Gospel text for Sunday 26 January 2020

Matthew 4:12-23         When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,

on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

the people who sat in darkness 

have seen a great light,

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death 

light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Reflection       John is imprisoned but his ministry of repentance is not arrested. Jesus picks up his cousin’s torch and turns it toward the land of darkness. Galilee is the land of which the prophet First Isaiah spoke seven hundred years before Jesus was born saying, “In the former time (God) brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali (when they were invaded by the Assyrians), but in the latter time (God) will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. (God) is bringing light into the darkness.” 

Jesus is part of something greater than himself. Rather than acting for his own self interest and preservation, Jesus is acting to fulfill Isaiah’s words. Jesus is participating in the transformation of human consciousness.  The theological term for this is metanoia and refers to a change in the way we think that leads to a change in the way we live our lives.

Jesus is bringing the God of the Torah, God who invites the Jews to a fundamental change of mind and heart, to admit the Gentiles. Jesus leaves the safety of his home in Nazareth, crosses borders and travels into a hostile foreign land that has been the seat of darkness for hundreds of years. Here darkness refers to the condition of the peoples’ minds. Sitting in the dark people are overshadowed by their preoccupation with death. In contemporary terms this translates; life is all about me; my safety, security, esteem, power and control. 

Jesus appropriates John’s message proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Returning to the Greek word for repent, metanoéō means to think differently, reconsider, to change our mind for the better. And what is the change of mind to which Jesus invites us?  With God life is not deferred to some happily ever after life. With God life is here and is now.

Soon we will see Jesus open the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, read and then assert, “The scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, in Jesus we encounter Divine Presence on earth. But then and now most people sit in darkness, in the shadow of death because we are preoccupied by our inordinate concerns for our personal security, safety, esteem, power and control. Let me be clear. The message is not that we should forgo all concern for our personal security, safety, esteem, power and control. The message is, life does not depend on us alone. Life depends on God with us. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 10 December 2017

Mark 1:1-8        The beginning of the  good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Reflection        Isaiah is not sending us out with axes and saws, root loopers and clippers, hazel hoes and rock bars to blaze a trail through the wilderness, to “Prepare the way of the Lord.” Isaiah is inviting us to see and be a new way in the wilderness. For the most part our human way, our path through the wilderness of life, is fraught with obstacles. Whether they are fallen timber or emotional memories, mountains or inherited facts of our mental, physical or emotional condition, at every turn and junction we have a choice. Are we going to direct our time and attention to our struggle with the obstacle and consequently get lost in a sea of distractions?  or, are we going to turn ourselves around and pay attention to life as it envelops us, smell the roses even when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles? 

What if instead of seeing fallen trees or sordid family history or a series of bad breaks as getting in our way or keeping us from arriving at our joy, what if we saw our obstacles as that which prevents us from welcoming the Spirit of God that is already with us? When we return our attention to God, which is what John the Baptizer means when he “proclaims a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin,” we are essentially making straight the path or the way between us and God. 

When John the Baptizer says, “Repent,” he is not saying beat yourself up for your shameful deeds. John calls for a change of mind… “the change of mind of those who have begun to abhor their errors and misdeeds, and have determined to enter upon a better course of life, so that it embraces… a recognition of sin, sorrow for it and hearty amendment…” (Strong’s G3341) When we repent we admit we are focused on or entrapped by our obstacles and then choose to turn instead toward God, not only by changing our mind but also by changing our behavior. 

And when John speaks of sin he is talking about the ways we allow ourselves to live without a share in God, missing the mark, being mistaken. (Strong’s G266) This is cheating ourselves out of the experience of God with us. The remedy for sin is not shame or self loathing. It is changing our minds and deciding to live with our share of God. This is the good news that we hear when Second Isaiah speaks on behalf of God to our Israelite ancestors who have been suffering in the wilderness and believe God has abandoned them. “Comfort, O comfort my people.” Our comfort comes when we change our minds, when we lean against our obstacles and decide that life is better when we pay attention to what is good and true and always with us. Life is better when we turn toward God. 

