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On this Holy Saturday, as the church keeps vigil at the tomb of Jesus, both grieving and hoping,
I offer this poem by Donna Ashworth.
Joy Comes Back
When you finally realize
that joy is less fireworks
more firefly
less orchestra
more birdsong
she will come back much more often
for joy will not fight
with the fast pace of this life
she is not in the shiny or the new
she breathes in the basic
shimmers in the simple
and dances in the daily to and for
joy has been beckoning you
for many a year my friend
you were just too busy doing, to see
the very next time joy wraps
her quiet warmth around you
as the garden embraces your weary body
in its wildness
tip her a nod
you cannot force her to stay
but if you are a gracious host
joy comes back.
Today is Holy Wednesday in this holiest week of the Christian year. It’s, of course, a pastorally and liturgically hectic time for parish pastors. I love the rich remembrances and gospel challenges of this time. I secretly wish I could don my black cassock all week and only attend to the liturgies, read theological and devotional literature, and make home communion visits. But no matter how much I think I’ve planned ahead, it’s just never to be. I’m not complaining, just sayin’.
Nevertheless, one book in my theological library always calls to me this time of year. It’s Borg and Crossan’s The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem. It uses Mark’s gospel because only this one of the four gives a day-by-day account from the entry into Jerusalem to Easter dawn. Of course, it doesn’t say things like, “on Monday Jesus did this, on Tuesday he did something else.” But Mark does leave wonderful date stamps and time stamps such as “the next day” or “when it was evening”.
The authors of this book guide us through Holy Week. I have long loved one of the revelations they make at the very beginning of their narrative as they relate the Palm Sunday story. They reveal things that aren’t spoken in the gospels because everybody hearing these stories in the first century didn’t need to be told.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem seems an odd story to our modern ears. What was this parade all about? Borg and Crossan remind us that in the year 30, two processions entered Jerusalem that spring day at the beginning of Passover week. One was a peasant celebration, the other an imperial procession. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down from the Mount of Olives. From the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, entered Jerusalem riding a horse at the head of a column of imperial soldiers. Jesus was proclaiming the kingdom of God. Pilate proclaimed the power of the empire. It is the clash of these two kingdoms that comes to a climax in this Holy Week. Mark doesn’t mention this contrast because it was simply standard practice of the day. What he focuses on is what Jesus is doing, which was in its own way an act of rebellion. Mark tells us this entry of opposites was no coincidence. Jesus had planned it in advance.
In our culture and even in our faith lives, we frequently proclaim that religion and politics don’t mix or shouldn’t. But they always have and always do. Holy Week is a drama in which these worlds collide. The whole passion story is political through and through. The political world is obsessed with who has control, who wins, who has the power to rule.
Much to some of the disciples’ dismay, Jesus did not fight back. He didn’t rain down fire from heaven. He didn’t even answer any questions at his trial. He didn’t meet violence with violence. Even those crucified next to him tried to shame him into fighting back. He just quietly suffered until the pain finally came to an end.
The crucifixion, the meaning of the cross, is both mystery and miracle. It was a political act of resistance. Crucifixion was the worst of Roman capital punishment. The political machine did its worst. But it couldn’t destroy God’s way in the world. Love wins. That’s the end of the story and its beginning.
John 12
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
One of the precious things we miss in the way most of us read the scriptures is that we tend to feed on them a teaspoon at a time. We don’t feast on them by reading a whole gospel or fifty of the psalms at one sitting uninterrupted. What we miss with our tiny spaced-out bites are the echoes of metaphors, the contrasts, the building of a narrative, and so much more. We miss the golden thread of theology that often runs through the chapters and verses and books.
The fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear in our assembly reading the isolated story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany hosting Jesus and the disciples in their home six days before the Passover celebration. But this story isn’t isolated in the gospel of John. It’s stitched to the whole narrative. The twelfth chapter of John stands, obviously, right next to the eleventh chapter of John. In that chapter we hear the remarkable story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after he had been dead several days. It seems that story wants us to understand that Lazarus was truly “dead dead” – not in a coma, not almost dead in one of those unusual medical cases – but dead as a door nail. Meaning, by the time Jesus arrived in Bethany Lararus’ rotting flesh was starting to overpower the smell of the spices they had packed around his body. Lazarus’ sisters even caution Jesus that the horrible odor would be overwhelming. We hear with unbelieving ears that Jesus called his name, and the rotting Lazarus walked out of the tomb leaving the stench behind him. Did he smell now like a just washed newborn?
I find it both moving and a bit comical that Jesus comes back to that Bethany house days later to dine with the newborn Lazarus and the exuberant sisters. What in the world do you serve a guest who raised your brother from the dead? Would even your fine china seem fine enough? How can you possibly show your gratitude for this extravagant gift of life?
We aren’t told what was served, but we are told what was offered. Sister Mary went into her room and pulled out what likely was her most expensive possession – a pound of perfume made of pure nard. Calculating the value, it was worth a year’s salary for the average worker. It was so expensive because nard is made from a flower that only grows in the Himalayan mountains.
