I have been very blessed to hear from many of you about how much you appreciate and enjoy reading these sermons.  It is great to know that these things that I’m writing are not just sitting out here getting old and dusty in cyberspace!

So, the Sermon Blog will continue…but I’m moving it to a new address.  The new site will make it a little easier to read the sermons (larger font, black on white) and easier to search and organize the sermons now that there are more than 160 sermons on this site.  So, please update your RSS Feeds, your Subscriptions, and – most importantly – your bookmarks to the new address.

The new site can be found at http://TimsVoiceInTheWilderness.wordpress.com.

See you there!

Text: Matthew 11:2-11

Day: Advent 2A

Date: December 12, 2010

It was 1998 when my cousin, Scott, and I began our great trip to the West.  I had found myself a job working at a hotel at the Grand Canyon and Scott was headed out to L.A. where he was looking to make in-roads to the film industry.  So we loaded up his tiny, old, blue Toyota with all of our stuff (that’s right…everything that belonged to BOTH OF US fit in the trunk of his car!), and we took off across this great country.  Coming from Detroit, most of our trip was spent driving through endless farmland where rich, dark soil was pushing up dark green crops for miles and miles and miles.  But, of course, once we reached Colorado the scenery shifted dramatically.  It was wonderful, awesome and breath-taking!

But then we passed through Colorado and entered Arizona…after only twenty minutes or so, Scott finally said “Look at this place! How could anyone think this is beautiful?”  I looked around and was rather puzzled.  With the exception of the mountain majesty of Colorado, this was one of the most beautiful places we had seen on our long trip.  Scrub brush dotted the reddish-pink bluffs that seemed to shift colors with every passing view.  The sky above was so blue it seemed unreal.  When I looked around I couldn’t help but just be amazed at the shocking beauty of this place.  I turned to Scott and asked, “What are you talking about?” (as incredulous as I could sound).  Then he looked at me as though I were crazy and said, “Look around, Tim!  It’s barren, with nothing but hot sun beating down on these lifeless rocks for miles and miles and miles!”

I could understand why he said what he said.  But to my eyes it was beautiful.  For me, having already fallen in love with this part of the world, it was like coming home.  So I admit that my wonderment of the landscape was a little skewed by my experience.  In the end, though, I was struck by how we were looking at the same thing, but we talked about it in two very different ways.

Now, in today’s Gospel, we hear about John the Baptist yet again.  At this point he is in prison and so he has his disciples come to him periodically to tell him about the going’s-on in Palestine.  I imagine their report didn’t change much from week to week.  Every time they came to visit they said the same things: The Romans still ruled.  They still had to pay taxes to Caesar.  The Temple authorities still took advantage of the poor.  After a while of this, John gets fed up.  He had risked his whole life on the fact that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, after all – the one who would set the world to rights.  And yet nothing had changed!  And what’s worse: he was still in prison!  So, finally, he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask point blank whether or not he really was the anointed one or not.  Inquiring minds want to know!

When they arrive, they ask Jesus this question.  And I imagine that he looked a little taken aback.  I mean, here we are in chapter 11 of Matthew’s Gospel…hadn’t they read chapters 1-10?  Hadn’t they heard about what Jesus had done already? About what he had already said?  But no matter…Jesus still responds to their question.  But his response begins with a few very important words: “Go and tell John what YOU HEAR AND SEE.”  Then he lists off a bunch of things that really proclaim the heart of liberation and freedom and joy: blind people receive their sight, the ears of the deaf are opened, the poor have good news brought to them, the lame have been made strong, etc.  In other words, I think Jesus is suggesting that they look at the world around them with different eyes.  By doing so, they would understand that Jesus is in fact doing everything that is needed.  But it all depends on what one chooses to see and hear.

So, what do we SEE and HEAR?  This is a very poignant question for us today, I think, because – you see – the good news rarely seems to make news.  You know what I mean?  The newspapers and nightly news reports deal with shootings, tragedies, national security breaches, and things like that.  This is the stuff that makes the news…and it paints our world with a very particular brush.  One that makes many people look around at the world and ask “Look at this place!  How could anyone think this world is good and beautiful?”

