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“The Wedding at Cana” – Bradi Barth

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Today we find ourselves in the small village of Cana at a wedding celebration.  In this familiar story in the gospel according to John, Jesus changes water into wine when the supply comes up short– the first sign that Jesus does that allows us to see into his unique relationship to God.  As the gospel tells us, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  The disciples were the first of an ever growing group of people who would come to believe, a group that has stretched across the centuries to include us too. 

That’s why we have this story today, here on the second Sunday after the Epiphany, the season in the church year where we, along with those who were with Jesus, get to see and experience for ourselves the various ways in which we have come to know that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

Since the lectionary passages for the season after Epiphany are about how we experience the glory of Jesus, accept his divinity, and come to act on that knowledge in our own lives, the end of this wedding story stands out.

The chief steward, after tasting this wine, says to the bridegroom, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.  But you have kept the good wine until now.” 

Think of all the ways that God has revealed God’s love and care for us through time, like good wine.   

We can see God’s love in creation itself.  In today’s psalm, for instance, the psalmist describes the immensity of God’s love by calling on images from nature.  God’s love reaches to the heavens and God’s faithfulness to the clouds.  God’s righteousness is like the strong mountains, and God’s justice like the great deep.  God’s people feast upon God’s abundance, and God provides drink from God’s river of delights.   Like good wine, indeed! 

Scripture also gives us a history of God’s love, the stories of God leading the Israelites from slavery into freedom, bringing the people back from exile into the promised land, and the promise of the reign of God bringing a new heaven and a new earth at the end of time, also like good wine. 

And then, at last, like the best wine in today’s gospel,  comes Jesus himself.  We Christians believe that Jesus is the best way that we come to know God and God’s love for us, the best way we see God’s glory alive, active and growing in this world.

As this story unfolds, we learn a lot about who Jesus is.  Jesus is part of a family.  In John’s gospel, the first time we hear about the mother of Jesus is at this wedding.  Their conversation  indicates that the two have respect and trust for one another.  In the story, when she realizes that the wine is gone, Mary tells Jesus.  “They have no wine,” Mary says. That’s all she says.     Mary does not tell Jesus what to do. She simply makes an observation.  Jesus is honest with his mother about his hesitation, but he takes the time to consider her statement, and he decides to act. 

Jesus also has a community of friends. Jesus is part of the community in this village, for the people have invited Jesus to join in the celebration.  Not just Jesus, but also his disciples have been invited to the wedding.  They are all there together, celebrating. 

Weddings gave people in the community the opportunity to lay down their work for a few days and to celebrate.  To run out of wine at a wedding would have been a disaster for the bridegroom.  So Jesus changes the water into wine, sparing the bride groom and his family shame and embarrassment.   Jesus and his friends must have been enjoying this wedding, since Jesus made sure that the celebration could continue by changing lots of water into wine.  Jesus had the servants fill not one, but six stone water jars that held twenty or thirty gallons each.  One hundred and eighty gallons of wine!  That party must have gone on for quite a while! 

Maybe Jesus thought back on this first miracle of his at the wedding celebration, the miracle that set his whole ministry in motion,  when he is having his last long conversation with his friends before his death.  In that conversation he uses the image from a vineyard as he  says to the disciples, “I am the vine, and you are the branches,” as he explains  to them what it means to abide with one another in love.   “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Love for God and for one another is the mark of Christian community.  

Maybe Jesus was remembering the joy he had felt at that wedding celebration  in Cana when he went on to explain  to his disciples, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” 

Another thing we learn about Jesus is that he is willing to act on behalf of the well being of someone else, even though the consequences of that action will shape the rest of his life. As the Dalai Lama has said,  “Once committed, actions will never lose their potentiality.”   This first sign that Jesus does sets his whole ministry on behalf of others in motion, his ministry that will lead all the way to the cross. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., who we remember tomorrow in this nation,  is one who followed Jesus.    During his life as a leader in this country, King followed Jesus as a disciple, and acted on behalf of others, regardless of the consequences.  He took action, as Jesus did,  for  the betterment of this world.   

Yesterday, I was at the Caroline County NAACP observance of Martin Luther King Day.  Near the beginning of our time there together,  we heard a clip from Martin Luther King’s “Drum Major” sermon, a sermon that King preached exactly two months before his death. 

In his sermon, King talks about what he hopes people will say at his funeral.  In these words, King sums up the actions he has taken in his life and his ministry as a follower of Jesus. 

“I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. (Yes) I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen) I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes) And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes) I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord) I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness … Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.”

So today, as we have witnessed the first of the signs Jesus did in his life time that revealed God’s glory, we can remember these things to guide us in our life together in this new year ahead, a year that will  no doubt challenge us in unexpected ways. 

Community is essential–not just any community, but a community of welcome,  one in which we love one another so that we can reach out to our neighbors in love. They will know we are Christians by our love.   And we are called to be a community that uses the abundant resources with which we are blessed to act on behalf of others.

If Mary were here today, she might look around at our world and say to us, “They have no love.”    And maybe we’d be like Jesus and hesitate to act, because maybe we think our time hasn’t yet come. 

But I am here to say, “Now is our time.”

Now is our time to follow Jesus as his disciples, and do his work in this world.  

Now is this church’s time, St Peter’s time,  to make a difference in this world through our love for God and for one another,  and for our neighbors.

Now is our time to show God’s glory in the world. Now is our time to act, even if our actions on God’s behalf lead us to the cross, which they certainly will if we are serious. 

And now is our time to celebrate, for even though we have never seen God, God’s only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, has made God known to us, so that we can make God known in this world by filling it with God’s love. 

Let us pray: “Come Holy Spirit and kindle in us the fire of your love. Take our minds and think through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our souls and set them on fire.” Amen 

This sermon is about the Baptism of Jesus which we celebrate today. 

I am going to begin with a subject I know little about – centerpieces which adorn dining room tables.  My idea of getting dinner ready is setting out silverware and plates – I am more concerned about what goes on in the food department rather that deciding about a centerpiece for a table. The centerpiece doesn’t relieve my hunger.  So why is the centerpiece important ?  Why is so much time and effort put in them? 

A centerpiece is an important item of a display in a table setting. Centerpieces help set the theme of the decorations and bring extra decorations to the room.  They are themselves a prime adornment, a focal point.  Your eyes are drawn to it.  Flowers, for instance, always make a gorgeous centerpiece. 

Baptism is the centerpiece of our faith.  Conveniently the symbol of baptism, the font is at the center on the altar.   I will say it once more.  Baptism is the centerpiece of our faith. They tell me if you can provide one thought that people can take home in a sermon you have done your job. So that’s it. Baptism is the centerpiece of our faith shown by the font. I can sit down now. 

The church is not just a gathering place, but where God lives and people are reconciled and united in Christ. Christ is our focal point. Like centerpiece on a table which is a symbol, baptism is also a symbol of the active presence of Christ in our lives causing us to action.  Action is the key word to make it a reality.  We say at the end of the service, “Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. 

We entered Epiphany this previous Thursday. Epiphany represents the essence of God coming the form of Christ. 

He has been born and now for 8 weeks we see God making God known in the world through Jesus/  It is the gradual unfolding of the identity of Jesus and his ministry through scripture and song. 

Jesus’ Baptism is reported after the arrest of John signifying John’s work is complete and Jesus is just beginning.    Like Mark and Matthew, Luke records John’s denial of his own importance.

Jesus is born and then is given a kick start into his ministry through his baptism which we celebrate today.  It is no wonder that Jesus baptism is celebrated at the beginning of the year.

What is this kickstart ?Jesus would not have been able to carry out his ministry without the blessing and empowerment from God which is a part of the baptism.  Baptism is important for establishing Jesus identity 

Spirit and sonship are distinctive parts of Jesus identity. Let’s look at both of these.

1 Coming of spirit upon Jesus commissions him and empowers him for ministry

The emphasis is on prayer and sprit descending in bodily form like a dove. This action represents the blessing from heaven.

The Holy Spirit is the creative side of God and we become part of God’s work on this planet. We walk in newness of life.  John baptized emphasizing the forgiveness of sins. But Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit  which changes us from the inside out as opposed to John’s repentance which only washed the sin away. As the scripture from Acts indicates we must receive the Holy Spirit to be baptized.  

2 Sonship –  As Jesus was praying (in Luke often a prelude to major events), the Holy Spirit descends. Jesus is now openly called the Son of God, dramatizing and confirming what was implicit in his conception (1:35). Thus Jesus is anointed for his mission and now ready to go. 

