Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20
My friends, as most of you know, my son Ian visited from China last month. While he was in, we had to take a quick trip over to our house near Marietta, the one we are trying to sell. We are still throwing away the accumulated trash of 25 years of marriage, but at least now we are working on the 40 x 40 foot building we used as a warehouse for our ink business.
Ian had not been back to the house since we moved here a year and a half ago. When he left the house, it still had many items in it – the U-Haul truck we brought could not hold everything that was in a house much larger than the parsonage.
But now he returned the home and he was deeply moved by his visit. You see, this was the house that was his home from age 11 through age 21. The longest he had ever lived in one place before that was 3 years. And, like most people, he sort of expected that this would be the home to which he would one day bring his wife and children to show them the trees he had helped plant, the attic room which he had helped enclose, and the place where he had sledded on snow.
When he returned to the house, the shock of the change hit him full force and he needed some time alone with the house, which we gave him.
50 years ago, a man named Alvin Toeffler wrote a book with the title “Future Shock” which described the way rapid change upsets people. Change upsets people.
And once again, we live in changing times.
For many years, the world was stable. We knew who the bad guys were – they were the Russians and the Chinese. We knew who the good guys were – they were the Canadians, the English, the French, even the Germans and the Japanese. Other countries were generally not important in the scheme of things, or were easy to categorize – the Arabs provided us with oil and generally liked us, the Brazilians provided us with rubber, India bought our food, Vietnam was where there was a long war between Russian-backed enemies and American-backed friends.
But then, in 1972, China switched sides. By 1990, Russia no longer was an enemy. Indeed, the USSR split apart into a dozen different countries we’d never heard about. China soon opened up to us, students from China came here and tourists from here visited China. Peace seemed to be breaking out all over.
But the last fifteen years have brought tremendous change.
Today, we have found that a group of people in the Middle East are very dangerous. Following a particularly aggressive form of Islam, ISIS, or the “Islamic State”, as they prefer to call themselves, truly wants to recreate the Islamic powerhouse of the late 600’s, when a group of Arabs, starting in Mecca, conquered first the cities around them, then proceeded in the name of Islam to conquer all of the Middle East, all of North Africa clear to the Atlantic Ocean, all of Spain and only stopped when they ran into French knights in southern France. To the East, they conquered Persian (Iran), Afghanistan, Central Asia, India, and Indonesia. To the north they conquered the remains of the Roman Empire that was still based in Constantinople, Turkey, and then conquered Greece and Serbia, Hungary, and marched to the gates of Vienna, Austria before they were turned back.
This is what the Islamic State wants to recreate – an Islamic Empire that runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that includes most of Western Europe this time around and commands the loyalty of nearly half the people in the world. And they consider Jews and Christians to be their enemies. How shall we stop this? Can we stop this? Should we stop this?
Once again, our biblical readings today intersect with our modern world.
In our first reading, we see that Jonah has been told by God to go to Nineveh and tell the Ninevites that God was angry with them and would destroy the city. Now Jonah did not like the people of Nineveh. But Jonah knew God’s character – that if God warned a people, God was truly giving these people a second chance. Jonah didn’t want to give the people of Nineveh a second chance. He hated those people so much that Jonah hopped a boat for Spain so they would not hear God’s message delivered through Jonah.
But we know the rest of the story. A great storm was sent by God and the crew of the boat grew fearful that the boat would sink. And Jonah knew that he was the cause of God’s anger toward the boat. So he tells the sailors this and after trying every other method of lightening the boat, they finally dump Jonah overboard, where he is swallowed by the great fish for three days and finally vomited up on a beach. Jonah realizes that he has to go to Nineveh and tell “those people” what God wanted him to tell them.
Jonah walked to Nineveh. It was a big city and it took him three days to visit all the neighborhoods in the town. At the time of our story, around 760 BC, Nineveh was a very large city. Beginning in 668 BC, for fifty years, Nineveh was the largest city in the world. The population is given by the Bible as 120,000 people. At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was indeed a large and powerful city, located across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul in northern Iraq. The ruins show that walking around the outside of the city was 7.5 miles. Did you catch where this hated city was, this city that Jonah hated more than anything? Across the river from Mosul, in modern Iraq, the heart of ISIS country.
Jonah hoped that Nineveh would burn. Jonah, if he lived today, would have hoped that God would drop a nuke on Nineveh. In fact, after Jonah delivered his message inside the city, he went east of the city and found a great place to watch the city – from a distance. Jonah just couldn’t wait to see the city go up in flames.
But the people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and believed in God’s warning. Their king ordered everyone to show signs of sorrow and repentance. The city changed. And – to Jonah’s dismay – God relented and did NOT destroy Nineveh. In the last verse of the book of Jonah, God says, “ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Just because those people did not know good from bad was no reason for God to destroy them. They were listening to God and God’s messenger – that was enough for God. Things changed for Nineveh that day. God is not a God that blames you for being ignorant of right and wrong today – He is happy when you finally turn around and begin to listen to God, for God knows that people who listen can change. God has plenty of time to work with you if you will follow His Messenger – His Son. God will save even the people of ISIS if they will repent and follow Him.
The ancient symbol for Nineveh meant “Place of fish”. Did you notice that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days, and also spent three days in Nineveh telling people about God? I guess that if you have spent three days in the belly of a fish, you can spend three days doing anything, no matter how disgusting. Even bringing the Word of Salvation to people you hate.
Our Psalm talked about the power and love of God once again. Power belongs to you, God, 12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”. God is the unchanging rock for us in the middle of a changing world. We need to hold unto that idea.
Many years later, Jesus began His ministry in the northern part of Israel known as Galilee, the area to the west of the Sea of Galilee, a great place to fish in ancient times and today.
Jesus kept telling people that times were changing.
15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
And about twenty or thirty years later, the Apostle Paul wrote of that time – and the time which is still in our future:
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
Three of our four readings tell of change. For Nineveh, the way to avoid a nasty change was to change instead and listen to God. And for years, this helped the people of Nineveh. But they eventually returned to their old ways, and about 150 years after our story, the people that Nineveh formerly enslaved in their Assyrian Empire rose against Nineveh, and in 616 BC attacked the city and massacred the inhabitants. Archeologists have found many unburied bodies from this time. Within four years, the city was essentially uninhabited and two hundred years later had disappeared. The Ninevites only temporarily changed. God did not.
For the disciples, the presence of Jesus in their lives changed their lives tremendously. Our Gospel reading shows that those fishermen immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Now, their decision isn’t quite as sudden as it appears – the other Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John, make it clear that the four central disciples had known Jesus for several months, meeting Him at the Jordan River soon after He was baptized by John.
But still, these men left behind their boats and followed Jesus when He called. Why did they do this? After all, none of them had recognized Jesus as God yet – only as a great teacher, a Rabbi that might be the Messiah.
I have a theory. That theory is this: Each of those men had become so certain already that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, that they saw their one chance in life to be part of something great, to be there when great evil is overthrown and good takes over, to walk where great events unfold. And they took it.
Paul tells the people of Corinth to do the same, to act as though the normal things of this world are meaningless, which they are because “this world in its present form is passing away,” as Paul wrote. “This world in its present form is passing away.”
“This world in its present form is passing away.” It has been said that the only constant is change. Thirty years ago, who would have expected that we would each be carrying a computer in our pocket that has more computing power that the entire Apollo program did? Who would believe that I can stand here and get a video feed of my son in Shanghai when I want to talk with him? Who would have believed that there are people in Nineveh with swords beheading journalists simply because they are Europeans or Americans?
Times have changed.
Times will continue to change. But God is constant. God is our fortress. The world will change and we must change with it, holding onto God as our rock. God doesn’t change, but we must change.
But are you willing to change?
As the fishermen at Galilee did, are you ready to leave your job and trust in the Lord to provide for you as you learn about Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit? If you are retired, are you ready to devote the rest of your life – 10, 20, 50 years even – to spreading the Gospel to all people? You know, 60 years ago, retirement meant the end. Now, you may have as many productive years ahead of you on the day you retire as the years you worked. And now you have social security and perhaps a pension to pay most of the bills! What an opportunity for ministry!
Let me tell you a bit about myself and the changes I’ve experienced in my life and in my priorities toward God.
As many of you know, when I was young, in high school, in college, and until I was 34 years old, I was an atheist. I actually thought quiet a lot about God – but I could not see any reason to believe. After all, it seemed quite ludicrous and crazy to believe that the world was created in seven days and was only 5000 years old when all the scientific evidence pointed to a universe much older than that. Of course, I was so hung up on Genesis 1 that I never read all that stuff with red letters, that stuff that Jesus said.
For you see, I wasn’t ready to listen.
Later on, I began to date Saundra and when we became engaged we made a deal – she wouldn’t nag me about going to church and I wouldn’t keep her from going to church.
Over time, I’d ask a few questions and she’d answer those questions. I worked in the Factory Automation business with several different companies. Finally, we moved to Atlanta, where our new neighbor asked us to come with them to church. When I visited his home, his two teen-age boys stood up, introduced themselves politely and welcomed me to the neighborhood, turned off the television, and left the room. I was in shock! And so, I told Saundra that we’d go to church so our children could meet a better than average group of kids to hang out with.
Sitting there listening to Doug Macintosh, I learned that there was much more to Christianity than the question of how long did creation take. I found out about Jesus Christ and after a year, I became a believer. A couple of years later, I was baptized.
After I became a believer, I entered what I call the “peanut-eating stage” of Christianity. Have you ever eaten salted peanuts? One leads to another, then another, then you’re eating handfuls and after an hour or so you look up and the jar is gone. That was the way I was with Christian ideas. I showed up for main service, Sunday school, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. I began to read authors that Doug recommended. We had friends from the church and hosted two other couples in a study at our home. I sang in the choir.
