1.22.23 "Another Way Home" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Isaiah 9.1-4; Matthew 2.1-12

We’re in the season of Epiphany … a season of discovery … represented by the Wise Men of the East … who traveled long, who traveled far, watching the night sky for a sign … 

They came to Bethlehem to lay down their gifts … warned by an angel of Herod’s true intent, they return home by another road … when Herod finds out, he’s mad as hell, and lays waste to the little town and all of it’s children.

What else is new? 

Herod’s rage … despotic rulers, those who imagine they can control time and manage the universe with their ruthless and uncaring power - they stop at nothing; will do anything, to protect their power

Thank God:

There is always another way home, after we’ve been to Bethlehem.

I’m reminded of one my favorite Bible stories: Paul and Timothy head to Bithynia, but the story adds: the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them, so … they went down to Troas … 

During the night, in Troas, Paul had a vision: a man of Macedonia standing before him, pleading with Paul - Come to Macedonia to help us. 

Is there anyone here who hasn’t had their plans upset by the unexpected? 

The road ahead blocked … no way forward … stymied, stuck, stalled  … the poet says: the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray …

The Book of Proverbs says: The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.

Proverbs puts it this way: Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field, and after that build your house.

In other words, first things first … 

Which is easier said than done … we are distracted by glittery things … something of small importance appears to be of great value.

Consumer specialists understand how this works … if it’s not one thing we want, then it’s another … and we need it now, or so we think … before we know it, what we wanted so badly, ends up in next summer’s garage sale … 

I’ve been there … the urge to get something at the spur of the moment … from QVC to ads on YouTube, and for me, the best book ever on theology … 

Buy it now; it’s so easy - “one-click” shopping - our phones, our computers, linked to our credit cards … boom … just like that, a click away, it’s on its way, delivered tomorrow, at our doorstep.

First things first … I don’t know how to make that work clearly … nor how to say it well … but the words of Scripture prove worthy:

Do not worry, says Jesus, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ … your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Part of what we’re doing here, in person, via YouTube, we’re working to have good priorities.

Again, the words of Jesus: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We are creatures who make plans … we forecast the future … hold a wet finger in the wind to see which way it’s blowing.

We’re the bowler arcing the ball down for that perfect strike … we’re fly fishing for rainbow trout, and we read the river … we fall in love and dream in technicolor …

But it won’t always work … we know that!

The best laid plans are sometimes thwarted …

The Wise Men were nearly undone by Herod’s evil …

Life, with all of its twists and turns …

Illness pays us an unexpected visit … the loss of a job, the turn of an economy; a pandemic … the relentless march time … circumstances of our own undoing, and sometimes our undoing by circumstances out of our hands.

The suffering in Ukraine … other parts of the world … hopes and dreams smashed, reduced to burned ruble, in the ruins of war … unimaginable heartache and loss … and what a price the children pay.

In the face of such loss, I don’t know what I would do, what I would think, how I would react.

Would I still trust in God?

“Trust in God!” … we say!

Easy to do when the sun shines, and the roof ain’t leaking.  

But harder to do when things fall apart … 

When death is in the air.

When loss overwhelms us.

There is always another way home …  

Over the years, I’ve been privileged to hear stories … folks make it … love finds a way  … healing, hope, a new day … as with Paul - if not Bithynia, there’s always Troas … if Herod stands in the way, there’s another way home.

God provides … God provides for Jesus in the wilderness, after 40 days of harrowing deprivation … 

The Wise Men were given another way home … 

Paul was given Troas.

Hope abounds …

But hope needs reality … 

and reality can be utterly daunting:

Not everyone finds their way out … 

Not everyone escapes …

The horrors of war, the cruelties of history can win the day.

Little Anne Frank dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. And what did she do to deserve that?

A journalist gunned down in Ukraine.

The sun is no longer shining … only clouds and gloom.

 

Despair fills our souls … fear and trembling at every turn of the hour … faith grasps for meaning … and sometimes faith curls up and dies.

But it’s the consensus of the ages - God proves faithful, even in the midst of hell - the Creed puts it well, if not strangely, he descended into hell - there to break the final power, and establish the kingdom of light … to forge another way home for a whole lot of people who need “another way.”

God’s faithfulness extends far and beyond the boundaries of time … we belong to God, in life and in death … in body and in soul … forever, and a day.

