Epiphany II

Sermon for Camp Allen Chapel

Navasota, Texas

By the Reverend Martha Frances

Year A, Epiphany II

20 January 2008

 

Text:  John 1: 29-42

Others:  Isaiah 49: 1-7; Psalm 40: 1-12; I Corinthians 1: 1-9

 

In today's Gospel, we peek into 2 days in the life of John the Baptist & his disciples, the day after Jesus came to him for baptism.   John is sharing with his disciples, & he sees Jesus across the way.  A group of disciples has surrounded John as he preached & baptized out in the desert, & I see in John a remarkable man, a charismatic man who has gathered a following by telling them to straighten up their acts, repent, & return to God, & he's well on his way to developing a mega-church out there in the wilderness.   Pointing to Jesus, he calls him Lamb of God & encourages his disciples to pay attention to Jesus .  How many pastors would be secure enough to do that?

When John points to Jesus & calls him the Lamb of God,   the Jewish people would have remembered the lamb of Isaiah's servant songs as well as the Passover lamb, bringing to mind many Old Testament images.   Through well-chosen symbols, John points to Jesus as redeemer of the world's sin.  Notice the word "sin" in this passage is singular—one sin—the world's collective brokenness, not just individual human sins.   Jesus' redemption is of the world, & not even the whole world's sin is too much for Jesus to conquer.

John says next that he himself did not know Jesus until the Holy Spirit descended upon him & identified him.   Now we could argue all day about whether John & Jesus, cousins according to the evangelist, had grown up together, but I believe John's comment means that he didn't know that Jesus was the Lamb of God until the Spirit identified him & remained with him.   John's willingness to step aside & defer to Jesus might have been the powerful experience John had in recognizing the Holy Spirit in the form of that dove?   John had been out there in the Jordan River baptizing for quite a while, apparently, so can't you imagine his surprise when he baptized Jesus with water & then the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove? 

Twice John tells us that the Holy Spirit came & remained with Jesus, & that word is important:  remained.  One translation is that God "pitched a tent" among us.  God came to live with us, to remain with us, to be present with us in the long run.   John's responsibility in this process is to testify, to witness to, God's presence as Jesus, the Lamb of God.  So John tells us on the 1 ^st of these 2 days who Jesus is: the Lamb of God, the Son of God.

Then on the 2^nd day, John the Baptist does a really remarkable thing:   he repeats Jesus' identity to the 2 disciples with him: Jesus is the Lamb of God.  He implies that they should follow Jesus & they do.   Just like that; they don't stop to have a going-away dinner with John, telling him what a great teacher he's been;  they just follow Jesus.  John has prepared them to follow another.  John focuses not on his own ability as a leader but on pointing the disciples toward the one who comes after him & baptizes with the Holy Spirit.   After this, John the Baptist just disappears from the scene.  He has done his job, & the focus turns fully to Jesus.

Now we follow the 2 disciples as they encounter Jesus the first time.   Jesus turns, sees them following, & asks a question, a usual way the writer of the Fourth Gospel allows us to know what's going on in the story. "What are you looking for?"   Jesus wants to know what their expectations are, what they are searching for.  Their answer, "Rabbi," shows their expectations for Jesus are really limited.   Jesus certainly is a teacher, but the surprise of their lives is that he is so much more.  How much have they misunderstood Jesus as Lamb & even Son of God.  

They want to know, "Where are you staying?"   Do they really want to know where he's sleeping at night?  It's possible, especially if they have been traveling for awhile with John the Baptist, spreading a camel's hair robe in the wilderness right there beside the Jordan.  

However, "where are you staying" can be read at a deeper level, too.   The Greek word for stay shows the relationship of God, Jesus, & the Spirit with one another & with believers is permanent, not sporadic.   Jesus doesn't answer them directly but issues an invitation, "Come & see."  What an invitation: come & see!   Jesus answers by inviting, encouraging further inquiry, further exploration into the spiritual life, into relationship.

