The Choice

Jeremiah 28:9-14

          Politics and religion don’t mix.  Well, they don’t mix well.  Well, they sometimes have to mix.  Well, perhaps it is more correct to say that they need each other, even though they both adversely affect each other.  Today politics and religion are so intermixed with each other that it we may not know where one stops and the other one begins.  But these messages may pull us in different directions.  We may be confused by all the conflicting messages around and all the people who claim ‘God’ is on ‘their’ side.

          God’s and Generals where two soldiers stare at each other across the river.  One is a Confederate and one is a Union soldier.  They look at each other and you begin to notice the marked similarities between them.  Here are two men who were raised in pretty much the same American culture.  They both (probably) prayed to the same God and they both read the same Bible.  One was so adamant that God supported the practice of slavery that he was willing to put his life on the line.  The other was so adamant that God opposed the practice of slavery that he was willing to put his life on the line.  And God, for His part, remained silent on the whole question and let the people fight among it down here on earth.

  There is a powerful moment in the movie

            This passage is very similar to this picture.  We have two prophets whose worldviews and prophesies collide here.  Earlier in the chapter Hanaiah preaches a good word to the congregation along the following lines:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: qI have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 rWithin stwo years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place tJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, qfor I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

Now we have to take a break here to remind ourselves what is happening in this whole situation.  The world of politics and superpowers has caught up to the people of Israel.  Babylon was the sole superpower of the day, they controlled pretty much the entire world and they were coming Israel’s way.  Zedekiah, the king of Judah was faced with a decision: submit to Babylon and live in relative peace or resist and rebel and get crushed in the process. 

            We have romanticized the notion of resistance especially in movies like 300.  If you remember that movie (and if you are really good you remember that it is based in Herodutus) where the envoy of the Persian Empire comes to King Leonidias in Sparta and demands the Spartan loyalty.  Of course, Leonidias rejects him and says, “THIS IS SPARTA!” Part of us wants to be like that guy.  But of course Leonidias and his Spartans died in the rebellion against Persia.  This is not to say that we should not rebel, but that we need to know when to rebel. 

            So Zedekiah is faced with this same choice.  This choice is made more difficult by the fact that you have different prophets going around saying different things.  Some, like Jeremiah, are saying that you need to submit that God is bringing the Babylonians into power.  Others, like Hananiah say that God would never forsake his people and his covenant and so it is necessary to rebel for the sake of holiness. 

            We know what this tension is like.  We live in a divided time in our country.  We have faced the greatest economic downturn in the last 80 years.  The country is divided into two factions and there are essentially two party lines drawn on the issues.  Which one is right? Which one should you commit to? You cannot commit to both? Where is God in this issue? How would you rule if you were Zedekiah? How would you rule if you in charge today?

            You could not necessarily label one of these prophets good or bad, given the context of the day.  Walter Brueggemann suggests “it maybe more correct to see the conflicting political advice given by the two prophets as rooted in conflicting visions of God and God’s plans.”[1]

            Hananiah stresses the faith in God’s covenant with his people.  God will not forsake the people of Israel because He established his covenant with them.  Therefore, they should not worry about things like the giant super power who is coming to invade their country.  God is with them and God has promised that he will establish the people of Israel into a powerful kingdom. 

            We see this type of theology everywhere today.  This is an early version of prosperity gospel or a version of victory in Jesus, where the focus is on the good news that God has promised, not anything that might be difficult.  Sometimes, we are told to sit and be faithful and wait for all the good things that God will deliver to us.  We should not let obstacles get in our way, because God can overcome them and they can not stand in our way.  We are told that if we do not receive good things, then it must be something that is defective in our faith or that we have ‘hidden sin’ in our lives that we must confess before the good stuff can come flowing our way.

            Over against this, we see Jeremiah’s response.  It might be tempting to see his initial reaction as sarcastic, and it might be so, but I am not necessarily convinced that this the case.   He might have truly wished that things would work out the way that Hananiah presented.  After all, who wouldn’t want things to go this way? The problem was that things were not going to have a happy ending.  Things were going to be bad. 

            In the previous chapter, Jeremiah had been preaching to Zedekiah: “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people and live” (Jeremiah 27:12).  He announced that it was God (YHWH) who was raising up Nebuchadnezzar to be the ruler of the earth and so to stand in his way would be to stand in the way of God. Jeremiah had been preaching to the people that they needed to repent and be right with God, but the people have not listened.  Now as a consequence, they too will come under the yoke of the king of Babylon. 

            This message as not going over well…and frankly why would it?

            If people today had a choice between what message they would listen to, which one do you think they would?   Imagine if you had a preacher who was preaching that God wanted you to be ‘healthy, wealthy, and wise?’  All you had to do was to trust in God and you could get all the riches you wanted and all the possessions you wanted and all the victory that you wanted.  On the other side you had a preacher who was preaching that God was going to send you into a time of poverty, destitution and desperation.  Which one do you think would become more popular? Well isn’t that what we see when we look out at the modern world?

