20 February Matthew 5:38-48

20 February Matthew 5:38-48

My recent study at seminary has given me the wonderful assignment to hear your stories, your stories about your faith and this church. Though we have a ways to go, I’m hearing again and again your fascinating stories of a deep and rich faith in God and an unshakable love for Genesis Church, for our history, and an unwavering commitment to staying together.

I’m also beginning to learn more about you, intimately and personally, and how your compelling stories of steadfastness have woven you to be who you have become. Throughout these visits and in our informal conversations, I hear again and again the important stories that have formed your life, grounded your faith, and brought you to proudly say, we are this church, this is our home, we love one another and we wouldn’t be anywhere else.

As you speak your mind, I have heard you use distinct words and phrases. Though different, you all speak with your own unique and individual voice as you are describing, explaining and professing the facts, beliefs and the feelings in your lives. While there are common themes, there is no one voice, no single phrase or term you have all used.

That is not true of Jesus. In these weeks we’ve spent with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has often repeated the same familiar refrain when speaking with his followers. It is sort of a yes, but statement. Jesus uses it to draw us in, “You have heard that it was said,” and then to set us apart, “But I say to you…”

So often Jesus will acknowledge what this world is saying about life and faith and then stop us in our thinking with his, “But, I say to you.” Jesus sets us up to recognize ourselves, our stories, the way we view life, the way we find our lives to have unfolded in this time and space only to then say, yes, but, I say to you there is another truth, there is another way, there is another life for you to consider.

The Sermon on the Mount has grown to be larger than we can live. How often as our life unfolds has someone told us, yes, but. How often have we heard society tells us, in the all too familiar tapes, to look out for number one?

Then Jesus interferes, “Yes, but”, listen instead to my opposition teaching, the teaching we all learn when we come to church with phrases like; “Turn the other cheek.” “Go the second mile.” “Love your enemies.” “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

We understand the point, we know the teaching, we’ve been told again and again - difficult, yes, but, all things are possible with God. But, we aren’t God, and some days we don’t feel we are even with God. Far too many days, we feel utterly alone in this world.

Alone, yes, but not so alone. You see, we have our own yes, but, responses, don’t we. Love our enemies? But wait, surely not these ones. They are such enemies. Respond to body blows opening ourselves up to more blows? But wait, surely we are not to stand for abuse. Pray for our persecutors? But wait, they persecute, surely they are to be judged!

With these justifications on our lips we never quite hear Jesus’ final command. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Yes, but, wait, like the woman in the car insurance commercial claims, I was perfect all along!

Now it’s Jesus’ turn. He has heard it said, by us, how justified we have made ourselves. Yes, but, Jesus says, listen to my commands. And he means it.

We do listen to Jesus’ commands, we know them well. It’s just that we are surrounded by the reinforcement that in this world, in this time and place, it is all about me, or you. Yet, we know all too well that there is little perfect about us or our station in life or even our potential. We are inherently flawed, aren’t we? Yes, but, Jesus offers us an alternative. Jesus offers that today we can be perfect. Yet, we resist.

Barbara Essex, Minister for Higher Education and Theological Education for the United Church of Christ counters Jesus’ claim with her reminders, “it is easier to be mean, hold grudges, ignore those in need. If we give to everyone who begs, we will have nothing left for ourselves. If we turn the other cheek, we will get slapped again, if we get sued, we are hiring the best lawyer we can afford to find a loophole in our favor. If we love our enemies, we will be more persecuted or even killed. If we are too nice, we will be seen as weak, a pushover, a doormat.

Jesus doesn’t say what the payoff will be: to inherit the reign of God. What do we get for loving, forgiving, being kind and gracious, and offering generosity?

And what about the claim to perfection, anyway? How many of us have labored under the burden of the elusive quest for perfection, be it for grades, the right job, the right spouse, or house or kids, only to realize the folly, the vanity of it all. Then, being reduced to depression and feelings of unworthiness and failure, we dig ourselves deeper into despair. Yes, but, others will say, “I’m only human.”

Jesus will not let us get away with any of our excuses. Jesus has climbed to the top of the mountain to teach us. To teach us, in no uncertain terms, in God’s community there are people who think of others first. In God’s community decisions and actions are made for the common good. For in God’s place, all are sister and brother to one another and act out of love.
For Jesus, this love he preaches is possible due to the overpowering love of God, who is perfect love.

As we are reminded, we are able to be gracious, forgiving, hospitable, and generous because we are children of the God who showers us with abundant grace, mercy, love, and protection. Once we know God’s love in these ways, we can love our enemies; once we experience God’s forgiveness, we can forgive those who persecute us; once we realize God’s gift of generosity, we can give back to those who have little or nothing. We become able to do these things because in Jesus Christ, we live in God’s community of believers.

Even here, Jesus has a yes, but, teaching for us. Yes, these things are true, “but I say to you”. You no longer have to rely on hearsay, the written word alone, what your elders teach you, or what your preachers preach to you. To understand God and God’s will for us and for all people and for all creation we simply have to look and listen to Jesus. Jesus alone.

Yes, but, we want to say. We have to stay up on our current events, we have to listen to the experts or we will lose everything. We are present here and now. Jesus, well, Jesus has been silent for so long.

Dear ones. God’s word was made flesh. God’s word, made flesh, continues to live in our midst. Here. Now. God’s word is Jesus Christ. Alive, in us, here with us, for us, present and moving us toward our fulfillment as a Christian community. Within us are the marks of those fully embraced by God and empowered by God’s will. We have that mark upon us, received at our baptism, nourished as we come to table to receive the body and blood of our savior, empowered, energized and directed by God’s will.

There, I see it, in each of you. You wear your mark, your story, on your face, you tell your story by your blessing, you live your story by your duty, your calling to faithful discipleship, you wear it in your Christian maturity that results in more and more Godlike behaviors and motivations. It is there, you told me of it, you have shown it to me in your love for God, for one another and this church. Sorry, you cannot play your “yes, but,” card here.

