The Third Sunday after the Epiphany (C)
Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10
Psalm 19
1Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
FULFILLED TODAY

What a perfect set of readings for the day we gather to make decisions together about who we are
and what we need to be doing as Unity Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
It’s almost as though the readings were chosen for the occasion. 
But no, these are the readings that almost every Western Christian will hear today in worship. 
That in itself proves that the Holy Spirit is still in the business of inspiring us through ancient texts.

The first reading from Nehemiah: 
The people of Judea have finally been released from captivity in Babylon. 
They have been sent by their liberators, the Persians, back to Jerusalem
to re-establish themselves as a distinct people following the beliefs and the
laws of their ancestors to worship their One True God. 
Here in this lesson, they do not gather at the Temple. 
They gather at the Water Gate. 
Men, women, children, and all who could understand, listened to the reading of the Torah. 
And, significantly, they also listened to commentary about the words they heard from the Torah. 
You see, during their 400 years of captivity in Babylon, the priestly system of sacrifice had been
replaced with the synagogue system we know today in modern Judaism. 
In fact, it is this synagogue liturgy we use in the first half of our Christian worship:
readings and songs from scripture followed by commentary.
The commentary is done in the First Reading by Ezra, the priest
and scribe; Nehemiah, the governor; and the Levites. 
 
In today’s Psalm, we are reminded that the proclamation of the
glory of God is not only done by the laws, decrees, precepts, 
commandments, and ordinances of God but by creation itself. 
The scriptures are finer than gold and sweeter than honey.
The heavens and the earth have no voice to be heard and yet their voice goes out through all
the earth, and their words to the end of the world both in time and in space. 
Yes, God is known in the words of holy scripture. 
Yes, God is known as the Holy Spirit speaks through thousands of years of interpretation,
tradition, and commentary – God willing, through this very sermon. 
And yes, God is known through songs and hymns; through art and icons;
through dance and drama; through our actions of eating bread, drinking wine, and
splashes of holy water. 
And God is known through the wonders of great waterfalls and tiny streams; grand mountains
and patches of farmed land; through rainbows and clouds and even storms.  
But God is known best through God’s greatest creation, humanity.

That’s why we are reminded today in the Second Reading that we are the greatest proclamation of who God is.  Paul tells the Corinthians and us that we are the body of Christ. 
And he tells us these three things:

1.  All of us have gifts.

2.  We have different gifts.  We are not all the same. 
Some of us are gifted with proclamation. 
Some of us are gifted with interpretation or teaching or leadership or healing or
generosity or so many ways in which our gifts proclaim who God is and how God acts. 
But we are not holy clones.

3.  The reason we assemble together is not only to hear the holy Word and receive the holy sacraments;
but to share those holy gifts we have with one another and by them to make one another whole. 
Those who use the familiar words spoken by so many today,
“I can worship God all by myself” or “I can be spiritual without being religious” do not know
how much they are missing when they are absent from the holy assembly, the Church, the body of Christ. 


Now we hear the reading of today’s Gospel. 
Jesus left his boyhood home when he was about 30 years old. 
He was baptized by his cousin John.  He spent 40 days in the Judean wilderness. 
He began teaching and healing his way back to Nazareth in Galilee. And while visiting home this Sabbath,
he was invited by the synagogue president to read from the scroll of the prophet
Isaiah and to speak some words of commentary.

Just as Ezra and Nehemiah had done in today’s First reading;
just as scribes and rabbis had done since those early days of synagogue assembly;
Jesus was asked to say a few words about the text which he read to his friends and relatives. 
And he surprised them. 
All he intended to say about Isaiah’s words were, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Just a note:  it was so tempting for me to keep going and tell you what happens next but you will have to come to church again next Sunday to hear next Sunday’s Gospel and next Sunday’s sermon to learn about that.  
 
But we have enough to contemplate in this text, this Sunday’s Gospel reading. 
Remember that the First reading and the Psalm told us about God in scripture and in creation. 
Now here Jesus is identifying himself. 
Jesus is telling us what God will do through him as he continues his ministry and makes his way toward
Jerusalem and the Cross. 
He will bring good news to the poor; release to the captives; sight to the blind;
and freedom to the oppressed.  He will proclaim the year of Jubilee.  
(The year when all debts are cleared and all sins are wiped away.)  
 
Everything that follows as he continues three years of ministry is exactly what he claims
in today’s Gospel as his Mission Statement. He will do exactly as his mother Mary sang before he was born. 
He will scatter the proud and bring down the powerful;  he will lift up the lowly. 
He will feed the hungry and send away the rich. 
He will upset the order of things and, by doing so, he will make friends of the poor,
the disabled, the disenfranchised and the sinner. 
And he will bring death upon himself because of it. 
Finally, he will set his face like flint towards Jerusalem; towards judgement and death on a Cross. 
And this is how God will reveal God to the whole world for the rest of time.

And today, as that very body of Christ, we reveal God the best
way that God can be revealed through Jesus’ very same actions. 
Through our baptism, we have taken on Jesus’ mission. 
Jesus still does the same things because the Church does them. 
The poor still gain hope as we give our offerings to feed them and clothe them and offer them shelter. 
The captives are still set free when we involve ourselves in ministries of justice. 
The blind still receive sight: whether it’s through Christian hospitals lifting cataracts or
when the scales of prejudice fall from the eyes of a bigot we have challenged. 
The oppressed are still set free when we pray for those who live under unjust governments
or when our social service agencies help someone leave a life of chemical dependence. 
And each one of us has a part in Jesus’ongoing mission. 

