Beyond fear and exclusion

Epiphany 2 year A Sermon 08
God’s talking to somebody.

Through the prophetic voice in our sacred texts...

"You are my servant, Israel...in whom I’ll display my splendor...but more than that... I’ll also make you a light for the Gentiles...that you...
may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

God’s talking to somebody. Through the person of Jesus...

‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill can’t be hidden…let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works…
and give glory to your Father in heaven.’

You’re a light...a chosen people... formed to reflect the glory of God’s love...for all the world.

A few weeks ago... we established in the story of Jesus baptism...how he comes to understand his identity... taking on...taking over...
the mantle of Israel as the Son of God...
the servant of YWHW...taking the nation’s...
covenant responsibility upon himself...


From where Jesus stands in the first century...
Israel had retreated from its mandate...retreated into itself... behind a wall of arrogance and fear and exclusion... A nationalistic wall... of ethnic purity and divine favour...

believing God’s salvation...God’s shalom...
was for them...not the rest of the world...

From where Jesus stands...Israel is deaf to its divine calling... and unable to reflect...divine love into the world...

not that their election is used up...Jesus is desperate to reach the lost sheep of Israel...
but from where Jesus stands...Israel’s election as the servant of God...is diabolically misdirected.

But Jesus is a good Jew and a rabbi...
and from where he stands...it’s a given...
that God’s purposes would be fulfilled...
if not by Israel...then by a new Israel
God was forming.

In this season of Epiphany... we’re reminded that not only did Jesus see himself taking on the mantle of Israel...but today in his Sermon on the Mount...
Jesus speaks clearly of his followers in language formerly used... only for the nation of Israel...
He asks his followers to be salt and light...
city and lamp.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It’s no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled. You’re the light of the world. A city on a hill... can’t be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand...and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before humanity, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Jesus chooses the historic symbols of Israel’s covenant to address his followers...
Not one person listening to Jesus... would miss the ancient meaning in his words. They’d all memorized them from their youth... just as their ancestors had... for thousands of years.

Originally the Hebrew people carried...
their calling to be a sign and a light to the world...
as a covenant people...their ancient symbols of Temple and shining menorah...
a constant reminder to them.

At it’s dedication...King Solomon prays even the architectural majesty of the first Temple... would be a sign

‘so all the peoples of the earth… may know your name and revere you, as do your own people Israel…

And the people of Israel…are to reflect the light of God’s love to the world…by example…
by light…and not by force…by how they lived and how they treated the voiceless and the outsider.

This is brilliantly symbolised in Zechariah’s vision of a flaming menorah… another potent symbol of Israel’s calling to be a light to the world.

An angel explains God’s message in the vision…
Israel will accomplish its task:
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit." [pause]

And just as all rabbis do in the first century...
Jesus gathers around him... those who would live under his yoke...
who’d live out his understanding of scripture
and his understanding of Israel’s calling...
to bring salvation...to bring the Shalom of God...
to the rest of the world

The purpose of their existence as a people...
is to reflect God’s love into the world...
Israel’s vocation as the servant of God...
as the son of God...gave them a mission to all humanity...

And Jesus’ incarnation and identity... bind him...
not only to the Jewish people... but to all humanity... including...people of other religions... or none.

In his book... a Generous Orthodoxy...
Bryan McLaren puts it this way... ‘I’m not saying
all religions are the same...it doesn’t matter what you believe...truth is relative blah blah blah...
I’m saying that because we follow Jesus,
because we believe Jesus is true...and because Jesus moves... toward all people in love and kindness and grace...as his followers...we do the same.’

Our identity as Jesus disciples ‘mustn’t make us afraid of, superior to, isolated from, defensive or aggressive toward... or otherwise hostile’...
to people of other faiths.

Another great Christian writer David Bosch reminds us ‘We can’t point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time...
we can’t set limits to the saving power of God...
we appreciate this tension and do not attempt...
to resolve it.’

If others aren’t convinced of Jesus divinity or his saving message of Shalom...we simply move on... just as Jesus told his disciples to do. We honour the humanity of our brothers and sisters who aren’t convinced...rather than calling down fire from heaven on them...as Jesus told his disciples not to do.

My friends...we are the gentiles...to whom the light has been shone......
and as McLaren says ‘if through Christ...
God risks all for us... then we must do the same
for people of other religions. They are our neighbours and everything Jesus said about neighbors applies to them...Even if they approach us as enemies...

to be faithful to Jesus... we must love them...
and never let their status as non-Christians...
reduce them to non-neighbors.’

