Beyond Resistance to Embrace

The festival of Epiphany, (marked on January 10, 2016)

Matthew 2:1-12

How big is the embrace of God's love in Jesus Christ? Is it this big – or this big – this big (gesturing wildly) – or           ????

 

This isn't merely an intellectual question. This question goes to the heart of God and any part of human understanding of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

Today we celebrate the festival of the Epiphany. This festival has been understood as the celebration of a greater revelation of God's presence and love embodied in Jesus. This festival pushes beyond some of what had been previously understood by many – that God's favour lay primarily with and for the Jewish people.

 

This festival of Epiphany pushes us into wrestling with the depths of the love of God in Jesus – as well as the magnitude of the embrace of that love and its implications for our lives as followers of this Jesus . . .

 

The magi (wise men in common parlance) are interesting people. We don't actually know how many of them first came to Jerusalem and then moved on to Bethlehem looking for the child. Tradition has often assumed that their number was 3, since there are 3 gifts listed. But their exact numbers are not specified. We do know that magi were attentive to the stars. They were likely astrologers.

 

Isn't it I interesting that the first people actually searching for Jesus in Matthew's gospel, (different than Luke's gospel, where the first seekers of Jesus re shepherds) are astrologers. These magi of Luke's Gospel are not Jewish!  Unlike Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all of the first followers of the adult Jesus, these astrologers are likely Persians. Attentive to the stars they are being drawn to Jerusalem where they make further inquiries as to the child's birthplace.

 

On this journey they encounter a variety of people. One of them is King Herod. At first glance it appears that Herod is interested in their search for benevolent reasons. He even enlists people who can aid the magi's search. The chief priests and scribes know their sacred writings. They send the magi on their way to Bethlehem.

 

Once in Bethlehem the magi find the child and his mother. They are filled with joy. Upon meeting the child they kneel to worship the baby. They offer him their very best gifts.

 

Only then are they warned of King Herod's deception through of all things, a dream. How interesting – through the means of a dream and the arrangement of a star or stars, they are led to worship this wee child, the King of the Jews, the Saviour of the world. Not only that but they are also led to protect him from Herod, the powers that then were.

 

Dreams and stars aren't the usual ways that Lutherans have discerned the work of God's Spirit.  But then sometimes, perhaps even often, God's ways are not our ways. Amazingly God uses various ways and means to reach out with an embrace beyond our imagination, intended for all people!!!

 

Now one might think that such an amazing embrace, this love of God in Jesus, would be good news for everyone. Not so!

 

Not so – for Herod. Herod loved power and all of its trappings. He would, (look ahead just a few verses) DO ANYTHING to attempt TO MAINTAIN POWER. He even stooped so low to kill all the children in a particular area who were 2 years of age and younger.  But Herod's resistance is not the only resistance to the amazing embrace of God in Jesus Christ.

 

Later we see significant resistance from the religious authorities. They also liked power. They sought to maintain the status quo – their positions of privilege.

 

But before we are too quick to judge them, how about us? Do we enjoy our status quo?  Are we willing to welcome others, anyone, into 'our' church, 'our' "families", 'our' country?

 

Much of human history is marked by distinct refusals to accept, to be embraced by this love of God in Jesus Christ. Someone we just don't or won't see that this love of God in Jesus is for all – including even us.  

 

Many of the covenant people for a long time were convinced that the favour of God, was primarily, if not only, for them. Later many, many Christians felt  that the love and deliverance of God in Jesus the Christ was primarily or only for them! I know far too many Lutherans who feel that our 'understanding' of Gospel is the best or even only one.

 

But the magi show us differently. God's love in Jesus Christ is not limited by our understanding nor by our intentional or unconscious resistance and opposition to Him.

 

The suffering and risen Jesus, born in that wee town of Bethlehem approaches us even now. He lives among us, tenting in our hearts and minds to change us, to embrace us with God's love while showing the truths of ourselves, our world and of our need for God.

 

As this occurs, as this seed of God's Spirit through Jesus Christ begins to grow in our beings, nothing can stay the same. Honesty within and among ourselves and with God necessarily grows. Humility, patience, empathy and advocacy begin to indelibly mark his followers.

 

This doesn't mean that the resistance within and without ends.

 

But God's embrace in Jesus Christ is stronger, more steadfast and wiser than any and all resistance.

 

So, dear people, this day, this year, be opened to the amazing grace of God's embrace in Jesus Christ. We may never be able to understand how encompassing this is, but let me assure you that God's embrace has the capacity to direct and transform us again and again and again. May this be our reality, for Christ's sake and the sake of the world. Amen.