After a few years, we had to move our business, then our home about 20 miles away from the church. We began attending another church and Saundra and I quickly found that we were helping the Wednesday evening teacher teach the class. During this time I began to write a book about common myths that people believe about Christianity. And so, they asked us to teach a class the next year, but we had to join the church first – it was their rule. So we joined, but within a week we heard that our home in Ohio would close within a month. So we moved to Ohio.
In Marietta, we tried one church and then settled at another church, where I began to read the liturgy – doing the lay leader’s job – and then Saundra and I organized a Wednesday evening dinner and taught a class while the children’s choir was practicing. I sang in the choir and sang my first vocal solo. The pastor asked me if I had considered the ministry – and then I began to study with him some basic theology.
After a while, I realized that we had some basic disagreements over the theology of the church and we decided to church shop. We even tried to start an independent church. Eventually we settled at Williamstown First United Methodist. Once again, I was soon teaching an adult Sunday School class, while Saundra taught a Sunday school for International Students from China. I became a local lay speaker, then a certified lay speaker, and was elected lay leader. I also became worship leader, leading the songs, and preaching a couple of times a year. During this time, Saundra taught a woman’s midweek study and we had a dozen or more International Students over to our home every couple of Friday evenings. Several came to know the Lord and two were baptized. More attend churches around the world today. Over five years, we probably affected 60 or more college kids for Christ. I wrote another book.
Finally, one day I called up the District Superintendent and told him I’d like to talk about moving into full-time ministry. We talked and he appointed me assigned supply pastor to two small churches in Pleasants County, I entered the official ministerial candidacy process, and started seminary. For the next three years, I would teach full-time at Parkersburg Catholic High School, take a full-time seminary load online, pastor two churches, including mid-week studies, and teach one or two college courses many semesters. Saundra worked at Taco Bell for a while, and handled our inkjet ink business from home.
The most heart-breaking thing about the process of going into the ministry was that we could no longer continue our ministry to the International students. The travel, time, and cost demands of pastoring two churches located 35 miles from our home was just too much.
But the churches grew, people came to know the Lord, and were baptized. They grew deeply in their understanding of God.
Then Ken Krimmel and Mary Ellen Finegan asked us to move to Clarksburg.
This is the route to professional, full-time ministry. Notice that I did not follow the classic route of calling, college, seminary, and ministry. Neither did Saundra. It was a matter of gradually changing our priorities from the normal things of life – a job, a steadily increasing paycheck, a house and family – to God’s priorities – the souls of lost people, the development of Christian believers, the eternal things of life.
Are you willing to find people who are completely lost in their lives, who have bounced between drug addictions, watching television all day long, and prison, and give them a hand to lift them up, to give them a real purpose in life? Or are you willing to let them search for their purpose on the evening news, looking to destroy people who have ignored them, seeking to shoot people whom they blame for the lack of meaning in their lives?
I have said that the world is changing. The days are rapidly going away when people walk into a church to learn about God and Christ. Instead, Andy spends several evenings each week online chatting with friends from California to South Africa and the Netherlands, friends he has made online, friends that he pastors and teaches about God, friends that would never think of walking into a church.
In Australia, there is a group of people who get up every Sunday morning during the summer, meet at the lakeside for prayer, boat some, and meet back at the lakeside for a scripture reading, a short sermon, and lunch. As they start that lunch, they break a loaf of bread and share it with a cup of red wine.
A few months ago, my friend Joe started a “philosophical discussion” at the Marietta Brewery, a microbrewery restaurant and bar, on Sunday evenings at 6 pm. People gather and talk about philosophy. Gradually, Joe has led those discussions into discussions about God. Now they call it the “Pub Church”. This is where you find people who are not church-goers.
Several years back, a church in New Jersey spent some money and put in a concrete skate park. Volunteers from the church are there evenings and weekends. They pray with the kids and they take a break time with refreshments – and a bit of scripture and a short talk. And the skate park is very popular with everyone, because it is good for the kids.
As you know, Saundra has four churches. None of those churches wanted her to do a mid-week study during the winter. But one person who attends one of her churches asked her if she would hold a study at a small nursing home. Saundra now considers it to be her “fifth” church. You could do the same at the other nursing homes in town, or at the projects, or McDonalds, or in your home.
Our babysitter when we first moved to Atlanta grew up, got married, and began raising three children while her husband went to seminary. Then they packed themselves up and moved to Afghanistan as missionaries. Another couple we knew moved to North Carolina when they took early retirement, and began engineering special electronics that would work with missionaries in rainy jungle environments with an organization that does nothing except support missionaries.
As I look around this room, I see it filled with people of all ages. And we seem to have this shared idea that there is a perfect path for ministry and if we don’t follow that path, we can never do ministry. We are either too young or we are too old. But that is not what I saw in the Bible. Mark was a teen-ager when he went on his first missionary journey with Barnabas and Paul. Moses was leading a congregation until he died at the age of 120.
What I see is that God can use every single person in this room for ministry. Some of you may one day get paid by a church for your work. Others may find themselves working in a non-profit organization like a food pantry or a homeless shelter, or perhaps teach basic budgeting skills to those who need them. Some may become missionaries in Syria or Iran one day. Others may become experts at leading people to Christ through video games or YouTube videos or Facebook. Who knows? Can you rearrange your life to do work for God one day or two days a week? Can you plan your life so that you can work for God in two or three years?
My friends, we of this church have limited our ministry to within these walls long enough. It is time for this church to begin to go out into the community, to walk through the projects, to make friends in bars, to stop Satan in scouting, to lift children up in Little League, to find the hopeless, the drifting, the lonely, the purposeless, the lost, and give them the hope that we have, to make the comparisons that need made, to love those who need love.
It is time we led the change and made living in changing times a good and exciting thing, for there are people whose unchanging lives will lead them to unchanging fire eternal some day. It is your turn to change the world.
Are you ready to make good change in this world? Are you ready to move toward your own personal ministry? Begin now.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
God’s Fish Ladder
1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; Genesis 28:10-12; John 1:43-51
As many of you know, my daughter Jessie lives in Alaska. She’s working the front desk at a resort there called “Chena” resort, a hot springs place about 60 miles Northeast of Fairbanks where the water comes out of the ground at 100 F, so they don’t worry about staying warm. In fact, they even grow their own food mostly in hydroponic greenhouses. They don’t have cell phone service and only the barest minimum of Internet, her room and board are paid for, so she hopes to really put some money in her savings account this winter.
One of the things that has always fascinated me about Alaska are the salmon runs. A group of salmon, living in the ocean, get a call - possibly directly from God. All of a sudden, dozens and hundreds of huge fish run up the river. And if you like salmon, in a few hours you can get all the meat you need for the winter. Of course, the salmon simply want to get back to the headwater streams where they were born so they can reproduce and make more salmon. And those few that dodge all those fishermen, as well as dozens of bears, are finally lay their eggs upstream and soon we have thousands of little salmon that gradually make their way back down to the ocean.
Of course, this used to happen in all the rivers in the West. But many of the salmon runs stopped when they built a bunch of big, high dams. So starting in the 1970’s, the government began requiring the dams to have “fish ladders”, special channels which are similar in difficulty for the fish to climb to the rapids that once were where the dams are now. The water gurgles and splashes down a series of pools into which the salmon can jump, climbing the fish ladder up, up, and up. And so the salmon can climb the fish ladders from below the dam into the pool above the dam and continue their journey up into the mountain streams.
In our readings today, we have a different type of ladder mentioned. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, and the son of Isaac. Jacob’s sons gave their names to the twelve tribes of Israel.
One day while Jacob was still part of his father Isaac’s household, Isaac told him to return to Harran – a town where Abraham had lived for a while on the Turkey-Syria border, in the area where ISIS is causing trouble today. Isaac wanted Jacob to find a wife In Harran.
On his way there, Jacob stopped for the night about 12 miles north of present day Jerusalem, close beside a village called Luz. That night, Jacob had a dream.
In that dream, Jacob saw a ladder going between earth and heaven. All sorts of angels were going up and down the ladder.
When Jacob woke up, he was very excited and named the place Beth-el, “Beth” meaning “house” and “El” meaning “God”. Bethel, the house of God. And Jacob continued on his way.
Yet the idea of a ladder between heaven and earth intrigued people for centuries. How could God and people connect? God was “up there” on His throne, while ordinary people were down here on earth, walking around in the dirt. It reminded people that once, long ago, a man and a woman had walked with God every day in a place called Eden. Yet now, we had been banished. Where indeed was the ladder? How could we hear what God had to say?
Many years later, after Jacob’s descendants had spent 400 years in Egypt, another 40 years wandering in the desert, and another couple hundred years living in the Promised Land with only the weakest ideas of kinship to bind them into a nation, there was a high priest named Eli.
Eli had a couple of sons that were scoundrels. They were also priests, but they took advantage of the office by strong-arming people into giving them the choicest steaks from their sacrifices, and by sleeping with the serving girls. Eli, for his part, rebuked them, but they didn’t listen to him.
There was also a boy who had been dedicated to the Lord by his mother. This boy was named Samuel. As our first reading tells us, Samuel and Eli were sleeping one night in different parts of the huge tent where the ark of the covenant was kept. Samuel was awakened by this quiet voice calling, “Samuel”, which he naturally assumed was Eli, who was now a very old man.
Samuel would hear the voice and run to Eli. Eli said, “I didn’t call you”. After a couple of times of this, Eli realized that the Lord was speaking to Samuel. You may have noticed that the first verse in our reading says that visions and such were very rare in those days. But Eli told Samuel that it was the Lord speaking to him, so the next time he heard the voice, Samuel should just ask the Lord what He wanted.
And, as we know, the Lord spoke again, Samuel replied, and the Lord told Samuel that the Lord was going to finish off Eli’s family.
But the important thing here is that Samuel learned to recognize the voice of the Lord. Do you know the voice of the Lord? Do you know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you? Have you ever recognized that quiet voice that calls you in the silence when you are open to listening?
