Peace

 

Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8

Isaiah tells the exiled people, to expect, to repent, because the comforter is coming. This voice is to come from the wilderness. That is literally where they would need to pass through to return to the Promised Land. They had lost not only their land but much of the structures that held them together as the “chosen people.” War brought them in exile, and even though

The Persians eventually send the Hebrews back to Jerusalem and the Promised Land. God I am sure was at work, yet the Persians were not naïve. They understood the importance of having a grateful ally near Egypt and on the coast of the Great Sea. This was military, economic, and political advantage, to have restored the Hebrew people to Canaan.

Not long after they were restored to the Promised Land they most have forgotten the comforter, God, was near, for they turned from the covenant. Depending on military and political boundaries for identity is the problem.

Identity as the people of God is not a matter of the state, it is expecting God and thus turning to God. Expecting the messiah to establish the Kingdom of David again, is repeating the same problem. The Jews understood the oppression of Rome under the title of Pax Roma. This peace established by the state can only go so far. Peace established by mandate, by gun, by oppression does not last long. Those in exile lived in peace but not in harmony. Those that lived behind the iron curtain lived in peace but not in harmony. Peace that God wants is a peace that surpasses all understanding, and includes harmony as well as no war.

So when John comes on the scene, he is baptizing on the border, in the Jordan, repentance. Not to usher in the Kingdom, but because it is near. Because John expects the coming comforter, Jesus, we turn to God. This is the peace we are to expect everywhere we go. John though is not actually leading us through the wilderness to a new land. He is on the edge of the Promised Land, and consumes the wonderful wild honey of the land of Milk and Honey. And he consumes the locusts of the land of slavery and from the decimated fields. John is preparing the way of a greater peace that cannot come from a state, a church, or humanity. Save one, the one that saves.

Jesus will bring peace not through calling the heavenly hosts. Not by leading an army. Not through violence or political mandate. Jesus does it and call us to follow him as our earliest known Hymn states as Paul records it in his letter to the Philippians:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8)

If we are of the same mind and give ourselves to Christ. To each other we will find peace. We are being called to our boundaries, to our learning edges, and we should expect God there, for God is near. To expect is to live in hope and not despair. To expect is because you know God is.

We expect God, not to do what we want. We expect to see God everywhere we turn thus we turn to God, repentance. Peace

December 2011 Newsletter

There is a chill in the air and lights are strung. We are preparing for Christmas, and there is an excitement, especially for children. Within the preparation we will experience stress, but hopefully we will also experience great hope, peace, love, and joy. Certainly the reason for the season is Jesus who is our certain hope and love giving us joy and peace that surpasses all understanding. However, the excitement of the shopping, parties, and even traditions can distract us from Emmanuel.

The scriptures keep me focused and one of my favorite is from the beginning of John, as he explains how important it is having Jesus take on human form, Incarnation:

And 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. (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.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. (John 1:14-18)

John makes it clear that we here on earth are able to know the Glory of God through only His Son Jesus. It was necessary for Jesus to be fully human as well as fully divine as to demonstrate God’s great love for humanity. Therefore during this season we prepare for Jesus coming into the world, not simply as a memory of a birthday celebration, but how Jesus breaks through the darkness everyday from the beginning, today and forever, as John writes earlier in his Gospel about Jesus, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (1:3-5)

As the chilly busy days of December turn to night, I am reminded of the incarnation by the numerous Christmas lights. Each string of lights reminds me that Christ Jesus is in our lives in numerous and various ways. Each by themselves may be lost in the hustle and bustle of the “holiday” demands, but together it is obvious that the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, is the light in all our lives that cuts through the darkness, providing us with hope, peace, love and joy.