There is always another way home … a route, a path, a highway … a river, a road, a trail … in time, and in eternity, forever and a day … because God is love, and we are loved unto life.

We will get there … and to God be the glory. Amen

"They Saw the Child" - El Monte Community Presbyterian Church

Matthew 2.1-12

When you live in a city, like LA, it’s hard to see the stars. 

I used to live in Northern Wisconsin, in the middle of nowhere, but we could see stars … especially on cold winter nights, when the air is clear, really clear … things get clear when it’s 30 below … 

I remember driving out to make a pastoral call … they lived in a small, patchwork house, on a small peninsula, jutting out into one of the great northern lakes … all was ice and snow … and 20 below, maybe colder … but that never stopped anyone in that part of the world.

So, there I was, driving along, not a car on the road … surrounded by stars … sharp and clear, pinpoints of light in a vast velvet-black sky … so close to me, it seemed … I could have reached out and grabbed a handful of stars …

I’ve never forgotten that night …

Some years later, we were living in Detroit, when the lights when out … all over the North East, 2003, the Great Blackout … by the second night, we had neighbors over on our patio … I fired up the gas grill, and we did chicken and steak and pork chops, and everything we could, because we knew the electricity was going to be down for awhile, so grill up the meat, so it doesn’t spoil.

And there we sat, with flash lights, a few gas lamps … after eating, we turned off our lights … and there it was … the rich and beautiful night sky … velvet black, and full of stars … 

A sight never seen in cities …

We have to get out into the country, into the mountains, away from the city, to see the sky at night …

I wonder how many children in years past, laying on their backs in a field at night, scanning the sky, catching a shooting star now and then … dreaming of the universe, vast and mysterious … dreaming of space ships and far-away planets … maybe thinking about God … how big God must be, and how small we are … children laying on their backs in a field of summer grass… a warm night in August … to watch the stars and dream of faraway places.

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar.

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

Or maybe:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle, twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are.

Or even:

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you

And, then, again:

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight.

It’s Epiphany Sunday … 

The visit of the magi … wise men from the East … astrologers they are, fascinated by the heavens above, vast and beyond count … the stars at night, new moon, old moon … the rising of the sun and its setting … the turning of the seasons … a story to tell … 

The alignment of the stars, a star of peculiar brightness, a star dominating the western sky …  “What’s this?” they ask! … and with their charts unrolled and with their books opened wide, a discovery is made … the star, so bright and clear, the herald of a birth, and not just any birth, but the birth of a king …

So unusual was it all … their curiosity got the best of them, and so begins their quest, a journey, an adventure … weeks, maybe months … traveling afar … to see where the star would take them … and perhaps to find the king … 

Two thousands years later, here we are … telling and retelling the stories of our faith … each in our own way, wise men, wise women, wise children … paying attention to the world God created, the sky above, the earth beneath and the Holy Spirit within …

And still the star shines … the glories of the heavens declare the glory of God … 

Faith, hope and love … grace, mercy and peace … 

The star still shines, bright and clear …

And like those magi of old, we’re the magi now.

Still and always the journey, setting out to discover the king born in Bethlehem … with our gifts, whatever they are … we lay them down before the cradle and before the child it holds …

The Christian Life is always one of journey … 

We never fully arrive … never! … because God is infinite, and whatever we learn of God today, there’s still more to learn tomorrow … whatever good we manage, whatever we truth we tell, whatever deed of kindness we offer, whatever power we challenge, there’s always more to be done … the endless journey is what it means to be faithful to Christ.

Back in seminary, my Hebrew professor, a wise and learnèd man … he’d come bouncing into the classroom, a smile on his face from ear-to-ear … to announce that just that morning, he had learned something new … usually something small … in a footnote, or some obscure Hebrew dictionary … with joy and delight, he’d tell us all about it.

We came to call him, “The Student” … the one always learning, and delighted to learn … encouraging us to learn, and keep on learning … to be students always of God’s Word, always exploring, always going to new places, never afraid to cross a boundary, into unexplored land … never, ever, afraid of making a mistake … in the Kingdom of God, in the quest of truth, there are no mistakes, only lessons to be learned … 

God is a God of great mercy, and above all else, God is the Teacher … God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit … to teach of us life, to teach us love … to teach us how to care for the world God made …

Like any good teacher anywhere, it’s not about the answers, but the learning, the questions, the pondering, the musing … among all the confessions of faith any of us can make, there is one confession that cuts to the core of our journey, that says it well, with humility, honesty and hope: LORD, I believe, help my unbelief.

