I did not actually preach this sermon. I wrote it. But I have come down with "the Tallahassee crud" and have been coughing and blowing my nose for 48 hours. It started with that tell-tale sign of the scratchy throat...and then blossomed into this...crud.
Rather than getting up early to drive to Georgia and push myself to lead the service, I put out word to our retired deacon and asked her to lead Morning Prayer with Communion using our reserved sacrament (of which we had a lot of wafers so I knew we would be OK). I emailed her my sermon and told her to simply tell everyone that these were my words. That way she wouldn't have to dream up a sermon in less than 24 hours.
See what you think. Cough. Cough.
Texts: Isaiah 43: 1-7; Luke 3: 15-17, 21-23
+++
Before I start…I have to acknowledge that the references to fire in
our lessons this morning have given me pause because of what’s happening in
California.
I have several friends who live in the Los Angeles area…including
my best friend from my childhood. I was able to reach her through a text
message, and while she and her family and home are safe…it’s very much touch
and go for them as there are fires on two sides of where they live.
We all know the trauma of natural disasters and
can appreciate the worry and panic many of our fellow citizens are experiencing
right now. So many in Los Angeles have lost their homes and businesses and
places of worship. So please keep them in your prayers.
Images of water and fire are fairly common in Scripture…and our
daily lives.
We hear the prophet Isaiah promising to those who have been
traumatized that God is with them…helping them “pass through waters” and not
letting the “fire burn them.” God is the protector and the shield from the
dangers and horrors that the people have had to endure.
These are people who have suffered a hostile take over and exile
from a foreign empire.
And Isaiah is now serving as the prophet of comfort to the faithful
survivors…reminding them that despite all appearances to the
contrary…God is still with them so keep going.
It’s important for us to know this background because it is this
history that is in the DNA of all those people coming out to John to be
baptized in the Jordan River.
There’s a reason we hear Luke say that “the people were filled with
expectation.”
All of these people…including the ones that John was probably
shocked to see…the tax collectors and soldiers and even some Pharisees…they all
have this shared history of having been conquered and uprooted and threatened
by tyrannical forces.
They are the descendants of that surviving cluster from centuries
earlier.
The ones Isaiah was comforting.
They’ve heard the stories of their ancestors…the promises that all
in this life is not in vain if they keep hoping…hope beyond hope…that there will
be a Messiah.
They’re looking for that one sent to save them from their current
misery living under the Roman Empire.
But John isn’t it.
And he knows it’s not him.
But even John isn’t without hope. Because he has faith and trust
that there is someone coming who will be that great one. And that’s what he
promises to them.
Now…once again…the crafters of our lectionary have decided to drop
some verses from this Gospel reading…and so I am going to add them back in for
you.
Because…just like with the story of the wise men and Herod…it’s
critical for us to know that in the middle of this scene of lots of people
seeking to turn their lives around and heed John’s message to basically “get
right with God”…John is doing all of this with some serious risk.
When Herod sought out John…John took that opportunity to speak the
truth to the powerful ruler.
He told Herod that his marriage to Herodias…who had been married to
Herod’s brother Phillip…was both immoral and illegal…and that as Jewish leaders
go…Herod was a brute and an abusive jerk.
This Herod comes by his immorality honestly.
He’s the son of the King
Herod who wanted to find the young Jesus so he could kill his rival.
Folks: The Herods are not a nice Jewish family.
The truth hurts…and for John…it would cost him first his
freedom…and eventually his life.
That’s what happens to the one who announces that there’s a greater
person coming…that one who would threaten the power structures in ways that
should make them sit up and take notice.
Why does this matter?
Because it is the reminder that this time of Jesus was not a
tranquil time.
And in times of threat…when we feel a sword of Damocles hanging
over our heads…that’s when Jesus shows up.
And interestingly….not in a grand way…with a fanfare of trumpets or
riding in on a white horse to save the day.
Luke’s description makes us see that Jesus was one with all the
people getting baptized on that particular day.
In the midst of all these people…with their expectations…driven and
sustained by the hope that someone…oh, please God…someone will
see them…
know them…
recognize them…
and remember them in the middle of this time when the powerful seem
to have the upper hand on everything…
there is Jesus…already with them.
The one praying.
The one on whom the Holy Spirit descended as a dove…the one that
voice whispered, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
He’s there!
He was not called Messiah.
He was called Son. Beloved.
This one.
This child of God…has had his own epiphany. His own understanding
of who he is and whose he is.
And for us…it’s a reminder not only that God is with us at all
times…especially in the times when we are feeling the outside pressures of the
world getting us down.
It also speaks to the message that I think we are sometimes
reluctant to accept.
That the God who…in Jesus has drawn earth and heaven closer
together…can be found with us and in us today.
It kind of reminds me of the Joan Osbourne song from the
mid-90s…where she contemplates “what if God is one of us…a slob like one of
us…just a stranger on the bus…trying to make his way home.”
The lyrics challenge us to think about the God incarnate….and to
consider our understanding of God’s close relationship to humanity.
So close that God might be standing with us in the crowd…and we
might not even know it.
If we take our faith seriously…and not literally…can we imagine
that through our baptism…we are made siblings by Christ…and with Christ…and in
Christ?
That being brought through those waters we are carry a piece of
Jesus in us?
Jesus is part of our story…our tradition…our way of seeing the
world.
And he shows us how to be family…a human family.
When look at the stranger…we are to seek and serve them as if they
are part of our Christian family…whether we know them to be or not.
As we move into this season of Epiphany…our Scriptures will
continue to challenge us to both look for that light of Christ in others…while
also seeking to find that same light within ourselves.
Because it’s there…waiting for us to keep the oil filled…
trim the wick…
and let it burn brightly…
for justice…for mercy…and to keep us walking humbly with God.
In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.
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