How do the disciples respond?   The Gospel writer describes their response with 3 action verbs:  they came, they saw, & they remained.  First, they came with Jesus.  They followed him.  The word used here doesn't just mean they followed like we might follow a crowd to find out what's going on.   This word for "followed" means they became his disciples.  They respond very simply to the invitation to "come & see" by following.

Many of you came to Jesus years ago, & this part of discipleship may seem old hat to you: been there, done that.   However, discipleship must be ever-renewed, & I suspect that for some of you, discipleship is a little rusty.  At this time in your life, your discipleship might need dusting off, oiling up, & exercising a little.   Perhaps that's why you're at Camp Allen this weekend.   How might Jesus be calling you to follow at this time in your life?  Will you be curious to see what new thing following Jesus might mean in your life today?   Could be pretty exciting!

In addition, they saw.  Can't you just imagine how wide-open & alert the disciples' eyes were as they followed Jesus that day?  I'll bet they not only saw where he was staying but also saw him teaching & perhaps healing, going about the tasks of making God visible to God's people.   They began to see Jesus perform the acts of mercy & love which we see described throughout the Gospels.  Which of Jesus' acts of love would you like to have seen that day?   Don't you imagine those 2 disciples had a lot to tell their friends?  Are your eyes open to the acts of mercy & love which go on in your life every day?   When kind things happen to you or to someone else near you, do you identify them as gifts of Christ working in the world even today?  Throughout the Gospels, Jesus cautions the disciples that "they who have eyes to see, let them see."  

Finally, the disciples remained.  The evangelist tells us they came & saw where he was staying &—listen to this—"they remained with him that day."  There's that word again—remain.   Now, the disciples remain; now, they're the ones pitching their tents with Jesus.  We are told one of these disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.  We know Andrew became one of Jesus' closest disciples.   He stuck with Jesus throughout his earthly ministry, & legend has it he was martyred.  Andrew remained.  There's a permanence about the way these disciples turned from their allegiance to John the Baptist & became disciples of Jesus.   With chaos in some denominations today, it is very tempting for some folks to go find a new church or just stay home & watch the tele-evangelists on Sunday mornings.  Let me urge you to remain involved in the faith community of your choice. 

In this story of the call of disciples, let's observe Andrew, one of my favorite Biblical characters.   What was Andrew's first action as one of Jesus' disciples?  Today's gospel tells us he first found his brother Simon, saying to him, "We have found the Messiah."  Andrew began to behave as a disciple right away.  He introduced someone else to Jesus.   In fact, as it turns out, Andrew followed the model of his former teacher John the Baptist.  He introduced Simon to Jesus & then stepped back, letting his brother take the lead as the chief disciple in Jesus' band of followers.   But from the beginning, Andrew knew that he had found the Messiah, the Anointed One.

Remaining is something many folks in our society have a difficult time doing.  Sounds too much like a commitment, perhaps.   But there's someone in your acquaintance—perhaps a work colleague or a neighbor—yearning for a faith community right now.  Someone out there needs your invitation to "Come & see."  That's what it means for us to move from maintenance to mission:  we need a lot of Andrews saying to those around us, "Come & see what Christ is doing in this place."

So we really have a pretty good model here in this Gospel for becoming & developing as disciples, don't we?   First, God reveals Godself to us just as God did to John the Baptist.  God always makes the first move.  Sometimes, we have a go-between just as John was for the disciples who left him & followed Jesus.  But God is always there to receive us when we choose to respond to God's call.   What new call to discipleship is Christ calling you to at this time in your faith-life?  How does God want to renew you, to deepen your faith-walk at this time in your life?  