So, as we close this learning part of our worship and move towards new strength and nourishment
in the sacrament of Holy Communion with one another,
I am asking you to take on Jesus’ mission. 
With courage and resolve, let us all renew our mission as the body of Christ with the same words Jesus used.  

Repeat after me, sentence by sentence:
The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor!

The Spirit of the Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives!

The Spirit of the Lord has sent me to help the blind recover their sight!

The Spirit of the Lord has sent me to free the oppressed!

The Spirit of the Lord has sent me to proclaim the Year of Jubilee!
Amen!


Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in our hearing.


Amen!


    
 


 
 
 
 
  

"Sign of the Times"
Isaiah 62:1-5
John 2:1-11

Wedding celebrations ran on for 7 days in Jesus’ time, and when the wine ran out after only 3 days, it called into question the honor of the bride and groom, and was a social embarrassment, something that the wedding party, and closest friends, were responsible for taking care of.  Wine was a symbol of the harvest and of blessing.  And so, running out at the wedding feast, was really bad timing!

The Marriage Equality bill in Illinois got delayed in the Executive Committee of the Senate, earlier this month, because of an obscure rule enforced by its detractors.  Though it passed a couple days later, the delicate timing had been undone, and it was too late now to take it to the House before the Lame Duck session ended.  Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender couples had been fitting their gowns and tuxes, and ordering the wine, and had to put everything back on hold.  But the time is coming! 

Martin Lutheran King Jr. Day is January 15, on his birthday.  But the US Holiday is always celebrated on the 3rd Monday, which, this year, is tomorrow.  And, the Inauguration of US Presidents must occur before noon on January 20.  But because it falls on a Sunday this year, they wanted to move it to the first business day of the week.  It must be because of the NFL’s big play off games today!  So actually, to fulfill the law, Mr. Obama is being sworn in officially, right about now, in a private ceremony at the White House, which will be recreated as a public TV event tomorrow.  And of course tomorrow, which is the MLK  holiday, inaugurating our first African-American President, for his second term, makes for very fortuitous timing. 

Like Dr. King, Mr. Obama is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and personally, a great admirer of King.  In his first year in office, President Obama had a new rug made for the Oval Office with 5 quotes woven into it.  One – that he thought was from MLK –probably had read it in one of his speeches– but is actually from Thodore Parker, and early 19th C African-American Abolitionist, who King freely attributed the words, but are, none-the-less, on the Presidents rug: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."   At the time, it became quite an embarrassment, but over the last 4 years, have proven to fit well with Mr. Obama’s hopeful and pragmatic style. 

Another African-American man, Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, had a rather odd sense of timing this past week, when he surprised everyone by speaking on the record, while in session, for the first time in 7 years!  And what were his all important words that he chose to share finally?  The transcriber may have had a difficult time hearing him, because Judge Scalia was joking with a lawyer in court about Harvard, his alma mater, vs. Princeton, and there was a fair bit of laughter.  And so, Judge Thomas’ remarks on the record are just 4 words: “Well – he did not…”  That’s it!  Thomas has taken a fair bit of criticism in the past for not speaking up and asking questions, as justices are want to do.  And so after 7 years, to finally make it into the transcript with such an odd and incomplete remark, only compounds the embarrassment for his sense of timing, and raises more questions about his honor!

Mary, the mother of Jesus, sees right away the embarrassment of running out of wine at the wedding feast, and knows her gifted son could do something about it.  It is her words of initiation, that will transform Jesus into action.  Though Jesus responds that, My hour has not yet come, apparently Mary also understands his hour more than he knew.  The mother of Jesus bides her time in this narrative, and finally shows up again at the foot of Jesus’ cross, the beginning of Jesus’ hour of glorification, and the ultimate sign of God’s glory, in his death, resurrection and ascension.  Mary makes her four words count, They have no wine, displaying crucial timing, unlike our Justice of the highest court, by getting Jesus going, initiating his first sign, at the wedding feast at Cana. 

A sense of timing is important, not only in getting things done in practical chronological time, but in reading the sign of the times, and the opportunities that God reveals to us, at the right time. 

President Obama’s Inauguration tomorrow will need to have impeccable timing, being planned for who knows how long, by who knows how many workers behind the scenes.  The stands at the Capital have been constructed, the bands have prepared and are gathering, and the guests have been invited.  Even the bibles on which Mr. Obama will be sworn in, a Lincoln bible and a MLK bible, to be stacked on top of each other, were chosen some time ago.  Timing is important, for important events, especially when there are so many moving parts and people to coordinate.  And a calendar dead line is often a good motivation for any of us. 

Reading the signs of the times, when the time is right, is a bit more tricky, but was exactly what Jesus was all about.  “The hour of his glorification,” was something he stayed attuned to, once his mother Mary got him started in Cana.  But in real time, it was probably not understood well at all.  Jesus, offering himself as the  new temple, as the bread and wine of a thanksgiving- real-presence -remembrance meal, and as the sacrificial lamb of Passover, was exactly what he came to do as God’s beloved Son, but almost impossible for even his closest disciples to see at the time.  Instead, it was, revealed and unveiled at the right time, by transforming old vessels, whether purification jars, or people, even as they looked the same as they always had. 

