Made for More Love than We Realize

Brad Sullivan

7 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, February 23, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

Seems like we’re beating a dead horse with Jesus’ expounding on the commandments which are really all commentary on the commandments to love God and love each other.

Good horse to beat.  Love and relationship is what and who we are made to be.

Olympics – done with what you do at 30 / 35.  What we do doesn’t define us.

We’re defined by our relationships, at how good we are at loving.  From Genesis, we were made to be in relationship with God and each other. 

Jesus’ commands to love and the commands to love in the law are simply telling us to live fully as who and what we were made to be.  Jesus’ meditation on forgiveness and love show us the level of love to which we can strive.  We were made for greater love and forgiveness than we usually ever imagine.  Love and forgive not only your friends, but your enemies, those who do evil and hurt us.  Love and forgive even them, Jesus commands us, so great is the measure of love and forgiveness you were made with and made to be.

Sigh No More  

Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea, one on shore
My heart was never pure
You know me
You know me

But man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love; it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be

There is a design, an alignment to cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be

Amen.

To Be A Force for Good In the World

Brad Sullivan

6 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, February 16, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37
Psalm 119:1-8

In the most recent Superman movie, “Man of Steel”, there were lots of great moments in the movie and many allusions to the Gospel.  During one of these moments, Superman’s father, Jor-El, told Superman that one of the reasons he sent him to earth was to be a bridge between their two peoples and to help guide the people of the earth, to show them the potential they all have to be a force for good in the world. 

In contrast to the idea that every human being has the potential to be a force for good in the world, actor and stand up comedian, Chris Rock, gave a comedy routine in which he basically talked about the incredibly low standards of behavior to which some people tend to hold themselves.  He quoted some of the things he had heard people say, such as, “I ain’t never been to jail.”  Well, what do you want, a cookie?  You aren’t supposed to go to jail, Chris pointed out.  Another favorite of mine was, “man, I don’t even beat my kids.”  Boy, you’re really raising the bar, aren’t you; you aren’t supposed to beat your kids.  Chris Rock’s language was a bit more colorful than mine was, but what he said was remarkably similar to our Gospel lesson today.

Jesus could have given his lesson similarly, pointing out the incredibly low standards to which people in his time seemed to have been holding themselves.  “Are you living as the salt of the earth?”  Jesus asked.  “Man, I never even cheated on my wife.”  Well good for you, Jesus would say, but were you in any way a decent husband?  Did you love, honor, and respect your wife?  Heck, did you honor and respect other women, or did you stare at them for the purpose of lusting after them? 

“And what about you, young man,” Jesus could have asked, “how have you done in the realm of being the salt of the earth and a light to the nations?”  “Well, Jesus, I’ve never even killed anybody.”  Well bully for you, but are you living as salt and light?  It’s lovely that you haven’t killed anyone, bravo, but how’s your heart?  Are you full of anger and hate?  Do you hold others in contempt constantly insulting and speaking ill of others?

We’ve got to raise the bar a little bit, Jesus was saying if we’re going to live as salt and light.  We need to love and care for people a little better than simply not killing them and not sleeping around on them.  We are God’s beloved children.  We are being asked to join with him in his eternal life.  Our bodies will be remade in the resurrection.  What we do with our bodies and how we treat other people is, therefore, very important.  Life is more than not breaking rules.  Life as salt and light is a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  We have a purpose beyond ourselves, Jesus taught, a purpose which completely eclipses “don’t kill people and don’t commit adultery.”

Being a light to the nations, the salt of the earth, repairers of the breach is our purpose as disciples of Jesus.  That is who we are, a people who live for more than just ourselves, who see life as a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  That focus has at various points in the church’s history been lost.  During the age of Christendom, when we believed all people in our society were Christian, we lost something of being a light to the nations, the salt of the earth, the focus too much on salvation after death, and not enough on salvation before death.  In short, the church has lost some of its saltiness.

