Questions

Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12


Yesterday’s Columbus Dispatch reported that Barbara Hale died. Who, you ask, was Barbara Hale? For ten seasons and later in a number of made-for-television movies she portrayed Della Street, secretary to defense attorney Perry Mason. The other chief characters in the series – Mason (Raymond Burr), private investigator Paul Drake (William Hopper), district attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman), and police Lt. Arthur Tragg (Ray Collins) – have been dead for a number of years.

“Perry Mason” was my most favorite show as I grew up. I idolized the lawyer and his clever ways of revealing the guilty murderer, time after time frustrating the-ever-certain-of-the defendant’s-guilt prosecutor. The courtroom drama was always filled with questions coming from the opposing attorneys. Many were objected to. Some were overruled and some were sustained. Questions were asked in order to get the facts before the court or to expose the truth and free the innocent man or woman whom Mason was defending.

The way to get to the bottom of something is to ask questions. This can be done orally or mentally, conversationally or adversarially.

Those who ask questions sometimes have trouble answering them. Another lawyer, Rick Olson, looked at the panorama of Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington with his young son, Patrick. They saw barges floating up and down the three rivers, the two stadiums, and a host of bridges. Patrick was full of questions — “What kind of boat is that? How do they get the sand out of the railcars and into the barges? Which river goes south to north?”
Rick had been living in Pittsburgh for 22 years and had never really paid attention to things like that. For two hours Patrick made observations and asked questions, and Rick could only say, “Hmmm. I don’t know.”

Then Patrick asked his dad to point out the building where he had been working every day for five years as a corporate lawyer. At least Rick knew where his building was and pointed out the downtown tower. 

“What’s the building next to it?” asked Patrick. Rick didn’t know. He had walked past that building nearly every day for five years and he had no idea. How could he not know?(1)

From elementary school to high school to college to professional training conferences we have been told that we need to focus. There’s value in that as current studies are beginning to show that multi-tasking results in slower production and poorer quality work in many workers. But when we focus too intently we miss a lot, like the building next door or the neighbor across the street. As psychologists – and Perry Mason, too – have shown, eyewitnesses don’t always see things accurately, if at all. 

Micah, like God’s other prophets, had a habit of seeing things others missed. He worked in the latter half of the eighth century, prior to the fall of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, to the Assyrians in 722 BCE. His name is a short form of the Hebrew word, micayahu, which means, “Who is like Yah(weh)?” or “Who is like God?”

Micah observes that the people of Judah are blind not only to what is going on around them but also to God. He chose to frame God’s dispute with Israel as a lawsuit. This is a model that several Hebrew prophets use in their ministry.

In Micah’s report of what God is saying to the people, he has God asking questions. With Israel God argues, “My people, what did I ever do to you? How have I wearied you? God recounts some of the actions taken on behalf of the people. Then the prophet asks,

With what should I approach the Lord
and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
with year-old calves?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?

What does the Lord require? That seems to be the ultimate question. What does the Lord require of each of us?
Micah is a kindred spirit to those pursuing this ultimate question. As he wrote about the people of Israel in crisis, Micah’s focus was to simplify — to remind the people of their purpose. Like an executive on a corporate treadmill or a doctor who’s given all she had to give, the people of Israel had been relying on their busyness, their ritual, their status as chosen people to make meaning of their lives. 

Everything was overly complex in their worship. All the candles had to be the same height. The items around the high altar had to be precisely positioned. The correct words had to be used. Everyone had to face the prescribed direction. And on and on and on. I feel for the people, because that sort of busyness is part of who I am. It is the imperfect pursuit of perfection. There is no way of doing it just right, no matter how hard any of us might try.

The offerings the people gave to God were simply the fruits of their frantic labor, much like those of us who believe that if we can just do enough, give enough, work enough, read enough, pray enough ... then our God, our boss, our families, our friends will finally be pleased with us. 

But Micah breaks all that down. The answer to the ultimate question is really quite simple. Our purpose is found in the larger purposes of God. “What does the Lord require of you?” asks the prophet. What really matters? Doing justice, embracing faithful love, walking humbly with God. That’s a challenge. It is just as challenging now as when it was declared by Micah.

