Sermon

This is the Christmas season

We often forget that the past weeks have not been the Christmas season, rather the liturgical season begins with Christmas. I have some friends who follow the tradition of not putting up their Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. My kids would never go for that but we do follow Advent with Christmas and Epiphany. As someone who did not grow up in a church that followed the traditional seasons and lectionary doing so as an adult has been wonderful. Below I offer my sermon from 2008 given on the First Sunday after Christmas. The readings are the same each year.

I hope that you all have had a wonderful and blessed Christmas Day and that this season the Incarnation will fill and transform your life.

First Sunday after Christmas 2008 RCL

Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Psalm 147 or 147:13-21

Did you get what you expected for Christmas? The season of Advent is all about waiting; we were waiting for the coming of the Christmas feast, but more importantly we were remembering how all Israel awaited the coming of the Messiah before Jesus was born and how we now await his second coming in glory. The problem with expectations is that they seldom live up to our hopes and visions. The same was true in Jesus’ day. Those who were awaiting the messiah, God’s anointed one who would save Israel had a wide variety of expectations and beliefs as to who the messiah would be and what he would be like.

Most were expecting a military figure who would lead a mighty army to drive out the Romans and establish a great Jewish kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. Jesus the messiah was indeed the son of David whose kingdom has no end, but the kingdom that Jesus established is the reign of God in our lives. We might drive out an empire or a dictator for a time yet we know that the peace that follows is always fleeting. It is only once all people have allowed the kingdom of God to reign in their hearts and lives through accepting Jesus as their messiah that true peace can be established. This is the true identity of the messiah and his name is Jesus; Joshua in Hebrew, which means, “the Lord is salvation.”

In today’s Gospel we continue to learn more about Jesus’ true identity. As we heard in our readings of the past week, the Son of David is also the Son of God and the Gospel John tells us that Jesus is in fact nothing less than God himself.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

What an amazing claim! John opens his gospel with the most audacious assertion ever to be made. Jesus, it is abundantly clear that the Word of which John speaks is none other than Jesus, is God. Now I have heard many people, Christians and non-Christians, say that the belief that Jesus and God are one and the same only came about in the centuries following Jesus’ death and that it is the Creeds that make this statement not the Bible. That is simply untrue and this passage is but one example. That, however, is a sermon for another day.

Notice that John does not simply say that Word was God. He declares that Word was with God in the beginning and that all things were made through him. Listen again to the first three verses.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

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The origins of mercy & God’s justice

Oct 17th, 2010

by Christian Brady.

3 comments

This morning was a short homily due to other items in the service. As you may be able to guess Gen. 1-3 has been on my mind lately so I took a bit of a liberty to bring it in to the lectionary for today. If you are patient you will find I offer an interesting take on the origin of sin and mercy.

Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24
RCL

Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8

The Justice of God

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

A new covenant, God building up and planting Israel, people dying for their own sins, what a very odd passage this must sound to us today. The context lost to most, what we often miss is the realization that the prophet Jeremiah was declaring the salvation of the world. At the time he made this declaration Judah was besieged and Jeremiah himself had made it clear that Jerusalem would be destroyed because of the sins of the nation, because Israel had broken its covenant with God. And into this besieged city, full of famine and suffering, Jeremiah declares that God will not only bring punishment but after a time restoration and forgiveness of sins as well.

The nature of sin is something we do not consider very often from the pulpit but from time to time we need to reflect on just why it is that we must confess and receive forgiveness.

This semester I am teaching a 1-credit class on Genesis 1-3. Several folks here joined me a few weeks ago during our Forum between the services for a quick dip into the opening chapters of the Bible. I often challenge students asking them why it is that God bothered to put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden if Adam and Eve weren’t allowed to eat from it. The answer usually doesn’t take to long to uncover: if God had not provided an opportunity for them to disobey then they would also never fully understand what it means to love God, freely and fully.

There is a corresponding truth that takes longer to uncover. In presenting Adam and Eve with the opportunity to demonstrate their love and obedience to him, God also created the opportunity for sin. Sin did not exist in the Garden prior to this moment but the potential did. (more…)

Lent 3 – God is with us.

