January 15, 2012 - Pulpit Swap at the Nazarene Church

John 1:43-51

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

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            I love Philip, he is such a fibber.  He is so amazing human in what he tells Nathaniel.  Misguided or not, he attempts to take credit for something that God does.  How often do we sit back and think of all the good things that we have done, imagining that it is by our own strength that they have been done, forgetting that all of our talents and our skills are given to us by our Almighty God?  Here is Philip proclaiming to Nathanael, “We have found him whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”  “We have found him.”

But Philip didn’t find Jesus at all.  Instead Jesus found Philip and told him to follow.  Philip kinda reminds me of the kid from the Shake and Bake commercials, “It’s Shake and Bake, and I helped!”  Jesus found Philip, just as Jesus has found each of us here today and finds people all over the world.  It is not by our doing that God has come into our lives, we didn’t go door to door trying to find the right person to follow, he wasn’t playing Hide and Go Seek, waiting behind a chair for us to go and get him.  Jesus goes out and finds Philip and tells him to “follow.”  And Jesus finds us and tells us to “follow.” But what does it mean to follow?  What is God’s mission for us as Christians?  For one, it would be to give glory to God.  In the end, Philip is not glorified for finding Christ, but rather Jesus is glorified for being who he is, the Messiah, the Son of God.  True, Jesus’ actions in today’s reading don’t seem all that wondrous.  Al he says is that he saw Nathaniel sitting under a tree.  For all we know, Jesus was walking along with Philip, saw a guy sitting under a tree, asked Philip if he knew the guy, then told him to go and get him.  Yet Nathaniel sees this as a sign of Jesus being the Messiah.  Nathaniel seems to be pretty easy to please and to make believe… there is a wonderment about him, which is something that perhaps we have lost over the years.  We have become jaded at times, we are too used to the stories of God’s activity and we can lose the sense of wonderment that goes along those stories and the knowledge that God saves us purely out of love.  We can begin to forget to be amazed at God’s might acts and of how God uses us to bring about His will here on earth.  We can forget that our abilities are given to us by God through the Holy Spirit and that we are not as powerful ourselves as we would like to believe.

            Yet we are powerful, we are capable of great things, all because of God.  We are given the opportunity to serve him, to lead lives that are of great benefit to all of God’s children and all of creation, because of the power that God dives us in the Spirit.  Each of us, whether we be Lutheran, Nazarene, Catholic, or any other denomination, and even those who do not even know where their strength comes from, have been given the Spirit and we have been given a calling in our lives, a vocation that serves God and brings about God’s kingdom.  Each of us is given an opportunity to do great things, and to look at what God has done in the world through us and say “God did it and I helped.”  We have not all been given the same gifts, but we have all been given ones that fit our purpose.  For some it is the gift of teaching, and for others it is the gift of service, to others prophecy, and to others other gifts.  But each of us has been called and given that duty, as well as to follow Philip in proclaiming the coming of God’s son, the Messiah, the one whom the prophets wrote about and who has done marvelous things for us and for all of creation.  We proclaim the Son of Man, who worked miracles in order to show the love of God. We proclaim he who died for our sake, who took upon himself the Sin of the world in order that we may have life. 

            We proclaim through both our words and our actions the life and the gift of Jesus Christ.  Like Nathaniel, we are called to be free of deceit, in order that people may know the sacrifice and the compassion of God.  Instead of trying to trick people, we are called to give aid to the suffering, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked.  We do not serve a God who heaps upon his followers fame and fortune, but rather one who heaps upon them opportunities to do good for their neighbors, for all the children of God.  Much like Philip and Nathaniel, we are witnesses to the actions of God, to the wondrous things that he does.  It is God who gives us hope in the midst of darkness, when loved ones are lost and when life can seem completely hopeless.  It is God who creates all things, who has given us the world that we live in.  Afterall, what is more miraculous than the creation of life itself, to make a world and a universe out of sheer nothingness.  Each day we are witnesses to God’s power, whenever we look upon the leaves on a tree or a hungry belly filled or a mournful person full of hope.And each day we are given the opportunity to take part in God’s power, in sharing our time with the lonely, in giving to those in need, in caring for God’s creation through careful use of resources and caring for plants and animals.  Each and every day we are surrounded by the love and the glory of God.

