Isaiah 9:1-4
I Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

“Jesus came to give us a new life, not a new religion.” That is a good thing to remember. Of course, one of the best definitions of true religion is simply ‘the way that one leads one’s life’, but if we are thinking of religion in the lower sense of a set of prescribed doctrines and rituals to which one must adhere, then the saying is true – Jesus came to give us a new life, not a new religion. We hear in the gospel this morning about Jesus traveling through Galilee teaching and preaching good news and curing diseases. He was busy spreading new life around. In other parts of the gospel, we hear about Jesus sending others out to do the same thing, and at least one time, they come across some people whom they do not know who are also spreading new life around. When they tell Jesus about it, he says to not worry about it – if those others were not working against the apostles, then they were working with them.

Paul confronts a similar situation in our second reading this morning. He mentions the partisan spirit which has sprung up there in the church, and warns them about how silly it is. He reminds them that although different people brought them the news of Jesus, the messenger and the way the message was presented is not important. Jesus is the important thing, and their new life in him is the important thing. We need to be told the same thing. New parties and denominations are being formed all the time, and often the people in the various denominations and organizations forget that the reason for their existence is to proclaim the gospel, not to bolster the public image and membership rolls of their particular group.

Sometimes new Christian groups are formed because the founders see a specific need that is not being addressed by existing groups. Sadly, more often new groups are formed because of disagreements and bitterness within existing groups. It does not matter how or why the denomination was formed – if its members are open to God’s will, then good will come of it. People will be healed, good news will be spread, and new life will be given to people. That is what matters – not total conformity in every detail of doctrine and practice. But we must remember that no matter what good comes from any organization, the group is merely a channel of grace, not the source of grace. All life comes from God, and the new life being spread by any group comes solely from God, not from the organization, so we must be careful never to cling blindly to any denomination – they are all merely tools that God can use or dispose of as different needs arise. We should remember that our gospel story this morning begins with the arrest of John the Baptist; John did not claim loyalty to himself or his followers.
Instead, he pointed to Jesus and faded away after his task was done.
We need to have the same willingness to fade away after we and our particular parties have pointed to Jesus in their various ways. Church organizations and denominations are means to an end, not the end itself.

The goal is spreading the gospel – the good news that Jesus brings new life. The gospel story this morning says that where Jesus went, a prophecy was fulfilled: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,”. We always need to check the goals and accomplishments of our parties against that standard. If people have light brought to them because of what we are doing, good. If not, we need to do what we can to change the course of our group in order to align with that goal. No organization, no matter how great its history, is exempt from the danger of forgetting its purpose, and that forgetfulness will eventually bring about its downfall.

Our purpose is to spread the good news of Jesus to a world that needs good news. That news can be spread in many different ways, as we have seen throughout history. There is no need for competition between the various groups spreading the news. Instead, we should be ready and willing to support each other, and be joyful at the successes of others as well as mournful at their losses. Our criteria should be whether or not people are being healed and hearing good news, not the details of internal organization and discipline, and certainly not whether or not other groups offend our sense of style. Of course, there are times when harmful things are preached in the guise of Christian doctrine. Most of these negate either the full humanity of the full divinity of Jesus, and therefore water down the good news that God really is with us. We do have the responsibility of refuting those groups and their message, but we must always do so with love, compassion, and kindness.

However, having said that about bad news in a Christian veneer, we must always remember that there have always been and always will be non-Christians of good will who do a wonderful job of spreading the kingdom of God in our hurting world. In fact, some of the most Christlike people I know would not call themselves Christians. That is quite alright. Every person is unique and therefor has a unique relationship with God that no one else can judge.

So we need to be careful about judging people with different opinions about how best to spread the gospel. We can be proud of our own denominations and parties in a good sense – acknowledging past accomplishments and carrying visions for the future – but we should never let that good sense of pride twist into an attitude of superiority toward other groups. There is one Gospel: God is with us. There is one Jesus: God with us. There is one goal: sharing God with others. Jesus came to give us new life. May we all work together to spread that life around.   AMEN

Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

Isaiah was right about a lot of things, and we heard about some of those things this morning. He tells us that God’s house will be the place where everyone wants to go (and by the way, by the term “God’s house”, he doesn’t mean the church building – people still won’t want to go to church, but that is a subject for another sermon). Everyone will want to go there because God will solve all our disputes and teach us all to be peaceful. That sounds great – who would not want that?
Unfortunately, another thing Isaiah tells us this morning is that Gods house will be on the highest mountain. We can look at that as a logistical problem, because high mountains are difficult to scale. Or we can look at it as a source of hope, because God is in us and we are God’s house, so we will be big and majestic. Both ways of looking at it show us the grace of God, because only God can get us up that mountain, and only God can grow us into that mountain.
We can’t make it up the mountain by ourselves, but God won’t force us to go, either. We are the ones who need to show God that we want his help by taking the first step. We will fall on the way, of course. And then we need to get up and take another step so that God can help us go further. One of the ways we take the steps up the mountain is by avoiding potholes in the road. That is what Paul is talking about in our second reading this morning when he says: “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” That doesn’t mean we treat all the fun things in the world as bad – it means we treat them as good gifts of God by not abusing them by making everything about us and our wants. It means we share and do things in moderation and not try to substitute things and experiences for God.
We don’t always live like that, though. Maybe it is more true to say that we rarely live like that. That is why we can make it up the mountain and become that mountain only by the grace of God. God makes the way; we fall off the path. We admit we need help; God helps us back up. God shows us the way; we fall off the path. We admit we need help; God shows us the way. It goes on and on at least until we die, and who knows how much longer after that.
All of that takes perseverance, faith ,and constancy, but it is worth it, because the closer we are to that mountaintop, the more our disputes will be solved, and the more we learn peace. The more we grow into that mountain, the more we can teach people how to beat their spears into pruning hooks, because we will be doing it ourselves.
Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. We have made one step by being here, another step by listening to the scriptures, another step by praying, and we will soon take another one by being fed by God at God’s table. We will fall later – count on it. God will pick us up and take us further – count on it. But right now, let’s keep going a little further. We will learn peace, we will grow.   AMEN

Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
I have often thought that Ezekiel’s proclamation that we heard in our first reading of God’s absolution of children from the sins of their parents is incomplete. It is true that people are liable only for their own sins, but it is also true that many people suffer from the consequences of other people’s sins, including the sins of the people who came before them in the past. We can see that in children who were born of mothers who ingested dangerous substances during pregnancy. We can see it in generations of families caught in cycles of abuse. We see it in first world countries suffering from terrorists fueled by the hatred and frustration of people living in their former colonies that were pillaged by the earlier governments and business interests of those first world nations. We see it in the seemingly unsolvable racial problems caused by our own nation’s history of slavery. We see it in church denominations separated from each other because of the what seem to us to be trivial matters, but were seen in the past as issues important enough to split churches.

However, there is also the truth that just as children suffer because of the sins of their parents, we also benefit from the good things they have done. We live in a wonderful monastery associated with a wonderful denomination in a wonderful country because even though all of  the people who came before us in those institutions were sinners who sinned, they also did many good things of which we are reaping the benefits.
So we too must be careful in our actions. We are sinners who have, do, and will sin, and the people who come after us will suffer because of it. We must heed Ezekiel’s proclamation to repent and turn from our transgressions, and get new hearts and new spirits; to turn from our own selfishness and turn towards God, turning from death to life. We heard Paul talk about that in our second reading this morning, when he wrote to the church in Philippi to “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard each other as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” That doesn’t mean that we should not enjoy life here and now, but it does mean that we should enjoy it in such a way that it does not leave a mess for others to clean up after us.

Of course, most people do not do evil on purpose. It does happen occasionally, but that is a topic for another sermon. Most people do selfish things without thinking about it, because human society is selfish, and that is what we are used to. First world countries pillaged their colonies because that is what first world countries were expected to do. Large landowners in this country kept slaves, because that was how things got done. People split churches because they thought the issues of the time were important enough to do so. We just can’t think outside of our box, or culture, or zeitgeist, or whatever we want to call it, and that is why it is important to pray about our occasional big decisions, as well as our daily patterns of little decisions and behaviors. Everything we do will have an impact on future generations (even the most trivial things), and even though we can never be certain of the situations in which those generations will find themselves, we must always try to put ourselves in their shoes and see how our actions and decisions will affect their lives. We must base our lives on the desire to be a blessing to all, and when we do that, we will be ever more able to think outside our box, guided by the Holy Spirit.

We are responsible only for our own actions, but we are also responsible for the impact that those actions have on everyone else throughout time and space. May we act wisely and prayerfully, always as servants whose Lord of the Universe is servant of all.  AMEN

Exodus 19:2-8a
Romans 5:1-8
Matthew 9:35-10:23

Our scriptures today describe our job and what to expect as we perform it: our job is to bring people and God together, and we are to expect trouble while we try to do that. In our Old testament reading, God tells Moses to remind the Israelites of the dangerous path God has carried them through out of slavery in order that they might be a “priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” They were God’s chosen people, but not chosen because they were superior or to be superior; they were simply chosen to fulfill the task of transmitting the truth of God’s love to the world around them.

