Baptism of Jesus, the Anointing of a King

In today’s gospel lesson, John is out of the edge on the Judean wilderness at the Jordan River calling people to repentance and baptizing them.  This is the ritual of purification.  It is an act taken on by two kinds of people – those who are new converts to the Jewish faith, and those who have been separated by reason of great sin or wrongdoing.  The problem of Jesus coming for baptism is that he doesn’t fit the mold.  He is neither new to the faith nor does he have great sin to atone for.

When John sees him coming, he recognizes that.  We are given to understand from the gospel of Luke that Jesus and John are cousins – connected from the womb – for when Mary came to Elizabeth and told her that she was with child, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy.  And when John sees Jesus come down for baptism, he would have “prevented him.”  

Actually this is a perfect example of perfect humility.  John sees Jesus and recognizes that he is without sin – he has no need to be baptized.  John has been talking and preaching about one who will come after him, one who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.  And when John sees Jesus, he knows that he is the one.

Imagine for a moment if you were John and you saw Jesus coming, and in that moment of recognition that God often blesses us with, you know who and what Jesus is.  Would you be ready and willing to baptize Jesus, or would you join the protest that John makes?  “I need to be baptized by you.”  John in that instant recognizes his own unworthiness and protests.

John is not a bad person.  He is not all that sinful – if we were to develop a measure for such things.  But he has already proclaimed, one is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie – and here he is – faced with that same one – and that same one is wanting baptism.  And the world seems somewhat skewed to John – "wait," he thinks, "it needs to be the other way around."  This is true humility.

Jesus also displays his own humbleness – in obedience to the Father’s will – by subjecting himself to ritual of purification at the beginning of his ministry.  This baptism serves two purposes.

Two days ago, January 6, was Epiphany Day when we remember the coming of the Magi to seek "the king of the Jews."  Matthew’s gospel proclaims from the very beginning the kingship of Jesus.  So the first purpose of this baptism is the anointing of a monarch.

Jewish monarchs had to be anointed before they could speak or act as royal figures.  The one we probably remember best is the anointing of David the shepherd boy.  In today’s lesson, this is Jesus’ ceremonial anointing.   First he goes through the ritual of purification (baptism) and then he is anointed by God's own Spirit.  In early Jewish writings, to receive the spirit is to gain wisdom.  Jesus’ anointing comes not with oil, but by the Holy Spirit itself.

This was the official anointing of the king, the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Israel.  The Holy Spirit descends on him and the voice from heaven is heard, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  He began his ministry in the humbleness and obedience to God’s purpose.

But I want to propose that there is more going on here.  Matthew doesn’t come out and say it the way he does in other places – but he includes this as an associative link with Genesis.  Jesus is out in the water of the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit hovering over him – not unlike the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of chaos in the beginning – in the first verses of the Bible.

For the Jewish reader, this is intended to call up that image.  In Genesis God brought order out of chaos – the beginning of creation.  In today’s lesson, we have a new creation – a re-creation – God’s hand at work in the world in a new way.  In walking down into that river, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, shows his willingness to go down into the mess of the world and experience what we are going through.

When Jesus steps down into that water and allows John to baptize him, he demonstrates that he is not only able but willing to receive the ministry of imperfect people.  By receiving baptism from John, Jesus reminds us that our unworthiness, our imperfect nature, is no excuse for refusing to offer the ministries of redemption that others may seek from us.

We might ask ourselves, when is the time that we put aside our unworthiness, our insecurities, our hesitations, and like John step out to minister to those in need – even to Jesus himself.

Today we are going to baptize two young children.  Scout and Gideon are too young to realize the extent of what is happening today.  But the seed of the Holy Spirit will be planted in them today and will have time to grow and eventually blossom into mature faith.   Regardless of what else happens in their life, they have been adopted into the household of God and made heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

God’s faithfulness in being with us, and our obedience in responding to his leading, is indeed the gift of life, both here on earth, and in heaven above.   Amen.

Ordinary people, extraordinary expectations

Advent is a time of the unexpected.  For one thing we have God’s choice of partners in the procreation of his own son.  Jesus could have been set down fully grown anywhere in the world.  But God knew that in order to understand people and to reach out to them, Jesus needed to grow up among them and to really be one of them.  God could have chosen royalty, or a wealthy family to bear and raise his son, one where he would never want or struggle.  God could have chosen a palace and an important city for the dwelling place of his son.