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Gospel text for 2nd Sunday of Advent 4 December 2016

Matthew 3.1-12        In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, 

make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Reflection       People from all over Judea and Jerusalem are leaving the cities, their safe places, their comfort zones, and going into the wilderness. This is no small thing. The wilderness of Biblical time is beyond the limits of civilization and definitely inhospitable. It  is an in-between place where ordinary life is suspended and new opportunities emerge. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into the wilderness situated between Egypt and the promise land of Canaan where for forty years the Israelites experienced danger, hunger, thirst and temptation. While in the wilderness they also experienced divine surprises, receiving  manna from heaven and water out of rocks, evidence of God’s presence with them. After his baptism Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days where he experienced hunger, thirst and a series of temptations. We remember that Jesus also went into the wilderness to pray. (Luke 5.16) 

This suggests that the wilderness is a place we go when seeking new possibilities or opportunities. It is the out of our comfort zone, in-between place in which we examine our selves and our lives to expose the ways we turn away from God. When we dare to open  our minds and hearts to acknowledge that we have short changed ourselves by failing to  live in alignment with the will of God, we have already made a half turn back toward God. To complete our return and align our selves with God we must also change our behavior. This is the second step,  “to bear fruit worthy of repentance.”  Which is to say, our words must be fulfilled by action.

I believe it is safe to compare our Advent season to time in the wilderness. This is a season to step out of our comfort zone. This is a time for us to acknowledge that the world of cities wrapped in tinsel and religious sentiment does not have the last word.  In this season of self examination we admit the ways we turn away from God, we take responsibility for our actions, we experience remorse, express regret and reform our behavior by looking for opportunities to extend peace and good will to all people. As Jesus teaches a bit later in Matthew’s gospel, “ ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt 7.21)

Jesus comes to fulfill by his actions the words of the Hebrew Scriptures so too are we to fulfill the Word God as revealed by Jesus. Let us take the words of our Hallmark Christmas cards seriously and find every opportunity we can to extend peace and good will to all people on earth. 

Gospel text for Sunday 28 September 2014

Matthew 21:23-32        When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, `From heaven,' he will say to us, `Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, `Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, `Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, `I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, `I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”

Reflection     “By what authority are you doing these things?”  It seems like a perfectly reasonable question. except, the authorities had seen Jesus “doing these things,” healing and teaching and exuding enough charisma that crowds of people were following him. The chief priests and the elders were not interested in where Jesus got his authority. They were interested in maintaining their authority and Jesus was breaking their rules and challenging their authority. But Jesus was not game. No way was he going to fall into their trap, so he turned the table on them and used the parable of the two sons to accuse them.

“By the way, don’t you realize that the most dispised people among you, the prostitutes and tax collectors who fail to keep the temple Law of Moses “are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you because when John came crying “Repent,” they believed and changed their ways.  But when John came to you, “you did not change your minds and believe him.”” I can almost hear Jesus shaking his head and mumbling, “Don’t you see. Humanity was not made to serve the law. The law was made to serve humanity. All you have to do is change your mind and believe what John said, “Repent, (which means turn around, change your mind) the kingdom of God has come near.””(Matt 3.2 and writers additions).

Could it really be that simple? Just change your mind? Simple as a beligerent son saying to his father, “No, I am not going “to work in the vineyard today,” then changing his minds and showing up for work? 

That reminds me of the Lovin’ Spoonfuls song, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” 

Did you ever have to make up your mind?
You pick up on one and leave the other behind
It's not often easy and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Did you ever have to finally decide?
And say yes to one and let the other one ride
There's so many changes and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide?

Of course this 60s  song was about a man choosing between two women but, let me suggest it is not too different from John’s call to repent - to finally decide, to say yes, I believe, and leave not believing behind. Do you believe?

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