Sunday, January 19th, 2020 – A sermon on John 1:29-42

Gospel
John 1:29-42
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³² And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³ I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” ³⁵ The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.⁴¹ He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed ). ⁴² He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter ). 

First Reading
Isaiah 49:1-7
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. ² He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. ³ And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” ⁴ But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.” ⁵ And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— ⁶ he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” ⁷ Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 

 

Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

That’s John the Baptizer’s one sentence summary of Jesus. It’s his elevator speech. He’s sees Jesus walking by and when he only has time to say one thing about him, that’s what he says. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. It’s all you need to know, according to John.

This is the only time “lamb of God” occurs in scripture, and yet churches from all over the world sing this line every Sunday.

Every time I hear that phrase either spoken or sung in church, it feels like I enter a time machine.

First I’m transported back to the sanctuary in my home church in Rochester. To a pew in the back on the right-side of the church. It’s a communion worship, which to my young impatience meant it was the loooong worship. So my mother scratches my back, as a sign of love and comfort, while we wait for our turn to go up to communion. And in the background, the congregation is singing Marty Haugen’s Lamb of God, with a woman named Jeannette singing the verses as a solo over the top of it. And to be honest, I didn’t have a clue what it meant – Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us. I just know that I thought it was beautiful. It’s a nostalgic time when life seemed simpler than it probably was and I’m transported there instantly.

But then at the same time, I’m also transported back to seminary where we would take a phrase like “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” and use academic instruments with surgical precision to dissect the phrase biblically, and historically and theologically.

We would look up the word lamb in the bible and recall that terrifying story in the book of Genesis where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. And Isaac wisely asks, “Uh Dad, we’ve got the wood. We’ve got the fire. But where’s the Lamb?” And Abraham says, “God will provide the lamb.” And so we wonder if Jesus is supposed to be the lamb who replaces Isaac and is sacrificed in our place, as if that makes the story all okay. Or the story of the Hebrews escaping Egypt and using the blood of the Paschal lamb to spread on their doorposts so as to protect them from the plague of the death of the first born. And we would wonder if Jesus is the one who protects us…from God?

Then we would turn to the word “sin”. We would really dig into this word, because most of us don’t like it and we try to stay away from using it. Even over 50 years ago, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was preaching about that fact. In one of his sermons he says, “Now, we’ve tried to get away from this in the modern world, we hate to hear this word “sin.” We try to run from it, and we try to talk about it in other terms.” But at the heart of it, Dr. King says, is that sin is separation.[1] Sin is that which separates us from each other and from God. Which is especially true in the gospel of John, we would learn in seminary. Sin is less a moral category of certain human actions, and more state of being in which we all live. A human condition. Why do we do the things we don’t want to do?

And then we would study the word “world”. And in the gospel of John this is an important word. Because every time John uses the word “world” it is in reference to a world that seems hostile toward God.  Throughout the gospel, the author talks about how the world just won’t receive Jesus. How the world hates Jesus. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.” And so we might actually translate this verse as “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the God-hating world.”

Every time I hear that line, first I’m transported way back to my childhood, to cozy place of comfort and beauty and safety. I’m reminded that there is a place for this one sentence summary of Jesus in my nostalgic heart. But then I’m transported back to an intellectual time at seminary, where all these words mean more than meets the eye. So I’m reminded that there is a place for this one sentence summary in my academic and analyzing brain.

But I’m left wondering, is there a place for this one sentence summary in my spirit? In my life of faith?

The longer I plunge myself into this baptized life of faith (to use a phrase from Pastor Pam’s sermon last week), the less I want nostalgia or intellectual experiences and the more I want spiritual experiences. And by that I mean moments where life and faith interact with each other. In a way that…feeds me and sustains me and gives me hope in the midst of everything else I see.

And so, then I read this one sentence summary of Jesus for the first time this week, suddenly I wasn’t transported back to my church as a child, listening to those words wash over me again and again in song, and I wasn’t sent back to seminary learning all the conflict and the confusion and the depth of this text. Instead, I felt my spirit, my faith sink, settle into a space of grateful relief for this verse.

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

You see, in this life right now, I’ve watched in recent weeks how Sin (capital S sin, the human condition that separates us from each other and from God, which always contains small s sins, the mistakes and moral failing that we all contribute to this life)…I’ve watched how Sin can shred the lives of the people I love. I’ve seen how addiction and dis-ease and infidelity and resentment or shame can pull people out of the soil of life by their roots and suddenly everything starts to wither and grow fragile. Maybe you’ve seen the same thing in your life at times.

