Righteousness, Mercy, and Humility (Epiphany A4)

You mortals, the LORD has told you what is good. This is what the LORD requires from you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly with your God*

These statements are radical to us. As a whole the statements of Micah, the ethics of the psalmist and the blessings of Jesus are all counter intuitive. Righteousness is foreign. Our sinful nature cannot really accept perfection as a real possibility. Human wisdom while searching for Good still cautions, "Nice guys finish last."

But Jesus at the end of the chapter sums it up: "Be holy as your father in heaven is holy."

Righteousness and holiness are the order of the day.

Paul brings two important truths into focus: this is not the wisdom of the world, nor is it the work of man that any should boast.

It is our weakness and destitution that reveal the glory of Christ in perfection.

Righteousness. Mercy. Humility. They stand as a quaint hermitage in our lives. Do we really believe them attainable? Put together they go beyond the list of external don'ts common to my holiness roots. This is a tender and merciful and heart perfected through discipline and most of all grace.

Lord break me open and let your grace make a perfect heart, humble and compassionate.

Thoughts on fishing for men

So often our idea of fishing for men involves the entrapment of lures. The kind of fishing the disciples were used to was the harvesting of a ripe sea.

Fishing is essentially pulling the fish out of the water and killing them. Fishing for men involves throwing them into water and killing them.

I know my thoughts here have little to do with what the disciples heard from Jesus, but my own concepts need to be challenged sometimes. The fishing for men is like a mixing of metaphors anyway with this week's emphasis on light. I so like the imagery of gazing at the Lord, my light and my salvation, that I'll probably focus on that this week.

Then again, I betray my aversion to my evangelical roots of lures and worms. I like to focus on growth in intimacy… the effect the light has on a soul. But still there is the ripe sea teaming with those who walk in darkness.

Lord I pray that the light in my soul will shine, and I will not keep it bottled in a selfish desire to keep you to myself. Remind me that in spreading the light, my intimacy with you does not decrease, but rather I learn to find you in greater measure.

the Great Light! (Epiphany A3)

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." The Gospel gives the fulfillment of the prophecy. Even the place-the repopulated people near Galilee have seen the great light in Jesus and his ministry.

David declares the Lord is my light! With beauty and longing he says

"One thing I ask of the LORD ,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple."

Paul is harder to figure out in the lectionary context. After talking about the baptism of the Lord and the aftermath, "he says I am glad that I didn't baptize" and "the Lord didn't call me to baptize." Eugene Peterson put it, the lord "didn't call me to gather a following for myself." That seems true to the meaning Paul was getting at. He apparently saw salvation effected through the gospel, not baptism. The message he preached was not one of logic and rhetoric, not one of sound philosophy, but a ridiculous truth that salvation comes through the torture and death of the savior.

Here is where we come back to the light of Christ. The wisdom of the world makes sense with all its logic and rhetoric, Socratic method and Platonic depth, but the wisdom that is out of this world must be experienced, must be gazed at, must light up our whole being brining to wholeness in its wake.

the seeking disciple (Epiphany A2)

One peculiarity to John's Gospel is his glimpse into the lives of the men who would become the disciples. Mark emphasizes Jesus' authority as he walks along the sea and calls to the fishermen to follow him. No questions, no conversation, no hesitation, they follow.

John presents us with seekers. Followers of The Baptist who are anxious to see this Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, follow Jesus. John becomes less as he sees the One and says look there he is! His disciples leave and follow Jesus.

Jesus turns around and asks, "What are you looking for?"

What was going through their heads? What are we looking for? Just what John said to look at, the long awaited messiah? Are you he? What will happen now? So many questions.

"Rabbi, where are you staying?"

That's all they could muster, but their meaning is clear. We will follow you anywhere. There excitement is palpable as they find their friends and bring them to see Him.

What kind of commitment are we offering him? What will we do?

Though lest we become wrapped up in the doing and devotion, the Psalm reminds us there is nothing we can do to ransom our lives. Seek you seeker! for your salvation rests in the grace of this One.

The Redeemer (Epiphany A2)

Redemption, salvation, sanctification and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, these words hold the same meaning. Rich and expressive, the readings give us a glimpse at the beginning of his ministry what the end will be.

Those called by him are purchased by a great price, too great for any rich man. It is interesting that the Psalm ends before the psalmist expresses his confidence that God will redeem his life from the grave. The reading offers us only the understanding that death is final and beyond the bribe of any man. We are set up for our need for a savior and how great the price will be.

Isaiah points out that Jesus-the servant of God-is too valuable to be only for one people. All the world will benefit from the salvation of this Redeemer.

Those who heard John's words, "look the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," followed him only to find him calling them to follow on. We too are called, set a part to be holy.

A Baptism of Death (Baptism of Christ A)

Today my thoughts are on the Tsunami.

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

My soul cries two responses as I meditate on the Tsunami. I hope the first is common for those who belong to Christ: compassion and sorrow. The second response I have shuddered under is the transcendent majesty of God.

Storms have always spoken to me of the power and bigness of God. I have always enjoyed sitting in a safe place and watching lightening flash. I have no qualms seeing God's hand in the devastation. Because, I think, I don't try to say why he does what he does.

Is it Judgment? Is it some great purpose? No, that is trite. It is God, the LORD. And I fall on my face and worship.

Nathan Nettleton preached a sermon last Sunday that I think I will modify for this week. One of the things he said is,

"Perhaps when water is flung at us in a few minutes to remind us of our identity as those who have been buried in the deep waters of death with Christ perhaps this week we'll have a little more sense of what a serious matter it isto go under the deep waters of death."

The LORD and the Baptism (Baptism of Christ A)

"I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other"

It strikes me that on this day, a day for remembering Christ's baptism and our own, that all the readings besides the Gospel focus so much on God as LORD. The un-nameable self-existent one, the all-powerful Jehovah, the one God is due all praise and honor and glory!

Peter calls to the house of Cornelius, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all."

This, the One Who Exists, who does not share Glory, at the baptism of Jesus says "This is my Son."

My tradition practices believer baptism. In keeping with our view of the ordinances of the church being symbolic in nature, we see it as a ritual public expression of faith. This is why the symbolic force of immersion, as death and resurrection are so important to us. As one textbook on theology points out, we only do it because we are told to. It is not regenerative.

That does not satisfy me. My friends who practice infant baptism look at things differently. For Father John, it marks the beginning of Christian life and salvation to the child. To my Lutheran friend, Cliff, it means the Holy Spirit has entered the child's life to lead them to salvation.

If I could truly hold to either of those ideas, I would readily change my practice. And I wish I could, because I long to touch the mystical truth of Baptism. There is much here to grapple with and perhaps this week will not bear my questions.

All I know is that somehow this onetime act identifies us with Christ's death and resurrection. God accepts those who fear him and do right, but how this purification works and why it only has to be done once I don't know. For Christ it meant fulfilling all righteousness, but I, like John don't know why he did it.

But he did it, and the LORD was pleased.