            So let us not take it all for granted and live our lives imaging that we are the ones who have the power and that we have a God who is distant and far off.  Instead let us see that God is visible around us and that God cares for each and everyone one of us greatly.  We don’t worship the God who set the whole world in motion then laid down for a nap, we worship the God who came down to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived out life with us, experienced all of our pains and sorrows, as well as our joys, and who seeks us out and calls us to Him and names us as our own.  We have a God who knows us for who we are, who has known us from before we were even born, who knit us together in our mother’s wombs.  There has never been a god in any mythology of the world that is as personal and at the same time so universal as the one true God whom we worship.  Our God loves us with all of His heart, not because of who we are and what we have done, but because we are His children and He is our perfect parent.  And Our God loves not only each of us, but each and every person and animal and blade of grass on this earth, because He has created each and every bit of this world and claims it all as its own.  It is for this reason that he calls us, that we may be his hands in this world, that we may know the love that He has for us and that His love may be shown and shared with all that we meet on our pilgrimage of life. 

Showing that love of God is also in working with one another to do the will of God.  Desmond Tutu once said “Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”  Today we gather for worship together.  You have invited me into your worship, to share a gathering as the body of Christ.  While our theologies may differ and our practices of worship differ, this does not mean that we need to be separated.  No, instead our differences are a calling to be in closer dialogue, to converse with each other and to experience each other’s worship and our practices, in order that we may see the Spirit active in each other’s lives and see God’s activity in ways that may help us to grow as Christians and to grow closer as the family of God.  I pray that our time here together will lead to more times together, where we may learn from one another about our history and our life as Christians, and that we may be more closely unified as the Body of Christ, so that God’s will and work may be done here in Columbiana and throughout the world.

May we all stand alongside Philip and Nathaniel and proclaim that we have seen the Lord, he who has prophecied and He who is God Himself.  Let us show the mercy, love, and compassion of our Creator to all people, so that He may be seen in all lives.  May we worship and praise God with all of our hearts and with every action of our bodies and word from our lips.  May God bless you and your ministry here and guide us all to do His work and will.

 Amen.

Jan. 8 - Baptism of our Lord

Mark 1:4-11

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

            John was one weird dude.  He leaves town, heads out into the wilderness, eats bugs, and proclaims that “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.”  I can imagine the skeptics in the area thinking to themselves “who isn’t more powerful than this loon?  Look, I can afford clothing and real food, so maybe I am this greater one that he is speaking about.”  There may have been beggars who seemed more sane and powerful than John, but John was not a weak person, in spirit, body, or mind.  John was a great prophet whose voice was heard by many and who prepared the way for God Himself.  There is a reason that his name is still remembered all these centuries later, while those who may have scoffed at him have been forgotten.  Josephus, the historian who lived around the time of Jesus and John and whose writings are the most relied upon for that era, wrote a great deal about John and his power over the people.  He lead a major movement and it was considered divine retribution when Herod’s army was killed following John’s execution.  While he may seem a bit nuts to us, this is not a man to be a trifled with, but rather is one that held as much, if not more, sway than Martin Luther King Jr.  And here he is talking about one coming who is more powerful than him, one that not only will baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit.

            And how is Jesus introduced?  He is shown merely as one who is baptized by John.  That is, until God decides to make a grand entrance and let the people know that John was not kidding when he said that there was one coming even greater than him.  As Mark puts it, “the heavens are torn apart.”  Torn Apart!  Could you imagine looking up and seeing the heavens torn?  What would that even look like?  I mean, it wouldn’t be like in Monty Python when God just pushes aside some clouds and peers down at the knights.  And it wouldn’t be like a door opening.  Instead the heavens being torn apart is more like Jack Nicholson tearing down the door with an axe in the Shining.  The heavens and the skies are ripped asunder, so that nothing would be missed by those watching.  God wanted to see the Spirit going down upon Jesus when he is baptized.  In that moment, God shows who has the power and authority to baptize with the Holy Spirit – Only God Himself.  Therefore, the one who is more powerful than John is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit, and that is God’s doing, then the more powerful one must be God.

While this may seem like a “duh, of course Jesus is God” moment for us, imagine that moment for someone who was fresh to the idea, or even for one of us.  What would it be like to look upon this man, coming out from the water and knowing that this man, this skin and bones person is in fact God?  What would it be like to look into the eyes and to gaze upon the flesh of God?  To take His hand and help him out of that flowing Jordan River?

            I remember, back in 1995 there was a song released by Joan Osborne that asked the question “what if God was one of us?”  It forced people to think about what they would do if they came face to face with God.  I also remember people bashing the song for daring to ask that question, because of course God can’t just be like one of us, God is God after all, Immortal, invisible, God only wise, hid from our eyes.  Don’t talk about a fleshy God!  Yet here we have God in the flesh, God incarnate, God mortal and visible, and who preaches not the wisdom of the world, but that which is foolish to the world. Here is our God, being baptized in water and sealed with the Spirit, being cleansed in the Jordan River while at the same time announced as the beloved Son of God.