            None of us want to hear that God’s message for us is defeat, sorrow, or suffering.  WE all try to avoid these things and we say that “God love us and has a wonderful plan for us.” To hear that God’s plan is going to mean for us to give up our dreams, our hopes and our lives destroys us.  It is no wonder that Jeremiah was threatened with death just about everywhere he went.

            When I was younger, I used to believe that God had great plans for me and that ministry was going to be spectacular.  I would preach and people would come to listen to me.  But lately I have had to accept the Jeremiah message that I am not meant for greatness…or even mediocrity.  I am meant for obscurity, exile and to live life at the edge.  To accept this has come at a great cost emotionally, but I think it has deepened me spiritually.  When we have to give up the very core of what our beliefs have been, we must grow to accept a new set of beliefs and to redefine who we are in light of who God is

.

            In this passage, God is calling Israel, His chosen people, to a life in Exile, to a life confined to the edges of society where they will not be important nor influential nor cared about.  They will be ignored, stepped on, beat down and destroyed.  (This is of course the experience of the vast majority…some of them have different experiences, such as Daniel or Esther).  Who wants that?  

            We do not always understand God’s ways in this life…and maybe we don’t in the other world as well.  God never promised that our lives would turn out the way that we wanted them to.  Nor did He say that we would be completely without struggle and without difficulty in our lives.  In fact he never promised that he has a wonderful plan for our lives. 

            Jesus warned about this in the gospels.  In fact, the disciples weren’t even assured that they would have a place to live.  “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mathew 8:20).  In fact, Jesus’ followers were told that they were to be kicked out of the synagogues (John 16:1) and people will turn against them (Matt 5:11) and they will generally not be places of great importance in the world.  But what is important in the Gospels is the same lesson that was important for the people of Jeremiah: that God will be with them, and no matter what happens, they need to trust in the Lord.

            At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus knows he is going to send his disciples out into the world.  They are going like serpents out into the world, but need to be as gentle as doves.  They are going out to a hostile environment.  The very last thing that Jesus says to His people is “I am with you always…to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20). 

            Jeremiah promises the same thing to the people of Israel.  Even though God is sending them into the Exile, even though God is relegating them to the edges of society and bringing many of their dreams to an end, he is not forsaking the people.  In the very next chapter we read the most famous verse from Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11). 

            What is it that God might be calling you to? Might God be calling you to an experience that you would rather not go through? Is God calling you to a desert life, one that is not in keeping with your wishes and desires? 

            I think that of the Church as a whole that is where we are heading. Our doctrines and our values are under constant scrunity and we pushed more and more every day to the edge of society.  We no longer enjoy the privilege we may have at one point in our history and that is hard for many of us to accept.  Whereas church leaders in the past were looked up to and respected, so now we are scorned and ridiculed.  To join the church is almost to put yourself in exile from the dominant culture of the day and to sacrifice much of what can be enjoyed in this world.

            But what about personally? Individually? Are you hearing a message from God that might be difficult for you to accept? Would you rather, like Hananiah, accept the message that everything will be fine and that life is filled with days of endless wonder for you?   Or would you rather hear the message of Jeremiah that God is calling you to a more difficult life?

            This might mean giving up a dream of being a world changer and settling for something less.  This might mean sacrificing the place you want to live at for a different and more ‘dull’ existence.  This might mean not having the career you once dreamed of, but rather working in a job that pays the bills. 

            This is not an easy message, and it was never meant to be.  Remember that God goes with you into whatever the future holds.  But this passage reminds us to listen dutifully and diligently for God’s voice, even if we do not want to hear it.

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[1] Feasting on the Word Year A vol 3 Loc 5788

Are you Somebody?

Nuala O’Faolin recently wrote a book whose title, Are you Somebody?, says it all.  She takes it from a question she was asked one day.  In her account of her life, she attempts to answer the question…maybe not the answer the person who asked the question was looking for, but an answer nonetheless.

            Are you somebody?

            Isn’t that a question that we are asked…and we ask ourselves…a thousand times a day.  The question may be asked in terms of “are you somebody important?”  Or maybe the person wants to know, “are you somebody I know…or I should know.”  Perhaps underlying all of this is the unspoken assumption, “are you somebody I should care about?”

            Are you somebody?

            How would you answer that question about yourself?  Are YOU somebody?  Perhaps it might depend on what you meant by ‘somebody’.  I mean, aren’t we all somebody? We all have our own personality, our own interests, our own quirks and our own habits.  Maybe you might say, “well, I’m somebody to some people” I have a family that loves me…and if they don’t love me they at least acknowledge that I belong to them. But am I somebody important? Am I somebody valuable? Well now we are getting into dangerous waters indeed.

            Are you somebody?

            Our Gospel lesson today introduces us to somebody who might have been asking this very same question.  In John 4, we meet this unnamed ‘Samaritan Woman’ who epitomizes the question we have been asking.  And even though we don’t get to know much about this woman, we find out what it means to be somebody through her eyes.

            It seems like an ordinary day.  Jesus has been out preaching and he is thirsty and tired.  He sits by a well in a small town in Samaria while the disciples go off and do…disciple things.  As Jesus is sitting there, this woman comes up to him.