Epiphany I

By The Rev. Martha Frances+

First Sunday after the Epiphany

Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

13 January 2008 

Text: Matthew 3: 13-17

Other:  Isaiah 42: 1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43 

      On this the first Baptismal Sunday of 2008, it is our joy to gather together to baptize Chisom Ndubuisi into God's Church and welcome him into this church community.  As we prepare for this awesome responsibility, let's once again open ourselves to the possibilities of transformation which our taking our own baptismal covenant seriously can mean to us personally & in community. 

      After greeting the Magi from the East last week & learning of their journey to visit the new King; after celebrating the Gentles' inclusion & acceptance into the Christian community, we turn now to the 2^nd major theme of Epiphany: the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ & our own baptism made more pertinent by Chisom's baptism.

      Jesus decides to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. John protests, recognizing himself as the lesser of the 2, knowing that Jesus' baptism would somehow forever change both their & their followers' lives, & begs Jesus to baptize him instead.

      Jesus' answer to John is a peculiar one, & to understand it, we need to remember both Jesus & John were reared on Hebrew scriptures, understanding the term righteousness, meaning they are fully obedient to the revealed will of God. Jesus calls those who follow him to a higher righteousness than simply what is required by law.  It takes both John & Jesus for God's plan to be fulfilled.  Righteousness is akin to justice in which all things, all people, indeed all creation are put back in order, returned to balance, "righted" as we would set right a lopsided chair. 

      Why did Jesus, the sinless one, have to be baptized by John with a baptism for forgiveness of sin?  In what better way could Jesus show his solidarity with people than to be baptized?  Jesus was indeed fully human.

      Notice the first intent & action comes from God.  God calls both Jesus & John to be obedient, to a radical fidelity to God's commands.  Then, at the moment of John's baptism of Jesus, God's assurance pours upon Jesus publicly.  The heavens open, the Spirit of God descends dove-like upon Jesus, & a heavenly voice says, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

      God is not addressing Jesus privately but pointing Jesus out to John & the others there at the Jordan.  Matthew tells this story as an epiphany, a showing-forth of Jesus to all as both God's Son & also the Suffering Servant we heard about in the Isaiah lesson today.  At this moment when Jesus' purpose is made manifest, with Jesus on the brink of public ministry, God's words & actions are reminiscent of God's dove-like movement over the chaotic waters at creation & also prepare us for Jesus' passion when he must suffer as God's servant.  Themes of many Old Testament stories are recalled in the blessing prayer over the baptismal waters we'll pray in a few minutes.  Please listen carefully.

      Now there's a danger in our picturing Jesus' baptism & thinking that something spectacular should happen to Chisom before or during his baptism if it's real.  So we expect fireworks.  How can we presume that the almighty God to whom we prayed a minute ago, the Ruler of the Universe, would not be powerful enough to accomplish God's purpose in Chisom's or indeed our becoming daughters & sons of God?  It doesn't matter whether that happened at our parents' decision when we were infants or children as is true with Chisom today or if it happened by our own decision when we were teens or adults.  God is faithful & will do the job completely—God doesn't make mistakes.  We are called upon to trust, having faith that God's purpose has been accomplished, just right, the first time.

      Nor do we have to reach some level of perfection to come forward for baptism. Baptism is not the graduation—the prize—for having lived a Godly life.  Baptism is the entrance rite, the beginning of a life in Christ, just as Jesus' baptism was the announcement of Jesus' public ministry.  In baptism, God is the chief actor; we are called only to respond faithfully, not perfectly. 

      When we stand with Chisom & his family & godparents in a few minutes, we stand as a community of Hope, the village that it takes to rear a child, as we did with big brother Tobe last year & Chidera several years ago & quite a few infants & children & teens since we've been together as Hope, solemnly promising to be an extended family for our youngest Christians, modeling covenant behavior so that they & we might be lights in the world, becoming more Christ-like just as Jesus came to earth to be like us. 