We who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior cannot play a “yes, but” card because Jesus does not seek to set impossible goals for us. Jesus does not seek to shame folk who cannot reach perfection. No, instead, Jesus sets forth God’s vision of God’s world, where love, genuine and unconditional love, reigns. Jesus set forth God’s vision of God’s world, where to be perfect is not to add pressure to already overwhelmed lives; no, it is to assure us that we are not alone in the world and that God continues to work in and through us.

Barbara Essex reminds us, “Perfection is less about getting things right and more about living as God loves, and Jesus is God’s concrete example of that love.” And we are God’s concrete example of that love to one another and to those desperate for this Good News.

The world has seen us be that example. The stories we have heard: the survivor of a violent crime who is able to forgive her tormenter; black South Africans who work with their former oppressors to rebuild their country; the Mother Teresa’s of the world who give selfless service to outcasts; those who live modestly so they can contribute to the well-being of the less fortunate; and those who make a choice to commit random acts of kindness. And this church, rising like a phoenix to serve others.

Missionaries, who have grown up in the poorest of slums in Brazil, have been asked how they could live among the poorest of the world’s poor without danger of being robbed. They have said, “Simple. You can’t own anything anyone would want to steal. Lend to anyone who asks, give to all who want to borrow. Then you can live among God’s poor and receive the blessing of possessing nothing. For Jesus, God incarnate, possesses nothing, except our hearts.”

We are surrounded by our own stories from our upbringing, from our formative years through our adult life, random acts of love where we’ve experienced God’s realm as already alive and active and filled with grace.

Jesus’ teaching this morning is not an indictment; it is a voice of promise, a good news story to the world that offers the real possibility that we may love the world as God has loved us – fully, richly, abundantly, and completely.

A good news story, not to seek the perfection this world may allude to, but to seek the perfection of God’s pure love, a perfection God offers to us, a perfect love so powerfully available to us, that when we embrace it, I say to you, we become filled with God’s perfect son, our loving Lord and savior, Jesus, our Christ. This is the one story card God wants us to play.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Additional resources:
“Feasting on the Word”, Year A, Volume 1, D. Bartlett and B. Taylor, eds., pgs. 380 – 385.



4

Kingdom of Heaven

30 January 11 What Jesus Did Say” Matthew 5:1-12

My question from last week lingers. What is a church to do? With the radical changes to our church these past few years still fresh on our minds, with the fear and uncertainty settling in from the newest changes on our campus, we have pause. Yet, realizing God’s amazing grace as seen in our renewed church leadership, the complete reversal of our financial picture and many other loving blessings, we have joy and elation. In the mix, what is Genesis Church to do?

What we dare not do, is try and figure it out by ourselves. As Christians, we know we walk this walk with God. So, we turn to prayer, to reflection in scripture, and to vital and healthy discussion and discernment.

If this morning’s scripture will help us know God’s will for our church we may have some work to do. These Beatitudes - at first we may be struck by what seems to be their sheer impracticality for the world we live in. We live in a time when the blessings given are to those who succeed, often at the expense of others. To be poor in spirit, peaceful, merciful and meek will get us nowhere in a culture grounded in competition and fear. Who can possibly survive in attempting to live into the spirit of the Beatitudes? More importantly, when Jesus turns the values of the world upside down, like he’s done in these Beatitudes, what does that mean for us as church?

What exactly are we as church to do when faced with an upside down world? Well, we are good Presbyterians, so we have a meeting! We held our Annual Session retreat yesterday. Knowing full well how upside down our world has been and may still seem to be we took the time to read and remind ourselves of our Mission and Vision statements. That’s a good place to start when trying to make sense of what seems to make no sense. Turn to God. Invite God into the conversation. That’s what our session did yesterday.

Listen again to our Mission Statement: In the name of Christ, we welcome and serve all of God’s people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

And our Vision Statement: Rooted in Worship – we are here to participate in worship that affects the way we live every day. Growing in Christ – We are here to learn how following Christ can change our lives. Reaching to Neighbors – we are here to love our neighbors. Everyone is our neighbor. We embrace diversity.

Our session has begun what should be a long journey. To prayerfully consider the world of our church and to try to live into the will of God is no easy task. None the less, if we be faith full followers of Jesus Christ, it is a task we must all prayerfully join. Our session needs each and every one of you, we need your collective wisdom. Our future depends on it.

The Beatitudes are the opening phrases to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, his first major sermon and teaching in Matthew’s gospel. From the first, lets be clear about what Jesus did and did not say. The author James Howell reminds us, Jesus did not say, Blessed are those who invest shrewdly; they will own a second home. Or, Blessed are those who shop, for they will own neat things. Or, Blessed are the good-looking, for they will find plenty of friends. Jesus certainly did not lift up to blessed status those who succeed in life at the expense of others, or those rooted in the life of competition and fear.

But neither is Jesus a stick in the mud. Jesus does want us to know pleasure, to find enjoyment and happiness. While we may struggle to not go to far in these areas, we may, ironically, fall short of God’s expectations.
C. S. Lewis, in his sermon “The Weight of Glory” challenges us to know God’s expectations for our lives as Christians and as church.

He offers that, “indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with life and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

No one would argue that Genesis church is far too easily pleased. We have lived in a real world of fear and concern for our very existence. And for some, that fear persists. Might infinite joy be on our horizon?

Archbishop Oscar Romero understood our struggles as Christians and as a struggling church in a difficult world when he challenged his congregation with these words: “The world does not say: blessed are the poor. The world says: blessed are the rich. You are worth as much as you have. But Christ says: wrong. Blessed are the poor…because they do not put their trust in what is so transitory. Blessed are the poor, for they know their riches are in the One who being rich made himself poor in order to enrich us with his poverty, teaching us the Christian’s true wisdom.”

Blessed is Genesis Presbyterian Church because you did not put your trust in what is so transitory. We know our riches are in Jesus, the one who though rich, made himself poor in order to enrich us through his poverty, teaching us true Christian wisdom. Jesus Christ has made the way for Genesis Church to follow. Come and follow me, he has told us. Our life mission is to discover that way as people and as church.