In that spirit, people entered the waters of the river, and Jesus joined them. Not only is he baptized, but he also hears the assurance of the Holy Spirit. A voice proclaims him God’s beloved, empowering him and sending him to the blind, the lame and the prisoners awaiting his good news.

The opening of heaven is the signal that he is the messiah. He is beloved and God is well pleased with him as well as the fulfillment of Israel’s longing for messiah.  The words “Well pleased” is an attribute reserved only for God in the Gospel of Luke.  He is part of the family. 

Baptism also gives us our identify and affirmation as a part of the family. Our own baptisms mark the moment in which we claim our identities as God’s beloved children. We claim the fact that, as The Book of Common Prayer puts it in the closing prayer of the Rite I Eucharist, “we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of God’s Son, the blessed company of all faithful people.” We belong not only to the church but to God as “Christ’s own forever.”  

And our own baptisms mark the beginning of our journeys through this life, journeys on which hopefully we are trying to listen to God in prayer as Jesus did, and to carry out the ministries on earth that God has laid out for each one of us to do. 

We get a certificate for baptism.    For too many people baptism is an end in itself but it is just a beginning. Just don’t hang it on the wall, make it an active part of your life.. Looking closely at Jesus baptism – It concentrates on, only the events that followed. 

The founders of St. Peters had a wonderful vision by placing the font in the center of the altar.  Baptism is central and essential to whom we are as a people. We gain our identify as Jesus did from baptism. It is in front of us each time we are in the church. 

How many of you remember Bishop Gulick?  He was passionate about two things – Baptism and Shrine Mont.  I was with him one June weekend at Shrine Mont – What an experience of joy and exuberance on that mountain top! The last time Bishop Gulick  was here in 2016 he noted the baptism font was fixed in the altar. He loved it! In many churches it is a separate table that is wheeled in for baptisms. 

Bishop Gulick made the argument that creation is not over – we are vessels of creation with our baptism. St. Augustine wrote,  “But the sacrament of baptism is undoubtedly the sacrament of regeneration.”  While the world was created, our baptism provides a necessity for us a keeping creation alive. Gulick says that we are created into the image of God but that baptism makes us three dimensional.  Baptism opens to us the possibilities of the Kingdom of God, keeping creation alive.  

From the Diocese of New York – Above all baptism speaks of action and change 

“By using the language and imagery of death, burial, and resurrection, the early Christian community ceremonially expressed, that in Baptism, we die to our destructive and distorted ways of being, relating, and acting, and that by the goodness and faithfulness of God, we are raised from death to a new life, guided by and filled with the Spirit of God. It was an outward and visible sign of the spiritual transformation God was doing in one’s life.” 

The Apostle Paul in Romans 6:3-4  talks about  a “walk in newness of life.” You can easily name examples from people your know that are experiencing newness. It can be those who feel like they need a new start or trying to keep  new years resolutions, or those beginning a new chapter in their lives , those trying to reconcile relationships, those adjusting to being released from prison.  It is on step on the road to redemption and fulfillment. 

So how to convey that we are embarking on a new life in a scriptural sense?  What is involved ? Enter the baptismal covenant that provides the answers.   

The baptismal covenant is recited with each baptism and on the anniversary of Jesus’ baptism. In lay language it is our mission statement on how we are called to live our faith in the world. 

Let’s go through the covenant, point by point  as our mission statement – this is what we should do and strive for so it is important.  Take out your prayer books and turn to pages 304-305 and you can follow along.   I will emphasize key headings and ideas some of which are from the Diocese of San Diego. 

1. Worship and Formation

“Will you continue in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? ”   “I will, with God’s help. “ 

Translation—Come to church, get renewed by meeting Jesus in the bread and wine every Sunday and every other opportunity you get, spend time with your fellow Christians, not only in worship, but also in fellowship, and to be people of prayer. We worship in connection with one another. 

I would encourage you in this new year to come to church either in person or on Zoom.  Think of the scriptures through the week and how they can work in your life. 

2.  Repentance and Reconciliation

“Will you resist evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? “

“I will, with God’s help. “

That is, try really hard to resist evil, and when the devil gets the upper hand in spite of your efforts to resist, confess and turn back to God. 

We value repentance and reconciliation, acknowledging when we have turned away from God and one another, we then seek wholeness and healing by turning back to God and one another. In this we seek to be a welcome and open community for all. If you have turned away from God, if you have tried to follow Jesus and have failed, or are trying for the first time, you are welcome here.  

But you have to seek forgiveness. as Desmond Tutu wrote.  In order to truly forgive oneself, one must either explicitly or implicitly acknowledge that one’s behavior was wrong and accept responsibility or blame for such behavior. 

People who genuinely seek to forgive themselves are people who want to change. They don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. To want genuine self- forgiveness you must be a person of conscience. If you feel guilt, shame, regret, or remorse for something you have done, this is the place to begin. 

We need to rethink our ways just as the Magi did after visiting Christ 

3. Evangelism

“Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of Jesus Christ? “

“I will, with God’s help. “ 

So as St Francis said, “Proclaim the Good News, and if necessary, use words.” Live your lives as if you really are beloved children of God, even when life would be easier just to follow the ways of the world. 

We are agents of God’s kingdom who instinctively live and share the good news of Jesus Christ within our communities and without, feeding those who are hungry to hear and receive the transforming good news. 

We need to be disciple makers.  The Parochial report for 2021 shows we dwindled from 46 to 40 communicants. It doesn’t take much to be active – 3 times of communion.  We need people to invite people to come as well participate in and contribute to our ministries and  help establish new ones. 

It is more than invite people to come but to help them fit in.  Connection helps the newcomer answer these questions:  Where do I fit in?  Can I make friends in this church?  Is there room for me relationally?  Does this church need me?  Can I find a place to belong and serve?  

4.  Outreach

“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? “I will, with God’s help. “ 

We vow to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. 

We bridge the several borders God calls us to transcend by offering our time, talent and treasure for the transformative inbreaking of God’s kingdom, and so meet Christ face-to-face in the hearts and lives of our neighbors, near and far.  

We did this in Jamaica, we did this here in Port Royal helping with the  sanitizer distribution and through the donations the ECW, ECM and the church gave in 2021.  We do this through the Village Dinner and Village Harvest. 

This fits in with #3 proclaiming the word of Christ.  People may be attracted here if the feel like they have a connection to our outreach ministries 

5. Advocacy

“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? “

“I will, with God’s help.” 

We offer our voices and presence to confront the brokenness in our lives, and the systems of which we are a part, with the healing and transforming power of the love of Jesus Christ. 

We need not be silent and we should not be. 

An example from the Old Testament – Amos ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel during the height of its prosperity (760–750 BCE). Its wealth and power rested, however, upon injustice. In scripture, justice is more than the carrying out of abstract legal standards. 

Amos simple advice -“Seek good and not evil, that you may live; Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; ” 

In the recent past we have confronted environmental issues with the Season of Creation in September and early Oct.  We have looked at how we are handling energy, waste and how we can revitalize our surroundings.   We have tried to understand Climate change as a real force in our lives 

The second area has been racial discrimination.  Catherine led the 10-part Sacred Ground course in 2020 and then in the last year have turned to recent books on the subject to educate us. This year they hope to be active in the community, for example sponsoring a scholarship 

6. Stewardship

“Will you be a faithful steward of all that God has entrusted to you, living a life of gratitude and generosity?  ”  “I will, with God’s help. “ 

Stewardship is … Everything I do after I say, “I believe.” Stewardship is our thankful and intentional response to the question, “What is God calling me to do with the gifts God has entrusted to me?

We are stewards, caretakers of God’s gifts. Everything we have was a gift from God, and God asks us to use it all for God’s purposes. Generosity flows naturally out of our gratitude for the gift of love, family, and life itself. 

We need to be generous toward both supporting our internal operations and outreach ministries. 

I would encourage you to pledge to the church a regular gift. Pledging is not a specific amount of money but an action, one that shows your engagement and connection with the church and its mission.  We are part of that mission = stewardship is all about mission. 

Outreach donations were a major theme in 2021 with the church contributing over $12,000 to the local community, the nation and the world. Outreach helped us connect to those outside the church to continue our mission but also those inside as participants. 

Convince people that the church is doing God’s mission and that it will truly transform our lives and our communities … and each of us is an integral part of that mission … heart, mind and body … and the money will follow. 