Who knows how she obtained it, how she afforded it, or what she was planning to do with it? But seeing the beloved Savior sitting next to her beloved brother; she offered an extravagant gift. Judas and probably many others at the table, saw it as a waste. Mary and Jesus knew it was an abundant gift of gratitude for Lazarus’ life. It was also a way of anointing Jesus’ body before his death.
The gospel of John is all about extravagance from start to finish. The beginning foreshadows what is coming with the declaration that we have all received “grace upon grace.” And then we witness that abundance illustrated again and again. The abundance of wine at Cana, the abundance of bread and fish, the abundance of sight to the man born blind, abundance of living water, abundance of life to Lazarus, and an abundance of fragrant anointing. Many of these abundant gifts are ones we can smell. Sniff the best wine at Cana, the mountains of fresh loaves, the smell of death that’s replaced by the best perfume.
We see grace, witness to grace, offer grace, and sometimes we smell grace. Considering the sense of smell can bring back memories quicker than other senses, we’d best not underestimate its power. Breathe in that fragrance of new life. It’s all around you.
Luke 15
There was a man who had two sons.
If you think the parables of Jesus are like Aesop’s fables with a single moral point to the story that can be taught and learned, think again. Jesus’ parables are often open-ended with the hearer to determine what is to be learned that day in her or his circumstance. In other words, they are living documents read through a kaleidoscope.
I loved those tubes of wonder when I was a kid. They have two or more mirrors tilted to each other at an angle. A repeated reflection shows through at the other end. Beautiful. We can see many perspectives as they move and change.
The parable many call “The Prodigal Son” begins with the simple sentence, “There was a man who had two sons.” From the get-go we see the kaleidoscope’s three reflecting mirrors: the father, the younger son, and the older son. The parable could be named after any one of them, but traditionally it’s the younger son who gets the spotlight. Should he?
Those mirrors are significant when seeing and hearing the parable but they aren’t the only ones. Another mirror is you, the hearer. And yet another one is your context. You are in a different circumstance than the last time you may have heard this parable. The world is at a different place. The kaleidoscope has turned a notch or two.
At its heart, this is a parable of sheer grace. The grace extended to the younger, foolish son, is abundant at the joy of the son’s return. Many parents have a wayward child either temporarily or permanently. As a pastor, I’ve seen their anguish. Whether the child is lost due to poor decisions, drugs, mental illness, or some other stumbling block to their living; parents often give them money or chances or understanding in abundance. Others look at such parents and believe them gullible idiots.
Many read this parable with the assumption that the younger son was truly repentant of his poor behavior and really would have come home to serve as a slave. Maybe he meant it in his desperation, but do you think he’s honest in his confession? Such adult children have been found to take advantage like this with steady repetition.
The elder son is steadfast, dedicated to the family business and to the family. If these sons are like most brothers who share a bedroom and who know each other’s secrets, my guess is that the elder brother knows the younger’s intentions better than Dad. Maybe that’s why he’s angry at this over-the-top welcome. Might he wonder why bad behavior is being rewarded with grace and mercy? And perhaps this wandering and returning has happened before.
Families are complicated, because people are complicated. We are crippled with our sinful nature and often do wrong even when we know better.
Sometimes we have no idea how terribly screwed up we are, and yet God continues to love us. Every word of this parable is underlined with a Sharpie highlighting God’s amazing grace and forgiveness. God is often immensely foolish for the sheer love of us. Welcome Home!
Isaiah 55
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy...Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
A preacher must choose a primary scripture to focus on for a sermon and for me this week, that will be Luke 13. But the Old Testament scripture for the day is Isaiah 55: 1-9, a very powerful scripture worthy of pondering anew the Lent. In my preaching research, I came across this writing by Rev. E. Carrington Heath from 2016. He is a United Church of Christ pastor. I hope his reflection resonates with you especially in these days of religious and political chaos and concern. We need all the deep discernment we can get. Here is Rev. Heath:
One of the lessons I try to teach the young people I know is this: never give the best of yourself to someone or something that can never love you back.
I’ve been surprised at how much this advice resonates with young adults. It becomes a measure not just for judging boyfriends and girlfriends but also for asking the larger questions in life.
Discernment about vocation and calling becomes more focused. Questions of meaning take center stage.
Most surprisingly, this lesson generates discussion in young people’s families about how they use precious resources like time and money. I have been amused that it is these discussions, more than any about dating or sex or love, that trouble their parents.
We do not talk about idolatry much anymore, despite the caution against it in everything from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament epistles. This is ironic, because idolatry flourishes in our culture. We have not yet started building literal golden calves, but we have all spent plenty of time worshiping at equally dangerous altars. Money, success, popularity, greatness, security—these are powerful gods. And in worshiping these gods, we have too often driven ourselves to the point of living overwhelming lives.