Paul...a Jew among Jews... a Pharisee of the Pharisees... who persecutes and mistreats the earliest Christians... Paul has a change of attitude...
when he’s confronted with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.

Paul has a change of heart and religious culture which leads him to embrace his mission to the gentiles and say in his letters
‘let us do good to all people...’

Jesus taught and Paul shows us...
that to be part of the new Israel...
Jesus sees himself shaping ...
to be a part of this new covenant people...
you have to change your attitudes...

We have to change our attitudes.

As followers of Jesus...we’re here to reflect the love we’ve received... out into the world... to share it with all humanity...to seek to understand their stories...
to laugh and eat and work with them.... to play
with one another’s children and hold each others babies and savour one another’s hospitality.

‘We’re here to be their neighbour...
according to the teaching of Our Lord.
And doesn’t Jesus tell us...if we aren’t good neighbours... they have no reason to believe or even respect...
the saving message of Shalom we carry.

Just as in Jesus day in the vast reaches of the Roman Empire and just as in our day in our own community...everyone has a faith of some kind...even atheists...beliefs and attitudes they’ll sometimes defend to the death... rather than change...

But if the purpose of our existence as a people...as a community of faith... here beneath these mountains and beside these lakes...
is to be a light to the world around us...
if we are now the new Israel... then we must ask ourselves who are the gentiles?

What attitudes do we harbour toward them? What attitudes do we need to change?

By telling his followers to be a light to the world... Jesus is saying

‘You are the light of the world’ ..

You are the new Israel...custodians...
of the new covenant...now go and be it...living lives... that reflect the glory of God’s love to the world.’

Baptism of Jesus

Epiphany year A Sermon 08 Baptism of Jesus

At this time of year... it’s easy to imagine the scene
that marks the beginning of Jesus ministry...
the event we call... Epiphany.

The sun is shining...people are enjoying themselves at the river. Curiously drawn... to the eccentricities of Jesus cousin...the one they dub John the Baptist...
Who’s calling them all back to God.

Jesus...a young man of only thirty...takes a few steps toward his cousin in the water... he feels the shock of cold on his legs...

He dips down...under the water... steadying himself on his cousins arm... and rises up... gasping...
into the glorious sun light...water spraying and cascading off his hair...[pause]

The act is symbolic and subversive...symbolic of ritual purification... of turning away from all that separates people...from God and one another.
And this baptism of repentance is subversive...
A rebellious act against religious authority and political power...against the Temple and against Rome. [pause]

Jesus is about to set out as a young rabbi – he will call followers to learn his way... his truth ...his interpretation of the sacred texts.
And suddenly as Jesus emerges from the water...
there’s a tear... in the very fabric of Creation...a bending of physical rules...an opening between our familiar dimensions of time and space...and another dimension always present... but un measurable...in human terms.

and through this rip...something seems to flutter...
like bird’s wings ... something visible to the human eye...
and through this opening between divine and human dimensions... pours communication that is audible
to Jesus’ human brain...

"You

are my Son, chosen... and marked by my love...
pride of my life."

A divine message and a title... reserved until this moment... only for the nation of Israel... For Jesus
Its an unmistakable calling...an anointing...a setting apart...and in this moment...Jesus understands... his identity and his mission.... [pause]

You know there had been another moment like this... another breach...between the human and divine dimensions...but of course Jesus wouldn’t remember it...
the moment of his conception ...in the womb of an untouched Hebrew girl...who kept these things close to her heart...
as he grew to be a man.
The rabbi’s had taught him everything an ordinary Jewish boy...would need to know. [pause]

Some storytellers say... that morning in the river...
Jesus cousin John heard the message too. But the gospel of Mark only tells us...in that moment... Jesus heard and understood... the true nature of his identity.

He was the chosen one...promised by the prophets...
his very life... was to be a divine message....
he was to be the very Word of God...

Somehow in the place of Israel... Jesus’ own life...his actions...his teaching...would shine the light...would communicate the very will of God...for the world
...he would carry...
God’s saving message of love for all peoples...
... God’s family would be established in all the earth... and this good news would spread like yeast...like a mustard seed...like living water ... poured into a thirsty world...

A world where religious and political and economic power was wielded and abused...a world where human pride and selfishness...constantly worked to destroy... the goodness tirelessly created by God. [pause]

Every Jewish boy knew... since God’s covenant with Abraham... it had been Israel’s mission...to personify God’s son...God’s child...The mission of God’s chosen people was to be a living example of God’s will...
a light...for all the nations of the world.