Who would have guessed just 5 or 10 years ago, that in this past election, for the first time, every Marriage Equality bill that was proposed nation-wide, would pass?  And that in this New Year there is great reason to hope Illinois will become the 10th state to change marriage discrimination into Marriage Equality, like water into wine!  There has been an enormous amount of work to pass this legislation in 9 states so far, a labor of planning and inventiveness.  But it has also taken advantage of, the right time.  The moment when God reveals something new – when water can become wine! 

As MLK once said,   “…the time is always right to do what is right.”

“Now standing there [in Cana] were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification.”  And this turned out to be rather good timing!  Something I hadn't noticed before is that these jars were empty.  Jesus is not transforming purification water into wine, because the servants have to first fill them with water before the miracle occurs.  But Jesus is transforming new water, placed in old vessels, symbolizing that the old forms have been given new content. 

Jesus, whether he is a close friend and part of the wedding party or not, has saved the honor of the groom and bride.  Their social embarrassment has been redeemed, and not just with any old wine to keep the celebration going, but with the best wine, abundantly! 

This is the first sign of the times, in the Gospel of John, when Jesus begins to reveal who he is, and what God is up to in our world.  In everyday events, in this marriage feast, God reveals the joy of the gift of grace, offering us the very best. 

Jesus invites us to come to this table, to the wedding feast, as his guests.  And here we are fed abundantly with the very best.  Here, Jesus overcomes our most embarrassing moments and failures, and transforms us into a new creation.  You can depend on the calendar timing of it, weekly, like clockwork.  But more importantly, in this meal, where the wine never runs out, you will receive the promise of the joy and fullness of God’s time, now, that points to the renewal and fullness of everlasting life, the ultimate sign of the times, which though still partially hidden in the cross of Christ, will be revealed, at the right time.  In the here and now, whenever we dine together, we are being transformed by the body and blood of Jesus, because of God’s perfect timing.  

The Baptism of Our Lord is really about our baptisms!  Jesus is baptized in the River Jordan for us, to help us, and guide us, and advocate for a cross shaped life, for us.  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  These words that God blessed Jesus with, Jesus blesses us with.  And we may also hear a blessing in God’s declaration from the prophet Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” 

Do you remember your baptism?  When were you baptized – if you were? 

I was baptized as a baby, as was the tradition in the church, back then, a long, long time ago(!)  I was baptized on Thanksgiving Day, not quite 4 weeks after I was born, so I don’t remember a thing about my baptism.  I can picture it because I still remember growing up in that church, but I have to ask my parents and my sponsors about what it was like.  They don’t remember much either, I’m afraid, and they’re not even sure which of the two pastors on staff presided!  I like to think that they were thankful for my birth, or at least, thankful to God for having a safe delivery, and that’s why they chose Thanksgiving Day for me to be baptized, instead of say, a couple of Sundays later in Advent on John the Baptist Sunday, or Epiphany, or today, on Baptism of Our Lord. 

Of course, there’s another meaning to “remembering your baptism.”  It’s the question of meaning, or the question of our identity.  We can remember our baptism daily, and what it means to us!  Who, and whose, am I?  Where did I come from?  Where am I going?  What does my baptism have to do with the rest of my life?

Betsy, a pastor, just a little younger than I, got baptized as a newborn, when she was baptized in an emergency, because the doctors didn’t give her very good odds that she would survive surgery!  It all happened in a rush.  Their pastor, Pastor Derrick was called in a hurry and arrived as Betsy was being wheeled down the hall by the surgical nurses, and running alongside, dressed in a gown and mask, because Pastor Derrick had the flu, he grabbed her mother’s plastic water tumbler, stained with bright red lipstick, half full of water, and baptized her en route.  She only knows this second hand, by those who were there, and because she survived.  But now, says Betsy, whenever I see any ol’ plastic tumbler it reminds me of baptism, and that I am a daughter of God. 

Most of us don’t have as dramatic a story to tell about our baptisms.  But we all have a marker that we can point to.  In baptism, we are marked with the cross, and sealed with the holy spirit, forever, traditionally, a mark made with oil, olive oil.  And so, whenever we pass by the font here and cross ourselves with the water, or whenever we go to the healing station and we’re marked in oil with the sign of the cross on our foreheads, we can remember our baptisms.  On Ash Wednesday, which comes early this year, we remember our baptisms with a sign of the cross, in ashes. 

The baptism of Our Lord is about our baptisms.  And our baptism is about who we are, every day – about who claims us, and names us. 

There is a reason why we baptize infants, by the way.  Not all faiths do, of course.  Some baptize at the age of reason, 12 or 13, a “believers baptism,” as for example, the Baptists do.  But we baptize infants, or adults.  The reason is to remind us that, in our lives and culture, there are so many ways that we are taught to earn what we get, and in the case of religion gone bad, to morally prepare ourselves to be good enough.  Which is why it’s so important to know how baptism is just the opposite.  It’s not us, but it’s all God’s action.  God the Holy Spirit, anoints us, and God the father calls us by name and claims us, and God the Son redeems us.    When we baptize infants we can see this action of God’s grace, coming to us without our asking, or earning it. 

Luke points this out in a unique way.  In his account of the baptism of Jesus, Jesus is standing all by himself in the Jordan River, after John the Baptist was already arrested and put in prison.  So if not John, who baptizes Jesus?  Jesus is baptized by the Holy Spirit, “descending on him in bodily form like a dove.” 

