2 Epiphany Yr A Jan 19 2020

Audio   2 Epiphany Yr A Jan 19 2020

Isaiah 49:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, John 1:29-42, Psalm 40:1-12

Come and spend the day with me, Jesus says to Andrew and his friend. Come and see where I am staying, come and see who I am. Come and spend the day with me. Jesus is the one they were waiting for, Jesus is the one they believed the stories they told were all about. Jesus, the Lamb of God, Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus, the one to whom John points. And Jesus says, come and spend the day with me.

You know, the meaning of words change over time. For example, hospital was a once a place for the reception and entertainment of travelers and pilgrims, from the Latin, "hospitality." Another, if you invested in someone, you clothed them, from the Latin "to clothe." So investment once meant "putting clothes on" which were vestments. The place I am going with this is the place we seem to be today with the word "evangelism," a word Episcopalians have had a hard time with for a while now. Even hearing the word strikes fear in the heart of any native Episcopalian, and even those of us who have come later in life to the light. We think of soap box yellers, we cringe at the thought of the question, "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?" We are polite people, and know that this does not make for good dinner table or cocktail party conversation. Besides, what can stop conversation faster than, "Do you know where you're going when you die?" Or the one I like the very best, "Have you found Jesus?" I am always tempted to answer with, "I didn't know he was lost!" Or, "yes, he's been behind the couch the whole time!" The point is, that the word evangelist means "bringer of good news," therefore evangelism is to "bring good news."

Come and spend the day with me and I will bring you good news. Not such a bad way to evangelize, is it? Today I would like us to take back evangelism, to not be afraid of the word or of the activity. Today I would like us to respond to Jesus' invitation to spend the day, and listen to who Jesus calls us to be, and how Jesus calls us to be evangelists, how Jesus calls us to bring good news.

Another related word that elicits fear in many Episcopalians these days is mission. Mission has been related to the violent act of colonizing a people so that those people look and act and talk like the dominant culture. Our church, and others, have been guilty of this kind of mission in our history. And yet that is not what mission is all about. Mission is about building bridges and forming relationships and partnerships that may result in mutual growth and learning and compassion and healing.

Come and spend the day with me, and I will teach you about the good news, I will teach you about forgiveness and reconciliation, and you can bring that into the world and show others how to follow me. We claim to be followers of Jesus. Our baptismal identity is grounded in that claim. We reiterate that claim when we renew our baptismal promises and we live out that claim every time we gather together to break bread. In the story we hear today, Andrew brings the good news to his brother and his friends, and together they follow Jesus.

Evangelism and mission are nothing more, and nothing less, than the invitation to come and spend the day with Jesus; to notice the amazing creation, to see where God is in your life, and to invite those you encounter into the Love, Freedom, and Truth that Jesus is. As with anything and everything, this takes practice. And it takes practice to tell your story. God is at work, and we need to practice noticing that and describing that. So the first part of evangelism is to notice what God is up to.

The second part of evangelism is to share what is important to you about your faith or your church. Why do you come here to Trinity every Sunday? Why do you seek Jesus? Is it because here you can be your broken, messy, confident, joyful, self in front of God and the rest of us? Is it because you are not perfect, but you want to find out what it is to be perfectly loved? Is it because you miss the mark, just like the rest of us, and in some way you know the freedom of forgiveness? Is it because you always have come here? Is it because you have been wounded elsewhere, and here you find peace and acceptance? Is it because you have a place here, you belong here? Is it because you help with GIFTS, or you deliver meals, or you give food and clothes to those who have none, and on some level you bring Jesus' incarnation to people who just need to eat?

The third part of evangelism is the inviting, and sometimes we think the hardest part is the inviting. Like Andrew, who goes to get his brother, we too can invite those we work with, those we go to school with, those who we see in pain, to come and see. It may seem hard, but you invite people all the time, you invite them to your home, or to a movie, or to the concert, or to take a walk with you. It's no different. Come and see, what God is doing. Come and see what God is doing at Trinity. Come and see the Love that wins. Come and see how your life matters. Come and see the good news of Jesus in the word and music, in the bread and the wine, in prayer and silence, in who we are and what we do. Jesus says, come and spend the day with me. Come, and see who I am. Come and find healing, forgiveness, and love. Come.

And then go. Follow Jesus out into the world. Bring the Good News into your families and your work, bring the Good News into the marketplace and the community. Bring the Good News of God's healing love. Our voice matters. Our actions matter. We are the people who can make a difference. We are the people who know the true freedom of God's love. We are the people who know that no matter what we've done, how broken we truly are, that God loves us anyway. Preach this Good News with your life and your love. Proclaim this Good News with your heart and your soul. We are all related in God, show with your life the ways God's love is in the world. Amen.

