You are forgiven, 3.17.13

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me,

how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

²³“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; ²⁵and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.

²⁸But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.

³²Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Luke 7:36-50

³⁶One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” ⁴¹“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.”

And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

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            These two passages are incredibly rich. There are lots of different directions we could go with them, which means there’s a lot I’d like to talk about here that we won’t get to in this sermon. If something grabs your attention, I’d love to talk with you more about it after worship or during the week. As always, I encourage you to read over these passages again when you get home to let the message sink in further and see what else God has to say to you.

            Love is the most important part of our faith; I think forgiveness is second. Jesus’ death on the cross is the main way we talk about forgiveness. It’s a powerful expression of how much Jesus’ love and forgiveness cost, and it’s the reason many of us fell in love with Jesus in the first place.

            At the same time, there are a lot of Christians who really struggle with the image of the cross. It’s brutal and bloody. Many of us can’t understand why God would send Jesus to such a terrible death. And not understanding that makes us question God’s love. I think there are questions that bring us deeper into faith and questions that stall our faith and keep us from moving forward. Sometimes our questions about the Bible or our faith encourage us to dig deeper, to read closer, to study and pray and discuss; that helps us grow. Other times our questions don’t lead us further, but instead make us hesitate to read, hesitate to trust, hesitate to invest our heart in our faith.

            I have a feeling that for a lot of people, the cross is one of those second kinds of questions. I think there are a lot of faithful people who love the story of Jesus, love the message of love and welcome and acceptance, but then get to the cross and have a hard time moving forward. If that doesn’t describe you at all, then don’t worry about what I say in the next 30 seconds. If that struggle with the cross sounds like your story I need you to hear me now.

            Today’s sermon is especially for you because we’re talking about forgiveness, but we’re not talking about the cross. I want to be clear, the cross is an essential part of the Christian faith. It’s important for how we think about power and love and destiny. If you struggle with it, I want to explore that with you sometime to see if we can make some progress. I don’t want to convince you of something, but I do want to look at the cross from some different angles and see if we can’t make sense of it together.

But today, we’re not talking about the cross. Jesus forgives the woman in our passage before he goes to the cross, so in some important way the message of forgiveness in Jesus is bigger than the cross. So even if you can’t come to terms with the message of the cross this morning, this passage and this sermon are for you.

            Obviously, both of our passages are about forgiveness. And both start with the reality, the experience of being forgiven, so that’s where we’ll start too. We all carry a burden. Sometimes it’s the weight of things we’ve done wrong. Maybe we have taken advantage of someone else. Maybe we feel guilty about an unkind word we said in frustration or anger. Maybe we fell short on our marriage vows or cheated on our taxes or made another person feel less precious than they are. We all do things we shouldn’t sometimes, and we carry that burden.

            On top of those times we have done wrong directly, we also carry the burden of guilt for the sinful systems we are part of. Those who live comfortably feel the guilt of having what others do not. Men share the guilt of our society’s refusal to treat women equally. Whether we are personally guilty of that or not, we are part of a system of prejudice.

Those of us who are white share the guilt of racism in our society. Despite loud claims to the contrary, white people still have tremendous privilege in our culture. American culture values American lives much more highly than other lives. In God’s eyes we are all the same, but that’s not how we see the world as a nation.

Those of us who are straight share the guilt of our society’s prejudice against people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered. Those who are able-bodied too easily forget how little we do to make the world accessible to those with disabilities. The list goes on and on. We are all caught up in systems of oppression, systems of sin. We also bear the guilt for our addiction to violence as a species.

            We also carry another kind of burden, which is different from sin and guilt, but also keeps us from living the full and free life God invites us to. It’s harder to put a finger on, but it haunts us just the same. We carry a feeling that we are not good enough. Some part of each of us feels like a failure, like a fraud. Some part of us thinks we can’t do anything right, that we aren’t worthy of love, that we don’t deserve joy.

Maybe we learned that feeling from our family or our school or our first boss. Maybe we learned it from magazines full of perfect-looking, thin, strong, rich people who look like they have it all together. Maybe we learned it from our friends or our enemies. Maybe we learned it from our spouse or our lover or our ex. Maybe we learned it from a divorce or a breakup. Sometimes it comes from financial struggles and stresses. Maybe we don’t even know where it came from, which sometimes makes the feeling stronger.