      You might say, "But I'm too busy just surviving to take on such a responsibility."  However, the Baptismal Covenant is simply the practical enfleshing of Jesus' 2 great commandments: to love God with all our hearts, souls, & minds, & to love our neighbors as ourselves.  What, my brothers & sisters in Christ, is more important than fulfilling these promises in our community lives?  And HOW do we make good on these promises?  By prayer & by putting feet & hands to our prayers, my friends.  Let's look at the covenant briefly & then, when we stand to renew it in a few minutes, let us do so in hopeful prayer, knowing that God can do for us more than we can ask or imagine.  I will wager that this community's honest openness to live out these promises in our lives will grow the church, deepen our faith & God's wisdom in our lives, & solve our financial conundrum.

      You may follow me in the Book of Common Prayer on pages 304-305 if you'd like.  First, we state a basic incarnational faith in a Trinitarian God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit using the Apostles' Creed, an early statement of faith.  Want to know more about this & other creeds?  Join our confirmation class on Wednesday nights after Easter, even if you've been confirmed for years.  Christian education & formation is a life-long process.

      Who we should be as a gathered community is the first promise to which we respond, "I will, with God's help."  The early Christian fellowships, even before they were called Christian, grew exponentially by coming together at least weekly to pray, to share a communion meal, to learn from those who've come before, & to enjoy each other in community.  Not just when it's convenient, folks, but weekly unless seriously hindered from attendance.  If you're ill, please call the church office so we can send Eucharistic visitors out to bring the bread & wine to you so that you are still in communion with the gathered community.  Our own faith deepens when we gather in small groups during the week to pray & study scripture & care for one another.

      The next promise recognizes that we all sin.  I know; that's a great shock to some people, but it doesn't say if we sin but rather whenever!  Gaining strength in resisting evil takes the form of telling God we're sorry & that we want to amend our ways whenever we find ourselves in sin.  We have general confession during most worship services.  The Episcopal Church also offers private confession for anyone who needs to acknowledge persistent sin & let go of it.  As your priest, I am always ready to hear your confession & then we'll use a prayer book liturgy to put what weighs on your heart behind you & begin new life.

      St. Francis tells us that we need to preach the Good News of God in Christ to everyone we meet, using words when absolutely necessary.  We all know actions speak louder than words, & our proclaiming the Gospel in going about our daily lives inevitably reaches more people.  We don't do this to earn salvation; that's a gift of God's grace.  We show God's love in our lives out of sheer gratitude for all God has done for us.  How many ways can we become more intentional in walking the walk?

      Before Peter baptized Cornelius & his family, he revealed a new learning for him.  We read in Acts today that God shows no partiality, accepting all from any nation who seek God.  A new concept to the Jewish Peter, but we've heard all our lives that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, yet there are those people in whom we find it hard to see Christ, much less serve Christ.  Let's start today praying to see Christ in every person whom we meet, even those who bother us the most, & then pray that, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we respond to the Christ in each person.  Not easy, my friends, but at the very heart of the Gospel.

      Finally, when we respect the dignity of every human being, not just those we meet but also the masses who need justice & peace just as much as we do, then we must become involved in larger movements actively making a difference in the world.  Yes, we choose vehicles which meet our heart's concerns most closely—perhaps Episcopal Relief & Development or Heifer Project or Bread for the World which is holding a workshop here the end of the month—or packing a care package for soldiers overseas or clothing the tattered at Lord of the Streets or exploring how many ways our prayer & action can help fulfill those Millennium Development Goals.  We do not have the luxury of expecting someone else to strive for justice & peace & work for the dignity of all others.  As Christians, it's part of our job description—every one of us!

      Quite a list, isn't it?  And yes, we already do some of what these promises call us to do.  In a few minutes when we stand to renew them in our lives, may we do so with our ears & hearts open to how God will help us fulfill them more fully, for Chisom's sake as well as our own.  Amen.  Alleluia!