            It is to my amazement that there is no record of the people’s reaction to these events in Mark.  Instead, the very next verse is that the Spirit drives Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he is tempted by Satan.  But imagine what it would be like if we did take a moment here and took a break from Mark’s desire to keep the action constantly moving.  Did the people stop in amazement?  Did they all bow before Jesus?  What did John do?  He had just got done saying that he doesn’t baptize with the Holy Spirit, yet when he baptizes Jesus, here comes the Holy Spirit.  Did he look at himself and go “Did I do that?” or did he bow down in the river, or did he just stand there in shock? 

            How often do we see God in our lives and not know how to react or not even recognize God is active?  If not for the ripping apart of the heavens, no one would have realized the significance of the events, they would just see it as another person being washed in the river.  Seeing God in the everyday events of the world can be very difficult, since our vision is blurred by the pure mundane-ness of it all.  While we have the knowledge that we are all the children of God, how often is it that we truly see God in each other instead of just seeing another flawed human being?  Yet out God acts out His love and compassion through each of us, as imperfect as we may be we are the instruments of God’s revelation to the world.  We can tend to forget that God lowered himself and became a mortal, emptied himself into human flesh with all of its flaws and issues, in order to be close to us.  And we can tend to forget that God is alive within each of us.  Our minds can become clouded by thoughts of unworthiness and we can be afraid of the power that God has given us.  Yet we gather each week here as the body of Christ and we remember the love that God has shown us and we are reminded that God loves us just the way that we are and loves the mundane and the ordinary.  In our own baptisms we are washed with water, as Christ was.  He may have been more immersed in the water than we sprinklers are, but yet we are still washed in the water and united with Him.  That same Holy Spirit that came to Christ in the form of a dove comes to us unseen and fills us.  Not because of something that I have done as the pastor or because of some mystical water poured into the fount, but because of God’s actions and God’s desires.  Through the completely mundane, human flesh, spoken words, and simple water, God acts and fills us with himself, in order that we may be saved from ourselves and Sin and all the powers of evil.  We have been saved and we have nothing to fear, because God is on our side and not even the powers of death can defeat us.  There is nothing in this world that is more powerful than God and nothing more powerful than acts of goodness and compassion, because they are the actions of God.  We have been given hope and power by our almighty Father and we need not be afraid of them.  He who has the power to rip apart the heavens in order to show off His Son has given us that same Spirit that was given to His Son and it is now our duty to show the world His glory and mercy.  I pray that we may find the courage to see in ourselves all the wonders that God has done and the talents that he has bestowed upon us.  They are not all the same and some may seem more glorious than others, but still they are given to us by God, through the Spirit.  We have been united with Christ in our baptisms and that same Spirit, may we honor God’s decision to entrust us with that privilege and Honor His holy name in all of our words and deeds, in even the most mundane parts of our lives.

Amen

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  God rest ye merry gentleman and ladies, for today is born our Savior, Jesus Christ.  On this day we celebrate and rejoice, for today God comes to us in the form of a baby, pure, innocent, and adorable.  In the still, silent night, a baby’s cry was heard in Bethlehem and angels from the realms of glory came to a group of shepherds to tell them of the birth of their Lord.  That’s the story, to put it simply.  There is no messy love triangle, no toys to sell, no debate over the sanity of someone proclaiming to be who they are, just a baby born to a mother and father, and the coming of well-wishers.  Ok, so its slightly more powerful than that, since it is the Son of God, the Mother was a virgin, and the well-wishers were sent by angels, but it still a story about life, about how God comes to us in the most basic and natural events in our lives.  Sometimes they are a bit dirty and painful, as childbirth is, but in each of those moments God is present in our lives out of a desire to be with us and out of pure love. We don’t need angels to come and tell us these things, but we do need to hear the stories and to proclaim the goodness of God.

And actually, we do need angels.  The word in Greek refers to messengers, and each of us are called to be messengers for God, proclaimers of the reality of God in our lives and in the lives of all people.  We are all commissioned to serve God by spreading the good news of His message of love and peace.  We are called to go and tell it from the mountaintops that Jesus Christ is born, our Savior is here and present in this world, His kingdom has come and all we need do is see it and live in it.  True, we do not have many mountains here in Ohio, but we still have given the opportunities to proclaim the goodness and mercy of God each day of our lives. 