For some of us the feeling is so strong that it haunts every step we take. Sometimes it takes the shape of depression. Other times it looks like boredom or distraction or fatigue. Sometimes it’s an obvious inferiority complex and other times it shows up as arrogance or bullying. Sometimes it feels like fear: shapeless anxiety or crushing terror. When we’re honest with ourselves, and I hope you feel like you can be honest here, at least with yourself and with God, we all know the feeling.

            We all have that feeling; you are not alone. Take a moment and feel the weight of your guilt, your shame, your failure and your heartache.

            Now let it go, because God already let it go a long time ago.

love and the cross, 4.1.12

Isaiah 49:13-17

¹³Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. ¹⁴But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” ¹⁵Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. ¹⁶See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. ¹⁷Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you.

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            There’s a tension in preaching between depth and breath. Should I take one small piece of a passage and focus on that, or try to open the whole thing but not get as deep? When I focus tightly I regret leaving out so much of the passage. When I work with the whole passage, like today, I feel like I’m treating it too superficially. The truth is I can never do enough with God’s word in our short time together. If this is the only dose of scripture you get in your week, you’re not getting enough to grow to your potential as a Christian, so please don’t neglect the word in the rest of your week.

Before we turn to our next passage I want to spend a few minutes with the one Karen just read. Maggie and I were on vacation this past week. We spent the week visiting friends and family along the East Coast including a stop in Baltimore to see one of my best friends and his daughter, Amelia. This was the first time I’d seen Campbell as a dad, and it was amazing.

            Parenting is kind of an alien world to me, but the scene would be familiar to many of you. There’s this beautiful little person in Campbell’s kitchen spitting milk on her sweater and eating peaches off the floor. Campbell is unfazed by her secretions, taking care of boogies and wiping drool from her face every few minutes. He let her do her thing, but she was rarely out of his reach and never out of his sight.

            It was obvious from our short visit that Campbell’s whole life is different than it was before Amelia was born. There’s nothing he does without thinking about her. Like dads and especially moms everywhere, parenthood is a big part of what defines Campbell’s life now.

           

            Isaiah speaks for God to tell Israel that God’s love for them is like a mother’s love and even greater. The tenderness I saw between Campbell and Amelia points to the tenderness God has for her people.

The people of Israel feel abandoned by God in their exile, like Campbell’s daughter felt abandoned when she was in her high chair 45 seconds longer than she wanted to be. Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can Campbell forget his screaming daughter? Of course not.

Even if these examples of devoted love could abandon their children, God cannot abandon his people. Next to God’s love, even our best efforts pale in comparison.

God’s love for us is tender and determined. It’s also cosmic in scope: the prophet invites heaven and earth to join in the songs of praise celebrating God’s redemption of her people. As intimate as a parent and as broad as creation; that’s God’s love for us.

            John gives us a different way of looking at God’s love. We’ll work through this passage together, so go ahead and open your Bible to 1 John 4 beginning with verse 7; you’ll find it on page 241 in the New Testament part of your pew Bible.

1 John 4:7-21

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

            John starts this section with encouragement for his community to follow God’s example and love each other. Love comes from God, so when we love other people we tap into God’s nature. We find new life in God’s family by loving, and in loving others we know God.

If we don’t love other people it’s impossible to know God. Not only is God loving, God is love; so without love anything we say about God is meaningless. With that foundation, John gets more specific about how we know God’s love:

Power in the Blood, 3.18

1 John 1:5-10

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

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            One of the cool things God does in scripture is give us different ways of looking at things. If you have trouble connecting with Paul’s writing, maybe John will help you see things in a different light.

            In this section John is making two basic points: we’re all sinners in need of God’s grace, and our faith calls us to live differently, to leave sin behind. These two truths are woven together because following Jesus pushes us to do better, but it also reminds us how far we still have to go. The other connection that brings our sin and our calling together is that Jesus’ blood cleanses us from sin, moving us from darkness to light.

            John talks about lying a lot in this passage. If we say we follow Jesus, if we say we’re walking in the light, but we keep walking in the darkness of sin, we’re lying. Following Jesus means leaving the darkness behind and seeking Christ’s light in everything we do.

