Getting the Good News Out

This is my sermon text for January 6, celebrating the Epiphany of Our Lord, using the Gospel text from Matthew (Matthew 2.1-12). The Teaching Moment I refer to is a minute or two I take during the service to point out something that normally wouldn't fit well into my message. Usually, it is about one of the other lessons, but here it comes from the Gospel lesson.

In my Teaching Moment (see the bottom of this post), I gave you five pieces of information about the Wise Men, and pointed out things we think are there, but really are not. We’ve heard the  story so often we “know” what is there. We will always think of there being THREE wise men. You have too many mental impressions for me to undo with one little message. But now I want you to look and think about that text again, but now looking at the big picture. What is going on here?

In Luke’s Gospel, the birth of Our Savior Emmanuel is announced to shepherds by the hosts of heaven. God specifically sent God’s messengers to those at the bottom of society’s barrel: the last in line, the lost ones, the least of these and the little ones. Shepherds were not welcome in the Temple; they were considered unclean. So if God’s people didn’t want to have anything to do with them, they didn’t’ want to have anything to do with God. Those messengers told them that there was “Good News of Great Joy for ALL the people.”

Now we hear from Matthew. In his gospel, the birth is announced through a star rising. The Wise Men, or Magi, have come to pay homage and respect to the new King of the Jews. Unfortunately for them, they go to the current King of the Jews, who was unaware that he was being replaced. He called in his experts, and they said the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. The Magi went there and discovered Jesus and Mary in a house.

As I shared with you in my “Top Five Facts,” the Magi were probably astrologers. They were studying the stars, not to learn about the stars, but to use them attempt to foretell the future. They came from the East, but we do not know how far. Were they from Persia, Babylon, the Arabian dessert or even further East? We are not given any hints. But we know they were stargazers who came from the East. They were not members of the people of Israel. They were foreigners. They did not follow the customs and traditions of the Jewish faith.

Yet these were the people who came to find “the child who has been born king of the Jews.” These were the ones who came “to pay him homage.”

The leaders of the Temple, the chief priests and scribes were able to pretty quickly review the Scriptures to be able to tell King Herod and his visitors where the Messiah would be born. They were able to pull Bethlehem from the writings of the prophets, or perhaps they already knew. Whether they already knew or were able to quickly discern where a new king of Israel may come from, they did not see signs that would point to his arrival. But those of a different tradition did. They may not have known where, but they knew what. They also knew whom.

In the two Gospel stories of the birth of Jesus, the announcement and revelation of God’s Son being born on Earth come to unexpected people. Luke tells us of the angels coming to shepherds, who were not welcome in the Temple and synagogues. Matthew shares that the birth of Christ was revealed to those who did not believe in or follow the God of Abraham, Moses and Jacob.

And in both cases, they heard or saw the signs, came and saw, shared their story with Mary, and left, never to be heard from again. It would be nice if Jesus would run into someone whom Jesus healed said, “I was a shepherd who came to see a baby that was lying in a manger.” Or if one of the people Jesus taught mentioned something about travelling from the East, following a star to where a mother and child were, and gave them gifts in honor of the future leader. But there is no mention of either the shepherds or Magi after their early appearance in the Gospels.

But it is the very nature of God, doing unexpected things, using unexpected people, to reveal the birth of God’s Son, Our Savior Emmanuel, Jesus Christ. We should have come to assume it. God doesn’t often use the people you would imagine, go to the places you would anticipate.

Over the past few months, in meetings with both church councils, the mutual ministry committee and a few members of each council who formed and evaluation committee, we have talked about how I am doing as pastor, and on what I, and we as the Church, can do better. I have some things to work on, but one of the items that was brought up was that we all need to put more of a focus on is Evangelism.

Evangelism is the sharing and spreading of the message of Jesus Christ. It also seems to be a bad word in the Lutheran church. It means talking to people about your faith, sharing with them why it is important to you. Doing that, telling others about what you find to be important about the fact that this baby that keeps getting these strange visitors will grow up to ultimately be nailed to a cross, crucified, to reconcile humanity and God. He will die for the forgiveness of our sins. He will be raised to show that death will be defeated. These great gifts of grace, mercy and forgiveness are so much more important than the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But we aren’t willing to share that information. This is especially troubling for those of us who are members of the ELCA; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Evangelical Lutherans are who we claim to be.

