Church of the Epiphany

Advent 4
Matthew 1:1-25

A mother took her 5 year old to the mall the week before Christmas because she thought it would be magical for both of them.  Trouble is, the little boy did nothing but whine and moan about wanting to go home.  At one point, his shoe came untied and he begged his mom to help him tie it.  ‘Can’t you just..’ she said but when she knelt down to tie his shoe, she saw the mall from his perspective.  No magic, Christmas trees and lights.  Just legs, knees and angry people.

She thought to herself, ‘well, I’ll try to make the best of this’ so she took him to see Santa.  When the boy sat on Santa’s lap, he asked, ‘and what would you like little boy?’  And he said, ‘I would like to get down.’

I’m sure that we’re about done with the mall in our own hearts.  We’re tired of 30 days of missing the point.  So let’s get back to the Christmas story.

Our Advent question has been, ‘what do you do in times of uncertainty and anxiety.’  We have seen how Herod got by and how John the Baptist wrestled with his own expectations of what messiah ought to look like.  Today we are privileged to look at who tradition calls ‘step-father of God.’  OK that’s my term but it works.

We don’t know a lot about Joseph, but Matthew spends a great deal of time letting us know he is in the lineage of king David.  We also know the description he provides, that Joseph was a ‘just’ or ‘righteous’ man.  We know that he was a carpenter who lived a simple life and struggled to make ends meet.

We first meet Joseph engaged or betrothed to Mary.  When a couple was betrothed in first century Palestine it was usually all arranged by the parents.  Money and gifts would be exchanged on both sides and the couple were legally bound together.  They were married in every way except one, that of consummation.

When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, and he knew he had nothing to do with it, it was his right to disown Mary and bring her to public shame and humiliation.  Since they were legally bound together, she (he thought) had violated the marriage vow.

When the Scripture says that someone is ‘just’ or ‘righteous’ what always follows is a story of how they are just and righteous.  The story of Joseph is no exception.  So, when someone violates the marriage vow, how does a ‘just’ and ‘righteous’ man respond?  When you are in the right, the other is in the wrong, what do you do?

Most of us like being right.  Most of us like to win in the game of personal relationships.  Our culture teaches us that when we are wronged we do whatever it takes to rub the other person out.  We are convinced that being right means that the other person needs to make reparations, serious reparations.

But what does our righteous man do?  Before he is given an angelic visitation he has in mind to divorce her quietly because he was ‘unwilling to put her to shame.’

I find this fascinating that this is the first example that Matthew uses to show that Joseph is righteous.  It is not the quality of moral purity per se, but of mercy.

Joseph was unwilling to humiliate Mary.  He was unwilling to use his privilege as the one who was ‘right’ in the relationship and decided not to use that privilege to bring her shame.  And right out of the box he is called ‘just and righteous’ for it.

Jesus did not grow up on an island.  Most of what he learned he learned from Joseph and Mary.  And it was Jesus who said, ‘blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’

There is one more obvious point to show the righteousness of Joseph.  In a dream, the angel told him what had happened and to take Mary as his wife and to name the child Jesus.  When Joseph woke from his dream, what does Matthew say?  ‘He did what the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took Mary as his wife…and he named the child Jesus.’

Without hesitation, without question, without thinking about it, Joseph did as the Lord said.  It was a ‘not my will, but thy will be done’ moment, an example of the lifestyle and commitment Joseph would later teach Jesus.

This is most of the airplay that Joseph gets.  Later he takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod, there is the brief scene when Jesus is in the Temple at age 12, and then Joseph disappears from the gospel accounts.

I think that is the way Joseph would have it.  His righteousness and faithfulness stand on their own merit.  There was no one to bring him kudos, only a few lines in Scripture.  But what lines they were!  Joseph was merciful and obedient to God, and he was given the task of raising God’s Son.

The gospel accounts are slim on Joseph (and even Mary to an extent) not because they were not the most important parents in the history of earth, but because the gospels were written to point to someone else—Jesus.

Matthew 1 says 2 very profound things about Jesus.  First, his name: “Jesus, because he will rescue people from their sins,” and second, his identity: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”

What he does, ‘saves his people from their sins,’ and who he is, ‘Immanuel, God with us.’

I realize that Advent as a season of penitence has never really gotten off the ground in this country, at least not recently.  Somewhere in the mid twentieth century Advent was coopted by Montgomery Wards and it has never recovered.  Businesses and malls depend on so called Christmas shopping to stay alive for another year.