In summary

The baptismal covenant is the centerpiece of our faith explaining baptism.  It is a combination of belief and actions:

Belief

-Believe in God
-Believe in Christ
-Believe in the Holy Spirit
-Continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship with communion

Actions 

-Resist evil but when you sin repent and return to the Lord
-Proclaim the good news of God in Christ
-Serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself
-Strive for justice and peace 

Poet Malcolm Guite adds these lines for this Sunday   

“The voice that made the universe reveals
The God in Man who makes it new again.
He calls us too, to step into that river
To die and rise and live and love forever.”

As the Gospel of Matthew concludes (Matthew 28:19-20)

“Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit….and remember I am with you always.” 

 

References Diocese of San Diego for the Baptismal Covenant , Diocese of New York on Baptism, New Intepreters Bible on Luke

Early on Christmas Day, our daughter Elizabeth, who is an astrophysicist,  and I got up to watch the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared space observatory which looks like a giant golden honey comb, launch into space from the European Space Agency’s launch pad in French Guiana,  an event that scientists all over the world, including my daughter, have been eagerly anticipating for years. 

According to Space.com, “the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope — NASA’s largest and most powerful space science telescope — will probe the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Big Bang to alien planet formation and beyond. It is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, huge space instruments that include the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the cosmos.” 

The long delayed launch went perfectly.  And so the journey of the giant telescope began.  As Dr. Karan Jani, astrophysicist from Vanderbilt University said, “The James Webb Space Telescope is a triumph of human ingenuity.  After thirty years of planning and development, we now have in space the greatest telescope in the history of astronomy…this telescope really belongs to every single one of us, regardless of our countries.” 

The mysterious people that we hear about in today’s gospel, who the gospel writer Matthew identifies as wise men from the East, were the ancestors of modern-day astrophysicists, for they too studied the heavens, and puzzled over the stars, searching out knowledge and meaning from their observations of the night sky. 

As they studied the heavens, they observed a new star rising, a star powerful and full of meaning, a star that indicated the birth of the king of the Jews.

These wise men wanted to find the new born king and to pay homage to the child, to bring the child gifts.  They wanted to see this heaven sent king for themselves. 

Scripture doesn’t give us details about their preparations for this journey, but the wise men must have taken the time to gather the provisions they would need to make a long journey.  We know that they collected the gifts they considered worthy of bringing to a new born king.  And they decided on their destination—Jerusalem, the Jewish seat of power in Palestine, a logical destination if they were seeking a new born king of the Jews. 

When they were ready, they set out.

We Christians here today were born into Christian families.  Jesus is a familiar person that we’ve known about all our lives, maybe just a story that has been part of our lives, a starry point in a sky filled with stars. 

But as this story reminds us, at some point, if we have been paying attention, we too see his star rising for ourselves, we suddenly see his light for what it is, and we know that we must seek him and hopefully to find him, to see him face to face, for Jesus is God with us.  

As we prayed at the beginning of today’s service, we, who know God now by faith, want God to lead us into God’s presence, where we may see God’s glory face to face. 

And so, having realized for ourselves who Jesus is, we set out on our journeys through this life with the desire to find Jesus.  As the second verse of the hymn “I want to walk as a child of the light” puts it, “I want to see the brightness of God,  I want to look at Jesus.  Clear sun of righteousness, shine on my path, and show me the way to the Father.” 

Our baptisms mark the beginning of our Christian journeys.   Our baptisms equip us for our journeys to God.  At our baptisms we renounce all of the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God and threaten to corrupt us.  We put our trust in the grace and love of Jesus as we promise to follow and obey him as our Lord, for he is the one who will lead us into God’s presence.   

We come up out of the baptismal waters, and then we set out. 

No journey is perfect.  When our Christian journeys end up getting detoured, or we get tired or discouraged, or we think we can’t go on, those promises we made at baptism equip us to try again, to set out again, to launch again, to keep traveling toward our destination, which is to be in the presence of God. 

And that promise to obey is so important, for that promise to follow and to obey him helps us when we fall into sin not to give up, but  to repent and to return to the Lord, to keep going.   

Here’s another thing that this gospel reminds us to consider. 

Before they left, the wise men determined their destination—Jerusalem.  Although I have always assumed that the star just led the wise men where they needed to go, scripture doesn’t say that.  Matthew says that the wisemen saw the star of the new born king at its rising, and so the wise men decided to set out.  Nowhere in Matthew’s report does the star lead the wise men to Jerusalem.  That idea in my mind comes from countless Christmas cards of men on camels crossing a desert with a bright star ahead of them, or from the verse in the familiar Christmas carol, “the first Nowell”  in which the star continues both day and night, and the wise men followed it wherever it went.

But in Matthew’s report, the wise men see the star when it rises.  The wise men set out toward the logical destination that they have settled on, Jerusalem, but we hear nothing more of the star until after they have reached their destination, have asked and asked about the new born king, and have come up empty.  The new born king isn’t in Jerusalem at all. 

In fact, Matthew reports that when Herod hears that these men have arrived who are seeking the new born king of the Jews, he is full of fear, and all of Jerusalem with him.  Herod consults with his own wise men, who tell him of the ancient prophesy that the child is to be born in Bethlehem.  And so the devious Herod calls the wise men to him, reveals the prophecy to them, and sends them off to Bethlehem to find the new born king and then to come back and tell him, so that he too can go and worship.

Only then does the star reappear.  Matthew tells us that when the wise men had heard the king, they set out once more, and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 

We too, like the wise men, determine where we should travel to reach our destination and to find God. We make our best guess, based on what we know.  We may choose a particular church, or denomination, we may decide that we are spiritual but not religious and strike out on our own, we may go on retreats, or travel to some shrine, or travel to the Holy Land itself.    But when we get to the places we have figured we will be in God’s presence, we may discover that who we seek isn’t completely there, or isn’t there at all.  We may be so close, but we still haven’t quite gotten all the way into God’s presence. 

BUT, we do find the next sign, the next clue, the next word or prophesy that will lead us on. Like the wise men, we set out again.  “When the wisemen had heard the king,” Matthew says, “they set out once more.” 

The wise men were humble.    They accepted the fact that they hadn’t quite reached their destination in spite of their best planning and knowledge.  BUT, they were close!   They had only six miles left to go to get to Bethlehem.    They accepted the fact that their determined destination wasn’t the final destination.  They realized that their determination had gotten them almost the whole way, but that they had needed some help to figure out the rest of the journey.   

And then the star reappears. 

Suddenly, once more they see God’s light in the sky, leading them on, confirming the next part of the journey, making sure that they would get there, and stopping over the place where they would find the child.

So today, we set out once more, into a new year, with all its challenges and discouragements.  Like the wise men, we travel well prepared.  We know our destination. 

But as we have learned, our destination, to see God’s glory face to face, is elusive. We have traveled so long and so far.  We are almost there, but we have a little way left to go before we see God face to face. 

So we, like the wise men, must listen, seek clues, and keep our eyes open for the blazing light of God that will reappear to confirm to us that yes, we are on the right path, even though the journey will lead from the seats of power with all their certainties  to a place that seems small and insignificant, a place like Bethlehem, to a child born in a stable and laid in a manger. 

And what will that blazing light be?  You will know when you see it reappear.  It will be God’s love, the love that will not let you go, ever.  The love of another person for you that shows you God’s grace and mercy, the love built into the natural world around you that opens your eyes to God’s majesty, the love that floods and pours from your heart for those people and things that are starving for love.

We have set out so often. 

Today, the wise men challenge us to set out once more, with great anticipation, for we do not have far left to go.  And we can accept the promise, as the wise men did,  that the star that we saw at its rising, the star that rises for all people,  God’s love blazing and burning throughout eternity, will indeed reappear, and will light our way to God. 

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Resources: 

What is the James Webb telescope ?

The James Webb Telescope

O Little Town of Bethlehem

“O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.”

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“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Phillips Brooks, who wrote the words of this hymn, was referring to Bethlehem, the place where all hopes and fears meet, around a manger and the new born child Jesus. 

Tonight we gather around the manger in our own Bethlehem here at St Peter’s.  We bring our own fears and hopes to the manger, the ones spoken and unspoken, the ones known and unknown.  We bring  the fears that threaten to destroy us and the hopes that sustain us.  

