Sermon on Matthew 11:2-15

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Who is this Jesus guy, anyway?

Is this the Messiah or should they wait for someone else?

How can they tell?

John the Baptist sends one of his followers to find out. John can’t go himself, because he’s been imprisoned. A lot has happened since last week’s reading where John was baptizing people in the wilderness and declaring that the Reign of God had come near.

Now, he’s not sure if it’s Jesus he was waiting for and preaching about or someone else. So, he sends someone to ask for him.

When John’s disciple finds him, Jesus doesn’t come out and say, “Yes, I’m the Messiah” or show him his heavenly ID card. Instead, he lets his actions speak for themselves—he sends back an account of what’s happening around him:

“the blind receive their sight,

the lame walk,

those with a skin disease are cleansed,

the deaf hear,

the dead are raised,

and the poor have good news brought to them.”

It’s like Jesus is saying, “You want to know if I’m the one you’ve been waiting for? Look around—is this what the Reign of God will look like? If you’re looking for hope, peace, joy, and love, then yes, this is what you’ve been waiting for.”

Then, Jesus turns to the crowd who is listening to all of this, and he starts talking about John the Baptist.

He asks the crowd why they used to go see John to be baptized.

The Christian understanding of baptism is different from what people went to John for. Jesus’ audience understood baptism as a cleansing, something that could be done periodically for one’s spiritual wellness. It wasn’t something that happened once for all time the way we understand it.

So, Jesus asks them why they came. Was it to see “a reed shaken by the wind” or “someone dressed in soft robes”?

If Jesus were talking to us today, he might have said something like:

“Did you come to see some popular guru who talks of peace and love but is swayed by every passing fad?

Or did you come to see a celebrity influencer in all their Gucci glory but who’s actually just a disciple of wealth and status?

Or a politician who’s busy smiling for the camera and telling people what they want to hear without any intention of following through?

No, you came to see a prophet—someone who speaks hard truths and sees the world for what it really is.”

Jesus is reminding them that they came to see John because they wanted someone not to make them feel better about themselves. And they didn’t want a ruler who would dictate their lives.

They wanted to be cleansed and to hear truth.

Just like John the Baptist and his disciple, Jesus’ audience isn’t really sure how Jesus fits into all of this.

Jesus uses their hopes for John to illustrate that John was not the ending point in their search. John was pointing to Jesus the whole time. He is the Elijah figure, the (more than) prophet who points to how God is working in the world. And at that very moment, God was working in Jesus to bring healing and hope to the most vulnerable.

How could they tell? The same way Jesus tells John’s disciple:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see:

the blind receive their sight,

the lame walk,

those with a skin disease are cleansed,

the deaf hear,

the dead are raised,

and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Now, these signs are complicated. There are plenty of people with disabilities who would say that they don’t need “healing”—and indeed, if this is you, you are whole and good just as you are. Perhaps “good news” would be that the world becomes accessible, inclusive, and equitable in a way the world isn’t right now.

One way or another, Jesus is pointing to the way the world is being transformed around him. He’s pointing to the fruits of the Reign of God. Jesus’ tangible signs are a far more powerful witness than empty words. Jesus is adjusting their expectations of what to expect in the upside-down Reign of God. Yes, John was pointing to Jesus, but Jesus is pointing to the Reign of God.

The crowds weren’t going to the wilderness to see John the Baptist because they were hoping for someone with power and prestige, so why would they expect those things from the Messiah?

They weren’t going to John the Baptist for easy answers, so why were they expecting them from Jesus?

They didn’t really understand the nature of the Reign of God, so Jesus was trying to show them what it was like.

It’s hard to grasp what the Reign of God will look like. That’s one of the many reasons why we need Jesus—to show us, just as he pointed to what was going on around him to show John’s follower, that Jesus is, indeed, who we’re waiting for.

One of the ways we see what the Reign of God is like is through baptism.

Baptism is one of our sacraments—a way we see God’s work in the world through tangible things—in this case, water.

God knows we’re physical creatures who need physical signs of what’s going on spiritually. The coolness of water, the feel of its light wetness, the sound of droplets—all of this helps us feel God working in our lives.

Baptism is a glimpse into the Reign of God. In baptism all are equal and precious. There is no hierarchy, no merit or accomplishment that makes one worthy of baptism. It is a gift from God.

God freely bestows it on us, because God loves us. God makes us part of God’s family, knits us together with all of our siblings and ancestors in faith.

