Jesus Got Ticked Off (Mark 9 and Matthew 23)

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone throwing demons out in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.”

Jesus replied, “Don’t stop him.  No one who does powerful acts in my name can quickly turn around and curse me.  Whoever isn’t against us is for us.  I assure you that whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will certainly be rewarded.”

“As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and to be thrown into the lake.”

 

[Jesus said,] “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees!  Hypocrites!  You shut people out of the kingdom of heaven.  You don’t enter yourselves, and you won’t allow those who want to enter to do so.”

How terrible it will be for you, legal experts and Pharisees!  Hypocrites!  You travel over sea and land to make one convert.  But when they’ve been converted, they become twice the child of hell you are.”

“How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites!  You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith.  You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting about those more important matters.  You blind guides!  You filter out an ant but swallow a camel.

“How terrible if will be for you legal experts and Pharisees!  Hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of violence and pleasure seeking.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup so that the outside of the cup will be clean too.

“How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees!  Hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs.  They look beautiful on the outside.  But inside they are full of dead bones and all kinds of filth.  In the same way, you look righteous to people.  But inside you are full of pretense and rebellion.

 

There’s at least one in every crowd.  Whether in a classroom, the workplace, the ball field, the PTA, or even a church, there’s always a few people who are a little more impressed with themselves than they probably should be.  It’s the person with the knowledge that they are a little bit smarter, better, more-skilled or qualified, or holier than everyone else, and it is their self-appointed mission in life to share this knowledge, lest anyone be unaware of their proper place in the social rankings.

 

You’d think at some point they’d get tired of tootin’ their own horn, but folks who are full of hot air can do an awful lot of horn tootin.’  Personally, I find it to be both tiresome and annoying.  Apparently, so did Jesus.  You might even say it’s the kind of thing that got Jesus ticked off.

 

Today’s message is part of a series called “Surprising Things They Never Told You About Jesus.”  We are looking at episodes in his life that often get missed in the ways we think about, and discuss, and understand Jesus.

 

Friends, the goal of this series is to help all of us get to know Jesus a little better, even if what we find out makes us a little uncomfortable or challenges what we think we know about him.  Last week, we learned this surprising thing about Jesus: Jesus could party.  That is perhaps surprising because so many Christians are just so serious all the time, you’d never guess that they follow a guy who graciously invites us to a joyful, endless party, and is himself the life of the party.  But, surprise surprise - Jesus could party, and he invites us to celebrate with him.

 

Today, we learn this surprising thing about Jesus: Jesus got ticked off.  This one’s a lot easier to believe, because Christians get ticked off all the time!  The surprising twist, however, is that the things many Christians get all twisted up about aren’t really the things Jesus got worked up over.  We see that in today’s Scripture readings from the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

 

In Mark chapter 9, Jesus’ disciples come to Jesus with a complaint about someone from outside their group who was doing good and powerful work in Jesus’ name.  They are essentially tattling on this outsider, “He’s not one of us, Jesus!  Make him stop!”

 

We get the clear message, however, that all this finger-pointing won’t earn points with Jesus.  They needn’t be so concerned with what someone else is or isn’t doing; rather, they should give some attention to their own behavior.  In fact, Jesus tells the disciples to lay off, because their eagerness to bring judgment on this outsider is a particular danger to their own well-being.

 

Think of this way.  Are you supposed to point at people?  Why?  When I was a little kid, I thought the Pointer Sisters were going to be in big trouble if their mother ever found out what they were up to.  Just for a minute, point at the person next to you, and notice what your hand is doing.  You’ve heard the saying that whenever you point your finger at someone else, you have three fingers pointed right back toward yourself.  Our mothers rightly trained us not to point - not only is it rude, but pointing out the shortcomings of others serves only to incriminate ourselves, and according to Jesus, places us in a precarious position.

 

In particular, we are warned against creating difficulty in the faith journey of “little ones.”  This can refer to children, but it can also refer to people who are new to the faith, exploring the faith, even outside the faith.  Jesus gets ticked off when we get so wrapped up in what others are doing and pointing out their shortcomings.  He got ticked off at his disciples for doing it, and then in Matthew chapter 23, he really lets the Pharisees and legal experts have it for taking it even further.

 

Jesus finds them busy judging and condemning like it was their job, which it sorta was, and he really let them have it!  What Jesus says to them is probably the most condemning thing he said to anyone.  When we read those words, you could just feel the indignation in Jesus’ voice.  I’m not going to go into detail on what Jesus said to them - you’ve already heard it, you’ve already gotten the tone and meaning and intensity of Jesus’ feeling on this matter.  He very pointedly tells them that both they and their faith are nothing more than a sham, the equivalent of religious smoke and mirrors, that they may look fine and wonderful and upstanding and virtuous on the outside, but on the inside, they are empty at best, and disgustingly filthy at worst.

 

Caveat here: not exactly the best strategy if you’re trying to win friends and influence people.  Jesus spoke this bare truth to powerful people, and you can imagine they didn’t particularly care for his tone.  If you speak truth to power, there will be consequences.  Eventually, it got Jesus killed.

 

The temptation that is constantly before the people of faith is to quickly point at others, to point out what “they” have done, what “they” are getting away with, how “they” are ruining things.  We all grow strangely quiet when our attention shifts to passages like the ones we’ve read today, where Jesus is harsh toward those who are harsh, where he condemns those who condemn, where he pronounces judgment against all those who judge. Jesus invites us to consider more closely what is being done with our own hands and feet, our own thoughts, our own words, our own deeds.

