Sunday, December 27, 2015

Epiphany, celebrated on Sunday 3 January 2016

Note:  The ACANZP Lectionary 2016 provides for Sunday 3 January to be celebrated as either Christmas 2 (and Epiphany celebrated on its normal calendrical day, 6 January) or as Epiphany. The latter is chosen here.


Theme                  The width and breadth of the gospel     

Sentence             The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the         covenant in whom you delight is coming, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1b, NZPB p. 560)

Collect                  O God, by the leading of a star
                            you revealed your Son Jesus Christ to the gentiles;
                           grant that your Church may be a light to the nations,
                           so that the whole world may come to see
                           the splendour of your glory;
                           through Jesus Christ our Lord. (NZPB p. 560)
Readings                                             
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
                          Matthew 2:1-12

Rightly Matthew is described as the most Jewish of the gospels. Its interests in the law of Moses and Jesus' relationship to the law (e.g. 5:17-20) suggest a Jewish writer of a gospel whose primary audience are Jewish Christians. Yet this gospel, in keeping with the other gospels, has a wide vision of the kingdom of God. It is for Jews and for Gentiles. The first appearances of Gentiles in this gospel are in chapter 1 where Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Uriah, all Gentiles, feature in the genealogy of Jesus.* Today's gospel reading takes us to the second Matthean reference to Gentiles, the three wise men (Greek, magi: astrologers, sages) who come 'from the East.' Their coming to Jesus with gifts in order to pay homage is both an act of worship of one born to be king and the development of Matthew's gospel vision: the gospel is for all people, the kingdom of God includes Gentiles with Jews.

If we ask about the historicity of this visit, we have no other confirming details anywhere else in Scripture. For other parts of the birth narrative, Matthew links events to Old Testament prophecies (Mary's giving birth despite her virginity,1:23; Bethlehem as the birthplace, 2:6; the family's flight to Egypt, 2:15; the massacre of the innocent children, 2:18; growing up in Nazareth, 2:23). For some scholars this raises the question whether Matthew creates details in the story to match prophecies (with the purpose of developing the theme that Jesus is the (long ago predicted, much anticipated) Messiah/Christ.) But for the wise men, no such prophecy is brought forward by Matthew, even though, noting our Old Testament reading, at least one such reading is to hand. Isaiah 60:3 could have fitted neatly as a quotation in today's gospel reading, as could 60:6 with its mention of gold and frankincense! The situation is suggestive that a real visitation by strangers from the East took place, even if the manner of telling this part of the birth narrative drew on a passage such as Isaiah 60:1-6.

Isaiah 60:1-6, therefore, offers a background to the visit of the Magi: one day the glory of the Lord would shine in a specific manner, chasing the darkness away which covered the earth - a darkness, reading, e.g. Isaiah 59, occasioned by manifest injustice and unrighteousness. To this light, a light shining out of Israel, the 'nations shall come' (60:3). Represented by the three wise men and the star, this ancient prophecy about nations coming to the light is fulfilled. So, also we note, today is 'Epiphany', the manifestation of the glory of the Lord to the whole world.

Making Psalm 72 the psalm for this day is an astute lectionary decision. Originally, we believe, the psalm was composed for Solomon who, in his own way, was a shining star (of enlightening wisdom) to whom rulers of nations came for advice. But in the context of Matthew 2:1-12 in which the Magi come bearing gifts for a new king who will (among many attributes) be wise, this psalm reads very well, especially noting verses 10-11.

Ephesians 3:1-12 is a natural epistle reading to include in Epiphany readings. Its themes are the inclusion of the Gentiles, the making known of the mystery of God's will through revelation, the wisdom of God and the commission to make the gospel known to all. Where Matthew's Jesus eventually leaves his readers, with the Great Commission in 28:20, the apostle Paul continues on to fulfil that commission.

What then does a preacher say on such a day as this with readings so tightly bound together in relation to the significant Feast of the Epiphany yet so wide-ranging in themes? Options abound! 

Some are drawn to the details, such as the nature of the three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh and their implications for the future life of Jesus (myrrh being used for the anointing of dead bodies). Though here, in background notes, we must note the intriguing fact that Matthew makes no further mention of myrrh in relation to Jesus' death. Compare Matthew 27:34 (wine 'mixed with gall' is offered to Jesus before he is crucified) with Mark 15:23 (wine 'mixed with myrrh'); and the (absence of spices) burial according to Matthew 27:57-61 with the particular details of John 19:39 where Nicodemus' role in Jesus' burial includes 'myrrh.'