To be fair, I can understand their position.  But – as a person of faith – as a person who believes that God creates this world and calls it “beautiful and good,” I think I am called to look at the world with different eyes.  I am called to look at the world and take the risk of pointing out where God is at work, where the transformative power of Jesus is at work, here and now.  And I am called to proclaim this – what I see and hear – to others who need to see and hear this good news, too.

So, what do we SEE AND HEAR?  How do we talk about what we SEE AND HEAR?  Do we see the ugly world around us, filled with despair and dread and fear? Or do we look with the eyes of faith and see a world that proclaims God even where God seems most absent?  What do you SEE AND HEAR that proclaims hope and joy?

I would like you to take a few minutes…turn to your neighbor, and share a news story with them.  Tell them something that you have SEEN AND/OR HEARD recently that has brought you hope and joy.

[Discuss this topic for a few minutes, then bring everyone back together to share some responses.]

Text:           Matthew 3:1-12

Day:           Advent 2A

Date:          December 5, 2010

Earlier this week, Eryn and I were talking about our childhood eating habits.  Most families have rules about meal time and ours were very similar.  You had to eat at the table.  What you see is what you get…there was never any “second meal option.”  And, of course, you had to eat what was on your plate if you wanted dessert.  These rules were pretty hard and fast, but for the most part I didn’t complain.  I have never really been a picky eater.  Sure, there are things that I would rather NOT eat, even today, but if it’s on my plate I usually feel obliged to dig in.  The trick, I learned early on, was to examine the meal ahead of time, and if there was something there that I knew I didn’t like, then I would shovel it into my mouth quickly right off the bat.  That way, it was just done and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.  At that point, I could enjoy the rest of my meal in PEAS.  (Groan!)

Anyway, like I said, I was never really a picky eater.  But the one food that I disliked more than any other when I was younger was the dreaded lima bean.  I dreaded seeing it tucked away inside that vegetable medley, trying to hide among the corn and peas and carrots.  But the lima bean is hard to hide.  First of all, it’s ugly.  To my young eyes, it looked like a big, sickly green grub that was almost too big for it’s own skin, which was pulled tautly around its fleshy interior.  And, of course, once you bit into the bean, that soft, fleshy interior exploded and coated your mouth with its disgusting innards.  And even then the pain wasn’t over, because after you swallowed, the bean still left a terrible taste in your mouth, making you dread your next bite.  The lima bean, I was convinced, was an ugly, evil, unpalatable creation of Satan.  But, again, if it was on my plate, I had to eat it.  And, as per my usual, it was the first thing to go so that I could just enjoy the good stuff that followed.

Now, I know that I’m not the only one to do this.  Many of you might be like me and when you encounter something you dislike – whether it’s lima beans, or homework, or some kind of task at work – you try to get it over with as quickly as possible, right?  Sure.  That way, it’s just done and you can move on, enjoying the good stuff the rest of the day has to offer.

Well, have you ever noticed that the Gospel writers all put John the Baptist in right at the beginning of their Gospels?  Every one – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – have stories about this wild and crazy man.  He is obviously an important character, one that must be mentioned whether they like it or not…but none of them spend a whole lot of time talking about him.  At most, he gets a chapter or so, and then he’s done, out of the picture to make way for Jesus.  All this makes me wonder whether the Gospel writers had the same M.O. for dealing with unpleasant things as I did.  Maybe, just maybe, we’re supposed to understand John the Baptist as the “Lima Bean of the Gospels.”  And the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

First of all, let’s face it: he’s ugly.  It’s not easy for a man to hide or to fade into the background when he’s wearing smelly camel’s hair…and especially when he’s got locust breath!  (And I thought lima beans were bad!  Ugh!)  But that’s how he’s described…as a man, who lives out in the wilderness, eating and wearing whatever he happens upon.  Kind of like a first century hippie – patchouli odor and all!

But that’s not the only thing that makes him unpalatable: his message is distasteful.  You don’t find a whole lot of comfort or gentle words coming from this man.  Rather, he enters the scene crying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!”  And then Matthew records his message even further: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” he continues.  “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  ¹¹I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me…His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!”

Now, if that message doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth, I don’t know what would!  All in all, I think we’re supposed to not like this man very much.  He’s brash, unyielding, and even offensive.  Not exactly what we’re wanting to hear, especially as we are approaching Christmas.