Isaiah asks us, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
In her book Overwhelmed, journalist Brigid Schulte shares this shocking fact: “The average high school kid today experiences the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient of the 1950s.” What’s more, stress in children “can alter not only their neurological and hormonal systems but also their very DNA.”
As it turns out, we have created a culture that is literally making our kids sick and actively rewiring them, and not for the better. We may have smartphones and advanced placement and conspicuous consumption, but we are not very wise. We focus on what doesn’t matter first, and we get around to what matters more than anything else only if we have the time. We spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labor for what does not satisfy.
But what if it does not have to be this way? In Lent we are called to turn away from the things that can never love us back and toward that which is good and rich—that which can fill us. Counter to the narrative we often write for ourselves, however, we are not called by a God who speaks to us casually, without urgency. We are called by a God with time-sensitive conviction.
In this week’s Gospel passage Jesus tells a story about a fig tree, a gardener, and a landowner. Year after year the tree fails to bear fruit. Tired of wasting good soil, the landowner tells the gardener to cut it down. But the gardener refuses to give up and negotiates for a one-year reprieve for the tree. They pledge to take care of it and shore it up with good soil. If even after all of that it does not bear good fruit, the gardener says, then you can cut it down.
I often want to ask people I know, people who feel overwhelmed by the demands of life, why they keep living like this. Why do you make the choices that leave you overextended and exhausted? Do you want to live a life utterly devoid of abundant new fruit? Why do you give the best of yourself to the things that can never love you back?
We all want to believe that we have infinite time to start loving the right things, eating that which will satisfy us, and bearing good fruit. But despite the urgency that defines the rest of our lives, scheduling everything from the car pool to the 401(k) contribution, we respond to Christ’s call to transformation by hesitating. There is always tomorrow..... Our transformation can no longer wait. We have failed to bear good fruit for far too long, choosing instead to focus on those things that will not bring us joy. The good news for both preacher and congregation is that there is great freedom in proclaiming to the people of God that they no longer have to wait to focus on what matters the most. Now is the time to put first things first—no excuses.
This urgency does not come from a fear that God will smite us. I do not believe that God wants to destroy us the way the landowner wants to destroy the dormant fig tree. But I do believe that Jesus speaks with urgency because he knows how quickly most of us are destroying ourselves. And I believe God wants better for us than that.
God wants us to have new life, and this life will begin only when we put our spiritual houses—and our priorities—back in order. Only when we embrace God’s call on our lives will we find that we can once again bear spiritual fruit. That will happen when we start telling one another the hard truth: the clock is ticking, the time is now, and life is too short to waste another minute on what can never love us back.
Leviticus 19
9When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.
Luke 13
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.
Many will hear this Sunday the story of Jesus weeping over beloved Jerusalem, center of the world, center of the holy. We will hear Jesus receiving a warning from an unlikely source. Some of the Pharisees warn him to flee from the city because horrible King Herod already has a handful of nails bearing his name.
The Pharisees are often portrayed in the four gospels as a group of religious legalists who are seeking to debate Jesus or trap Jesus. They are the bad guys in the gospels, though not the worst guys. They emerged around 150 BCE and were a significant force in the time of Jesus. But, like all groups of people, they aren’t monolithic. Some were intrigued with Jesus’ teaching, some had dinner with him, some like Nicodemus came to learn from him in secret. In this story, they come to warn him that he’s in great danger. In other words, in this case, some of them are allies with Jesus. What did they have in common?
The Pharisees loved Jerusalem at the center of their world as much as Jesus did, and they hated what Rome and those who collaborated with them had made of this cherished holy city. While this little part of Sunday’s story is referred to as Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, or captured in artwork as Jesus, the mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wings; I wanted to point out this often ignored sign of allyship between Jesus and the Pharisees.
Since “love of God and love of neighbor” are the very heart of the Bible, the concept of “allyship” is peppered throughout scripture in both subtle and obvious ways. Allyship became a buzz word in the corporate world around 2019 and means the “active support for the rights of a minority or marginalized group without being a member of it.” There are four pillars of allyship: yielding, listening, learning, and action. You guessed it, allyship is a DEI staple! Jesus wasn’t a Pharisee, but some of the Pharisees had his back.
The verses above from Leviticus are a different example of allyship in the Bible. In the heart of a book of the Bible many barely know, specific commandments are given that illuminate what love of neighbor looks like. In these verses, those who are privileged to possess land and crops are commanded to be allies to those who have little. In some ways it was like what we do today with our Food Pantries, buying some extra food on our grocery store runs to give to the pantry for those unseen folks in need of help. In ancient times, those with crops and vineyards were commanded to leave some of the fruits of the earth in the fields so those with few resources could come by and take what was left.
Allies aren’t the same as friends who know you personally, who love you for you. Allies are people unlike you yet are ones who clearly see you as a fellow child of God, worthy of compassion and care. They have your back. They have the courage to publicly support your journey. Often, we never know who our allies really are. Give thanks for them today.
Luke 9
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray…On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him.