            At the same time, we’re also lying if we say we’re not sinful. Even while we follow Jesus and try to do the right thing we keep falling short. That’s a fact of life; even though Jesus changes our life and makes us new, we won’t be perfect until Jesus returns. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and get better at following, but the more we learn from Jesus the more obvious it is that we are not all the way there yet. So we’re only fooling ourselves and even making Jesus look bad if we claim to be sin-free.

            We’re lying if we claim to be innocent, and we’re lying if we claim to be disciples while continuing in our sin. Instead of either of these dishonest traps Jesus calls us to confess our sins and to trust him to cleanse us. As we put our trust in Jesus and honestly confess, Christ’s blood washes us clean.

            It’s hard for us to understand blood making us clean. Many of us struggle with the whole idea of Christ’s cleansing blood. On the one hand we struggle with why Jesus had to die because it seems so unfair. And on the other hand we wonder how his blood can make us clean anyway. We think of blood as dirty, even dangerous.

For people of Jesus’ time animal sacrifice and the blood related to it was a natural part of religious ritual, like singing or prayer. That was the case for most religions in the Middle East and it was true for Israel’s faith as well.

            When the temple was dedicated thousands of animals were sacrificed to make the temple holy to God. Blood was splashed against the altar to clean it and make it ready to offer sacrifice on. The Law of Moses goes into great detail about how many of what kind of animals would be sacrificed for different purposes at different times. The whole idea seems strange, maybe disgusting, to us now, but for our ancient ancestors in the faith sacrifice was a basic part of faith and life. The Letter to the Hebrews is the most detailed explanation of the ancient way of thinking about sin and how blood cleanses from sin.

            When we studied Hebrews in seminary one of my teachers explained it like this: The Temple was a special place that connected heaven and earth. During the year sin built up on the temple because it was close to the people’s sin. We can picture that sin was like a sludge that built up on the temple. Each year the sin had to be cleaned off by rituals of confession and forgiveness including sacrifices of atonement with blood.

            The author of Hebrews talks about how the sanctuary on earth was a copy of the true sanctuary in heaven. The sanctuary on earth had to be purified with animal sacrifices, but the perfect temple in heaven had to be purified with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. The blood of animals could take away sin temporarily, but animal blood couldn’t deal with sin permanently; only the blood of Jesus could do that.

Word of Love, Christmas Day

Isaiah 52:7-10

⁷   How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
     who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
⁸   Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy;
     for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
⁹   Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem;
     for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰  The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations;
     and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

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         Last night we heard the story of a special baby born in a manger. We heard a story about young parents following God’s calling on an amazing journey. That story is earthy; while it has some unusual characters like angels, we can picture it pretty clearly in our minds. We can embrace this image of Mary and Joseph bringing their new baby into the world. We can wrap our minds around this child who is born to save us all from our sins.

         John’s Gospel tells the story very differently; he puts it in cosmic perspective. The beginning of John’s Gospel isn’t easy to picture; it’s poetic and philosophical instead of narrative. The way John tells it, we aren’t just talking about a child at Christmas; we’re talking about the eternal word of God.

That notion of God’s word is very Greek and philosophical. In Greek thought the Word, the logos, was the creating power of the whole universe. Underneath the structure of everything we can see, philosophers discerned a hidden power, a hidden logic that bound all creation together. That logic, that wisdom, was the logos, the word.

         John says the word of God was with God at the beginning of time. God created everything through that eternal word; the wisdom of God shaped and molded the whole universe. Not only did the word of God create the objects that make up creation, God’s word also touched the universe with the divine spark, the light of the world. In that moment at the beginning of creation the world came to life; God’s life sparked life and light in every living being God created. The plants and animals and people came to life by the loving, creative touch of God’s word.

         The eternal word of God was active throughout history. God created the world through the word, and God’s word and spirit continued to give light to those who had eyes to see it. Prophets and wise men and women saw the world by God’s light. They pointed others to the light of God’s love and justice. They reminded their neighbors that the world wasn’t really about power or wealth; it was about making sure everyone had enough to thrive.