Discernment and discovery of the presence of God and the will of God and our future path with God takes tremendous energy, faith and staying power.
Jesus found help with such staying power in the Jewish daily prayer. It is called the Shema; Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Jesus was also disciplined to find his energy, faith, and staying power in the command that follows. “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

For us to be faithful to Jesus’ teaching these disciplines should become our habits too. We might treat these Beatitudes the same way we treat the Lord’s Prayer. Memorize them, sing them, find a magnet at the Cokesbury Bookstore and put them on the refrigerator. It takes time for teaching and discipline to translate into living.

Oh yes, living, who are we as Genesis Church to become?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The “poor in spirit” are those who recognize their need for God in all things. Like the poor and destitute who depend on others, the poor in spirit know that only God can save and protect them. Every time we take our primary self out of the life equation and make room for God in our hearts and in our lives, the poor will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn. “Those who mourn” refers to people wishing God would send his Messiah, hoping God will restore his kingdom and set the world right. In Isaiah we learn of the Messiah who will “comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion”. These are people who understand the mess the world is in and wish for God’s redemption. Every time we place our fear and the future of this church with Jesus, those who mourn will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek. This beatitude alludes to Psalm 37, “But the meek will inherit the land…” The Psalm is comparing the “evil” and “wicked” with the meek. “Trust in the Lord and do good… Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him…” Every time we remember to trust that God knows what God is doing, the meek will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Just as poverty leads to hunger, the recognition of one’s spiritual poverty leads to a hunger for right living. Jesus is talking to people who desire God’s rule. It is a rule that brings justice for all. It is a reign in which God will satisfy the hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Every time we insist on living in God’s right way, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the merciful. Mercy is part of God’s own nature. “The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” God expects mercy from his people: “he has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Every time we risk our own comfort for the good of another, the merciful will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Seeing God is one of our greatest hopes as believers. But only the pure in heart may receive this blessing. Purity of heart, the heart that desires only what God wants, is not the result of personal effort, God works in and through us. Every time we faithfully seek God’s way, pray and act on what God wants, the pure in heart will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the peacemakers. This Beatitude brings together two important Old Testament concepts: peace and the son of God. Peace is a central characteristic of the kingdom of heaven. “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them.” Those who would normally be at war with each other will be in harmony. All things are made right and peace prevails. The Old Testament applies the title of “son of God” to the Messiah. However, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul explains that when we are in Christ, we “receive the full rights of sons;” in other words, we are made adopted children of God. Every time we invite the others into our lives, the peacemakers will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Just as the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, it also belongs to the ones persecuted because of righteousness. Every time we take up the cause for doing the right thing, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Through these Beatitudes, and our own Mission and Vision statements we hear from God, our calling as church is to help God bring about the kingdom of heaven here on earth. We will realize God’s kingdom when we recognize these blessings. Every time we are church, the Kingdom of heaven is near. Every time we are church, this blessedness will be the result of the coming of this kingdom.

It is important to remember, the Beatitudes are not calls to action. They are not commands. They are descriptions of the way things are to be. They do not call us personally to be poor in spirit, to mourn, or to be meek. No, these Beatitudes are promises of how the kingdom of heaven will be.

As such, these promises define our faith and assure us, “Christianity is not a scheme to reduce stress, lose weight, advance in one’s career, or preserve one from illness. Christian faith, instead, is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will finally prevail, and that God’s future will be a time of mercy and not cruelty. So, blessed are those who live this life now, even when such a life seems foolish, for we will, in the end…” , have our fear taken away by God.

Is this the church we are to be? I believe so. It’s where our mission and vision statements will lead us. It’s where God will lead us, if we but dare to follow.


In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen


Additional resource:
“Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary”, Year A, volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara B. Taylor, Editors, pgs. 308-313.

What Jesus Did Say”

30 January 11                  What Jesus Did Say”                               Matthew 5:1-12

   My question from last week lingers. What is a church to do? With the radical changes to our church these past few years still fresh on our minds, with the fear and uncertainty settling in from the newest changes on our campus, we have pause. Yet, realizing God’s amazing grace as seen in our renewed church leadership, the complete reversal of our financial picture and many other loving blessings, we have joy and elation. In the mix, what is Genesis Church to do?

 What we dare not do, is try and figure it out by ourselves. As Christians, we know we walk this walk with God. So, we turn to prayer, to reflection in scripture, and to vital and healthy discussion and discernment.

 If this morning’s scripture will help us know God’s will for our church we may have some work to do. These Beatitudes - at first we may be struck by what seems to be their sheer impracticality for the world we live in. We live in a time when the blessings given are to those who succeed, often at the expense of others. To be poor in spirit, peaceful, merciful and meek will get us nowhere in a culture grounded in competition and fear. Who can possibly survive in attempting to live into the spirit of the Beatitudes?  More importantly, when Jesus turns the values of the world upside down, like he’s done in these Beatitudes, what does that mean for us as church?

 What exactly are we as church to do when faced with an upside down world? Well, we are good Presbyterians, so we have a meeting!  We held our Annual Session retreat yesterday. Knowing full well how upside down our world has been and may still seem to be we took the time to read and remind ourselves of our Mission and Vision statements. That’s a good place to start when trying to make sense of what seems to make no sense. Turn to God. Invite God into the conversation. That’s what our session did yesterday.

  Listen again to our Mission Statement: In the name of Christ, we welcome and serve all of God’s people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

  And our Vision Statement: Rooted in Worship – we are here to participate in worship that affects the way we live every day. Growing in Christ – We are here to learn how following Christ can change our lives. Reaching to Neighbors – we are here to love our neighbors. Everyone is our neighbor. We embrace diversity.

 Our session has begun what should be a long journey.  To prayerfully consider the world of our church and to try to live into the will of God is no easy task. None the less, if we be faith full followers of Jesus Christ, it is a task we must all prayerfully join. Our session needs each and every one of you, we need your collective wisdom. Our future depends on it.

 The Beatitudes are the opening phrases to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, his first major sermon and teaching in Matthew’s gospel. From the first, lets be clear about what Jesus did and did not say. The author James Howell reminds us, Jesus did not say, Blessed are those who invest shrewdly; they will own a second home. Or, Blessed are those who shop, for they will own neat things. Or, Blessed are the good-looking, for they will find plenty of friends. Jesus certainly did not lift up to blessed status those who succeed in life at the expense of others, or those rooted in the life of competition and fear.