And the same for us!  Little baby’s, innocent and vulnerable, not yet in control of their own fate’s, even newborns being wheeled into surgery, are the perfect examples of God’s generous forgiveness and love for us, whenever they are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing we can do, nothing we have to do, to receive God’s blessing in baptism.  But it is powerful medicine, this relationship that God initiates.  It is a mark we remember, and that we can be thankful for, every day.  “…nothing that we do, or fail to do, can remove the identity that God conveys as a gift. Our relationship with God, as David Lose says, is the one relationship in life we can’t mess up precisely because, it wasn’t us who established it.  We can neglect this relationship, we can deny it, run away from it, ignore it, but we cannot destroy it, for God loves us too deeply and completely to ever let us go.” (David Lose, workingpreacher.com)

But even this powerful action has recently been called into question in the Church of England.  Now, at least from the perspective of the National Secular Society in the U.K, there is a way for people to choose to be "de-baptized"--for a simple online payment of $4.50.  It began in 2009 when John Hunt requested that his 1953 baptism at the Parish in the Southward Diocese, South London be revoked because he was only five months old at the time of the baptism, and besides, he no longer believes in God.  Hunt was serious.  And he received the first, "Certificate of De-baptism," for which he paid $100 to have recorded in the London Gazette.  But the Church of England, having a different perspective, informed Hunt that his lack of attendance meant his membership had already "effectively lapsed."  But if he wanted, the baptismal record could be amended with an annotation at his request, which doesn’t cost anything. 

Because baptism is a gift and a life-long journey, no matter if we accept the gift or not, you can’t be de-baptized.  We might not use it to the full extent that God hopes we do, but that’s up to us.  The gift is given and irrevocable.  Baptism is once, for all time, as they say, it doesn’t lapse, nor do you ever need to be re-baptized.  But the more we remember and practice it, the more it becomes who we are. 

Luther used to say, the signs of water in our lives, like washing our hands and bathing, should remind us of our baptism.  In baptism we die to Christ and are raised with him to new life, washed clean.  Making the sign of the cross and remembering that we are a baptized people, even in such simple tasks as washing, help us to grow into the persons God has created us to be. 

These next two weeks here at Unity, we are offering two Wednesday evening, and two Saturday morning, gatherings for Inquiry and Discussion about baptism and our faith journey.  If you haven’t been baptized, you can delve into that or begin to prepare for it, whether it be next Sunday, or next year, or in ten years’ time.  And, if you’re baptized already, this is a great opportunity to dig deeper into its meaning, which you can reaffirm here at the font, or in membership in this parish. 

We hold many things in common as a baptized Christian people, but each person is  also unique.  Baptism is a life-long walk, and so today in our liturgy, we began with a Thanksgiving for Baptism, remembering all the ways that God saves us in water.  And after the Hymn of the Day we’ll Affirm our Baptismal promises, strongly renouncing all the ways and forces that tempt and pull us away from God, and then affirm and remember our faith in the words of the Apostles Creed. 

The Baptism of Our Lord, the baptism of Jesus, is about our baptism, our identity as a marked and redeemed people of God – and how we live that out, day to day. 

Each person's spiritual path is unique. And so, as a community, we celebrate the good work that God has begun in you, and honor your unique, life-long walk toward faith. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”  

Genesis 41:1-8, 14-16

Matthew 2:13-15

“I Have a Dream.”  As we prepare to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day next week, we remember how he gave an impassioned speech on the national mall shortly before he was martyred in Memphis, a speech that referenced the scriptures a number of times.  “I have a dream,” King exclaimed, electrifying the crowd with a vision that still enlivens and calls us to action today. 

Do you have a dream?  Do you have a vision for where you want your life to go?  And what about your animal, your pet?  They have dreams too!  People and all their animals, all God’s creatures, have a dream! 

“I have had a dream,” Pharaoh says to Joseph, “[but] there is no one to interpret it.”  Pharaoh, this god on earth, the most powerful man in Egypt, was, ironically, impotent to understand his own dream.  But Joseph, the Hebrew, held in his dungeon, understood and interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, to him.  You will have 7 years of abundance and great plenty, followed by 7 years of fallow bad luck in the land, Joseph told him.  And the rest is history.  Pharaoh appointed Joseph to over-see a program of saving-up the surplus of crops those first 7 years, in order to prepare for the next 7years of drought.  And Egypt fed not only itself, but Israel, and all the surrounding nations. 

Dreams need interpreters so that the vision can come to life.  We need helpers and organizers to get us where God wants us to go. 

There was another Joseph in the Bible – another Hebrew, who also traveled from Israel to Egypt – the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus.  Here was a man so devout that God spoke to him in dreams regularly, and he understood them implicitly.  When Jesus was a new-born infant, “an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream,” to warn him about the evil intentions of Herod.  Indeed, Herod could be ruthless and fickle!  He had spies and informants throughout the region, and when he heard from the Magi, the 3 wise men, that Jesus had been born “king of the Jews” and they came to worship Jesus, instead of him, Herod the Great, he was willing to go to such lengths as to order every male child 2 years and younger to be killed, just to ensure –or so he thought- that Jesus would be destroyed. 

But the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph, was in tune with his dreams.  And he and Mary took Jesus out of the country until it was safe to return again. 