But our concern shouldn’t be whether or not we can say ‘Merry Christmas’ at Wal Mart.

The outside world is going to do what it is going to do.  It will make a thin and gaunt saint from Myra who helped poor children into a fat and jolly elf with reindeer who gives you everything you want, but that is what the world is supposed to do.

But it is difficult, is it not, to commercialize John the Baptist, Joseph and Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth.  It is hard to make the story get old because we’re not talking about winter solstice or fairies or magic.

There was a carpenter who did what was right, a young maiden mild who said ‘yes’ and a baby who would save us from our sins.  God in flesh.

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, God with us.”

My suggestion is this.  Go ahead and get through the next two days by the skin of your teeth.  Go ahead and feast.  But remember what it is all about.  Continue the celebration through Epiphany and beyond.  Don’t take those decorations down until January 7th.  Let the neighbors think you’re weird.  Say ‘merry Christmas’ until January 6th and invite everyone you know to church for that feast.

The incarnation never ceases to amaze.  We serve a living Lord, a risen Jesus who is no longer in a manger but is at the right hand of the Father.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, born as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.

Advent 2A
Matthew 3:1-12

Author Dallas Willard mentions Harvard professor Robert Coles who wrote an essay about the lack of moral formation at the University.  At Harvard, as with other Universities, one can theorize about ethics and morals, but that’s all.  Coles says that Harvard does not function as a place of moral formation but of intellectual discourse.  He then mentions a case of a young woman from a blue collar background who was picked on and harassed so much that she had to leave Harvard.  In her exit interview Coles was shocked to hear stories of harassment and intimidation, one by one of the star ethics students who got high marks in ‘moral reasoning’ courses but who was constantly propositioning her inappropriately.  What did Coles offer this young lady?  Nothing.  All he could do was shrug his shoulders.  He had no answers.

Coles conclusion?  Harvard has to learn to accept the lack of moral formation.  Since Universities don’t tell people how to live or even what is right and wrong, there is nothing that can be done.

What a contrast to the first century prophet who wore a camel haired tunic and a leather belt.  What a contrast to the man who lived in the desert and ate locusts and wild honey.  What John the Baptist say about what is right and wrong?

A couple things about John.  As we know he was a cousin to our Lord Jesus.  He was born to a barren woman and was called by God to live his life in the wilderness. Matthew’s description of John’s clothes would immediately cause the reader to think of the prophet Elijah.  2 Kings describes Elijah as a ‘hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.’  Also, John’s strange diet would have reminded the Jews of Judas Maccabeus, one of the last of the faithful Kings of Israel who ate ‘what the wild animals ate’ so as not to eat anything unclean.

Last week we talked about the way of Herod–a way of responding to uncertainty and anxiety.  The way of Herod is the way of power.  Remember–when the going gets tough, the tough kill everyone else.

There was another group previous to the coming of Jesus called the ‘Essenes.’  They were a group of Jews who decided that Rome, Herod, the Jewish priesthood, and the Temple were all corrupt.  They watched the high priesthood sold to the highest bidder and the Temple sacrificial system an opportunity for not worship but greed and moneymaking.  They decided, to one degree or another, to abandon the whole enterprise.  God would have to sort it all out.  Therefore, they created a community of the end times, some who lived in villages and still participated somewhat in the life of Israel; and others, who in on the outskirts of the town of Qumran, just outside of the Red Sea, lived in celibacy and separation.  Both Essenean communities (the protomonastic and the communal) required strict observance of Torah, a two year ‘catechizing’ into the community and a series of ritual observance-the most popular being the mikvah or the ritual bath.  Their primary purpose was to pray, copy and study Scripture, and to wait.  This is the community we read about in the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and there is an interesting parallel between them and some of the earliest Christian communities.  What were they waiting for?  The coming of the messiah and the kingdom of heaven.  Since they were associated with the desert, their teachers took as their primary text a section of Isaiah 40.  They were a ‘voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way of for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’

While there is no way to be certain, it is quite possible that John the Baptist was a part of or at least influenced by the Essenes.  He too had a disdain for the way his people were ‘doing religion.’ For sure he was familiar with the way of the desert and the way of waiting and preparation, for that is what God called him to do.  John was a bridge between the Old and New Testament prophets.  He preached in the spirit and passion of Eijah.