 But neither is Jesus a stick in the mud. Jesus does want us to know pleasure, to find enjoyment and happiness. While we may struggle to not go to far in these areas, we may, ironically, fall short of God’s expectations.

 C. S. Lewis, in his sermon “The Weight of Glory” challenges us to know God’s expectations for our lives as Christians and as church.

 He offers that, “indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with life and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

 No one would argue that Genesis church is far too easily pleased. We have lived in a real world of fear and concern for our very existence. And for some, that fear persists. Might infinite joy be on our horizon?

Archbishop Oscar Romero understood our struggles as Christians and as a struggling church in a difficult world when he challenged his congregation with these words: “The world does not say: blessed are the poor. The world says: blessed are the rich. You are worth as much as you have. But Christ says: wrong. Blessed are the poor…because they do not put their trust in what is so transitory. Blessed are the poor, for they know their riches are in the One who being rich made himself poor in order to enrich us with his poverty, teaching us the Christian’s true wisdom.”

 Blessed is Genesis Presbyterian Church because you did not put your trust in what is so transitory. We know our riches are in Jesus, the one who though rich, made himself poor in order to enrich us through his poverty, teaching us true Christian wisdom. Jesus Christ has made the way for Genesis Church to follow. Come and follow me, he has told us. Our life mission is to discover that way as people and as church.

 Discernment and discovery of the presence of God and the will of God and our future path with God takes tremendous energy, faith and staying power.

 Jesus found help with such staying power in the Jewish daily prayer. It is called the Shema; Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

 Jesus was also disciplined to find his energy, faith, and staying power in the command that follows. “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

  For us to be faithful to Jesus’ teaching these disciplines should become our habits too. We might treat these Beatitudes the same way we treat the Lord’s Prayer. Memorize them, sing them, find a magnet at the Cokesbury Bookstore and put them on the refrigerator. It takes time for teaching and discipline to translate into living.

  Oh yes, living, who are we as Genesis Church to become?

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The “poor in spirit” are those who recognize their need for God in all things. Like the poor and destitute who depend on others, the poor in spirit know that only God can save and protect them.  Every time we take our primary self out of the life equation and make room for God in our hearts and in our lives, the poor will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are those who mourn.  “Those who mourn” refers to people wishing God would send his Messiah, hoping God will restore his kingdom and set the world right. In Isaiah we learn of the Messiah who will “comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion”. These are people who understand the mess the world is in and wish for God’s redemption. Every time we place our fear and the future of this church with Jesus, those who mourn will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are the meek.  This beatitude alludes to Psalm 37, “But the meek will inherit the land…” The Psalm is comparing the “evil” and “wicked” with the meek. “Trust in the Lord and do good… Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him…” Every time we remember to trust that God knows what God is doing, the meek will be blessed and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Just as poverty leads to hunger, the recognition of one’s spiritual poverty leads to a hunger for right living. Jesus is talking to people who desire God’s rule. It is a rule that brings justice for all. It is a reign in which God will satisfy the hungry and thirsty for righteousness. Every time we insist on living in God’s right way, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are the merciful.  Mercy is part of God’s own nature. “The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, is slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” God expects mercy from his people: “he has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Every time we risk our own comfort for the good of another, the merciful will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are the pure in heart.  Seeing God is one of our greatest hopes as believers. But only the pure in heart may receive this blessing. Purity of heart, the heart that desires only what God wants, is not the result of personal effort, God works in and through us.  Every time we faithfully seek God’s way, pray and act on what God wants, the pure in heart will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are the peacemakers. This Beatitude brings together two important Old Testament concepts: peace and the son of God. Peace is a central characteristic of the kingdom of heaven. “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them.” Those who would normally be at war with each other will be in harmony. All things are made right and peace prevails. The Old Testament applies the title of “son of God” to the Messiah. However, in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul explains that when we are in Christ, we “receive the full rights of sons;” in other words, we are made adopted children of God.  Every time we invite the others into our lives, the peacemakers will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Just as the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, it also belongs to the ones persecuted because of righteousness. Every time we take up the cause for doing the right thing, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake will be blessed, and our church will come closer to the kingdom of heaven.

 Through these Beatitudes, and our own Mission and Vision statements we hear from God, our calling as church is to help God bring about the kingdom of heaven here on earth. We will realize God’s kingdom when we recognize these blessings.  Every time we are church, the Kingdom of heaven is near. Every time we are church, this blessedness will be the result of the coming of this kingdom.

 It is important to remember, the Beatitudes are not calls to action. They are not commands. They are descriptions of the way things are to be. They do not call us personally to be poor in spirit, to mourn, or to be meek. No, these Beatitudes are promises of how the kingdom of heaven will be.

 As such, these promises define our faith and assure us, “Christianity is not a scheme to reduce stress, lose weight, advance in one’s career, or preserve one from illness. Christian faith, instead, is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will finally prevail, and that God’s future will be a time of mercy and not cruelty. So, blessed are those who live this life now, even when such a life seems foolish, for we will, in the end…” [1], have our fear taken away by God.

 Is this the church we are to be? I believe so. It’s where our mission and vision statements will lead us. It’s where God will lead us, if we but dare to follow.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Additional resource:

“Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary”, Year A, volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara B. Taylor, Editors, pgs. 308-313.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, pg. 180.

05 December 10 “Repent” Matthew 3:1-12

  Today is the second Sunday in Advent and, well, I think I’m ready for the big day. I’ve considered all the things I could possibly need to consider. Surely I haven’t missed anything. We know about being prepared, don’t we? It’s just Christmas, after all. It’s not like we haven’t done this before. You have done this before, haven’t you? Well then, we may be just about ready for the big day.

 Of course, my saying it doesn’t mean we really are. Could we just let today, a small step to the manger, be one day when we aren’t so, well, distracted? One can try, I suppose.

Here is perhaps the real story. We attempt to balance a number of things this time of the year. We have invitations to parties; we schedule shopping trips, we deciding on where we will be Christmas day, New Years day, that sort of thing. These are all good things.