 

Many times, like the disciples, like the Pharisees, like the legal experts, we are quick to harshly judge all that is “out there,” when we would all be better served by a closer examination of what’s “in here.”  It’s as though Jesus is saying, “Don’t worry about others - they are not the problem.  Rather, look to yourselves.  How are you getting in the way of the gospel?  How are you a stumbling block?  How are you placing barriers on the path between God and the very people he loves?”

 

With such a clear warning from Jesus about judging or excluding or causing a little one to stumble, I would rather err on the side of grace than judgment, of inclusion rather than exclusion.  I will have to give an account for my life one day, as will you, and I’d rather be accused of being too gracious and loving rather than too judgmental and exclusionary.  Jesus is clear here: it would be better to get thrown into a lake with a stone around my neck than to exclude or separate someone else from God’s presence.

 

Jesus reminds us that there is more than enough sin within each of us to deal with, so why should we be so concerned with the sins of everyone else?  There is enough rebellion and disobedience and separation within me to keep me and God busy for a lifetime, so why get caught up in what I perceive to be the shortcomings of others?

 

I am well aware that the world in which we live is a far cry from what God intends it to be.  It’s tempting to focus on those we consider to be the evil-doers and try to make them shape up and fly right.  But at the end of the day, none of us can make anyone else do anything.  Focusing on and trying to fix the sins of others isn’t going to get any of us anywhere.  So instead, start in the place where you can make the biggest difference: yourself.

 

There’s a line in the Gospel song, Put Your Hand in the Hand, that says, “Take a look at yourself and you can see others differently / by putting your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.”

 

Friends, if you want the world to be a more Godly place, then start with you.  Each of us is responsible for the behavior of only one person - know who that is?  If you are concerned with all that is wrong “out there,” the best thing you can do is pay attention to everything “in here.”

 

Sometimes, we need the help of someone else to see ourselves clearly; sometimes our own self-perceptions can get in the way.  Personally, I’m grateful for the person who loves me enough to let me know I’ve got a boogie hanging out of my nose, or my fly is down, or I’ve got toilet paper stuck to my shoe and doesn’t just let me go through the day like that.

 

Other people can help us see things in ourselves that we might have otherwise missed or ignored.  I am grateful for those people in my life who both know me well enough and love me enough to point out the places I have made a mistake and need to correct it.

 

But - and this is important - what gives them the right to say something is the fact that I know they love me.  It presumes an already-existing relationship that is based on mutual trust and care.  I can hear it when I know that the person cares about me and has my best interest at heart, as well as a concern for what is best for the entire body of Christ.

 

Yes, it is important to speak the truth, but let us not forget that the people of God are called to speak the truth in love.  The right to speak the truth in love is an earned trust, sown in the soil of a life-giving relationship.

 

Where the disciples got it wrong, where the Pharisees got it wrong, where we continue to get it wrong if we’re not careful, is to make rules without relationships, to insist on guidelines without grace, to enforce laws without love.  Doing so places huge burdens on people and causes them to stumble, and it would be better for us to have a 40-pound stone tied around our neck and take a long walk off a short pier than to be caught up in something like that.

 

We are called to something better.  We are called to be imitators of the God in whose image we are all created (Ephesians 5).  God was demonstrating care for each of us before we were even born, and every rule is born out of relationship, and every guideline is based in grace, and every law is rooted in love.  The relationship piece is really, really important, and it’s the first piece for God, it should be the first piece for us, as well.  The covenant with Abraham came long before the 10 Commandments.  The loving, nurturing, grace-filled relationship always comes first.

 

It’s easy to stand around and make pronouncements and point fingers at people without ever engaging them on a personal, human, relational level.  It is both infinitely harder yet abundantly more faithful to do the long and hard work of getting to know someone and demonstrating that we love them.  Until we’ve done that work, our words will be as hollow whitewashed tombs.

 

No one will care what we think until they have reason to think that we care.

 

What got Jesus ticked off were those who presumed to speak on behalf of God, yet were devoid of God’s love in what they said.  For rules without relationship, guidelines without grace, and laws without love, are empty.

 

When we resist the temptation to point fingers, and instead open our hands and our hearts to each other, that’s something Jesus can get on board with.

Jesus Could Party (John 2:1-11)

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration.  When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They don’t have any wine.”

Jesus replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with me?  My time hasn’t come yet.”

His mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  Nearby were six stone water jars used for the Jewish cleansing ritual, each able to hold about twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim.  Then he told them, “Now draw some from them and take it to the headwaiter,” and they did.  The headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine.  He didn’t know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The headwaiter called the groom and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first.  They bring out the second-rate wine only when the guests are drinking freely.  You kept the good wine until now.”  This was the first miraculous sign that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.  He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  A first impression tends to be a lasting impression.  But, what if your first impression is a false or incomplete impression?  It happens a lot, and I’ve noticed the impressions people have in their minds about Jesus, in particular, are sometimes very incomplete or just plain inaccurate.

 

Today we begin a new series of messages called “Surprising Things They Never Told You About Jesus.”  The Jesus that is often shared in churches is sort of weak, sterile, benign, and well . . . boring!  Then we wonder why more people aren’t excited to get to know him better!