John was a man who had nothing to lose.  He was a man of conviction and clarity.  His way was the way of the desert and he had been in preparation for over 25 years.  He wasn’t afraid to offend kings or religious leaders.  His message was simple, ‘repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’  And he called people to be baptized.  Baptism was a rite for Gentile converts as a sign of repentance and cleansing.  But John treated Jewish people, and even the religious leaders, on the same terms as pagans.  All must repent, all must prepare their hearts for the coming of the King.

So what is there in John’s message for us?

First, John says, ‘Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  The word ‘repent’ in the original language means literally to ‘change one’s mind.’  But there is more involved in that.  More accurately, it means to change one’s orientation, or turn from one way of life to another.  There is to acknowledge wrongdoing, and then as John says to ‘bear fruit worthy of repentance.’  John was serious about repentance.  So much so that he calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a ‘brood of vipers’ who believe that they are children of Abraham only by virtue of birth.  John also refers to them as a tree ready to be cut down.

Calling them a ‘brood of vipers’ (meaning children of vipers) was quite a statement. One writer says this, ‘Ancients thought that some kind of vipers ate their way out of their mothers…It was bad enough to be called a viper, but to be called a viper’s child was even worse—killing one’s mother or father was the most hideous crime conceivable in antiquity.’

John was deadly serious about repentance, even to call his leaders on the carpet for their lack of repentance.  To push the case even further, in the next chapter Jesus begins his preaching ministry.  His message?  ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’

It is never easy to hear, ‘Turn yourself around.  Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’  But in that message there is clarity.  In that message there is truth and insight into what we instinctively know.  We know the world is an upside-down place–and we know that we are an integral part of its brokenness.  We are acutely aware of the wrongs we have done and the wrongs done to us.  We must repent, take responsibility for our actions and turn ourselves in the right direction.

Since so much of sin is selfishness, the fruit of repentance takes us from ourselves to others and to God.  There is a characteristic of sin that is consistent regardless of what that sin is.  That characteristic is isolation.  Whether it is as something as obvious as adultery or as subtle as lying these acts make you want to hide out, to go into the shadows.  Sin is debilitating because it separates us from God, from others, and from what God intended us to be.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says,  “He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.”

He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.  Sin puts us in the shadows of our own brokenness.  You’ve known or seen folks who are so addicted or broken or lost that they live in a perpetual state of hiding.  Unable to face who they are or what they’ve become, they never learn to face who they are or what they’ve become.

On the other hand, repentance takes us from our isolation and our shadows into the light of Christ.

Repentance is also, though, something more subtle than feeling bad for doing bad things and walking away from them.  Repentance in John’s thinking is also making preparation.  This is how John saw his own life–his life was a paradigm of preparation.  He was clearing away whatever hindered him from receiving Christ, and he was asking everyone who came to see him to do the same.  John, in his locust eating and clothes of poverty was a living parable for all to see.

Is God asking us to be living parables?  Who here feels called to be a prophet of the wilderness?  I strongly believe there are some who are called to live a monastic or semi-monastic kind of life.  The laxity in our own tradition is due to the lack of just those kind of folks.  But most of us are called to live in community among our families and in our church.  What can that look like?

My challenge last week was for us to do the Christmas thing differently.  The way we do Christmas is often an obstacle to celebrating Christmas in the first place.  It has become the greediest time of year.  I know of one family in this church who has decided to put their money that they would have used for gifts towards a two thirds world ministry and to a couple of the ministries that we are now engaged in at Epiphany.  This is a small step.  Advent is a time of preparation, of repentance, of waiting.

Lastly, what was John asking his hearers to prepare for specifically?  The kingdom of heaven.  And what is that exactly?  Briefly, it is what we talked about last week, a life that is characterized by purity of heart, mercy, peacemaking, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.  Those things that Jesus preached about.  John himself, as we shall see next week, may have misunderstood what the kingdom should look like.
‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…’ for those who are prepared, the kingdom of heaven is like nothing our world can imagine.  The coming of Jesus is a scary thing for those who could care less, but it is a wonderful thing for those who are prepared.  When John talks about the ‘winnowing fork’ of the coming king and the ‘baptism in fire’ those are terms that can be intimidating, but are actually realities of healing.  The winnowing fork was used for what, for the harvest.  The fire of the Spirit is what? A transforming fire for those who would believe.

In John’s starkness and purity of life, there was still a message of hope.  A message of healing.