Samuel grew up with a godly reputation, became high priest, and eventually was used by God to select both of the first two kings of Israel – Saul – and David. If you learn to hear God and listen to God, God will use you in a powerful way. But it takes developing that relationship and listening to that voice.
And so we move to the time of Jesus.
Very early in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus has already called some of His disciples. He had been near the Jordan River, just baptized by John the baptizer, when a couple of John’s disciples followed Him and talked with Him. Those two disciples, as near as we can tell, were the disciples John and Andrew.
Andrew had a brother named Simon, whom Jesus quickly renamed Cephas, which is the Aramaic word for “rock”. You know him better by the Greek translation, which translates Cephas, or rock into Petros – which still means rock. Petros, over the centuries, gradually became our English name “Peter”.
So at this point, we have John, Andrew, and Peter. Jesus is ready to head back up river to the area around Galilee, so Jesus apparently sees Philip standing around, tells Philip to follow Him, and now we have four.
Philip quickly finds a friend Nathaniel and tells him excitedly about Jesus. Nathaniel had been under a fig tree, possibly studying the scriptures – it was common enough to be a common figure of speech – “sitting under a fig tree” meant “studying scripture”. Nathaniel was initially skeptical of Jesus. Why? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
You know, we still judge people by where they are from, don’t we? When I was in Atlanta, people made jokes about people from Alabama. When I was in Buffalo, people made jokes about people from Cleveland. When I was attending WVU at Morgantown, people from out of state made jokes about West Virginians, and West Virginians made jokes about people from New Jersey. When I lived in Tennessee, people made jokes about people from North Carolina. It’s an old, old game.
Nathaniel apparently knew just enough about Nazareth to make fun of the people who came from Nazareth. Yet, the joke was on Nathaniel – at the end of John’s Gospel, seven of the disciples go fishing one night and see the risen Christ in the morning. Nathaniel is one of those disciples. He had found that good can come from people no matter where they are from.
But Jesus surprised Nathaniel that very day they met. Jesus spoke to Nathaniel in a familiar way – Nathaniel was surprised that Jesus appeared to know him. Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip spoke to you.”
Nathaniel quickly assumed that Jesus must be divine, since he apparently was sure that no one had seen him under the fig tree. Nathaniel heard the voice of God and quickly recognized that voice for Who it was. And Nathaniel knew it was time to get up from the fig tree and move onto the next step in his life with God.
One of the ways that we know God is speaking is when we hear something that no earthly voice could tell us. Sometimes, we are shocked to find a “coincidence”, a miraculous event, or a special thing that happens that only could happen if God existed and were paying attention to us at that particular time. And we believe.
But Jesus wanted to tell Nathaniel – and us – that this simple act of believing is not the end of the miracles, when we continue to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. No, it is only the beginning of the journey. Nathaniel heard many more things that Jesus said to him in his life.
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
Jesus claimed at this moment to be both the Messiah – and Jacob’s ladder, the bridge between Heaven and earth. Jesus told Nathaniel that following Him would be the most spectacular thing that Nathaniel would ever see or do. Jesus told Nathaniel that He was worth changing his life’s priorities for.
Today, following Jesus is still worth changing your life’s priorities for. Listening to that voice is the most important voice in your life that you will ever hear.
At this time of the year, the beginning of a new year, we have a good time to consider where we are with God. A ladder is a good metaphor for this evaluation. Perhaps even a fish ladder, since Jesus told Peter and his fishermen friends that if they followed Him, He would make them fishers of men.
Are we swimming around in the lower part of God’s spiritual river? Have we even begun our journey to find God? Have we listened to the voice as it gently gurgles and leads us upward?
There may be someone sitting out there who is saying to himself or herself: I don’t believe in this. I’m not even sure God exists, let alone that Jesus was God walking on this earth, or that the Holy Spirit speaks to people.
If this is you, let me suggest you begin your journey by visiting one of our Sunday school classes and asking the leader – in private if you wish – why he or she believes in Christ. Perhaps you will get a new insight, but perhaps you will not get the answer to your questions. Feel free to come by and visit me – a good time is during our Wednesday evening meal at 5:30 pm. Or perhaps you’d like to sit in on our confirmation class this spring, which will go over the basics of Christian thought on Sundays at 2 pm, starting on 2/22.
Perhaps you’ve decided that you believe that God exists and Jesus Christ is His Son, God Himself walking on earth in a complicated manner. The next hurdle is to declare this to a friend or two, and let me know that you’d like to be baptized. We’ll get that taken care of, so the Holy Spirit can begin to guide you more and more.
Now that you’ve become a baptized believer, the next step is to move forward as a disciple. The root meaning of disciple is “student”. A student of Christ attempts to learn what Jesus has commanded of us. The best way to do that is to get involved in either a Sunday school class – we have four adult Sunday schools – or in one of our other studies, such as the Sunday morning Minor Prophets class or the Romans class at 6:30’s on Wednesday evening.
We call these groups “classes”, because their principle focus is learning. But they aren’t just lectures. In these classes, you have the opportunity to make deep friendships with mature Christian believers, who you can call on throughout the week when you struggle with understanding what Jesus would have you do. Our goal is to help you to understand what Christ would have you do, and to help you to better listen to the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our goal in these classes is to lift you up to the next level of God’s fish ladder.
After three years learning from Jesus, the original twelve disciples graduated. They all stopped sitting under their personal fig trees. There is a time to stop sitting under the fig tree and begin to speak to others. These twelve disciples became known as Apostle’s, those who “go out to proclaim”. You can also become an apostle – in fact, you should become an apostle. An apostle does not stop learning, and being an apostle is not the same as being a pastor or an evangelist. An apostle is simply a person who tells others about what he or she has learned of God and Christ. An apostle can become the voice that God uses to speak to others about what God wants. Have you been sitting under a fig tree long enough?
Some apostles become pastors. Others write books or teach Sunday school classes. One that I know spends time every couple of days at Wal-mart looking for someone to cheer up and pray with. Another I know invites younger women to her home and guides them in their spiritual development. Still another that I know is an industrial salesman, and makes a point of talking about what God has done in his life at every stop he possibly can. Another is particularly good at organizing home bible studies – she doesn’t teach them, but she organizes them, works with them for a month or so and then organizes another one at a different home. Still another apostle is a singer I know who travels around to fairs and other events. Each person has become aware of the gifts God has given each of them, and uses those gifts for the Lord.
In all these cases, God is glorified, people come to a deeper relationship with God, and the Gospel is spread. Each of these people have deep meaning in their lives, and are never without a purpose – and they are never, ever bored. They see God work every week, and this gives them great joy. In many ways, they are near the top of the fish ladder, listening to the voice of God consistently.
Perhaps you may become a professional minister, pastor, or such, where your full-time occupation is bringing people to know the Lord. Some people are good one-on-one, others give excellent sermons, others can organize churches well. Once again, God gives each person different gifts.What are your gifts? How can you glorify God?
As we climb God’s fish ladder, there are a few things that I can say. First, the water is fresher at the top than at the bottom, but the current flows faster. As you move along, you get a clearer picture of who God is and see God at work more often in your life and the lives of others. God’s voice becomes clearer. Yet you also see sin at work in the world more clearly and that can either drag you down – or give you the passion to swim harder to do God’s will and move up the ladder.
But the pool above the dam – very few people reach that pool in this life. Eventually, we reach the point where we love God completely and do only God’s will. Few accomplish this in this life – for most people, this is found in the next life.
But it is possible through God. As with all things, God is the most polite Being in the Universe and will not demand more of you than you are willing to give. If you do not want to grow, God will not force you to read your Bible, but God may make you uncomfortable to encourage you to grow.
Have you been comfortable at your level of the fish ladder? God never says you will be comfortable following God, so when you are comfortable, you have turned aside from God’s path and are in a side pool where the current is gentle and water stagnates. You can also stagnate, far from the voice of God. When we are comfortable, we are not growing with God.
Perhaps you’ve been at the same level for the last five or ten years. It doesn’t matter which level that is – perhaps you are comfortable with coming to church every Sunday and listening to the service. Perhaps you are comfortable doing that and coming to a Sunday school class. Perhaps you are comfortable teaching a particular class, doing a particular job, or perhaps you are even “past that point” and in retirement from church duties. But perhaps you need to become uncomfortable and go back into the stream and listen for the voice of God again.
God’s retirement plan for people in God’s service is quite simple – it is called death. You may no longer be the woman who works actively in the kitchen or teaches the 5-year old class, but you have the ability to speak to people of God. You may no longer have the back to do roofing repairs on the church or unload tubs of canned goods for the food pantry, but you can organize and lead a young father’s group. Look at Cleo Rollins – at 90 years old, she still sings at the hospital once a week and plays piano at Monroe Chapel when needed.
Or remember my friend Virginia Cunningham, who taught Sunday school, organized dinners, and did almost everything possible at the Nine-Mile Church for 95 years, until she had to stay home because her legs gave out on her. At age 99, she moved to a nursing home and talked to her roommate about her church and her God, and after 6 weeks of this the roommate gave up and became a member of Nine-Mile Church – a group of people from the church went to their room and had the ceremony right there and Gladys joined the church, a woman who had not attended church since she was 15. Don’t tell me about being too old to do something for God – God doesn’t put you out to pasture unless there’s someone in the pasture that needs the Gospel.
God’s plan is that God will work through the Holy Spirit with you if you are willing to move up the fish ladder, moving you from level to level over time, lifting you up as you become more knowledgeable and wise, giving you more and more people to bring to Christ and to lead up the ladder. God is always ready to speak to you. Are you ready to listen?
Eventually, through God’s grace, we will all reach the calm pool at the top, behind the dam, and there we will dwell in peace. And God will speak to us forevermore, in the same gentle voice God used to call Samuel, the voice of reason, the voice of love, the voice of hope.