 

In this series, we’re going to look at a few episodes in Jesus’ life that paint a much more robust, interesting, dynamic, and fascinating picture.  Jesus was anything but boring!  Sometimes, the more you get to know someone, you realize you didn’t know them as well as you thought you did.  That’s what I hope will happen for you in these messages.  Whether you’ve known Jesus for a long time, are just getting to know him, or aren’t even sure that you want to get to know him, I promise you’ll walk away from this series with a different picture of him in your head than you’ve ever had before.

 

Today we start the series with this surprising thing they never told you about Jesus: Jesus could party.

 

“Party” is not the first descriptor that comes to mind for Christians

Jesus could party.  What makes this surprising is that, so many Christians are just so serious all the time.  I mean c’mon, Christians are the ones who brought us the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials - we’ve got a reputation for not exactly being the most fun-loving people on the planet!  I have a friend who says, “A Christian is someone who lives their life in fear that somewhere in the world, someone is having fun.”

 

Or, perhaps you’d prefer this quote from John Wesley, founder of Methodism, who said, “Sour godliness is the devil’s religion.”

 

Ashley and I once stayed at a bed-and-breakfast and came into the dining room as some of the other guests were just finishing up.  Without any prompting on our part, the first thing they told us was that they were Christians and which church they belonged to, and then engaged us in a conversation that let us know that they were very hateful, angry, racist, homophobic, sour people.  We listened uncomfortably and when they left, I just looked at Ashley and said, “Wow.  They hate EVERYBODY!  Good thing they told us they were Christians, ‘cause I’d have never figured it out on my own!”

 

The Jesus they know probably isn’t very much fun, and he certainly doesn’t like to party.  Friends, if you’re a Christian, and you’re walking around with a permanent scowl on your face, it might be time to get re-acquainted with Jesus!  (“I’m a Christian - Peace be with you!”  “I’m full of the love of God and neighbor; can’t you tell?”)  As we’ve heard already in today’s Scripture reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus loves to party.

 

In John chapter 2, Jesus, his mother, and his disciples are among the invited guests at a wedding feast.  Unlike our weddings that are typically an afternoon and evening, Jewish weddings at the time of Jesus were a total blow-out - think My Big Fat Greek Wedding and make the party last for a week.  It was three days into the party when the unthinkable happened: they ran out of wine.

 

They don’t have any wine

When we host a party at our house, we always say it’s better to have too much and have some left over than to run out, right?  Rest assured, if you come to a party at our house, there will be plenty of food, plenty of music, plenty of room, plenty to drink.  It has happened that we’ve run low on ice or napkins or something, which is a little embarrassing, but it’s not the end of the world.

 

That’s us, but in the time and place of Jesus, running out of wine isn’t just a social faux pas, it’s a disaster, because wine is a sign of God’s abundance, joy, gladness, and hospitality.  In the Old Testament, wine symbolizes the presence of God (Joel 3:17-18, Isaiah 25:6).  And so, when they run short on wine, they run short on God’s presence and blessing, abundance and joy.  The wine has run out before the wedding is over, and it’s a catastrophe.

 

Jesus’ mother is the one to bring Jesus into the situation.  These are the first words she speaks in John’s Gospel, “They don’t have any wine” (v. 3), she says, alerting Jesus to a problem and implying that he can do something to fix it.  She knew that running out of wine signaled a deep problem, pointing to a scarcity of the presence and blessing of God, which meant this was a job for Jesus.

 

Mary cannot stand by and allow their marriage celebration to have a lasting shame as its memory.  “They don’t have any wine - their wedding will be remembered because the wine ran out, everyone will be talking that the blessing of God ran out, and what should be this great feast and celebration will be remembered as the day when God’s presence was scarce, and there wasn’t enough joy and gladness to go around.  They don’t have any wine, Jesus.  There’s a problem.  Something is wrong.  Do something about it, Jesus!”

 

What does that have to do with me?

Jesus replied, “Woman, what does that have to do with me?” (v. 4)  That sounds kinda rude, but Jesus is probably really just calling her “Ma’am” and the cultural translation sounds harsher to our ears than it really was.  If he really was being rude, the next verse would say, “And then Jesus woke up in the hospital.” - you don’t get away with sassing your Mom, even if you’re Jesus!  Yet the story is still rich with humor. When Mary says they don’t have any wine, you can almost see Jesus swirl the last of the wine in his glass and say, “How is that my problem?  They should have hired a better wedding planner!”

 

Mary pretends she doesn’t hear him as she calls together a staff meeting of the entire catering company and says “You all do whatever my boy Jesus tells you to (v. 5).  Depending on how Jesus responds, this party is either over, or it’s just getting started.

 

If Jesus were boring, when the wine ran out, boring Jesus would have said, “Great!  Now that the wine is gone, turn out the lights because this party is over!  And it’s about time!  So now, the party’s over, and good riddance!  Now we can all go home and get down to serious business.”

 

Jesus kept the party going

That might have been the response from boring Jesus.  Yet, the evidence clearly shows, if you believe the Bible, anyway, that Jesus was more interested in keeping the party going than in killing everyone’s buzz.  “Nearby, there were six stone jars used for the Jewish cleansing ritual, each able to hold about twenty or thirty gallons” (v. 6).  Jesus had them fill the jars up to the brim, and then draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.  The water in the jars had turned into wine, good wine, in fact.