And so outside of the nostalgic and academic textures of this scripture, to simply hear that there is someone…someone who is willing to take away the sin of the world…willing to reach out and to touch and carry and receive the worst that our lives and this world have to offer and to draw them close to himself and to take them away, to remove any barriers we build that separate us from each other and from God…

…it makes my spirit want to weep and whisper, “Oh, thanks be to God.” Just take it away. We don’t want it, yet we can’t seem to let go of it. Please just take it away. No one else will dare to touch or come near the sin of the world.

And notice that Jesus doesn’t just take away the sin of believers or followers. He doesn’t just take away the sin of regular church goers. He doesn’t take away the sin of people have said “I’m sorry” the magical number of times and in the proper tone of voice. He takes away the sin of the world. The God-hating world.

And in the Isaiah passage we learned that this isn’t a new thing. Jesus isn’t showing us a new side of God. It isn’t like God suddenly started loving and forgiving the whole world in Jesus. Jesus is revealing in a new way who God has always been.

The prophet Isaiah says to the people of God, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up just the tribes of Jacob and to restore just the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Isaiah essentially gives us Jesus’ mission statement. A light to the nations – salvation that may reach the end of the earth. That is the work the Lamb of God.

I’m tempted to talk and talk, but John was short and sweet and to the point today, so I’ll try to be as well. Jesus, the Lamb of God, has come. For you. For me. For the world. To take away our sin that separates us. And so if you feel like there is anything separating you from God, know that it has been taken away. God is faithful. God abides with us. And nothing can take that away.

Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Oh, thanks be to God.

Amen.

[1] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/mans-sin-and-gods-grace

Sunday, January 5th, 2020 – Epiphany and the Game of Thrones, a sermon on Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew 2:1-12
1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶ “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ “ ⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” ⁹ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹ On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

First Reading
Isaiah 60:1-6
1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ² For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. ³ Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. ⁴ Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. ⁵ Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. ⁶ A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. ² May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. ³ May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness. ⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. ⁵ May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. ⁶ May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. ⁷ In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. ¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. ¹¹ May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. ¹² For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. ¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. ¹⁴ From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.

Sermon

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”

These are the words of Cersei Lannister, the sinister queen and tyrant of the seven kingdoms, whose thirst for power and domination is unquenchable, in the HBO television series Game of Thrones.

It’s where the show gets its title. When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

And as you watch this game play out through 8 seasons, your head and your heart spin as your own loves and loyalties shift and turn from one episode to the next. Beloved characters are the center of the story one minute and then cut down and gone the next. Ruthless characters do despicable and horrendous things in one season, but then righteous and redeemable acts in the next. Characters pledge their allegiance and loyalty to new kings or new queens by bowing down and bending the knee, to kneel before them out of either horror or hope.

It is a complicated show, with many characters and sometimes hard to follow storylines, where you are not sure who you can trust and who you can root for. It is a show where a single lie, or a secret, or a mistake or a misunderstanding can have devastating consequences, all because of those trying to win the game.

I don’t know about you, but so much of our nation and our world seems like a game of thrones, right now. It’s always been that way, I suspect, but we can just see it more clearly these days.

As our country lurches into the new year with an impending impeachment trial or not, as the scent of potential war arrives on each gust of wind known as breaking news, as some cheer for our deadly attack on the Iranian Military General Suleimani, while others lament and condemn it, it can be overwhelming to try to keep track of all the players and the storylines. You are not sure who you can trust and who you can root for. It seems like a time when a single lie, or a secret, or a mistake or misunderstanding can have devastating consequences, all because of those trying to win the game.

And the temptation to bury my head in the sand is great.

But then, every year, on the Day of Epiphany, when we tell the story of the Magi who came to visit the Christ Child, and as the warmth and nostalgia of Christmas fades, I am reminded that Jesus was born into a game of thrones.

I seem to say this every time I preach on epiphany but I think it bears repeating. Jesus was born into the real world. A world of suffering and fear and uncertainty. God does not show up when our world and our lives are perfect and well balanced. God does not show up and offer us grace once we’ve met all the religious requirements. God arrives into a broken world. Into our dysfunctional lives and meets us there.

Jesus was born into the real world. Into a game of thrones, where the message seems to be, you either win or you die.

In the time of King Herod, the gospel reading began. In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened.

King Herod was afraid. Because when you are playing the game of thrones, you either win or you die. And when rumors leak that there is a new king in town, your claim on the throne is under threat.

And Herod’s first clue that his reign is power is fading isn’t that the Magi ask him to his face, “Where is the child who has been born the king of the Jews?”, implying that he isn’t the king of the Jews. Or won’t be for long. That’s a clue, but it isn’t the first clue. The first clue is that the Magi showed up at his door without him summoning them.