The gospel story this morning is about Jesus commissioning twelve people to travel around, bringing the loving, healing mercy of God to the people around them. Jesus warns the twelve that their message will be unpopular with some powerful people who will harm them, but to do their best to keep their message of hope alive. Like the twelve, we are still disciples of Jesus, and we still have the task of bringing God’s grace to our own world. Like the Israelites, God chooses us, not because we are superior or to be superior, but to humbly serve others as God’s priests: being channels of God’s love, joy, and peace to the world around us.

And so, just like the Israelites escaping from slavery and walking through the wilderness, and just like the twelve disciples upsetting harmful social and religious structures, we will encounter trouble as we live out our vocations as God’s ambassadors. One source of trouble is the fact that being associated with God in any way brings with it high expectations of moral behavior. We will all fail to meet those standards and so will be rightly branded as hypocrites, but it does not mean that we should not expect ourselves and others to strive for them. One thing we do need to work on is to have a better understanding of morality than the often encountered childish view of morality only meaning prudishness, but that is fodder for another sermon. But even the most pure and respectable disciples of Jesus will be offensive to many of the power-holders of our greed-driven culture, because by pointing to Jesus, the disciple points away from greed.

We in this building are not in much danger of physical abuse for following Jesus, unlike the people of Myanmar or Zimbabwe or North Korea. We are much more likely to be slowly numbed and seduced by the consumer culture around us, and to slowly substitute merchandise and military strength for God. We are prone to buy disposable, polluting items to try to fill our emptiness, rather than realize that God already fills us infinitely. We won’t have horrible persecutions that we can use to help us grow, as described by Paul in our second reading today. But we do have the choice of letting our daily minor trials and our occasional major catastrophes making us either bitter or sweeter. Choosing the sweeter option is not easy, but it does make our job as disciple of Jesus easier. We won’t always choose the sweeter option, at least not at first, but hopefully we will come around to it, and help each other choose it so that we may be better channels of God’s grace to our world, living out our vocations as a “priestly kingdom and a holy nation” as we travel the difficult road from slavery to our promised land, bringing as many others along as we can.   AMEN

Acts 2:14a,22-32
I Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

The Lord is risen indeed. It will be hard to forget that for the next forty-two days, because during that time, the altar will be fancier than usual, we will have a huge candle burning, and almost everything we say in this church will be followed by “Alleluia”. But even with all that, we will forget, and we much of the time we will act as if it never happened, because humans are forgetful. We will forget it even more as time goes by, so that next year we will have to have another Lent and Easter to remind us again. But even with a lifetime of Lents and Easters, we will still keep forgetting the fact that the Lord is risen indeed and we will act as if it never happened, because humans are forgetful. We forgot that we were not supposed to eat the fruit of one tree; we forgot that we are not supposed to make our own Gods, kill each other, or lie and steal; we forgot that we are supposed to have fair business practices and treat foreigners with respect. We forget that God lived a human life as one of us, died as one of us, and brings us to new life, making us more human than we ever were before.

But we forget, and we so often act as if it never happened. Peter reminds us of the Resurrection of Jesus and of our participation in it in our second reading this morning. He also warns us that even though Jesus has been resurrected, we have not. He reminds us that before we are resurrected, we must go through trials and death. That sounds more like something from Lent instead of Easter, Christmas, or any other time of year. It sounds like work, instead of celebration – like preparation instead of party. If we want to, we can shrink from our trials, but by doing so we only show our forgetfulness, because resurrection can only come after death.

Of course, hoping for hardship is not the way to go – God made a good world, and we should seek the goodness of it. Unfortunately, our own sinfulness and the sinfulness of others often covers up that goodness and brings us harm (that is the law of karma, if we are not afraid to call it that). The good news of Jesus is that God’s grace is more powerful than the law of karma, and even though we do so much to harm ourselves and others, and they do so much to harm us and themselves, God breaks the chain of pain by soaking it up himself and not passing it on. He also calls us to participate in his work of breaking the chain of sin and grief by taking a little of it into our own lives – not because it is good for us, but because it is bad for others, and as disciples, we are to do as the master does. As Jesus did not retaliate for his betrayal and torture and instead made something good out of it, so we are to soak up the pain around us and do all we can to heal the situation and the person committing the crimes, instead of trying to find quick and easy release by passing the pain on to others. Through this daily crucifixion of our own desire to find joy in others’ pain, God can, will, and does bring us to the joy of resurrection.