Being part of the Reign of God means being connected to others, being part of something bigger than oneself, and living in a way that treasures every person as the glorious image of God they are.

Baptism is a way we can see that happening.

When someone is baptized, like little Zoe was at The Table a few weeks ago, they are wrapped in community like a blanket. They are clothed in the vision of the upside-down Reign of God. They are simultaneously held in God’s love and sent out in hope to spread that love wherever they go.

Baptism is a gift, a promise, and a fulfillment. It is God’s gift to us, it is a promise that the Reign of God will be complete one day, and it is a glimpse into the fulfillment of that promise everyday.

So, next time you shower or wash your hands, remember that you belong to the Reign of God—it is God’s gift to you. And take a moment to think about how God is working in the world around you. What good news are you seeing and participating in? What is the Reign of God that you’re waiting for like? How do you see glimpses of it today?

I invite you to make the sign of the cross on your forehead and say to yourself, “God’s gifts are all around me.”

Hold onto that gift, that promise, today and every day.

First Lutheran Church

December 4, 2022 + The Second Sunday in Advent (A)

Isaiah 2:1, 3-4 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. … He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Isaiah 11:1, 6-10 1A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.. …6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Matthew 3:1-31In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ”

Sermon

“Visualizing the Kingdom”

Pastor Greg Ronning

Today’s appointed Gospel for the Second Sunday in Advent exhorts us to prepare for the coming of Christ!  John the Baptist, that voice in the wilderness cries out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

So it is, we are called “to prepare.”  I don’t know about you, but I don’t really get excited about preparing for things.  I can be a little lazy at times, I can procrastinate, and I’m not really afraid of “flying by the seat of my pants.”Being disciplined is not really one of my strongest suites, and honestly, I just don’t find the work of preparation very exciting.  Yet, I know it is important, even crucial, to taking advantage of the moments in life that come our way. As Thomas Edison once said, “Good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”

So, how do we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas? 

Well, the Christmas part is easy, - well at least easy to understand and define.  To be ready for Christmas is to clean and decorate your house, buy presents for loved ones, bake Christmas treats, make travel plans, and keep your calendar with all your Christmas events clearly marked and up to date.  That’s how you prepare for Christmas.   But preparing for the coming of Christ is really - a wholly different thing!

To be ready for Christ means to prepare “our hearts, our minds, and our souls” for something that is life changing, even disruptive.   Christ comes into this world with the Kingdom “to make all things new,” to give us an abundant life, and to inspire us in our divine calling in service to the Kingdom of God.  To be ready for the coming of Christ is to engage in nothing less than the really big questions of life, the questions of meaning and purpose, the questions of peace and justice, the questions of love and ultimate concern.  Something that’s just not as easy for which to prepare.

As I was reading last Sunday’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah, something jumped out and got my attention, something I read gave me a new insight into how one might prepare for the coming of Christ.  Isaiah chapter two, verse one reads, “The word that Isaiah son of Amozsaw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”Note that in this particular instance, the prophet Isaiah did not “hear” the word of God, but rather he “saw” it!  Isaiah had a powerful “vision.”  And as they say, “Seeing is believing.”  And as the writer of proverbs tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish;…”(Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

It struck me in that moment, that one of the ways we prepare for the Coming of Christ, is by “seeing,”by “visualizing,” the coming of Christ, and the Kingdom of God.  We prepare for Christmas in the season of Advent by engaging our Holy Imagination.As Pastor Jennifer proclaimed last week, “God gave us imaginations for a reason!”  So it is, we are called to engage the wonderful “visions” of heaven described by the prophets, with our “own holy imaginations,” and in doing become active participants, ushering in the kingdom of God - right here, right now!   Too often all we see is the overwhelming problems, the hopelessness of the times, and the limits of the human condition.  We need to replace those fearful “visions” with a “faithful”“holy” vision, in order that we might have a clear picture of where God is leading us, and to what we have been called to do!

As some of you know, I like to golf.  I really like to golf. And professional golfers, and their sports psychologists, will tell you that one of the most important parts of hitting a good golf shot, - is “visualizing” the shot.  You need to clear your mind of every distraction and imagine the whole shot, from start to finish.There’s a great scene in the golf movie, “The Greatest Game Ever Played” that depicts this process.  The scene takes us into the mind of the English golfing legend Harry Vardon, as he prepares to hit his tee shot, in the 1913 US Open.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpOhUo9DYk)

That’s how you do it!  That’s how you prepare for a golf shot, you imagine away all the distractions, you “see” the perfect shot, and then you do it!