But God chose Nazareth – a small out-of-the-way place – unimportant – a place where Jesus could grow unencumbered by the wealth and attention he might receive in other places.  God chose a place where Jesus could live among the common folk and learn about them first hand; a place where he could touch, feel and understand the trials and struggles of everyday people.  In this area of Galilee, there was a large gentile population nearby so he would grow up knowing not only the Jewish people, but also how they interacted with people of other faiths and nationalities.

This is a perfect example of how God works within the context of ordinary life and through ordinary people.    Mary was not any kind of super hero  -  (no Angelina Jolie, no Queen Elizabeth – not even a Mother Theresa) – just a simple village girl who had recently come of age.  Mary lived an ordinary life in the small village of Nazareth.  She helped her mother take care of the house and younger children.  She made a daily trip down to the well, to draw water for use at the house.  She cooked and cleaned just like any Jewish girl.  I  picture her singing as she goes about her work, a sweet disposition and spirit about her.

She dreamed of one day having a home of her own to take care of.  She was betrothed to Joseph, a local carpenter – a tradesman.  The life that laid before them was a simple life – one of love and shared experiences – of small children running around and growing up, much as they had.  Most often, when a young couple became betrothed, the husband began work on a place to live – often a room added onto his father’s house.  When that was completed, then he came to collect his bride and everyone was invited to the celebration.

This was the plan – this was what they expected.  But before Joseph came to collect his bride, she had a visitor - an angel from God - and Mary was found to be with child front the Holy Spirit.  This left Joseph in a difficult position.  He loved Mary, but tradition and law said that he should divorce her and even have her stoned.  But as he pondered what to do in this situation, an angel appeared to him in a dream encouraging him to take Mary as his wife.

Joseph was a righteous man and he believed the angel and took Mary to be his wife.  He pledged himself to take care of Mary and her child as if the child were his own.  He would protect the mother and child until the child was old enough to take his place in society.

And so, like Mary and Joseph, we wait.  We wait in expectation – in anticipation – of what God will do in our midst – how he will work out his promises – using the ordinary to do extraordinary things.   If we just have the kind of faith exhibited by a young peasant girl and her faithful craftsman husband in a backwater town 2000 years ago – we too may see miracles and experience the great love of our God in new and wonderful ways.

Amen
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Questions and Expectations

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Did you hear about the little old lady that would go out on her porch everyday and lift her voice up to heaven and thank God for everything he gave her?  There was an old man who lived next door and everyday he'd yell back, "Shut up, old lady.  There's no such thing as God."  When times were hard, she'd go out and pray for food or other needs for herself.  One day when she had been praying for food, a bag of food appeared on her front porch.  She began to pray loudly, "Thank you, Lord, for the food I needed so badly."  The old man yelled back, "Ha!  God didn't get you that food, I did.  There is no God."  She lifted up her voice, "Hallelujah! The Lord provided me with food and made the devil pay for it."  The woman's expectation of God was fulfilled.

Today's lessons, especially the gospel, seem to be full of questions, and doubts and unfulfilled expectations.  John questions, "Are you the one to come, or should we look for another?  And Jesus asks, "What did you go out in the desert to see?"

John had spent a lot of time preaching in the wilderness.  People had flocked out to hear him and to be baptized by him.  He filled them with hope, "The kingdom of God is at hand.  Prepare the way."  And John did - he prepared the way, filled with hope and expectation...  "One is coming with power and glory, whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."  His vision of power and glory might be the expectation, but the reality was not so vivid, and so he asks Jesus, "Are you the one to come?"

John is saying: “Jesus, if you are the one to come, why am I here in prison.  Why haven't you freed me?  Where is the power and the glory?  Where is the army of believers who will follow you into victory?  This can't be the kingdom of God because it doesn't meet my expectations.”

John's expectation does not coincide with the reality.  Jesus has gained followers, he has appointed 12 generals, but they are not gathering for war, and they are not building an army and they are not overturning the Romans.  What kind of Messiah, was this anyway?