First Sunday of Epiphany Yr A Jan 12, The Baptism of Our Lord

Audio   First Sunday of Epiphany Yr A Jan 12, The Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 42:1-9, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17, Psalm 29

Listen to Matthew from Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message. Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized, not you!" But Jesus insisted. "Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it. The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and Jesus saw God's Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."

In both the passage from Isaiah and the passage from Matthew we hear God’s voice proclaiming you are my chosen, delight of my life. Today, the day that we celebrate Jesus’ baptism we hear these amazing words from God, you are chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.

Some of us spend much of our lives working at pleasing others, especially our parents and our spouse, people we work for, and sometimes even people we don’t even know. Rather than being who we are, we are trying to be someone else. Someone more lovable, someone smarter, someone prettier, someone more athletic. This is reinforced by so much we see and hear today. You will be worth more if you are thinner, or if you change the look of your nose, or cheeks, or lips, or other places, or if you buy a smart phone, or if you buy skinny jeans, or if you …..

Or, the other option is to spend our lives on the other end of that spectrum. We think we should get what we deserve, we are entitled to a good life, nothing should get in our way of the big beautiful house, the fancy car, the perfect children. These stories our culture tells are all about human limitations, and human values. But God is not limited by our worthiness or our worthlessness. God is pleased, before anything else happens, God is pleased, and that is not dependent on anything we do or don’t do. Remember, following this passage in Matthew’s story is Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. God’s pleasure is not even dependent on Jesus’ performance in the wilderness, God’s pleasure just is.

We are loved abundantly and extravagantly, we are chosen and marked by God’s love, we are the delight of God’s life. We enter into that with Jesus in the incarnation, and in the death and in the resurrection. And that is what happens in baptism, because that’s what Jesus accomplishes on the cross and what God accomplishes in the resurrection. We are citizens, heirs, children of the Kingdom, and in this Kingdom we are loved, we are chosen, we are marked, we are the delight of God’s life. We don’t have to change the way we look, we don’t have to be someone we are not, we are priceless.

We are in the midst of celebrating God’s incarnation. I’ve thrown that word around quite a bit lately as if we all know exactly what it means. Incarnation is about God shining God’s clear, bright torch into the darkness of our world, our lives, our hearts, our imaginations—and the darkness not comprehending it. Incarnation is God, the God of the universe, the God who creates all things, the God who is seen and unseen, that God, taking on flesh, taking on skin, and bones, a brain, a heart. It is incarnation that gives me faith; it is resurrection that gives me hope. Jesus is what it looks like when the Word becomes flesh. Or, if you like, look at Jesus, in the flesh and learn to see the living God.

It is that incarnation, and it is death and resurrection that we enter into at Baptism. It is that incarnation, God in the flesh, the Word walking around on our dirt and in our mud, which makes faith possible. I have faith because God has faith in me; why else would God have given up all power to come into this world as a human being. My baptism, your baptism, acknowledges that reality, and baptism empowers us through the Holy Spirit, to be God’s new creation, to be the Light in the darkness, to be agents of healing and reconciliation in our fragmented and fragile world.

When we enter into this journey through the water with Jesus, we must go home by another way; we hear that from the wise people from the east. When we go home by another way, when we are baptized into the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus, when we embark on this path together as pilgrims on the way, our lives begin to be transformed, and there are ways that our lives show forth God’s love and Jesus’ gift. We are people who continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. We are people who persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin, we repent and return to the Lord. We are people who proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. We are people who seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. We are people who strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

That’s a tall order for us. But it’s the road we take. We take it, because we are marked and chosen, and we are the delight of God’s life. It is our response to God’s amazing, extravagant and abundant love, it is our response to God’s pleasure, and it is our ministry.

We acknowledge Jesus’ baptism by John on this day, and it gives us cause to remember our own baptism. Each one of us has been marked as Christ’s own forever. Each of us has an indelible mark on our foreheads, the cross that was traced in oil at our baptism, the cross that is retraced in ashes each lent. The cross that is on our foreheads is much like a tattoo, it is permanent, it’s there for all time. It reminds us who we are and whose we are. It reminds us that we are loved. It reminds us that we are part of something that is wider, broader, deeper, than any one of us, can go. It reminds us that we must travel this other way, this road together.

Jesus’ baptism, our baptism’s mean something. We don’t just dunk and forget. Baptism means that we are the delight of God’s life, that we are loved abundantly and absolutely, that we are chosen and marked, that we are on this road together, and that we are citizens of the Kingdom, the Kingdom that God is creating right here, right now. We have work to do, that is our ministry. Our work is about healing and reconciliation, our work is about mercy and compassion, our work is about making God known in all the dark and dangerous parts of our lives. Our work is about meeting Jesus in each and every person we encounter, our work is about seeing the indelible mark of Christ on the forehead of each and every person we meet.