They pointed to the light even in dark times. Elijah pointed to the light of God’s love even though he was chased into the desert by royal persecution. Jeremiah pointed to the light when he was locked up by powerful people who didn’t want to hear his message. Ruth pointed to the light of hope when she and her mother in law seemed all alone in a dangerous world. Even in the darkest times God’s light still shone; no darkness could quench that light.

Then the truly incredible happened. Maybe God got tired of waiting for people to see the light and change their lives. Maybe God’s heart ached so much because of our wandering, because of how we hurt and took advantage of each other. Maybe God missed us too much to hold back anymore. For whatever reason, one day the time was right and God’s word, God’s light, God’s love became flesh and lived with us.

"Shepherds in the fields", Christmas Eve

Isaiah 9:2-7

²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined…. ⁶For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Gospel Luke 2:1-14

¹In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

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            This is a crazy story we’ve just read together. It’s even crazier because somehow, even in our increasingly secular society, millions of people hear this story every year. Those of us who grew up in the church can even forget how amazing the story is because it’s so familiar. It’s a story we keep coming back to for many reasons. We come back to this story because it is familiar: it feels good in difficult and changing times to be with people we know in a safe place hearing this wonderful story in words and music.

            We come back to the story too because it is comforting: God’s love and hope breaks into a dark and cold world in the birth of this special baby. New babies always remind us of hope for the future, and this baby’s arrival in a stable but still surrounded with love and protection is hope itself.

           

            We come back to the story because there’s just something about it that is compelling. Some of us wrestle with institutional religion; some of us wrestle with ideas like resurrection and miracles. But there’s something about Jesus that just feels right and true, something that calls us even if we can’t figure out why. His teachings cut through all the nonsense in his world and in ours; his words of welcome and challenge ring down through the ages. There’s a sense in the Gospels that Jesus is speaking right to us, because he is.

            Even here when Jesus isn’t saying anything, the story still speaks to us. We think about Mary and Joseph, newly married and full of hope. We think about them having to travel for this census when Mary is nine months pregnant. We imagine them far from home and without family or friends to care for them when it’s time for Mary to give birth. Soon after their son is born they will have to flee the country to save him from King Herod’s persecution. They will have to pick up their lives and start over again. In a year like this one that story speaks to all of us.

            But even in the midst of all that uncertainty, in the middle of a strange town full of people they don’t know, they find a way to keep Mary and the baby safe. They find a warm place with hay and some protection from the elements. And in that stable filled with amazing love, they bring a new life into the world. In that stable they became a crucial part of bringing God’s hope and promise into the world in a new way.

            We come back to this story because it’s our story. It’s a story for everyone. Mary and Joseph are regular people chosen for the incredible ministry of raising God’s son. The shepherds are regular people working overnight to make a living. Many people wouldn’t want much to do with the shepherds, covered with mud and worse from their weeks of sleeping in the fields with the sheep. But the angel makes a special trip to tell these shepherds the good news of Christ’s birth.

Comfort ,o comfort my people, 12/18

Psalm 122

¹I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

²Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

³Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.

⁴To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

⁵For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.

⁷Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.”

⁸For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, “Peace be within you.”

⁹For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

Isaiah 40:1-11

¹   Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
²   Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, 

that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³   A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴   Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
⁵   Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, 

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

⁶   A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
     All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷   The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; 

surely the people are grass.

⁸   The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹   Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
     lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear;
     say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
¹⁰  See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
¹¹  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
     and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

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When I hear this passage the first thing that comes to mind is the same words in Handel’s Messiah. Somehow, Handel’s music always brings the passage to life for me. The beauty of the music echoes the beauty of the words and reminds me that they aren’t just words. This is a passionate dialogue between God and the prophet about God’s beloved people Israel.

            When this passage takes place God feels far away from his people. Israel had turned away from God, like we all do sometimes. They allowed injustice and inequality to thrive in their society and forgot that God cares deeply about the poor, so Israel ended up in exile, dominated by their more powerful neighbors, the Babylonians.

            Israel’s punishment was harsh, but fitting. They turned away from God, so God let them see what it was like to be apart from him. But now God can’t take the separation anymore. God longs to bring his people home; he longs to make peace with the people he loves. God calls the prophet into action to bring Israel a message of forgiveness. “Comfort, o comfort my people,” says your God. God tells the prophet to share not only God’s message but his passion too: “Cry to her that she has served her term and paid her penalty.”