            This woman…this unnamed woman coming at the well at noon.  Not in the morning, when everybody else would come to the well.  At noon.  So she wouldn’t be noticed by other people.  So she could avoid the other women in the town.  So she could be alone.  As she comes to the well, Jesus begins to talk to her.

            Are you somebody? Ok…not the question he asks.  Rather he asks with the benign request for a drink of water. 

            She responds, “How is it you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (4:9).  She responds, “Are you somebody?”  She is confused because it was a social custom that Jews and Samaritans would be kept separate from each other.[1]  Not only this, but this is a man asking something from a woman.  There is a high wall of social norms, laws and regulations that are being overcome and it understandably makes the woman uncomfortable. 

            The best part of this story comes with Jesus’ response to this.  If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’… What a great statement.  Essentially Jesus is saying “Well I actually AM somebody…in fact I AM” but then goes on to bring the conversation back to her again.  “I could give you ‘living water’.” 

            The story then takes another turn when Jesus tells her to go get her husband and come back to talk to him.

            Then comes the truth.

            I have no husband.

            Jesus replies, “You are right in saying that you have no husband. In fact, you have had five husbands and the man you are living with now is not your husband.”

            Five husbands.  That’s a lot.  But it is also the reason why the woman is out at noon by herself.

            No matter what the reasons are for having five husbands, the fact of the matter is that in a small town like Sychar, having five husbands meant you were somebody.  You were that woman ( you can feel free to fill in what ‘that’ meant).  You were that woman that five men couldn’t stand so they left you.  You were that woman who was cursed by God and had her husbands die on her. You were that woman that you couldn’t even make the current guy marry you.   

You were somebody…but you were really nobody.  You were nobody that anybody wanted to be around.  You were nobody that anybody cared about. You were nobody that anybody wanted to see.

You were alone in the world and you can imagine what this felt like. 

She might have felt that she had been cursed by God.  She might have felt unclean because of her current circumstances.  She definitely felt alone.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone.

The nature of her five (failed?) marriages doesn’t really matter.  What really matters is how she felt.  Ostracized by her community, forsaken in love, abandoned by everyone and everything important.  It is no wonder that when given the opportunity to talk to Jesus, she talks about an old theological dispute.  Something that’s not personal, not about her.  Something that’s safe.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone. 

I bet that we have all felt like this at some point in our lives.  One of the memories I have of growing up was being called a “waste of air”.  But so many people have had to endure so much more.

I think of Anna, who grew up hated by her father only to marry a man who cared even less for her.

I think of Dan who gave his life over to drugs at an early age, kicked out by his family and lived his life on the streets.

I think of Mildred, the elderly woman that nobody wanted to visit and nobody wanted to listen to her pain.

Cursed.  Unclean.  Alone.

When we find ourselves like this.  We may ask ourselves, “Am I somebody?”  And the answer comes back in our heads and nestles in our hearts, “I am nobody worth listening to, I am nobody worth being with; I am nobody worthy loving.”  “Am I somebody?”  “NO” the answer echoes in the stillness of our rooms with only ourselves to hear it.

But when we consider this story, a different answer must be given. 

At its’ heart, this story is about the man who did pay attention, who did listen, who did care.

At this point in John’s Gospel, the reader knows fully well who Jesus is.  In fact, we cannot avoid this fact.  John’s Gospel begins, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was With God and the Word was God”.  John makes it pretty clear that Jesus is the Word, that Jesus is God.  “All things that were created were created through him.”  Jesus is God, He is the creator of the universe, of all that was and is and will ever be.

Reimagine this story.  Here is a woman, a broken, lonely woman going to the well one day.  Who does she meet? I AM.  The Beginning and the End the Alpha and the Omega, the CREATOR of the universe and all that is. 

This God became flesh, became man, and sat at the well with this woman.  He took an interest in her.  He offered her ‘living water’, everlasting life and life with hope.  He offered her a future where the God of the Universe loved her and took an interest in her.  In Her! 

This may not seem like a lot…but it is EVERYTHING.  It doesn’t matter what the other people in town are saying.  It doesn’t matter that life hasn’t worked out according to plan.  It doesn’t matter that our hearts are broken (it does, but hear me out).  What matters is that the GOD of the Universe, the one who holds worlds in the palm of His hands, is uniquely interested in YOU.  He wants to hear from YOU.  He wants to know what is going on in your life.  He wants to know your pain.  He wants to know your joy, he wants to know your life.

Are you somebody?

Yes, yes you are.  You are somebody of great importance to the great God of the Universe.  You are His beloved child.

You are somebody, and of slightly greater importance is that He is somebody.  He is God Incarnate.  He is the Christ.  He is the one who offers you living water to drink, both now and forevermore.

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[1] Jewish people of Judea (southern Israel) considered themselves to be ‘pureblood’ while the Jews of Samaria (Northern Israel) were descendands from mixed races.