One of those many invitations has come to us in our reading this morning. At first, we may think of it as a last minute, unexpected invitation. But, it is an invitation from God. Regardless of the timing, this should excite us!  

 Perhaps it is, especially when we remember this invitation is not for us to come to a place for an event. It is an invitation to come to a person, to a baby, the baby Jesus, who will be our savior, our Messiah, our Christ.

 This reason for the season should not surprise us; the fact that the Holy Spirit has worked up an invitation to us, to you and to me, well, that should surprise us.

 Do we expect anything less from God? God surprises us with Gods radically different approach to life.  In this case, the Holy Spirit is promised to arrive into the midst of our lives bearing the Christ Child. Surprise!

 Let me not distract us. We don’t stand much of a chance missing the world’s mixed messages this time of the year. There is the message from the world out there saying buy me, you deserve it; and the other, from the world in here, with scripture and the Holy Spirit saying, come to Jesus, get ready, be prepared, the day is nearing, and we are running out of time.

 The vast differences are evident in how we respond to each charge. The one, out there, may draw us in to consumer consumption hell. The sort with dire consequences, for we may run out of money and have presents yet to buy. To debt we will go, unless we make Black Friday or Cyber Monday our particular savior that is.

 The other, in here, may draw us also into hell, hell of another sort.  The sort with dire consequences, for we may miss our savior and loose our very soul. We just may be perpetually lost, unless we consider a radically different way to journey through this time of preparation. This time of preparation to a significantly different promise; forgiveness, salvation, redemption.

 Consider this morning a radical invitation of our own, a different approach to our usual Christmas preparation for sure. Consider that each of us were to invite Jesus to our house to share a meal and visit and exchange gifts. To invite Jesus to bring us to a time freed from urgency.

 If Jesus were to be a guest in our homes, what would we want to do before he came?  Sit still perhaps and pray? If Jesus were to be a visitor where we work, what would we want to be sure we fix up before the visit?  Nothing perhaps, letting our past work speak for itself. If Jesus were to come to a special called family gathering, who would we invite and what sort of celebration would we prepare; a celebration of our fully revealed humanness perhaps. If Jesus called and asked if he could come by and sit on the porch with just you or me, what would we talk about? Jesus alone?

 The possibilities may make us feel a bit nervous. I wonder, how anxious should we be about Jesus coming so up close and personal?

 At the risk of creating mass panic in the pews this morning, this sort of invitation gets hung up, particularly this time of the year, by our considering who’s been naughty or nice. We might then think twice, am I really ready to have Jesus sitting down for a visit?  Some times I might not be so inviting a host, even for Jesus. We aren’t always the easiest folk to be around, are we?

 And Jesus, well, Jesus knows us all too well. There is nothing on earth, in our past, in our future, in our minds this very moment, that Jesus doesn’t already know. It isn’t our parents, friends or children we should worry about, Jesus knows all our secrets!

 Well wait, this is the baby Jesus. This is a new birth, a new beginning. Surely that makes a difference. Surely we can slow down and breathe again. It’s like we have a new start and we can begin a new list, a new list of the things to do or not do again, and to get ready for yet another chance with Jesus. Truly, Jesus has given us so many chances. This week and the next few weeks will be no exception. So, how will we fill that time? 

  One way is to realize the obvious. We are expecting a baby!  Whether we have children or not, we can imagine that feeling. We are expecting a baby, the time for fear and trembling is now.

 With our sense of mature expectation, we should also have a strong sense of hope. Hope that with new life come new possibilities for ourselves and for the world.

 Matthew’s reading this morning is perhaps the worlds greatest story of expectation and hope.  “In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’”.

 Matthew tells us there is a crowd of folk who have come to see John. Some are there to see him because he has a severe reputation. He dresses odd, eats strange things and does the most curious thing he calls baptism. Others have come for serious reasons. They struggle with their life, they are not so happy the way the world has treated them and they come looking for change, for the hope of a better life.

 John’s message does not disappoint, it is for everyone. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”.

 Part of John’s truth telling is that God is coming to lead the Jews safely home from their captivity. For that journey home, they must prepare themselves. They must prepare the way of the Lord, by God’s grace and God’s power, they were to change their mind and their hearts, they were to make an easy path, not for themselves, but first for God, so God might enter their lives and make life straight were there is crooked living.

 The people began to make a way possible for right living by first confessing their sins. Without confession, there can be no baptism. Romans 4:11 teaches us, baptism is a visible sign and seal of God’s invisible grace. Baptism is the beginning point for a true conversion of our inward change expressed outwardly in living that glorifies God, a life that is generous, fair, and thoughtful, showing justice, mercy, and faith.

 John baptizes with water, Jesus, however baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

 It is for this reason that John baptizes one person after another, all day long, day after day, giving hope that indeed the kingdom of God is near.

 I have read that hope is a precious commodity, and one that can be quickly lost, or given up. There are so many ways we can fall; we are easy prey to the twists and turns of life’s circumstances. Falling takes away any chance we may feel to have hope.

 I have read hope can be very powerful at first, but somewhere along the way from where we have been to where we are going, we give up on hope in discouragement and frustration. What we encounter in life makes it difficult at times to sustain hope, the weight of the world and of our lives is for most of us, more than we can endure. It’s easier it seems to have no hope.

Folk who have no hope do not come to John for baptism. Why should they? If life has no chance for hope, there really is nothing to look forward to, no reason to get close to the River Jordan. What happens there makes no difference.

 Folk who see their life as being perfect do not come to John for baptism either. Why should they? Life has been perfect for them. Why mess things up being dunked in a river. For what?

 John warns these brood of vipers that their comfortable little life is on the way out. A new world, a very different one, the Kingdom of God is going to come!

 John is placing a critical choice before us. Depending of course on which group we belong to. Have we given up on hoping for anything out of life that would be good? Have we become senile and hardened our hearts and refuse to change any iota of our life?

 Or are we longing to make the journey to the Jordan, are we expecting and hopeful, that hearing God’s voice speaking through John and scripture and our own lives, we are looking for a new life, a fresh start.