God takes pleasure in those who want to learn about God’s world … the heavens above, the oceans upon the face of the earth, the creatures, great and small … times long before we were here …

As for creation, it’s just plain silly to suggest that the earth was created 8000 thousand years ago or something like … no, it was created billions of years ago … long before any of us showed up: dinosaurs roamed the earth, for millions of years … until something emerged out of a pool of muck, rich with life … and it grew, and it grew … tens of thousands of years … and here we are today, from the earth we have come, by the hand of God, and still the creation goes on … it never stops … always changing … and now we have to pay attention to something brand new in our story: the impact we’re having on the earth … global warming, climate change, pollution, filth, driven by the blind greed of those who always want more for themselves, and will take it from everyone else … who are always drawing boundaries, and building walls … who love to say some, “you don’t belong here,” “we don’t want you,” “go back to where you came from.”

For those who follow Christ, it must be different: no boundaries, never a wall, and no exclusion … we all belong to one another because we’re all created by God … and to one another we owe the debt of love … to be kind and merciful, to make room for the lonely, heal the broken, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, provide for the homeless, visit those in prison.

What might the magi say to us?

Pay attention to the stars … the world God created, the birds and the bees … flowers and field … the sun above and the earth beneath … all of its creatures, great and small. As Jesus said: Consider the birds of the air … and the lilies of the field!

What might the magi say to us?

If you follow the star, you’ll have to travel afar … the journey never ends … keep on keepin’ on.

And don’t be fooled by Herod, they’d say to us …

Herod welcomed the wise men; sent them on their way with a task, to find the child, and then let Herod know where the child is, so that Herod could go and “worship him”, too. 

It was a lie, fake news, nonsense … 

Beware of Herod, they’d say to us:

Herod the fox, Herod the liar, Herod the con-man, loud and reckless, Herod the man of violence …

When the magi found the child, and laid their gifts before him, the Spirit warned them: go home by another route … 

I like that image: another route … we never cover the same ground again … time does that to us … so the journey goes on.

What might the magi say to us?

“Pay Attention” to places like Bethlehem … small places, out-of-the-way places … people of low-account … a young pregnant girl, a father doing his best … pawns in the power-plays of the nations … late at night, alone and frightened … a kindly inn keeper, with no room in the inn, finds a little room for them outback … with the animals, warm and safe … where God is born … born into the world, then … and born into the world today … the Bethlehems of our world … little places, places of no-account … the least of all places … but that’s where God is born!

Though I’m not a magi, this much I can say:

God is born right here … maybe in the corner over there, or in the kitchen … in our hearts, for sure …  small places, out-of-the-way places … God likes places just like this … and God loves people just like you.

Amen and Amen!

January 6, 2013 - "Everyone Needed"

1 Chronicle 22.2, Matthew 2.1-12

Went to the Rose Parade in Pasadena this past week …

A great time was had by all …

After the parade, walking along a very crowded sidewalk, here comes a young man with a loudspeaker, and loud it was.

Ranting on and on about sin … we’re all horrible and hideous sinners doomed to die.

Behind him, another young man, holding the loudspeaker, an embarrassed smile on his face; I felt bad for him.

But not for the big mouth, screeching away at the top of his lungs.

I stopped walking as they approached; it was a crowded sidewalk, and he walked right up to me, shouting into his microphone … he stopped for a moment ... I said to him, “You know nothing; you know nothing at all.”

He looked at me fiercely … not sure if he heard me … he was so busy listening to himself, so busy shouting, to hear anyone else … I know these characters … they behave like jerks and then go home and tell their friends how they were “persecuted for the sake of Christ.”

He stepped aside and continued on down the street, blaring away at the top of his lungs … condemning everyone with a message of hatred and judgment, all in the name of Jesus, of course.

Is this kind of preaching really in the name of Jesus?

We have to be clear dear Christian friends.

Not everything that glitters is gold.