So today, as we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, we will remember and renew our own baptism.

Feast of the Epiphany, trans. Jan 5 2020

Audio   Feast of the Epiphany, trans. Jan 5 2020

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

Game of Thrones, anyone read it, or seen it? I read all the books, and I’ve seen none of the television show. For those of you who know little about it, except some sort of meme that reads, Winter is Coming, it is an epic story of power, greed, mystery, love, and violence. Oh so much violence. Record numbers of people watched it on HBO for eight years. Some binge watched it, some watched every week for most of eight years. In order to do all that watching you really have to be committed.

Sometimes I wonder why more people don’t commit to the Bible like that. Boring it is not. Power, greed, mystery, love, and violence are all there. The story we have before us today is as good as any violent and bloody movie you’ve ever seen.

Herod is a desperate, ruthless, dictator, and he tried to enlist these foreign mystics to be his spies to help him discover this child’s identity and whereabouts so he could have the child killed. But the wise people were informed in a dream to go home by another way and avoid being Herod’s unwitting accomplices. Herod’s Plan A failed, so he went to Plan B, a violent and grisly alternative. But by then, the boy Herod was looking for had already fled with his parents to a foreign land. The result however, was brutal. The slaughter of innocent life.

Matthew includes this grisly story in his gospel for a reason, what is that reason? We can only guess, so guess we will. The Wise People have a very particular role to play in this story. Their exotic nature as astrologers from a faraway land show us that there is something amazing about this birth. This may look like an ordinary birth, to two immigrant parents, looking for a place to stay in the very crowded city of Bethlehem. But when the Wise People show up, we know that things are not as they seem. This is no ordinary birth.

And, we tend to look toward this story as our reason for gift-giving at Christmas and during these days of Christmas, concluding tomorrow, the Epiphany. Epiphany means, “when God appears”, it is when and how God shows Godself. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by these Magi from the east are spectacularly generous gifts. God gives a spectacularly generous gift in Jesus, love and new life. However, at its core, this is a story about God appearing, it is a story about Jesus, it is a story about kingdom.

In the kingdom of God love wins. You see, the baby Herod seeks to kill models another way. Jesus’ way is the way of love. Jesus uses power to heal and empower others. Jesus reveals God’s dream of healing and reconciliation. This is Good News indeed.

And yet, we do not live in an ideal world. Children continue to suffer from hunger, abuse, homelessness, imprisonment. Children in our own community suffer from inattention, social media bullying, disbelief in their own worth. We are not perfect, our church is not perfect, our community is not perfect, but God’s perfect love calls us to another way, not the way of power, greed, judgment, prejudice. God’s perfect love calls us to be different. God’s perfect love calls us to go home by another way. God’s perfect love calls us to love with abandon, flinging ourselves into the arms of Jesus.

That’s why the birth of Jesus takes place in a manger, a feed trough, in an ordinary home, in an ordinary town, and not in the towers of power, not in the courts of kings, not in the temples of priests. This is not a life of luxury, it is not a life of prosperity, it is not a life of transaction. There is no reward. There is no gold, frankincense and myrrh waiting at the end of the rainbow. But there is love. And love matters. Love that causes you and me to know our worth, what’s that Christmas song? O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior's birth! Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn! This is it, God breaks into our lives, as a vulnerable baby, these wise people from the east come to pay homage, and foil Herod’s plot, and everything changes. God shows us that our lives are of incomprehensible worth. All our lives, in all our joy, and beauty, in all our brokenness and pain.

And God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people in through visitors from the East. From a manger, where a child lies wrapped in bands of cloth, God’s reach, God’s embrace in Jesus, gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with pain and suffering. Jesus even calls the dead back to life. Ultimately, Jesus draws all people to himself as he is lifted up on the cross. In Jesus, no one is beyond God’s embrace.

God’s radical grace is wondrously frightening. The Light that shines in the darkness, the Love that wins is wondrously frightening. That is what this story is about. God comes to us in wondrously surprising ways. Ways we do not expect. Ways which we would never choose for ourselves. And we are changed, we are transformed, the world is turned, and we must go home by another way. Or not, the alternative, of course, is to join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace, or feeling threatened by it, and instead giving way to just plain fear and violence. Herod jealously reached out himself, just far enough to violently protect his place and preserve his power.

We are called to bring God’s Love to a fragmented society, to a culture that is pulled apart by greed and fear and violence. We are called to bring God’s Love to a culture that engages more and more in meanness and name calling and judgement. God’s Love, God’s Power, is the most powerful integrating force in creation. God’s Love moves us from brokenness, from fragmentation, to wholeness, to healing.

Be the light shining in the darkness, see the light shining in the darkness. Amen.