There are countless many who claim Jesus as their Lord, but whose life is indistinguishable from those who don’t.  The divorce rate is very high within the church.  Even higher is the number of disciples of Jesus who look at men and women for the purpose of lusting after them.  There are disciples of Jesus who kill, but even more so, there are disciples of Jesus who have hearts full of anger, contempt, even hatred.  We simply can’t be forces for good in the world with hatred, anger, and contempt in our hearts. 

If we’re going to live as salt and light and repairers of the breach, there are some kinds of behavior which we simply can’t keep.  C.S. Lewis in writing “The Great Divorce” was writing a supposition about the afterlife, and he pointed out that some believe given enough time and minor adjustments, all evil will be turned into good without any rejection of those harmful things which we might like to retain.  “This belief,” Lewis writes, “I take to be a disastrous error.  You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and you right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind.”  God’s kingdom has no place for hatred, for lusting after others, for treating human beings as anything less than God’s own beloved children.  As disciples of Jesus, there are behaviors and attitudes which we must leave behind. 

There are many disciples of Jesus who are unwilling or have forgotten their need to leave some ways of life behind.  There are many who have forgotten our purpose beyond ourselves, to live as salt and light, and repairers of the breach.  Some have lost the ability to see life as a continual opportunity to live as love, to honor, respect, and care for others.  Some disciples of Jesus are myopic in their vision, barely seeing beyond themselves and their own struggles. 

As repairers of the breach, we have a different focus than personal safely, security, and pleasure.  We trust our safety security to God, and find pleasure enough in a life lived faithfully as Jesus’ disciples.  Realizing, there is a hell of a lot of pleasure in that life.  There’s personal pleasure and there is pleasure in living as salt and life, helping others by example and in action. 

More importantly, we all have the potential to be a force for good in the world.  As we heard in our reading from Ecclesiasticus, “you can choose.”

If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.  He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.  Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given. (Ecclesiasticus 15:15-17)

That is part of why God sent Jesus to live as one of us, to help us realize our potential for good and to realize our ability to choose that potential for good.  You can choose to act faithfully.  You can choose to live a life that goes beyond yourself.  You can choose to be salt and light, to be a repairer of the breach.  God has placed within you the potential to be a force for good in the world, and you can choose to be that force for good.  Amen.

Lay Down Your Burden & Become a New Creation

Brad Sullivan

4 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, February 2, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 24:7-10

Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

           

Two family members, long estranged through words that were said and deeds that were done.  Then one day, something shifts, one reaches out to the other, the ice starts to melt, and forgiveness and reconciliation begins.  Jesus is at work, setting people free to go in peace.

A beloved friend, long sick and suffering decides to stop medical treatment and let death occur.  Family and friends begin gathering around to say “goodbye for now”, joyfully celebrating the life they’ve had together, rather than fearfully trying to hold death at bay.  Jesus is at work, setting people free to go in peace. 

People see others in need.  They sacrifice some personal need and decide to help their fellow human being.  During their interaction, both people see the other as fully and truly human, and a lifelong connection is formed, even if they never see or hear from each other again.  Jesus is at work, setting people free to go in peace.

Families going a hundred miles an hour, over committed, over worked, trying so hard to be perfect and competitive decide to slow down.  They work less and drop commitments from their children’s schedules.  They become content with what they have, fear the future less, and enjoy the simple blessings of being with one another.  Jesus is at work, setting people free to go in peace.

People come to a church uncertain of what they will find, doubtful that they will fit in, wondering if the people or even God will accept them.  They don’t know the customs, which book to use, or why the preacher is wearing a dress, but they are hoping to have some kind of encounter with Jesus.  Friendly faces offer warm welcome.  New friends help guide them through the worship and invite them to stay and have a meal afterwards.  They encounter Jesus at work in people, prayer, and sacrament, setting them free to go in peace.

A person long-suffering from the burden of a wrong committed in the past is told to try to make amends and that of course he is forgiven.  “Lay down your burden and become a new creation.”  Jesus is at work setting people free to go in peace. 