You see, I didn’t learn this until recently, but these Magi are not the only so-called “wise men” in scripture.

If you look up the phrase “wise men” in the bible, they show up three different times in the Old Testament. They show up in Genesis, when the Pharaoh in Egypt summons them because he cannot interpret his troubling dream. They show up in the book of Exodus when the new Pharaoh gets into a standoff with Moses and Aaron over who can do the coolest magic tricks. So when Aaron throws down his staff and it becomes a snake, the Pharaoh summons wise men to come and perform the same trick.

And then in the book of Daniel, ruthless King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon  also had some troubling dreams, and so he summoned wise men to come and interpret them for him. We don’t know a lot about these Old Testament wise men. It just seem like they were people on the edges who were used and controlled as pawns of the powerful.

We don’t know a lot about these wise men or Magi in the gospel of Matthew either. We just know they are from somewhere else. They are different. Some liken them to magicians or astrologers. And likely people on the edges who were used and controlled as pawns of the powerful.

But what we do know, from the biblical witness, is that wise ones don’t just show up on the king’s doorstep. They are summoned. And so when King Herod opens the door to see the Magi standing outside his palace, immediately, he should know – something is not right. He didn’t summon these wise men. Someone else is calling the shots.

These Magi were summoned by the rising star of a new born king. When they see this star, they thought there was only one place, one direction to point their feet. Toward Jerusalem. The throne of power. It’s only natural that they would go to Jerusalem, to the palace, to the place of the most powerful, for that is where the wise ones have always been called. The star was leading them to Bethlehem, but they thought the star was wrong.[1] And that unfortunately, was a mistake.

The Magi didn’t trust the star. Rather they trusted the way things have always been. That the savior would be born in a place of power. That the savior would maintain the status quo.[2]And so they went to Herod’s palace.

When Herod saw these uninvited Magi and heard that there was a new king in town, he grasped at his dissolving power as if it were sand falling between his fingers. He tried to play it cool as he put his arms around their shoulders and brought them inside. He even uses the strategic move of pulling them aside in secret, the gospel of Matthew says, creating a false sense of allegiance. That’s what secrets do. When someone tells us a secret, we feel hotwired in connection to them, Dr. Brene Brown says. But the truth is we aren’t connected to them. We are chained to them.

That’s what Herod does. He tries to become the new star in their sky. The one whom they will forever follow. And so he tells them, in secret, a lie. That he, not some silly star, is sending them to Bethlehem, to find the child, the new born king, and when they do find him, they are summoned to return to Herod so that Herod can also bend the knee and pay homage to this child.

When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die. Herod plans on winning.

But when the Magi leave the palace, they lift up their eyes and see that star again. Right where they had left it. The one they didn’t trust. And yet that star waited for them. That, my friends, is grace. To wait with us when we’ve made a mistake. And then to lead us out of it.

So, that’s what the star does. It leads them to the home in Bethlehem where the Christ child lay nuzzled at his mother’s breast. When the star stops over Bethlehem, the gospel says the Magi were overwhelmed with joy. Think about that for a moment. Think about the distance they have traveled not only in the land of Israel, but in their hearts. They have gone from Herod’s palace, a place of overwhelming fear, to the home of Jesus and Mary and Joseph, a place of overwhelming joy.

When they entered the house and saw Jesus and his mother Mary, immediately, they bend the knee, kneeling and paying homage to the Christ child.

Who knows what they saw in that moment. What epiphany they had. Perhaps in the flash of a moment they saw that things won’t be the same as they always have been. Perhaps they saw that God is doing something new in this new born king. One who will rule the people righteously and the poor with justice. One who defend the needy, rescue the poor, and crush the oppressor. One who will help those who have no helper.

And perhaps they saw that the path of this king will lead straight to the cross.

When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die. And Jesus, God incarnate, says, “Alright then, I’ll die.”  For grace, for justice, for love, for forgiveness, for healing, for hope, Christ will die. And in his resurrection, grace, justice, love, forgiveness, healing and hope will win. Jesus won’t play by the rules because this isn’t a game. This is salvation for the sake of the world.

I don’t know if the Magi saw all of that in that single moment. But we will see it all in the coming year. What I do know is that the Magi were changed, transformed in that moment. So much so that the very next thing they do is something no wise men in scripture have ever done before. King Herod in Jerusalem had summoned them to him after they found Jesus.

And they didn’t go. They didn’t listen. He was not their king. Not anymore. Christ is the new born king. And so for Christ’s sake and safety, the Magi didn’t return to Herod. They went home by another way.