There is still a harvest to be reaped.  There are still people to be healed.  There is still time to change and to be changed.

Where are you with the Jesus stuff?
I just, more than anything else, want you to know Jesus.  I want you to know him as your Lord, but also as your dearest of friends.  And I want you to know that he loves you and he will never, ever forsake you.  He ‘did not come into the world to condemn the world’ but to give you life.

It’s easy to talk about Jesus and Advent and Christmas as if it is all some fairy tale or something ‘out there.’

Advent 1A
2007
Matthew 24

There was an article in Time magazine a couple of years ago entitled, “Why More Americans are Reading and Talking About the End of the World.”  The article mentions the popularity of the “Left Behind” series which had sold more than 50 million copies at the writing of the article.  Time also took a survey and discovered that 59% of Americans believe that the events in the book of Revelation will come true in some way.

There is no doubt that, despite all of the shopping, we live in a world of anxiety and uncertainty.  We look at events around the world and post-Sept 11 and post-Iraq America and we wonder what God is doing.

‘In the fulness of time, God sent his Son…’ so says the apostle Paul.  The time of the birth of Jesus was also a time of tension and anxiety and confusion.  The Jewish people, having endured occupation from the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks, were now occupied by the mighty Roman Empire.  Jerusalem was free, yet not free.  There was an expectancy of something, a move of God, a deliverance.

There were various responses to Roman occupation.  There was compromise, there was prayer, there was separation, and there was militancy.

In Matthew 24, Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem and Jesus has just pronounced a series of ‘woes’ against the Pharisees.  But as the disciples walk around the city, they are amazed at the Temple, which was under a nearly 100 year renovation (begun by Herod the Great).  Jesus then goes on to tell them that not one of the stones of the Temple would be on top of another and he then alludes to his coming in great power, as well as the cost of following him–their very lives.

The apostles ask a simple question, ‘when will these things take place?’  In Jesus answer, there is contained truth about the destruction of the Temple, and their need to be watchful for his return.

This is an Advent passage, a reflection on Jesus coming for a second and powerful time.  But it is also a passage of response.  What do you do when the days are uncertain?  How do you respond to the enemies of God?  What does God do and when will he answer?

I want to start with one response to times of uncertainty.  I was inspired in my Advent sermons to use material from Eugene Peterson’s book, The Jesus Way.  If Jesus says he is the ‘way,’ then there must also be other ways that are not the way.  Most of those ways we are familiar with and I hope we can move away from this Advent.

When Jesus reflects on the Temple, there is a tragic note there.  Today I do not want to focus on the Temple itself, but the architect of its renovation, because he shows us a ‘way’ that is all too common in our world.

What do you do when the world around you is crashing in?  You use everything in your power to gain as much power as possible.  This was the game plan of Herod the Great.  37 years before the birth of Jesus, Herod was faced with a decision, do I let a rival Jew take my land, or do I appeal to Ceasar Augustus, compromising all that I value and believe in?  Do I reach a compromise with my own people and lose control over the land dad game me, or do I reach for the heights and compromise with the Gentiles, the enemies of God?

We know what Herod did.  He reached out to Rome, conquered Jerusalem and was named by Caesar Augustus and Marc Antony “The King of the Jews.”  He then became a master builder constructing cities and the great harbor city Caesarea Martima (Caesar by the Sea).  He constructed Greek Stadia and Theaters for Greek games and entertainment, even in Jerusalem, and he funded (through heavy taxation) a 90 year project to renovate and reconstruct the Temple of the Lord–a gift to the Jewish people.

His Gentile subjects were gifted with temples to their gods by Herod, and as one writer put it, ‘for Herod, these were acts that established diplomatic relations and made Judea less of a second class player in the Roman Empire.’  In Herod’s mind, he was putting his people back on the map.  Of course his people saw him as a sacrilege to Jewish faith and life.

But such was the way of Herod.  And once he reached the heights, once he was no longer a second class world leader, he did what many do when they reach this point–he would be damned before he gave any of it up.  There was no room for anyone else in Herod’s world, but Herod.  He became a tyrant.  Listen to Peterson’s description, “He became a virtual monster, hated by everyone, massacring at whim.  Executions were routine.  Twice, when he had to be away on dangerous political business, he arranged with a confidante that if for any reason he failed to return, his favorite wife, Mariamne (he had ten wives), was to be killed–he couldn’t think of anyone else having her.  He was passionately in love with her, but it was typically Herodoan kind of love, love of possession, not a person.”  Of course, he ended up killing her eventually because of jealousy.  He also killed his uncle Joseph, his mother in law Alexandra, and three of his sons.  Caesar Augustus, a friend of Herod’s said, ‘I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.’