 

Most people put out the good stuff first, and then once everybody is feeling good and can’t tell the difference, switch to the cheap stuff.  At this point in the party, you would have expected Jesus to make some Boone’s Farm or Two-Buck Chuck.  But, no, Jesus turned the water into some top-shelf hooch and gave it away.  He saved the hosts from embarrassment and provided abundantly for all.

 

How abundantly?  Well, run the numbers.  I spent a summer in college making wine, and we sold it in 6-gallon batches.  One batch would make, on average, 27 standard bottles of wine, accounting for some settling of sediment within each 6-gallon batch.  And so, if there were six stone jars full of 30 gallons of water that Jesus turned into wine, that’s the equivalent of 810 bottles of wine.  However you add it up, that’s a lot of wine - a lot of blessing, a lot of God’s presence, a lot of joy, a lot of gladness.

 

Let’s see, 810 bottles of good wine at say, $30 apiece, in our day, would easily have been worth almost $25,000.

That’s a pretty nice wedding gift from Jesus.  Can you hear how that would have gone over with his disciples?  Peter says, “I bought them a toaster.”  John says, “I got them a panini press.  I know they didn’t register for one, but I have one and I just love it and thought they could use one, too!  Hey, Jesus, what did you get them?  What?  C’mon, Jesus!  I thought we agreed on a $50 limit!”

The thing is, though, there are no limits when it comes to God’s goodness.  God’s blessings are abundant as new wine, and life in God’s presence is as joyful as the wedding guests who found their provisions re-stocked and kept the party going.

 

A sign of the kingdom

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ miracles are called signs, meaning they point to a reality beyond themselves.  And so, we don’t pay primary attention to the miracles themselves, as cool as they are, but we look for the greater meaning and message they represent.

 

This is Jesus’ first miracle; don’t miss the significance of that!  It wasn’t a healing, or an exorcism.  He didn’t preach a sermon or teach a Bible study.  Jesus’ first miracle didn’t take place in a Sunday School class or a leadership session, and it certainly didn’t happen in a meeting of the trustees or finance committee.  No, the first miracle from Jesus was at a party, and the thing he did kept the wine flowing and the party going.

 

This first sign of Jesus, of turning water into wine and kicking a good party into high gear to make it a better party, tells us something about the kingdom of God.  When Jesus turns water into wine, he is saying, “This is what the kingdom of God is like - a place of abundance and blessing, of generosity and gratitude, of gladness and joy and an overall good time, where there is never a last-call and the party never stops.”

 

I want to be clear here, too - this isn’t a party that cheapens the experience of life.  God’s party isn’t about getting drunk, it’s not like a frat party or a free-for-all or underage drinking binge or other place where people are drinking for the sake of getting drunk and that’s it.  God’s party is one in which we experience life and experience it abundantly.  So inebriation or deadening of the senses or otherwise cheapening life, whether our own or someone else’s, isn’t the point.  Jesus isn't looking for any "Whooooo-girls."  Rather, when we celebrate and party with Jesus, it’s about enjoying the many splendid and wonderful gifts of God in the company of friends.

 

It’s an image that pre-dates Jesus.  Jesus wasn’t the first one to liken God’s kingdom to a party.  The prophet Isaiah said, “On this mountain, the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavor, of choice wines well refined” (Isaiah 25:6).

 

A feast.  Rich food.  Well-aged choice wines.  Sounds pretty good, right?

 

Jesus will pick up this theme in other places, comparing heaven to a wedding feast and a great banquet, where there is an abundance of good food and fine drink.

 

In the Bible’s final book, Revelation, this theme of a party is picked up again.  “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).  Jesus, the Lamb of God, after evil and death are finally defeated once and for all, throws a never-ending feast, and invites and blesses everyone.

 

Really, with all the evidence, are we all that surprised to discover that Jesus could party?  His first miracle was at a party, and it kept the party going - this is what the kingdom of God is like.

 

Sounds great, unless you’re one of those sour Christians who, unfortunately, aren’t going to enjoy heaven very much.  The kingdom of God sounds like heaven if you want to party with God; it sounds like hell if you prefer sour grapes.  Heaven and hell might very well be the same place - and it’s up to each of us as to whether God’s party will be the source of our greatest joy or our greatest torment.

 

A good party is a sign of the kingdom of God--a good party is a foretaste of heaven.  We are invited to a party where we can taste and see the goodness of the Lord.  It’s a party where grace tastes like fine wine when you’re expecting the cheap stuff, it tastes like plenty to go around when you thought everything had run out.  It’s a party where scarcity is turned into abundance, where even sour grapes are turned into fine wine.

You are invited - we are all invited - to the party.  The kingdom of God is near.  Party on!

 

Gracious God,

We confess that words like “party” and “celebration” are not the words that come first to our minds when we think of the life of faith.  Perhaps we would prefer a faith that is more rigid – more concerned with rules than relationships, more concerned with religion for its own sake than righteousness for your sake.  Forgive us for our lack of imagination.

We have often squashed your joy.  We have been quick to turn out the lights on the party rather than to allow your life-giving Spirit to flow into us and through us.  Free us from the burden of taking ourselves so seriously all the time.  Instill in us the gladness that rightly comes from knowing you.