The Greek root of the word evangelism is translated in English at Gospel or the Good News. So to be an evangelist is to be a Gospeler or Good Newser. Evangelizing is Gospelizing or Good Newsing. It is more than just sharing the story; more than just talking. Being a Gospeler means doing the Good News, not just talking about it. And that’s something we are better at.

We do things in the name of Christ. We do things as commanded by Christ. We are Good Newsing by how we live our lives. We are Gospelizing by the decisions we make. We share of our time. We share of our talents. We share of our resources, of the blessings God has given us. We need to work on sharing our words and experiences as well.

But there will be opportunities to do just that; to be Gospelers in words, as well as our deeds. God presents them to us all the time. We need to recognize them, and take advantage of the opportunity.

There are shepherds and magi all around us. People who have felt that God and God’s people have turned their back on them. People who are looking for answers. People who come from a different tradition. People who aren’t like us. People who need to be Gospelized. People who need to hear the Good News, experience the Good News, have the Good News shown to them.

The shepherds and magi are proof that no one is ever beyond the embrace of God. God will go to great extremes to show how much people are loved. Sometimes, he will send angels. Sometimes, he will send a star. Sometimes, God sends a Lutheran who is struggling to be a Good Newser.

Top 5 facts about the Wise Men

5   We always hear about the Three Wise Men. But nowhere in this lesson do we hear how many Wise Men there are. There are three gifts, so it is assumed that each brought a gift. Three gifts, so there must have been 3 Wise Men.

4   Speaking of Wise Men, they are also referred to as Magi. That comes from the word in Greek, magos, which is the root word for magician.

3   This means they were probably magicians or astrologers, not astronomers – watching the stars for the zodiac, not just the stars, and definitely not kings. (Even though we sang “We Three Kings.”)

2   By the tradition of magi & astrologers, a star would rise at the birth of a leader or ruler. So the Wise Men/Magi would have began their travels at the sight of the sign, and arrived much later; which is why we celebrate their arrival not on Christmas, but on the day of Epiphany.

1    The day of Epiphany (which means appearance or revelation) has been set 12 days after Christmas, which is where we get the 12 days of Christmas from.

Over Shadowed

This is my sermon text for January 13, celebrating the Baptism of Our Lord, and focusing on the Gospel text from Luke (Luke 3.15-22).

Have you ever lived in the shadow of someone?

Have you ever been known as “so-and-so’s brother or sister?” Or “Aren’t you what’s-his-name’s kid?”

Has your identity been wrapped up in your relationship to someone else?

It has to be incredibly frustrating. It’s bad enough when you have to live with what you have done and the reputation you have earned based upon your own actions. But when you have to try to live up to, or not live down to, what someone else has done, that is a challenge.

As an only child, I didn’t have to deal with that, but I can imagine the frustration if you’re one of the youngest in the family, and on the first day of school, the teacher refers to one (or several) of your older sisters and brothers. Whether good or bad, you realize that you aren’t being looked at for your own merits, but rather, people’s perception of you is colored, shaded or altered because of your family. It might be good; your last name may open some doors, or get you the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, it could cause problems. People won’t see you for you; they have pre judged you. They are anticipating you will act and do things in a certain way, just because of who certain members of your family were.

For example, I’d like to the Manning family. Archie Manning was the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints in the Seventies and early Eighties. He was a very good quarterback on some really horrible teams. During his career for the Saints, he played on one team that had a .500 record; they won as many games as they lost. The rest of his time, his teams had a losing record. His son, Peyton, had an outstanding college career at Tennessee, finishing as runner-up for the Heisman Trophy to Michigan’s Charles Woodson, and has had an excellent career in the NFL, winning four MVP awards, winning Super Bowl 41 and having an incredible comeback season this year for the Broncos.

Peyton’s little brother, and Archie’s youngest son, Eli, is also an NFL quarterback. He didn’t have as great a college career as Peyton, and struggled at the beginning of his career for the Giants. He’s considered to be a very good quarterback, but not one of the all time greats, like his brother. But Eli has won two Super Bowls.