Michael Gerson writes about his own hopes and fears meeting in his column which appeared this morning in The Washington Post.  The title of the column is “This Christmas, hope may feel elusive.  But despair is not the answer.” 

In the column, which he is writing from a hospital ward, Gerson reveals that the cancer he has fought for years has become terminal and will eventually kill him, that he will not be getting better.

Gerson says that “nearly every life eventually involves such tests of hope.  Some questions, even when not urgent, are universal:  How can we make sense of blind and stupid suffering?  How do we live with purpose amid events that scream of unfair randomness?” 

And then, this question.  “What sustains hope when there is scant reason for it?” 

What sustains hope? 

For Gerson, the birth of Jesus sustains hope.

And here’s why.  Gerson says that “the nativity presents the inner reality of God’s arrival.” 

And then he goes on to say what the birth, and also the life and death of Jesus tell us about God. 

That God “goes to ridiculous lengths to seek us, a God who chose the low way:  power in humility; strength perfected in weakness; the last shall be first; blessed are the least of these.” 

God  is cloaked in blood and bone and destined for human suffering—which he does not try to explain to us, but rather just shares.”  And this willingness to share our suffering “is perhaps the hardest to fathom,” Gerson says, “the astounding vulnerability of God.”

Gerson goes on to say that God “is a God of hope.”

God “offers a different kind of security than the fulfillment of our deepest wishes.  God promises a transformation of the heart in which we release the burden of our desires, and live in expectation of God’s unfolding purposes, until all of God’s mercies stand revealed.” 

Listen to these words again. “God promises a transformation of the heart in which we release the burden of our desires, and live in expectation of God’s unfolding purposes, until all of God’s mercies stand revealed.” 

In the familiar Christmas story that we are here to celebrate tonight, Luke tells us that as Mary holds her newborn son, the fulfillment of an angel’s promise, the flesh and blood Son of God, and her own flesh and blood in her arms, that “she ponders all of these things in her heart.” 

Mary must have felt the burden of her desires, as any parent, or anyone who loves another might feel, the burden of the desire that the beloved will live a long, happy, fulfilled and blessed life, the burden of the desire to make it so for the beloved. 

Mary must have felt the expectation of God’s unfolding purposes.  Maybe she knew that she was part of that unfolding, that her child was to be part of God’s unfolding purpose of releasing God’s love into the world.  Maybe she knew that this child would help us all to remember God’s love and our longing for God’s love to transform each one of us and ultimately God’s completion of the redemption of  the world. 

Maybe Mary pondered the idea that this child would be our hope even in the face of our sorrows,  even in the despair of our unrealized desires, and even in the face of death. 

Richard Rohr, the Catholic theologian from whom we often hear in my sermons, says that “God comes to us disguised as our life.”  As Prior Aelred points out in The St Gregory’s Abbey Christmas letter, Rohr says that “our willingness to find God in our own struggle with life, and to let our struggles change us turns out to be our deepest and truest obedience to God’s eternal will.”  Rohr says that “we are always the stable into which the Christ is born anew.” 

Many of you contribute to the discretionary fund.  So I share this story with you tonight from a person who has benefited from the discretionary fund  as an example of how love can transform our hearts and in so doing be part of God’s ongoing plan for the redemption of the world. 

Lisa (not her real name)  called me at 10:30PM one night.  She apologized for calling so late.  She had been with friends whose 26 year old son had just died of Covid and was trying to give them support.    Lisa has a sister who has problems with drugs.  This sister is the mother of a six year old girl.   The sister had dropped her daughter  off at a relative’s house and, unbeknownst to Lisa, told the relative that Lisa would be picking up the little girl and taking her home for Christmas.  So Lisa had gone from her friends who were full of grief over the death of their son, to the house where her six year old niece was asleep, and had brought her niece home for Christmas.  Her sister was not answering the phone, and so Lisa had no idea when the sister might come back for her daughter. 

Lisa periodically asks for help from the discretionary fund for herself, but more often she is calling on behalf of someone else,  often for her uncle, who is disabled and sometimes has trouble paying his rent, or for a friend who needs help with an electric bill or some other bill.    This time she needed help to complete her rent payment, and thanks to your generosity I could help her. 

As I’ve reflected on her story, I see Lisa as a person of hope.  She is a good example of Rohr’s metaphor that we are the stable into which Christ is born anew.  That rainy night, in the midst of her own struggles, this woman had spent time with grieving friends and brought them comfort.  And then she had brought a child home unexpectedly so that the child would have a “home” for Christmas.

Lisa carries the burden of her desires that the lives of the people around her should be better.  Although she probably wouldn’t put it into these words, she also, to use Gerson’s words again, “lives in expectation of God’s unfolding purposes, until all of God’s mercies stand revealed.”  She is playing her part in the unfolding of God’s love in this world by her compassion for others.

 And you all play your part in the unfolding of God’s purposes in this world through your generosity to those in need. 

So this Christmas, as Gerson says in the closing paragraph of his column, as his talks about the hope that the Christmas story brings into his unfilled desire that he might be healed of his cancer–“we consider the disorienting, vivid evidence that hope wins.  This story is a story that can reorient every human story.”  The birth of Jesus “means that God is with us, even in suffering.  It is the assurance, as from a parent, as from an angel as from a savior:  It is okay.  And even at the extreme of death (quoting Julian of Norwich): ‘All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’” 

So in closing, let’s join in singing the last verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.  May that last verse be our prayer as “we live in expectation of God’s unfolding purposes, until all of God’s mercies stand revealed.” 

And even in the face of all our fears, may we be people of hope in and for this world.

“O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray, cast out our sins and enter in, be born in us today.  We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!” 

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Resources: 

Opinion: This Christmas, hope may feel elusive. But despair is not the answer – Michael Gerson, The Washington Post

Prior Aelred, “It’s all about compassion,”  Abbey Letter n. 288  Christmas 2021.  St Gregory’s Abbey, Three Rivers, MI 

“The Visitation” – Jacques Daret (1435)

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Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, is one of the people in  the background of the Christmas story.  Today is Mary’s Sunday, but Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, plays an important part in the Christmas story as well.  So this sermon is in the form of a letter to Elizabeth, reflecting on what her life has to say to us as we prepare for Christmas, to thank Elizabeth for the gifts that she gives to us through the witness of her life. 

To Elizabeth, descendant of Aaron, wife of Zechariah and mother of John the Baptist, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Dear Elizabeth,

I feel a special connection to you, for I too am a woman getting on in years.  I want to thank you for what you have taught me as I’ve meditated on your part in the story of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

I’ve read in Luke’s gospel that you and your husband Zechariah were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord, but that you didn’t have children, for you were barren. 

Since having children was a sign of God’s favor in your time, you must have been disappointed that your ongoing prayers for a child were not answered.  Maybe you wondered if you had done something to displease God.  Maybe you decided that because you were barren, God was punishing you. Maybe you were angry with God.    Maybe you felt resigned and were tempted to lose your faith in God’s goodness and mercy because God didn’t answer your prayers for a child.   Maybe you just gave up on God. 

But Luke says that you continued to live a righteous and blameless life.  Your ongoing disappointment over no children did not distract you from your faith in God.   You didn’t turn into a bitter old woman.  You didn’t turn away from God, even though God seemed to have let you down.  Instead, you kept on living faithfully and righteously before God, following God’s laws.  You were disciplined in your faith, trusting and believing in God even though others looked down on you.  They surely talked about you behind your back, but you just kept on  trusting and hoping in God.

I’m inspired by your choice to stay the course, and to live faithfully.  As I’ve gotten older, and I’m sure those who might hear this letter would agree, I know that all sorts of disappointments are woven into our lives.  Some of those disappointments are devastating, as I’m sure your barrenness was for you.  Sometimes we feel that God doesn’t seem to care, that God ignores our prayers, or that God is so far away that we wonder if God exists at all. 

Your life of faith and obedience to God in the face of disappointment indicates that you never gave up on God, even though you must have felt that God was ignoring you. 

You inspire me to stay the course, to be faithful to God and to hope in God not only when everything is going well,  but also  when I’m disappointed and discouraged and my prayers go unanswered, especially when I’m discouraged and disappointed and my prayers go unanswered. 

Your witness, Elizabeth,  helps me to continue to trust and to hope in God. 

Then, Luke tells us that you conceived.  This pregnancy of yours reminds me that God continues to bless us throughout our lives, regardless of how old we get. We never get too old for God to bless us.   