Brett Younger writes that when he was in the eighth grade his social studies teacher said, “‘The world is about one-third Christian, 20 percent Muslim, and 13 percent Hindu.’ We thought it was the goofiest thing we had ever heard. In my small town in Mississippi there were four religions: Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and heathen—and in that order. The idea that two-thirds of the people in the world are not Christians was hard for some of us to believe.”(2)

The statistics show a greater diversity now, especially in urban areas (and most people live in urban, suburban, and ex-urban areas, not rural areas). The United States is increasingly home to Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, Sikh communities, and Buddhist retreat centers. Protestant Christians are a minority in the United States. 

Believing that Christians are in – and everyone else is out – may be comforting for some, but it does not make sense. The idea that God’s grace is only for a relative few insults God. If we were born in Indonesia we would be Muslim, unless were evangelized into Christianity. Or if we were born in Thailand, we would be Buddhist unless we were evangelized into Christianity.

If we truly believe what we find in Psalms, in Acts, in the Gospels, we know that God is at work everywhere. Since that is the case, we should not dismiss, condemn, or consign the rest of the world to perdition. God’s love does not start or stop at dotted lines on maps, or at rivers or oceans, or at walls. God loves all humanity too much to play favorites. We make a mistake when we try to divide the world into those who attend Christian churches and those who will never have a chance at God’s grace. Jesus told us to go to the ends of the earth. Jesus told us what to do. Jesus did not tell us how it would all end up except that he was the light of the world, which is life.

There is a sense that our individual success rate might be small, given the kinds of people whom he called blessed, happy, contented. Questions abound: What is hopelessness? What is grief? What is humbleness? What is mercy? What are pure hearts? 

“What does God require of us?” the prophet asks. God wants us to do justice—to be a voice for oppressed persons, unprotected persons, widows, and immigrants, and to fight for the rights of handicapped persons, minorities, elderly persons, poor persons, and every person treated as less than God’s child. The right to life is more than the right to birth.

God wants us to embrace faithful love. The Hebrew word hesed means Gods loving-kindness, God’s faithful love. We respond to God’s love by sharing it with others.

We are to walk humbly with God: listening for God’s voice wherever God may be heard; listening for God’s voice from people we would not expect to speak it; learning how other people make sense of their lives; thoughtfully examining what it means to live with faith.

Pastor and author Frederick Buechner writes about Micah’s words: “Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things.” 

We are called to live the questions. A shrinking faith states what faith isn’t so others can’t come in. An expanding faith asks lots of questions of God. We will be more faithful Christians, not if we can refute every idea that is not Christian, but if we can affirm the truth and keep searching.



(1) “My Life,” Homiletics, January 30, 2005.
(2) Brett Younger, “Micah 6:1-8 Homiletical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) Year A, vol 1, 291.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

WWJBD

John 1:29-42; Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9


Last week the gospel reading was Matthew’s spare, five verse, account of the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John. Jesus joined the crowd going to the Jordan River where John was holding forth. John, recognizing Jesus, not just as his cousin but also as the one promised to supplant him, suggested they should change paces – John be baptized by Jesus. Jesus insisted that they proceed in order to fulfill all righteousness. Coming up out of the water Jesus saw the Spirit descend upon him and heard God’s blessing over him.

The gospel writer John approaches the same event in a very different way. There is no report of the actual baptism. The Baptist tells messengers from the Pharisees that he baptizes with water and that there stands among them someone greater than John whom they do not recognize (John 1:26). In the gospel writer’s account, the next day John saw Jesus in the crowd and told those around him,

“Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is really greater than me because he existed before me.’ Even I didn’t recognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be made known to Israel.”

Perhaps you might remember getting for your young children some activity work sheets which appeared to be blank. The instructions said to brush the blank area with water. When that was done a line drawing would appear and reveal a picture of something the child would recognize. It took the water to make the picture known. John brushed on the baptismal waters in order to make Jesus known to Israel.