It must have been a challenge for both Peyton and Eli as they grew up, having to have themselves compared to their dad. Then as Peyton began to excel, Eli had to face ANOTHER set of comparisons. Now, Peyton has to answer questions if he can match his brother’s second Super Bowl title.

Individually, each of the Manning’s has had remarkable careers. Each of them finished in the top five in the Heisman voting. Each of them has had a long NFL career. But none of them will be judged on their own; they will always be compared to one another. Archie, the father, who had a very good career, may actually be thought of as the least of the three of them. It is the ones who came after him who were more powerful quarterbacks.

Such was the case for the subject of most of today’s Gospel lesson from Luke: John the Baptizer.

It was John who was the big deal. It was John’s whose preaching and teaching caught everyone’s attention. It was John who everybody thought was the Messiah. John drew the attention of the chief priests and elders. John drew the ire of Herod.

The crowds asked if he was the promised one, the one they had been waiting for. They thought John could be the Messiah. He told them he was not. But, that the Messiah was coming. However great and awesome they thought that John was, wait until they see the true Messiah.

John knew he was living in the shadow of the Messiah. He knew his role was to prepare the way. While he knew the starring role was his, it did not mean that he was going to shrink from the spotlight. He preached and proclaimed his message, right up until the time he got arrested for doing just that.

While we know him as John the Baptist, he may better be known as John the Testifier or John the Good Newser, because it of his preaching, especially against Herod, that got him arrested. We don’t know exactly when it was that he was arrested, but by the way Luke writes, it sounds like John did not baptize Jesus. Luke, who spends so much of the first two chapters of his Gospel writing about John and his miraculous birth, does not even let John the Baptist do the baptizing. Luke writes that Jesus was baptized “when all the people were baptized.”

So John, who had the spotlight, moves into the shadows, not even getting to have the honor, according to Luke, to do what his name claims. So, if John didn’t baptize Jesus, who did?

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” We don’t know. Luke doesn’t tell us who helped Jesus into the water.

But the passage I just read tells who handled the important part of the baptism, and it is someone else used to being in the shadows. “The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” The important part of the baptism for Jesus is that the Holy Spirit came to Christ. That was the important thing about Jesus’ baptism; the Spirit came to anoint him, to be with him, to sustain him and support him.

That is the important part of baptism for each of you. That is the important part of baptism for everyone. The important part of the baptism for all of us is that the Holy Spirit comes to us. Now, we don’t get to see the Spirit coming to us looking like a dove, but in our baptism, when we have the water poured over us, when we are anointed, we DO receive the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit comes to us by the gift of the grace of God. It doesn’t come because we accept Jesus or the Spirit. It doesn’t come because we invite the Spirit into our lives. The Spirit comes because it is sent by God. It is not because of anything we do. The Spirit comes because God decides to do so.

That is why Luther and the other Reformers advocated infant baptism, and why we practice that today. Receiving the Holy Spirit in baptism comes from God, not from what we do. That is why we baptize babies. As cute and wonderful as they are, they have not done anything to earn God’s favor or love. God gives us grace because that is what God does. Our God is a god of love, a god of mercy. In our baptism, God sends the Holy Spirit to be with us, always, as a sign of God’s grace and love, forgiving us in advance for our sins, washing away our wrongs before we have even done them. Like Jesus, in our baptism we are called and claimed as one of God’s own, one of His beloved.

The Spirit comes to strengthen and sustain Jesus for his ministry. The Spirit will be with him throughout his life, and will be with him onto the Cross, where he gives up the Spirit, showing how much God will do to show us how much we are loved.

The Spirit comes to strengthen and sustain us as we live out our baptized lives. The Spirit will be with us throughout our lives. The Spirit can give us the power and will to do God’s work, proclaim God’s love, grace and mercy, show God’s love and care, to be God’s representative on earth.

Martin Luther had a tradition that whenever he washed, he would pour some water on his face or head and remember that in his baptism he was claimed as a child of God, strengthened for service. Remember that as well. You have received the Holy Spirit. You are a beloved Child of God. You have been called to serve God, doing God’s work with your hands, never to live in the shadows.