Surely you have noticed the dichotomy: that in the world out there Christmas music is playing happily, lights are twinkling merrily, and presents are starting to make their way around the bejeweled Christmas trees in our homes.  It is hard not to get caught up in the joyful flavor of this holiday.  But then, you come here…to church…where you might expect this flavor to be enhanced…and instead you are being forced to swallow this distasteful message of John the Baptist.  A message that confronts us with our need for repentance.  A message that sets our teeth on edge as he points out that our priorities are not always where they ought to be.  That is a hard pill to swallow for sure!

But it’s there…it’s on our plate…which means that we can’t avoid it.  In a very real way I think we have to take this message in in order to enjoy the good stuff to follow: namely, the coming of Christ our King.

And I think that might be the genius of these Gospel writers.  They know, they understand, they see the importance of this unruly man named John the Baptist…and they don’t avoid him.  They serve him up and force us to take those unpleasant bites of humility, repentance, and confession: things we would rather not touch, for sure.  But, in doing so, we find that even in this distasteful message there is the slightest scent of hope…the faintest whiff of something better to come.  “One is coming after me,” he says.  “I am NOTHING compared to him.”

Christ is coming, he seems to say…but you can’t have dessert without eating everything else on your plate first.

So as you prepare for the great feast of Christmas this year, let me give you a word of advice – from one child of God at the dinner table to another: when God puts that heaping helping of John the Baptist on your plate, just get it over with first…shovel it in, chew on it, digest it.  You might not like it, it might leave a bad taste in your mouth, but I promise it will make your Christmas that much sweeter.

Amen.

Text: Matthew 24:36-44

Day: Advent 1A

Date: November 28, 2010

It was just about two years ago when I learned a new phrase to be included in the NEVER SAY THIS AGAIN category.  It was “If there’s anything you would like me to do while you’re gone, Dear, just make a list.”  This unfortunate combination of words was uttered just before Eryn left to go be with her mom in Arizona for a few days.  I was staying behind because things here at work demanded my attention, but I thought I could be helpful.  I thought I might be able to do a few… simple things around the house while she was gone.  You know…I was trying to be a good husband.

Well, it didn’t take long for her to jump on that invitation.  She scribbled the list out while she was packing and left it innocently on the table for me to see later on.  Then we said our goodbye’s, and she departed saying, “I’ll see you in four days!”  I saw her off, shut the door and turned around.  My eyes took in the bachelor’s castle that lay before me.  Just me and the dogs for four days!  In an instant I thought of all the things I could do.  I could watch all the football I wanted!  I could cook myself a beautiful medium-rare steak for dinner!  I could stay up as late as I wanted, or go to bed as early as I wanted!  It was Tim-Time!  But first I wanted to see what few things Eryn had left me to do…

“Do the laundry; wash the dishes; sweep and mop the floors; cut the grass; dust the house; buy more dog food; water the house plants; vacuum the rug; take out the garbage and the recycling; reverse climate change; solve world hunger,” and on and on and on it went.  The list seemed endless!  But I knew she wasn’t coming home for four days…surely I could put it off, I thought.  And so I did.  I put off all the work until the last day like the true procrastinator that I am, and then I did it all in one fell swoop.  Still, I thought, I will never ever ask Eryn to make me a To-Do List again!

In this case, everything worked out in the end, I’m happy to say.  But now, two years later, I find myself dwelling on the “What If” question…what if I hadn’t known when Eryn was returning?  What if she had left me this long list and said, “I’ll see you soon” as she walked out the door?  How would I have reacted then?

Perhaps the reason this “What If” question is clouding my mind is because this seems to be exactly what Jesus is doing in our Gospel reading today.  For quite a while now in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been telling his disciples of his imminent departure, and – for quite a while now – Jesus has been wondrously vague as to when he would be returning.  Appropriately, then, the disciples keep asking, keep prying, keep trying to get Jesus to give them his final itinerary.  As we near the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the questions seem more and more urgent, but Jesus – it seems – keeps evading the questions.  Finally, in today’s reading the disciples get an answer, but it was not the answer they had been looking for.

“Jesus, when will these things take place,” they seem to ask yet again.

“About that day and hour,” Jesus finally replies, “no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  In other words, this is like the first century version of a Schwarzenegger’s famous “I’ll be back,” with no referent as to WHEN.