*One more time, this is how good golfers like Harry Vardon, Tiger Woods, and Bob Carver play golf. Before they swing, they prepare by visualizing the perfect shot.  *They don’t see the tree that seems like it’s right in the way.  *They don’t have any concern for the water,(because they are not trying to hit it in the water.)*They are not concerned about the road and the trees on the left.  *All they see is the fairway, a big wide-open target.

Once again, “visualization”is the key to hitting a good shot, it’s critical.But even more important - is “what” you visualize!

Unfortunately, that’s my problem.  I can visualize my golf shot, but not in a helpful way.  My pre-shot routine, my preparationlooks more like this.  I step up to the tee box and I immediately become fully aware of all the potential problems that exist.  *I immediately see the tree.  *I notice the water, and by thinking about it, I bring it into play.  *And of course, I’m not going to let the road and trees on the left go unnoticed.   And suddenly, I can’t even begin to see the middle of the fairway!  I have only visualized all the problems, everything that might go wrong; and at this point, what will most likely - go wrong!

*The prophets of Advent, like great golfers, were able to confidently and correctly  “visualize” the coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God.  They did not see the limitations imposedby fear but rather the possibilities made possible by faith. And thankfully, for us, these visions were written down, preserved as gifts for us to open as we embark on the advent journey.

In last Sunday’s reading Isaiah invited us to imagine a day when swords would be bent into plowshares, and spears would be reshaped into pruning hooks; a day when the weapons of war would become tools for growing and harvesting, instruments of peace and prosperity.  As we make the Advent journey, we are invited to set aside our fears, engage the vision; and reimagine, reform, and repurpose the things of war - into things that make for peace.  Can you “envision” the tip of the sword tilling the soil?

In this Sunday’s readingIsaiah points out that the lifeless Stump of Jesse has come back to life.  What once was thought dead is now springing up a new shoot, one that will bear the very fruit of our salvation, the life of Jesus.  As we make our Advent journey, we are invited to look back at the things we thought were dead, the parts of our life that we thought were over, the things that we had given up on, and find in them – new life.  We are invited to trust in the pattern of death and resurrection.  Can you “visualize” that tender new shoot unexpectedly rising up out of that useless dead stump?

Today’s reading fromIsaiah concludes with the prophet painting an amazing picture of peace and harmony: the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kind, the lion and the fatling, the cow and the bear;all living together, peacefully, side by side, led by a little child.  As we make our Advent journey we are invited to stop, even turn around, and to reconsider relationships that have been riddled with conflict, those who have been defined as enemies, those we fear will hurt us, those who are so different from us; and in doing so discover new relationships that will bring us closer and deeper into the kingdom of God.  Can you “visualize” your enemy standing by your side, together doing the work of the Kingdom?

Today we are invited to set aside our distractions, our fears, and the limits of the human condition so often imposed upon our horizons; and insteadto “see” the word of God, to “visualize” the Kingdom of God that is coming even now.  We are invited to engage the visions of the prophets of Advent with our own God gifted – inspired - holy imaginations; and in doing so prepare ourselves, - our hearts, our minds, and our souls, - for the coming of Christ.

May the “word” that Isaiah saw; swords being beaten into plowshares, spears reshaped into pruning hooks, new life emerging from what we thought were dead stumps, and peace and harmony replacing enmity and violence; May these words of God visualized, these words dared to be imagined anew, - fill our hearts with hope, engage us in the way of peace, fill us with the joy of the kingdom, and strengthen us with the love of God in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Sermon on Matthew 24:36-44

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Blessed Advent, and a happy new church year!

Now that we’ve eaten our pumpkin pie and dusted off our greenery, we’re kicking off this new church year with a reading that doesn’t exactly scream holiday cheer.

In fact, it almost sounds like a horror movie: with your coworkers getting whisked away without warning or as if by closing your eyes even for a minute, you might be left behind.

It sounds kind of like the idea of the Rapture, an understanding of the end of the world developed a little over 150 years ago from a rather obscure passage in 1 Thessalonians that talks about people being “caught up in the clouds” to “meet the Lord in the air.”

Whether you’re familiar with The Late Great Planet Earth or the Left Behind series, the idea of the rapture and the apocalypse has captured the imagination of many in our culture over the years.