Our dreams are vital to our survival!  Being created by God, we continue to thrive and grow as children of God, whenever we pursue the dream God reveals to us.  “I have a Dream!” 

Do you have a dream?  Has your dream come true yet, or has it been thwarted, shot down, by a Herod, or other nay-sayer? 

Even animals, and our pets, have dreams.  They are created by God with a unique spirit and personality.  And they have a dream to live fully the life God gave them.  And all their people, those of us here, I know can agree on this:  that animals who are caged are not living their dream, animals that are abused or neglected are not living their dream, just as we, their people, need freedom and the bare necessities of life – to be able to stretch and walk, to eat and sleep, to give and receive comfort and compassion – in order that all of us, all God’s creatures, may live safe and full lives.  Just like us, animals cannot live their dream, without human care and contact, and other acts of love and support. 

Oliver the kitten didn’t have the most auspicious start in life: An animal control officer from another county’s animal service center rescued the orange tabby from a flooded sewer drain and took him to the shelter, where Oliver hissed at everyone who passed by his cage until the foster coordinator for the county’s Humane Society pulled him from the shelter. She worked with Oliver until he was purring and even playing with dogs. 

When the humane society learned that a woman’s dying wish was to hold a kitten and watch him play, they were pretty sure Oliver would be the perfect cat for her. Indeed, Oliver loved the dying woman until she passed away with him curled up next to her. He was adopted by the woman’s granddaughter who today can’t imagine life without him. 

Oliver never would have made it out of that storm drain to comfort a dying woman and to be placed into a loving home, had it not been for the partnership of dedicated people working together to save lives.

Domestic animals dream to have people in their lives.  They have big and important dreams, but certainly not unreasonable dreams. 

Dreams, however, need interpreters so that the vision can come to life.  Animals need you and I, helpers and organizers, to get us where God wants us, and them, to go. 

We all have dreams, people and all their animals.  It’s time we count, every living creature of God, as deserving of a life well lived, to respect one another, and work together for the Dream that God has for each of us. 

For God has claimed us all, sons and daughters, dogs and cats, birds of the air, and fish of the sea, and filled us with a divine spirit, and a dream, that we may live it out as God’s very own. 

Do you have a dream to spread this good news, to help and support one another?  How can we make it come to life? 

Thanks be to God for our Dreams!  

The Nativity of Our Lord
The First Sunday of Christmass (C)
1 Samuel 2:18-20,26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52
Pastor John Roberts

Is This the Same Jesus?


As 21st century Americans, the Mary and Joseph we
hear about into today’s Gospel don’t seem fit to be parents. 
It’s one thing to lose your child in a crowded department store and then,
with the help of authorities, find them. 
But losing your child for three days? We’d be calling Child and Family Services!

But things were different 2000 years ago. 
We still occasionally have caravans traveling to grandma’s house for the
holidays or to summer vacation sites. 
But, 2000 years ago, the safest way to travel from town to town
was to travel by caravan.
Mary, Joseph and Jesus had made the trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem every year at Passover. 
And on this trip, there were probably hundreds from their home town with them. 
Passing from one town to another, the hundreds became thousands. 
And you know how children are.  When there are other children to play
with, they would rather spend time with other children than with the adults,
especially with their parents. 
If Mary and Joseph hadn’t seen Jesus in three days, they must have assumed he was
just with his playmates. 
So, after asking fellow travelers whether they had seen their son
and finding that no one had seen him since Jerusalem, they went back there. 
First they probably searched the place they had rented for housing. 
Finally, they returned to the temple. 
The by-now- frantic parents, when they found Jesus, turned their attention first upon themselves. 
“Child, why have you treated us like this? 
We have been searching for you and we are beside ourselves with anxiety.” 
Isn’t that just what parents do when their child is late for curfew or gone awhile without letting
them know where they are going? 
Don’t you know we were worried and upset? 
We can almost hear Joseph asking Jesus: “What’s wrong with you son? 
You’re not acting like the Jesus we know and love.”

And that’s the main point of today’s Gospel story.  
Jesus wasn’t acting like the child he was expected to be. 
For over a month now, Luke has given us many stories about Jesus, the child born in Bethlehem. 
First, the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to give birth to the Messiah, the Son of God.  
And Mary listened, and wondered, and finally accepted this news. 
Then Mary went to visit Elizabeth where she was told by her elderly
cousin that she was blessed above all other women to be bearing the promised Messiah. 
And Mary sang out words of prophecy. 
Then, giving birth to the baby in a cattle stall, the Holy Family was visited by shepherds who told them about the
appearance of a skyfull of angels. 
And Mary pondered all these things and kept them in her heart.  

The next story in Luke is the Gospel for New Year’s Day, or as
we call it in the Church, the Festival of the Holy Name of Jesus. 
At eight days old, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and named. 
There, the prophetess Anna tells Mary that there will come a day when something will
pierce her heart like a sword because of her son Jesus. 
Perhaps those words were put away deep in her memory and, while she must
have pondered and wondered about these words, she’d rather remember all the good things about her baby’s life.  Now, here in the Temple again, perhaps those words came drifting back to her. 
Was this the beginning of those heart-piercing events? 
Was she about to lose her son? 
Jesus’ words to his parents must have worried her.  “Why have you been searching for me? 
Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

The stories of her ancestors must have been twirling around in Mary’s heart and mind. 
Perhaps she remembered Hanna who, when she was gifted by God with her first-born son,
gave him up to the priests in Shiloh. 
Mary knew that this son of hers was the Son of God. 
But now she had to come face to face with what that might mean. 
Jesus was no longer a baby. 
In fact, from what the scribes and teachers in the Temple told her, Jesus was no longer a child.  
Luke tells us that Jesus had been engaging the learned men in the Temple. 
He asked them questions that led them to amazement at his understanding and his answers. 
But they, his parents, “did not know what he said to them.”  
 