So, now the disciples find themselves in quite a quandary.  After three years of following Jesus, they now were responsible for the biggest, most important To-Do List in the world.  “Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you; do unto others as you would have them do unto you; do not judge; give to everyone who asks of you; heal the sick; bind up the broken; love God and your neighbor as yourself; be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  Hardly a list that could be completed overnight.  But Jesus didn’t give them any kind of a deadline.  He never tells them when this stuff should be completed.  He just expects them to have done these things by the time he returns!

Now, put yourself in their shoes…no, wait…you already ARE in their shoes!  You, too, have been given this ultimate To-Do List with the expectation that you will do these things that Jesus taught.  You, too, have been charged with the responsibility to continue in his footsteps.  And you, too, have no idea when he is coming back.  And neither do I.  And neither does anyone else, even if they might tell you differently.  So, now what?  Should we just sit back and relax?  Should we spend all of our time worrying and fretting, and even trying to predict when Jesus will return?  I hardly think Jesus would look favorably on that.  Rather, we should should just start doing what Jesus has asked us to do, and we should start NOW.

If you’re at a loss for where to begin, I invite you to consider taking part in things that are happening here in this congregation already.  The Mitten Tree is up in the narthex, so you could care for the poor by bringing simple winter items – hats, scarves, gloves, mittens – and placing them on the tree.  The Food Banks in town are always in need of extra food around the holidays, so you could care for the hungry by bringing non-perishable food items and placing them in the Storehouse Box in the entryway OR actually volunteering at the Food Banks themselves.  We always see an increase in people coming to the church asking for help in the winter months, so you could help the lost, the broken, and the hurting by donating gift cards to the church that could be given away to those in true need.  And, of course, there are always people around and within our congregation that could use prayer, so you could help them – the grieving, the sick, the hospitalized, and the recovering- by joining the prayer chain of our congregation.

The point is, we have things to do NOW, and Jesus is inviting us, calling us, pleading with us to start doing them NOW.

This is the call of Advent.  The season of the church year when we prepare, when we work, when we get ourselves and our world ready for the Coming or Advent of the Son of Man.  It is no small task, though.  This To-Do List is long and difficult.  This To-Do List requires all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our treasures.  It requires our very lives.

Nonetheless, Jesus has invited us to this challenge and assured those who start this work that in giving their lives they will find life.  This, then, is the time of year when we are invited to actually do it…to actually prepare for what and who is to come.  If you’re like me, we are encouraged to put away our procrastinating habits and get started.  We are called to keep awake, keep alert, keep watch.  The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour, after all…but the Son of Man IS COMING BACK.  So…let’s get started.

Text:           Jeremiah 23:1-6

Day:           Christ the King C

Date:          November 21, 2010

The year: 1989.  I was in my sixth grade science class where we were studying world geography.  My teacher had just given us a big assignment – we had to choose any country in the world and do a research project to find out all about it: language, economy, government, currency…everything.  If there was more than one person who chose any particular country, the teacher explained, those people would simply work together as a group.  Almost immediately, the two girls sitting next to me let out high-pitched giggles of excitement as they determined that they would work together to study France.  A few other teams were made quickly, but most of the people in class (me included) looked around the room with a panicked expression on their faces.  The teacher had said it: GROUP WORK.  Two words that I had learned to greatly dislike, even by sixth grade!

In a rare stroke of brilliance, however, my little sixth grade mind figured out a way to get out of the dreaded group work: I could choose a country that no one would have ever heard of, and then it would be mine…all mine!  I scoured through the world atlas in my book, suddenly amazed by the huge list of countries that lay before me.  “Saudi Arabia?” I thought…No, too much in the news.  “Ghana?”…no, I just overheard somebody else talking about it.  And then I found it…my country…my nation…my own little project focus: Djibouti!  A tiny little country near the horn of Africa, wedged inconspicuously between Ethiopia and the Gulf of Aden.  It was perfect!  Surely no one else would choose such an out-of-the-way country with such an intimidating (albeit, pretty humorous) name!

But, of course, I was in middle school…and what more do middle schooler’s want if not to be out-of-the-way loners, right?  So, when it came time to announce our countries of choice I discovered that I was one of five other people who had chosen this tiny little nation as my project!  FIVE OTHERS!  This was terrible!  I had to work in a group now!