 As much as I’ve been preaching about our need to slow down and practice our religion a bit more as Episcopalians, something which I still believe it would be helpful, we in the church don’t have exclusive reign on Jesus’ activity in the world.  Jesus is happening all throughout our lives.  Jesus is out walking around in our neighborhoods and in our schools and places of work.  Jesus is at work in religious people and in non-religious people.  Jesus is at work wherever people are set free, Jesus setting them free often without them knowing he was even present. 

For Simeon, Jesus was present to him, physically present, and that was all.  He didn’t do anything, other than maybe coo or spit up a little bit; he was a baby after all, 33 days old, according to the rites of purification which Mary and Joseph were upholding.  Jesus was a cooing little baby, possibly even asleep at the time, and yet his presence was enough to set Simeon free to go in peace, for “[his] eyes had seen the savior whom [God] had prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations and the glory of [his] people Israel.”  All Jesus was was present. 

Now, Jesus is present everywhere to work through all of us.  Being the great high priest, Jesus is present and works through all of us.  Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. (Hebrews 2:16-18)

Having become human, Jesus is forever united to humanity.  Being our great high priest, forever in God’s presence, Jesus is forever uniting us to God, setting us free from the multitude of things to which we enslave ourselves, or at least Jesus is offering to set us free.

Encounters with Jesus were so often joyful, as was Simeon’s encounter with Jesus.  Some folks, however, felt no joy at seeing Jesus.  Some even said, “don’t torment me,” or at least the demons which possessed them said that.  Sometimes an encounter with Jesus is a cause for alarm because a chance to be set free from whatever is binding us is being given, a chance to reunite with God and humanity in some way, and we may not want to be set free. 

If we’re going to be set free, we have to want to be set free.  God isn’t one to force us.  If we want to stay estranged, to reject forgiveness, God has freed us to do so.  If we want to ignore the needs of people, and be cold or indifferent to visitors and guests, God has freed us to do so.  If we want to be overburdened and overstressed and seek wealth and prestige over contentment, God has freed us to do so.  We are free to become slaves to all kinds of things, but if we want him to and if we will allow him to, Jesus will set us free to go in peace.

I was trying to think of some big dramatic story of a miraculous moment when I realized Jesus had set me free and suddenly I could go in peace.  I couldn’t think of one, and yet I can think of dozens.  I couldn’t think of one life-altering moment when suddenly I encountered Jesus for the first time and everything was drastically different from that moment on. 

I’ve been a part of the Body of Christ since I was a baby, growing up and learning to live as a disciple of Jesus from the beginning of my life.  At times I didn’t have particularly high marks as a disciple of Jesus, but it has been a life-long journey, and on that journey, I can think of dozens, if not hundreds of times in which Jesus has appeared, allowing me to be set free to go in peace.  Jesus has shown up in all kinds of ways:  people, scripture, music, prayers, church, not church, Christian, non-Christian.  Jesus has used anything and everything to help set me free throughout my life. 

I haven’t always taken him up on his offer the first time.  Sometimes I’ve wanted to keep whatever burden I had or whatever it was to which I was enslaved, and Jesus has let me.  There’s no force, no coercion on Jesus’ part, just the continual offer, and at times when I’ve rejected that offer, Jesus has come back in some other form saying:  “Are you ready now?  Ok then, lay down that burden.  Change your life.  Be not afraid and follow me.”  Then, the response, spoken or unspoken, known or unknown:  “Lord you now have set your servant free to go in peace as you have promised; for my eyes have seen the savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see, a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”  Amen.

American Blessing: A Failed Narrative

Brad Sullivan

3 Epiphany, Year A

Sunday, January 26, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 5-13

1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

There are really two stories being told in Matthew’s Gospel story this morning.  One is the story of Jesus getting his first disciples and the story of how Matthew chose to tell this story…not simply with the action itself, but through the lens of prophecy and fulfillment.

Jesus called to these young fishermen and told them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  I wondered, what did they use as a net?  What did they throw out there?  How did they actually go about fishing for people?  Well, we’re told at the end of the passage that, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”

That’s a pretty good net, curing every disease and every sickness.  After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, however, what net did the disciples use?  There were some healings, but they didn’t continue to the same degree with which Jesus was healing people with his own two hands.  So what was the disciples’ net which they fished for people?  My guess is their net was teaching and the proclaiming of good news of the kingdom, which has continued ever since.