The Lord is risen indeed. That is too good to live as if it never happened. With every alleluia, every fancy candle, every act of self-control and love, may we announce it to the world and to ourselves. We will forget, because humans are forgetful. So we will keep hauling out the alleluias and fancy candles every year. Those other things that Peter talks about: suffering trials, faith tested by fire – we can do those things all year long.   AMEN

Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7
John 1:1-18

Christmas is filled with images of children: telling Santa Claus what gifts they want, waiting for Santa Claus to bring those gifts, opening the gifts, breaking the gifts, going to Grandma’s house, sitting at the kid’s table for Christmas dinner (usually a card table either stuck next to the end of the main table where the adults eat, or put in an adjoining room so the adults can eat in peace). Of course the main child image of Christmas is the Christ child, because he’s what the whole hassle is about, anyway.

Paul adds two more child images to our Christmas celebrations in our second reading today. Those image are of us humans – Children of God. He mentions that God gave us laws to live under in order to form us into adults, and then he says that God also adopted as children when God lived among us as our brother Jesus. That might not make sense, but no human words can ever fully explain God, and Paul was doing his best to make the incomprehensible comprehensible.

Maybe it could be put this way: God creates us to be his Children, God puts his stamp of approval on us by being one of us, and God further claims us (his natural children) by adopting us as doubly worthy of God’s name. That might not make sense either, but once again, human words can only go so far.

What it all boils down to is: we are God’s Children. As Children, we must grow. Contrary to what a lot of tv preachers and political candidates and people knocking on doors with Bibles say, becoming a Child of God is a beginning, not an ending. As Baby Jesus had to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and nursed by his mother, as kids at Christmas time have to wait for the gifts to come and Christmas dinner to be served, we have to admit our dependency on God. We also need to realize that growth is difficult and takes a lot of work, so we must be open to the things God gives us to grow and use them to our advantage with a minimum of whining. That is difficult, and I certainly don’t do it very well, but it is the only way to grow.

So while we are in this life, our vocation is grow, even though we will never be fully grown. This table up here is the kid’s table, even though the host is the King of the Universe, who chooses to feed his children himself, with himself. May we take what God gives us today with joy and gratitude, and may we be open to all the good gifts to come.   AMEN

Micah 3:5-12
I Thessalonians 2:9-13,17-20
Matthew 23:1-12

Micah was probably not a popular person. We heard him in the first reading today telling the truth, and the truth does not usually make one popular. He was letting people know that Israel and Judah had not lived up to their vocations as examples of God’s love to the world around them, so they were to be chastened and reformed by being conquered by surrounding empires so that they would learn to trust in God alone, rather than in their military, economic, or diplomatic prowess. The people around him did not want to hear that news. They liked the other prophets, who, for a small fee, would tell them that everything would be ok. There preference for lies over truth doomed them.

We tend to be like those people. We don’t want to hear the truth if it makes us uncomfortable. But if we do not admit the truth, no matter how frightening it is, we are doomed, just like Israel and Judah. We can’t ask God for help when we never admit anything is wrong. Humility can only work in an atmosphere of honesty.

Jesus talks about this subject in our gospel reading this morning. The scribes and Pharisees should have been leaders of the people, but they had stretched the proportions of that leadership to the point where they expected admiration from others whom they considered to be less worthy than them.

The scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’s story needed humility, not because they were worse than the people around them, but because they were just as good as everyone else. They were loved just as much by God as the people around them were. They did good things as well as bad things, just as much as the people around them did. Because they did not want to admit that they were just like everyone else, they were doomed, because that was the truth, and just like the people in Micah’s day, when we don’t face the truth, we are doomed.

The truth is: we are all wonderful, beautiful children of God, and so is every one else. We are no better or worse than anyone else. We are all equally worthy of the love of God and the people around us. Anytime we act otherwise, we doom ourselves to life in the hell of our own lies. Admitting the truth of our infinite worth as God’s children is just as important as admitting the truth of our failure to live up to that vocation. Only when we admit both can we ask God to forgive us for failing in our task to be God’s image. Only when we admit those same truths about the people around us can we live with them in peace.

Our job is to be the Body of Christ; the presence of God to the world around us. We don’t always do that job well. We don’t always forgive others when they don’t do it well. We must confess both of those failures and get on with the job. The truth sets us free. Lies bind us. Humility is the only cure; admitting that only God can help us be who we truly are.   AMEN