A decade ago, many Christians were using to the acronym WWJD which stood for “What Would Jesus Do?” It was a useful ministry tool to help people look at situations in which they found themselves and consider what our Lord might do in them. It was a good reminder that we are never alone, that we are never without the power of Jesus given to us in the present witness of the Holy Spirit. What would Jesus do when confronted by a bully? What would Jesus do if he met someone taking economic advantage of a person? What would Jesus do if he knew a person was embezzling from the company? What would Jesus do about a person who was being self-destructive? How would Jesus weigh out the pros and cons of a situation which appeared to have no good outcome among the alternatives?

The question before us today is WWJBD. What would John the Baptist do when he discovered Jesus? John could have noted Jesus and said to himself, “Good, my job is done. My promised successor has arrived. I can get out of this water and retire happy and fulfilled.” I am sure that he was tired of being waterlogged and wrinkly from standing in the Jordan day in and day out. How many times had he said to those who came to him that his baptism was for the forgiveness of sins, but that someone was coming after him who would baptize with God’s Spirit? How many times had he denounced the religious leaders for their inactivity, their insensitivity, their having missed the whole point of being the stewards of God’s word?

WWJBD. What would John the Baptist do?

What John did was to redouble his efforts. John knew Jesus as his cousin. But it was only after the baptismal waters were poured over him and the Spirit resting on him did John recognize Jesus as the promised one. Up to this point John had not clearly seen the Messiah. He knew that the Messiah was coming and that his mission was to prepare the nation of Israel for the Messiah’s arrival. He had been instructed to baptize and as he was baptizing he saw a sign that indicated the arrival of the one he had come to announce.

John testified, 

“I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and it rested on him. Even I didn’t recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testified that this one is God’s Son.”

Isaiah frequently depicted the Messiah as having the Spirit resting upon him. Jesus affirmed this in his reading of Isaiah 61 in the Nazareth synagogue – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...” (Luke 4: 18;see Isaiah 61:1ff.). When John says that the Messiah – Jesus – will baptize with the Holy Spirit, he is lining out Jesus' divine mission. John’s statement not only points to the Day of Pentecost on which Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to baptize the disciples, it describes Jesus’ entire ministry. Jesus came to give eternal life to those who believe in him. No one could actually receive that life apart from receiving the life-giving Holy Spirit. John’s water washed away sins – repentance – but the baptism of the Holy Spirit takes the water washed forgiveness and adds eternal life. The Spirit symbolized the empowerment to live and teach the message of salvation.

WWJBD. What would John the Baptist do? He taught the message of salvation. “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John pointed beyond himself and his ministry and taught those around him where to find the true salvation that they were seeking. “When [John] saw Jesus walking along he said, ‘Look! The Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus.”

John pointed to Jesus and declared openly who he was. Jesus was God with us – the eternal Lamb – and his mission was to take away the sin of the world, take away the eternal outcome – death, abandonment, oblivion – that sin represented in the eyes of God. John could do no other than direct people to eternal life. As John said shortly before his imprisonment and death,

“You yourselves can testify that I said that I’m not the Christ but that I’m the one sent before him.... Therefore my joy is now complete. He must increase and I must decrease.” (John 3:28-30)

You and I aren’t standing waist deep in creek water. Nor are we pouring water over people’s heads as a routine ritual. But that doesn’t mean that you and I can’t do the same thing that the Baptist did. We can point out Jesus. We can direct individuals to the source of eternal life.
Today people are looking for someone to give them security in an insecure world. We must point them to Christ and show them how Christ satisfies their need. They must hear it first from us. We cannot pass on to others what we do not possess. If we know Jesus, we will want to introduce others to him. Telling others about Jesus doesn’t require a graduate level education. It doesn’t require a hard sell approach that verbally beats prospective buyers into submission. Telling others about Jesus simply needs sincere compassion which is the love for the other person and what they are missing. Each us simply needs to know how much Jesus means to us in our everyday lives, how the love and grace of Jesus have gotten us through situations in our lives for which there seemed to be no solution, how the Spirit-placed presence of Jesus in our lives changed our life’s perspective. 