So what were they teaching?  What narrative, what story?  This is where the way in which Matthew tells this story is instructive.  Matthew tells us that when Jesus went to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, that the words of the prophet Isaiah were fulfilled.  The scripture he’s quoting is from Isaiah 9:1-2

The names Zebulun and Naphtali are instructive; they are tribes of Israel, children of Abraham whose names mean “honor” and “wrestle”.  Israel will be honored once more.  They will wrestle with their enemies and win.  This prophecy was fulfilled during the reign of king Hezekiah, hundreds of years before the time of Jesus.  Hezekiah’s reign was a time when Israel became faithful to God again after the atrocities of his father, Ahaz’s reign.  Hezekiah restored covenant faithfulness to God, brought honor back to Israel, and when an Assyrian king tried to invade, Israel wrestled with them and won.

Isaiah 9 was fulfilled with Hezekiah as king, through covenant faithfulness to God and through military victory.  Matthew, when using the Isaiah 9 passage to talk about Jesus, however, knew that Jesus did not bring about any kind of military victory.  As far as driving out the Romans goes, Jesus lost, mightily.  Something other than military victory gave honor to Israel in Matthew’s eyes…covenant faithfulness to God and the presence of God within their midst in the person of Jesus. 

Isaiah 9 was fulfilled through Jesus in a different way than it was fulfilled centuries before.  A different narrative was being told.  In the previous narrative, one could identify blessing by God by seeing obvious outward signs of blessing:  wealth, power, prestige, etc.  Israel had these under the reign of Hezekiah.  As a counter narrative, Matthew (and Jesus before him) was telling the story that covenant faithfulness to God was its own blessing and it would not necessarily bring wealth, power, or prestige.  Rather, covenant faithfulness to God brought blessings of peace amidst suffering, contentment without great wealth, and confidence of eternal life in God even in death.

Outwardly, people may not seem blessed by the narrative Matthew (and Jesus) told.  On the inside, however, if you got to know the people, you would see their blessings…love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.

I look at the narratives in America, and look at the story of our country, and one of our dominant narratives in America is the narrative of each successive generation being better off than the generation before it.  Each successive generation would have a little more financial prosperity than the preceding generation.  It is a compelling societal narrative, which, ultimately, seeks to alleviate suffering.  The next generation will have what we didn’t so they won’t suffer in ways that we did.

We now have more stuff and more wealth than we know what to do with.  The challenge is, stuff and wealth don’t actually bring us peace and contentment.  They don’t actually alleviate our suffering because we aren’t designed to be soothed by stuff.  We’re made to be in relationship with others, to be soothed and blessed by people. 

As a nation, we have achieved immense wealth, power, and prestige.  From the outside, we look to be immensely blessed.  The immensity of our wealth and the vastness of our treasures have not seemed to bless us inwardly, however, with love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.  Our wealth, power, and prestige haven’t stamped out suffering or worry, fear or anxiety.  Instead, we have very high levels of anxiety, depression, and violence.  A narrative that brought outward blessings to a nation (wealth, power, prestige) has not seemed to bring inner blessings (peace, contentment, confidence, love, hope, faith).  The narrative of finding blessing and alleviating suffering through more money and more stuff with each generation is a well intentioned narrative, but it is a failed narrative. 

As disciples of Jesus, fishing for people, we have a different narrative to offer, a narrative counter to the narrative of American blessing.  Our narrative tells us that we are blessed not by or because of wealth, power, or prestige, but we are blessed because of covenant faithfulness to Jesus.  We are blessed by a life in which we seek first and foremost to love God and to love others.  We are blessed by a life in which we seek to partner with God in bringing about greater love, peace, justice, and hope in the world.  The signs of our blessing are not wealth, power, and prestige, nor a life without struggle.  Rather, the signs of our blessing are peace, contentment, confidence, love, hope, and faith even amidst the same struggles that all people have. 

