Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; I Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
 
Occasionally we encounter a Scripture passage that seems utterly inscrutable unless we know the back story. That’s certainly the case today with Paul’s admonitions to the Corinthians about “things sacrificed to idols.” Perhaps all of you already understand the references perfectly. Or perhaps you regard them as insignificant since they clearly pertained to a cultural context totally different from that of 21st century America.

Of course you’re right. But we find in this passage general principles that are timeless. In fact, the principles may turn out to be even more relevant to our time than to Paul’s.

The cliff notes version of the back story is this. It was customary in the Graeco-Roman world to sacrifice meat to idols that represented particular gods within the overall Pantheon of gods. Individual regions or cities had their patron gods, such as Diana of the Ephesians. Many families actually had household gods. It was widely believed that those so-called gods needed to be appeased through meat sacrifices. But those Greeks were rather thrifty: rather than wasting any of the meat remaining after the sacrifices, they either ate it at home or sold it at the local meat markets.

What does any of this have to do with the Christians at Corinth? It was that some Christians, as a matter of conscience, believed that it was sinful to eat meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan altar, whether it was being eaten at the home of a non-Christian friend or at one’s own home after buying it at the market. Others, such as Paul himself, felt that since the so-called gods were not gods at all, eating this meat had absolutely no significance for a Christian. As Paul wrote, “there is no God but one; for us there is but one God, the Father, from Whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (I Corinthians 8:4, 6).

But that’s not the end of the story. Paul added, “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” That was the heart of Paul, and that’s at the heart of today’s epistle reading. Paul’s attitude and his conclusion were the absolute opposite of what many Christians believe and how they behave today. Those who are consumed with themselves, their own convictions about things, their own ways of doing things, are far more likely to judge their weaker fellow- Christians than to bend to their weaker consciences.

Let me give you just one contemporary example. A pastor friend of mine shared this story with me recently. His parishioners had a Ravinia night gathering where they all came together for a picnic and concert. His flock consists entirely of evangelical Christians but from multiple generations. The older people grew up in a time when most evangelical Christians, as a matter of conscience, were absolute tea-totalers, as were my own parents. But the younger persons grew up in this time when total abstinence is no longer expected. The controlling principle today is not abstinence, but moderation in all things, including alcohol consumption.  
 
Assuming, as was in fact the case, that the younger Christians were well aware of the position their elders had held all their lives, what should they have done at this picnic, according to today’s epistle? Without question, they should not have brought alcohol to the picnic. Yet they did, doubtless believing that they were exercising their Christian freedom and that the older persons could just deal with it.

And there’s the rub. For Paul, if the weaker conscience of fellow Christians required him to forgo meat, which it would seem that Paul enjoyed, then it was a non-decision for him: eat no meat. Paul felt that he had to deal with it, not his weaker brethren. But for those young people from that particular church community, the attitude was the exact opposite: we will drink and they will accommodate us.

I imagine we could make long lists of comparable things that have crept into the Church and may have reached their peak in our day when our so-called “human rights” are of greater importance than the outdated and irrelevant scruples of other Christians. Our rights are protected by the Constitution no matter what the Bible says.

But the exercise of our freedoms in Christ may never be at the expense of another believer’s conscience. That’s what Paul was saying, translating his example of meat sacrificed to idols into contemporary terms. I’ll leave it to you to think of other examples, some of which may strike closer to home. But we’re not to ignore Paul’s conclusion: “Through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ” (I Corinthians 8:11, 12).

Has that thought ever crossed your minds? I mean the very thought that fellow Christians for whom Christ died could be “ruined” when we sin against them, and that we are thereby sinning against Christ Himself. Does that even fit the way we define “sin” in our modern world?

Many branches of Christianity, including the Anglican Communion, set aside this past week as a “week of prayer for Christian unity.” Superficially, we’re living in a time when the quest for greater unity in the Church of Jesus Christ seems to be making strides. The Anglican Communion is in conversation with Methodists about joining together after nearly three centuries of separation since the days of the Wesleyan revivals. At the same time, the archbishop of Canterbury has been meeting with leaders of the Lutheran church. And, as we all know, Pope Francis has been meeting with Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox leaders in quest of uniting us as one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

So why did I label these ventures as “superficial?” Most of you have heard me publicly lauding these tête-à-têtes in the interest of my second-favorite Bible word: “one.” But I fear they will fail, simply because they lack the proper motivation. The only proper motivation is that we should all come together as one in our affirmation of those truths that are embodied first of all in Holy Scripture and perhaps also in the creeds of the early Church. Instead, I believe that some church leaders are taking advantage of the fact that today both our pews and our pulpits are filled with persons who no longer have an informed knowledge of what Scripture says or means, and how it is that their spiritual lives should be governed by those things.