I think we sometimes have the same problem that John has here.  Like John the Baptizer, we are often in doubt about Jesus because we do not always see the difference he in making in our lives or in the world around us.  We look around and we wonder, "If God is in control, then why are things in such a mess?"  We want to say, God if you are really in control - why don't you make it obvious; why is there war, why is there pain and suffering, why is there illness and dis-ease?  Why is there such unrest in the world and in our nation?

Sometimes doubt is a good thing, sometimes it keeps us out of trouble by making us think twice before acting.  We don't always have the right answer in this life - and believe me that's hard for most ministers.  Most of us would love to have all the definitive answers - to be able to reassure and explain what is going on, and what is the best action to take in any given situation.  But more often than not, all we really have is more questions.

Several years back there was a TV show called Joan of Arcadia.  It had a lot of good things to say, about life, about the nature of God, and about our relationship with God...  One episode called, "The book of questions."  made the point on several different levels that it was not about the answers, it's about asking the right questions.  If you ask the wrong question, then the answer you get probably won't make much sense.

Jesus asks, "what did you go out into the desert to see?"  You don't look for learned, sophisticated, cultured people out in the wilderness.  The people had unanswered questions so they went into the wilderness to ask the questions that burned in their hearts.  The people went out to see a prophet, one they hoped had answers.  His answer was that there was another to come - John's claim was from Isaiah, "the voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord'."  All four gospels report this.  After preaching hope to the masses, now John is in prison and his own hope is wavering - "Could I be wrong?  Could I have misunderstood what God was telling me?"

John didn't misunderstand that Jesus was "the one to come."  What John misunderstood was what that meant.  What it meant to be "Messiah."  John may have been called by God, but he was also a product of his time - he thought the Messiah was going to be a military victor - drive out the oppressor - set up the new Israel.  John really hasn't asked the right question.  The right question for the time was, "What does it mean to be Messiah?"  That is the question Jesus answered.

John defined himself in terms of Isaiah, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness..."  So Jesus also defines himself in terms of Isaiah.  "Go and tell John what you hear and see.  The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor hear good news."

One of the worse arguments I had with a really good friend came about because of a different understanding of a single word.  We were using the same term, but we had defined it differently.  It took a couple of days for us to sort that out.  That's the same problem Jesus and John where having.  They were both talking about the term "Messiah" - they had just defined it differently.  John's expectation, dependent on his definition, was not being met in Jesus.  John's expectation included death and destruction to the enemy.  Jesus' reality was health and life and hope for all people.

It makes us think about our own expectations of Jesus - of God.  What is it we expect from God, from Jesus?  Jesus tells us, "Look around you, what do you see?  What is the Lord doing in your midst?"

Advent is all about the coming of Christmas - and the story that is told.  The story is about a baby, born in a stable in a backwater town in an obscure area of the world.  Even here he overturns our expectations.  Not a rich, powerful ruler in a palace of gold, but a kind and gentle teacher in a dusty stable along a dusty road.

This beginning alone should give us a clue into the nature of Jesus and thereby into the nature of God.  We can't begin to understand God or to know his mind.  God is spirit and beyond knowing.  That is why the coming of Jesus is so important.  It is through Jesus that we begin to get a glimpse into the nature of God.  Put in human terms it is an incomplete picture to be sure - but still it is more than we had before.  Jesus doesn't come as a victor.  Jesus doesn't come as a warrior.  He comes as a little baby - to overturn our expectations.

Jesus is about the unmerited love of a God who cares enough about his creation that he enters into it. It is about having a personal relationship with the one who created us.  Jesus is also about transformation - transforming ourselves and the world - forming ourselves after Christ and reaching out to the world around us just as Jesus did.  Christ did not turn people away - he accepted them wherever they were in their journey - and if they didn't want to follow him, he let them go. You are free to believe what you want to believe.

Our tendency is to ask, "Why is there so much suffering in the world?"  Maybe that's not the right question. Maybe we should be asking, "Why is there so much good in the world."

From people who serve in soup kitchens, to a little boy who wanted to give a socks to homeless, to the girls who are auctioning off their hatchimals to raise money for fire victims.  There are many people out there emulating Jesus, his compassion out there in the world today.  As scary as our news often sounds today, there are those little tidbits of wonder tucked between all the violence and hatred.  It is those small things that people do to help others that reflect Jesus in today's world.