As disciples of Jesus, we don’t believe we make our children’s lives better than ours by providing them with more money or things than we had growing up.  As disciples of Jesus, we believe we make our children’s lives better than ours (or possibly just as good as ours) by providing them with love and faith, with rhythm and relationship, with deep roots in God and each other.

In a society and culture continually speeding up, we slow down.  In a society and culture that is increasingly loud and full of distractions, we grow quiet and centered.  We slow down and grow quiet and centered because so little of the speed, noise, and distraction lead us to live lives in which we bring about greater love, peace, justice, and hope in the world.  So little of the speed, noise, and distraction help us to live intentional lives in which we love God and love people. 

That’s our net, or at least a large part of our net.  As disciples of Jesus, we have and live lives of love, hope, faith, peace, confidence, contentment.  We live the story that covenant faithfulness to God is its own blessing and it does not necessarily bring wealth, power, or prestige.  Rather, covenant faithfulness to God brings blessings of peace amidst suffering, contentment without great wealth, and confidence of eternal life in God even in death.  That’s our teaching and preaching that we, as disciples of Jesus, get to go out and give to others and live.  Amen.

"I Can Work With That." - God

Brad Sullivan

1 Epiphany, Year A (Baptism of Our Lord)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 42:1-9

Psalm 29

Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 3:13-17 

Today we’re celebrating the baptism of Jesus, hearing Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism by John in the River Jordan.  Years ago, I had a conversation about this very passage with a group of pastors, and while we started talking about why Jesus was baptized and what happens when we are baptized, the conversation quickly digressed into a talk about river baptism vs. font baptism vs. baptistery (the big immersion pool) baptism.  They even went into saying, “it never said Jesus was submerged, it said he emerged from the water.”  Do you sprinkle some water or do you poor?  This was a serious conversation, not about Jesus or what God does for us in baptism, just how do you get the ritual right, and each pastor more or less declaring themselves to be right.

One of the pastors actually said it doesn’t really matter how you baptize, what is important is what God does.  There was the tiniest little pause after his comment, and then the group went back to talking about immersion vs. pouring vs. sprinkling.  I was going nuts, and while on the one hand all I could really thing throughout the conversation was, “oh God, who cares?”, the conversation did speak of our need for ritual.  We need some way of marking our desire and goal of becoming a new person.  When we repent and turn our lives around (which can just about happen daily), we tend to need some way to mark that.  As physical people, we need physical action. 

So we take this ritual bath in baptism.  Now, baptism in the church only happens once.  We don’t get baptized over and over because we believe God is true to his word.  In baptism, we are welcomed into the Body of Christ, and we believe we need never be baptized again because God has already welcomed us and God will keep his promise to us.

Now some folks may want to take another ritual bath.  Maybe they don’t remember their baptism, or maybe they simply want to repent again since their baptism and want again a physical way of cleansing.  Well, while we won’t rebaptize in the church (thereby declaring God’s original promise broken), I say if you want another ritual bath, take one.  After some repentance and some soul searching, take a bath.  Renew your baptismal promises and vows when you take a bath, or when you take a shower, or jump in a pool or a lake or the ocean.  You can renew your baptismal promises and take some kind of ritual bath anytime you want, not because God needs you to, but because sometimes we need some ritual in our lives to remind and to renew.  We’re going to be renewing our baptism covenant once I’m done speaking so that we as a people can be reminded of and renew the promises we made and be reformed again as God’s people. 

So that’s a bit about what we do in baptism, but what does God do?  God sees a heart that is longing for connection with him.  God sees a heart that is longing to live a life of love, faith, and hope, and then God sees a wonderfully messed up person, fully of imperfections emerging from the waters of Baptism, and God says, “I can work with that.”  God says, “you are flawed and scared, and deeply messed up, and I am going to grant you my Holy Spirit, make you one with me and walk with you, and use who you are and what you have to partner with me as a people to live out my love in the world.  I will make you part of the Body of Christ,” God says, “and I will walk with you always.”