Mar 7th, 2010

by Christian Brady.

No comments yet

This is the third Sunday in Lent and I was preaching for the first time in many months. The comic from earlier this week is (probably) a coincidence.

Third Sunday in Lent, Year C, RCL

Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

Jesus on the cross is an image embedded in our faith, worship, and even in our culture. The Cross is the goal and the end of Lent. For many, it is simply a piece of jewelry. For artists it can be an expression of faith or merely a clever or even cheeky juxtaposition to their main object of commentary. In Jesus films how one depicts Jesus on the cross (and whether or not his resurrection is depicted) is often key to understanding the movie maker’s intent. For Monty Python it is a pathetic and pointless end. For Mel Gibson it is nothing less than salvation.

Yet I don’t think there is a better known biblical movie than the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston and I don’t think that there is any more iconic scene than the burning bush. We find it in our readings at this time of year not least because of its wilderness theme. Moses has fled his home in Egypt, wrestling with his identity as both an Israelite and an adopted Egyptian and afraid that his murder of an Egyptian would be discovered. He is literally and figuratively in an in-between-time, unsure of where to go or what would happen to him.

God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

The exchange that ensues is at once well known to us and yet because we think we know it so well, we often miss the challenge and the lessons contained in it. For example, we often miss the fact that Moses is arguing with God! The Lord begins by telling Moses that he has heard Israel’s cry and complaint and that he is going to lead Israel to freedom by sending Moses back to Egypt. We often think of the biblical figures as always responding to God with an immediate “Yes Sir!” But not Moses (or Abraham or even David for that matter). In fact, in this passage Moses offers four different objections to God, trying as hard as he might to get out of this task. Our reading this morning presents us with the first two objections and they provide us with ample and appropriate Lenten reflections.

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

It is a reasonable question. Why should God choose Moses for such a task? And I imagine that Moses was expecting God to say something like, “Don’t you realize that you are uniquely talented for this mission? Don’t you realize that this is why I preserved your life and had you grow up within Pharaoh’s palace even while you mother raised you for your first few years so that you alone are able to walk in these two worlds? Don’t you realize how special you are Moses?” But that is not what God says.

He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

“I will be with you.” God doesn’t even answer Moses’ question. Instead he reminds Moses that who he is makes little difference, what matters is who God is. He is the God of his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is, he is the God who has taken care of his people in the past and will continue to care and provide for them now. And you Moses, you are my servant.

It is a pretty humbling message. God could have replied with any of the comments I suggested a moment ago and they would have been true. God had uniquely prepared Moses for the task ahead. But Moses needed to be reminded that it really isn’t about us, even while God is caring for us.

It is a curious paradox. We must realize that ultimately all of history is about God, the creator and caregiver. Yet history itself has been created because and by virtue of the fact that God created us. Good Friday and Easter are the suffering and resurrection of Jesus and yet they are the sacrifice and salvation of the world.

God has uniquely prepared each of us to do…we don’t know what! Often, we will not understand how or why we have been able to accomplish incredible tasks that God puts before us until they are complete. But God has been and is with us nonetheless. Consider again what God told Moses.

“I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

“I will be with you.” God is present, he is with us in our most difficult struggles, our greatest challenges. That is, as they say in business nowadays, the “game changer.” God’s being with us makes all things possible and is far more important than who we are or how skilled or prepared we are for the task at hand.

And notice “the sign” that God offers Moses. “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” Aren’t signs usually supposed to be before the event? Like Gideon setting out the fleece, we want to know that we are making the right decision ahead of committing ourselves. God tells Moses and us that all we need to know is that he is with us and that our faith in him will be affirmed. When the task is done we will know that it is God who has guided us and we will worship him.

God answered his first objection but Moses was not satisfied, he continued to challenge God.

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM Who I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’”

Here we find God’s most intimate name revealed. It would be easy and it is all too tempting to delve into a lecture here about the Hebrew name of God. I shall try and avoid that, but it is important that we understand that God’s name is nothing less than the verb of existence. His name is the verb “to be” and when God speaks he speaks in the first person, “I am.” When we speak, we say “He is” (which we “translated” as “The Lord”). God’s identity, his name, cannot be defined in any other terms than the simple yet powerful and inscrutable statement that he exists, He Is.