One of the great joys I have is reading the occasional articles in our monthly Courier newsletter labeled “Verbalizing Our Faith.” How wonderful these stories are. They are WWJBD things in our lives that become our testifying to the world who Jesus is for us. These are starting points for conversations that can lead people to find what they are missing in their lives.
At some point we then hand off the story of Jesus to the Holy Spirit to finish the work of sealing Christ’s salvation in the other person. We move ourselves to an attitude of prayer for the Spirit to finish the work begun. John allowed his disciples to follow Jesus and in that act sealed his obedience to God. The disciples did follow Jesus, demonstrating that they had benefitted from John’s teaching. Like John’s disciples who found out where Jesus was staying, our friends can link up with Jesus, abide in his presence, and become enthralled in his message. 

WWJBD. Show the Light of the world to others and help grow that Light into its eternal glory.

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.

Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Until Christ Shines

Matthew 3:13-17; Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43

On the night of Jesus’ birth he was announced to shepherds in the Judean countryside. A flash of light and an outburst of angelic singing told them what had happened and urged them to go to nearby Bethlehem and see for themselves. That same flash of light alerted distant, non-Judaic, gentile, stargazing magi that an ancient prophecy had been fulfilled, prompting them to set off on a lengthy trek to find the star-announced king. At the other end of Jesus’ earthly life, after his death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit-gifting, the early church wrestled with Jesus’ call to make disciples through baptizing and teaching everything he had taught and commanded. Was the gospel only for true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Or did all nations include all nations? The giving of the Spirit didn’t happen to a handful of people in a locked room in the dead of night. It happened in bright midday in a public gathering place where a representation of the world was gathered: Parthians, Medes, Elamites; Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, together with people from Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Arabia (Acts 2:9-11).

Even before the gospels were written down, Isaiah was a kind of template for the proclamation of the faith. So many passages from the prophet spoke to the earliest understanding of what had happened in the Christ event. There was the assurance of God’s presence and power. There was the assurance that no matter what happened to the disciples, God would supply their strength. And there were the models for Jesus’ mission to save God’s people – the servant songs. These talked about how he was treated and about him being a light to the nations. Other passages in Isaiah talked about opening blind eyes, freeing captives, binding up the brokenhearted, bringing good news, and declaring God’s favor.

Not only did the early church recall the stories of the healings, exorcisms, and acts of declaring forgiveness which the crowds had seen and heard during Jesus’ ministry, the church saw the images from Isaiah as metaphors for God’s broader and deeper activity in the world through Christ. Good news preaching, brokenheart healing, captive freeing, and prisoner pardoning were metaphors for divine activity in the life of communities as well as individuals. All this was accomplished through the one Isaiah labeled “my servant.”

Who is the servant? The church has long asked that question. Before the time of Christ, the servant was often thought to be the nation Israel. It was said that the prophets called the people to take up their responsibilities as God’s children: don’t shirk your duty, be faithful, be righteous. Following Christ’s life, ministry, and exaltation, the church tended to think of the servant as Jesus. After all, Jesus, when he had read the Isaiah 61 passage in the Nazareth synagogue, declared that the scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing (Luke 4:21).

Our Presbyterian ancestor, John Calvin, identified the servant of Isaiah 42 with Jesus Christ because of the theological implications of the servant’s work. The scriptural imagery of light and darkness, sight and blindness, and captivity and freedom represents both a physical and spiritual restoration. The task of being “a light to the nations” is directly equated with salvation in the second servant song, Isaiah 49:6. The servant can be perceived as mediating God’s promise of restoration to the nations. 

Calvin, affirmed the Reformation concept of the priesthood of all believers because he understood that Jesus held a three-fold office of “prophet, priest, and king.” He is priest on our behalf, he is the mediator of grace between God and humanity. Mediation is necessary because of the theological doctrine of total depravity. Sin so consumes humanity that no one is capable of bringing about his or her redemption. Thus Calvin comments in his Isaiah commentary on verse 7, 

“under these metaphors he [Isaiah] declares what is the condition of men, till Christ shine upon them as their Redeemer; that is, they are most wretched, empty, and destitute of all blessings, and surrounded and overwhelmed by innumerable distresses, till they are delivered by Christ.”