One of the reasons many of us adore mountains and other wilderness places is because they are truly places apart. You leave “the real world” behind, as we often say. No traffic, no strip malls or fast-food restaurants, no chores or job to do. We are away. You don’t hear police sirens or even your phone beeping at you.
In Sunday’s end-of-Epiphany story, Jesus takes a few disciples up a mountain to pray. There he becomes “transfigured” before them and is suddenly in conversation with Moses and Elijah. It’s truly a mountaintop experience. In the Bible God often visits mountain peaks. Jesus is pausing here before he travels back to “the real world” where his journey to Jerusalem and to his crucifixion will continue. Very real world.
As we know, it’s hard to leave the cool clear air of mountains with their stunning views. We are refreshed, we clear our heads, offer up our prayers and then travel back down. It doesn’t take long to be back on the busy highway with your email box filling up as a strong Wi-Fi connection is finally available.
Jesus and the disciples hiked down to the bottom of the mountain and were immediately greeted by emergency sirens blaring. People were suffering, needed help. A father is desperate to have his demon-possessed/mentally disabled son cured. Too many of us know what this is like. This is the real world where people are in need, where help can be scarce, where some people flourish and others beg. It’s a transactional world of give and take, where the powerful exert their privilege.
But the story of the Transfiguration teaches us that the real world is up on the mountain as well. It’s not a dream, it’s not make-believe. God is large and powerful, loving and merciful. When we have our mountain-top experiences they remind us that beauty, quiet, holiness, and love are very much a part of the “real world” too.
The circumstances of our lives (the good and the rough) are part of our real world, but so is God’s majesty and mystery. It’s our perspective, rather than our circumstances, that the mountaintop refreshes.
Jeremiah 17
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
This is a beautiful piece of scripture, isn’t it? It’s full of hope for those who are like trees planted by water. They seem to survive anything. While this is a comforting metaphor, the prophet Jeremiah is often called the “prophet of doom.” Why?
Well, Jeremiah was one of those prophets living and preaching during extremely difficult political times. His prophetic career started around 627 BCE in Israel and continued until 587 BCE. You might recognize that last date as the ancient 9.11 for the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah saw that destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians coming. He saw it as God’s judgment on the people for their wickedness. Mostly, he preached tough sermons about their false and insincere worship, and their failure to trust God in their national affairs. Their sin and stubbornness would be their undoing. He said some foreign nations were more loyal to their pagan/false gods than Judah was to the real God of all. Ouch!
What the metaphor about the tree next to streams of water does is offer a very specific hope rather than, if you will, generalized hope. You see, Dr. Doom here assumes that the growing Babylonian empire marching their way is going to succeed in conquering his people. In his theology, God is either causing it or allowing it, as punishment for Israel’s multivalent sins. This theological position of God punishing us with tragedy remains a debate. The Bible speaks both of God causing harm because of divine anger toward us and refusing to cause harm out of love for us. I would say Jeremiah sees it going both ways over a span of time. But at this particular time in his history, he realizes destruction is coming.
He tells the people so and speaks for God in Jeremiah 17:4 saying, “by your own act you shall lose the heritage that I gave you.” And he was right. The Babylonians did march in, destroyed the Temple, took the strongest into exile (for 70 years) and left the old and weak to fend for themselves in what must have looked like Gaza right now. He tells the people they’ll just have to submit to this military incursion, to God’s punishment, and to endure decades in exile.
How can they possibly endure? How can they raise children and grandchildren in a foreign land, surrounded by foreign gods, away from the Temple and all that made them a people?
Even in Babylon, the prophet says with hope, you can be a tree planted by streams of water. Be the tree with deep roots that can endure through drought and heat. Continue to flourish. Find a way.
Some of the scriptures we hold most precious were written during this time in Babylonian exile. Most scholars agree that the creation story of Genesis 1 was written during the Exile. Others say about 80% of the Old Testament was written done during this time to preserve their stories of God for future generations – including us!
It was one of the ways the exiles were trees planted by water. It was how they stayed spiritually hydrated. Their children and grandchildren never saw Jerusalem. All they knew was Babylon. But they kept praying that one day they would be released and allowed to return. After all, empires don’t last forever.
Jeremiah, prophet of doom and preacher of hope, encourages us to ponder how we stay spiritually hydrated in dry and difficult times. How will we preserve our faith, our beliefs, our knowledge of God for future generations?
Our physical bodies cannot live without water. Our spiritual selves languish without the living water of God’s Word. Stay hydrated in difficult times. We need you!
Isaiah 6
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
It's “Holy, Holy, Holy” Sunday this February 9. This story referred to as Isaiah’s call story will be our Old Testament reading. Isaiah’s response, “Here am I; send me” is needlepointed into the ordination stole hung around my neck when I was called to serve as a pastor in the church in 1983 and when, in effect, I responded, “send me.” Our liturgy and hymns are captivated by the seraphs’ holy song here and clergy and prophets are dazzled by the dramatic call by God, which we romanticize as similar to our own.