Jesus says, Not everyone who says, ‘LORD, LORD,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. They may prophesy in my name, cast out demons and even do miracles, but they’re not a part of my work. To them, I say, ‘I’ve never known you.’ Get away from me you people who do wrong [Matthew 7.21-23].

And what’s the wrong here that Jesus is getting at it?

Is it murder, theft, violence?

Well, those things are wrong, but that’s not what Jesus is getting at.

The wrong is twisting the gospel, turning it upside down … it sounds like the gospel, looks like the gospel, but it is … something is wrong with it … kinda like spoiled milk: it looks good sitting in the bottle, but pop the lid, and we quickly smell that it’s gone sour.

This is what Jesus means by saying, Beware of false prophets … they may look like sheep, sound like sheep, walk like sheep, but are nothing more than vicious wolves.

Jesus is clear … religion attracts all sorts of folks for lots of different reasons; sometimes religion attracts profoundly unhealthy people … and that’s good, because religion can heal the sick and cure the soul; but sometimes people remain unhealthy, refuse the healing, and produce a “gospel” just as unhealthy as they are.

We need to be thoughtful about all of it … sort it all out … test the spirits

 as John says in his first letter.

Test the spirits … like smelling the milk before we drink it.

Jesus says, You will know them by their fruits.

What is the fruit of that young man strolling down the sidewalk, blaring away about how horrible and hideous everyone is?

The friends with whom we were walking simply dismissed the young man as a religious nut; they were not impressed, nor was I.

There was nothing thoughtful about what he said … he was full of fire, that’s for sure, and he was eager to burn everyone around him. Passion without intelligence; fire without a fireplace, burning everything down around it.

The young man is a hindrance to the gospel … Jesus preached with intelligence, compassion, concern and great wisdom … Jesus had harsh words sometimes, but only for the religious leaders of Jerusalem, the high and the mighty, those who wanted to lord it over others … to the people, Jesus speaks tenderly, with kindness in his voice and always with hope for a new and better day.

Yelling street preachers appeal to biblical characters like Jeremiah by the Temple, or John the Baptist by the Jordan, but that appeal doesn’t fly … social context, the nature of the message, the way it’s delivered, where and how and why - all very different than a screaming preacher with a megaphone marching down a busy Pasadena street after the Rose Parade.

The shouting street preacher in Pasadena knows nothing … he has a few words, a few ideas, but it’s all hatred and harangue, denunciation and damnation … the young man knows just enough to be dangerous; he doesn’t know enough to help anyone.

Believe me, Jeremiah and John the Baptist would stand in line to tell the young man that he knows nothing, and it would be better for him and the gospel, to hush up, go away and leave the world alone until he’s figured out who he is and what the real message of  faith, hope and love is all about.

What is the real message, the real message of faith, hope and love?

Think of everything Jesus does and says. How he says it, and how he does it.

Remember the New Year’s Resolution I’ve asked you to adopt? - to know Jesus through and through … to read the gospels with care, and read them often throughout the year.

What is message Jesus proclaims?

Can it be summed up easily?

Well, not easily, but if we read Jesus, we’re clear, crystal clear, about a few things:

Welcome to everyone.

No one turned away, especially those who’ve been turned away by organized religion … 

Jesus pays special attention to the ignored, the condemned, the lonely and the broken, the weak and the abused … the woman at the well, Zacchaeus up a tree, blind Bartimaeus by the side of the road, the woman with the hemorrhage, little children, the blind, the deaf, the lame and the dead.

Jesus makes a special effort to pay attention to all of them, to give them a second change, fresh hope and life … his words are gentle and kind and welcoming.

One of the finest descriptions of Jesus: He will not break a bruised reed, nor quench a smoldering wick.

If we’re down, he won’t smack us down … if we’re hurting, he won’t add to the hurt … if we’re guilty with sin, he forgives us … if we’re wracked with fear, he assures us … if we’re sad and frightened, he won’t add to the burdens we carry; he lifts our burdens and gives us rest.

That’s why we get to know Jesus … he sets the standard for all of us … what we say, and how we say it … what we do, and how we do it …

It’s open doors and Table fellowship … welcome and affirmation … second chances and then some … no one excluded; no one left behind; no one overlooked.