You spent the next five months of your pregnancy in seclusion. 

In those months of seclusion, you took the time to live into this huge change in your life in God’s presence.  In our busy lives we often find difficulty in taking even five minutes in quiet and seclusion in the presence of our Lord.  But there you were, spending time with God, contemplating all that had happened and opening your heart wide to what would be ahead.  That five months that you spent in seclusion reminds us that we ought to be more intentional about taking time with God.      

You also remind me to be grateful.   You gave thanks to God for taking away your misery.  You thanked God for looking favorably on you and taking away the distress that you had endured for so many years from the people around you.  You rejoiced in the Lord and gave God the glory,  for you knew that the gift of a child was a true gift from God.

Time set aside for God, giving God the glory, giving thanks and rejoicing, are all lessons that I want to remember and to practice every day. 

Then Luke tells us that Mary came to visit you. 

What a gift for hospitality you had.  You welcomed Mary in, and when she greeted you, your felt your child leap in your womb. 

Because you had set aside time for God, and had lived in God’s presence for so long, the Holy Spirit could rush into you, and you could bless Mary,  crying out to her, “Blessed are you among women, Mary, and blessed is the child you are bearing!”  You knew that Mary was to be the mother of God’s Son. 

You didn’t spend time bragging to Mary about your own God given pregnancy.  Instead, you blessed Mary.  You rejoiced in her pregnancy with her, rather than drawing the attention to yourself! You pointed toward Mary’s God given power and greatness, because she was to be the mother of God. 

Your son, John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit, learned from your example, for when he became a prophet, he pointed toward Jesus instead of at himself.  “He must increase, and I must decrease,” John said of Jesus. 

So you remind me that I could be more intentional about blessing others, for when we bless others, we point toward Jesus and his presence in this world. 

You also make me think, Elizabeth, about how I welcome people. If I could remember that God has blessed others too, if I could remember that God gives every person the opportunity to abide in our Lord and Savior, and for our Lord and Savior to abide in each of them,  I might be more generous with my hospitality.

Maybe I could welcome all people as Luke tells us Jesus did—tax collectors, sinners, Gentiles, the demon possessed, the self-possessed.   Jesus welcomed them all, knowing that they all had the potential to invite him to dwell in them.  He hoped to abide in all of them, for then God’s own love would abide in them.   

Elizabeth, maybe the Apostle Paul was thinking of you and Mary when he wrote to the Romans, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” 

So thank you for showing  us how to be people of rich and holy welcome in the gracious way that you welcomed Mary into your home and blessed her, because you teach us that in doing so, we may be welcoming Jesus himself.    

I want to thank you for showing me one last thing—and that is the importance of humility.  Rather than assuming that your life of trust and faith, your time with God, your being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the gracious welcome that you offered would all be awarded with a blessing, you said in surprise to Mary when she arrived, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”

In your wisdom, you knew that you had done nothing to earn this honor.  You knew that all of life is a gift, and that every blessing we receive in this life is a surprising gift. God generously gives gifts to all of us. 

The prayer that we pray on the last Sunday of Advent every year as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus makes me think of you.

Here it is. 

“Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may  find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” 

Just think, Elizabeth, even before he was born, Jesus found in your home a mansion prepared for himself, a home of obedient trust and hope despite disappointment, a home dedicated to time with God, a home that gave glory and honor to God, a home full of gratitude, a home full of the Holy Spirit, a home of humble welcome.

So may we remember you, Elizabeth, and give thanks for all your gifts, for they help us as we prepare our hearts to be the mansions in which we hope that our Messiah will be pleased to come and dwell. 

Peace,
Catherine 

Saint John the Baptist Preaching (1502) – Raphael

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In today’s gospel, John the Baptist proclaims the good news to the people who have come out to hear him.  His warnings of the coming judgement, the need for actions of repentance, his directions regarding the necessity of living fair and equitable lives, and his description of the Messiah about to arrive with a winnowing fork in his hand, a Messiah who will clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into the granary, and will burn the chaff not just with fire, but with unquenchable fire—all good news! 

John the Baptist called the people who came out to hear him a brood of vipers.  If I had been there that day, listening to this man, I probably would have taken offence, and headed back to Jerusalem, full of anger.  After all, I’m a good person, bearing good fruits, assuring myself that I have little need to repent. 

How dare John the Baptist tell me any differently? 

As we all prepare for Christmas, I doubt any of us want to hear about repentance. We want light and joy in this darkest time of the year.   

Of course we won’t avoid repentance, but we Episcopalians like to save that repentance conversation up for the season of Lent, several months down the road. And even then, we tend to soft pedal the idea.    

So, there, John the Baptist, you and your message are a downright inconvenience!  We’d like to leave your muddy riverbank and your biting words and get back to, our Christmas decorations, carols and cards, cooking and celebrating, our rejoicing in the Lord, as the Apostle Paul suggests we do.    

I’d rather preach about rejoicing than about repentance. 

But there you are, John the Baptist, calling us vipers and demanding our attention, calling us to repent as we  prepare for the coming of our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the one with a winnowing fork in his hand. 

So John, we are going to give thanks for you today and give you a few minutes of our time.   We’ll try to figure out what you would say to us if we found you preaching on the banks of the Rappahannock.  What would you tell us before we called Scott Moser or Tony Lippa to report a crazy person loose in Port Royal?

Maybe we can muster up the grace to respond to you, John the Baptist, as the crowds did that day and to ask what we should do to prepare for the coming of the Lord, rather than simply to dismiss or to ignore your offensive delivery, as we are so tempted to do.

The people who listened to John on the banks of the Jordan that day told themselves that they were descendants of Abraham, which meant that they were God’s chosen people, so what more did they need to do?  But John says to them, “Nope, don’t even go there—God can raise up anyone to bear good fruit.”

If John were preaching to us, he’d encourage us to get busy and to clean out our own ancestral attics and basements. I’m sure many of us can relate to the fact that we’ve stored things in the attics or basements of our houses that seemed useful to save at the time, but now we have a mess on our hands, a pile of chaff that needs to blow away.  Atrophy sets in.  We just let that stuff sit because we don’t have time to deal with it now, or it would be inconvenient to deal with it now, or we don’t want to think about dealing with it now.

John reminds us that what we have held onto that seemed useful in the past may become the very things that turn out to be stumbling blocks to our bearing good fruit now.  Repent of the past, John would tell us, and turn toward the future into which the Messiah will stride with that winnowing fork. 

Part of the work that we Christians today are being called on to do in this country is to take a fuller and closer look at the history of our nation.  Some of things that we have held onto in our national attic have kept us from bearing good fruit, but we didn’t fully understand that.   A local example helps to explain what I mean. 

For one hundred and fourteen years, the statue of the Confederate soldier stood in front of the Caroline County courthouse in Bowling Green. In a Board of Supervisors meeting in which people could speak for or against the removal of the monument, the Rev. Duane Fields, pastor of Second Mt Zion Baptist Church in Dawn, said that the monument reminded his people of slavery and the struggles of their ancestors.  As the Rev. Cynthia Golden pointed out in the meeting, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” When the Board of Supervisors understood that this statue felt so divisive to so many of the county residents, they voted unanimously to remove it from the courthouse lawn.     

This action on the part of Caroline County to remove the statue from the courthouse to the Greenlawn Cemetery  is an example of bearing fruits worthy of repentance, more completely freeing the people of Caroline County to work together with mutual respect to make a positive difference for all people—that is, to bear good fruit.    

As a church, we have a Sacred Ground group that is learning about the parts of our history we didn’t know, and working on things we can do in light of that history to make a difference and to promote justice  in our own times. 

John the Baptist would encourage all of us to get into go into the attics of our minds, to examine the relics that we find there, like resting on the knowledge that we are children of Abraham,  and to get rid of the things that keep us from fully engaging in the work of justice and peace making that our Messiah Jesus showed us how to do in his time with us on this earth and asks us and expects us to do in our own time. 

Just as he answered the people who were listening to him that day and who asked him what they should do to bear fruit worthy of repentance, John the Baptist would also give us some ethical teachings.  He encouraged the tax collectors and the soldiers to take no more from the people than their actual wages, that is, not to use the power that they had been given from Rome for their personal financial gain at the expense of their neighbors.    So John the Baptist reminds us to consider the power that we have, and to be careful of how we use it, for God’s glory rather than for our personal gain. 