But this Bible study go-round, I found myself captivated by the very beginning of the story. I think it might answer the question of why God is so in need of a prophet at this particular time and place. The first sentence is an historical time stamp: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord… Until this week, I have only heard that as a date placed on this sermon of the prophet. But now, I suspect it’s much more than that. Uzziah died in 740 B.C.E. I think it’s more than a time stamp. I think it’s the very reason God needs a prophet for a time such as this.
Uzziah was a very successful king in Judah. Go to 2 Chronicles 26 and read all about it. The death of King U was part of a sociopolitical crisis in Judah along with the Syro-Ephraimite war, and the Assyrian empire’s growing dominance. In other words, these were tough political times, and God needed a strong voice in the world.
But, while Uzziah enabled economic and political stability in Judah he became a victim of his own power. He became king when he was only 16 years old and ruled for 52 years. He was righteous before the Lord, successful in being a king until, as 2 Chronicles 26:16 says, “But when he had become strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.” Apparently, Uzziah began to think everything belonged to him, including the Temple in Jerusalem. Against all holy law, he went into the holiest part of the Temple and made an offering on the altar. The 80 priests nearly passed out, but instead of fainting or kowtowing, they resisted. They told him to get out of the Temple because he had done wrong. The King was angry in return. After all, he was the big KU! Through what could only be divine intervention, Uzziah’s forehead broke out with leprosy. Not only was he expelled from this holy place, but from his house and his throne. Being leprous, when he died, he was buried separately from all the other kings. His son took over for him after the leprosy hit.
So, in the year that King Uzziah died, Judah was hoping to recover from a beloved king gone bad and war was at the door. Such times do call for full-throated prophets to bring God’s Word to the table.
Scripture is full of ordinary, imperfect people who are called to speak truth to power or to their neighbor, or to their congregation. You are also a person for times such as these. You don’t have to speak to everything, just speak to one thing. Make one difference, not all the difference.
The times they are a-calling, in this year that . . .
Luke 2
29 “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
This Sunday is February 2 and comes in the middle of our Epiphany season of light. This date is liturgically significant (nope, not Groundhog Day!) For the church ancient and modern, it marks the 40th day after Christmas and therefore the official end of the Christmas cycle. The gospel reading for this day is always the story from Luke 2 of Mary and Joseph bringing baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for his presentation to the Lord. There they encounter Simeon who felt led by the Spirit to go to the Temple that day and encounter the 84-year-old Anna, who was a prophet who had lived in the Temple for many decades.
In Luke’s telling, it was Simeon who proclaimed this baby as the promised Savior, a light to all peoples. Because of this image of Christ as Light, many churches speak prayers of blessings for the candles which will provide light in their homes and in their sanctuaries. This little festival is called Candlemas.
The newly baptized are given a lighted candle at their baptism as the pastor exhorts him or her with the words of Jesus: Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your God in heaven. Letting our lights shine is often a way Christians describe their discipleship to live the gospel by being an active part of a worshiping community, by loving and serving their neighbors, by a radical inclusiveness, by striving for justice in all the earth, and by caring for creation.
Many wonder how we can faithfully keep our lights shining in a world filled with candle snuffers. Our faith encourages us to pray, to go deep as a community, to maintain our hope, and to be brave. These are all our tools, but so are the tools of other disciplines.
Sociologist Jennifer Walter recently wrote a wise article to help us keep our lights shining as we navigate these times when despair can crush our hope. Here is her wisdom concerning what is happening in our country and what we can do about it. She says:
As a sociologist, I need to tell you:
Your being overwhelmed is the goal.
The flood of 200+ executive orders during the first days exemplifies Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine" - using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual - it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.
Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.
Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse. Traditional media can't keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage and resulting in weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.
What now?
Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.
Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.
Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.
Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context.
Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.
Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.
I acknowledge, as do many others, that some believe all the decisions being made in our country right now are making things brighter rather than darker. But for those who are feeling loss, stress, and hopelessness, I hope these words reignite the flame within you. As the old spiritual sings, “Keep your lamps trimmed and burning!”
Luke 4
16 When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
William Willimon is a retired American theologian and United Methodist bishop. Many of us preachers followed his wise writings and compelling sermons for decades, especially when he was the Dean of the Duke Chapel.
I remember when he was named as one of the 100 best preachers in the English-speaking world, he brushed it off saying something like: “How can I be one of the best preachers in the world when I’ve never been arrested for a single one of my sermons?” Preachers and prophets know they follow in the dangerous footsteps of Jesus, the Old Testament prophets, and many an ancient and modern martyr. Calling out the status quo and speaking truth to power are what we are frequently called to do. But the truth is, most of us are congregational pastors who shy away from such life-threatening work and opt instead to be a preacher who works to comfort the afflicted but not afflict the comfortable.
An amazing Old Testament prophet who never had a book of his preaching published like Amos or Jeremiah, was the prophet Nathan. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan confronts the beloved king, David, with the truth of his actions. He disguises the rebuke in a parable (read 12:1-6) of a rich man who stole and killed the one little lamb that was greatly loved by a poor man. The story made David angry at such terrible action. He vowed “that man” should be forced to restore what he had taken and then be killed. Nathan met his outrage by saying with a straight face, “You are the man.”