 Be alert then this Advent time, as we prepare to accept this life changing invitation to the birth of this baby Jesus, to the hope he brings that can be seen all around us. Be alert to where you might see proof of a visible sign and seal of God’s invisible grace.

Be alert to see hope in an outing at the park, seeing the diversity there as part of one glorious thread of God’s good creation.

Be alert to see hope in a shopping trip, I cannot believe I just said that, seeing the mass of shoppers, and those brought along despite their enthusiasm for shopping, as part of one continuous life force of preparation for a joy to come.

Be alert and see hope at work, in school, or at home, seeing there not right or wrong, good or bad, joy or disappointment, fair or unfair, but a common spirit that moves in the midst of the ordinary fabric of our everyday lives, a spirit that works at sorting out, in the sometimes murky interior of the human heart, where and how God calls us into the fullness of our being.

 Being alert to these movements in life is part of the way we prepare for the coming of the Christ child and our life of faithful discipleship.

John the baptizer’s message is to remind each of us this morning, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”

 We do prepare, don’t’ we, we do repent, we do desire to bear good fruit, we do come to the River Jordan to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, we truly do pray for hope this season of preparation.

 Our good news this morning is, we have been promised a fresh start, an expectant and hope filled Advent that God’s kingdom is coming.

 This Christmas day, a babe will be born. A baby we rest all our hope with, a baby we give our entire lives to, a baby who has come to fill our hearts with a fresh start.

 Here is our most cherished invitation this year, prepare the way, there is life giving hope just a few days away. And we will call him Jesus.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen        

Additional help:

Christian Century, November 27, 2007, pg. 20.

Pulpit Resource, Volume 35, Number 4, October-December 2007, pgs. 49-52.

The Minister’s Annual Manual, 2007-2008, pgs. 166-168

The Presbyterian Outlook, November 26, 2007, pg. 14.

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28 November 10 “Nearness and the Newness of Salvation” Matthew 24:36-44

There is a certain comfort knowing we all do it, knowing it’s just hard wired into our brains. Without having to think too much about it we hear ourselves saying these familiar phrases - “Hurry home.” “Call your mother.” “Be careful.” “Watch out for cars.” “Don’t do that to your sister/brother.” “Leave the dog alone.” “Please, can you leave it on one channel, without flipping!” I hear several of these at my house.

  We may remember hearing another familiar phrase from our gospel reading this past Sunday. Jesus had just been nailed to the cross. There were two criminals beside him. The first one bullies Jesus, “You say you are the messiah, save yourself and save me too.”

The second criminal takes up for Jesus. “Leave him alone,” he says, “we were justly tried for our crimes. We are guilty. This man is innocent.” Then he prays. “Jesus, remember me.” That’s the familiar phrase, the automatic response, “Jesus, remember me.”

 Jesus does remember us. In the midst of his crucifixion, Jesus is still reaching out to us to comfort and teach us. To teach us, God’s grace extends to the depth of the pain and suffering of all people, even those crucified. Be it to addiction, to unrelenting pain, to abuse, injustice or loss.

God’s grace goes as deeply as our own pain and as high as our joy.

Actually, God’s grace goes deeper and higher than we can ever imagine.

 Matthew’s story this morning reminds us of another automatic response to life’s ups and downs, to another important truth. Keep awake.

Our story this morning is an Advent story. A story which reminds us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child. To recommit our life to Christ. What often gets lost is our need to also prepare ourselves spiritually to give life to Jesus. It is true; when we give our life to Jesus we give life to Him. Through our life, Jesus lives.  I’m not sure how we ever prepare ourselves enough to give life to Christ. But, we try.

Verse 39 of Matthew’s gospel reminds us of Noah’s story from the book of Genesis. About how God had predicted a flood, and how those who were not aware, those who were unprepared, knew nothing until they were swept away. Then it was too late.

  Our reading this morning from Matthew’s gospel says, the coming of the Son of Man will be like the story of Noah and the flood. Those who are not awake, those who are unprepared, they will not hear the good news; they will not know Jesus is coming. But we are aware, we have heard the good news, we know Jesus is coming. We have been prepared and waiting a long time. Yet, life distracts us.

 Life distracts us and it is Jesus himself who redirects us again to “keep awake”. This is critical; we are to keep awake for we do not know on what day our Lord is coming. Always be ready, Jesus says, the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

 Not knowing the day or the hour, doesn’t sound promising does it? As we look at our to-do list each morning are we expected to have “keep awake” as our automatic number one thing to do our entire life? How do you ever check something like that off? Once checked off, our task is usually forgotten. Keeping awake for Jesus isn’t something we should forget. It’s like making sure our heart is still beating every morning. We may check it off, but we don’t want it to go away.

What then are we to do? We know Jesus is coming. This is advent and the calendar says Jesus birth is in 27 days. We can always add this ‘keeping awake’ to our worry list.

 Oh, great, that’s what we do with everything else we cannot really check off and forget. What about the kids, what about my health, what about the economy, the war, my pension.

Perhaps a better approach to ‘keeping awake’ is to be ‘hard wired’ for Jesus. To be hard wired for Jesus would have him be as automatic in our lives as our breathing, or our needing to ear or sleep.  Then we would always be prepared, so when Jesus comes, we will not only be awake, we will be ready. We will be ready for the celebration, sure, but also ready to take up a new life. Where Jesus gives our life his grace, his love, his blessings, and we give life to him. What a celebration we will have when we realize these possibilities are coming.

 The gospel’s suggestion about how we prepare for Jesus’ coming may be different from our own. True, we have a lot to do and when we are honest with ourselves, whether we get everything done or not, the day of celebration will be truly that, a celebration.

 If we are to have the time to give life to Jesus, this is it. This advent time of the year is our time to slow down, to not allow our getting read for Christmas to replace giving life to Christ. The coming of our messiah and the intentional celebration of the amazing gift of Jesus’ life in ours requires our participation.

 To this end, our preparation for Jesus’ birth should be different. Our preparing in a different way comes to honor the gospel when we take a little time away from planning and shopping for Christmas and live for the moment in advent time, a time of quiet and prayer and reflection and thanksgiving and rededication of our lives to follow and serve Jesus Christ. To give our life to Jesus so life will be given to Jesus.