For those whose faith has soured, whose spirits have become bitter, we ask for a freshness and a lightness to enter their lives again.  Turn their sour grapes into fine wine.

We thank you that there are no limits to your goodness.  Save us from being people who try to contain your presence within boundaries and borders where you have placed none.  Keep us from blocking your joy and presence from others, and when they look at our lives, may we give them an accurate and honest picture of your wonderful, matchless, limitless grace and love. 

We thank you for Jesus, who knew how to party, and invites us to a never-ending joyful celebration.  We accept his invitation gladly, and welcome the abundance of blessing that we share in his presence.  It is in his name that we pray.  Amen.

We Seek the King (Matthew 2:1-12)

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem.  They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

When Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him.  He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born.  They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah, by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah, because from you will come one who governs, who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem saying, “Go and search carefully for the child.  When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.”  When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were filled with joy.  They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother.  Falling to their knees, they honored him.  Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Today is Epiphany. Today is the 12th day of Christmas, you have until sundown to go and find 12 lords-a-leaping to give to your true love.  Epiphany concludes the Christmas season, the season of light, the season of celebrating God’s presence come to us in the person of Jesus.  During December, we focused on preparing for the coming of Jesus by opening ourselves up to his kingdom of hope, peace, joy, and love.  Jesus has made himself known as a babe born in Bethlehem to the Hebrew people, and today, on Epiphany, Jesus makes himself known, by a star’s heavenly light, as a divine gift to all the peoples of the Earth.  He is the Light of the World born into all the dark places of our world and our lives.

That light reaches its brightest intensity today, on Epiphany.  Interestingly enough, the bright star in the sky tips us to the reality that the Gospel Jesus brings is not only for a select few, but is good news for all people.  May we pray.

After Jesus was born, wise men came from the east, even further east than Albemarle.  Wise men, magi, were studying the heavens, looking for a divine connection to God who had flung the stars into place like so many twinkling grains of sand.  And one night, they saw something strange.

These men knew the stars, the constellations, the heavenly bodies.  They knew their rhythmic dance across the night sky as well as you or I might know our ABCs, and one night, something so strange and spectacular appeared off in the distance that they knew it could only be a message from the Lord of heaven and earth, who was speaking to them with a bright and intense star they had never seen before.

They set out from their home in “the East,” we don’t know where exactly, but it was probably Persia, maybe Iran, or one of the something-stan (Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.) countries we seem to be so afraid of.  Now, in our nativity scenes, we usually put the three wise men right there on the other side of the manger from the shepherds, even though we all know better.  The star they saw appeared at Jesus’ birth; when King Herod is trying to figure out when this new “king of the Jews” was born, he asks the magi, in verse 7, when the star appeared to get an approximate age of the child.  The star appeared at his birth, and it likely took them about two years to get there.  They didn’t see baby Jesus, they saw toddler Jesus.  Instead of placing the wise men at the manger, we would do better to put them off at a distance, as far away as we can get them, really.

In truth, if we were going to be completely accurate here, we would get our nativity scene out during Advent, pop baby Jesus in there on Christmas Eve as we already do, take the whole thing down and put it away, and then about two years later, move Mary and Joseph into a starter home, get a toddler Jesus figure, and have the wise men finally show up there.

Given the logistical difficulty of doing that, we may want to adopt the practice I have seen in other churches, who place them on a windowsill on Christmas Eve and then move them closer to Jesus each week until he finally gets there on Epiphany to remind us that they journeyed a long way to meet Jesus, and it took them awhile to get there.  What good news for the spiritual pilgrims among us who are coming to Jesus from a great distance and taking their time in getting to him.

All along the way, the presence of God was the guide for the journey, shining in a bright and unexpected star.

There have been many theories advanced and debates had about what exactly the three magi saw in the sky.  In December and January, you can watch specials on PBS and Discovery Channel about what the wise men might have actually seen.  Maybe it was a comet.  It could have been a supernova.  Perhaps the stars and planets were aligned in such a way that they appeared to come together into some new mega-star.  In truth, what it actually was doesn’t matter, because what it said to the magi is far more important.

The star shows how far God reaches to ensure that all people receive the good news of Christ’s birth.  Today, on Epiphany, a strange star shining in the sky announces the Gospel to foreigners, adherents to strange religion, people who have more faith in the heavenly beings than the Holy Bible.

They came seeking the Christ after studying the night skies.  As someone who is supposed to be a professional in ways that God works to proclaim the Gospel and bring people to faith, my sensibilities would prefer that they came looking for Jesus though a path that makes more sense to me.  I would love for the magi to connect with God as I do, through preaching, worship, or sacraments, I would prefer that they have an encounter with Jesus through a Bible study or prayer group, I would prefer that God’s presence was made real to them through a welcoming congregation or some vital mission project.

And yet, that’s not the story the Scriptures give us.  God used what they knew and what they believed to get their attention and reveal his presence to them.  God reaches those who observe the glorious star at its rising, and methodically, persistently, follow it to a king, and not just any king, the King of Kings.

God didn’t bring the magi to Jesus down a path we would have likely recognized.  They didn’t even have to take a confirmation class, for goodness’ sake!  Despite our own preferences in the matter, the star in the sky and the magi who chased it until they found Jesus witness to the reality that when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel and bringing people to faith, it’s a bit frightening and a bit wonderful to realize yet again that God’s own work of embracing all people is ultimately more “mystery” than “formula,” and thanks be to God, God’s ways are always bigger than my understanding.