Look around at what God is doing in your life, and in the world around you.  And if you find that God isn't meeting your expectations, take a look at the questions you are asking.  Are you asking the right questions?  And are you listening to the answers that God gives?

Prepare the way for Jesus

We are in the season of Advent – a season when we are called to prepare the way for the Lord.  We are called to make a straight path for the Lord.

John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness – to the southeast of Jerusalem – near the region of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  There is a high probability that John was a member of the Essenes – another religious sect of Judaism.  From the description in the Bible, I want to say that he was a crusty old character – but he wasn’t old – he was the same age as Jesus.  Since they were cousins, they may have spent time together as children.  We know he had spent time in the desert because the Bible tells us that he appeared in the wilderness and he wore animal skins and survived on locust and wild honey.

Now think about today – if you heard about someone outside of town who wore strange clothes and was yelling and carrying on about the wrath of God, would you feel compelled to go see this strange phenomenon?  We’d probably be more prone to say, that’s just a crazy out there – a moon-struck lunatic – maybe a Jesus freak.  Sure, he might get press on the TV or maybe a short article in the Chronicle – most definitely a number of you-tube videos, fifteen minutes of fame and then he’s gone.  If you actually went out to see him, it was probably out of curiosity.

But this people – these Jews who were waiting for a promised messiah – they needed hope, and they went out to the wilderness seeking hope.  John fit the description of Elijah – and he said things that rang true to their Jewish ears.  They wondered if he might be the promised messiah.

“Prepare the way of the Lord – make straight his paths.”  This means to go out and make the road smooth; get rid of the potholes and the rocks.  Straighten out the curves.  This is what you did when you knew the king was coming.

How do you get ready for a visitor?  If they are coming for dinner, then you might spend the day cooking and baking for the meal, polishing the silver and setting the table.  If they are overnight guests then you might clean out the spare bedroom and make room for extra people to sleep.  John is calling us to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

John is using this phrase "Prepare the way" metaphorically – the path that the Lord wants cleared is the road to your heart.  The ministry of John was a bridge that gap between the Old Testament prophetic word and Jesus, the incarnate Word.  The Word of God, once uttered by prophets, now lived in human form.  John’s call to repentance precedes Jesus’ call to new life.  It’s about getting rid of those things in our life that separate us – that draw us away from God.

Think about what it is like after a hurricane or flood, a fire or even destruction like the twin towers -  piles of debris in driveways and roadways – tree branches, parts of houses, lawn furniture, scattered over the ground.  That is quite often what the road to our heart looks like – littered with the debris of our life.

That debris might be the stings and arrows that have assaulted us – abandonment and betrayal are two of the big ones – being so hurt that it affects our whole life.  And then there are the rocks and potholes that have caused us to stumble and fall – the addictions and temptations we have given in to.  The human condition – self-centeredness – is being so involved in ourselves and our own problems that we fail to reach out or even to notice the struggles of those around us.    

Look at the last verse of our Gospel lesson today.  Where John speaks of Jesus saying, “His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and will gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  Too many people have a simplistic view of this and see judgment, either you are wheat (good) and get into heaven, or you are chaff (bad) and you burn in hell.  But I don’t think this is at all what John is alluding to.  If you look at the elements of this story you will find evidence that John means something different.

It starts by understanding that wheat and chaff are both part of the same plant.  Wheat refers to the small grain, the fruit of the plant, and the chaff is the light covering that covers the grain.  The chaff is stripped off the grain by beating it or tramping on it, leaving both lying together on the threshing floor – most often the open ground.  This winnowing fork has been translated by various versions of the Bible as a fork, or a shovel, or a fan.  It is an instrument used to toss the mixture of grain and chaff into the air allowing the wind (or a fan) to blow away the light chaff leaving the heavier grain to be gathered for storing until it is used for making bread.

The Message is a modern day translation of the Bible and it says of Jesus, ”He's going to clean house — make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."

Now all of a sudden this makes perfect sense.  If the chaff and the wheat are part of the same plant then they represent two parts that make up every person.  The wheat represents that which is good, that part of us that is holy and godly, that connects us to God.  And the chaff represents that which is less than holy, that which separates us from God.  It is that debris in our life that needs to be purged from the pathway to our hearts.