In our readings for the day, from the Book of Chronicles … a small verse and a simple phrase: David gives orders to gather together the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel … inviting them to be a part of a great public works project … the building of the temple. 

It wasn’t to be, of course.

The LORD says to David, You have too much blood on your hands … the one who builds my house needs to be a man of peace.

It will be David’s son, Solomon, who builds the temple.

But for our purpose here this morning, David’s desire to include everyone, even the aliens living in the land … because everyone has worth … value … importance … everyone counts … all are invited … all are welcomed … social status means nothing to the LORD; for the LORD loves us all.

The New Testament Lesson … the Wise Men from the East - Babylon, Persia … today’s Iraq and Iran … they followed a star and found a child.

The Wise Men are the stars of the story … yes, bad pun … but they’re the heart and soul of Epiphany, the Season of Revealing, when God makes it clear that everyone has a place at the Manger … not just God’s people, not just Israel, or a select group, but the whole wide world, from A to Z, top to bottom, and everyone in between.

Luke’s account of the shepherds standing watch over their flocks at night; who smell of sheep and sweat and campfire smoke … Matthew’s account of the Wise Men traveling from a-far - learned philosophers with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh … the point is clear and simple: everyone welcomed at Bethlehem.

‘Tis a kindly LORD we worship, and a gracious king who governs … he is the healer of our wounds and the balm of Gilead … he is the bright morning star and the rose of Sharon whose fragrance fills every heart with grace … his words are the truth, and his truth always set us free.

That’s the gospel, dear friends … the greatest story ever told, and the finest message ever heard.

Amen and Amen!

Wise Men: Where Can We Find Him - January 4, 2008

Matthew 2:1-12

Questions!

Good questions … good faith!

The wise men ask a very good question.

Where can we find him?

I’d like to spend some time with you this morning on that very question … where can we find Jesus?

Let’s get right to it:

We begin with the Bible.
We read it every Sunday, we preach from it, and preach about it …

We read and study it during the week … enough books have been written about the Bible to fill ten thousand shelves, and then some.
Seminaries train preachers to proclaim it … whole publishing houses are devoted to it …

A strange book full of odd people and mind-teasing ideas … a book that has been loved and attacked … torn apart a thousand different ways … an object of study for scholars and pastors … an object of disdain for the cynical … a book of comfort for millions.

Where can we find Jesus?

The Bible is a good place to begin …
The primary source …
The gospel stories …
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John …

Each with their own story, their own unique take on things; their own point of view …
Think of the gospels as long sermons written for specific congregations at a specific point in time …

No one sermon says it all, and no one gospel says it all.

As time evolved in the first 100 years of the church’s life, there were many writings …

The Gospel of Thomas …
The Gospel of Peter …
The Gospel of Judas …
And a host of smaller documents …

But as the churches worshipped and studied, four gospels emerged and claimed priority … folks read them, heard them, preached and taught them … these four gospels worked well … in spite of differences, there’s an essential coherence – after awhile, the four gospels were added to the Bible … along with Paul’s letters and other writings, including a very strange book we call Revelation.

It didn’t take long for this to happen … the four gospels and most of the New Testament as we have it today was settled by the mid-part of the second century … tried and tested by the early church in the worst of times … the earliest Christians found these materials to be reliable and worthy of our reading … above all else, these documents give us Jesus.

I’m glad that four gospels emerged … one wouldn’t have been enough; ten or twelve would have been too much.

Like good cooking – not just one spice; nor too many – in good cooking, spices work together to make the food the best it can be … these four gospels, like fine spices, work together, to give us a tantalizing portrait of Jesus … never quite settled, always just beyond our reach … as it should be.

We cannot put Jesus into a box … though many have tried.
He cannot be held by one single idea, or one single book … though some have written so.

The gospel picture of Jesus is fluid, moving …
Like a great painting … stand 10 feet away, and you can see the whole picture – the people, the buildings, ships sailing on the seas, storm clouds and lightening … but move closer, to get a more detail, and what happens?
The picture disappears into a swirl of color and brush strokes …

Up close, we can see the work of the artist … but step back, and we can see the picture.

Up close, we can see the handiwork of Luke and Matthew … but step back, we will see Jesus.

We find Jesus in the Bible … a good place to begin, and no matter where or how we do it, sooner or later, we have to deal with the Bible.