Then David’s horrible crimes of taking the Uriah’s wife while he was away in battle, then of arranging for the man’s death, were trotted out like the worst dirty laundry. God’s outrage burns through Nathan’s voice promising that David’s own family would be destroyed. And it was so, even though David was penitent as Psalm 51 sings.
In this Sunday’s gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus’ first public act in this gospel is a proclamation in his home synagogue. He says that the words of another prophet of the coming Messiah are being fulfilled in him. A few paragraphs later, Jesus continues to talk with members of the synagogue over “coffee hour”. He received many “good sermon” comments but then the conversation took a turn. Jesus offers two examples of how God was more active in the past in the lives of foreigners than the people of Israel. They literally almost pushed him off a cliff.
This problem of prophetic speech, the danger of speaking truth to power, became real again this week at the Inauguration Service on Tuesday. Totally unexpected, just another boring traditional worship service to sit through, some thought; until the mild-mannered bishop gave her “you are the man” speech to the President of the United States. The international media and everybody’s grandma on Facebook had something to say about what happened. There was no in-between reaction. People were either totally outraged or totally cheering. I expect t-shirts with Bishop Budde’s face to appear any time. My first concern when I heard the bishop’s sermon was a fear for her safety. But I also knew she had counted the cost and felt called to preach.
The Huffington Post interviewed that favorite homiletical curmudgeon, Will Willimon, who still to my knowledge has not been arrested or even had his tires slashed for preaching a prophetic word. Willimon said that Budde’s plea for mercy was “particularly moving.” “There’s no instance in the life, work, teachings of Jesus where mercy ever takes a backseat to anything else,” he told HuffPost, adding, “Not only is Jesus merciful, he commands his followers to be merciful.” Willimon also noted, “Mercy is a Christian virtue,” he said, later adding that “government officials are often not known for being merciful.”
As a Christian, as a pastor, it feels like a new Civil Rights time with Christianity being debated along policy lines. Our faith always has something to say about politics because politics is all about how we organize our resources, protect against enemies, and care for all people. Jesus had plenty to say about all that too. It’s not unusual for those in power to abuse it as King David did. It’s not unusual for prophets to be jailed, tortured, fired, or killed. Power resists critique, yet God demands it of all of us.
1 Corinthians 12
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
…12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Wow, I’m so conflicted this week about what to write for this quick Bible Study and about what to preach on Sunday. The problem is, I have so many directions to choose from. I think my sermon will focus on the wonderful Epiphany story from John 2 of the “water turned to wine wedding in Cana.” But we also have a reading from 1 Corinthians, partly quoted here. The words Paul wrote in this letter to his contentious and frequently divided congregation are well known. He reminds all of us that as the baptized community we are no longer a bunch of unattached individuals but are part of a faith family. We are one body, he says. And just as a functioning human body has different parts and organs, each performing as needed to support the body, so it is with us. We are connected to one another and need each other. Every ministry project is a group project.
You probably remember “group projects” from your school days. They seemed unfair to many of us because it always happened that a few people did most of the work and everybody received the same grade. Perhaps you hated that. But guess what? In these group projects called ministry, we all get the same grade, too. You might call these grades: grace, love, mercy, forgiveness. Everybody receives them as ones created and claimed by God. There is no meritocracy here, only callings.
I do like this message from Paul a lot, but then this week, many pages of content came my way that highlighted this scripture with a neon marker. It’s so much content that I couldn’t read it all in time for this study, but I will soon. Here’s the super quick version to direct you to these three resources, if you choose. One comes from a journalist, one from the government, and another from a megachurch consultant.
In the February issue of The Atlantic, journalist Derek Thompson wrote, “The Anti-Social Century.” Here in this 32-page article, he describes how Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. Because of this phenomenon, our personalities, politics, and even our relationship to reality are changing. Yikes. The Christian community built on connection should be worried about this trend. And now in a new report, the Surgeon General has issued a warning (in an 80-page document) that our trends toward isolation and loneliness are creating a public health epidemic. Also, yikes.
More positively, but also more challenging for the church, megachurch pastor/consultant Carey Nieuwhof from Canada (my go-to person on the wisdom from all things megachurch), just published a blog/podcast of interest. In it he talks with the very successful pastor of Nashville’s Way Church who has grown a church to 700 persons in 14 months with an average age of 25! His magic bullet? Focus on relationships and connections rather than content. “Content” meaning super great sermons, wonderful Bible studies, and other teaching tools. The point being that trying to be a church with the greatest content around isn’t worth the time and money it once was. Why? Because content is everywhere and our folks can shop around online for great sermons, spirituality resources, inspiring Bible studies, etc. Instead, as Paul said, the key to our unique community is “connection.” Focus on that first, and everything else will flow from there.