            I can picture the prophet running through the streets, yelling out the good news that God has forgiven them, that God wants them to come home, that the sins of the past are wiped out forever. The prophet imagines the power of God’s forgiveness lifting up the valleys and flattening the hills. He imagines God’s mercy carving a highway through the desert.

God’s incredible love can’t be stopped. The mountains and hills of our past aren’t high enough to keep out God’s forgiveness. The depths of our deepest despair aren’t low enough to keep God from reaching us. The wilderness emptiness we sometimes feel because of how we’ve been hurt and how we have hurt others isn’t lonely enough to keep God away.

Mary, the teen mother of God (12.4)

Luke 1: 26-45

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

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My name is Sam Picard. I’m the pastor of Laurelton United Presbyterian Church about 3 miles north east of here. I also work as a paramedic with Rural Metro. I meet a lot of young mothers on the ambulance. It’s not uncommon for me to take 15 year old girls to the hospital in labor. In 2007 19% of births in Rochester were to teenage mothers. Many of these moms are single. Most live in poverty and have a hard time digging themselves and their children out of that situation. Being a parent is challenging, as many of you know. Think how much harder it would be as a teenager with few financial resources.

            Many teenagers living in poverty feel hopeless. Their circumstances and surroundings can conspire to make them feel worthless. Sometimes that’s a big part of why young women get pregnant. Surrounded by poverty and violence I imagine it’s hard to imagine a better future.

            

There was plenty in Jesus’ scenario that could have made Mary feel the same way. Certainly, women were far from equal in that culture. The Roman occupation limited Jewish opportunity, surrounding them with constant reminders of their lack of independence and power. Nazareth, Mary’s hometown, had a bad reputation as well. Like many young mothers in Rochester’s poverty crescent, it would have been easy for Mary to feel like a nobody and give up hope.

            But that’s not how God sees things. God chose Mary to be the mother of the savior of the world. God chose an ordinary girl in challenging circumstances to play a special role in our salvation. Paul’s words about Christianity in general fit Mary well: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”

            That’s part of God’s character. God doesn’t care about appearances or how the world sees things. God has a long history of seeking out unremarkable people and families to do amazing things with. One of the blessings of the church’s decline as far as economic and social power is concerned is that it frees us to see God’s love for the ordinary and humble.

            The church’s future isn’t in big fancy buildings or reaching out to the rich and famous. The church’s future is in rediscovering God’s love for the simple, for the least impressive, the under resourced, the despised and the impoverished. The church’s future is committing ourselves once again to the city, to those places forgotten or ignored by empire. Our future is in finding ways to bless and stand with those in need, reaching out to the hungry and hopeless.

lamentation and freedom

Psalm 13:1-6

¹    How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
          How long will you hide your face from me?
²   How long must I bear pain in my soul,
          and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
     How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³   Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!
          Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
⁴   and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
          my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵   But I trusted in your steadfast love;
          my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶   I will sing to the LORD,
          because he has dealt bountifully with me.

I want to spend most of our Bible time with our New Testament lesson, but I just couldn’t let this beautiful Psalm sit untouched. I couldn’t leave this painfully honest Psalm alone because too often the church isn’t painfully honest.

We put on our best faces for church, maybe we put on our best faces for other people in general. Someone asks how we’re doing and we say something socially acceptable. That’s actually an OK habit to be in a lot of the time. It’s not a great idea to pour our guts out to everyone we meet. But when we take it too far it kills genuine community and relationship. 

         When we come to church we are with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That means we are supposed to be in a safe place for honesty; a place we can share our struggles and our pain. We’re family, so we should be able to be vulnerable with each other.

         But that’s not always how it feels. One thing that gets in the way of honesty and openness is Sunday best syndrome. We feel like since our outfits are well put together, we’re supposed to button up our troubles too. We shine our shoes and our smiles and we tuck our problems and doubts under the carpet so we can do church “the right way.”