The message is the same as God’s first response to Moses. I am with you. Just as I was with your fathers and your mothers before you, I am and will be with you now. Thus it is that in John’s Gospel, when Jesus responds to those questioning him by saying, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” And when the soldiers came to arrest him in the garden and said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth he replied, “I am.” The power of these words knocked them to the ground, because he was not simply declaring his identity he was also revealing his divinity. Jesus is the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and He Is, The Lord, ‘ehyah ‘asher ‘ehyah.

We too are in the wilderness, in the in-between-time. The story of Moses, the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus’ 40 days of fasting, and our own discipline of Lent simply remind us that we are at all times “not yet home.” We are in this world (but not of it) and we have been blessed by God with a calling and a duty. The details of a specific task may not yet be known to us, although we always know that we are to love as Christ has loved us. What we do know and must never forget is that in all things and at all times God will be with us.

Amen.

The example of David, good or bad?

Aug 12th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

Last Sunday I was the guest preacher/celebrant at a nearby parish and had the chance the preach on David. As many of you know, he is one of my favorite biblical figures, but not always for the reasons people expect. The Revised Common Lectionary this summer has been following the story of David through Samuel so I took this opportunity to consider how it could be that this murdering, adulterer could be a man after God’s own heart.”

Proper 14
Year B
RCL

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

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A new twist(ing) of John 8

Mar 29th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

2 comments

I was getting ready for church this morning and had the radio tuned to our local NPR. Unfortunately this is not a very good radio so every time I move over to the closet the radio starts picking up a Christian station. This morning the preacher (I have no idea who it was, suggestions are welcome!) was taking as his text the (in)famous passage from John 8. You know the one, where the woman is caught in adultery and Jesus stoops writes in the dirt (“the names of all those who had committed adulterer, perhaps” said the preacher) and so on. Here, I should just quote the salient part.

John 8:3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Given all that follows I am morbidly curious to know what this preacher (hardly Qoheleth!) said, if anything, about the fact that this passage is a very late addition and of dubious origin. But to get to the portion that I heard clearly, so clearly, in fact, that it took me another 3 minutes to pick out a tie I was so stunned by the comments.(Paraphrasing, but I promise you the substance is as spoken.)

Jesus, who knew the Law so well since he was the one who had given it to Moses was not saying that someone caught in adultery should not be punished and stoned. Jesus is also not saying that anyone who is without any sin should cast the first stone, but merely that those who had not committed this sin, the sin of adultery, may step forward and stone the woman. Assuming, that is, that witness were brought forward, as required by the Law.

Wow. Look at that again. Jesus wasn’t saying that those without any sin should cast the first stone (in which case, of course, no one could cast said stone since all have sinned), but only those who had not committed this particular sin. I assume this preacher’s logic went on to assert that all those present had at some point enjoyed this sin since they all walked away, but I had chosen to eschew a tie all together and headed out to church at that point. But tell me, who comes up with stuff like this?

If I am generous I can only assume that the preacher was trying to push back against those who use this passage (as I have often heard it in my own church) to argue that we should not tell anyone that anything is a sin since, after all, we have all sinned and therefore should “cast no [metaphorical] stones.” (Matt. 7:1 is of course often brought in as well.) I am certainly sympathetic to such an effort, but this is just a remarkable twisting of the passage.

I cannot be sure, without hear the full sermon, but he seems to have ignored the context (“They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him”) and the fact that there is a fundamental shift in concepts of forgiveness that Jesus brings to the scene. Sure, developing an hermeneutic that takes in both the continuity of the Law and the transformation that comes from Jesus’ sacrifice “offered once, for all” is difficult, but just because it is hard does not excuse us from the work.

*shakes head* I would love to hear the full sermon. If anyone has a clue as to who it was, let me know. I think it was on WGRC but their program list only shows contemporary worship music from 9 – noon.

Has anyone heard a crazier sermon lately? Do tell!