If all these studies and media posts about the epidemic of anti-social behavior and chronic loneliness are correct, connection is exactly where we need to focus our ministry. People are shunning it and desperate for it at the same time. Wowzers, you all definitely have my attention!
Isaiah 43
1 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you…
M. Craig Barnes (born 1956) is an American Presbyterian minister and professor who served as president of Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of this story about his life and how Isaiah 43 intersected with it. It was originally published April 19, 2017, in The Christianity Century. What a story for this winter weekend and this Sunday when we remember Jesus’ baptism and our own. He writes:
My father was a preacher who believed it was important to memorize verses of the Bible. On Mondays he’d give my older brother and me a verse written out on a little white card. We were expected to recite it from memory by dinner at the end of the week when our father would point to one of us and say something like “Romans 8:28.” If we didn’t start chirping away with “For all things work together for good for those who love God,” we’d have to leave the table.
By the time I was a teenager I had memorized a lot of the Bible, not out of love for the sacred text but because I didn’t want to be dismissed from Saturday evening dinner. I never paid attention to the words. But they were still in me.
When I was not quite 17, my parents’ marriage broke apart. My mother left our home on Long Island and went to live with her sister in Dallas. My father left the church he had started and just disappeared. My big brother dropped out of college, got a construction job, and helped me finish high school. I got an after-school job at a gas station. Together we got by.
Since we had lived in the church’s parsonage, it fell to us boys to move the family’s stuff out of the house. I don’t remember what happened to most of it. I just remember boxing up our family’s life.
Oddly, my brother and I didn’t talk about how our world had crumbled. This wasn’t just because we weren’t good at sharing our feelings. Mostly it was because we couldn’t afford emotion. We were too worried about the next meal and a place to stay.
The following Christmas my brother and I decided we would go to Dallas to visit my mother. We didn’t have the money for a plane or bus ticket, so we did what young people sometimes do when they’re not thinking clearly. We decided to hitchhike from Long Island to Dallas.
By the end of the first day we were somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia on Interstate 81. It was snowing hard, the sun was long gone, and we stood on the entrance ramp with our thumbs sticking out. As the snow got heavier, there were fewer and fewer cars. After two hours, we finally saw a pair of headlights pull over in front of us. It was a Virginia state trooper. We were expecting a lecture about how dangerous, not to mention illegal, it was to hitchhike. Instead he told us that the highway had been closed for two hours and that after attending to an accident up the road he would come back for us and take us to a diner that was still open.
We stayed put on the side of the dark highway in the blizzard. After months of hustling our way through the immediate issues of making life work, my brother and I were finally forced to talk to each other. We took a stab at describing our situation, but it didn’t go very well after I mentioned that we were basically disposable to the people who were supposed to love us. We tried to pass the time by quizzing each other on sports statistics. Neither of us had ever been very good at that.
Then my brother pointed to me and said, “Romans 8:28.” We spent much of that night asking each other to recite the verses of the Bible we had memorized but never truly heard. At one point I found myself saying the precious lines of Isaiah 43: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you . . . Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” By the time I finished reciting those words, I was crying. That night, when a passage about the sustaining love of God cast out fear that was too deep for me to even acknowledge, became the turning point in my life.
I’ve told this story before and keep telling myself that it’s all behind me now. I’ve been blessed to be in one position of leadership after another. But what I finally learned in hearing that text was that my experience has stayed with me every step of the way.
I don’t keep taking chances in offering leadership because I expect to succeed; I take them because I know I can handle it if I fail. What’s the worst that can happen? Will I be alone, broke, and abandoned? Been there. Will I make humiliating mistakes? I tried hitchhiking on a closed interstate. And at the bottom, I found the relentless love of God who was with me and always will be, no matter how deep the waters.
When you find God at the bottom, it’s possible to enjoy life’s highs and lows without fearing you’ll fall beneath the love of a Savior. No one can be fully alive, and no one can lead, without getting rid of that fear.
Thank you, Craig! Blessed Epiphany.
Second Sunday of Christmas, Twelfth Day of Christmas, First Sunday of the New Year!
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Ancient humans were amazed at and afraid of the changing of seasons, including the long stretches of darkness in early winter. We understand much more about why this happens. While we no longer are anxious about whether the sun will return with its warmth, modern people in the North must still cope with months of darkness in winter. In places like Norway and Alaska, lack of sunlight still causes depression and too often suicide.
We crave light in this time, and we crave celebrations. Perhaps the lack of light drives our many celebrations as the sun fades, the calendar year ends, and another begins. Of course, people of faith have their own religious celebrations – Christmas and Hanukkah, certainly. There are cultural celebrations such as Kwanza, First Watch, and even the environmental secular one called Festivus!
Many of these celebrations involve lights and candles to beat back the darkness. For the Christian community, we don’t just use lights to conquer the darkness, we confess Christ is the Light that dispels more than physical darkness. This Light is God’s gift to bring everything together into the unity that God intended in creation.
This Light shows us the way to be one people, the way to defeat oppression and violence, and the way to bring the peace we all say we hope for. But these wonderful things aren’t simply accomplished by wishful thinking. They require our resolve to follow this Light along its way.