In order to be the servant who breaks the bonds of sin, heals the brokenhearted, liberates captives, pardons prisoners, and declares good news and God’s favor to humanity, Jesus became the life-giving intersection between divine and human. 

God created, entered into, and radically transformed the baptismal waters which John the Baptist used. He baptized people who had changed their hearts and lives, who had repented. But he said that the one coming after him would baptize with Holy Spirit and fire. That is a whole different level of cleansing. When John lashed out against the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism site, calling them children of snakes, he was laying the groundwork for Jesus’ own baptism, which would help the people to understand the reality and the physicality of being human, and what it means to say that God saved us by becoming just like us.

Steven Driver reminds us that our salvation is worked out through both divine and physical elements. In the case of baptism, the physical element is water. 

“Matthew echoes Genesis when he describes Jesus’ baptism. Genesis records that, in the beginning, the Spirit hovered over the waters. The Word of God was present from the beginning and created the world. What the Word created was good. In Matthew, the Spirit of God once again hovers over the waters, and once again the Word of God speaks. Genesis describes God bringing order to chaos through his Word. Matthew describes God taming the chaos of our sins through his Word. Genesis describes the abundant possibilities of God’s creative work. Matthew describes the renewal of those possibilities through God's entering into creation in order to redeem it. The parallels are stark, and they clearly link baptism to God’s creative acts.”(1)

As we pause to remember and reflect on Christ’s own baptism, we discover that it is a creative act, one of several which constitute our re-creation as redeemed people of God. Following his birth, his baptism and commissioning comes before his ministry, before the world’s confrontation with him, before his execution by the world, before his resurrection, before his exaltation to the position of eternal king, before the blessing of the Spirit.

Baptism is near the beginning of a life of ministry. It is not the end. In his baptism, Jesus’ identity was confirmed through heaven’s opening and the dove coming down to him and the voice from heaven naming him as God’s Son, God’s Beloved, the very one who holds God’s pleasure. This confirmation was not the culmination of his ministry; it was the beginning of the remarkable journey that was to lead him to the cross and beyond. That’s why Calvin said that under Isaiah’s servant song metaphors he declares what is the condition of men, till Christ shine upon them as their Redeemer. 

As we come to Christ’s table, we recognize that we are somewhere along the journey that increases Christ’ light on us, within us, and through us to those around us, until Christ shines for the world to see.

Arise, shine, your light has come, is growing, and will illumine the world in all sin is bleached out of it by the Light of the world.

Lord, the light of your love is shining,
in the midst of the darkness, shining;
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us;
set us free by the truth you bring us.(2)


(1) Steven Driver, “Matthew 2:13-17, Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) Vol.1, 238.
(2) Graham Kendrick, 1987.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Transformative Light

Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12; Ephesians 3:1-12

You have made it. You have arrived at the end of the season of Christmas. Epiphany is here. We are entering the season of light. That’s great. I don’t know about you, but I’m not overly fond of dark mornings and dark evenings. The daylight hours are growing longer. Thank you, God.

The light is intensifying. We lit one, then two, then three, and finally four candles to mark the growing hope for the arrival of the Light of the world, symbolized by the one large white candle. The light arrived in the midst of night. It was announced by a new star, according to the stargazing magi, and the vocal praise of the host of heaven. The light now continues to grow as the presence, the ministry, the power of the Word made flesh is revealed in the wider world, beginning with the magi. The light will increase until the time when Jesus glows radiantly with Moses and Elijah before the awestruck Peter, James, and John on the transfiguration mountain. 

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not extinguish it. This light is not like the lights we have on dimmer switches, although the effect is the same. As the light grows, it will fill the nearly hidden corners of our individual lives and the far reaches of the world.