When we see God acting in a way that is different from what we might have expected, we have a choice in how we respond.  We can respond with wonder and bask in the radiant light of an unexpected gift from God, or we can join Herod and his friends in responding out of a sense of fear and threat to the status quo.  Herod considered himself the king; he didn’t exactly greet the news of a new king with joy.  He didn’t rush out to the mall to buy a suitable gift.  He conspired with his friends - the self-appointed protectors of the status quo and who had much to lose from a shift in power - in order to exterminate the threat and kill the Christ-child.

Keep reading in the 2nd Chapter of Matthew, and you’ll find Herod slaughtering all the male children around Bethlehem under the age of two.  Why?  Because of fear. Herod reached out with fear and jealousy just far enough to violently protect his place and preserve his power.

How about us?  How will we respond?  We can join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace and move to protect and preserve what is ours.  Or, we can greet the surprising presence of God in unexpected places and among unlikely people with a sense of wonder and joy.  That choice is up to each of us.

Epiphany both proclaims and celebrates the inclusive reach of God’s embrace.  God’s presence has come to all who can see the stars in the heavens.  The bright star in the sky shows the lengths to which God is willing to go in order to announce the good news of his presence to all the world.  Likewise, the response of the magi shows us that faith is a journey that leads us through sometimes strange and foreign places to destinations unknown, yet the promise of God’s presence is both our guide and our reward for making the journey.

Today, we will gather at the Lord’s table and celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, a place where we know we will experience God’s presence again.  And here’s a secret - I don’t understand the holy mystery of God’s presence around this table any better than I understand God’s presence shining from a star.  What I do know, however, is this: the mysteries of God are not for us to understand; they are for us to experience.

The only requirement to come to the table today is a desire to experience God’s presence.  That’s it.  It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from, where you’ve been, how you got here, or how long you’ve been here.  Whether you have come to faith in a way that is decent and respectable and recognizable to the person next to you, or if your path has been anything but conventional, you are welcome here.  You are welcome at the Lord’s table because 2000 years ago, a bright star brought some unlikely people to their knees before Jesus, and as unlikely as you or the person next to you may think you are, you are still not outside the inclusive reach of the King of Kings, and Jesus has set this table especially for you.

And for someone who is supposed to be a professional in this stuff, this path of experiencing God’s presence is much more familiar to me, but I still don’t understand it.  I don’t understand it any better than I understand how a star in the sky was a homing beacon leading the magi to Jesus.  But I do know that the presence of God is experienced here, and as we travel through strange and foreign places to destinations unknown, broken bread and poured out wine are both our guide and our reward for making the journey.

Renewed and Revived (John 15:1-8)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper.  He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit.  You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine.  Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me.  If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit.  Without me, you can’t do anything.  If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up.  Those branches are gathered up, thrown into a fire, and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified when you produce much fruit and in this way prove that you are my disciples.

Today is one of those days in the church’s life when a number of factors and forces seem to all come together at the same time, each with its own set of emphases and priorities, and this presents certain challenges for how we focus our attention.

Consider, it is the first Sunday of Christmas.  In the church, Christmas lasts 12 days from December 25 to January 6.  So, from a liturgical standpoint, it is the first Sunday of Christmas.

From a more nuts-and-bolts perspective, it is the first Sunday after Christmas.  We pastors typically refer to Sundays like these as “low Sundays.”  Other “low Sundays” include long holiday weekends, and Panthers home games with a 1:00 kickoff.

It is also the last Sunday of the calendar year.  Our thoughts are wrapped up in closing out one year and starting another - year-end financials, end-of-year charitable gifts, tax documents, setting up our financial commitments for the coming year, making New Year’s resolutions.  Anyone making any New Year’s resolutions or thought about that yet? What are you going to do with 2013?

My suggestion? Let’s grow some fruit. It may be a little odd to think of growing fruit at the end of December, but God’s got the ability even in the dead of winter to create new life. Maybe you’ve never noticed this, but God always seems to do God’s best work in cemeteries.  God is at God’s best when things are dead.  Not when things seem dead or look dead or are almost dead - dead, empty, formless, vapid - that’s the place God’s power and creativity are most fully on display!

So here, in the bleak midwinter, let’s grow some fruit.  Whaddya say?  And I say we go big or go home!  I’m talking ginormous-prize-pumpkin-at-the-state-fair big! Let’s grow the fruit of the Spirit that are described in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

My hope is that among whatever other resolutions you’re making about your diet or exercise or your time commitments or priorities or finances or whatever else - you are also spending some time thinking, praying, and reflecting about your spiritual life in the coming year, and that you are taking some concrete steps for there to be Godly fruit in your life this year.

How does this work?  Well, we have to recognize it’s more about allowing God to grow something within us than it is about us growing something for God. It’s more about allowing God to grow something within us than it is about us growing something for God. How are we to allow God to grow us? It’s simple to say and hard to do: we’ve got to get ourselves out of the way, and give God room to do what God wants to do.  Maybe you like baby carrots and baby corn - time and a place for everything, I guess, but when you serve a God as big as our God, you should expect some God-sized fruit to grow.