Options for preaching on these passages include themes of light, the universality of the gospel, the unfinished mission of Jesus (e.g. the 'darkness' still enshrouding the world today because of injustice and unrighteousness), and the wisdom of God embodied in Jesus.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Christmas 1, 27 December 2015

Theme: I must be in my father's house

Sentence: Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour (Luke 2:52).

Collect:

Heavenly Father, tender and compassionate,
create in us, your family, love so true and deep
that in this broken world
we may be a sign of unity.

Readings:

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Samuel was ministering before the Lord and grew in stature and favour with the Lord and with the people
Psalm 148 Praise the Lord!
Colossians 3:12-17 Clothe yourselves with Love and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
Luke 2:41-52 Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?

There has never been a child which has not given its parents some moments of anxiety. But few children have caused their parents anxiety by remaining in church longer than their parents! "Mum and Dad, stop talking to your friends, it's time to go home."

Jesus was clearly precocious. He not only had a striking devotion to being in his (heavenly) Father's house, he had an eager enquiring mind which sought out teachers, listened to what they taught and probed them with many questions.

Samuel, by contrast, took a role in devotion to God in the temple of his day due to his mother's striking commitment to God. In fervent prayer Hannah had pressed God to grant her a child, that prayer being answered, she now gave Samuel to the Lord, to be his temple servant. But something in Samuel's story catches Luke's attention: he draws on the impression Samuel made before God and the people to describe the impression Jesus made on God and the people (1 Samuel 2:26//Luke 2:52).

Our psalm overflows with praise to God. We could say it as part of our praise at Christmas time for the gift of Jesus Christ. We could also say it as an example of what constitutes the heart of temple worship, as experienced by Hannah and Samuel in one era and by Mary, Joseph and Jesus in another era: adoration of the Lord God of Israel.

Paul writing to the Christians in Colosse gives us a very rich or 'thick' passage: every verse yields a sermon (or two). Every verse is worth reading followed by a very long reflective pause. Do I understand that I am one of God's chosen ones, holy and beloved? If I understand that, have I clothed myself with compassion, kindness, etc? This is not some spiritual abstraction: with such 'clothing' we will bear with one another, forgive each other, doing so knowing we must because we are a frogiven people.

We could work through the remaining verses of the passage in this kind of slow way. Here we simply ask what connection we might find between this passage and the gospel reading? At least two connections spring to mind.

(1) When we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (v. 16), that word is the teaching of Christ which is grounded in a deep knowledge of the scriptures of Israel.

(2) For Jesus the temple in Jerusalem was a place of worship and of learning. Praise and preaching go hand in hand. Here in Colossians, Paul's exhortation to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly is a both/and instruction as he goes on in the same verse to write, 'teach and admonish one another in all wisdom and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.'

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Advent 4 - Sunday 20 Dec 2015 plus Xmas bonus

Note: this is a recycled set of notes from my very first post on this blog in 2012. Having now completed a three year cycle, I am not going to "reinvent the wheel."

20 December (Advent 4)  
Theme                God’s kingdom fulfils all God’s promises              
Sentence             p. 553 
Collect                p. 554 

Praise and honour to you living God;
your coming will be like a thief in the night,
like lightning flashing across the sky.
Grant that we may be ready,
and our hearts answer, Come Lord Jesus.
                           
Readings                                             
Micah 5:2-5a
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
                        Luke 1:39-45

There is a 'wow' factor when precise predictions are made which are later fulfilled. Micah predicts that Bethlehem will be the place of origin of the future shepherd king of Israel. The psalmist, by contrast, is predicting nothing but crying out to God as the shepherd king of Israel, 'Stir up your might, and come to save us!' (v. 2b). His prayer is answered by Micah's prediction coming true according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke which tell us the story of Jesus the shepherd king of Israel who is born in Bethlehem.

The reading from Hebrews offers a different perspective on the role of Christ. If Micah and Psalm readings lead us to think of Jesus Christ's role as shepherd king, this reading is about Christ as high priest. As shepherd king, Christ leads Israel to become a great nation, with the twist that this greatness is expressed through a vast international movement of Christians rather than through a restored militarily and politically independent country. As high priest Christ transforms the internal spiritual centre of Israel: no longer is it the Jerusalem Temple and the sacrificial system anchored to it, now it is Jesus Christ himself. The connection point (according to Hebrews 10:10) in this unfolding sequence from prayer to prediction, from prediction to fulfilment, from one way of being God's people to another way is 'God's will.'