You see, the problem I had learned with group work was that it never worked the way I thought it should.  Obviously, people should listen to me and my instructions (timid though I was), and then everyone should actually DO the work they’re supposed to do.  But this never happened…instead, everyone had their own idea of what was right.  Everyone did their own thing and when it was put together, it was all repetitious, disjointed or incoherent.  Nobody trusted anyone else on the team.  It was like a bunch of inexperienced leaders all trying to rule the group themselves.  In the end, everyone suffered.

Little did I realize at the time that this is, of course, a pretty common experience.  Teenagers throughout the years have always had to go through this rite of passage called Group Work…it is character-building, they say; it builds camaraderie; and it supposedly gives birth to crucial leadership skills.  But what happens when your group is led by selfish, belligerent, hard-hearted, narcissistic people who don’t care about anyone but themselves?  Worse yet…what if these were the characteristics of a king and the group was his kingdom?

This is the set up for our reading from Jeremiah this week.  God had tried to warn the people that this would happen, but they wouldn’t listen.  You see, after the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for forty years after coming out of slavery in Egypt, they came into the Promised Land and set up a bunch of, well, let’s call them districts.  Each one was led by a group of judges or elders.  It was a very loose, but well-run kind of governmental system.  Ultimately, though, the people wanted a king.  Why?  Well, because everyone else around them had one!  They thought it would be better to have one person in charge of the whole area, that all of the tribes could come together and pool their gifts and resources, and they could be a great nation, too!  And so it happened.  Soon they had themselves a king who united the Israelites.

And, I should say, it worked pretty well for about two hundred years.  But then things started getting out of hand.  Everyone, it seemed, had their own idea of what the king ought to do to run the country better: lower taxes, raise taxes; build cities, build up the military; sign a treaty with Assyria, sign a treaty with Egypt; purify the temple, stop meddling in the religious life of the people.  It didn’t matter what the king did…he was going to be disliked by somebody.  And perhaps that’s how it all started to unravel…the kings just started disregarding everybody.  They just did what seemed best to them and let everyone else fend for themselves, and eventually the whole group suffered because of it.

You see…just more proof that group work has never worked!  Even in a nation that was full of God’s own people, individualism and narcissism and selfishness still ruled!  And even still today we haven’t quite learned how to break this cycle.  Often we get too absorbed in our need for control or power or preservation of self, so that we can’t see how our actions ultimately affect everyone else.

I think if we learn anything from the history of the kings in Israel it is that we cannot wield Kingship (or Queenship, if you prefer).  As soon as we try to be the perfect leader, as good as our intentions may be, we find ourselves bombarded by pressures on every side.  From there it is a quick downward spiral.  I’m sure you’ve seen it…some of you might have even experienced it yourself.  The fact is: it’s not easy being King.

I think that’s ultimately what the texts today are getting at.  It’s a pretty strange mix of readings, though, don’t you think?  Here on Christ the King Sunday – a day when we celebrate the ONE AND ONLY GOOD KING THAT EVER WALKED THIS EARTH – and we read texts about shepherds and the crucifixion!  We read nothing about riches or power or good speaking skills or any other quality we typically think of when we ponder Kingship.  Instead, we get the opposite!  We get pictures of a King who gives himself away for others; a King who leads by word and example; a King who is strongly gentle; a King who loves enough to die for me and you.  And this is supposed to be the picture of the perfect King?  Really?  I certainly don’t fit that bill very well…and, by the way, you don’t either?  Does anybody?

And here I think we’ve reached the point of these texts.  If this is the picture of Kingship in the Kingdom of God, then we must admit that we are not kings or queens.  Rather, if the King is a shepherd, then we are the sheep.  If the King is a Teacher, then we are the students.  If the King is the Master of the House, then we are the slaves.  If the King is the Leader of the Group, then we are…well…the groupies.  If the King is Christ, then – as Martin Luther used to say – we are “Little Christs.”  By looking honestly at the basis of our faith, none of us can claim to be the ultimate leader.  Rather, we find that we are all part of the same group – disciples, students, slaves, sheep – all organized and led by one benevolent, loving, divine leader…Christ the King.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.