Fiction and Truth

Christmas 2c, John 1:1-18; January 3, 2016

            Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. Years ago, there was a magazine, "The Wittenberg Door". One of the most popular sections in the Door was titled, "Truth is Stranger Than Fiction". That section was always interesting. If the Door was still publishing here are some of the items that likely would have been highlighted this month:

PROUD GUN CARRYING CHRISTIANS POPULATE TEXAS CHURCHES. 

MANY REFUGEES TURNED AWAY BY COUNTRIES ORIGINALLY LARGELY POPULATED BY REFUGEES.

BILLIONS STARVE WHILE MILLIONS JOIN WEIGHT WATCHERS.

            Truth is often stranger than fiction.

            In any case, here we are at church. Now we are hearing words about a Word becoming flesh. This Word is proclaimed as truth.

            Ah yes, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Thanks be to God!

Although fiction often attempts to convey reality and sometimes does so successfully, fiction also experiences limitations. At its best fiction attempts to penetrate the human heart. Again, sometimes it does so successfully. But at other times people resist. In Biblical terms, we can harden our hearts, and experience in the face of fiction mere entertainment.

Don't we already have enough entertainment? From soap operas, to professional wrestling, to eating contexts – enough already!

There is the ever present reality – and the truths of our reality. This is a new year. Many of us make resolutions as the new year dawns. Whatever the year or its newness, suffering and death are part and parcel of our reality. At the same time healing, birth and new beginnings are part of our reality, part of our truth. To be sure, being human includes significant amounts of messiness, of unpredictability. But so too do wonder, awe and amazement mark our human fabric.

All of this is brought to my mind by spending time yesterday at Boundary Bap Cemetery. Walking across those beautiful grounds, reading the headstones, waiting to be with a family I deeply care about as they were readying themselves to bury their mother and grandmother – I thought again of how important it is to be honest about truth and fiction.

The author of John's Gospel faces this reality in amazing ways. At the conclusion of today's lesson he writes, "No one has seen God." Part of that seems so obvious. After all, God is Spirit. We cannot see spirit. But part of that statement is also difficult for us to comprehend in terms of faith. One of the best known proverbs to the English language is, "Seeing is believing".

In this new year, some may say, "Who cares?" Who cares if there is a God? We in North America have the good life. We have so much stuff. We experience so many opportunities. In some ways the world is our 'oyster'. From Hawaii, to Cancun, to Europe, Australia and New Zealand, we enjoy possibilities for leisure, exploration and learning, that none of our grandparents could imagine. But in order for that to happen many of us work more hours than our forefathers or foremothers and certainly experience a far greater geographical separation from even our nuclear families than most of them did. This too is part of our truth.

But limitations remain. We are mortal. We know, we experience illness, suffering, death and incredible loss. We know brokenness. Cutting words are spoken or relayed by a look.  Harmful actions are taken. Helpful actions are omitted. Promises are broken. Many people are hurt. Sometimes we are among them.

In those moments we begin to glimpse a larger truth. We do need help. We need help from beyond ourselves and even our collective gifts of expertise, technology, a myriad of abilities.

The author of John's Gospel knows this. He writes, "It is God's only Son, who is close to the Father's bosom, who has made him (God the Father) known."

It's an audacious claim. It's a claim we need to hear again and again and again. It's a claim we need to ponder in our hearts and minds.

God's only Son, close to the Father's bosom, right where he can be nurtured. It is this only Son of God who reveals God to us. Yes, I said, revealed. And I meant in ways that we can know, experience, have intimate knowledge of. God and us. Through this Son we are made children of God, drawn near to God's own bosom. Is this too good to be true? Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction.

So, I invite you – no, I exhort you this year to look and see. Listen and hear! Look and see, listen and heart, this only Son of God. In Him is life and light. From turning water into copious amounts of wine at a wedding, to walking with a Samaritan woman (one whom he was never to speak to) at a well and leading her to new life, to telling his disciples in many ways that his life, love, suffering and death are to be the way of new life for all his followers, Jesus shows us God.

Not only that. There's more! Jesus calls us to follow him. We are to serve as He has come to serve. In such following is life – both for us and for the world. Even in the midst of all our limitations, the information and human experience that might lead us to think that this can't be true – He is truthful. Indeed in Jesus we see that truth is stranger than fiction. Love is stronger than hate. As powerful as death is (and it is!) – death bends its knee t the One who himself suffers and dies, but on the third day is raise.

A blessed New Year to you and to those whom you cherish from the One who is life and light who shows us God the Father and calls us as we are, warts and all to follow Him. Here's a truth to live. Amen.