Epiphany

By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Epiphany
6 January 2008 

Text: Matthew 2: 1-12; Other:  Isaiah 60: 1-6, 9; Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14; Ephesians 3: 1-12 

      Today is Epiphany, an older celebration than Christmas, & originally, 3 events were celebrated on this day: the Magi's visit to the baby Jesus, the baptism of Jesus, & Jesus' first miracle at a Canaan wedding.  Next Sunday we'll explore the baptismal theme as we baptize Chisom Ndubuisi; today, we'll look at the Wise Men's trip to Bethlehem.

      Of course, anyone who has ever heard the Christmas story or sung Christmas carols knows the story of the Magi, the wise men who came from the East to worship & bring gifts to the new baby Jesus.  Our Gospel reading coming from Matthew today tells the story—12 short verses Matthew uses to set the stage in many ways for the whole story of Jesus' earthly life, ministry, & eventually, his death.  This story is dear to most Christians, so let's look at how it connected Matthew's community to their Jewish heritage & how we might connect with it, learning from it for our lives today.

      Matthew goes to great pains throughout his Gospel to show Jesus' story as fulfillment of Jewish prophecies that a messiah would come.  The setting of the Wise Men's story is Bethlehem, assuring those who expected it that Jesus was heir to King David since Bethlehem was David's city.  Joseph, Mary & Jesus were living in Bethlehem at the time, perhaps as much as 2 years after Jesus' birth.  Remember that Herod has all males under 2 years in Bethlehem killed?

      I know: we've seen the nativity scenes with shepherds, angels, & wise men all attending baby Jesus at once.  However, the manger scene didn't become part of the Christmas celebration until St. Francis invented it as a teaching tool in the 13^th Century, & trying to make this story jibe with Luke's is futile.

      Who knows exactly who the magi were?  They've been called everything from wise men to astrologers to oriental kings, but we DO know they were from the East, they were men of some fortune, & they were Gentiles, not Jews.  We see that most of Jesus' ministry was to Jewish people, but from the beginning of his life, we're also assured the glorious gift of salvation is open to all, even strangers from another part of the world.  These men didn't have to know the intricacies of Jewish prophecy to recognize Jesus as a king.  They came to him led by a star.  Lots of people have tried to figure out the historicity of the special star, & you know what?  There's no logical explanation.  In fact, that's just the point: God can use whatever means God wants to call all people to worship Jesus as the messiah, the Christ.  This ought to make us rather cautious about OUR limiting God's ways of reaching out to us humans to only those ways we consider "appropriate."  Throughout the history of God's actions with God's people, God has done some rather amazing things to garner our attention. 

      Then there's the Magi's side trip to Herod's court.  Of course, they were important dignitaries coming from a far country, so protocol called for them to make a courtesy visit to the King of Judah, old Herod the Great.  Herod was a puppet ruler for the Romans, not too secure in his kingly position, so he felt particularly threatened when the Magi came looking for a king of the Jews.  Herod quizzed the Jewish leaders as to the Messianic prophecy.  They explored their scriptures, including the Isaiah & psalm passages we read today, & told Herod—who passed the word on to the magi—to check out Bethlehem.

      There's more than meets the eye to this simple story of a nervous king who, the text tells us, with all Jerusalem wondered what kind of ruler this messiah was purported to be.  When we remember the final chapters of Jesus' life, we discover more enemies:  another Herod, King of Judea, & a group of religious leaders, all of whose positions are threatened if what people claimed about Jesus were true.  According to Matthew, the opposition began when Jesus was just a child, not having done anything but be born.  Herod's request to the wise men was the ultimate in hypocrisy.  Herod didn't want to worship the child; he wanted to destroy Jesus!

      It has taken the magi quite a while to find Jesus, but when they do, they are overwhelmed with joy.  Matthew says the wise men "proskyneo" Jesus—which means they worship by prostration; in other wards, they stretch their whole bodies out on the floor before the child.  Jewish people would only prostrate themselves before God.  The magi aren't Jewish, but they respond to God's invitation by worshiping the child & presenting gifts. 