Folks can say, “Aw, that Bible makes no sense to me,” and they’re right about some of it … it’s a strange book.

Others can say, “It gives me comfort,” and they’re right, too.

We find Jesus in the Bible … it’s the Bible that leads us to Bethlehem … the stable, the town, the shepherds and the angels …

But that’s only the beginning …
Jesus is more than a memory …
More than just a famous person …
Jesus is Spirit … Jesus is love … the love of God up close and personal … here and now!
Jesus is risen from the dead … ascended into heaven … and there, by the Father’s side, Jesus continues to reconcile the world and bring peace to creation.

It’s an on-going work, the work of Jesus.
There is yet no reconciliation in any final sense.
Peace remains elusive …
So the work goes on …

By the power of the Holy Spirit …
A gentle power … a subtle influence … a steady pressure …
In and through the church …

And that’s the next part of our journey … The church …
Tall steeples in crowded cities …
A storefront in a tough part of town …
A thatched roof in Haiti …
Someone’s living room …
A mega-complex in Orange County …
Organ music and rock ‘n roll hymns …
Clergy decked out in all the robes …
Or wearing slacks and a sport shirt …
The church …
Presbyterian and Reformed …
Roman Catholic and Orthodox …
Holy Rollers and Episcopalians …
Southern Baptists and Unitarian Universalists …

The quietness of a Quaker meeting …
The shouting of a Pentecostal prayer gathering …
The staid singing of ancient hymns …
The clap-your-hands energy of praise songs …

The church in all of its splendor and confusion …
The church wherein the name of Jesus is lifted up and singled out …
Jesus the teacher …
Jesus the prophet …
Jesus the example …
Jesus the Savior … who died for our sins …
And gives us the Father …
Opens wide the doors of heaven …
Teaches us compassion and mercy …
Reveals the dark contours of our soul …
Loves us and leads us …
Stills the storm and heals the soul …
Talks to the lonely woman at the well …
Calls Zacchaeus down from the tree …
Heals the blind man …
Welcomes the children …
Sends the angry mob away after writing in the dust …

We sing about Jesus …
We surrender our lives to him …
We pray to him, through him and with him …

We wonder what he meant …
We study his words …
We like most of them … we’re confused by some of them, and not too sure about a few of them …

We’re the church, or at least one part of it … we’re part of the story, but we’re not the whole story …

A man died and went to heaven … St. Peter met him at the gate, welcomed him, and then took him on a tour, along the golden streets … to a very large home … into the hallway and along the corridors … On various doors, signs … Methodists in this room … Catholics across the hallway … Quakers upstairs … Presbyterians over there … As they were walking through the mansion, Peter suddenly put his finger to his lips and hushed the man … and started to tip toe past one of the rooms … Peter turned and said, “Quiet now – we’re walking by the Baptists; they think they’re the only ones here.”

We’re the church, or at least just one part of it … but our part is real … and it’s reliable!

Here is where we can find Jesus … because Jesus promised to be with us … wherever two or three are gathered in his name … the church in Corinth … the church in Philippi … a church in the Cameroon, or Covenant on the Corner … Jesus is with us … never to leave us or forsake us … at our side, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The church is a place where we find Jesus.

But there’s still more to the story …

Jesus is the Word of God, and by the power of the Word, God created the heavens and the earth …
John’s gospel says it well:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 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.

We find Jesus in the world …
In the brilliant red and yellows of a rose garden …
In the buzz of a hummingbird’s wing …
In the crash of a wave and the cry of a gull …
The marvelous flight of a pelican …
The march of ants across our kitchen floor on their endless quest for food …
In the love of a dog …
And the smell of fresh baked bread …

We see Jesus in our friends and family …
The laughter of children …
A box Crayolas …
And a bag of fresh popcorn shared with a lover …

We find Jesus in the passion of political commitment and the quest for justice …
The sacrifice of an Albert Schweitzer who gives up multiple careers to build a hospital in Africa …
Mother Teresa in the streets of Calcutta …
Dag Hammerskjold leading the United Nations …
Martin Luther King, Jr, marching in Selma …

We see Jesus in a scientist deep into cancer research …
A teacher with a passion for inner-city children …
A surgeon removing a tumor …
An artist with a brush …
A singer with a song …
An athlete on a diving board …