On this Epiphany Sunday, as our lives and nation and world quake with fear and uncertainty, this is what I hear in the gospel reading:

First, I’m hearing that Jesus is born into the real world. Our world. As broken and dysfunctional as it is. Christ is with us. Here and now.

The next thing I hear is don’t lose sight of the star. Don’t go to that place where you have always gone. The place of assumption and resignation. The place where you think things will always be the same. Don’t assume that things have to or will always be this way. But go to the place where God’s grace and hope and calling are new each day. Where God is still at work each day, beside you and through you, for the sake of the best possible world.

But then, if you do lose sight of the star, don’t be defined by your mistake. The Magi show us that we can learn from our mistakes and you can trust that the star has been waiting for you right where you left it and you can follow it once again.

And then finally, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of the world…don’t return to Herod.

May God bless each one of us as we step into this new year together. Come now and let us worship Christ our new born king. Amen.

[1] I got this insight from Rev. Dr. Sam Wells and his sermon in Duke Chapel, on Epiphany Sunday, in 2011.

[2] Ibid.

Wednesday, December 25th, 2019 – Wake Up. Listen. Leave. – A Christmas Day Sermon on Isaiah 52 and John 1

John 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

First Reading
Isaiah 52:7-10
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city…. 2Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion! 3For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. 4For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause…. 6Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

11Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. 12For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Psalm 98
1 O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.2 The Lord has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God. 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. 5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. 6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. 8 Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy 9 at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Second Reading
Hebrews 1:1-4, [5-12]
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. [5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; 12 like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end.”]

Let us pray. Spirit of the living God, you are already with us. But we ask that you would open our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to your presence with us now. In our prayers, in our singing, in your word, in the water and the bread and the wine, in the people we meet. Come and grow our faith. Deepen our hope. And strengthen our love. And water within each of us the desire to be your faithful friends forever. Amen.

Wake up. Listen. Leave.

Wake up. Listen. Leave.

On this Christmas morning, those are the three things I want us to do together. I want you to wake up. I want you to listen. And then I want you to leave.

I don’t know how you come here this morning. I shared this a couple of years ago, but times like this always feel “the moment after.” You know that moment, the moment after?

It’s the time after you’ve opened all the presents and the wrapping paper litters the floor, and that moment of excitement and energy and anticipation has…passed. That’s the moment after.

It’s the ordinary morning the day after you’ve gotten married.

It’s the startlingly quiet moment when you arrive home from your father’s funeral and there’s nothing to do anymore.

It’s the evening dishes after everyone’s gone home.

That’s the moment after.

It’s not necessarily good or bad. It just is.

In many ways today always feels like that. Like the moment after. We all are just a little quieter. Some of the excitement is gone. Some of the crowds have gone home. It’s not good or bad. It just is. I don’t know if you come here overjoyed, or lonely, or exhausted, or excited, or frazzled with trying to get out of the house on time. But we are here now, and I guarantee that deep down, deep down – whether we realize it or not – each one of us is struggling. Struggling with something. Struggling with the state of the world. Struggling with unreachable expectations, either from ourselves or from others. Struggling to love… either ourselves or others. And in that place – that deep down place – we all long for a word. A word of hope.

This morning, we just heard God speaking through the prophet Isaiah to a people who are struggling. Deep down they are struggling with the world they live in, because they have been living in exile. To live in exile is to live in the land of loss. They’ve been conquered by the Babylonian empire and army, they’ve been taken from their homes, and the places and the people they love have been destroyed. They were kingless, landless, and homeless. And deep down they are struggling with who they are because they’ve been told and treated like they are nobodies. And in that deep down place, they long for a word. A word of hope.

And God’s word to these people is this: Wake up. Listen. Leave.

Awake, awake, O Zion. Wake up! Put on your strength. Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city…. 2Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem;…3For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing because that’s you’ve been told you are: nothing. Worthless. But you shall be redeemed without money. Because you are priceless and you are not an object for sale, you are my people and I am coming for you. Here I am. Wake up. A new day is coming.

And then God says to them – Listen! Open your ears to the messenger coming over the mountain proclaiming peace. You can tell by their feet on the horizon, their beautiful feet, and the way they are running that it is good news they bring. Listen to them. And listen to the soldiers in the watch towers sing as they discover that the messenger who is coming and proclaiming peace is God alone.

And then God invites them to add their fragile voices to the choir. Break forth, you ruins of Jerusalem. Sing out. Sing joy to the world, the Lord is come!