That which is not of God cannot exist in the presence of God – There is something good in every person – but in all people, that good exists alongside that which is not of God.  Jesus has come to ignite a fire within us that will help us cast off that part of us that cannot exist in the presence of God.  It will be blown away like chaff from the wheat.  Removing the chaff from our life is necessary for us to be able to stand before God.

We are in the season of Advent – it is a season when we are preparing our hearts to receive Jesus.  So I ask you to consider today, “What are the things that God wants to purge from your life?”  What are the things that you need to let go of, in order for your heart to be ready to receive Jesus when he comes?

Christ, the image of God

Today is the last Sunday of the church year.  It seems strange this time of year to read this lesson of Jesus being mocked and crucified; very much out of season.  After all, this Thursday is Thanksgiving and next Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent, which begins a new church year.  Our church year always begins its celebration with the expectant birth of a baby, and concludes with the celebration of his reign as King of Kings.  And for today's reading, it is not so much the cruelty we focus on, but the sign hanging over his head.

Although we worship the God of the Jews, our focus as Christians is his son Jesus Christ.  Jesus is hung on a tree like a common criminal, but over his head is a designation, "King of the Jews."  Some protested at the proclamation.  Those who knew Jesus simply thought it was ironic if they noticed it at all.  But those who took offense thought it made a mockery of all they believed, and if it were true, -- then that meant they were very, very wrong.

This view of Jesus is not a view of power and authority.  It is a view of submission and of obedience.  Maybe this view helps us understand that what we see, the way things appear, may not in fact be true.  When we feel most powerless may be when God is working in us most strongly.

When I read only one interpretation of events or circumstances, that is most often when I misinterpret what is happening.  And when I get angry, and am filled with (what in my view is) righteous indignation – that is when I most likely will do something stupid like back my car into a tree.  Because I get caught up in my own perception of right and wrong, or worse yet, my sense of entitlement to some particular thing; when I try to be too assertive and take control of a situation, that’s when God so graciously brings me back down to earth.

During the time of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the church is being persecuted.  And even in the face of pain and suffering, people of faith could say that Jesus Christ was the image of the invisible God.  In the Greek language, Jesus is "the icon" of God.  He is the God who suffers with us, the one who cares for us, the one who cries with us.

Paul tells us - "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created. . .  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, in heaven and on earth. . ."   Colossians 1

In Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is with us now, in this present day and age.  We don’t have to wait until some glorious future.  We have to look behind the power and glamour. God is here with us in the nitty-gritty of everyday life. All through the gospels Jesus reminds us of the great reversals – the paradoxes of our faith:  the first shall be last; the master shall be servant; - - a king who is born in a stable.

In this day and age, especially in our current political climate, we can look at the political and professional mess of our leaders and remember that there is another kingdom where things are done differently.  When there is so little we can do to change the world, we can proclaim that God is sovereign and holds the world in his outstretched arms.

When we look around and see pain and suffering, from people hit by earthquakes in the Oklahoma around the world, from people who are held prisoner, indentured slaves right here in America to those who are living in refugee camps, from those who find themselves ravaged by cancer to those who find themselves without jobs or means of support, we can know that Christ understands and carries us during our deepest need.  In Christ we can seek comfort and strength when we lose someone we love, and we can look forward to seeing them again.

With this wonderful view of Christ on the cross – who, even through his suffering, reaches out to another – the thief who cries out, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”  (There was no hesitance, no “If you are who you say you are…”;  no “If you are a king…”; and no expectation for this life.)

And the wonderful assurance Jesus gives him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”  It was a little late for this guy to turn his life around or to make amends…  but Jesus still accepts him – as is.  This is an assurance that there is no one who can go so far that they are outside the reach of his saving embrace.  There is no piece of our human experience which cannot be redeemed.

In Christ we find a god who views the world from a different perspective.  In Christ we can live in the middle of a world that measures everything by power and popularity, and the lives of the rich and famous – and we can see a God who judges by a different measure.  His love is all encompassing – reaching out to those in need, who have no power, no authority, those who are not beautiful or popular.

With this coming season of Advent, I think the greatest gift we can give ourselves is the gift of not having to always be in control, not always having to be on top.  If we sit back and allow God room to work, we have more freedom to be ourselves and to live into his plan for our lives.  (The last few days, I have been overwhelmed by everything I saw that needed doing, so I'm in need of this message as much as everyone.  I had gotten the feeling that it was all up to me and leaving God out in the equation.)