“What are you Looking For”

            It was a dark time…a time of civil war.  There was not one region that was not affected by the war.  Life was in constant upheaval and people were displaced.  Smuggling was at an all-time high and crime was everywhere.  Hope was a foreign word that nobody believed in any more.  Death and destruction were at every door.  But there were whispers that something was coming, someone was coming to change the tide of the war and to usher in a new era of peace.  Finally, the long awaited savior arrives on the scene…a dirt farmer from a backwaters planet called Tatooine!

         

   You might be a little disappointed to realize that all your hopes and dreams are pinned on a whiny teenager who knows nothing about the Force, international politics or seemingly anything else of importance.

            Of course we know that in Star Wars, everything turns out to be great.  Luke Skywalker arrives on the scene and takes care of the evil Galatic Empire and restores order, peace and harmony to the universe.  But if it was real life, you might be a little skeptical at first…and nobody would blame you. 

            In fact, that is probably exactly how the Israelites felt about Jesus when he was first revealed to them.

            Imagine the scene, John the Baptist is in the wilderness and people are flocking to him.  There was something about John’s message that connected with people and they wanted to hear what he had to say.  So they came in throngs out to where John was preaching to come and be baptized in the Jordan River. 

            We don’t know exactly how long John was out in the wilderness, other than he was at least out there for about a year.  Day after day, people came and asked him questions, “Are YOU the messiah? Are you the one who is going to end the EXILE? Are you the one who is going to kick the Romans out and restore the holiness of the temple?” And every day, day after day, John would answer the question negatively.  “No…I am NOT the one.  There is ONE  who is coming after me…HE is the one.”  And so the very essence of John’s ministry has been to point to the one who is coming, to draw the attention away from himself and to point to the real Messiah, the one who is to establish the Kingdom of God.

            You can almost sense the anticipation that is building up in the people. 

            Today we build anticipation in a number of ways.  We use ‘Kickstarter’ campaigns to help people find out what is going with different people’s efforts.  We launch movie trailer campaigns sometimes two years out (Batman vs. Superman, anyone?) and we try to build as much suspense as we can.  Presidential campaigns start two years before the actual election and the news is already reporting polling data on potential races, before anyone has announced they are running!. 

            But none of these ways existed back in John’s time.  The only thing he had was preaching and word of mouth.  And this generally worked as people waited and waited and anticipation grew and grew.

            Finally, one day, he announces, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”(John 1:29).  In fact, so excited is the Gospel of John to announce this that it skips over the account of the baptism…John draws all of his attention on Jesus. 

            But for somebody in the first century, we might expect a little disappointment.  “Where? Where is he?  Is it that Nicodemus guy? He seems pretty rich and politically poised to take control! No? Is it that strong looking young Sadducee? No? What about that guy…over there? No?  Then who the heck is it?”

            Slowly the attention gets directed to a young carpenter from Nazareth.  Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?  I mean this is like saying that the greatest world leader is coming from Jersey…and we know nothing good comes from Jersey. Jersey is the land of Snooki, just as Nazareth is the home of nobodies. It’s the bad news bears of the ancient world.

            We can almost hear some whispers, “Really?  He doesn’t look like much.  He’s a carpenter?  How is a carpenter supposed to get rid of Rome? Or cleanse the temple?”  

            In fact, it doesn’t seem like it ‘stuck’ the first time.  Jesus left and comes back the next day only to hear John declare for the second time, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” (1:35).  It’s almost as if John is declaring, “um…look, wasn’t kidding…HERE is the Lamb of God!”

            Now, let’s talk about this phrase, “Lamb of God”.  It was probably not the leading description that people were expecting as they talked about the Messiah.  The Messiah was not supposed to be meek and mild like a lamb, but fierce and strong like a lion. When John announces that this messiah is the “Lamb of God”, they may have been confused. 

            A few years ago, there was a great movie called Gran Turino, starring Clint Eastwood.  We all know Clint…he’s the gunfighter, the angry cop, the loose cannon who is just waiting to get even with the bad guys.  I went into this movie knowing nothing other than it was a Clint Eastwood movie, and I was pumped. As I watched the bad guys take over his neighborhood and as I watched Clint make the ‘Clint’ face, I just knew that they were all in for it.  I kept waiting and waiting for Clint to take out his old Colt .45 and light up the night.  Except he didn’t.  This was CLINT EASTWOOD! Where is the gun fights.  Except there are none.  In the end, Clint Eastwood solved the situation without killing anyone or firing a single shot.  He turns into a lamb instead of the lion I was expecting.

           

We have a hard time when our real life heroes don’t live up to the hype.  We expect Tim Tebow to be the best quarterback in the NFL because the media hyped it so much.  We expect all the problems in the country to go away after Barack Obama becomes president.  We feel let down and disappointed when people reveal themselves to be different then our expectations. We lose heart and we lose hope and we find ourselves walking away from the very thing we had been wishing for.

            After this incident, Jesus is walking through the land, and two disciples of John begin to follow him.  They understand that John has called them to follow Jesus, and not John anymore.  So they follow after him. 

            Jesus, looking at them for a little bit, asks them, “What are you looking for?”