So, the Holy Family left Jerusalem together and went back to Nazareth. 
And Jesus was obedient to them and increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

And so, the childhood stories of Jesus end in the Gospel of Luke. 
If it weren’t for the Festival of the Epiphany landing on Sunday this year, we would be listening to
Luke’s story of the Baptism of Jesus next week because today’s story is the transition of the life of Jesus
from birth to ministry.

What questions do you and I ask today in light of this Gospel story? 
First of all, we should be asking what we are doing to contribute to the “growth in wisdom and in years,
in divine and human favor” of the lives of our own teenagers. 
Do we spend time, like the teachers in the Temple,
listening and questioning, advising and nurturing those teenagers in our homes and in our neighborhoods? 
How about the teenagers in our congregation? 
Are we so afraid that they are “at that age” that they only seem like rebellious
kids that don’t want to hear our stories? 
It has been shown that one of the most important influences on a
teenager’s life are the adults who care enough to listen to them.  

The stories of our lives, especially those stories of how God
has made a difference in our lives, may not be in the same setting as our adolescents
but teenagers usually find it interesting to hear about others who
have had to work through the same kinds of difficulties and challenges they are experiencing now. 
Are we paying enough attention to the young people in our midst to recognize their gifts and talents? 
Do we see the 12 year old Jesus in our own midst?

Then, because of what Mary and Joseph experienced in today’s Gospel,
we must ask ourselves whether we are experiencing our ownfaith: as a child or as a mature adult. 
It’s so tempting for us to want to see Jesus the way we saw him as a child in Sunday School. 
We want to keep Jesus a tender baby in Bethlehem. 
And even when his ministry begins, we want to hear about him healing the blind and raising the dead. 
We want to hear him say that we are his tender, little sheep and he is the Shepherd
who will not let any of us come to harm. 
But, what even his mother was to hear was, “come; take up the Cross and follow me.” 
Follow me through temptation and death because,
by now we should know that temptation and death are all around us. 
Jesus now depends on us to meet temptation, distress, anger, hurt, disease, and even death
with an adult faith. 
So we must ask ourselves, are we serious about our own education in the faith? 
Do we want to be in the Temple studying; asking questions; seeking answers;
growing in “wisdom and in years; in divine and human favor?”

We began this day remembering the baby in the manger. 
We listened today about a family with a child going into adolescence. 
And, as we begin a new year, we wonder what adult situations are ahead of us in 2013? 
The angels still tell us, “don’t be afraid; a child has been born for you!” 
Jesus tells us, “why do you search in all the wrong places? 
Don’t you know you have to look for me in my Father’s house?”  
And together, we move into a new year with Immanuel (God-With-Us) at our side.

So, as the new year dawns, let’s make a commitment to be at Immanuel’s side. 
Let’s commit to spend time with our children and especially our youth. 
Let’s commit to learning this new year. 
And, fortified by the promises of God, let’s enter this new year with the confidence
to take up the Cross that is before us and follow Immanuel to resurrection.


  

Epiphany of Our Lord(C)
Matthew 2:1-12
Isaiah 60:1-6

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.”  So Isaiah said some 576 years before Jesus’ birth. 

Epiphany, which means revealing, is about the revealing of Jesus, in a particular place, at a particular time.  The wise men from the east, the Magi, reveal it to us.  They have seen his star in the east, marking his birth.  But first they come asking for the new-born king, not at Bethlehem, but in Jerusalem.  Did they mix up their astrological calculations, not hear the GPS right?  Or was it a diplomatic courtesy to check-in with King Herod on their way?  What’s this all about? 

One clue is that both the Magi and King Herod know this Isaiah passage by heart and are under its influence.  “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”  Could this be the one?!  Isaiah had given hope all those hundreds of years ago, had given courage to Jesus’ ancestors returning home from exile in Babylon, present day Iraq.  It was a difficult journey to return and find that Jerusalem was still in ruins, the economy a wreck, unemployment and poverty frightening, and rebuilding the housing market would take longer than expected.  Where was the hope?  Where was the glory?  It would take a few starts and stops by the people of Israel and their occupiers, before this one, the insatiable glory-hound and the pseudo-king of the Jews, Herod the Great, to successfully apply for a grant from the Empire’s impressive treasury, to rebuild the Temple.  Whatever his true intentions, you can’t argue with job creation, and unemployment plummeted for decades. 

Like the magnificent skyline downtown here in Chicago, the river front project envisioned by our former mayor, and all the way back to Daniel Burnham himself, King Herod set out to make Jerusalem greater than ever, a treasure that stood out to the world.  And he made the temple the crown jewel.  With a gold plated dome reflecting the sun far and wide, it shimmered gloriously.  And now priests and scribes were in his debt, they shared in the privilege of its accomplishment, the chimera of peace, built on a settled-ness of self-satisfaction, but which separated them from the 99%, of their own people, instituted through an unspoken system of injustice enforced by Herod’s spies and informants. 