Taking up this Light means putting down selfishness, prejudice, and anger. As the Christmas story preaches, this Light is for everyone – poor shepherds on the economic margins and exotic magi who were outsiders both religiously and ethnically.
As we begin 2025, which sizzles with expectations and fear, what will we do to carry the Light of Christ into this unknown territory? What will we resolve to do in our holy-human partnership with God to be children of the Light? Let the holy resolutions begin!
Luke 1
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
On this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, the scripture finally brings on stage, Mary of Nazareth. In Luke 1, Mary traveled from her hometown to talked with her relative, Elizabeth, up in the hill country. Today, this is the town of Ein Karem on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The statue pictured here is in the traditional site of this visit. It was the home of John the Baptist’s parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Mary visits the older woman Elizabeth because they now have something in common – they are both unexpectedly pregnant.
Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age after the angel Gabriel visited her priest-husband in the temple. Mary has just been visited also by this busy Christmas angel telling her she, who is a young virgin girl, will also soon be with child. So yeah, these women had a lot to talk about well beyond trading cookie recipes.
The record of their visit is one of many stories in the narrative- heavy chapter of Luke 1. One of the most famous songs in scripture is here as well. From the Latin, it’s called The Magnificat as Mary sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Mary has much to sing about as she ponders her place in God’s history but she also sings about how God has acted and will act. Many of you may be very familiar with these words because of your knowledge of scripture or your love for classical choral music.
This scripture is both familiar and curious. One curiosity is the verb tense. Clearly, in the conceiving and birthing of Jesus, God is doing a new thing. So, we expect Mary to sing a song in the present and future tense. She does sing in the present and the future as in, “from now on all generations will call me blessed.” But oddly, there are many past tense verbs in many of these verses. Take a look: he has shown strength with his arm; has scattered the proud, has brought down the powerful, has lifted up the lowly. Shouldn’t these be in future tense indicating now that Jesus is here all these wonderful holy things will happen?
As you may know, those with advanced degrees in biblical studies are required to learn how to read Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek as part of their education. The main reason is that original languages are best in understanding meaning and intent. Our English translations are not perfect. The Magnificat can be confusing because the English lacks a verb tense that the Greek has. Because the English doesn’t have what is called the “aorist tense,” the best we can do is translate it all into past tense. But, when we do, we lose the deep meaning and intent. The aorist tense is used to express something that has already occurred, but it doesn’t specify how long the action took or if the results are still in play. In fact, the term “aorist” means “undefined time” or “not specified.”
I recall when I was learning Hebrew, that this language has something similar. For example, when translating Genesis 1:1 that we read in English as, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” the verb “create” is not actually past tense. An awkward, but more accurate translation would be, “In the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth.” Creation did happen, is still happening, and will continue to go on.
Mary of Nazareth sang of God’s mighty acts in the same on-going nature. The Magnificat sings of God’s work to reconcile all creation, a work that has already begun and will continue forever. Mary knew that we don’t just place our hope in a past event or a future reward; we live in it. Hope isn’t all in the future, it’s right now. Jesus wasn’t only a person who lived 2,024 years ago but lives right now and abides forever. What that means for us is that we, just like Mary, are intimately involved in God’s work to bring justice, hope, and peace. Like Mary, we have our own songs to sing.
Luke 3
7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said
to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
One of my favorite songs to sing with our preschool kids in chapel is the simple song, “Get ready for the baby!” We sing about how the angel told Mary to get ready for the baby, then how the angel told Joseph to get ready for the baby, and then finally, it sings, “We, too, will get ready, get ready for the baby, get ready, get ready, for little baby Jesus.”
For most of us, getting ready for the baby or getting ready for Christmas means doing the shopping, finishing the decorating, or more reverently, writing sermons, preparing bulletins, practicing and performing music, and attending extra worship services.
Some of these preparations give us joy, some are burdensome, but none of them really reflect what John the Baptist preached about getting ready for the coming Messiah. Uniquely in Luke, John addresses three different groups of people who respond to his preaching about the coming Messiah with the question, “What then shall we do?” John tells each group exactly what they need to do to get ready for the baby.” It’s nothing to do with putting up a tree or wrapping presents, it’s all about ethical behavior.
When the nameless “crowds” asked this question, John tells them to share their coats and food with those who have none. Two other groups are people with specific jobs who were often despised in 1st century Israel. Both the tax collectors and the soldiers were employed by the occupying Roman empire. They worked for the same ones who crucified so many of their neighbors. John views them more compassionately as folks doing a job to feed their families and who are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. To both groups, he encourages them to do their jobs without abusing their jobs. Don’t try to get more taxes out of a family and then pocket the excess for yourself. Don’t use your military power to exhort goods from the villagers to enrich yourselves. The trinity of calls to act ethically and compassionately even in a state of occupation and violence, is the very expression of the good news that God is breaking into the world.
Isn’t it still? Prepare the way.