         That’s the smaller part of the problem. The bigger issue is that we feel we have to be careful with God. We use carefully crafted words and scripted prayers to talk to the God who is high above in heaven. The language in the Bible is stilted and our worship language doesn’t usually sound like how we would have a conversation. We don’t want to say the wrong thing or offend God.

         The truth is that God can take it. Look at this Psalm: “How long O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” Have you ever felt that way before? Did you cry out to God like the Psalmist did? Our polite religious tradition is hard to break, but when we open ourselves to God and to each other we learn how to actually trust God. Look where the Psalm ends up: “I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” If we open ourselves up and trust God with our doubt and pain, we’ll find out for ourselves that we can count on God. If we handle God like fragile, precious crystal we’ll never find out how strong and supportive God really is.

OK, like I said, we’re going to spend most of our Bible time on the New Testament reading. It’s kind of a doozie, so we’re going to play with it a little bit in groups. Each of you has a small piece of paper with a number and a piece of our lesson on it. I’d like you to get up and move to the section of the room with your number on it and arrange yourselves in groups of 4 or 5. Introduce yourselves quickly and read the passage together.

Once you’ve done that discuss the passage for a couple of minutes. If you have a hard time starting your discussion, you’ll find a couple of questions on your sheet that might help. In a few minutes we’ll come back together and talk about the whole passage.

Romans 6:3-23

³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. ¹³No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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          Sometimes we feel trapped and overwhelmed by our lives and situations. We feel the press of bills and family responsibilities. We feel the demands of our job or the stress of looking for work, while we also wrestle with to do lists at home. Sometimes guilt or grief or anger or addiction or hopelessness take hold of our lives and refuse to let go.

Anything that traps us and takes away our freedom releases its grip when we die. If alcohol or gambling or bitterness or fear holds you so tightly you feel like you can’t breath, imagine what happens to that clutching claw when you die. It can’t hold you anymore because those traps and prisons are part of life. They loose their power when we die. That’s why when people feel like they have come to a dead end in their lives suicide can seem like a tempting escape. Suicide is the wrong choice, but when we feel trapped, the temptation makes sense. Death breaks the bonds that trap us.

Jesus died.

In baptism we become part of Jesus’ body.

That means in faith we have already died, and we are set free from all the concerns that take up so much of our energy and weigh so heavily on our shoulders and our souls.

The crazy thing is that Jesus didn’t stay dead, but instead he rose from the grave. By faith in Christ we are also part of his resurrection, which means we move from death to new life. So we are free from the tyranny of life and the cold grasp of death. We are free to do whatever we want with the amazing gift of new life in Christ.

All our responsibilities and relationships can be transformed in our new life in Christ. Instead of being traps and obligations we are free to see them as gifts and opportunities.

         In all the choices of freedom one of our choices is to fall back into sin and selfishness. We are free to get stuck again in the traps that held us before we found freedom in Christ. We don’t have to accept the freedom God offers; it is our choice.

         Sin isn’t an isolated thing. When we use our freedom to sin we become trapped in it, slaves to sin again. When we use our freedom to build up wealth for ourselves, for instance, we gradually become more and more attached to money. We start seeing other people as a threat to our financial security instead of being brothers and sisters we can share with. We use more and more of our time to pursue and secure wealth instead of following our calling to love and enjoy other people. Little by little the choice to make a little money becomes total slavery to possessions.

         We can imagine the same trajectory with any other sin if we want: pride, infidelity, racism, etc. One action leads to another and before long the trap is complete.

         On the other hand, we can use our freedom to follow God. Like with sin, choosing to follow God isn’t really an isolated choice. That choice leads to a life of service, a life even of slavery to righteousness.

When we choose to base our life on love we become trapped in the joy of fellowship, the freedom of giving, the warmth of acceptance. We loose the freedom to treat other people as objects because we know they are our brothers and sisters. We loose the freedom to build walls around ourselves and our possessions because we know we are connected to other people. A life of discipleship is slavery in its own way, because we give our lives to God, but it is a slavery full of joy, peace and fulfillment.

         In the freedom God gives us we choose whom we will serve. Will we choose to serve ourselves and the sinful structures of this world or will we choose to serve God and those who need us most? Will we choose the dead end of selfishness or the joyful road of community and discipleship? Christ sets us free for new life. How will you use your freedom?

Thanks be to God.