The Magi, travelers from the east, are part Bedouin wanderers like the Shepherds and Mary & Joseph, but are also part upper class, rich and well educated like Herod, the priests and scribes.  They know the stars and the signs of the times and Herod doesn’t doubt for a minute that they have ascertained that a new born king is near.  This is exactly as Isaiah had told it. And it made Herod and all Jerusalem afraid.  This was not good news, and he took it as the direct threat that it was – in this particular time and in this particular place – this threat to his throne from the Christ-child. 

But a funny thing happens when Herod asks the Old Testament scholars, the chief priests and scribes, about this passage – about the gold, frankincense and myrrh, that will come from other nations to Jerusalem.  You have the wrong passage, they tell him, trembling before Herod and fearing for their lives.  We have to tell you, ‘Isaiah 60 will mislead you with its prosperity good-news that Jerusalem’s treasury will be filled as in the days of King Solomon, and be restored as the center of the global economy.  You can’t privatize what God has given to the people.  In Isaiah, the urban elites would recover their former power and prestige and nothing will really change.’ (cf. Brueggeman, The Christian Century, Living By the Word, 2001)  The prophecy you want is Micah the 5th chapter, “But you, Bethlehem… are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”  This is a glory that will change the world. 

Herod is smart, he doesn’t take off the heads of these truth-teller OT scholars.  No, he’s after this pretentious new born king.  So he tells the Magi to go ahead and go to that backwater, Bethlehem, asking only that they return and tell him the exact location, under cover of wanting to also go and worship him. 

Epiphany is the story of these two competing cities, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, just 9 miles down the road from each other.  One opulent and impressive, the other small and unpretentious.  One is ruled with an iron hand by King Herod, from the other comes a child-king, Jesus.  Can you imagine what would have happened if the Magi had not visited Bethlehem, and we would never have known the new born king and Messiah?  What kind of faith and world would we have today?

Pastor Mitri Raheb, the faithful Lutheran pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in present day Bethlehem, is fond of telling the story of this alternative city, the birth place of Jesus our king.  We should not be surprised, he says, of this story of Herod and the Magi from the east.  It is not the story book tale we learn from Children’s Christmas pageants, but a testament to a real place in real time, when God revealed God’s glory. 

Pastor Raheb tells of the time a well-known evangelical preacher from the U.S. came to visit Bethlehem and was stopped at the airport, and more or less politely invited to come have a cup of coffee with the immigration officials in a separate and secure room.  After 4 hours of warning him about the religious conference he came to attend, and the so-called, “radical” clergy he would rub shoulders with, they finally let him through.  There are other religious groups from solidarity movements that have not been so lucky, and have been sent home.  When the evangelical preacher told Mitri the story he simply said, “Welcome to Palestine!  Knowing the gospels as well as you do, you shouldn’t be surprised.  This is the same treatment Herod gave to the visiting Magi, detaining them for his own security purposes, so he could keep tabs on them.” 

Today, Bethlehem is surrounded on three sides by the enormous dividing wall, and on the fourth side, with a secure check point, leading down the road, 9 miles to Jerusalem.  Today, in that same particular place, Mary and Joseph would have been stopped, and like other Palestinian couples ‘with child’ who are detained on their way to Bethlehem, may have given birth right there, waiting in line. 

“Arise, shine for your light has come… and the glory of the LORD has arisen upon you.”  The glory of the LORD expected in Jerusalem, is transformed and incarnate in a new born king, in Bethlehem.  The glory of the LORD that Moses, Isaiah, and the Priests could not look at directly, before, that was certainly mighty, but aloof, shines now in the face of this child.  Now we are called to be on-lookers of this glory, the incarnation of our God, that we can be followers, fellow travelers, and indeed, are invited to be friends.  At Bethlehem, ‘God comes, God irrupts, God arises and shines forth in a glory that is unconditional, and salvific. The people’s repentance, the mending of ways, the living out of justice is a response to this coming!  It is not an attempt, or initiation on our part, to be made right with God, but it is thanksgiving for the one who comes, who reveals life and salvation in the midst of the community.’ (cf. Dirk G. Lange, workingpreacher.org )

The narrative of Epiphany is the story of these two human communities: The Jerusalem of Herod, with its great pretensions, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it, its own seeds of destruction.  And Bethlehem, with its alternative promise that comes in innocence, in a life given in vulnerability, which can make room for the Holy Spirit, and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions.  It is amazing, how in the glory that shines in the face of Jesus the new born king, the true accent of epiphany is revealed to us, by way of the wise men.  The Magi miraculously do not resist this Bethlehem alternative.  Rather than hesitate or resist, they reorganize their wealth and learning, and reorient themselves and their lives around a baby with no credentials.  (cf. Brueggemann, The Christian Century, Living by the Word, 2001)

At Epiphany, the glory of the LORD is revealed in a particular time, in a particular place.  To which city are we called?  Where is the glory that we will follow?  How will we reorganize our wealth and learning to offer our gifts to Christ, the new-born king?  

Jesus, barely reaching the age of Bar Mitzvah, is debating with the best of the Rabbi’s, and, says Luke, all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  But later, we might imagine him walking back to his provincial home of Nazareth, hand in hand with his parents, to grow up and, increase in wisdom, there. 

“It’s not about [us] becoming spiritual beings,” says Fr. Richard Rohr, “nearly as much as it’s about becoming human beings.” 