John the Baptist would encourage us who have more than enough to share with those who don’t have enough.  As a church, we try to follow these teachings of loving our neighbor.  John the Baptist reminds us too that part of preparing for the coming of the Savior is to pay attention to what we have in excess, and to be intentional about how we are to share with others, for this sharing is part of loving our neighbors as ourselves.  

This teaching is one of the reasons why each year our Vestry sets aside money to share with others, and then at its December meeting disperses that money.  At our meeting last Thursday, the Vestry voted to share $3000 from St Peter’s with Hunters for the Hungry, a group that gets venison to food banks and social services around the area; the Healthy Harvest Food Bank, a group that works to provide food for hungry people all over this part of Virginia; the Caroline Recovery Center, a group that works with people struggling with drug addictions; Caroline Young Life, a group working with teenagers in our school system; CERV, an ecumenical group that helps people in need in Caroline County; Episcopal Migration Ministries, the branch of the Episcopal Church that works directly with settling refugees from around the world, helping them to lead successful lives in this country; St Jude’s, the hospital that cares for children with cancer, money for the continuing work of the The Victoria School in Jamaica; and money for a new scholarship being established for a Caroline County student of Black or indigenous heritage who could not otherwise afford higher education to attend community college for two years. Grace Church, Corbin will also receive some money from this distribution, as our way of helping to preserve our Anglican history in Caroline County.  The fact that we have money to share and that we are sharing it is cause for rejoicing in the Lord, and for the Lord to rejoice in us. 

Last of all, John would remind us that our Messiah is on the way.  Although we are preparing to celebrate the birth of this Messiah, John reminds us that we also celebrate the One coming who carries a winnowing fork in his hand, the One who will judge us, gathering the wheat into the granary and burning the chaff. 

We can rejoice in the fact that our Messiah baptizes us with refining fire, burning away the chaff in our lives.  Our Messiah fills us with the power of the Holy Spirit working in us to do God’s work in this world. 

From the seeds that we have planted with the help of our Messiah, God’s peace and justice can  spring up in us and on this earth, and we will be the wheat that the Messiah gathers in. 

And that’s good news. 

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 Resource:    

Caroline officials vote to remove Confederate monument from courthouse lawn

“John the Baptist Baptizes People” – Nicholas Poussin (1635c)

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My next door neighbors got married years ago.  As a wedding present, I promised to make them a cheesecake.  All they had to do was to tell me when they wanted it, and I would bake it and bring it over.    

The busy years have come and gone.  My neighbors have never taken me up on the offer of that cheesecake. 

That unbaked, undelivered wedding present feels to me like a promise I haven’t kept, not quite a broken promise, because I could still bake it and take it to them.

But this promise does remain unfulfilled.    

Maybe my neighbors think about that cheesecake once in a while and wonder whether or not it’s too late to ask me to keep my long ago promise to them. 

Or maybe, which is most likely the case, they’ve just completely forgotten that I ever made such a promise, and they would be shocked to find me on their doorstep with a cheesecake.   

Unlike my neighbors, the Israelites never forgot promises.

The Israelites were dogged people with very long memories.  Although no prophets had spoken directly to them for over four hundred years, and God seemed to be silent, the Israelites remembered that God had promised them something.   

“God, you promised us a Messiah, and we have NOT forgotten your promise!”

They may have been discouraged.  Their hopes may have been burning low, like a bank of ashes in the fireplace at the end of the evening, when the roaring fire has almost burned itself out, but despite their discouragement, the people kept waiting and praying. 

So no wonder they were electrified by the fact that suddenly, after all this time, a  real live prophet had appeared and was proclaiming that God’s long ago promise of a Messiah was about to be fulfilled. 

The people knew that John the Baptist was someone special. 

When John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, had gone into the Holy of Holies for the only time in his life, as part of his priestly duty, Zechariah had been struck dumb by a message from God.   

God was  about to fulfill the promise that the Messiah would actually show up. 

And the message that Zechariah had received from the angel had not only been about the Messiah, but also about a son for Zechariah and Elizabeth, an old and childless couple.  They were going to have a son, and their son would go before the Lord to prepare the Lord’s way. 

Isn’t that typical God, generosity beyond imagining! 

Until the baby was born, and  his parents named him John, and Zechariah had gotten his voice back, the people who had waited outside the temple that day for Zechariah to come out of the Holy of Holies could only guess at the divine message that had struck Zechariah dumb. 

But they KNEW, just KNEW that the message was about God keeping God’s promise, and that promise must have to do with the Messiah since the person who went into the Holy of Holies every year was supposed to pray for the Messiah’s arrival. 

The people must have gotten chills when they heard Zechariah proclaim as he held his newborn son, that the Lord, the God of Israel, had raised up for them a mighty savior, born of the house of God’s servant, David. Yes, they had been right! 

The message HAD been about the Messiah!

They must have felt like laughing and crying when they heard that the Lord was about to keep the promise of mercy made to their ancestors, that the Lord was about to keep the holy covenant of promise, that the Messiah was on the way. 

The Lord WAS, after all this time, going to save them from their enemies.  They were about to be set free, for the Messiah would set them free. 

They must have felt like leaping up and down in joy when they heard that they soon would be free to worship the Lord without fear, that they would be holy and righteous for the rest of their lives because the Messiah would be with them.   

And then, Zechariah tells them that the little son in his arms is a prophet, a prophet who will prepare the way of the Lord, a prophet who will speak to the people, a prophet who will give them knowledge about their salvation, a prophet who will call them to repentance and the forgiveness of their sins, a prophet who will help them get ready for the Messiah’s arrival. 

A prophet, speaking God’s words out loud, after over four hundred years of silence. 

Zechariah tells them that they, who knew what it meant to dwell in the darkness and death dealing power of Rome—they were about to see the light of a dawn straight from God, light about to break out around them, the light of the Messiah who was on the way. 

And sure enough, time flew by and before they knew it, some of these same people who heard Zechariah cry out with the good news at his son’s birth, were now going out to the wilderness to listen to Zechariah’s son, this John the Baptist, grown up into the prophet who was proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

“Prepare the way of the Lord!” John preached.    

Picture John the Baptist standing in the River Jordan, feeling all the history of prophesy flowing in those waters down around him, almost knocking him off his feet, those words swirling with the promises God had already spelled out through prophets like Isaiah. 

Picture John the Baptist gazing toward what would be,  the salvation of God realized for ALL PEOPLE! 

No wonder masses of people came out into the wilderness  to hear the prophet, John the Baptist.  His words, washing over them, brought God’s ancient promises alive once more, and filled them with hope. 

No wonder that they wanted to get in the water with John the Baptist and to be baptized, to be immersed in God’s promises, to be brought up out of the flowing water of the Jordan washed in God’s love, and dripping wet with hope that God’s promise of a Messiah was about to be realized. 

Today, we stand downstream from those days.  Two thousand years of history have washed over us.  And so we have the gift of  knowing more of the story than the people on the banks of the Jordan knew that day.  We have the gift of knowing  that God did fulfill the promise of a Messiah, for unto US and to all people, a son is born.  Unto us, and to ALL PEOPLE, a son is given.

And because of this gift of Emmanuel,  we enter the waters of baptism, just as the people on the banks of the River Jordan did all those years ago, thankful for God’s fulfilled promises realized in God’s son, Jesus.  And at our baptisms, we make  promises to God in gratitude for God’s gift of the  Messiah, God with us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

So today, on this second Sunday of Advent, as we think on these things, the words of Baruch ring true.  Like the people who heard Zechariah proclaiming the good news when his son was born, like the people standing on the banks of the Jordan, hearing John the Baptist preach, we listen too. 

But we listen with the knowledge of the fulfillment of God’s promise, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has come to us, and has lived and died as one of us and is our King of Glory. 

Now we too stand up and look toward the East, for we are watching   for the fulfillment of the rest of God’s promise to us; Jesus, our King of Glory, coming again in glory and completing God’s everlasting reign of peace and love on this earth.   

So as we wait, let’s promise to take off the garments of our sorrow and afflictions, and exchange all the misery in which we clothe  ourselves for the beauty of the glory from God. 

Let’s promise to  put on our robes of righteousness, being right with God and with one another.  And let’s  put on our crowns that shine with God’s everlasting glory. 

Baruch says, “Look East!”   See all the people from all over the world gathered together, moving in a mighty stream toward God, rejoicing that God has remembered them. 