As many of you know, my daughter Jessie lives in Alaska. She’s working the front desk at a resort there called “Chena” resort, a hot springs place about 60 miles Northeast of Fairbanks where the water comes out of the ground at 100 F, so they don’t worry about staying warm. In fact, they even grow their own food mostly in hydroponic greenhouses. They don’t have cell phone service and only the barest minimum of Internet, her room and board are paid for, so she hopes to really put some money in her savings account this winter.
One of the things that has always fascinated me about Alaska are the salmon runs. A group of salmon, living in the ocean, get a call - possibly directly from God. All of a sudden, dozens and hundreds of huge fish run up the river. And if you like salmon, in a few hours you can get all the meat you need for the winter. Of course, the salmon simply want to get back to the headwater streams where they were born so they can reproduce and make more salmon. And those few that dodge all those fishermen, as well as dozens of bears, are finally lay their eggs upstream and soon we have thousands of little salmon that gradually make their way back down to the ocean.
Of course, this used to happen in all the rivers in the West. But many of the salmon runs stopped when they built a bunch of big, high dams. So starting in the 1970’s, the government began requiring the dams to have “fish ladders”, special channels which are similar in difficulty for the fish to climb to the rapids that once were where the dams are now. The water gurgles and splashes down a series of pools into which the salmon can jump, climbing the fish ladder up, up, and up. And so the salmon can climb the fish ladders from below the dam into the pool above the dam and continue their journey up into the mountain streams.
In our readings today, we have a different type of ladder mentioned. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, and the son of Isaac. Jacob’s sons gave their names to the twelve tribes of Israel.
One day while Jacob was still part of his father Isaac’s household, Isaac told him to return to Harran – a town where Abraham had lived for a while on the Turkey-Syria border, in the area where ISIS is causing trouble today. Isaac wanted Jacob to find a wife In Harran.
On his way there, Jacob stopped for the night about 12 miles north of present day Jerusalem, close beside a village called Luz. That night, Jacob had a dream.
In that dream, Jacob saw a ladder going between earth and heaven. All sorts of angels were going up and down the ladder.
When Jacob woke up, he was very excited and named the place Beth-el, “Beth” meaning “house” and “El” meaning “God”. Bethel, the house of God. And Jacob continued on his way.
Yet the idea of a ladder between heaven and earth intrigued people for centuries. How could God and people connect? God was “up there” on His throne, while ordinary people were down here on earth, walking around in the dirt. It reminded people that once, long ago, a man and a woman had walked with God every day in a place called Eden. Yet now, we had been banished. Where indeed was the ladder? How could we hear what God had to say?
Many years later, after Jacob’s descendants had spent 400 years in Egypt, another 40 years wandering in the desert, and another couple hundred years living in the Promised Land with only the weakest ideas of kinship to bind them into a nation, there was a high priest named Eli.
Eli had a couple of sons that were scoundrels. They were also priests, but they took advantage of the office by strong-arming people into giving them the choicest steaks from their sacrifices, and by sleeping with the serving girls. Eli, for his part, rebuked them, but they didn’t listen to him.
There was also a boy who had been dedicated to the Lord by his mother. This boy was named Samuel. As our first reading tells us, Samuel and Eli were sleeping one night in different parts of the huge tent where the ark of the covenant was kept. Samuel was awakened by this quiet voice calling, “Samuel”, which he naturally assumed was Eli, who was now a very old man.
Samuel would hear the voice and run to Eli. Eli said, “I didn’t call you”. After a couple of times of this, Eli realized that the Lord was speaking to Samuel. You may have noticed that the first verse in our reading says that visions and such were very rare in those days. But Eli told Samuel that it was the Lord speaking to him, so the next time he heard the voice, Samuel should just ask the Lord what He wanted.
And, as we know, the Lord spoke again, Samuel replied, and the Lord told Samuel that the Lord was going to finish off Eli’s family.
But the important thing here is that Samuel learned to recognize the voice of the Lord. Do you know the voice of the Lord? Do you know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you? Have you ever recognized that quiet voice that calls you in the silence when you are open to listening?
Samuel grew up with a godly reputation, became high priest, and eventually was used by God to select both of the first two kings of Israel – Saul – and David. If you learn to hear God and listen to God, God will use you in a powerful way. But it takes developing that relationship and listening to that voice.
And so we move to the time of Jesus.
Very early in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus has already called some of His disciples. He had been near the Jordan River, just baptized by John the baptizer, when a couple of John’s disciples followed Him and talked with Him. Those two disciples, as near as we can tell, were the disciples John and Andrew.
Andrew had a brother named Simon, whom Jesus quickly renamed Cephas, which is the Aramaic word for “rock”. You know him better by the Greek translation, which translates Cephas, or rock into Petros – which still means rock. Petros, over the centuries, gradually became our English name “Peter”.
So at this point, we have John, Andrew, and Peter. Jesus is ready to head back up river to the area around Galilee, so Jesus apparently sees Philip standing around, tells Philip to follow Him, and now we have four.
Philip quickly finds a friend Nathaniel and tells him excitedly about Jesus. Nathaniel had been under a fig tree, possibly studying the scriptures – it was common enough to be a common figure of speech – “sitting under a fig tree” meant “studying scripture”. Nathaniel was initially skeptical of Jesus. Why? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
You know, we still judge people by where they are from, don’t we? When I was in Atlanta, people made jokes about people from Alabama. When I was in Buffalo, people made jokes about people from Cleveland. When I was attending WVU at Morgantown, people from out of state made jokes about West Virginians, and West Virginians made jokes about people from New Jersey. When I lived in Tennessee, people made jokes about people from North Carolina. It’s an old, old game.
Nathaniel apparently knew just enough about Nazareth to make fun of the people who came from Nazareth. Yet, the joke was on Nathaniel – at the end of John’s Gospel, seven of the disciples go fishing one night and see the risen Christ in the morning. Nathaniel is one of those disciples. He had found that good can come from people no matter where they are from.
But Jesus surprised Nathaniel that very day they met. Jesus spoke to Nathaniel in a familiar way – Nathaniel was surprised that Jesus appeared to know him. Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip spoke to you.”
Nathaniel quickly assumed that Jesus must be divine, since he apparently was sure that no one had seen him under the fig tree. Nathaniel heard the voice of God and quickly recognized that voice for Who it was. And Nathaniel knew it was time to get up from the fig tree and move onto the next step in his life with God.
One of the ways that we know God is speaking is when we hear something that no earthly voice could tell us. Sometimes, we are shocked to find a “coincidence”, a miraculous event, or a special thing that happens that only could happen if God existed and were paying attention to us at that particular time. And we believe.
But Jesus wanted to tell Nathaniel – and us – that this simple act of believing is not the end of the miracles, when we continue to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. No, it is only the beginning of the journey. Nathaniel heard many more things that Jesus said to him in his life.
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
Jesus claimed at this moment to be both the Messiah – and Jacob’s ladder, the bridge between Heaven and earth. Jesus told Nathaniel that following Him would be the most spectacular thing that Nathaniel would ever see or do. Jesus told Nathaniel that He was worth changing his life’s priorities for.
Today, following Jesus is still worth changing your life’s priorities for. Listening to that voice is the most important voice in your life that you will ever hear.
At this time of the year, the beginning of a new year, we have a good time to consider where we are with God. A ladder is a good metaphor for this evaluation. Perhaps even a fish ladder, since Jesus told Peter and his fishermen friends that if they followed Him, He would make them fishers of men.
Are we swimming around in the lower part of God’s spiritual river? Have we even begun our journey to find God? Have we listened to the voice as it gently gurgles and leads us upward?
There may be someone sitting out there who is saying to himself or herself: I don’t believe in this. I’m not even sure God exists, let alone that Jesus was God walking on this earth, or that the Holy Spirit speaks to people.
If this is you, let me suggest you begin your journey by visiting one of our Sunday school classes and asking the leader – in private if you wish – why he or she believes in Christ. Perhaps you will get a new insight, but perhaps you will not get the answer to your questions. Feel free to come by and visit me – a good time is during our Wednesday evening meal at 5:30 pm. Or perhaps you’d like to sit in on our confirmation class this spring, which will go over the basics of Christian thought on Sundays at 2 pm, starting on 2/22.
Perhaps you’ve decided that you believe that God exists and Jesus Christ is His Son, God Himself walking on earth in a complicated manner. The next hurdle is to declare this to a friend or two, and let me know that you’d like to be baptized. We’ll get that taken care of, so the Holy Spirit can begin to guide you more and more.
Now that you’ve become a baptized believer, the next step is to move forward as a disciple. The root meaning of disciple is “student”. A student of Christ attempts to learn what Jesus has commanded of us. The best way to do that is to get involved in either a Sunday school class – we have four adult Sunday schools – or in one of our other studies, such as the Sunday morning Minor Prophets class or the Romans class at 6:30’s on Wednesday evening.
We call these groups “classes”, because their principle focus is learning. But they aren’t just lectures. In these classes, you have the opportunity to make deep friendships with mature Christian believers, who you can call on throughout the week when you struggle with understanding what Jesus would have you do. Our goal is to help you to understand what Christ would have you do, and to help you to better listen to the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our goal in these classes is to lift you up to the next level of God’s fish ladder.
After three years learning from Jesus, the original twelve disciples graduated. They all stopped sitting under their personal fig trees. There is a time to stop sitting under the fig tree and begin to speak to others. These twelve disciples became known as Apostle’s, those who “go out to proclaim”. You can also become an apostle – in fact, you should become an apostle. An apostle does not stop learning, and being an apostle is not the same as being a pastor or an evangelist. An apostle is simply a person who tells others about what he or she has learned of God and Christ. An apostle can become the voice that God uses to speak to others about what God wants. Have you been sitting under a fig tree long enough?