      There is a joke going around that the magi's gifts prove they are male.  After all, women would have brought pampers, body lotion, & baby blankets, leaving frozen casseroles to make Mary's life simpler for awhile!  But gold, frankincense & myrrh were gifts befitting a king, & each represents elements of Jesus' future life & death.

      Fortunately for Jesus, the magi valued dreams & didn't mark this one off to indigestion.  For Matthew & the wise men, dreams were important communication tools God uses for humans.  Tragically, since the magi didn't tell Herod where to find the Christ child, Herod resorted to a mass assassination of male children.  Puts us in memory of the hard-hearted Pharoah who almost did Moses in, doesn't it?  Naturally, Matthew intended the hearers to remember those stories of old. 

      For us today, the Church has always read the Magi's worship of the baby Jesus as assurance that salvation through the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus Christ is open to all people, not just those of Jewish heritage.  Years later, at the Council of Jerusalem, the early Christian leaders determined that a seeker didn't have to be circumcised & become a Jew first in order to become Christian.  But the root message is right here: people very different from Jews are welcome to come & worship Jesus.  Thus, the racial & cultural barrier has been broken down.

      Further, these Magi were men of wealth & power.  They traveled as comfortably as possible, on camels rather than on foot.  They brought lavish gifts which reveal their knowledge of Jesus' identity:  gold for Christ's royalty, frankincense from an Asian or African tree to produce smoke for worship, & myrrh to anoint bodies for burial & therefore as a symbol of suffering & death to foretell Christ's giving himself for others.  Mary & Joseph accepted these gifts graciously.  There are no economic barriers to entering Christ's community.  You can neither be too poor nor too wealthy to be a Christian.  Both are held accountable for how the gifts God has given them are used.

      These men endured a long, perilous journey to visit the Christ Child.  The shepherds, just outside town, dropped all they were doing to rush to see baby Jesus quickly, but the Magi's journey was longer & more complicated.  Some of us come rather quickly & easily to a personal relationship with Christ, perhaps because an older relative or friend modeled a transparent faith for us.  For many more of us, I suspect, the journey to prostrate ourselves at Jesus' feet has been somewhat more arduous.  In fact, truth be told, some may still be searching for the Christ Child's stable.  In our heart of hearts, we may still wonder why we must give our ALL to this Jesus. 

      Even for those whose journey brings us yearly back to Jesus' feet at the manger, the story of the Magi is for us.  The Magi's journey involved quite a struggle, & it was tempting, I'm sure, for them to have returned to their comfortable palaces & harems without ever having found the Christ Child.  There persistence was rewarded, however, by their finding the King of the Jews & the King of the World.

      We're not told what happened after the Magi left Mary & her child.  Nothing more, at least, than their avoidance of Herod on their return trip.  What occurred next is the rest of the story, not just for them but also for us.  That's the part we must write, not for the Magi, but for ourselves.  What does it matter to us that God was born like us, a human baby, seen as divine by some, but recognized as special first by a multitude of common folk among whom he lived, ministered, & opened up a new way of life?  That's the big difference between our faith & that of other world religions, you know.  God-made-flesh dwelt among us, walking the walk as well as talking the talk so we can become more God-filled. 

      Epiphany is the season for shining the Christ-light into the world, inviting all across barriers to come & worship Christ & let the Christ-light set our hearts on fire.  We are challenged at Hope to be light-bearers, to one another & to the larger world.  We must avail ourselves of opportunities to pray, to study, to worship, to kindle our fires such that we may shine & inspire & make a difference in the world.  We've been lighting the fire as community for almost three years now, folks.  To be Christ-bearers in the larger world will require a more mature commitment in 2008 for us to fulfill our financial & ministry obligations & keep the fire alight & visible to an often-dark & dreary world.  It's going to take us all.  What gifts are you willing to offer? Will you take the chance to allow Christ to make of you a gift to the world?  Come, let us journey together!