            Wow.

            What a loaded question. 

            Notice it’s not, “who are you looking for?” or “What do you want from me?” But rather the entire question is “What are you looking for?”

            I don’t know that if Jesus were to ask me that question that I would be able to give him an answer.  I might try.  I might list all the things that I find wrong with the world and suggest that He fix them.  I might say that I am looking for someone to take care of all things, or I might just say that I am looking for salvation.

            Or I might just go with what the disciples themselves answered.

            “Where do you live?”

            Now this too, is a pregnant question.  Where do you live might mean, “where are you, I’d like to come and visit.” It might also mean, I want to live with you and share my life with you.  More than likely, the latter is meant here because it seems that the disciples are asking to become Jesus’ disciples.  At that time, having a teacher meant more than ‘going to school’.  Students often lived their lives with their teachers and shared day to day existence and chores with them.

            What are you looking for?  I think this is a question that Jesus asks each and everyone one of us.  It’s an important question, especially important when we think of the person of Jesus.

            What are you looking for?

            Are you looking for somebody just to talk to? Are you looking for somebody to give you ‘salvation’ or are you looking for somebody that will help give meaning to life? 

            All of these questions depend on the view that we have of Jesus.

            Currently one of the nation’s bestselling books is on Jesus.  It’s called Zealot by Aslan Reza, a Muslim scholar.  His answer to this question is that Jesus was just another political revolutionary, a zealot

who wanted to free his country from the tyranny of Rome.

            The Fundamentalists have a different view of Jesus, one who has come to destroy the corrupting power of sin and to justify ‘those who believe.’

            The Liberals have a view of Jesus as one who is here to spread the gospel of universal love.

            The Catholics view Jesus as the King of Heaven and Earth, ruling over the universe from his throne in heaven and through his representatives here on earth.

            And the list goes on and on.  For almost every person, there is a different view of Jesus.  Each of us starts the Christian life from a different vantage point and from a different place.  We all begin following Jesus with a different goal in mind.  Some of us just want to get through the day, while others want a companion along the way. 

            When Jesus answered the disciples, he did not give them a direct answer.  This should not surprise us because after all, it is Jesus we are talking about.  Rather he gives them the cryptic message, “Come and see.” (1:39).

            It’s an invitation, not only to see where Jesus lives, but to see who He is.  It is an invitation to life with him. 

            You never really get to know somebody until you live with them.  We all have hopes and dreams about getting married and we dream about how perfect life will be with our intended spouse.  There are many couples, however, who had false and unrealistic expectations.  “What do you mean you leave your socks on the floor?  THERE’s A PERFECTLY GOOD HAMPER OVER THERE!”  We may discover that our spouse’s view on fun is not exactly our own.  We may discover that there are things that irritate us about our spouse.  We find out that this person is different than the one we expected to live with.

            The same is true with Jesus.  His invitation to us to ‘come and see’ will change our lives and our expectations. 

            We will see Jesus in action.  We will see both his call to the righteous and the unrighteous.  We will see him show up in the most unlikely of situations.  We will discover that His reactions are not OUR reactions to things on a great deal many of things.  We frankly discover that the Jesus of our expectations is quickly overshadowed by the Jesus of reality.

            Some of us will have a hard time and we will reject the real Jesus and construct for ourselves a false Jesus.  Others will fully embrace this idea and some will remained shell shocked for quite some time.

            The disciples quickly realize that although this Jesus did not match their expectations, He is in fact the true Messiah.  They come quickly to Peter and they announce to him, “We have found the Messiah”(1:41).

            When they announce that they have found THE messiah, the disciples are announcing that this person, this Jesus, is the one who is to bring about the Kingdom of God.  They don’t know how and they don’t know when and they aren’t sure of all the particulars, but this is the ONE.  This is the one in whom all the hopes and fears were be consolated.  This is the one who will bring harmony back to creation and this is one who will restore the nation of Israel.  All they have to do is ‘come and see.’

            So what are you looking for?  Who are you seeking?

            Jesus invites us all to come and see.  Jesus invites us all to follow him.  In doing so, our preconceptions and our expectations of Jesus will be shattered. We will be surprised, amazed, filled with wonder, at times hurt, maybe angry, but ultimately the reality of Jesus will far outweigh our conceptions of him. 

            My hope and my prayer is that in following Jesus, we will come to the place where we can say with the disciples, we have found the Messiah.

What's in a name?

Names are funny things.  One of the largest industries in today’s world is the whole baby-naming market.  We can hire consultants for just names and some communities try as hard as they can to make unique names or unique variations of names (Shaniqua or Cheerokee).  We may have lost our minds when it comes to the whole name thing.  We publish lists on the most popular baby names and we read books on the meanings of names. 

            We had fun naming our kids.  My wife and I know that we wanted our kids names to mean something, so that when our kids asked, “what does my name mean?” we could answer with something better than “because we liked it.” (When we found out we were having a boy, I tried to convince Marilee that we needed to name him ‘Luke’ so I could say, “Luke, I am your father!”).  We agonized over names and we tried to be political, so as to not have one side of the family represented too much. 