Herod’s intention before his death was, on the day of his death, have popular Jewish elders all over Palestine executed so there would be mourning and lamentation, for he knew he was hated by his own people.  Thankfully, his orders were not followed through, but this was Herod’s way.  It is no surprise that Herod’s Christmas gift to Bethlehem was to slaughter innocent baby boys in search of the messiah.   I love Herod’s quote from Zeffereli’s movie, “There will be no messiah’s born in my Kingdom.”

Herod the Great was gone when Jesus spoke to his disciples, but his son still ruled.  But it was Herod’s Temple that was in Jesus’ sights that day.  Not only did Jesus predict the end of the Temple and its sacrifices, he predicted the end of Herod’s way–and all who would follow Herod’s way in all times and in all places.  The architecture of Herod would give way to a manger and a cross.  The Jesus way.

Herod’s way says that when the going gets tough, the tough kill everyone in their way.  When the kingdom is not as it should be, you do everything in your power to make sure you make your way to the top and to hell with anyone who gets in your way.

The Jesus way says, when the going gets tough, build a boat.  When the going gets tough, live like you are awake, watching for God to do something.

‘As it was in the days of Noah.’  While everyone is looking to be a little Herod, while everyone is shopping, while everyone is trying to fill their minds with distractions, build a boat, because the flood is coming.  Stay awake, for you do not know when the day of the Lord is coming.

In the ancient world, there were no police officers to watch over your house.  There were no alarm systems.  If you were poor and you lived in the ‘hood, which was the majority of the population, you had to be alert for thieves, who could enter through the roof.  Dad, or dad’s appointed person had to virtually stay up all night to make sure the house wasn’t robbed.  That posture, being alert, is what Jesus is calling for.

But what does that look like?  It doesn’t mean stockpiling goods and weapons.  The coming of Jesus is dramatic and powerful, the Scripture says so, but the waiting is Jesus’ kind of waiting.  It is not building a community of fear and hand wringing.  Matthew tells us exactly what that is.

Jesus’ kingdom is not like Herod’s kingdom.  Jesus’ way is not like Herod’s way.  Therefore, to wait on Jesus’ kingdom is to live a Jesus kind of way.  To build and to watch is to live a life worthy of the kingdom of heaven.  What does that look like?

Peterson asks, and I with him, why did Jesus not use Herod as a role model for building a kingdom?  If anyone knew how to gain friends from all kinds of diverse opinions and who knew how to leverage his way to the top, why wouldn’t Jesus do the same thing?  Jesus aims were the same as Herod’s, build a kingdom.  So why not look at someone who did it right, and just add godliness and righteousness to the mix?

But Jesus had a totally different definition of kingdom.

Matthew 5 and Matthew 25 tell us exactly what it looks like.  It is the total opposite of Herod.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And Matthew 25 says ‘I was hungry..I was thirsty…I was a stranger…’ “Whatever you have done for the least of these…”

The end times and the second coming of Jesus may be hard concepts for us to understand.  But getting there is straightforward.  It is to live by the kingdom principles, in both disposition and action.

In light of all of this, how can we do Chirstmas differently this year?  I am proud that many of you are stepping forward in faith to say that this Christmas you are going to follow Jesus words–to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to welcome the stranger and to visit the sick and imprisoned.  I know there are initiatives in the church to do just that.  This is what Advent is all about.  Find a way to make it different this time.  ‘Be ready’ by practicing kingdom principles.

To close, Herod built a palace 7 miles south of Jerusalem called the Herodium.  This was the place he wanted to be buried.  Its ruins can still be seen.  Herod built it as a man made mountain in the desert, a castle to proclaim his name forever.  There are still visitors to the Herodium.  But what kind of visitors are they?  Curiosity seekers.  No worshipers, no one to proclaim the greatness of Herod, no pilgrims.

But in a tiny village that is actually one of the most dangerous places in the world right now, there are still worshipers, pilgrims, seekers of God.  In fact in this place the tourists and curiosity seekers are too afraid to visit.  In that little town of Bethlehem.

Stay tuned.