The light born on Christmas is not just an illuminating light. It is a transforming light. It changes each of us as it shines on us with increasing intensity. Joseph Mohr captured the image so well in his carol lyric:
“Son of God, love’s pure light 
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace, 
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.”
Church of England pastor Geoffrey Ainger also put the image to lyrics:
“Clear shining light, Mary’s Child, 
Your face lights up our way;
Light of the world, Mary’s Child, 
Dawn on our darkened day.”
Isaiah foretold the light:
Arise! Shine! Your light has come; 
the Lord’s glory has shone upon you. 
Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, 
the Lord will shine upon you; 
God’s glory will appear over you. 
Nations will come to your light 
and kings to your dawning radiance. 
(Isaiah 60:1-3)

Metaphorically for Isaiah, light is the power of God to break through the increasing despair of the Israelites who had returned from exile to a world that in an earlier message the prophet had promised would be lush and welcoming. They despaired because the reality of the Israel the exiles returned to was marked by poverty and famine. In this world, Isaiah then offered a vision of what will be—an apocalyptic vision in which abundance and honor will replace poverty and shame. Not only will all nations honor the restored Zion, but the light of God that the city reflects will attract the abundance of the natural world.

As a further development of this image the Patmos seer, John, said that he didn’t see a temple in the city, because its temple was “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. The city doesn’t need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” (Revelation 21:22-24).

Isaiah said that our light has come. The problem is that not everyone sees it. Many of you, like, me wear glasses or contact lenses. Some of you have had cataracts removed. Some of you have even had lasik surgery, where your existing lens as been adjusted by means of a laser so that you no longer need corrective lenses. 

Yet it may take more than 20-20 vision to see the light the light Isaiah speaks of.  The light that we see with our eyes in a world is that it is full of light, even on dark and gloomy January days, is only a tiny sliver of all the radiance that is around us. Our human eyes are designed to detect only visible light – a tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum made up of light with relatively short wavelengths. All other forms of light are completely invisible to us. Above the visible light frequencies are very short wavelength light – ultraviolet  light, x-rays, and gamma rays – which we cannot see, but which produce heat. And there are on the electromagnetic spectrum below visible light long, stretched-out waves – infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves used to transmit radio, television, cell phone signals. In order to detect this kind of light, we’d have to have huge eyes, like satellite dishes.

The light that Isaiah calls “the Lord’s glory” (60:1) is a wavelength that doesn’t require satellite dish eyes to see. But it does require the eyes of faith. Exodus tells us “the Lord’s glorious presence looked like a blazing fire” (Exodus 24:17). It is a powerful radiance that changes the face of anyone who looks upon it. Remember that the face of Moses began to shine when he talked with God directly, so much so that he had to put on a veil to keep from frightening the people of Israel (Exodus 34:29-35). 

This is the same powerful light that appeared later when Jesus Christ was born – the Lord’s glory shone around the shepherds in Bethlehem, and they were terrified. Simeon said that the baby Jesus was “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and a glory for your people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Glory appeared again in the transfiguration of Jesus, and in the resurrection. Looking back, the apostle Paul rejoiced that God was “the same one who shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). 

The glory of the Lord is intense, over-whelming, frightening at time. But most of all its illumination is transformative. It helps us to see the full power and personality of God. The gospel of John says that when the Word of God became flesh and lived among us, it was then that we saw “glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

Grace and truth. That’s what becomes so clear in the light of the glory of God. 

So how can God’s radiant light in Christ transform our lives as we venture into the year called 2017? 

God’s light is attractive. It draws peoples and nations to God. Rather than shielding our faith eyes from it, as we would bright sunlight, we can let God’s light draw us closer to our Lord. Possible ways of allowing God’s light to attract us could be intentional study of scripture, disciplined times of prayer, greater devotion to worship, increased activity in hands-on ministry. 

The Presbyterian “Directory for Worship” says that “daily personal worship is a discipline for attending to God and accepting God’s grace. The daily challenge of discipleship requires the daily nurture of worship. Daily personal worship may occur in a gathered community of faith, in households and families, or in private” (W-5.2000). The Holy Spirit can use all these activities to attract us to the holy light radiating from Christ. Eyes of faith see transformative light where other eyes cannot see God’s activity in the world.