           I had wanted to name our oldest daughter, “Autumn.”  In fact that was going to be her name until the day she was born.  I had heard of the name “Abigail,” but I was pretty sold on “Autumn.”  But on the day she was born, when the nurse asked us what her name was, I responded, “Abigail.” Abigail is a Hebrew name, from the Bible, that means, “My Father’s Joy.”  It just seemed to fit her and the situation we now found ourselves in as a family.  We have similar stories for our other kids, and we each wanted their names to be something significant.

            Today’s readings are all about names…well, one name in particular….ok...two names in particular.

            Our gospel reading is the familiar story of Jesus’ birth, told in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 1:18-25).  Matthew sets up the story for us perfectly by saying, “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child…(Matthew 1:18).  So we have here a young couple (no matter how old Joseph is, he is still fairly young) and they are engaged to be married.  What a wonderful time of life!  Happiness and joy abound and there is to be a celebration soon!

            Except Mary is pregnant.

            Now many of us know we live in a time when this would not be a particular problem.  In fact, in our day and age, this seems to be a normal transpiring of events: Boy meets girl, boy and girl have sex, boy and girl exchange names, boy and girl move into together, boy and girl have child and then eventually maybe boy and girl get married.  This is not the time nor the place to discuss the merits or demerits of such a situation, just be it to say that this caused a problem for Joseph. 

            Ancient Jewish purity laws called for a woman to be a virgin when she was married.  The punishment in more of the rural areas like Nazareth, the punishment for not being a virgin was either divorce (which involved disgrace and abandonment) or death.   

            But, why? Why is this such an important deal? Was it just that they were uneducated hicks…you know the sort that watch Duck Dynasty and drink beer out of a can? Or was it just that they were prudes and wanted to stop everybody from having a good time?  Or were they just not enlightened like we are (I mean you can see how well our current sexual ethics are working out for us!) So what was it?

           

            Well, mainly it was about a name.  In a time before DNA and genetic testing, family lines were extremely important to people.  This was a society were everything, from the throne to property lines depended on your family heritage.  As we have moved further and further away from hereditary rights, bloodlines have become less important (as well as our sexual purity). Joseph couldn’t legitimately give his blessing to a child that wasn’t his and he would mess up all the genealogical charts for generations to come.

            So Joseph, a righteous man, now has  choice to make…how to get ‘rid’ of Mary.  Perhaps if he lived in Jersey or worked with the Sopranos, there would be a different option, but Joseph decides to divorce her secretly. 

            And most of us would probably agree with this decision…I mean, after all, what else could he do? He couldn’t marry her and care for her child, could he? He couldn’t really kill her, right? So a quiet divorce sounds like the best option.  Things are desperate for the young carpenter and his fiancée.  And Joseph probably felt that God had  abandoned him, that God was distant from him and that there was no help coming from God in this situation.

That is, until, God pipes in.

            The Angel appears and first tells Joseph “do not fear” (v. 20).  Interesting choice of words…it is not that he should not fear because of the angel, but that he shouldn’t be afraid to marry Mary and to raise her Son.  The reason for this is because “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…”(Mathew 1:21).  This is all done in fulfillment of Isaiah 7, which culminates with the baby’s name, “Immanuel”.

            Immanuel. 

            What a name!

            But what’s in a name anyway?

            To understand this prophesy, we need to go back to Isaiah 7.  As we return to this text, we have almost forget everything we know about it.  We have imported the Christmas story so much to it, that we go back to see what was happening.

            It was a desperate time for the nation of Israel.  The country was at war and was about to be destroyed.  King Ahaz was frightened the king of Assyria would overwhelm him and his people would be enslaved, killed, or deported.  He is looking at the end of his reign, the end of his kingdom and the end of the world, as far as he knows!

            Into this, Isaiah comes to him and says tells Ahaz to ask for a sign…any sign! But Ahaz is so scared that he won’t ask for a sign. So Isaiah give him a sign anyway:

Behold the virgin shall conceive and give birth and bear a son, and his name shall be Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). 

            There has been a lot of discussion about this sign…does it present a miraculous sign? Is the “virgin” still a virgin when she conceives, etc?  I don’t necessarily don’t want to be dogmatic here, but I think we should take the following things from Isaiah.  First, the ‘virgin’ isn’t really a virgin.[1] There is nothing supernatural about the sign, as it is a reference to the time when the siege will be over.  Rather, the most important thing is the name:

            Immanuel

            But what’s in a name?

            Immanuel literally means “God with us!”  The message that Isaiah wants to present to Ahaz is that despite the overwhelming nature of the events that are happening around you, God is with you. God is with you and will deliver you, save you from your enemies.

            That’s a powerful message.  Because Ahaz probably felt that God had abandoned the people of Israel.  He probably felt that God was distant from him and that really there was no help coming from on high. 

            How many of us feel the same way?  How many of us feel that God has abandoned us, that He is distant from us and that he is not coming for us.  This time of year, I always think about those people who feel that God has completely ignored or abandoned.