And the message and mission they’d been given... was critical for the very survival of the planet...because only God’s way of Shalom...God’s way of peace...with justice, compassion and mercy...only God’s way of love... would or could... turn humanity away...
from destroying itself and creation...
and separating itself from God.

Called...to shine the light of God’s love beyond itself...
to all the world... the nation of Israel failed to carry out that mission. [pause]

And in that moment of epiphany...in the river Jordon...Jesus understands...
his divine identity and mission...to take the mantle of Israel upon himself...to be the son of God himself...
to take up God’s cause of love...
and to shine the light of God’s love for all people. [pause]

no matter what the cost... no matter what the sacrifice.

And from that moment on...Jesus begins to form the people of a new covenant... called...
not simply to believe in him ... but to be his disciples...
his working apprentices...

people who in turn... will shine the light...will carry the divine message... of reconciliation and healing wherever they go...across all borders whether ethnic economic religious or political. [pause]

And here we sit... by our rivers... 2000 years later ...wondering if we can bother answering Jesus invitation to follow him...to take on his yoke...to apprentice ourselves to the divine cause of love.

There are so many demands on our time and energy.
And there’s always someone trying to sell us something or luring us into some lifestyle. So many measures of success ...

But when we answer Jesus’ invitation...to take up God’s cause of love and follow him...when we choose to become his disciples...then it’s Jesus...not culture...not advertising...not some guru or life coach or power crazed televangelist...who teaches us how to live... and how to love...

It’s Jesus... his story...his life...his words...his teaching.
It’s Jesus who teaches us the skills we need... to overcome evil with love...its Jesus who gives us the training to stand firmly for love...
in the face of lies...cruelty, violence, indifference and injustice... It’s Jesus who shows us how to bear the cost of standing up... to the principalities and powers in the world opposed to God’s cause of love.

Following Jesus isn’t a cushy number...apprentices don’t just bask in the warm reflected glow of their teacher ...smugly observing the world from the cozy comfort of self-righteous seats in some church building...

No apprentices have to practice what they’re taught. Apprentices have to extend themselves beyond their comfort zone...to become like their master...sometimes at a very great cost... sometimes under great pressure to act without love.

Everywhere we turn today someone is offering us
a quick fix for life... or a cheap deal...success without effort or pain... But observing Jesus...we learn what it costs God... to keep on loving us...to keep on loving a rebellious and self-worshipping world...

In Jesus ...we learn what it costs God to refuse to retaliate in the face of humiliation and rejection...
we learn what it costs to love our enemies or turn the other cheek. To overcome evil with love.

as his apprentices... Jesus recruits us and teaches us.... then sends us out...to bear the cost of loving ourselves... to shine the light of God’s love...into our families, among our workmates... in our politics in the pub and in even into our churches...

Send us out to work...to bring about...
the conditions that create justice and peace
wherever we are...and even if it costs us dearly...
as it surely cost Jesus.

He calls...he invites us to follow him...this man anointed by God...and the first step we need to take... is to say yes
And our response can be made new... every day.
Let’s take a moment to respond in our own way in silence. . [silence]

At Wanaka keep reading [At Hawea Skip to the Hawea bit]
In a few moments...Cheryl and I will leave for another service at Hawea. There we will witness yet another small tear in the fabric of Creation?

At God’s initiative... by the power of the Holy Spirit...
a young child will be brought through the waters of grace into the circle of Jesus’ disciples.

We will not magic him into a life...free from decision or pain... nor will we exempt him from the cost of loving... as Jesus loved. Each of us has to answer Jesus call for himself…and one day little Tom... will make his own choice. But until he is mature enough to choose…
to say yes to Jesus…

... his parents, and his grandparents and our community of faith have the mission to teach him...the story of Jesus’ identity and mission…and through our own lives…to teach him how to take up God’s cause of love. When we do as Jesus said…the kingdom of God is at hand.

At Hawea
This morning did you notice...we witnessed yet another small tear in the fabric of Creation?

At God’s initiative... by the power of the Holy Spirit...
a young child was brought through the waters of grace into the circle of Jesus’ disciples.

We did not magic him into a life...free from decision or pain... nor did we exempt him from the cost of loving... as Jesus loved.

Each of us has to answer Jesus call for himself…and one day little Tom... will make his own choice. And until he is mature enough to choose…to say yes to Jesus…
... his parents, and his grandparents and our community of faith have the mission to teach him...the story of Jesus identity and mission…and through their own lives teach him how to take up God’s cause of love. When we do as Jesus said…the kingdom of God is at hand.