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor JC

Emmanuel

John 11:1-45

Preparing for this sermon I was pondering about clichés about not being present, and I thought about how it is important to train a new driver to change a tire.  It may not be as important now with mobile phones, but we do it because we realize that we will not be present when it happens to someone, and we learn the skill because we realize we will not have the teacher present.  So while I was pondering this example, I received an email from my wife that said her phone was not working.  She had tried to turn it off and back on, because it was not working correctly, and it would not restart.  On the rare occasion, this would occur she would hand the phone to me to deal with, but of course this time I was in the office.  I emailed back that she should take the battery out for a minute and it should work.  Forty-five seconds letter I received an email with just the word “how.”   I wanted to be there, or at least phone her, because trying to explain how to take the back cover off in written words escaped me.  I was just about to respond, it is the back cover and I will be home shortly, when the message “never mind I figured it out” arrived in my inbox.  Sometimes it is simply important to be there.

Paul wrote much of our New Testament, and all of it is in the form of epistles.  We have no record of his sermons or even straight theological writing, rather all of the writings we have are because Paul could not be there (wherever there was).  His letter to Philemon, Paul needed to convince Philemon to take back his slave, Onesimus, as a brother in Christ and not simply as a slave.  Paul had to make sure the churches he started did not get swayed by the Judaizers who came trying to have the churches follow the Torah as well as Jesus.  Paul simply could not be everywhere, Paul was limited by being a human like us.  It is interesting that all of our written records of his work are these letters he wrote because of that limitation.

In this story of Lazarus’ death, Jesus is not present.  It is also clear in this story that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.  His humanity is present by his physicality, in that He was not able to be there for His friend.  Jesus was delayed and needed time to travel when he was able, and there was the concern by His friends about those that wanted Him dead.  Yet Jesus knew He would “awaken” Lazarus, which only the Divine could know.  Jesus demonstrated great emotion as well.  Even knowing that Lazarus would walk again on earth, Jesus was moved by his feelings to cry.  This to me demonstrates His humanity, and reminds me of how He was angry in the temple and His passionate prayer to His Father in the garden prior to the cross.  And in this scripture Jesus tells us He is the resurrection and calls Lazarus out of the grave, fully divine. 

Martha went out to met  Jesus knowing he was coming to town and she greets him with this statement, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Jesus responds that Lazarus will rise again, and Martha responds with a very good Jewish answer, and answer you would expect from a Pharisee, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”  The resurrection was believed by Jews, but it was something that would happen far off, on the last day.  Jesus turns that idea around, that it is something far off and distant, by stating, and her response in John 11: 25-27:

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Clearly, the resurrection is started on earth and does not wait for the end of all time.  Jesus has changed this idea of time.

Yet they still see Jesus as being only physically present.  That His healings and miracles needed His presence.  This is clear by Mary’s similar statement to Jesus, when she arrives and kneels at His feet, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  I do believe Jesus weeps because of the emotions of His own, and those around Him for the death of Lazarus, I cannot help and wonder if He is also sad that these friends do not understand.  They believe Jesus has to be present for God’s Glory to be present, and that does seem to be true until the Holy Spirit is sent to gather us as the church, the Body of Christ.

During the Christmas season we often hear of Mathew’s translation of Isaiah 7:14, in Mathew 1:23:

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means, God is with us.

Emmanuel is the Hebrew words that mean God with us, and during Christmas we are always pointing out the importance of God’s incarnation as Jesus the baby.  This does not change, Jesus is the incarnation of God.  God with our physical limitations, such as not being able to be everywhere at all times.  God with emotions.  God incarnate.  John’s account of of Lazarus's resurrection reminds us that Jesus is both divine and human.

Paul talks about being untimely born because he was not able to meet the incarnate Jesus, but only the resurrected Christ.   I must admit that at first I feel the same way, for if I did have a time machine, I would want to go to Bethlehem when Jesus was born, hear His preaching, witness the miracles and healing, break bread with Him, mourn His tragic and violent death, be in the upper room when he comes to show himself to Thomas.  Then I do remember that I am part of the post Pentecost Church.  I am part of the Body of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life.  That we are doing the work of the Father who sent Jesus and gave us the Holy Spirit so that everyone will know God is with us.