We see Jesus in a man who gets up every morning to go to work …
A woman who pursues an acting career …
A child who dreams of big things …

A wife who cares for her ailing husband …
A family who cares for a special-needs child …

And on and on it goes …
We find Jesus all over the world …
In every prayer and every kindly deed …
In every moment of grace …
In every act of forgiveness …
In every deed of courage …

We find Jesus in the human struggle to love and be loved …
We find Jesus hidden in the human heart …
In poetry and music …
In pottery and dance …

We find Jesus all around us …

And in a very special way, Jesus himself reminds us – we find him in the face of the poor … in the tears of the sorrowing … in the least of the least …

Elie Weisel, a survivor of Buchenwald, tells the story of a gruesome hanging … forced to watch … as the hanged men writhed in their agony, and one in particular, a boy – not heavy enough to strangle himself … struggling at the end of a rope …
A man cries out, “Where’s God?”
And someone says, “There, on that gallows, that’s God.”

Where do we find Jesus?
In the light and in the dark …
In the sweet and in the bitter …
In the garden and on the gallows …

I am with you always, says Jesus.

So, where do we find Jesus?

Like the wise men, we find him in Bethlehem …
We find him in the gospel stories …
We find Jesus in the church …
We find Jesus in the world all around us …
We find Jesus in the hard places …

Jesus is everywhere …
All the time …
And forever faithful …

Struggling with us to make a good world …
Healing and helping …
Dying on a thousand crosses every day … on a thousand Calvaries around the world …
Moving stones away and defeating death …

Where do we find Jesus?
Everywhere …

And finally, in our heart …
The heart Jesus made …
The heart Jesus fills and floods with love …
The heart of faith …
The heart of kindness …
The heart that loves …

Your heart and mine.
That’s where we find Jesus!

Amen and Amen!

Star Gazing - January 6, 2008

“Merry Christmas,” we say.

“Happy New Year!”

How about “Exciting Epiphany!”

“I had an epiphany,” we say when surprised with a good idea.

Epiphany Sunday – a very good idea.

The word “epiphany” means … revealing; uncovering … making known … a disclosure, a discovery …

In this case, the revealing of the Son of God … and the love of God for all the world … everyone included … no one left behind!

An epiphany of capital order …

Epiphany Sunday … the journey of the magi … astrologers from the east … months of travel … all the way to Jerusalem; then to the little town of Bethlehem … to present their gifts to the King of the Jews.

Matthew is spare in his details … who were these magi, these magicians, these court astrologers?

Though the hymn sings, “we three kings,” kings they were not, but royal advisors … they came from the East, Babylon perhaps, or even Persia.

What was it they saw in the sky?

All sorts of suggestions over the years … a comet, a planetary conjunction, or a super nova ...

Whatever it was, they saw a portent in the sky – a king to be born, in lands to the west.

They go to Jerusalem to inquire of King Herod, thinking that an heir was born, and Herod would know.

But Herod hasn’t a clue … clever man that he is, he inquires of his royal advisors … they have the answer.

Bethlehem … that’s where it’s going to happen … the City of David … the House of Bread.

So the magi continue on to Bethlehem, another 6 miles or so … and looking to the sky, they know they’ve arrived.

They bow down and lay before the manger royal gifts: gold and rare spices … frankincense and myrrh …

And just as quickly, they return to their homeland … the end of the story … no more is said about the magi from the East.

In these few verses, Matthew creates a timeless pattern …

A Star in the night …

Journey & Discovery …

Gifts given …

Return home …

What’s your star? You have one you know!

Maybe a book you’re reading,
Maybe a stroll in the mountains, or a walk along the beach …
A movie image, a fragment of dialogue; music.
A chat with a friend and a glass of wine.
Watching a gull soar lazily in the blue.
A quiet afternoon, a strange constellation of swirling memories …
A great heartache, a longing, a hunger, a thirst … blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God for they will be satisfied.

We all have a star, something beckons us onward … “Don’t give up” … “stay the course” … “you’ll make it” … “it’s going to be all right.”

A friend of mine is going to be ordained January 27 … the same date I was ordained 38 years ago.

She came to me 10 or 12 years ago and said, “God is calling me.”