Accordingly there’s a willingness to water things down, to accept lowest common denominators, to abandon catechesis and Christian education, and to have one big contemporary-styled lovefest in which all differences are set aside as irrelevant. As fiercely opposed as I am to turning indifferent matters into bones of contention, I fear even more that we’ve lost the ability to distinguish between what’s indifferent and what’s essential.

Let me return for a moment to the “week of prayer for Christian unity.” I think it’s brilliant and hugely significant that the bookends of that week are the Confession of Peter at the beginning of the week and the Conversion of Paul at the end. You’ll recall that Peter’s great confession came in response to the question of Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Paul, when he was confronted on the road to Damascus by the risen Christ, reversed the question and asked, “Who are You, Lord?” Jesus replied, “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). In both cases the question was the same: “Who is Jesus?” The answer to that question must be at the heart of every quest for Christian unity. And the answer is found in only one place: the Word of God.

Soon afterwards these two men, Saints Peter and Paul, these giants of the faith on whose fearless proclamation the whole spread of the Gospel in the Roman world depended, faced the possibility of the first great split in the primitive Christian Church. What a catastrophe that schism would have been! But it never happened. The issue was indeed a matter of conscience for both men, but it was not at all a clear-cut case of a stronger conscience needing to bend to a weaker one.

In the end it was because both men were equally sensitive to the work and leading of the Holy Spirit and the evidences of the Spirit’s activity in the early Church that they were able to lay aside their differences; to acknowledge their different callings, Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles; and to go forward in building up the body of Christ on earth. Nothing was compromised, no theological truth was set aside, no contentious ill will or hurt feelings persisted, and the Church grew exponentially.

By contrast, today the Church is pretty much shrinking. Seminaries are closing. Churches are consolidating or shutting down. Persons entering the clergy are in increasingly short supply. Church leaders are dying or retiring, and they’re not easily replaced. That, I fear, is a large part, too large a part, of the motivation for bringing various branches of the Church together: it’s a matter of numbers and basic survival.

What are we to do? How is Grace Anglican Fellowship to survive, if indeed God Himself raised up this church for His greater glory and for the extension of the Gospel in this community? We must shift our priorities. We must “stir up the gift of God” that is in us, as Paul wrote to Timothy (II Timothy 1:6). We must be diligent in inviting others to come to church with us even if we’ve never done that before. We must be consistent witnesses 24/7 to our faith in Jesus Christ. We must share our faith with fervor and urgency, recognizing with Paul that no matter how many days are left to any of us, “the time has been shortened” and “the form of this world is passing away” (I Corinthians 7:29, 31). If all those who bear the name of Christ would adopt that fervent sense of urgency, our churches would not be able to hold all the persons who would come seeking what the church has to offer.

What does the Church have to offer? It offers all that Jesus Christ Himself offers: salvation, peace, abundant life, freedom from anxiety and worry, and absolute confidence that our lives and the lives of those we love are held in His merciful hands of love. That’s what drove the leaders of the early Church. And that’s what should unite us in our worship, a worship that needs to take first place in our lives regardless of how we’re feeling on any given Sunday.

Our worship should never become a “sometime thing.” For New Testament believers, worship occurred as frequently as possible, often daily. The very thought of “weekly” never crossed their minds, much less the thought of “occasionally if the weather is favorable, if I’m feeling well, if there are no conflicts and and nothing else ‘comes up.’”

I suppose no one should ever go to church just out of a sense of guilt or of “having” to go. We should go to church because there’s absolutely “nowhere else on earth that we would rather be.” We come to refuel, as every one of us needs to do, even if we’re ordained ministers. Those who pride themselves on “running on fumes” eventually will run out of gas. But our spiritual refueling is not just about ourselves. The assembling of ourselves together to worship Almighty God is what God Himself desires. He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. How do we know that? Because we did not make that up! It’s what Jesus Himself said when He was speaking to the woman at the well: He said that God the Father desires our worship (John 4:23f.).