Faith eyes can pick up divine light in times of deep darkness. This was as true in the first century as it is today. There wasn’t much brightness in Judea in the time of King Herod, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem – in fact, Herod’s reign was an orgy of violence and bloodshed. Full of insecurity and afraid of losing power, Herod ordered the killing of his brother-in-law, his uncle, his wife, his mother-in-law, and three sons. At one point, Caesar Augustus remarked that he would rather be Herod’s pig than Herod’s relative! Fearing that the baby of Bethlehem would grow to be rival king, he ordered a massacre of infants in a desperate attempt to kill the baby Jesus. 

The oppressive darkness of a non-seeing world desperately needed God’s transformative light. It still does. The season of Epiphany – between now and the start of Lent, almost eight weeks this year – allows us to see the increasing holy radiance of the light that transforms world, upsets the powers that be, and draws God’s people ever closer to the fulfillment of the prophet’s words: “the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.”

The magi had eyes of faith. They saw a faint flicker of light in the middle of the dark night skies, a light that signaled the presence of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Our challenge is to focus on this light as well, and to trust that Christ is always present — even in times of personal, national, or global chaos. Let God’s light in Christ continue to transform you this year.

General Resources:
Emily Askew, “Isaiah 60:1-6 – Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), Year A, vol. 1.
“Dish Eyes,” Homiletics, January 4, 2004. http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=3217

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.

Faithfulness and Fickleness

Isaiah 63:1-64:2; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23

It seems like a third of the world puts Christmas away the evening of December 25. After all, they have already put up with Christmas for a month or two. Celebrate the holiday before it gets here so we can get it out of the way. 

Another third hangs on, but only through January 1. If you put two holidays a week apart you might as well go the distance. 

The world not withstanding, Christmas arrives on December 25th and sticks around through January 6th. In fact, it seems that when the early church first celebrated Christ’s birth, it was the January date that got celebrated. This was the date that was attached to the arrival of the magi. Their coming seemed best to announce the Son of God to the world far beyond the community of the clans of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Celebrating the birth of Jesus came as an afterthought, and Christmas Day was added. 

So we are between these two significant events, but we aren’t quite sure how to deal with the twelve days in between, other than counting partridges in a  pear trees. That’s a difficult bind in the years of Matthew’s Gospel. Luke gives us the pre-birth announcements to Mary and the back story of John the Baptist. Matthew gives us the announcement to Joseph. Luke tells us about the birth and the announcement to the shepherds. Luke also gives us the eighth day visit to the Temple for Jesus’ naming and circumcision. Matthew tells us about the astral discovery of the birth by the magi and their travel to find Jesus at some point in time after his birth, certainly not arriving at the same time as the shepherds. Then Matthew hits his readers with the unthinkable activity of the despotic king Herod, which forced the holy family into exile in Egypt and resulted in the killing of an unknown number of boy babies.

It is hard to fathom the human destruction that Herod caused, especially when we still have the angelic “Glorias” ringing in our ears and our eyes are just beginning to settle down in the aftermath of the Christmas Eve galactic glow.

When we blend the Matthean and Lukan stories together – a dangerous exegetical gambit – we realize that the holy night was not particularly silent. The birth of Jesus is played out on a political backdrop that is not silent, hardly holy, and seeming all too contemporary. 

The Roman government was forcing people to go back to their patriarchal home towns and be enrolled. The enrollment may have been for taxing purposes, but the data would be helpful in keeping surveillance on and policing troublesome citizens who might undermine the imperial authority of conqueror Rome. George Orwell’s “Big Brother” watching is not a phenomenon of our time.

Another layer of reality at the time of Jesus’ birth was the duplicitous machinations of Herod, the puppet local king who wasn’t even really Jewish. He played the imperial system, cozying up to the Roman leaders on the one hand and playing his own dangerous game of cruel governing on the other. Either way Herod was always looking out for himself.

That’s the world Jesus was born into. There was nothing idyllic about it. Take away our technology and our world looks a lot like Jesus’ world.

That’s why the words from Isaiah are important in the midst of a joyous celebration happening in the near frantic, pained world of 2017. A cynical editorial cartoon this week has the traditional grim reaper taking the old 2016 away as baby 2017 comes in. 2016 says to 2017, he [the reaper] “has been in charge all year.”