Some apostles become pastors. Others write books or teach Sunday school classes. One that I know spends time every couple of days at Wal-mart looking for someone to cheer up and pray with. Another I know invites younger women to her home and guides them in their spiritual development. Still another that I know is an industrial salesman, and makes a point of talking about what God has done in his life at every stop he possibly can. Another is particularly good at organizing home bible studies – she doesn’t teach them, but she organizes them, works with them for a month or so and then organizes another one at a different home. Still another apostle is a singer I know who travels around to fairs and other events. Each person has become aware of the gifts God has given each of them, and uses those gifts for the Lord.
In all these cases, God is glorified, people come to a deeper relationship with God, and the Gospel is spread. Each of these people have deep meaning in their lives, and are never without a purpose – and they are never, ever bored. They see God work every week, and this gives them great joy. In many ways, they are near the top of the fish ladder, listening to the voice of God consistently.
Perhaps you may become a professional minister, pastor, or such, where your full-time occupation is bringing people to know the Lord. Some people are good one-on-one, others give excellent sermons, others can organize churches well. Once again, God gives each person different gifts.What are your gifts? How can you glorify God?
As we climb God’s fish ladder, there are a few things that I can say. First, the water is fresher at the top than at the bottom, but the current flows faster. As you move along, you get a clearer picture of who God is and see God at work more often in your life and the lives of others. God’s voice becomes clearer. Yet you also see sin at work in the world more clearly and that can either drag you down – or give you the passion to swim harder to do God’s will and move up the ladder.
But the pool above the dam – very few people reach that pool in this life. Eventually, we reach the point where we love God completely and do only God’s will. Few accomplish this in this life – for most people, this is found in the next life.
But it is possible through God. As with all things, God is the most polite Being in the Universe and will not demand more of you than you are willing to give. If you do not want to grow, God will not force you to read your Bible, but God may make you uncomfortable to encourage you to grow.
Have you been comfortable at your level of the fish ladder? God never says you will be comfortable following God, so when you are comfortable, you have turned aside from God’s path and are in a side pool where the current is gentle and water stagnates. You can also stagnate, far from the voice of God. When we are comfortable, we are not growing with God.
Perhaps you’ve been at the same level for the last five or ten years. It doesn’t matter which level that is – perhaps you are comfortable with coming to church every Sunday and listening to the service. Perhaps you are comfortable doing that and coming to a Sunday school class. Perhaps you are comfortable teaching a particular class, doing a particular job, or perhaps you are even “past that point” and in retirement from church duties. But perhaps you need to become uncomfortable and go back into the stream and listen for the voice of God again.
God’s retirement plan for people in God’s service is quite simple – it is called death. You may no longer be the woman who works actively in the kitchen or teaches the 5-year old class, but you have the ability to speak to people of God. You may no longer have the back to do roofing repairs on the church or unload tubs of canned goods for the food pantry, but you can organize and lead a young father’s group. Look at Cleo Rollins – at 90 years old, she still sings at the hospital once a week and plays piano at Monroe Chapel when needed.
Or remember my friend Virginia Cunningham, who taught Sunday school, organized dinners, and did almost everything possible at the Nine-Mile Church for 95 years, until she had to stay home because her legs gave out on her. At age 99, she moved to a nursing home and talked to her roommate about her church and her God, and after 6 weeks of this the roommate gave up and became a member of Nine-Mile Church – a group of people from the church went to their room and had the ceremony right there and Gladys joined the church, a woman who had not attended church since she was 15. Don’t tell me about being too old to do something for God – God doesn’t put you out to pasture unless there’s someone in the pasture that needs the Gospel.
God’s plan is that God will work through the Holy Spirit with you if you are willing to move up the fish ladder, moving you from level to level over time, lifting you up as you become more knowledgeable and wise, giving you more and more people to bring to Christ and to lead up the ladder. God is always ready to speak to you. Are you ready to listen?
Eventually, through God’s grace, we will all reach the calm pool at the top, behind the dam, and there we will dwell in peace. And God will speak to us forevermore, in the same gentle voice God used to call Samuel, the voice of reason, the voice of love, the voice of hope.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Why We Baptize
Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11
This second Sunday of Epiphany we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We celebrate the humbleness of our God, who emptied Himself of power and insisted that He undergo the same humbling ritual that He asks each of us to undergo. Later, our same God would allow Himself to be humiliated, stripped, beaten, and executed that we might have an eternal relationship with Him.
Yet, in France this week, there are those who have killed other men and women, because they made fun, not even of their god, but of a man who wrote about their god. I prefer the God who was powerful enough to come back from the dead to the god whose followers are fearful that a few cartoons will injure their god.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. He submitted to a mildly uncomfortable ceremony of humbleness so that, as Matthew wrote, “all righteousness might be fulfilled”. Of course, to many Christian believers, the real question is why Jesus had to be baptized at all. And an even deeper question we need to explore is what the purpose of baptism is, why we baptize in the first place, and of critical importance to us, what difference does baptism make in our lives?
We’ve all heard various teachings about baptism.
“Baptism is how you join the church” – that’s nice, but why don’t we simply raise our right hand and swear – like we do when we become a witness or join the army, or perhaps memorize a particular part of the Bible – the Boy Scouts have you recite certain things. Why did we decide to use baptism as our way to join the church?
We’ve also heard that “baptism is an outward sign of an inward change.” That’s not very clear, is it?
We’re never quite sure whether baptism is right for the very young, and we’re never quite sure if baptism is ok unless it involves a complete dunking in a creek. And we just are never quite sure whether baptism is really required by God – or is our “belief” good enough?
Let me see if I can clear up these issues.
First of all, here’s a bit about the word itself.
The first usage of the Greek word that became “baptism” is used to refer to the process of making a cucumber into a pickle. The word refers to that essential change of condition that happens when the cucumber becomes a pickle. The cucumber has been baptized and become something different – a pickle. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to eat cucumbers, yet I love to eat many different types of pickles. There is something about the pickling process – the baptism – of the cucumber that improves the taste of the cucumber. Baptism essentially changes a person and improves their “taste”.
The first time we find the word is around the year 150 BC, a century and a half before Christ.
Later, the word became applied to the cloth industry, and adopted a second meaning, the meaning of “changing color”. Cloth could be dyed to give it a fantastic color in several ways. You could take the cloth and stick it into a vat of dye; you could pour the dye over and through the cloth; or you could sprinkle the cloth with dye, which would give it a very fancy appearance. You could even take your hand, fill it with the dye and lap it onto the cloth. Sometimes, people even used large seashells to pick up the dye and pour it on the cloth in specific places. It all depended upon the effect you wanted on the cloth.
But baptism is also related to washing. In Jewish culture, the tradition of washing goes back to Leviticus 14:8
8 “The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean. After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days.
In fact, the entire three chapters of Leviticus 13-15 discuss washing to become ritually clean under various conditions.
Sprinkling with water also made people clean. In Numbers 8:5, we find when the Levitical priesthood was to be established:
5 The Lord said to Moses: 6 “Take the Levites from among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. 7 To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. And so they will purify themselves.
God established the pattern that when a person becomes a member of God’s priesthood, he should be cleaned with water.
In Numbers 19:17, we find this:
17 “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death.
Notice the way those who have touched a dead body are sprinkled. In some way, sprinkling removes death from us.
Over the centuries, the washing ritual had developed into even more different ways. By the time of Christ, Jews commonly built large pools in or beside their synagogues. Water was taken from these pools and used to wash hands before meals – a uniquely Jewish custom, as most other groups did not bother. A pitcher of water was poured upon the hands by a servant before each meal. Were the Jews aware that this washed germs from their hands? Of course not – germs were not discovered until after the microscope was invented in the 1600’s. No, they were trying to stay ritually pure – free from sin.
And so we find in a document called “The Teaching of the Apostles”, which dates from around the year 75 AD, the point made that baptism may be through sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. It also notes that “if cold water can not be found, warm water is acceptable.”
So we notice that in our reading John is baptizing people in the Jordan River. And why is he baptizing people? To clean them from sin. People confessed that they had sin – perhaps even listed their sins to John – and then were baptized to show they regretted their sins and wanted to start a new life free and purified from sin.
And Jesus came to be baptized. But a key tenet of Christian belief is that Jesus was already free from sin. So there must be something more to baptism.
There are several positions about baptism that our modern Christians have adopted.
One position is the Catholic position. Officially, Catholic doctrine is that salvation comes through belief in and participation in the seven sacraments of the Church. A sacrament is a ritual of the Church through which God operates in some sacred manner. According to the Catholic Church, the only way to receive the sacraments is to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and baptism is how you become a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, baptism, in an indirect way, is necessary for salvation. But the method of baptism is not critical – sprinkling, pouring, or immersion.
The Church of Christ states explicitly that salvation is gained through belief, stating that belief to others, and being baptized by immersion. Thus, baptism is a necessary item in salvation. I once attended a “Christian Church”, which is a southern Church of Christ which allows instrumental music. They felt so strongly about baptism that they would open the bapistry up at 2 AM for someone to be baptized. The water might be a bit cold, but they’d come down to the church and do it.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the beliefs of many Baptist groups. These groups do not have sacraments as such – only ordinances. An ordinance is a command by God or Christ. Most Baptist groups consider baptism and communion to be ordinances. In other words, they baptize solely because they believe that baptism was patterned and commanded by Jesus and the apostles. For many Baptists, there is no real purpose to baptism except an announcement that the person has decided to follow Jesus. Yet what is interesting is that these same people who declare that there is no real purpose for baptism also put the most rules on baptism – “It must be by immersion”, “You must be eleven years old or older”, “you must wear a white robe”, etc.
The more I read John Wesley’s writings, the more I understand that Wesley had a very rigorous and methodical mind. Wesley came to several conclusions about baptism.
First of all, all people are born with a desire to avoid God and prefer sin. We call this “original sin”, which is inherited from Adam and passed along through a spiritual contagion because we are born. You will remember that Adam was not born, but was created. Because of that “original sin”, any good we do is from sinful reasons – we want prestige, money, or power.
