in a two year cycle. Right now we’re in year two, so on page 937, you can see the readings for this week. These are different from the readings we have during the Eucharist so even today, you can use the daily office readings for your own prayer and devotion time.
Turn back to page 109. This is the last one. An Order of Worship for the Evening is the service we have recommended to use with the cards we handed out last week for use with Advent Wreaths or any prayer this Advent. Praying the daily office using this service or another service you may choose is how we are celebrating Advent this year as a community.
You can see from the prayer book, daily prayer is a foundational part of our life together as Christians and as Episcopalians. There are other daily prayer services and I encourage you all to keep looking through the prayer book for these other services and to begin or continue the practice of daily prayer.
Individual, daily prayer along with corporate worship is part of our life together as the Body of Christ. Living this life of prayer requires sacrifice on our part. Like the people of Israel who made sacrifices to maintain who they were and to keep God first in their lives, we also must make sacrifices in our lives to keep worship, prayer, and service central in our life as the Body of Christ. Hear God’s call to repentance to all of us. What must we each change in our lives in order to live as a light to the nations? What sacrifices must we make in order not to sacrifice our faith and the practice of our faith? Amen.
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