God's will would be nothing at all if it were words predicting a future course of events which never came true. Luke's gospel from beginning to end is enthusiastic about God's will coming true, about the promises of God being fulfilled. Sometimes Luke demonstrates for us that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of ancient prophecies. Other times Luke show us that a promise or forecast at the beginning of Jesus' story is fulfilled later in that story. The end of our gospel reading takes us straight to this enthusiasm of Luke: Elizabeth, a kinswoman of Mary, herself pregnant with an unexpected yet promised child, celebrates Mary's pregnancy: it is a fulfilment of a promise made to Mary and she is to be blessed because she believed that promise. In these and other ways through the gospel, Luke hammers home to his readers the simple point, What God promises, he fulfils; what God wills, it comes to pass.

Our gospel reading stops short of Mary's famous song which we know as the Magnificat. That song is the national anthem (as it were) of the kingdom of God: in this kingdom the shepherd king acts to answer the prayer of the psalmist in Psalm 80, 'He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy' (1:54). But if our eyes continue to read through the whole of the gospel we find that through the coming of the baby born in Bethlehem, this kingdom is the fulfilment of all God's promises.

24 December (Midnight) and 25 December (Morning) 
Theme                The best news ever       
Sentence             NZPB p. 555
Collect                 

Christmas Eve service: NZ PB p. 555 

Son of God, light that shines in the dark,
child of joy and peace,
help us to come to you
and be born anew this holy night.
                               

Christmas Day service: NZPB p. 556 

Son of God, Child of Mary
born in the stable at Bethlehem,
be born again in us this day
that through us the world may know
the wonder of your love.     

Readings                                             
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
                        Luke 2:1-14

What kind of news drives the shepherds to leave their flocks in the middle of the night to race to a stable to worship a baby? To call the news 'good news' is accurate - that is the meaning of 'gospel' - but not very helpful. A better sense would be to call this news the 'best news ever.' All the good news in the world - the birth of a new baby, a promotion with massive pay rise, the All Blacks winning the World Cup three times in a row ("Come, 2019!!") - falls well short of the news which sets the shepherds racing to the stable. They hear the best news ever. We hear it too in our four readings. Isaiah, centuries ahead of the actual birth date of Jesus, celebrates the best king ever. The psalmist celebrates God as the best God ever and sneaks in a preview of God coming to earth. Paul writing to his friend and colleague Titus reminds him that what happened in the birth of Jesus was nothing less than the appearance of the generous, unconstrained love of God which brought salvation for all (v.11).

In Luke's gospel the angel announcing this best news ever says it is of 'great joy for all the people' (v. 10). There is that word 'all' again. What on earth could the best news ever be when it is best news for everyone?

Going back to Titus, Paul lays out this best news ever in terms of our relationship with God. What state is that relationship in for humanity? What state is that relationship in for you and for me? If all were well there would be no need for talk of salvation, for peace and goodwill. But all is not well. The relationship has been broken. Instead of peace there are wars between countries and bitter conflicts between individuals. Instead of prosperity for all there is a growing gap between rich and poor. Instead of sober, pure living we inhabit a world drenched with pornography and awash with liquor and drugs.

It is a wonder God has not washed his hands of us and left us to our own selfish devices. Or even wiped us from the face of the earth. That would be bad news. Instead we have the best news ever,

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.'

God is not deterred that we have rejected him and spurned his will for our lives. Instead God has entered our world, hiding his glory, taking on the ordinary life of a baby who will grow to be a man. That man will die on a cross a death which absorbs all the bad stuff so the rift between us and God can be healed. Only with that healing can the world itself be healed.

Each Christmas we pause to celebrate this gift from God full of possibility for a new world. The challenging edge to this message is what we are going to do about it for the next 364 days! Something or nothing?

Friday, December 4, 2015

Sunday 13 December 2015 - Advent 3

Theme(s): Facing judgment through repentance and without anxiety / Judgment / Repentance / Rejoicing in the Lord / The Unsurpassed Peace of God / Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff.

Sentence: Bear fruits worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8)

Collect:

God our strength and our hope,
grant us the courage of John the Baptist,
constantly to speak the truth,
boldly to rebuke vice
and patiently to suffer for the truth's sake;
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings:

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Psalm = Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

Comments:

Zephaniah 3:14-20

We are not often in Zephaniah in the three year RCL so let's make the most of it!