Baptism is a point where God reaches into your heart and turns it from the inborn sinfulness, the “original sin” that it naturally has, and changes your heart to desire good. God does this action – the water does not, and the pastor does not. All we do is give God permission to do this by coming to the font for baptism.
But do not underestimate that permission-giving. Submitting to a mildly uncomfortable ceremony in front of many people is the first real test that a believer has. For you see, if you are not willing to do something mildly uncomfortable such as getting some water sprinkled on your forehead in front of people, how much do you actually follow Jesus Christ as your Lord, your God? Or instead, how much do you simply choose to walk near Jesus because at this moment you feel it is a good thing for you to do, a choice you can change at any time if a better option comes along, sort of like choosing to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s this week and Ryan’s next week? And so, when we choose to follow the Lord, we give permission for our hearts to be changed through baptism, a permission which God then acts upon.
Because we are simply permission givers, adults can give permission for their children to be baptized. There is nothing different here than the age-old parental right – and responsibility – to make decisions for children who are too young to decide for themselves.
Let us assume that you can decide at any time whether your child is to attend WVU or Marshall. You would probably be right in delaying the decision until your child was able to contribute to the discussion, right? This is what the Baptist position on infant baptism translates as – according to the Baptist, the only real issue at question with Baptism is which church the child will attend as an adult.
But if your physician could give your child a shot which would give him or her a lifelong immunity to heart disease, wouldn’t you want your child to have that shot? Their very quality of life would depend upon your decision, wouldn’t it? And this is the position on Baptism that such great church leaders as John Wesley, Martin Luther, and Jean Calvin taught.
You see, either baptism means something and is a deep and meaningful interaction with God – or it is simply writing your name on some church’s registry book.
I don’t think that our Lord would have bothered with something essentially meaningless.
For the Lord was baptized. Jesus Christ was baptized.
In Matthew 3, the text gives us the reason the Lord was baptized.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Even though Jesus was sinless, even through Jesus was divine, even though Jesus was the Son of God Himself, Jesus followed the rules. And the rules from Numbers 8:4 said that when a person became a member of God’s priesthood, when a person was going to represent God on earth, he must be baptized with water.
And today, we continue that pattern.
The Apostle Peter made it clear in his writings (I Peter 2:9) by saying to the followers of Christ:
9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. “
Just as Jesus Christ was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”, so must we. Baptism isn’t just a quaint Christian custom. It has a deep meaning.
And there is more, as Mark wrote:
10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
The Holy Spirit came down from Heaven and God the Father spoke that day, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
In our baptism ritual, I lay hands upon the person being baptized and pray for the Holy Spirit to come into them. Where does this come from?
It dates back to the early church.
When Paul was traveling around, he arrived at the city of Ephesus, a major Greek city in what is today Western Turkey. There he met a group of people who had been baptized by John’s baptism for the repentance of sins. They knew that a great One was to come soon, but had not yet heard about Jesus. Paul told them of Jesus and asked them if they had heard of the Holy Spirit. They had not. So Paul explained the Holy Spirit to them, the spirit of God that communicates and directs and guides people to do what God wills.
Acts 19:5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
And so to this day, most Christian baptisms include a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come into newly baptized person, that he or she may never again lack the guidance of God in their lives – if they will just listen for the Spirit to speak.
Jason Vickers is a professor at United Theological Seminary, where I graduated from. He’s kind of odd – he belongs to both the Sierra Club and the National Rifle Association, which tells you he is a very interesting guy. This past fall he spoke at the WV Clergy School where Saundra and I attended, along with many other clergy, including my former district superintendent, Ken Krimmel of the Little Kanawha district.
Dr Vickers told of the first time he spoke in front of a large African-American congregation in North Carolina. Dr Vickers did not grow up in the African-American church and this church was different for him. There were three of them on sitting on the platform – the regular pastor, Dr Vickers, and another guy who looked like he used to play defensive lineman for the Steelers. The service began and went on and on and on. The third guy didn’t say a word through the whole thing - he just sat there with his arms crossed.
Finally, after 90 minutes or so, it was time for Dr Vickers to preach. So he got up in front of the crowd of a thousand or so, and began. And you know, there are times when you know that you are NOT connecting with the audience. After a few minutes of this spiritually dry sermon, suddenly, from behind Dr Vickers on the platform comes this deep, but very loud rumble from the third guy: SPEAK! Which just about sent Dr Vickers into orbit.
He returned to his preaching. A minute or two later, here it comes again. “SPEAK!”
After a couple more times of this, Dr Vickers suddenly realized that this guy was not talking to him, but was praying loudly for the Holy Spirit to speak through Dr Vickers.
My friends, there is nothing like it when the Holy Spirit speaks through you. It has happened to me many times. What should be a relatively easy job – I only have to stand up here and talk for a half hour, right? – turns into something that completely uses up any energy I have as God uses me to help someone else.
You have probably noticed sometimes when a sermon that is merely interesting turns into something that hits you deep in your heart.
You have probably felt something move in your heart when God speaks through me or another preacher directly to your life.
But it is something truly amazing when the Holy Spirit takes over you and begins to SPEAK through you and you see that words you could not have put together naturally are dragging someone else to face our Holy God!
It can happen to you. If you have been baptized, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you.
If you will pray for the Holy Spirit to take over, you will find that you give the wisest advice you’ve ever heard to people who ask you for it
If you will pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you and listen, you will hear that still, small voice inside you say, “Don’t go to that register, go to register number 8” and when you get there you will find someone who desperately needs to hear what the Spirit will have you say to them.
When you pray for the Holy Spirit to use you, you will find the greatest joy that you have ever encountered as people open up to you and ask you how to know God and the Spirit opens you mouth and you pray with them and ten minutes later you look up and they are bawling their eyes out and asking you “where do you go to church! Can I come, too?”
The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross brought us back into a relationship with God, and we-who-believe have access to the power of God Himself through the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which is within us, that Spirit which was given to us long ago, that Spirit which came to us a couple of minutes after God worked through our baptism to change our hearts from evil to good, to make our hearts acceptable to receive that Spirit, a Spirit which could not go into our hearts while we were still under the influence of sin, but which was now open and available to the excellent, good, and holy guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.
And we must understand this as well:
When the Holy Spirit finds a home in our heart, just as Jesus, we are sons and daughters of God, whom He loves; with whom He is well pleased.
Make our Father proud. Listen to the Spirit. Ask for the Spirit’s guidance. Do what the Spirit tells you.
Come forward today, all of you. Reach into the water, apply it to your forehead and remember your baptism. Remember your baptism even if you were an infant, for God remembers that day so very well. And He smiles upon it.
And as you remember your baptism, pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and use you to further God’s purposes. Submit in all humbleness to His will. Trust in His love.
This second Sunday of Epiphany we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We celebrate the humbleness of our God, who emptied Himself of power and insisted that He undergo the same humbling ritual that He asks each of us to undergo. Later, our same God would allow Himself to be humiliated, stripped, beaten, and executed that we might have an eternal relationship with Him.
Yet, in France this week, there are those who have killed other men and women, because they made fun, not even of their god, but of a man who wrote about their god. I prefer the God who was powerful enough to come back from the dead to the god whose followers are fearful that a few cartoons will injure their god.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. He submitted to a mildly uncomfortable ceremony of humbleness so that, as Matthew wrote, “all righteousness might be fulfilled”. Of course, to many Christian believers, the real question is why Jesus had to be baptized at all. And an even deeper question we need to explore is what the purpose of baptism is, why we baptize in the first place, and of critical importance to us, what difference does baptism make in our lives?
We’ve all heard various teachings about baptism.
“Baptism is how you join the church” – that’s nice, but why don’t we simply raise our right hand and swear – like we do when we become a witness or join the army, or perhaps memorize a particular part of the Bible – the Boy Scouts have you recite certain things. Why did we decide to use baptism as our way to join the church?
We’ve also heard that “baptism is an outward sign of an inward change.” That’s not very clear, is it?
We’re never quite sure whether baptism is right for the very young, and we’re never quite sure if baptism is ok unless it involves a complete dunking in a creek. And we just are never quite sure whether baptism is really required by God – or is our “belief” good enough?
Let me see if I can clear up these issues.
First of all, here’s a bit about the word itself.
The first usage of the Greek word that became “baptism” is used to refer to the process of making a cucumber into a pickle. The word refers to that essential change of condition that happens when the cucumber becomes a pickle. The cucumber has been baptized and become something different – a pickle. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to eat cucumbers, yet I love to eat many different types of pickles. There is something about the pickling process – the baptism – of the cucumber that improves the taste of the cucumber. Baptism essentially changes a person and improves their “taste”.
The first time we find the word is around the year 150 BC, a century and a half before Christ.
Later, the word became applied to the cloth industry, and adopted a second meaning, the meaning of “changing color”. Cloth could be dyed to give it a fantastic color in several ways. You could take the cloth and stick it into a vat of dye; you could pour the dye over and through the cloth; or you could sprinkle the cloth with dye, which would give it a very fancy appearance. You could even take your hand, fill it with the dye and lap it onto the cloth. Sometimes, people even used large seashells to pick up the dye and pour it on the cloth in specific places. It all depended upon the effect you wanted on the cloth.
But baptism is also related to washing. In Jewish culture, the tradition of washing goes back to Leviticus 14:8
8 “The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean. After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days.
In fact, the entire three chapters of Leviticus 13-15 discuss washing to become ritually clean under various conditions.
Sprinkling with water also made people clean. In Numbers 8:5, we find when the Levitical priesthood was to be established:
5 The Lord said to Moses: 6 “Take the Levites from among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. 7 To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. And so they will purify themselves.
God established the pattern that when a person becomes a member of God’s priesthood, he should be cleaned with water.