God-sized fruit doesn’t grow on its own, however.  It grows from a branch that is connected to the vine, as Jesus taught in today’s reading from the 15th chapter of John.  Branches find their identity and nourishment both by maintaining a strong connection to the vine.

You don’t need to be an expert in botany to grasp the point of what Jesus is teaching here.  Stay connected to Jesus - that connection is the source of your life.  And for the branch that stays connected to Jesus and soaks in every nourishing gift from Jesus, a bumper crop of the fruit of the Spirit is sure to follow.  And for Jesus, it’s all about getting fruity.

Friends, let’s be a fruit factory.  Let’s produce so much fruit of the Spirit that people stop and stare and start calling us a bunch of fruits.  I know some people who use the term “fruity” or calling someone “a fruit” as an insult.  It’s only an insult if we’re insulted by it!

Did you know that when the first followers of Jesus were called “Christians,” they were being made fun of?  “Christian” means “mini-Christ.”  So people were laughing and pointing and saying, “Look at those mini-Christs.”  And those first followers of Jesus took that insult and said, “Hey, you’re right!  Let’s run with it!  We ARE mini-Christs!  Let’s all be Christlike!”  What began as an insult hurled from the outside turned out to be one of the places the earliest followers of Jesus found strength and clarity about their mission and what it meant to be followers of Jesus in the world.

So let’s be a fruit factory.  Let the world point fingers and laugh and say, “Look at those fruits over there at that church!”  And we’ll say, “Thank you very much - we ARE a fruity bunch and we’re proud of it!  Look at all our fruit - love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Yep, we’re a bunch of fruits - thanks for noticing!”

Just as you know an apple tree by the fruit on its limbs, you will know followers of Jesus when you see this fruit in their lives.

We can spend our whole lives trying to grow something for God, or we can get ourselves out of the way, make some room, and invite God to grow something big within us.  If our lives have been grafted into the life-giving vine of Jesus, then some ginormous God-sized Holy Spirit-filled fruit is sure to hang from everything we think, say, and do.  Let’s invite God to make something out of us by giving ourselves, fully and completely, into covenant relationship with God.

Today, we will participate in John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal service.  In our covenant with God, we give everything to God.  Everything we are.  Everything we’ve got.  Everything we’re not.  All of it.  Today we give all of ourselves - our time (watch), our money (cash), our possessions (car key), our relationships (wedding band), even our very selves (driver license) to God and say, “I lay all of this before you today.  I empty myself.  Fill me, use me, however you wish.  My life belongs to you.”

So, what are you going to do with 2013?  Might I suggest that you make room for God to grow some fruit.

You Got Here Just In Time! (Luke 2:1-20, Christmas Eve)

In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. ² This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. ³ Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. ⁴ Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. ⁵ He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. ⁷ She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

⁸ Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. ⁹ The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.

¹⁰ The angel said, “ Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. ¹¹ Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. ¹² This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger. ” ¹³ Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, ¹⁴ “ Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. ”

¹⁵ When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “ Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us. ” ¹⁶ They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. ¹⁸ Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. ²⁰ The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking; How we need to hear from God.  You've been promised, we've been waiting; Welcome to our world.  May we pray.

The greeting card industry is big business.  For Christmas, 1.5 billion Christmas cards are exchanged in the U.S.  Laid end-to-end, they would stretch for 167,000 miles, and would circle the equator 6.7 times (source: Infographics).  Here at St. Paul, we mailed 844 such cards and handed out hundreds more, inviting our friends and neighbors to join us this evening.  No doubt, many of you who are here this evening are here precisely because you received one of our cards.  We’re glad you did.  You are our very special guests this evening, and you honor us simply by showing up tonight.




A comfortable image; far from reality.

There is one unfortunate and unintended consequence of all the cards that are exchanged, however, at least the religious ones.  It’s not the fault of the cards themselves, mind you, simply the artwork on them, conveying the birth of Jesus as sweet, clean, quiet, sentimental, and docile.  Smiling shepherds, fluffy animals, hay that could have been spun from fine gold, and a soft glow on the faces of the Holy Family - a comforting and comfortable image, perhaps, but one that’s far from accurate.

What I invite you to do tonight is put that image – comfortable, sweet, familiar, sentimental – put that image out of your mind and hear the story as if for the first time ever.  Give yourself tonight to the story of a God who loved us - all of us - that he came into our dark, confused, and often less-than-pleasant world and dwelt among us as one of us, the story of how God brought light into our darkness. If you’ve come to hear THAT story, then you’re in the right place tonight.

In those days, Caesar Augustus, the emperor, the most powerful person in the world, ordered a census of the peasants in Judea.  The people of Judea had been a troublesome bunch; there had been uprisings and rebellions before, and if it happened again, Caesar Augustus wanted to know just how many peasants there were, and how big of an army it would take to crush them.

Further, the emperor wanted to get everyone registered on the tax rolls.  Taxes were high, far higher than anything being debated in Washington at the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff, and the poorest paid the highest rates.  This was one of the great sources of dissension among the peasant class - the very sort of thing that would boil over into outright rebellion.  Ironically, through their taxes, these poor Judean peasants were funding the armies that would crush them at the first hint of trouble.

In those days, in the middle of winter, just after the harvest, the peasants went to their hometowns to be registered.  One peasant named Joseph, from the wide spot in the road called Nazareth, took his teenage fiance, Mary, mysteriously pregnant with some wild story about angel visitors and impregnation by the Holy Spirit that no one was buying, to Bethlehem.