But like we talked about a couple weeks ago, “apocalypse” doesn’t mean “disaster” or even “the end of the world.” It means “unveiling” or “revealing.”

So, what’s revealed here?

Let’s start with Noah. Jesus reminds his followers of the people that lived while Noah was building the ark. They were going about their daily lives doing normal things, and then they were swept away.

A global flood is not a happy image, of course, but Jesus is using this story to illustrate that people won’t know the time of Jesus’ return. It’s not about the flood, but about not knowing when something big will happen.

When you consider the people who are working in the field and one is taken and one is left in light of the Noah story, the one who is taken is more like the contemporary of Noah who is swept away than some righteous person who has been raptured. The one who is taken is caught unawares, like the people who weren’t on the ark. The person who is left is still working in the field or is busy grinding meal, just like Noah was busy faithfully building the ark.

Maybe this is what Jesus is revealing here:

No one knows how much time we have left. Tomorrow is not promised to us.

And still, we trust in a loving God who does promise the coming of the Son of Man. In the Gospel of Matthew, the phrase “the coming of the Son of Man” is a way of saying “the fulfillment of the Reign of God” or that time when sin, death, and suffering will be no more, peace and justice will prevail, and God’s perfect love will have won.

These promises are a gift God gives to us. During this Advent, we’re going to get the chance to reflect on many of God’s gifts.

Gifts are signs of love. Part of the excitement of gifts is the anticipation: something good is hidden, and our imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what this sign of love will contain. Part of the joy is in the waiting—the waiting of the receiver of the gift and the waiting of the giver, who is anticipating the delight of the receiver.

Advent is a season of waiting—waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas and waiting for Christ’s coming to us again at the end of time.

But Bernard of Clairvaux from the 12th century wrote of another Advent: Christ’s presence in our lives every day.

As much as our Gospel reading talks about what is far past (the people who didn’t pay attention to Noah) and what will be at some unknown point in the future (the coming of the Son of Man), what Jesus is concerned about is how we spend our days.

Jesus warns his followers to keep watch—to be aware and focused on what matters.

And Jesus also describes people who are at work when he returns. He describes people farming or grinding grain—not people sitting around waiting for Jesus to show up.

Have you heard the tongue-in-cheek phrase about people who are so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good?

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t meditate on the fulfillment of the Reign of God—far from it! God gave us imaginations for a reason, and how are we supposed to work with God to make earth more like it is in heaven if we can’t imagine what that would look like?

And also, God calls us to work for justice and peace and mercy and love in the world now. Someday, all will be well, but right now, people are suffering, and we are called to do what is in our power to alleviate that pain now.

So, God gives us promises that give us a sense of what the Reign of God will be like. They give us hope that things will be as they should be one day, and they give us a vision of how we can help get a little closer to that reality. These promises are God’s gifts to us.

If much of the delight of gifts is in the waiting, both for the giver and receiver, can you imagine God’s delight in making promises to us?

Listen again to these words from Isaiah and imagine God’s pure joy at sneaking God’s precious people a glimpse of what the Reign of God will be like:

 “2In days to come
  the mountain of the Lord’s house
 shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
  and shall be raised above the hills;
 all the nations shall stream to it.
  3Many peoples shall come and say,
 “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
  to the house of the God of Jacob;
 that he may teach us his ways
  and that we may walk in his paths.”
 For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
  and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
 4He shall judge between the nations,
  and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
 they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
  and their spears into pruning hooks;
 nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
  neither shall they learn war any more.”

Throughout scripture, God gifts promises to God’s people throughout time and space. God gives us hints at what the Reign of God will be like. God in Jesus gives us a sneak peek at how living into God’s mission in the world can transform our lives. The Holy Spirit gives us nudges and glimpses into how we can participate in making the world a little more as it is in heaven.

Along with God’s promises, God gives us an invitation to create with God a better, more just, more loving world.

Advent isn’t about an idle waiting, where we tap our feet and sigh and check our watches, waiting for Jesus to come back.

Advent is an active waiting—a clinging to God’s promises in the midst of the world’s suffering and putting our gardening gloves on each day to plant seeds of the Reign of God that will sprout in mercy, branch in justice, and fruit in love.

We don’t have to wait until December 25 to unwrap God’s promises to us. They are for us now. Let them flower in your heart as we work together with each other and God to plant seedlings of heaven here on earth.