We don’t stop living during our times of prayer and thanksgiving. No, and perhaps this is the most difficult part. Advent should weave its message into our everyday as we go about our life work. Remember, in Matthew’s gospel, two were in the field working, two were grinding meal together. Life and work does not stop for contemplation and wandering in the wilderness.

We go on living, knowing God’s desire is for us to know Jesus and to love Jesus and to celebrate him in the very fabric of life, to recognize that thread as being God’s grace in our lives and be ready when Gods kingdom comes.

 As we work and live and love we are to watch with hope and longing for this coming again, this one in 27 days when we celebrate the birth of our Christ child.

  Vaclav Havel was the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia, he wrote about hope in the 1980’s, while his country was still ruled by the communists.

 This is what he said, “Either we have hope within us or we don’t: it’s a dimension of the soul…Hope in this deep and powerful sense is…an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed…It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now.”

 It may be we feel our conditions are hopeless, but Havel says we are to hope for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance  to succeed. This is the sort of hope which gives us the strength to live and keep going, and see God’s coming as an enabling of that hope. The hope from God is a hope that realizes that even though time is short and times are tough, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming into our lives to be our savior, to be our savior from the darkest of nights, and that is a very good hope. It is a life saving hope.

 Paul reminded us of this truth in Romans when he said, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.” God is coming near to us because God has great plans for our lives. And our duty is to be ready and to realize God in the day to day, to see and feel and engage with God as we live and hold on to hope.

 This is God’s desire for us these hectic days before Christmas.

 You see, the powerful teaching we have before us this morning is that God desires more for us than we desire for ourselves. God wants us to be with him. Remember that second criminal, he prayed that Jesus would remember him and Jesus promised him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” This is our advent hope, that we will keep awake so that today, if need be, we will be with Jesus in paradise. Jesus is forever awake to us, waiting for us, desiring for us, desiring more for us than we desire for ourselves.

When we think we can accomplish our desires and dreams and our reason for living without God, we worship ourselves. We live in sin. We bully Jesus just as that first criminal did. When we live this way we actually short change our lives. We settle for less than what our life can be. We limit the hope and the blessings and the joy in our lives to what we alone can achieve.

 When we take up with Jesus, we have a clearer path to God. Being awake to Jesus’ coming into our life reveals to us Gods desires for our life, desires always greater than our own.

  God’s desire for our lives is greater than our own when we are awake to his calling in our lives. When we realize we give life to Jesus when we open our lives to following him and turn to listen to God’s hope for us. Jesus lives when we know God as God reveals God’s self to us. It is then that we have clearer access to God’s desire in our lives. When we remove the clutter of our solutions and desire, we will hear God’s. And they are always greater than ours alone.

 Then we will know the peace of the coming of the Christ child. Then we will hear and know God more deeply than ever before. Then we can take great comfort knowing that to be alive with Christ is truly the one relationship God desires for us. 

 To be alive with Christ, to be one with God, to be ready for Jesus’ coming into our lives bringing the salvation that comes to each of us a gift. A gift we cannot earn, a gift greater than any desire we can achieve on our own, the gift of God’s awakened presence in our life. The gift of the birth of Jesus.

Be, therefore, forever ready, for through the birth of that babe on Christmas Eve, God comes for you and for me. And with you and with me, Jesus lives.

 Now, there’s a phrase worth living for.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Additional Helps:

Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XIX, Number 1, pgs.5-12.

Pulpit Resource, Volume 35, Number 4, October-December 2007, pgs. 45-48.

The Minister’s Annual Manual, 2007 - 2008, pgs. 159-161

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21 November 10 “Fight the Powers” Luke 23:33-43

 Struggle with me as we try and understand this morning’s gospel story. This is not the time of the year to be reading about Jesus’ death. We are about to celebrate Thanksgiving, to give thanks for the many blessings God has given us, for the good food we will have, the good fellowship with family and friends, perhaps a bitter sweet football game or two, and this morning our gospel sounds like anything but good news.  Yet, here it is before us. 

 What we read puts a dark cloud over any feelings we may have for hope and giving thanks. They crucified Jesus. We have good feelings about Thanksgiving, good memories and warmest anticipation. It should be a good day, a happy day, a day in which we will celebrate and be thankful. Now this, they crucified Jesus.   

 Let’s regroup and gather our thoughts to see where God leads us. The holidays are clearly upon us. It’s too late if you aren’t getting ready. We have been thrown right into the big middle by every major retailer in America. And right in that middle is the tension and stress and anxiety many already feel.

Actually, at our house, it began a few weeks ago as I watched and heard Janet getting ready for Thanksgiving, counting the number of folks who were invited, the amount of food it would take to feed them, the cleaning and decorating she wanted to do, all balanced against the unknown, how many will actually come.

 You all know about the pre-holiday tension. Thanksgiving is just the warm up for the big event, Christmas. There are the same questions, year after year, where we are going to be this year? Thanksgiving here, Christmas there. Will we stay at home or will we be someplace else? If we go to their house, who will be there, the ones we love or the ones we struggle to love? If they come to our house, how many can we expect? What about the menu? Who will bring what? How many extra trips will we make to the store this year, as we go again and perhaps a third time before we have everything?

 True enough, the preparation, planning and the pre-holiday excitement are filled with a certain anticipation of a great gathering of truly thankful folk to come. They do come, and they are thankful, thankful that family and friends are together, thankful that this year was not their turn!

 Ready or not, these holidays do come around year after year. And that is a good thing. Our weather of late has confirmed the season, the timing is right, so bring it on. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Get ready.

 Isn’t that the point! Getting ready! Our church year is about to begin anew. Advent begins soon. Like lent, advent is a time before a major Christian event, a time for us to prepare our hearts and minds and souls for that event. Thanksgiving gives way to Advent which then gives us the birth of our Savior, Jesus, our Christ.

Perhaps that is what this Sunday’s gospel is doing for us. Helping us know, the time to be ready is upon us. Today is Christ the King Sunday. Luke’s gospel is the story that powerfully reminds us of who our Savior is, who our Lord and Savior, our King really is. He is the one who died for us that we may live, the one who loves us still.