And like those swirling waters of the Jordan that washed around John the Baptist,  this swirling rejoicing crowd washes over and around  us, and we are caught up and carried along  with them.  Let’s  join in their joyful song, for God leads us, in the light of God’s glory, mercy and righteousness, toward the final realization of God’s reign of love and peace in us and on this earth. 

We rejoice because we know that that God keeps God’s promises. 

So people,  look East, and sing today,  for we see and know that Love the Lord is on the way. 

Advent is a season of beginnings. 

The church year begins.   The story of Jesus coming to dwell as one of us, to live and die as one of us, begins.   In the darkest days of the year, we begin to see glimmers of hope somewhere off on the horizon. 

Time begins again.        

But as compelling as these beginnings are, the ultimate mystery and majesty of Advent shines forth in its promise of the completion of time, and its finally fulfilled hopes as Jesus returns to dwell with us forever.

God’s love and God’s ongoing presence on this earth and with all of us will be accomplished.  “Even as heaven and earth pass away, my words will not pass away,”  Jesus says.  The words of Jesus breathe and speak love; redemptive love, fulfilled love, and love reunited, God reunited with us,  love flowing unimpeded through time, space, and eternity.  These words of love will never pass away. 

So in the meantime, in this time of God’s not yet complete reign on this earth, we live in hope, hoping that our love for God and for one another will increase, that our imperfect and incomplete loves will constantly be taken and refined in the crucible of God’s perfect love.

Advent is our season of longing for completed and fulfilled love. 

The apostle Paul knew about love that longs for completion. 

In his letter to the Thessalonians, he writes about his longing to get back to the people who are members of one of the first house churches that Paul brought into being. 

“Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith,” Paul wrote.   Paul wanted to get back to these people he loved, not to rest on his laurels and to soak up their adulation, but to continue the good work he had begun there in helping to form and to shape their faith in the Lord Jesus. 

So Paul prayed, “Now may our God and Father and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.” 

Meanwhile, the Thessalonians were feeling a great deal of anxiety about when they would see Paul again.  Plus, Paul had told them about Jesus returning to complete God’s reign on this earth, and that Jesus would return soon.  But when?  When would Paul get back, when would Jesus return?  The Thessalonians wanted some certainty. 

Paul tells them, in all the uncertainty, and in their absence from one another,  and in his own uncertainty about when he will return, that one thing is certain. 

That certainty is the presence of love. 

As they wait for Paul, and for Jesus to return, Paul encourages the Thessalonians to continue the good work that has begun in them.  They can work on whatever is lacking in their faith by increasing their love for one another. 

To increase and abound in love for one another is to remember that our love for one another is not yet complete.  Ongoing love, no matter how rich and deep it gets, is still a longing love for more love.   

When we are separated by space, by time, and ultimately by death, we still long to be with those we love.  The American Automobile Association estimates that 53.4 million Americans are traveling this Thanksgiving  weekend.  And I guarantee, over 53 million people aren’t traveling simply to eat turkey and all the fixings.  My guess is that most of them are going to the trouble to travel because they are longing to be with someone they love.

But even after making the effort to be with the people we love, tensions may impede our love, regardless of our best efforts. 

Stories of Thanksgiving fights around the dinner table have become legendary.  But in moments when we are tempted to be less than loving,  Paul’s insistence that we are to increase and abound in love for one another can help us to stay on track. 

In her article, “This Thanksgiving, be kind at the table, I wish I had,” that appeared on November 24^th in  The Washington Post recently, Steff Sirois writes about her brother Paul, age thirty, who died of Covid not long before the Covid vaccines became available.  In the article, Sirois describes her past political arguments with her brother at the Thanksgiving table.  Sirois would get red faced and  more and more heated, accusing her brother of being stupid.  But Paul never struck back, instead pivoting to their shared childhood memories that ultimately had them both in laughter.

Sirois says that “those Thanksgiving arguments with my brother were a waste of time I took for granted, a waste of breath that I thought we could afford to expend frivolously.”  

Now that her brother is dead, Sirois, quoting writer George Saunders,  says that what she “most regrets in her life are her failures of kindness.”  And she goes on to say that “if it hadn’t been for Paul’s refusal to make an enemy out of me for those trivial reasons that family members so often do, if he hadn’t insisted on loving me unconditionally in spirit of our differences, I would have bigger regrets to make peace with.”  She says that her brother’s “unrelenting kindness, his ability to incorporate laughter and show love at the height of their most heated arguments, is even in death, his greatest gift.” 

Increasing and abounding in love requires that we choose kindness when we are tempted to do otherwise.  And the beauty of choosing kindness even in the small bits of life—in the grocery store, waiting in line, answering an unsolicited phone call, choosing to be kind to those around us even when we’d rather not, means that when we hope to choose love in the most awful of situations, we are more likely to be able to do so, because we have been practicing love all along.    

And God will help us to love one another.  By remembering God’s everlasting compassion and love as the Psalmist does, we can then remember to be humble and  compassionate and loving in our relationships with others.  Choosing kindness, and then choosing love, strengthens our hearts in holiness. 

And choosing love helps us to follow the advice of Jesus as he talks about the end times. 

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” 

Dissipations, addictions and worries all take root in individual and communal failures of love.

To actively work on increasing love by faithfully loving one another, and to contribute to abounding love in this world that lacks love is to help to make way for the reign of God to finally be completed on this earth. 

Jesus was born on this earth and lived and died as one of us.  But the sweep of the  birth, life, death, and even the resurrection and ascension of Jesus is not the end of the story, not at all!  Jesus still longs to get back to us because Jesus loves us.    

For as we Christians know, Jesus is still not done with us. The love that Jesus has for us is greater than all eternity, and that’s the love with which he wants us to love one another.    His love for us stretches past the end of time, even after everything else that we  have ever known has passed away.  Jesus promises to return, in power and great glory, to finish the work that he only got to begin in his time on earth  here with us, the work of bringing God’s reign of peace and love to completion on this earth and in us. 

So as this season of Advent begins once more, we begin again the timeless work of love.   Let us pray that God will  strengthen our hearts in holiness and make us people of love.  Then,  when time draws to a close and  Jesus comes in power and great glory, we will run to him, whose name is Love, and stand with joy before him, because while we have waited for his return, we have chosen to love one another as God has always loved us.        

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This Thanksgiving, be kind at the table. I wish I had.

“Christ the King” – Stained glass -Wilbur Herbert Burnham (1943)

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Today is Christ the King Sunday, and as all the readings we’ve just heard make abundantly clear, “The Lord is King,” the “Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” 

And  Jesus says, as he stands before Pilate in today’s gospel, that everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice, for Jesus himself is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life,”  as he has told his disciples. 

We Christians, the disciples of Jesus, claim these truths as the foundation of our lives,  that the Lord is King, from everlasting to everlasting, and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

So as we come to the end of this church year, we give thanks that the lectionary readings remind us  in no uncertain terms that, yes,  Christ is King, and that our lives are to be shaped by his life, for we belong to his kingdom. 

To be shaped by Jesus is to live an active cross shaped life, one that reaches up to God, and out to this world.  When we reach up and out, we take on the shape of a cross. 

When we Christians reach out because our lives are shaped by the cross, we reach out in peace. 

No matter how tempted we are to use power, violence, coercion, and manipulation in this life, seemingly for our own good, Jesus reminds us that none of these things belong in his kingdom. Jesus tells Pilate that if his kingdom were from this world, his followers would be fighting to keep Jesus from death.  But the kingdom of Jesus is not from this world.   

And we, the followers of Jesus, are not to be shaped by the kingdoms of this world but by the kingdom of God, the kingdom of peace.  When we live in God’s kingdom of peace, God’s peace shapes us into people of peace. 

The Collect for Peace in The Book of Common Prayer reminds us of the fact that violence has no place in the kingdom of God.

“Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love:  So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever.”

This prayer  reminds us that our strength is the strength of love.  When we live cross shaped lives, we reach out in not only peace, but in love, as Jesus did throughout his life, and as God has done since the beginning of creation.

One of the collects for mission in The Book of Common Prayer sums up what reaching out in love means when we live cross shaped lives.    

“Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace:  So clothe us in your Spirit, that we, reaching out our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your name.” 

When we reach out our hands in peace and in love, we reach out with welcome to our neighbors, making the open arms of Jesus a reality in this world. 

Not only do we members of God’s kingdom reach out to the world, but we also reach up to God. 