So why was Jesus baptized?  Jesus was already one with God, already living out God’s love in the world.  He didn’t become part of the Body of Christ; he was the Body of Christ.  So what was going on?  Partly I believe this was revelation as God’s Holy Spirit came down and lighted on Jesus, and the voice from heaven declared Jesus to be God’s beloved son.  Partly I believe Jesus was baptized in order to be in this with us.  He was calling us to be God’s faithful people, and part of being God’s faithful people in the first century was to take the ritual cleansing bath of Baptism.  This ritual bath was a way that Jews repented in order to be reformed as God’s people.  Without baptism, Jesus would have been declaring himself other than that people.  Jesus did not declare himself other than us.  Jesus was a part of Israel, standing squarely with those who knew they needed repentance, knew they were not perfect, and sought help from God to live as God’s faithful servant.

When we are baptized, Jesus is standing squarely with us to, not because we are perfect, but because we are beloved and because we said yes to God’s call to repent and be reformed as God’s people.  In baptism God forms us as part of the Body of Christ.  We become part of the servant described in Isaiah 42.  In Isaiah 42, God was talking about the people of Israel as his servant.  In the Isaiah passage, we hear God referring to his people Israel:

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.  He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

That is who and what we are baptized into when we are baptized into the Body of Christ.  Jesus is Faithful Israel lived out in one man.  When we are baptized into Jesus’ body, we are formed as faithful Israel, called to partner with God to bring peace and justice to the world.  We’re called to do, to be, to live as love incarnate in the world.

We are not called to be perfect.  While we do repent and try to turn our lives around, we don’t rid ourselves of all our imperfections.  Obviously, none of us have been made perfect in baptism.  God doesn’t need us to be.  God just wants us to say yes.  God then takes us, scars and all and says, “I can work with that,” and then God asks us to become love.  We still have our imperfections.  God doesn’t eradicate them.  God redeems them.  God uses the mess of our lives to help heal others and reach out to folks who couldn’t be reached by someone without some imperfections.  We often relate to each other in our messiness and our brokenness.  So God takes what we’ve got and works with it, redeems it, and uses us, partners with us in loving and healing the world he created.

When we baptize, we tell God we want to be a part of his people.  We say, God, I’m a mess, see what you can do with it, and Jesus stands squarely with us, being baptized with us, standing squarely on the side of broken messed up people, and decaring them his.  “Y’all want to be my servant, God says, part of my son’s body.  Y’all are broken and messed up, but I can work with that.”   Amen.

Yeah, I've Heard That Story Before...

Brad Sullivan

2 Christmas, Year A

Sunday, January 5, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 84
Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a
Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

Last week, I watched two movies, a horror/thriller named “The Purge” and a sci-fi/action movie called Elysium.  They were basically the same movie.  A rather dystopian future, the haves vs. the have-nots, things going pretty well for the haves until the struggles of the have-nots spilled over into the lives of the haves.  In one of the movies, this story was told as a horror story.  In the other movie, this story was told as a sci-fi movie.  The plots were different, but the story was the same.

Now, as a horror movie, “The Purge” was like a lot of movies I’ve seen before, and I turned to Kristin at one point and said, “yeah, kinda bored now because I really like the premise, but at this point, I’ve seen this movie before; it’s like several other horror movies and thrillers that I’ve seen.”  We kept watching, though, and by the end, I realized that this other story, the story of the haves vs. the have-nots was really the story that was being told.  So, I enjoyed it and it was nice to see the story told in a different way.  Same with the Sci-fi movie, “Elysium”, as a sci-fi movie, I had seen it before, but it was a different way of seeing the overarching story of the struggle between the haves and the have-nots.

There are stories that are told and re-told over and over again, and it the stories are well told, we seem not to tire of them.  Most of the movies we see, we’ve seen before with different actors, a different plot, different script, and a different name, but the basic stories, we’ve seen and heard over and over again.  How many romantic comedies do we have to see to know the story?  A couple meets, they fall in love, they fight, and then they get back together in the end. 