In Numbers 19:17, we find this:
17 “For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. 18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or anyone who has been killed or anyone who has died a natural death.
Notice the way those who have touched a dead body are sprinkled. In some way, sprinkling removes death from us.
Over the centuries, the washing ritual had developed into even more different ways. By the time of Christ, Jews commonly built large pools in or beside their synagogues. Water was taken from these pools and used to wash hands before meals – a uniquely Jewish custom, as most other groups did not bother. A pitcher of water was poured upon the hands by a servant before each meal. Were the Jews aware that this washed germs from their hands? Of course not – germs were not discovered until after the microscope was invented in the 1600’s. No, they were trying to stay ritually pure – free from sin.
And so we find in a document called “The Teaching of the Apostles”, which dates from around the year 75 AD, the point made that baptism may be through sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. It also notes that “if cold water can not be found, warm water is acceptable.”
So we notice that in our reading John is baptizing people in the Jordan River. And why is he baptizing people? To clean them from sin. People confessed that they had sin – perhaps even listed their sins to John – and then were baptized to show they regretted their sins and wanted to start a new life free and purified from sin.
And Jesus came to be baptized. But a key tenet of Christian belief is that Jesus was already free from sin. So there must be something more to baptism.
There are several positions about baptism that our modern Christians have adopted.
One position is the Catholic position. Officially, Catholic doctrine is that salvation comes through belief in and participation in the seven sacraments of the Church. A sacrament is a ritual of the Church through which God operates in some sacred manner. According to the Catholic Church, the only way to receive the sacraments is to be a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and baptism is how you become a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, baptism, in an indirect way, is necessary for salvation. But the method of baptism is not critical – sprinkling, pouring, or immersion.
The Church of Christ states explicitly that salvation is gained through belief, stating that belief to others, and being baptized by immersion. Thus, baptism is a necessary item in salvation. I once attended a “Christian Church”, which is a southern Church of Christ which allows instrumental music. They felt so strongly about baptism that they would open the bapistry up at 2 AM for someone to be baptized. The water might be a bit cold, but they’d come down to the church and do it.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the beliefs of many Baptist groups. These groups do not have sacraments as such – only ordinances. An ordinance is a command by God or Christ. Most Baptist groups consider baptism and communion to be ordinances. In other words, they baptize solely because they believe that baptism was patterned and commanded by Jesus and the apostles. For many Baptists, there is no real purpose to baptism except an announcement that the person has decided to follow Jesus. Yet what is interesting is that these same people who declare that there is no real purpose for baptism also put the most rules on baptism – “It must be by immersion”, “You must be eleven years old or older”, “you must wear a white robe”, etc.
The more I read John Wesley’s writings, the more I understand that Wesley had a very rigorous and methodical mind. Wesley came to several conclusions about baptism.
First of all, all people are born with a desire to avoid God and prefer sin. We call this “original sin”, which is inherited from Adam and passed along through a spiritual contagion because we are born. You will remember that Adam was not born, but was created. Because of that “original sin”, any good we do is from sinful reasons – we want prestige, money, or power.
Baptism is a point where God reaches into your heart and turns it from the inborn sinfulness, the “original sin” that it naturally has, and changes your heart to desire good. God does this action – the water does not, and the pastor does not. All we do is give God permission to do this by coming to the font for baptism.
But do not underestimate that permission-giving. Submitting to a mildly uncomfortable ceremony in front of many people is the first real test that a believer has. For you see, if you are not willing to do something mildly uncomfortable such as getting some water sprinkled on your forehead in front of people, how much do you actually follow Jesus Christ as your Lord, your God? Or instead, how much do you simply choose to walk near Jesus because at this moment you feel it is a good thing for you to do, a choice you can change at any time if a better option comes along, sort of like choosing to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s this week and Ryan’s next week? And so, when we choose to follow the Lord, we give permission for our hearts to be changed through baptism, a permission which God then acts upon.
Because we are simply permission givers, adults can give permission for their children to be baptized. There is nothing different here than the age-old parental right – and responsibility – to make decisions for children who are too young to decide for themselves.
Let us assume that you can decide at any time whether your child is to attend WVU or Marshall. You would probably be right in delaying the decision until your child was able to contribute to the discussion, right? This is what the Baptist position on infant baptism translates as – according to the Baptist, the only real issue at question with Baptism is which church the child will attend as an adult.
But if your physician could give your child a shot which would give him or her a lifelong immunity to heart disease, wouldn’t you want your child to have that shot? Their very quality of life would depend upon your decision, wouldn’t it? And this is the position on Baptism that such great church leaders as John Wesley, Martin Luther, and Jean Calvin taught.
You see, either baptism means something and is a deep and meaningful interaction with God – or it is simply writing your name on some church’s registry book.
I don’t think that our Lord would have bothered with something essentially meaningless.
For the Lord was baptized. Jesus Christ was baptized.
In Matthew 3, the text gives us the reason the Lord was baptized.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Even though Jesus was sinless, even through Jesus was divine, even though Jesus was the Son of God Himself, Jesus followed the rules. And the rules from Numbers 8:4 said that when a person became a member of God’s priesthood, when a person was going to represent God on earth, he must be baptized with water.
And today, we continue that pattern.
The Apostle Peter made it clear in his writings (I Peter 2:9) by saying to the followers of Christ:
9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. “
Just as Jesus Christ was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”, so must we. Baptism isn’t just a quaint Christian custom. It has a deep meaning.
And there is more, as Mark wrote:
10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
The Holy Spirit came down from Heaven and God the Father spoke that day, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
In our baptism ritual, I lay hands upon the person being baptized and pray for the Holy Spirit to come into them. Where does this come from?
It dates back to the early church.
When Paul was traveling around, he arrived at the city of Ephesus, a major Greek city in what is today Western Turkey. There he met a group of people who had been baptized by John’s baptism for the repentance of sins. They knew that a great One was to come soon, but had not yet heard about Jesus. Paul told them of Jesus and asked them if they had heard of the Holy Spirit. They had not. So Paul explained the Holy Spirit to them, the spirit of God that communicates and directs and guides people to do what God wills.
Acts 19:5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
And so to this day, most Christian baptisms include a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come into newly baptized person, that he or she may never again lack the guidance of God in their lives – if they will just listen for the Spirit to speak.
Jason Vickers is a professor at United Theological Seminary, where I graduated from. He’s kind of odd – he belongs to both the Sierra Club and the National Rifle Association, which tells you he is a very interesting guy. This past fall he spoke at the WV Clergy School where Saundra and I attended, along with many other clergy, including my former district superintendent, Ken Krimmel of the Little Kanawha district.
Dr Vickers told of the first time he spoke in front of a large African-American congregation in North Carolina. Dr Vickers did not grow up in the African-American church and this church was different for him. There were three of them on sitting on the platform – the regular pastor, Dr Vickers, and another guy who looked like he used to play defensive lineman for the Steelers. The service began and went on and on and on. The third guy didn’t say a word through the whole thing - he just sat there with his arms crossed.
Finally, after 90 minutes or so, it was time for Dr Vickers to preach. So he got up in front of the crowd of a thousand or so, and began. And you know, there are times when you know that you are NOT connecting with the audience. After a few minutes of this spiritually dry sermon, suddenly, from behind Dr Vickers on the platform comes this deep, but very loud rumble from the third guy: SPEAK! Which just about sent Dr Vickers into orbit.
He returned to his preaching. A minute or two later, here it comes again. “SPEAK!”
After a couple more times of this, Dr Vickers suddenly realized that this guy was not talking to him, but was praying loudly for the Holy Spirit to speak through Dr Vickers.
My friends, there is nothing like it when the Holy Spirit speaks through you. It has happened to me many times. What should be a relatively easy job – I only have to stand up here and talk for a half hour, right? – turns into something that completely uses up any energy I have as God uses me to help someone else.
You have probably noticed sometimes when a sermon that is merely interesting turns into something that hits you deep in your heart.
You have probably felt something move in your heart when God speaks through me or another preacher directly to your life.
But it is something truly amazing when the Holy Spirit takes over you and begins to SPEAK through you and you see that words you could not have put together naturally are dragging someone else to face our Holy God!
It can happen to you. If you have been baptized, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you.
If you will pray for the Holy Spirit to take over, you will find that you give the wisest advice you’ve ever heard to people who ask you for it
If you will pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you and listen, you will hear that still, small voice inside you say, “Don’t go to that register, go to register number 8” and when you get there you will find someone who desperately needs to hear what the Spirit will have you say to them.
When you pray for the Holy Spirit to use you, you will find the greatest joy that you have ever encountered as people open up to you and ask you how to know God and the Spirit opens you mouth and you pray with them and ten minutes later you look up and they are bawling their eyes out and asking you “where do you go to church! Can I come, too?”
The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross brought us back into a relationship with God, and we-who-believe have access to the power of God Himself through the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which is within us, that Spirit which was given to us long ago, that Spirit which came to us a couple of minutes after God worked through our baptism to change our hearts from evil to good, to make our hearts acceptable to receive that Spirit, a Spirit which could not go into our hearts while we were still under the influence of sin, but which was now open and available to the excellent, good, and holy guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.
And we must understand this as well:
When the Holy Spirit finds a home in our heart, just as Jesus, we are sons and daughters of God, whom He loves; with whom He is well pleased.
Make our Father proud. Listen to the Spirit. Ask for the Spirit’s guidance. Do what the Spirit tells you.
Come forward today, all of you. Reach into the water, apply it to your forehead and remember your baptism. Remember your baptism even if you were an infant, for God remembers that day so very well. And He smiles upon it.