This one sounds familiar, right?  O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie; above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.  Well, hardly.  The greeting cards got this one wrong, too.  Bethlehem was far from a sleepy, quiet, still, little town, particular at the time of the Roman census.  It buzzed with all the feverish frenzy of Myrtle Beach during bike week.  The town was crowded with its regular townfolk, all the travelers who were there for the census, the guards hired to keep order, and the merchants who followed the crowds hoping to make a dishonest buck along the way.  Whatever your pleasure, if you wanted it, you could buy it.

Particularly in those days during the census, Bethlehem was far from the still and sleepy town in our carols and on our Christmas cards.  It was loud, crowded, raucous, filthy - and against this backdrop, peasants Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem following a nine-day journey from Nazareth - cold, tired, and hungry.  They holed up in the barn out back, because, as the story tells us, there was no room for them in the inn, but let’s be honest, it’s the best they could have afforded anyway.

First century stone manger in Palestine.

And there, the time came for Mary to have her baby, and she did.  She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him up tight, and used the feeding trough as a makeshift crib.  There was no privacy or comfort of any kind.  Other poor travelers were crowded into the barn with them.  The straw was moldy, the slop buckets overflowing, and all night long the street just beyond their accommodations were filled with people laughing and carrying on and carousing and fighting - the sort of thing we might see in a Waffle House parking lot at 3 am on a Saturday.  Welcome to our world, Lord Jesus!

When God put on human form and came to live among us as one of us, God came to us not in splendor, not in majesty, not in fanfare, not in comfort, not in blinding displays of power and might.  No, God instead chose to come among us in all humility and discomfort and disgrace.

Irving.

Ed Moore tells the story of participating in a church Christmas play when he was a child where they used live animals.  The animals were all cooperative and well-behaved except for one rather difficult sheep named Irving.  The shepherds led the sheep up the aisle of the church and off to the side where they were supposed to remain for the rest of the play, all the sheep, that is, except for Irving.  Irving walked up next to the manger and left his gift for baby Jesus - a fresh, steaming pile of sheep exhaust.  Welcome to our world, little Lord Jesus!  You’ve come at just the right time!

Perhaps more than the other characters in the play that year, Irving got it right.  Jesus came into a real mess.  Friends - that’s the message and the meaning of Christmas.  Christmas is the story of God-come-to-earth in the person of Jesus, willingly taking our mess and making it his mess, and cleaning it up.

The world was dark and uncertain and messy at the time of Jesus, but thanks be to God, Jesus still enters the dark and uncertain and messy places - certainly within our world, and certainly within each of us.  The Light of the World, whose birth we celebrate on this holy night, shines brightest where things seem darkest.

Good thing, too, because it seems like there’s still a lot of darkness in our world.  These four little candles that we’ve lit through the last four weeks of Advent - these candles that represent the truest values of God’s kingdom, these candles of hope, and peace, and joy, and love - these little candles sure do have their work cut out for them.  A lot of darkness in our world, a lot of darkness in many of our lives.

And yet, Christmas is God’s declaration that the darkness doesn’t win.  Darkness doesn’t get the last word!  This child will get the last word!  Jesus gets the final say, and the words he says are hope, peace, joy, and love - what good news for us and for our world!  The candles we light tonight symbolize God’s true light in Jesus, and we will light these candles tonight not so much because they’re pretty, but to recognize and celebrate Jesus as the Light of the World, God’s love come to each of us.

Samuel Rayan says, “A candle is a protest at midnight.  It is a non-conformist.  It says to the darkness, ‘I beg to differ.’”

God’s true light, Jesus, pierces a hole in the smothering fog of all that is dark, and no matter how low, how dark, how messy things may be in our world; no matter how low, dark, or messy things may be in your life, know that Jesus has already been there, and even now, he’s working to clean up the mess.

The good news of Christmas is this:  Jesus is here!  God is with us!  The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus tonight! The good news of Christmas is not only that Jesus came among us once; it’s that Jesus continues to come among us again and again and again.  That’s news that’s good enough to rally the shepherds in from the hill country.  That’s news that’s good enough to get the angel choirs singing.  That’s news that makes a difference in our world, it makes a difference to you and me, it makes a difference anywhere God’s Love is made real as the light shining in the darkness.

A candle is a protest.  It says to the darkness, “I beg to differ.”

Tonight, the Light of God’s Love - God’s true light in Jesus - the light of hope, and peace, and joy, and love - will be passed to you.  My hope for you is twofold.  First, that you will receive that light with joy, that something of God’s loving presence will be kindled within you and chase away whatever darkness is there, that Jesus himself will be born anew in your heart tonight.  And second, I hope the light keeps burning brightly within you, and that you have the courage that Jesus had to take that light out into all the dark places of pain and suffering and mess of our world.

I doubt you’ll see Irving the sheep depicted on any greeting cards next year, but Irving got it right: Jesus has willingly come into the mess.  What is messy, Jesus cleans up.  What is broken, Jesus restores.  What is incomplete, Jesus makes whole.  What is wrong, Jesus rights.  What is dark, Jesus lights.  The Light of the Word shines in all the dark places of our world, and there is no darkness, no matter how deep, no matter how persistent, that is strong enough to overcome it.

This Christmas, we say, “Welcome, Lord Jesus!  You’ve come at just the right time!”