We reach up to God in prayer, for prayer connects us to God, who is infinite love, love greater than any love we could ever imagine.   

Our prayers strengthen our connection to God.  St Therese of Lisieux says that “prayer is  the surge of the heart, it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” 

And Mother Teresa reminds us that “prayer enlarges our hearts” until our hearts become capable of containing God’s gift of God’s self to each one of us. 

Reaching up to God in prayer is an act of praise and thanksgiving.

Every Sunday as we begin the Great Thanksgiving, thanking God for God’s gift of sacrificial and reconciling love through Jesus to each one of us and to  this world, we reach up. 

“Lift up your hearts.  We lift them to the Lord,” we say.   We lift our hearts in praise and thanksgiving. 

Praising and thanking God keep our connections to God strong. When we live in gratitude for the boundless gifts of love we have received from God, then our love for God grows greater and greater. 

And we long  to give God more and more love in return for all the love that God has given to us.  Our desire to live more perfectly as people of love and as members of God’s kingdom grows deeper and deeper. 

So gratitude helps us to grow as members of God’s kingdom when we focus on all the blessings of this life, those blessings that make God’s kingdom visible in our lives and here on this earth as we live cross shaped lives.   

Living cross shaped lives helps us to remember another important thing.    

To live a cross shaped life is to live in expectation that God’s kingdom will come on this earth as it is in heaven.

After Jesus died, he was taken down from the cross, buried and then resurrected by God on the third day.  His cross stands empty to the sky. 

To keep the cross before us reminds us that Christ is indeed alive. Brian Wren reminds us in his Easter hymn, “Christ is alive,” that “Christ’s spirit burns through this and every future age.”   We members of God’s kingdom wait in hope and we live in expectation that, as Wren writes,  “all creation will live and learn his joy, his justice, his love and his praise.” 

Yes, we Christians claim the truth  that the Lord is King, and Jesus is the Truth, as the foundation of our lives and we live in hopeful expectation of God’s kingdom coming into its completion on this earth. 

So as this church year closes, look back on how you, and how we, as the Body of Christ here at St Peter’s, have lived cross shaped lives in God’s kingdom here on earth in this past year. 

Look back in gratitude , giving thanks for all that has been, and for the blessings that God has given us even in the sorrows we have experienced and the challenges we have faced in this past year. 

Look forward in prayerful expectation for all that will be  as the new church year begins next Sunday, on the first Sunday of Advent. 

For we wait with grateful expectation for the coming of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. 

And we look forward with hopeful expectation  that God’s kingdom will come, and that God’s will and God’s hopes will be realized and done on this earth, and in each one of us, as we reach up to God and out to the world in love. 

“The Milky Way from the Sahara Desert” – Photo by Valentin Armianu, Dreamstine

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“Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

In this passage from Daniel, the universe, in all its glory, stretches out like brightness of the sky.  In the night sky, the darkness is pierced by the brilliant sparkling light of countless stars. 

When I look up at the sky, I feel insignificant, a tiny and fleeting bit of life that exists but  for a moment of infinity. 

The writer of Daniel, though, saw in the sky a vision of the possibilities for our own lives now, and throughout eternity.  The brightness of the sky reminded the writer of the people who in this lifetime attain wisdom.  The stars reminded the writer of the ones who lead others to righteousness. 

The ones who are wise and righteous on this earth are the ones who have learned to open their hearts to God and to their neighbor and to keep their hearts open, even in the times of anguish that we all must face in our lifetimes. 

We keep open hearts by the consistent and diligent practice  of loving God and loving our neighbors, especially when we most desire to slam the doors of our hearts shut because we’ve been hurt, or when we feel threatened, or when we are angry. 

And yet Jesus shows us how to continue to love God and to love our neighbors even in the most challenging of situations—his own crucifixion.  

Even as he was dying on the cross, Jesus kept his heart open.    

Luke reports that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing,” as men bound Jesus to the cross on which he would die. Luke also reports that Jesus welcomed the repentant thief who hung on the cross beside him when he told the man, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”  Jesus kept his heart open to the people around him. 

And even as he suffers and endures an awful death, Jesus keeps his heart open to God.  Matthew and Mark report that, as he is dying,  Jesus calls out to God, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In Luke, Jesus prays, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  Even in his forsakenness, Jesus never doubts God’s presence with him.   He calls on God and questions God, knowing that he is eternally with God, both in life and in death. 

“Great,” you may be thinking, “but what about the person who has been hateful to me, has disrespected me, or has mistreated me?  I can’t forgive that person.  Why would God ask me to do such a thing?    I refuse to be a doormat. Where is God in all of this anyway?”   

God hears our cries.  And in response, God does not ask us to be doormats.  God asks us to be open doors.

If we are wisely practicing the love of God and our neighbors, and we are doing our best to lead righteous lives, then our hearts will be open to others and we will want to  invite others in.   

Jesus gives us an example from his own life about inviting others in.      

When Jesus looked with great love on the  rich man and invited that man to sell all his possessions and to follow Jesus, the man went away in great disappointment.  He couldn’t part with the possessions that took up so much space in his life.   His focus on his wealth kept him from going through the door that Jesus was holding open for him, the doorway into the righteous life of a disciple who focuses on God.  So the man turned and walked away, not because Jesus slammed a door in his face, or because Jesus didn’t love him,   but because the man decided for himself not to enter the door that Jesus held open for him. He decided not to take Jesus up on the invitation to become a disciple. 

And that’s the trick—for us to be right with God and our neighbors, leading righteous lives ourselves, so that we can invite others into righteousness.  Whether or not others want to accept the invitation into righteousness is up to them. 

The tricky part to this is that often, even subconsciously, people expect us to compromise our own righteous lives to make them feel welcome.  And we get tempted to compromise in order to seem more welcoming.   

Here, the wise words of African American theologian Howard Thurman are particularly helpful. 

Thurman says that that “There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves.  The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’  If you ever get those questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.” 

Along those same lines, Thurman says that  “Anyone who permits another to determine the quality of his inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to his destiny.”

Now what if you have slammed a door shut for some reason against another person, maybe out of anger? 

Thurman says that  “If a man knows precisely what he can do to you or what epithet he can hurl against you to make you lose your temper, your equilibrium, then he can always keep you under subjection.”

As Christians, we strive to be subject to God before anything or anyone else.  The first commandment says, “I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no other gods before me.” 

So when we become subject to our own pride, and our own self-righteous anger, or we let the anger or demands of another take away our joy and take over our minds,  that means we have put ourselves or that person who has made us mad ahead of God, and we have probably  slammed some doors shut in the process. 

God knows that we misplace our allegiance to God all the time, and slam doors all the time because we are human beings.  That’s why we confess our sins against God and our neighbor every Sunday, and we must also include the sins we commit against ourselves.    

In the prayer of confession, we confess that “We have not loved you, God, with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”

And when we are truly sorry and we humbly repent, laying down our pride and hardheadedness, then we can accept God’s mercy and forgiveness and once more delight in God’s will, and walk in God’s ways to the glory of God’s name.

Accepting God’s mercy and forgiveness frees us to be wise and righteous, to be merciful and forgiving to others.  And that means that if you have some doors that you have slammed shut against others, part of walking in God’s ways is to figure out how to open those doors again, letting those on the outside know the door of your own mercy and forgiveness toward them is once more open. 

None of what I’ve said is easy to do. 

But remember that Jesus says to his disciples that we are to make sure that no one leads us astray, for others will tempt us to believe in someone or something less than Jesus, and this includes believing in our own wills rather than in God’s will.   We will get pulled this way and that, tempted to take sides, tempted by anger, and then to engage in wars and rumors of wars.

But Jesus says, “Do not be alarmed.” 

Disciples, we are not to be alarmed, not to be sucked in, not to be maddened, not to compromise, not to give in to anger, but to focus on being wise and leading the righteous lives as followers of Jesus that will light the way for others.

Today’s psalmist gives us guidance.  Jesus himself knew these words and practiced them. 

“I will kneel before the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night.

I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.  My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope.”

God shows us the path of life.  In God’s welcoming, merciful and forgiving presence there is fullness of joy.  In God’s hand are pleasures forever more, the  pleasures of living wisely and righteously with God and with one another.    

When we walk in God’s ways, the way of wisdom and righteousness,  we too can shine like the brightness of the sky and sparkle like the stars forever and ever, and maybe even lead many to righteousness.    

Resource:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/56230.Howard_Thurman