She came to the church as a young mother, started teaching Sunday School, something laid hold of her … she couldn’t shake it, she didn’t know what it was … but she knew Who it was … “God is calling me,” she said.

She explored that calling for five years … numerous visits with me; she joined a small group of similar travelers … trying to put the pieces together … saying yes with all her heart, and then saying no.
My little mantra: “God will make it clear.”

During one particularly difficult time, she came to an Ash Wednesday service … bound and determined to “just sit there” … but as God would have it, she sat next to Donna.
When the invitation was given to receive the ashes, Donna got up, turned to Ruthanne, offered her hand, and said, “Let’s go.”

Ruthanne got up, came forward, received the ashes …

Ruthanne said, “Donna got me there. I wouldn’t have received the ashes were it not for Donna’s hand.”

God was in Donna’s hand that night.

For Ruthanne, that simple journey from pew to chancel was a decisive journey … something broke lose; a divide was crossed … from that moment on, though difficult days lay ahead, she was clear about the journey!

The Bible is a book of many journeys … Adam and Eve leave the garden; Abraham goes to the Promised Land; Moses to Midian and back again to Egypt … God’s people on their way through the wilderness and across the Jordan …

Jesus is a journey-man … restless and ready … on the move, on the go … preaching here and there … reaching everyone He can …

“Come and follow me” is the heart of our faith, restless and ready.

Always one more place to go,
A new idea to explore,
A new mission to undertake …
We never arrive; we never settle down …
We’re a people on the move,
Because the LORD we worship and
The God we serve are on the road
Ahead of us.

Ruthanne’s journey wasn’t easy … never is … wish it were, but it isn’t.
The clay on the wheel shaped by the potter’s hand must sometimes think: “There’s gotta be an easier way.”

In the dark places of the earth … pressure and heat transform soft carbon into hard diamond – the carbon must sometimes think: “There’s gotta be an easier way.”

You and I become servants of the Most High God, followers of Jesus Christ … it’s not an easy journey … we sometimes think, “There’s gotta be an easier way.”

But the clay becomes the pot … the carbon becomes the diamond … you and I become the Servants of the Most High God and the followers of Jesus.

We make it … love has a compass … though often feeling lost, we’re never lost, because God has an eye upon the sparrow!
God is beside us, within us … mostly hidden and obscure … but God will never let us go.

The magi make it … their journey a success … divine intervention here and there – who doesn’t need a little help now and then?
They make it to the manger; they find the Star-Child … they discover the glory.

Thirty years later Jesus said:

‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).

The magi find a place for their gifts … where every gift belongs … beside the manger.

We all have royal gifts to give … the golden gift of love … the sweet incense of mercy and kindness …

Gifts for the Master …

Life robs us sometimes of knowing our gifts … our spirits are mugged by folks who themselves were mugged …
Life hits hard … we hang our heads and declare ourselves worthless … “I’m no good. My life is a mess. I’m a failure.”

But every one of us is a magi!
We have gifts indelibly affixed to our lives … permanent gifts … slightly different for each of us … wonderfully shaped to fit the contours of our character … my gifts, your gifts … and we lay them down before the Star-Child, we lay them down at Bethlehem …

There by the manger, our gifts shine … the gold is brighter, the incense sweeter … the gifts find their rightful place …

The story ends simply: the magi return home!

I like that.
There’s something good and basic about that … simple and ordinary … nothing fancy or strange …
God takes us on a long and difficult journey … and in due time, we make our discovery, we find what we’re looking for, we lay our gifts by the manger.

Then, home again … back to where it started … ordinary life, but we’re different for the journey.
Journeys change us!
So many of my memories are journey-memories … a little boy in the backseat of a 1955 Dodge, sitting next to my brother, Mom and Dad in the front, on our way to Florida.
The college band tour … my friend, Freddie Cladder asks me to take his place in a Canasta game – I take his place at the table, and my partner is Donna, and, yup, she’s been my partner ever since …
My first trip to the Netherlands … getting off the plane, an overwhelming feeling of homecoming – roots, where it all began … going to the hotel, hearing the concierge pronounce my name correctly …
Our first trip to Greece to visit Rachel … the Parthenon … the boat to Mykonos … Rachel on the dock waving at us.
Journeys change us …
We come back home from the manger … oh so different … “you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”

Have an Exciting Epiphany!

Amen!