Exposition, conflict, climax, resolution…creation, fall, judgment, redemption, re-creation:  this is the very basic story we see and hear in almost every story we see and hear, and we pretty much don’t tire of it.  That’s because God wrote this story into the very fabric of the world:  creation, fall, judgment, redemption, re-creation.  I guess we pretty well authored the “fall” part of the story, but then God took what we wrote and used it to end the story with redemption and re-creation.  This is the story of our lives, the story of the Gospel, God taking our stories and redeeming them into his Gospel story. 

In Matthew’s telling of the story of Jesus’ life, we see Jesus’ life mirroring somewhat the story of the creation of Israel.  Jesus started in Israel, the land of promise, then went to Egypt, and then made his way back to Israel.  This was the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons who fled to Egypt during the famine, became a numerous people, and then journeyed back to Canaan, the land of promise, to become the nation of Israel.  Israel went through the waters of the Red Sea and then spent 40 years in the wilderness becoming faithful servants of God.  Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River and then spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, being strengthened to remain and fully become (in his humanity) the faithful servant of God that he was.

Matthew told the story of Jesus’ life through the lens of scripture, constantly quoting scripture and showing how Jesus’ life fulfilled scripture.  Have you known folks who can quote scripture?  Often people do this to teach or tell others how life is or how they should be.  There’s no Bible to thump, so they thump other people with their knowledge of scripture.  Sometimes folks quote scripture, however, because scripture has become the lens through which they view their lives.  The stories of scripture are our stories and they make sense of our lives.  Like Matthew telling the story of Jesus, our lives tend to make sense when we narrate them through the stories of scripture.  You don’t have to be able to quote scripture in order to do this.  Even if you can’t quote it, the story, the Gospel story over and over again, is your story, woven into your very being. 

Jesus is the story of all creation told in one human’s life.  Jesus is the Gospel story.  Most of us have heard this story over and over again, and we tend not to tire of it because Jesus is God’s story, woven into the fabric of creation, told and re-told over and over again throughout our history.  Jesus’ story is the story of our lives, woven into us even as we were being formed in the womb. 

Now, have you ever heard a story that ends prematurely?  Creation, and no fall.  Fall and no judgment.  Judgment without restoration and re-creation.  We tend not to like these stories as much.  Stories that end early leave part of the narrative of creation out of them.  They aren’t full stories.  We hate hearing or telling these partial, incomplete stories, and yet often, sadly, people live out these incomplete narratives. 

Imagine the prodigal son choosing not to go back to his father, too proud to turn around and admit he was wrong, or imagine that once he did go back, he simply told his dad he wanted more money, skipping redemption and re-creation and going straight back to fall.  That would make a lousy story, and yet it is the kind of story many people choose to live.  

Sometimes we don’t let this incomplete narrative be the story of our entire lives, but just the story of some relationships in our lives or just the story of some poor decisions in our lives.  Our pride, our arrogance, our fear, our hurt, etc. keeps us holding on to the one part of the narrative we can pretty well author for ourselves…the fall.  Now the fall may be terrible, we may be miserable and hate it, but it’s ours.  We wrote it.  We can keep writing it, and no one, by God, can take it away from us. 

Well, Jesus didn’t come here to take our hurts away from us.  Jesus didn’t come here to take our broken relationships and poor decisions away from us.  Jesus came here to redeem our hurts, to redeem our broken relationships and poor decisions.  Jesus came here to finish the story woven into the fabric of creation and to help us to finish our stories. 

Sometimes that means we’re going to have to take a journey.  If we’re going to allow God to finish our stories with the story of the Gospel, with redemption and re-creation, then we might first have to go to Egypt and make the long slow journey back.  Imagine if Israel had not spent 40 years in the wilderness becoming faithful and obedient to God, if God had said, “yeah, y’all are not really faithful to me at all, but go on in, have the promised land.”  That would have been a terrible story because they would not have been the light to the nations that God formed them to be.  The story would not have been complete.  Imagine if Joseph had not trusted in God to journey to Egypt with an infant / toddler.  That was likely no simple journey and relocation, and Joseph could have decided that he had just about had it with God’s interference in his life and that he was going to stay right where he was.  That probably wouldn’t have made for a very good story once Herod showed up. 