Our proclamation is not limited to one day of the week.  We are not bound by a Holy night or day, and nor are we called to silent nights and days for each day and night is open to us to worship our God and to witness to others’ about the good things that he has done for us.And what has he done?  He has come close to us in the mortal flesh, in the birth of Jesus that we celebrate today, born in the little town of Bethlehem to the virgin mother, and raised by her and Joseph.  Think about that for a moment.  What child is this?  Not some everyday child, but the Son of God Himself, in fact God Himself, and He is raised by two human parents out of love for us, because God wanted to experience life with us and to suffer alongside us and to bring healing and salvation through being with us.  So we give thanks and we proclaim his holy name, this day and every day.  For he has shown us amazing grace and he has given us freedom for our Sin, in order that we may be with him eternally.  Thanks be to God.

Amen. 

Christmas Eve - Jesus Christ is Coming to Town

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” ¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

To you us born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord!  So begins the telling of the story of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  The first people to go and welcome him into the world are shepherds and their flock.  Not kings and princes, not the wealthy and powerful, but simple shepherds.  Why?  Because God came to us for all of us, because the light of God is to be spread far and wide and the warmth of that light is to be felt by the lowest of the low first. 

            God comes to us to upset the balances of the world, to raise up the lowly and to cast down the high and mighty, as Mary’s song of thanksgiving to God, the Magnificat, shows us.  But God also comes because God desires to be with His children and desires to bless them all.  And So God comes to us as a mortal, born in a manger, born in the least honorable position possible, so that none would be beneath him, none would have to be afraid of being unworthy of God, because God made it so that all could come and be with him, no matter their social status and no matter their history.  That is the blessing of God for us, that God desires to be with us and cares for us so much, that He is willing to lower himself in order to be made accessible.

            So we give thanks this day, we give thanks to our loving God for coming down to us and for giving us His Word and for showing us the greatest compassion possible.  We give Him thanks and we sing God’s glory alongside the angels and we pray for that peace to come to us.  It is our natural reaction when we see and understand God’s mercy and compassion.  The shepherds returned to their homes and fields, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.  Do you think that they also returned to their lives exactly as they had before seeing the Christ child, or do you think that they were changed in some way?  I would think that one has to be changed when they look upon the face of God and hear the sounds of angels. 

            I imagine them going into town and telling all their friends about the wondrous things that they had seen and heard and experienced.  They could not help but let people know that God’s Son had been born and that there would be big changes happening.  Up until this point, God had a very set location for the Israelites – God lived in the Temple.  He didn’t go out and about, but instead lived where only the chief priests could go and he showed his favor from there.  But now they saw God not in the temple, hidden away, but as a small, innocent, vulnerable child laying in a manger with his parents.  God had left his abode in Jerusalem and had come out to Bethlehem.  From then on, God would not be bound to a building but would be present throughout the region and world. 

            This may seem weird to us, as we have lived in the understanding that God is present everywhere for our entire lives and for centuries, but to these shepherds it was news of great importance.  They had been living lives on the outskirts of society, unable to properly got to the temple and give great offerings as their faith required, but now God had come to them to show them His love.  Imagine if the President starting showing up at people’s doors just to tell them that he cared for them and would help them, or if Oscar the grouch one day left his can in order to go be with the people instead of making them come to Him.  We would be completely confused by their actions, but God was doing much the same thing.

            And now God is still not bound to one building or one location, or even to a series of buildings.  God does not live inside these walls, but rather is present in all of our world, suffering alongside His children, all of us, each and every day.  The Christ child is born not in the safety of a hospital or the comfort of a home, but is born among animals in a barn, because God willed to be accessible to all people, not just to those who could afford it.  And for this, we glorify and praise God, because He is accessible to us and desires to be alongside us. 

            We rejoice, because we have a God who comes to town not just once a year, but who comes to us each and every day of our lives, loving us and forgiving us for all of the things that we have done.  He doesn’t have a list that he checks twice, making sure who is naughty and who is nice, but rather rips up that list and looks upon his beloved Son and says “For your sake, all of them are saved and forgiven.”  Each of us are eternally given another chance, the chance to turn from being Scrooge and start being Bob Cratchit, to turn form Mr. Potter into George Bailey.  Because of the love shown to us by our Lord and Savior, we are eternally given these chances and eternally loved, no matter what.

            And it is because of this love that we are fully able to cry as well.  There is no “you better not cry, you better not pout” here, as if God judges us for being sad or for not understanding the world and God’s will at times.  Instead, we have a God who has experienced our lives in the person of Jesus Christ, who was born in the stable surrounded by animals, crying aloud as all babies do.  Crying out, because of the experience of childbirth, and who would weep at Lazarus’ tomb in years to come.  We worship a God who suffers alongside us and who cares for us, just as Mary and Joseph do for their newborn child.

            This Christmas we rejoice in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to us in the humblest of manners, in order that God may be present among us and join us, all out of love for us and for all the children of God.  So let us sing out and rejoice alongside the angels, for Jesus Christ is coming to Town!