During Advent, I invite you to ponder a god who comes to us, not as a powerful king, but as a little child.  Advent allows us to give Jesus "gestation time" - time to grow in us - before being born anew in our hearts. During Advent, ponder that this little child will grow and take on the cares of the world.  This little child will one day offer himself up to be a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  And that one day, he will come again - in glory - to rule the world in perfect peace.  This is a victory he has already won – that glorious day many years ago on a hill called Calvary.   Amen.

Creating all things new

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We live in a changing world.  Nationally a new president will soon take office.  Locally, Grace church will soon begin the process of searching for a new rector.  As much as we would like to hold on to the familiar, we have to acknowledge that things change.  Jesus addresses this same idea of a changing world in today's gospel.

The thing that reached out and grabbed me was the statement, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”  It just seemed to cry out to me.  The things of man, of this world -- these things that we have made; they are all passing away.

The things that people make today are all eventually being torn down and new things built in their place.  I think of old hotels and large department stores that have been imploded to make way for new buildings, new projects – not one stone left on top of stone. Even the twin towers of the World Trade Center that were brought down by two airplanes - and not one stone left on stone.

I ran across a picture of the old church the other day - the one that Tommy and I grew up in.  The only things left from that church are the window above us here, and the altar in the children's chapel.

Things made in this day and age seem to be easy to get rid of.  Many of the ancients built things to last – I'm awed by things like the pyramids, Stonehenge, and Easter Island - the huge stones that have lasted for centuries..   Even the old western wall of Herod’s temple – if you take the tour down underneath the Western Wall, you will see these massive stones, still one on top of another – not complete by any means, but you wonder how people of old could have moved stones as massive as these stones are.  They were as long as this building and almost as tall.  No wonder the disciples were impressed.

For the Jews, this temple was considered to be God’s dwelling place on earth.  That is where you would go to be near God’s presence - to make sacrifices to him.  The synagogues were where you went to learn about God and to worship him.  But his presence was at the temple in Jerusalem according to the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Now Jesus uses this discussion of the temple adornments as a springboard to launch into an eschatological discussion – that is a discussion about the end times.  And the disciples take off with it, wanting to know when these things were going to take place.

They missed the point - the point that things do not stay the same.  Everything is subject to change.  They wanted to be able to pinpoint it so that they could have some modicum of control or at least inside knowledge – so that they can be prepared.  And Jesus lets them know that it’s not going to be tomorrow – not anytime in the near future.

There’s danger in thinking that Jesus is coming back tomorrow.  Some of the people of Thessalonica were convinced that Jesus was coming back within days.  So they quit living for the future – they quit working and started meddling in other people’s business and living off the handouts of the others in the community. They are reminded in today’s lesson that Paul set them an example while he was among them – working and earning his keep and he encourages them to do the same.  We can't just give up because change is coming.  We have to stay engaged.

Our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah starts off telling us that God is about to do a new thing – create new heavens and a new earth – and the former things shall not be remembered.  Maybe each generation needs to have something to look forward to.  Isaiah is writing this after the Babylonian exile.  The people are coming back to Jerusalem and looking at the ruins of the former glory.  They are lamenting the ruin and rubble of the destroyed temple.

And they wonder if it will ever be the same.  God tells them “no” it won’t be the same – God will recreate in a different way, and so should they.  He encourages them to build a better world – and gives them an image of the perfect world – where all live together peacefully.

And so they began to build - and the new temple is the same one that Jesus and the disciples are looking at in our gospel lesson - the very one that Jesus says is going to be torn down.  (And it is only seventy years later, when the temple is torn down.)

These scriptures carry a message for us today.  Not only as a nation, but for us here at Grace.  We are in transition, just as the Israelites were as they returned from Babylon.  Each person is expected to do their part in preparing a place for your new rector.  Paul tells us that we are not to be idle and let others do the work if we want to succeed.  Everyone has a part to play to make this church a success.

You can’t say, I’m too old and feeble.  Moses was 80 when he was asked to bring the people out of Egypt and he spent 40 years doing just that.  Don’t say I’m just a kid – what can I do?  The Bible tells us very plainly that a little child shall lead them.  Don’t say I’m not smart enough. . .