            I think of Scott, who was desperately trying to put his family back together after his wives numerous affairs and disastrous financial decisions.  “I don’t know where to go from here,” he said as he sat in my study.  “I don’t know who I am supposed to be and I don’t know how I’m supposed to get there.  Where is God?”

            I think of Alice who has been struggling with alcohol for such a long time.  “All I want is one more drink and then I can stop.”  Rehab never quite worked for her and she keeps losing the battle with the bottle. She has lost her job, her family and her God (she thinks).

            I think of Jacob, a youth group member who is trying to find his identity.  He feels an attraction towards men and feels that his family would completely reject him if they ever found out the truth about him.  “I mean, God hates fags, right?”

            And yet, we see the truth played out before us in this reading.  Jesus, the Angel declares, is God with us.

            God with us in our joy.  God with us in our despair.  God with us in our victory and God with us in our defeat.  God with us in our struggles and God with us in our sin.  God with us when we are happy and God with us when we are sad.  God with us in the crowd and God with us when we are alone.  God with us in all aspects of our lives. 

            This is the Gospel for us today, that God is with us.  God was with Joseph in those dark moments of his life, to give him courage to live out God’s plan for him.  God is with us in all situations of our lives.

            The theologians like to use big words and the word they like to use for this is “incarnation”.  That the fullness of God has come to dwell in the baby in Bethlehem.  This was a miracle in the biggest sense of the word because what it says is that, “I, God of the universe, Creator of heaven and earth, the one who has the power and the ability to preserve and destroy any life I see, have come to live in your world.  I want to experience all things with you.  I want to experience your joys and your sorrow.  I want to be with you in all things.”

            One of the great promises of the Old Testament is that “I will walk among you and will be your God and you will be my people” (Lev 26:12).  But there was always something that got in the way.  The people sinned, God got mad and He sent the people into Exile.  But When Jesus comes, he announces to the World, “I am here! I am with you! I am walking among among you! (or as John says, I will ‘dwell’ among you”

            And this promise has no end.  It is no surprise that Matthew ends with Jesus’ promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  Did you hear it? I am with you. 

            So what is in a name?

            First, we have a sign that God has not abandoned or forsaken his people.  God will never just cast us off to the winds.  That is a collective as well as an individual promise. 

            Second, we have knowledge that God is going through all things with us.  He is experiencing the joyous moments as well as the defeats with us.

            Third, we have a promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.  By coming in the person of Jesus as Immanuel, God has permanently identified with us.

            So no matter what you are going through this Advent period, no matter what joys and what sorrows you have during this period in life, remember that through it all, God is with us…God is with you…after all, it’s all in his name.

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[1] The Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 has hmlc (which means ‘young maid’ and could mean ‘virgin’) and the Greek of the LXX has  paqehnoj (which means virgin).  Matthew definitely has the LXX in view and it is clear that he indicates that Mary was a virgin throughout her lifr

Joy to the World!

           

          I meet a lot of people by accident.  It is just my lot, it seems.  Either I amble up to somebody and start talking (thinking they are somebody else) or people come and start talking to me, thinking I am somebody else.  At first, I was pretty put off by it, but before long, I’ve learned to roll with it.  I mean, we can all learn something from everybody and we should be open to new experiences every day.   Sometimes things go really well and we both walk away from the encounter having learned something or have just enjoyed each other’s company.   Sometimes, things go bad and then there is awkward moment that happens before one of us leaves.  But mostly, it’s ok. 

            I remember this one time, however, when I was NOT who was expected.  I was visiting somebody in the hospital and they clearly thought I was the priest to come and give them last rights.  Now, it’s important to know that this person was not anywhere close to dying.  They had come in for a relatively minor problem, but because I had been identified as a clergy member, they assumed that the end was near for them.  So, before I could stop her, out came a list of every sin she had committed…and we are not talking about minor ones here!  “Pastor, I had an affair with my neighbor and I never told my husband, I committed insurance fraud and I have a bunch of unpaid parking tickets!”  There was an awkward silence as she caught her breath, in which the doctor was able to say, “Ma’am….you are going to be fine.”  She looked at the doctor…then looked at me…then looked around the room at everybody who was in the room.  I have never seen anybody look redder.

            I was not who she expected…but then again, she was not in the situation she had thought.  I don’t know what ever happened to her, but I like to think that she took that moment as a real opportunity to look at her life, to rejoice in it and to change.

            Today’s Gospel reading is about expecting the right person.  Advent is about waiting with joy for the right person to come and to set all things new. 

            In our lesson, we find John the Baptist in jail.  John is one of those types of people we should probably expect to find in jail.  After all, he was bold in his proclamation and spoke the truth to power.  He even confronted Herod about his practices and that is why he wound up in jail. 

            Prison is a place of waiting…waiting either for release or for death.  German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spent the last two years of his life in a prison cell, reflected that “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”[1]  But John is waiting and he is uncertain about his waiting around.  He is not sure what it is all about.