And as you remember your baptism, pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and use you to further God’s purposes. Submit in all humbleness to His will. Trust in His love.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
For Epiphany - Three Bows
Jeremiah 31:7-14; Psalm 147:12-20; Ephesians 1:3-14; Matthew 2:1-12
Merry Christmas. It is still the Christmas season, and we celebrate the arrival of Jesus into the world. But for the early Christians, Christmas never arrived. The holiday was not celebrated nor fixed until the fourth century. Instead, the early Christians celebrated most wholeheartedly an event that they considered even more important – Epiphany, the day that people first worshipped Christ. Two events come together during Epiphany, which is officially on Tuesday, January 6.
First of all, it is the day when the Magi visited the Holy Family and first worshipped Jesus.
Epiphany also celebrates the baptism of the Lord, which we usually celebrate the Sunday after Epiphany, or January 11 this year. It is when the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus, and John pointed Him out.
Today, our readings cover the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem and the family. The Magi, for that is the Greek word used in our readings, were a group of Babylonian “wise men”, perhaps even the descendants of the same order that Daniel and his three friends belonged to. Although the word “Magi” is the root of our word “magic”, they were not magicians, but did study astronomy and probably astrology as well, for those two disciplines were mixed in those days. They arrived traditionally in Jerusalem while the Holy Family is still in Bethlehem, but not necessarily on the same night the child was born.
According to the original Greek text, by the time they arrive, Mary and Jesus are now in a house – not a stable or cave – and there is no mention of Joseph, who was apparently not around at the time. Because of this, and Herod’s soon-to-follow order which slaughtered all male children under age two in Bethlehem, many commentators think that Mary and Jesus were staying in Bethlehem on another, later trip, perhaps two years later. Joseph may have gone into Jerusalem, which was only about a 4 mile hike, for he very soon returns, has a dream, and takes the family to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter. They stayed there until Herod died a couple of years later.
But let’s go back to the Magi. We often think of there being three, but the text doesn’t say how many Magi there were. In the Eastern Christian churches, the holiday is often celebrated with twelve Magi. Our assumption of only three Magi comes from the three gifts and from a story composed around the year 500 who even gives names to the three Magi. For those of you who love to decorate with a manger scene, you have my permission to put as many Magi as you want near the Christ Child.
But let’s look at what is terribly important about the Magi of Babylon.
First, they were acknowledged as wise by all the people of the Middle East. Their science and wisdom combined to give them great respect. People looked up to them and they were very devoted to reading prophecy and, after Daniel’s influence, listening for God’s guidance. If you have never read the Book of Daniel, let me suggest that you do so, for it will give you some insight into these men of Babylon. These men were considered the wisest men of the day – and they worshipped Jesus. We would do well to consider their example – look at who in this world you consider wise – and ask them what they think of Christianity. Do you admire Billy Graham or Pope Francis? It seems that overall, Christianity follows wisdom.
Around this time, if these men were truly of Daniel’s order, they would have been very alert. You see, Daniel had several prophecies. One was prophesied that there would be several kingdoms, ending in a kingdom that never died and filled all the earth. Another prophecy spoke of a great leader. Another spoke of 70 “weeks”, which many people took – and take – to mean 7-year periods. The timing was right – It was time for the great leader to arrive and found His kingdom. Messiah would arrive soon.
And then the star appeared. This star – it has been debated throughout the ages whether it was a comet, a supernova, or the coming together of several planets to form a single bright point in the sky. It doesn’t matter which method God used – or whether God chose another method such as sending an angel with a searchlight – the star led them from the east to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem, to the house where Mary and Jesus were.
And when they arrived, they bowed down and gave Mary and Jesus gifts.
I like to think that there were three bows – one for each gift.
The first gift was gold. Gold is the gift that you give an earthly king, for an earthly king hires soldiers, buys arms, and builds an army with gold. A good earthly king also gives gold generously to the people in the country who most need it. A king has great need of gold. And by giving this gift and bowing before Christ, the Magi acknowledged that Jesus was king of this world, worthy to lead them in their lives.
Will you bow down before Jesus and accept Him as your earthly King?
The second gift was frankincense, the resin of a tree which grows beside the Indian Ocean in the countries of Oman and Yemen. Burning frankincense made the air smell sweet. It was a gift the Magi gave to a god, for frankincense was burned in temples throughout the Middle East. By giving this gift and bowing before Christ, the Magi acknowledged that Jesus was their God, of divine knowledge and power, worthy to be trusted with the control of the Universe far above mortal men and women.
Will you bow down before Jesus and accept Him as your God?
The third gift was myrrh, once more the resin of a tree. But the use of myrrh was different than frankincense. Myrrh was sprinkled in the mummy wrap of a dead body. It removed the smell of death. It was seen as helpful to convey the dead into a new life. By giving this gift and bowing before Christ, the Magi acknowledged that Jesus was in control of even death itself, capable of bringing dead people into a new life. The Magi accepted Jesus’ control over the destination of their very souls.
Will you bow down before Jesus and accept His decisions about your eternal soul?
Each bow that the Magi made was completely voluntary. Mary did not have any way to compel these well-educated, wise men who had braved thousands of miles through the desert to do her bidding. When they bowed down, it was because they had read the prophecies, they had studied the signs, they had debated the possibilities, and they had come to their conclusion – The baby was so great they must bow before Him three times.
You will notice that none of these three bows are partial. A man is either your king – or not. You either accept a god or not. You cannot trust a person with partial control over your soul.
The Magi bowed completely and fully. They worshipped the child. And then, when they left, they did not betray Him. They returned to their homes, having done what was required of them.
The Magi based much of their view of Jesus upon prophecy. Our first reading gives another prophecy – a prophecy which I believe was fulfilled within the last hundred years and is still being fulfilled. Let us look at that reading from Jerimiah again:
7 This is what the Lord says:
“Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations.
Make your praises heard, and say,
‘Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.’
8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
(Does this remind you of those Jews who lived in Germany – and in Russia, and the Ukraine today?)
"Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labor;
a great throng will return.
9 They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, you nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
11 For the Lord will deliver Jacob
and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
and they will sorrow no more.
13 Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
14 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
declares the Lord. (NIV)
Those of you that have witnessed the Jews return from their exile in Europe and Russia to their homeland of Israel – can’t you feel their happiness? They now stand on the heights of Zion – in the city of Jerusalem – from which they were banished 1900 years ago after the destruction of the city by the Romans. After the Romans banished the Jews, they moved throughout the world, a homeless people, living in many different countries, but always as outsiders. And then, at first in 1895 as a trickle, then in a flood after World War II and a torrent as the Soviet Union fell, the Jews returned home. The prophecy is fulfilled – Israel is surrounded by poor nations, but it is a prosperous place.
But there is a deeper meaning to this prophecy – as in most prophecies, there are layers upon layers involved. It is a prophecy which affects us.
In the beginning, there was a family which disobeyed God and was sent out from that family’s home. The family was led by Adam and Eve, and eventually their descendants were scattered across the earth. That family is the entire family of humans. It is our family.
Since the arrival of Jesus Christ, a remnant of them has returned. Over the centuries, at first a trickle, then a flood, and then a torrent of people have accepted Jesus Christ as their king, their God, and their guide to a new life, and He has led them home, back to the mountain of joy where Adam began, the spiritual mountain which being close to God demands.
Look at verse 11. We have been delivered from one stronger than ourselves, the devil which brought us into sin.
Now check out verse 12. Did you notice that this verse mentions the bounty of the Lord: the grain, the new wine and the olive oil? The grain is made into bread which becomes is the Body of Christ. Wine is drunk which is the blood of Christ, and olive oil is used for the anointing of those who need to be made whole. These ordinary things – grain, wine, and olive oil – in the presence of God become holy things, possessed with spiritual power, items which give us new life and sustain that life. And, of course, to those who believe and remember, God’s presence is always here. Do you remember God’s Holy Son whenever you eat bread or drink the fruit of the vine? Do you remember God’s Holy Son who was anointed with fragrant oil whenever you smell olive oil cooking? Do you remember the great deeds He did for you?
Finally, view verse 13. Because of those great deeds, when a Christian dies who has suffered in his or her life, we are glad. Our mourning turns into gladness. We have comfort and joy instead of sorrow, for the Lord can be trusted. God can be trusted.
How do I know?
Because He trusted us so much God sent God’s own Son to earth to be raised by a young girl and a carpenter. He trusted us so much He trusted the growth of His church to people. He trusted us so much He did not keep us from the earth, even after we broke His trust by disobeying God in the garden.
I don’t know about you, but I have generally found that those who trust can be trusted, while those who never trust cannot be trusted. Our own soul reflects in that manner. A thief suspects everyone of thievery, while a good person trusts everyone until proven otherwise. God can be trusted.
And now we must learn to trust God.
You see, that’s what bowing is all about. When you bow down before someone, you are demonstrating that you trust that person with your very life. In a society where swords and knives are everywhere, such as the society of the ancient Middle East, bowing down is the ultimate act of trust. That knowledge – that fear - is in our genes. And so there are few people in our society to whom we would voluntarily bow. But God is not of our society. Jesus is not a visitor to our world – we are visitors in His world.
Shall we bow down to Jesus like the Magi of old?
Come to the altar and bow if you wish during our Holy Communion. It is a good way to start the New Year. This year – give yourself completely to the One who was and is and is to come. Give your life completely to Jesus and let His will control your life. Bow three times to the king of this life, the God of the Universe, and the One who leads you into new life.
Come to the altar during our song.
Radiant Morning Star, Holy Son of God,
you are both guidance and mystery,
Visit our rest with disturbing dreams,
and our journeys with strange companions.
Walk us across the deserts of life,
as we struggle to follow you and find meaning in our lives.
Bring us to your mountain home,
Left us never rest too long on the way,
Grace us with the hospitality
to open our hearts and homes
to visitors filled with unfamiliar wisdom
bearing profound and unusual gifts.
In turn, guide us to recognize You for Who you are,
that we may bow at your feet,
And give our gifts to you,
Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. (Adapted from Revised Common Lectionary, Vanderbilt.edu.)
Amen.
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