Background: Zephaniah is the 9th of 12 "minor prophets", the last twelve books of the Hebrew Old Testament. Zephaniah prophesies in the time of the reign of Josiah, reforming king of Judah (d. 609 BCE), in the period between the exile by the Assyrians of the northern kingdom of ISrael/Samaria/Ephraim and the exile by the Babylonians of the southern kingdom of Judah. Zephaniah accuses Judah of idolatry (1:4-7) and its officials and princes of dressing themselves "in foreign attire" (1:8). The "day of the Lord is at hand" (1:7) so Judah should listen and act accordingly.

Our passage, 3:14-20, looks beyond the day of judgment (15) to the salvation of "daughter Zion ... daughter Jerusalem" (3:14). This salvation includes the turning away of enemies (15), a renewed love relationship with the Lord (17), removal of disaster (18), dealing with oppressors (19), transformation of the lame and outcast (19) and restoration from exile (20). This last expectation may reflect a final editing of Zephaniah after the Exile of Judah (597/587 BC).

From our perspective, Luke 3:7-18, prophecies of this kind lie in the background to John's prophetic call to repentance in order to be ready for the Day of the Lord, a repentance which means a new way of living which anticipates the new situation of God's people as God brings salvation through Christ.

Psalm = Isaiah 12:2-6

In these weeks of Advent we are making our way through Isaianic visions of restoration (here: see references to "salvation", 2, 3) at the end of all things ("in that day", 3). The mood is one of peace or calmness that comes from knowing all will be well: "Surely, God is my salvation; I will trust and will not be afraid ... With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation", 2-3). The action is thanks and praise: this God who can be trusted, who brings salvation, let us "make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted", 3).

Philippians 4:4-7

In keeping with the thoughts expressed above about the Isaiah reading, Paul expresses sentiments of joy ("Rejoice ... Rejoice",4), non-anxiety (6), and confidence in God's unsurpassed peace (7).

We could also say, In keeping with thoughts expressed through these Advent readings, of trials and tribulation before the Second Coming of Christ, of preparation for the coming of Christ in the ministry of John, and (today) of preparation for judgment through repentance and change, Paul says some things which encourage us, especially if we are tempted to be anxious and fearful. Not at all, implies Paul, as he encourages us to "Rejoice in the Lord always" (note this is not generally "grin and bear it rejoicing" but "confident of who the Lord is, and of the Lord's love for us, rejoice!", to live in gentleness (and not the anger which comes from insecurity), to not worry about anything (again, not a "stiff upper lip, grin and bear, nothing worries me" but a "I am not worried because I have taken all possible concerns to the Lord in prayer".

Above all, Paul says, when we are aligned with God through our prayers, we will find the Lord gives his peace, unsurpassed peace and that, most importantly, as we face the future "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus".

Luke 3:7-18

If we read this passage feeling comfortable and self-satisfied then perhaps we have not actually understood the passage! John attacks the crowd who have come to hear him speak. He strays a long way from the guidance I would give in a Preaching 101 class on congregational rapport between preacher and people. "You brood of vipers" is not a chapter heading in How to Win Friends and Influence People. This vigorous message actually has a positive effect. After slam-dunking the crowd with a "You must repent NOW to avoid imminent judgment and, by the way, do not rely on your ancestry to see you through" message, they respond, "What then should we do?" (10, also 12, 14)

(That question, incidentally, is one every sermon should lead a congregation to ask.)

What the hearers should do is change their lifestyle. Sharing garments and food (11) is a new, communitarian way of life (as repeatedly encouraged through Luke and Acts). Tax collectors collecting tax (but no more than tax as prescribed by regulation) is a very new way of life for such agents of the Roman empire (13). Soldiers, seemingly underpaid, should stops extortion and learn contentment with what they have (14). What changes might we make to our lifestyles which demonstrate our readiness for judgment?

As the passage continues we get a sense that the crowd were as curious as to the (real) identity of John as they were to hear his invigorating message: "all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah" (15). John, however,  denies that he is the Messiah and clarifies that his role is to be a signpost to the Messiah. John baptizes with water, the Messiah will baptize with the Holy Spirit (16). Yet the Messiah will - relative to John and his message of judgment - also be a prophetic agent of God, sorting the wheat from the chaff (17). What a hearer of John would not have guessed from John's message about the Messiah sorting the wheat from the chaff is that this would not be through "action" so much as through "speech." Jesus will teach and preach a divisive message - divisive in the sense that people will accept/follow him or reject/conspire to kill him - and in this way the "wheat" (those who love God faithfully) will be separated from the "chaff" (those who are unfaithful to God).