Jesus is born of Mary in a manger, but is, God with us – he is a kind of Emperor Augustus and Rabbi Gamaliel all wrapped up into one, or maybe something completely transcending both.  The gift of wisdom that shines forth at the age of 12 gives us but a clue to what he will grow-up into. 

One of the amazing stories about youth this year in 2012 was from a 15 year old high-school-er, Jack Andraka, who invented a test, that he wants to patent now, for detecting cancer.  At 15, that’s 3 years older than Jesus when he was debating in the Temple, but still pretty impressive!  When they announced his name, Jack was so excited, he charged up to the stage to accept his $75,000 grand prize at the [Intel] International Science and Engineering Fair this past May.  In this Olympics of youth science, Jack out did more than 1,500 competitors from 70 countries, each of them having already won their national competition before arriving.  Jack’s advice for kids trying to figure out what to do with their creativity and imagination: “Make sure to be passionate about whatever it is you get into, because otherwise you won’t put the right amount of work into it.”  Shades of Jesus’ reaction to his parents: “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?”  Jack is probably too old to walk hand in hand with his parents, yet I’m thinking, after the competition, he must have rode home, from NY to Maryland, in the back seat of their car. 

The good and the bad about our culture that promotes prizes and notoriety for high achievers and child prodigies, is that, innovation and inventiveness is encouraged and celebrated, which creates an exciting climate of entrepreneurship that can, and sometimes does, lead to benefits for all.  But on the down side, we tend to close our eyes to the many who are left behind, who not only may not receive much, or very little encouragement, but in too many cases, we fail to provide even the minimum resources needed for our children to succeed and contribute to family and society. 

We don’t even seem know how to sustain a conversation about it.  The failure of so many in our schools in Chicago only came to light this year, and for a relatively brief period, during the courageous & contentious CTU strike in August.  What was illuminated in that moment was the lack of financial support for such basic things as school supplies and air conditioners, class room size and finding a way to trust teachers to teach instead of having to ‘teach to the test.’  It shown forth in “the passion” of teachers and parents, who really want change.  They demonstrated their willingness to daily walk hand in hand with their students to show them the way, if we will help to give them the proper tools and support. 

By the end of 2012, however, the news from CPS is a plan to close more schools, probably on the south and west sides, and create new charter schools in other neighborhoods, possibly including Edgewater & Rogers Park.  Unfortunately it’s more of the same, good at rewarding the successful, still blind to and misunderstanding how to deal with the least.  And then the headlines just this weekend about our youth, “Chicago Tops 500 Murders for First Time since 2008,” yet another by-product of ignoring the endemic and multi-layered problems that we are all called to be responsible for. 

An NPR correspondent, whose beat was in Japan this year, compiled his top 10 news story list for 2012.  When asked to choose one to highlight on air, he told about a Japanese classroom he visited, studying math.  He observed how it was the student who was having the most difficulty learning the material that was chosen to come forward to the chalk board, so the class and the teacher could help him with the problem-solving.  The American correspondent noted that it’s usually the opposite of the model here in the U.S.  Here we pick out the best student from the class to come to the chalk board or answer the question, as a demonstration of how it’s possible to “know it all,” or be like her/him if you just try harder.  Here, we reward the best.  In Japan they emphasis the communities’ responsibility to include everyone in the learning process.  We might call it hand-holding, in a negative way, but there is value in looking out for the least one.  Is this a trait we tend to lack? 

Mary and Joseph, returning from the Passover festival in Jerusalem, were more than just worried about Jesus being left behind.  They are also ‘stressed’ that now they will have to leave the security of traveling with their kinfolk and fellow villagers from Nazareth, a common practice in antiquity, especially for small-town folk coming to the big city.  Leaving them and returning for Jesus means they will be days behind, and without the protection of the whole group.  As responsible parents, Mary and Joseph have good reason to hold on tightly to Jesus’ hands on the way home. 

Still, the young Jesus learns a lot on this trip to big city.  That he is gifted with the wisdom of the rabbi’s, and the leadership of emperor’s.  He is obedient to his earthly parents, but knows he is called to speak freely and forthrightly about his divine progeny as well. 

As scary and unknowable as his gifts are to Mary and Joseph, and to us as well, he cannot turn away from being about the business God is grooming him for.  As upset and confused as Mary is at Jesus’ behavior, and as embarrassed as Joseph, traditional head of household, was, at looking out of control, they also look a lot like model Disciples: they do what disciples do, leave the comfort of home and reputation, to seek and follow him.  No hand-holding, but risk taking - It’s not about [us] becoming spiritual beings, nearly as much as it’s about becoming human beings. 

Just so, the 12 year old Jesus returns with his parents to Nazareth.  He goes back to being a boy,  obedient to his earthly parents.  Though we know already he regards God as his true father, he understands how he has come to be truly human, as well.  How do we become human beings after the model of Jesus?  How do we fulfill our calling to be disciples here in this world? 

Jesus, the new born king, from David’s royal city of Bethlehem, by way of Nazareth, comes to save us, in Jerusalem, where, even under the shadow of the Temple, the world is farthest from God.  In our fear and misunderstanding here in this big city, Jesus will hold on tightly to our hands and lead us to safety and new life, beginning with the last, and working his way up to the first.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  For in his hand, we are made equally and fully human, and we walk together on level ground leaving no one behind, but are increasing in wisdom, and in divine and human favor.