Yet we, as Christians, know better. Yes, the world is filled with violence, arrogance, hate, and a lot more things we say are evil and despicable. We can’t say that we are innocent. We benefit from the mis-weighted values that operate in the world and unhealthily direct its goings and comings. 

Isaiah knew that was the case in his own time. He preached to exiles laboring as indentured slaves under a foreign regime. And he preached to newly released captives whose heads were filled with visions the wonderful good old days. Except when they got back to Judea, it was anything but the halcyon heaven they dreamed of. 

Today’s Isaiah passage begins with observations that declare that God has been behind the terror that was used to bring the recalcitrant people to repentance. The people had failed join God in the work of righteousness. And God had punished the very nations that both had led Israel astray and had been used by God as means to bend the people’s will to reverence and obedience.

On a momentary positive note, Isaiah speaks of a God who has delivered and will again deliver God’s people from exile. With the reminder about what God did to bring an end to the Egyptian enslavement, Isaiah places front and center the truth that God desires freedom for all people. God stands with humankind to work for our liberation. 

The hallmark characteristics of God’s relationship with us are love and mercy. Isaiah points out in bold print the reality that God's people were living in physically limiting conditions which contributed to their spiritual diminishment, and it was from all of these conditions that God released them. And it is from physically and spiritually limiting conditions that Jesus became flesh and took up residence in the midst of human community. 

As the Hebrews in Egypt needed release from slave-bondage, as the Israelites in Babylon needed release from their captivity, as the people of Jesus’ time needed release from aggressor occupation, so today’s human beings of every race, tribe, and clan need release by the power of God’s forgiving and empowering grace from the stranglehold of sin. That sin takes many forms: personal bullying and violence, crushing addictions, personality spectrums ranging from narcissistic egoism to poor self-esteem, and lust for power, to name a few.

Isaiah casts many visions of what God will do. There is the prophetic word about a virgin conceiving (7:14) and the promise of a shoot growing from Jesse’s stump (11:1). There is the proclamation that a great light has shone on people walking in darkness (9:2). There is the declaration to Jerusalem that her compulsory service has ended, that her penalty has been paid, and that the Lord’s glory shall appear (40:1-5). Isaiah’s four servant songs in chapters 42, 49, 50, and 52-53 explain the activity which God will undertake to accomplish the reign of justice, righteousness, and shalom. 

Then there is verse 64:1 in our English translations: “If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!” That is exactly what we celebrate with Christmas. This heaven rending was a vital part the gospel writer Mark’s theology about Jesus’ baptism: Jesus saw the heavens split open, the Spirit descended like a dove and a voice declared that Jesus is the dearly loved Son (Mark 1:9-11). The imagery is again highlighted at his crucifixion: When Jesus died the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, indicating God’s activity in removing what separated the human from the divine (Mark 14:38). For us, this means that we don’t have a God in absentia. We have a God who rubs shoulders with the least, the last, and the lost. 

The Hebrews author notes that Jesus is not ashamed to call the people being made holy brothers and sisters (2:11). The author says,  

“Since the children share in flesh and blood, he also shared the same things in the same way....He had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way. This was so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, in order to wipe away the sins of the people.” (2:14, 17). 

In casting the role of high priest on Jesus, the Hebrews writer notes later that we 

“have a high priest who passed through the heavens....We don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead [we have] one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin” (4:14-15).

Isaiah does not give his hearers a candy-coated picture which says that all is right with the world. He acknowledges that the world is far from right. Yet in the midst of all that seeks to smother peace, hope, love, joy, and grace, an unquenchable ember of holy radiant light shines. Isaiah sings:

I will recount the Lord’s faithful acts; I will sing the Lord’s praises, because of all the Lord did for us, for God’s great favor toward the house of Israel. God treated them compassionately and with deep affection. (63:7)

Human fickleness is outmatched by God’s faithfulness. That’s a promise that remains unshaken for today and for 2017. The Light of the world will shine. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it.

Thanks be to God.


Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.