Living out the Gospel story in our lives and allowing God to redeem our stories means we may have to travel far out of our comfort in what we do.  Reconciling past hurts with people is no easy task, but then again, staying angry or hurt makes for a terrible story because it’s not the story of the Gospel.  Having a desire to serve other people, noticing the needs around us, is no easy task, like Joseph fleeing to Egypt, but then again, having a desire and an ability to help others and choosing not to makes for a terrible story because it’s not the story of the Gospel. 

Whatever is on your heart right now, service, or forgiveness, or a need for healing or to be healed, allow God to finish your story.  You know the basics of the narrative, you know where your story is leading…redemption and re-creation.  Now, you may have a long slog before you get there.  You may have to go to Egypt before coming back to the promised land, but trust in God on that journey.  Trust that Jesus has already made that journey, that he has lived and told your story, your basic story, because it is the story of the Gospel, woven into the fabric of creation.  Amen.

Peace, Goodwill Toward Men.

Brad Sullivan

Christmas Eve, Year A

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Romans 1:1-7
Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

This passage from Luke’s Gospel, verses 8-14, is one of the best known passages to me (although for this passage, the King James Version is the one I usually remember).  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is not because I’ve heard it in church a lot, although I have.  The reason I know and remember this passage so well is because I have seen “A Charlie Brown Christmas” many times, and this is the passage which Linus recites to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. 

This was not a big church event or some religious leader or elite proclaiming the story of Jesus’ birth.  In this secular story, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” a little boy told his friend about the Christmas story.  I rather doubt you remember every Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard…or even any Christmas sermon you’ve ever heard, but if a friend of yours were to tell you the Christmas story, and tell you what Christmas is all about, I bet you’d remember that.

God has a way of breaking through and working with the ordinary stuff in our lives.  …of course God could have come in power and great might.  God is powerful and mighty, and yet, God so often identifies with the lowly.  God has power and doesn’t need us to brandish our power in order to impress him.  God is powerful, but even more so, in his very nature, God is relationship and love. 

God identifies with love even more than with power. So, God comes to us in the loving act of the birth of a child.  There are few more loving moments than when a child is born.  I remember when my kids were born, and each time, I looked at them, and I felt this new love just happen, this new space in my heart suddenly be created as I looked at my sons for the first time. 

God came to us in a way that would bring out the very best in us.

Once a year, for twelve days, we get to look on that baby Jesus and love God as a newborn baby.  Once a year, for twelve days, we can have the best brought out in us again.  After that, we’re into Epiphany, and we hear stories about Jesus as a grown man, and he starts getting into our business and messing with our lives, but for now, we just get to give our love to Jesus and receive God’s love for us in his gift of himself to us. 

What is the point, though?  What is the true meaning of Christmas?  Well, I don’t think that question has one answer, but many.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God brings out the best in us, giving us a gift of love so that we might love him more.  Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that God has become one with us in Jesus and this shows us that God has never and will never give up on us.  God joined himself to us in Jesus, so if God gives up on humanity, then God will have to give up on himself.

Part of the true meaning of Christmas is that along with never giving up on us, God will continue to strive with us, to dwell with us, to love us, and that one day, Jesus will return and will put all things right.  Jesus, the savior, the messiah, will come again to restore all of creation.  In the mean time, we get to love God as a little newborn baby.  We get to share that love with others.  We get to be with others in the ordinary parts of their lives and strive with them, just as God strives with and never gives up on us.  We get to tell others the story of our faith, the story of Christmas and why we believe in this little baby whose birth we remember today. 

We get to share this story and the meaning of this night.  I doubt you’ll remember much of what I’ve said tonight in a year.  Any of your friends could hear this sermon and likely not remember much of us either.  If you tell your friends what Christmas is all about, however, I bet they’d remember that, just as I remember the words from Luke’s Gospel.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:8-14)  Amen.