There is a story told about a young man named Johnny with downs syndrome.  He worked as a sacker at a neighborhood grocery store.  One day the vice president gave a speech about how each employee could make a difference at the store.  Johnny thought and thought how he could make a difference.  He finally happened on an idea of finding a “thought of the day.”  He and his dad searched for a thought and when they found one, his dad helped him set it up on the computer and they printed out multiple copies and cut them into individual cards.  Johnny would put a card in the grocery bag of each customer and tell them to “have a good day” and “thanks for shopping with us.”

The number of customers grew as people found themselves drawn back to the store even when they only had a few items to get.  There came a day when the store manager noticed a long line at one check out stand – the one where Johnny was.  The manager had employees open up other counters, but the people would not move to the other counters. They wanted to get Johnny’s thought for the day.

Other employees, inspired by Johnny, began to find ways to make a difference also.  Each of you can make a difference, too.  I invite you to use your imagination to find your contribution.  The success of Grace is the responsibility of each member working together with every other member.

Those of you who are Daughters of the King are familiar with the motto:
I am but one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
What I can do, I ought to do.
What I ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.
Lord, what will you have me do?

No one person can do everything.  But each person has something they can contribute.  I invite you to entertain this idea – take the bulletin home, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the scriptures for the day – and pray for the future of the church.  Plan what you can do – what God calls you to do.  Where is it that God is calling you to make a difference today?

All the Saints

Listen to the sermon.

Today we come together to celebrate All Saints Day.  Our gospel reading today is a funny little story about heaven.  The Sadducees come to Jesus with a hypothetical question about resurrection and heaven.  Now you have to understand that the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, so their question is outrageous in order to demonstrate how absolutely ridiculous the idea of resurrection is.  Jesus just tells them that they don't understand what resurrection is or what heaven is going to be like.

But he also makes a statement that we need to remember; one that should affirm our belief in resurrection.  Jesus said, "Moses speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

Today, we turn our focus on those who have gone on before us, from this life on to the greater life that awaits all of us someday.  Today we remember, not only those special Saints that have been canonized by the church, but also those saints (little "s") who have touched our own lives in very tangible ways.  One of my favorite songs growing up in the church was the one we opened with this morning, "I sing a song of the saints of God" . . .   This song reminds us that we all go in to make up the body of Christ -  we are all saints of God.

We are all sorts of people, we are all different.  One congregation described themselves to be "demanding, intelligent, eccentric, crazy, sad, muddled, confused and sometimes part of the holy people of God - but never boring."  Paul called all followers of Christ - Saints.  It was the term that he used to identify those who had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Those of us who try to live according to the teachings of Jesus - we are the saints of God.

The saints of God are people just like you and me.  Many of them have gone on to be with Christ in heaven.  And those who have had a positive impact on our life, we miss them greatly and we remember them fondly.  We are still left here.  It is part of the life circle that we all are born, we live, and we die.  But those of us who have accepted our Lord Jesus Christ  have something more to look forward to.  I see God as giving us two promises:  In life, God will be with us - and in death, we will be with God.

In this life, we are not promised happiness, riches, health, love, or any other thing that many people desire in this life.  The promise we have from God is that regardless of what happens to us, regardless of what state we find ourselves in – God will be there with us!  God will be with us – to encourage us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, to fill us, and to love us.  That is his promise for our life here on earth.  When we are going through tough times – when we are in pain, when we are alone, when we grieve, God is there with us.  He is there with us in both the good times and the bad times.  He laughs with us, he cries with us, he rejoices with us, he grieves with us.  He is there to share with us.  We don’t see him, but we can feel his presence.  We are never alone.

That’s the first promise and the second is like it… in death, we will be with him.  Jesus tells the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise."  A lifelong follower or a last minute conversion, "today you will be with me in paradise."  In the first letter of John we hear, “we will be like him – for we will see him as he is.”  Even Genesis says that we are made in his image – and that means we will see ourselves as we are – the spirit of God that lives within us.  This is the pledge of our inheritance as the family of God - Life everlasting - to be with God in heaven - Saints now and forever.

So today we honor all those who have gone before, all those Saints, who for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ have left their mark on the world.  And we know that one day, we will join them in that place "where there is no mourning or crying or pain, for God himself will be with us and he will wipe away every tear from our eyes."   Amen.