And then the text says, The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

I love that line – God bared God’s holy arm. At first it sounds like God is in a tank top, showing off God’s triceps. Flexing God’s muscles to intimidate. But one commentator suggested that it might be that God is baring God’s arm by rolling up God’s sleeves and getting to work. The work of rebuilding up God’s people who are in ruins. And just in case we think this rescue mission is private event. That there is country club of God’s people out in the land of exile and this is only for them, listen again. The prophet Isaiah says, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Wake up! It’s a new day, God says. Listen! I’m on the horizon. I’m coming for you. I’m coming to help you. I coming to be with you, God says.

And then God says, “Leave!” Depart from here. Depart from this land of loss, this land of exile and go home. You don’t have to live here anymore. And I, the Lord your God, will go in front of you to protect you, and will go behind you to encourage you. Go home. By home I mean, go home to who you really are. God’s beloved children. And knowing that God is with you on the journey to that place.

Wake up. Listen. Leave.

That’s God’s message, God’s word of hope through the prophet Isaiah to the people in exile. And maybe that’s God’s word to us today too. And we get the perfect visual of that message today in Josie’s baptism that will happen in a few moments.

Wake up! God says. There nothing quite like water being poured over your head at 10:30 in the morning to wake you up. You see God knows that we can have our eyes open, can be conscious, and yet we can be asleep to our life, to the world around us. Wake up and put your phone down. Wake up and turn off the tv. Wake up and come into the land of the living. See the people around you. See the blessings around you. See the pain around you. Just…just wake up. And so, I invite you to wake up. Wake up to this present moment. To be here now.

And then when we are awake, God says, “Listen! Listen to my Word. Don’t listen to all those other words out there. Listen to my Word.” What is God’s Word? We heard it in the gospel reading, “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God.” and the Word loved the world so much that it became flesh so that it could be with us. The Word God wants you to hear this morning is Jesus. God’s Word is Emmanuel. God’s Word is “I am with you.” Josie will hear that Word when her name is stitched to God’s name – Josie, I baptize you in the name of God. And then she will feel and smell the Word when she is anointed with the oil of gladness and proclaimed a child of God, who has been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

And you get to hear that Word too. In fact, we all get many opportunities to listen to God’s Word this morning. You can listen to the Word when we join our voices in song. We will sing together in a moment that Jesus calls us from the manger and says “You are safe from danger, come and see. From all the grieves you, you are free. All you need, I will surely give you.” Listen to that Word. Listen to it with your heart.

You can listen to it when bread and wine are placed in your hands and you hear that Jesus gives his body for you.

And then when we are awake and when we’ve listened, God says – leave. Depart from here. You can’t stay here. We will see this in the baptism too. We will see Josie leave the font. Because she can’t stay there. We will march with her down this aisle and welcome her to this church family, this community. But before we send her out into the world, we will first give her a flashlight, in the form of a candle. For when the road ahead gets uncertain and hard to see. Just like last night for many of us, she will receive a candle reminding her that she carries the light of Christ with her and it will be both her guide and her good news to share.

God says, “Leave.” We cannot stay here. Why? Because all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of God. God is with us, God is with the world, and we are now messengers of that Word. God will go before us to protect us and go behind us to encourage us to bear that Word. And as we heard from the gospel of John this morning, those who receive this word – those who hear it, who listen to it – will be given power to become children of God. But a better translation, a better understanding might be, “those who receive this word can stand as children of God.” That’s our promise to Josie today, that we will help her to stand up straight into who she truly is. That we will stand beside her as children of God.

And so God calls us to leave this place. Some of us might go straight to the Christmas dinner, or some of us might rush off to Grandma’s and to a house that smells like Christmas and with a whole family to join you, or maybe some of us return to a place that used to feel like home. Wherever we go, God calls us to stand as children of God and to help others do the same. The world we are returning to might be in ruins, but even ruins can sing again, God says.

Wake up. Listen. Leave.

Friends, on this Christmas morning, Jesus is God’s gift to you. Jesus is God’s Word of hope.

Jesus is God’s alarm clock, telling us to wake up. To get out of bed and come alive again and greet the new morn. A new day has arrived and your God is here.

Jesus is God’s Word, God’s love letter to you and to the world. Calling us to listen. To hear a word loaded with teenage love about how God has loved you since the beginning of time and that God couldn’t bear to live without you and that all God really wants for Christmas is you.

And Jesus is God’s custodian – who is sweeping up the floors and turning off the lights, telling us that it is time to leave. To leave this place and go back out into the world, to stand tall with a sturdy spine of grace.

On this Christmas morning, wake up to this moment before you. Listen to the grace given to you. Leave for the sake of the world around you.

For Jesus, the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and the One who sustains all things is with you.

Merry Christmas. Amen.