            John had initially pointed out Jesus from the crowd.  When Jesus emerged from the crowd to be baptized, John declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He says this with such confidence and such boldness that today’s text has us do a double take.  John has now been waiting in prison for a long time, that he sends his messengers to Jesus and asks the question, “are you the one to come, or should we expect another?” 

            Talk about an embarrassing question to have asked.  Could you imagine the discussion that John’s disciples have on the way to meet Jesus?  “So…he boss seemed pretty sure of himself…” “Yeah…what do you think Jesus will say?”

            It might be easy for us to look down on John, but don’t we do the same thing and ask the very same question?  We might have a little bit more wiggle room…after all, it’s been two thousand years , and Jesus still has not returned.  It’s been two thousand years and those miracles have not been as often as they were when Jesus walked the earth.  It’ s been two thousand years and some of us might begin to wonder… “Jesus, are you the one to come? Or should we expect somebody else?” 

            We get tired of waiting for Jesus to appear…or we get embarrassed that we are called Christians.  Some have answered the question by saying that yes, we have been waiting for somebody else. Various names have been put into contention: Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Mary Eddy, and the Bab.  Others have said that we put our eggs in the wrong basket and that we have been failed by God.  Others have said that there is nothing special about Jesus.

            Maybe the problem is with our perception of Jesus.

            I often talk to sailors who say something like this: I have been good and yet God hates me.  He doesn’t take care of me! Whatever that might be…working too much or not getting the duty station they want or not getting promoted.  They get angry at God and they express their hurt and anger.  But if this is how we view God, you are more than likely to be disappointed.  Because these things will happen to us.  Bad things will inevitably happen to us and we will be looking for another God.

            So we can imagine John’s disappointment as he sends these messengers to Jesus.

            When the messengers get to Jesus, He responds simply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:4b-5).  Jesus has this way of not answering the question that actually answers the question and here is no different.  His answer is an affirmation that the evidence speaks for itself.

            Jesus is looking back to the  prophesies of the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 35.  Here we read,

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. (Isaiah 35:5).

            This was the time that was supposed to be inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah.  Isaiah had prophesied a time when the curse would be overturned and the kingdom of God would be established.  Jesus is saying that not only is he the one to bring this about, but that it is in fact happening as!   This is the significance of the coming of Jesus, and it is one that the Church needs to recapture.

            The third Sunday in Advent is known as ‘joy’ Sunday.  At about this time during the holiday season, most of us have probably lost our joy.  Stress has overtaken us as we have struggled with crowds to find Christmas presents.  We have endured office Christmas parties and we have watched enough holiday movies to drive us crazy.  Where is the joy? We may ask.

            And we are probably not alone in asking this.  Thousands of people around the world are asking along with us: where is the joy? Where is the joy that promised at Jesus’ coming? Where is the healing that was supposed to come along? Where is the blind that can see? Where is the deaf that can now hear? Where is the restoration of relationships, the politics that are not corrupt? Where is the answer to life’s problem?

            Let’s be honest, the world has expected more from the church and from the gospel.  The Church has often spoke about the greatness of Christ, but this has fallen on the deaf ears of the world. 

            I remember when I was younger…well in high school…and meeting a high school exchange student from Japan.  She was Buddhist and could not understand the Christian faith. She had a problem with the way we celebrated Christmas because we all talked about the ‘happiness’ and ‘joy’ of the season, but all she saw was sorrow and depression.  She could see nothing true about what we sung about or what we said was the holiday season. 

            And we have to say that this is true.  There are so many people stuck in the prison of their poverty, their depression, their addiction during this time of the year that they are truly asking, “are you the one we expected or should we look for someone else?”  Should we look for another answer, should we look for another Messiah?

            But the joyous message of the Church has always been: NO! Jesus is the Messiah! Jesus is the one who sets all things New! Jesus is the one who truly reveals God’s design for us!

            But what about the deaf? The Blind? The poor? What about those who are stuck in prison? What about those for whom the gospel was promised and yet there seems to be no delivery? Is there any true GOOD News for them?

            It may be hard for us, in our age of twenty four hour news cycles and addictions to anti-depressants, to believe that there is any good happening in the world.  But there is!

            It is found in the work of people like Shane Claiborne who has revitalized entire neighborhoods in Philadelphia by rehabbing old abandoned buildings and giving them to the poor. 

            It is found in the ministry of men like Oscar Romero who identified with the poor and oppressed in El Salvador to the point of giving his own life. 

            It is found in the work of institutions like the International Justice Mission that tries to liberate people trapped in the prison of slavery.  It is found in the work of local churches that work for reconciliation, salvation and peace.  Martin Luther King, Jr called this work the creation of the Beloved Community.

            There is good…GREAT news for them! God is at work in the world, utilizing the church to shed his glory and his kingdom! We are there to offer life to those who are outcast, good news to the poor and hope to the infirm. 

            Advent invites us to wait for God, but it also invites us to see God at work and to delight in the work of the Lord.  We are not to expect anybody else, because the one who has come is the one whom we have waited for and Christ is the one to establish this kingdom.  In this, we hope, in him, we rejoice. 

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[1] Letters and Papers from Prison