 So, let’s consider this Advent Sunday, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, shopping, football, leftovers, and other excesses, as our most important get ready time of the year. Let us consider this time as the threshold to our preparing ourselves for both the obvious and the not so obvious.

 For the obvious, it’s too late if you’re not already in a get ready mode.  Do you know someone who always makes it to the midnight shopping madness? Do you know someone who has the tree up already, perhaps even more than one? Do you know someone who’s almost finished with their shopping? The stores are full of turkeys again, Macy’s will have their parade again, and we will see Santa again!

The painfulness of the obvious is that it’s too late to turn back now and hope we won’t have to be prepared. The costs are starting to add up. Not just financial, in other ways too. We have much to loose if we languish in our preparation for our faith, our hope, our love, our blessings. We either prepare for God’s grace, or we have our lamps, our lives, empty of the essential fuel needed for our eternal truth, Jesus Christ.

  Perhaps, this year, we might be able to prepare ourselves for our life with Jesus in ways not so obvious. There are costs in life that are balanced by our blessings. We worry about getting together, but we feel God’s grace when we do. We worry about old wounds being reopened, then we find again the love that has been lost by our separation; we worry, about the house being clean, the food coming out just right and about having enough food, then we find our bodies full and our souls enriched.

 Yet, perhaps more importantly, and this creeps in at a deeper level each year, there is the cost to our hearts, as we miss folk who aren’t going to be here with us. Usually we are not ready for that truth. How do we ever prepare ourselves for separation from loved ones?

 Jesus is as prepared as any human being can be for this time in his life, for the place, and the gathering of people where he was crucified. He too struggled with the possibilities of separation from loved ones, even crying out that God might spare him from this time. Yet, Jesus is forever obedient. He is forever praising God and praying that God’s will be done.

 From our reading this morning we learn it was a crowd of people that crucified Jesus. His crucifixion wasn’t really the act of any one person alone, there were many that day who crucified him.  They cast lots to divide his clothing, they stood by watching, they scoffed at him, and they even mocked him.

 Jesus was loved by many, yet he was about to be taken from them. We are never ready for that truth. How do we prepare for separation from this loved one, from Jesus?

 Jesus shows us how. Jesus shows us how we can endure separation. By being faithful, living with love in our actions, not for ourselves, but for others. This is at the heart of our preparation story this Christ the King Sunday, this Sunday before Advent.

 Jesus is teaching us how we might live in and through separation and physical and mental and spiritual pain, as we prepare for the good news of Christmas and the birth of our savior.

 As we prepare for this good news to come, Jesus teaches us the hard truth about life and love and being a faithful disciple. The hard truth is, there is a great cost for this good news. There was a great cost to Jesus and there will be a great cost to each of us. We will loose our lives, just as Jesus lost his.

 There it is, perhaps the key to our preparation for this season, critically balanced between our joy and our anxiousness, is found in our weighing of the costs. How much of our selves do we hold close, and how much do we let go?

From Luke we read, “One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 Jesus, he prayed, remember me.

 Holidays are filled with remembrances. Good and bad, joy filled and sad. We remember them all. It’s just that this time of the year draws our memories back from their slumber to rekindle and re-flame and stir us again. Jesus, remembers them all too.

He remembers the group of people, the “they” who persecuted him. He remembers his family and friends who were there. He even remembers the two criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus remembers them all.

Even more, Jesus died for them all. And he prayed, Father, forgive them all, for they do not know what they are doing. And miracle of all miracles, they were forgiven.

 How do we get ready for this inevitability again, for death, remembering, crying for forgiveness and, by God’s grace receiving it?

 We get ready by doing the one thing that will always save us from ourselves and our anxiety. In humility and with honesty, we ask Jesus to remember us too. We fall on our knees, we bare our soul and we pray, Jesus, remember me, though I am not worthy, remember me and help me pledge my life as my preparation for your coming again into my life.

 We ask Jesus to remember us and we are assured time and time again, Jesus does remember us, and time and time again, Jesus forgives us, each and every one of us, for we do not know what we are doing.

 Here is the clearest of all truths, we do not have a clue what we are doing, trying to live in this time and place a decent life, trying to live a faith filled life, truly we don’t.

 Yet Jesus will forgive us, again, because Jesus remembers us, from our first day on this earth until this very moment. Jesus remembers us.

 How do we get ready? Well, Life won’t wait for us, that is certain. So, we plan for the holidays and for life. We get things done as we make ready for that day when we celebrate Jesus’ birth and when we too feel born again as a new disciple.  We forgive those needing forgiveness.  We remember those needing remembrance. We love those needing love.

 And we do it all in the arms of the powerful truth of who Jesus Christ is, our God, who came to live with us as an alive human being, a man, who suffered and died for the forgiveness of our sins and who will reign with us forever.

 In the arms of this loving Jesus, we get ready by filling our lives, our hearts, our minds, and our souls, with the truth of the power of his strength, his wisdom and grace. In the one way Jesus teaches us. To love one another, and to love our enemy as we love our selves.

 How do we get ready?

We prepare ourselves for the holidays and for the rest of our lives by remembering this morning the only way Jesus knew how to live. The way we too are to live, the way his Father, our God taught him and teaches us to live, through the full power of his love.

Jesus loved the crowd and asked for their forgiveness. Jesus loved those silent faithful followers who knew all about loving. And Jesus loved the bitter criminal as well and the one who asked to be remembered.

Love is how we are remembered and from love we are able to surrender ourselves for living.  God’s love is God’s grace.  God’s love, we now know, is the power of God that changes the world, the power that saves the world.

 Jesus has no greater friend than the most desperate person who asks to be remembered, to be given one more chance at grace, at forgiveness and salvation. Jesus came into this world to save such a person, a person just like you and me.

 There is no greater friend to prepare ourselves for during Advent. He is our Jesus, the one to whom we pray, “Remember me, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He is our Jesus, the one who replies, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.

Additional Helps:

Christian Century, November 13, 2007, pg.18.

Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XVIII, Number 6, pgs. 61-68.

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