And furthermore, along the lines of worship not being about ourselves, we’re responsible to each other. The idea that when one part of the Body of Christ suffers, the whole Body suffers, is not a statement about physical suffering. It was a spiritual concept articulated by Paul with regard to the health of the Church as Christ’s body (I Corinthians 12:26). We need each other. Others need us. We’re not islands. We don’t have the luxury of saying “I’ll be in church whenever it’s convenient and I feel like being there.” You are to be in church because others need you, because you need to feast at the table of Jesus Christ, and, first and foremost, because God wants you to be here.

A famous contemporary pastor wrote, “Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days – when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great – and you turn to God alone.” When you do that, when instead of running from Him you come to seek His face, you’ll find that He’s right here waiting for you. The Psalmist wrote, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved, and He Who keeps you will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:1-4). That’s the God Who wants to meet with you every time you come to worship Him! He’s seeking you!

May we take to heart the words from I Thessalonians that we heard at the end of last Sunday’s service. They present to us a challenge, a commission, a mandate: “Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all persons; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Then hurry back to refuel as you worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, Amen
 
Every once in awhile the question is asked, “What is our most precious commodity.” It’s one of those questions for which there may be no right or wrong answer, and each of us might give different answers at different times, depending perhaps on our experiences of the moment. But invariably on the list of answers is, “Time.” Time decidedly is among our most precious commodities, and there are few of us who don’t wish for more of it.

When I was younger and people greeted each other with the inevitable, “How are you,” the unvaried answer was “Fine,” whether we actually felt fine or not. But today the response is as likely to be, “Busy.” We get that response from young people who fill their lives with activities, middle aged people who are hotly pursuing their careers, and even from retired people who have far more control over their schedules. It’s almost as though it would be embarrassing not to say, “I’m busy.” I have a dear friend who, after years of answering, “Busy,” now ups the ante by always responding, “Buried.” And, knowing him, I suspect he’ll continue to use that response until he is in fact buried.

You may have noticed that all four of our Scripture readings today have to do with time. Each one has a slightly different focus, but all four have an undercurrent of the need to make time for repentance. Jonah’s story is obvious. He was commissioned as God’s prophet to go to Nineveh to preach judgment, because God had decided to destroy the city for its wickedness. No doubt you know the story: instead of obeying his commission, Jonah tried to flee from God on a cargo ship sailing the Mediterranean. And you all know how that turned out.

At the very least the story is supposed to teach each of us two lessons: First, when God calls, we must follow, or the consequences may be unpleasant or even dire. We may seem to get away with running from God for a bit; but, as Jonah discovered, God is still on His throne. Second, the best time for repentance is right away. When the Ninevites repented, God heard them and, in His infinite mercy, He relented and spared them.

That’s what the psalmist is saying: “My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him.” “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” That’s the part Jonah missed: “Trust in Him at all times.” Jonah’s failure to do so had its consequences. But our God is a God of second chances, even of third and fourth chances according to His unfailing lovingkindness. “Trust in Him at all times.” It’s not just a good formula for better living, it’s an indispensable one.

Next we have Paul writing once again to the believers at Corinth. He tells them that “the time has been shortened,” and that every priority we have needs to be evaluated through the lens of a world that’s passing away. Even our most intimate relationships and our enjoyment of the good things this world has to offer, including our legendary American acquisitiveness, all need to be re-examined in the light of shortened time and a passing world. It’s far too easy for every one of us to become preoccupied if not actually obsessed with the things that fill up our time and make us “busy” or “buried” rather than obedient.

Then there’s Jesus. We rightly hold up Jesus as the absolute paragon of selfless love, the Messiah Who came to speak words of comfort, including the inspiring and reassuring words in our liturgy that follow the Prayer of Confession, words that are even called “The Comfortable Words.” They begin with, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

But today in our Gospel reading we encounter two other things about Jesus: He’s the One Who calls us to repentance, and He’s the One Who calls us to follow Him and become fishers of men. There’s something absolute about these sides of Jesus: they’re just as concrete as the loving side, yet rather more demanding. Jesus never calls us to do something half-way, to be somewhat repentant or to somewhat follow Him. He asks us to pick up our cross and follow Him.

Jesus also addresses the theme of today’s Scriptures: “time.” He says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Notice that it’s a two-stage process and that the order of these two stages is inviolable. Repentance must precede belief. Repentance acknowledges our need for a Savior, a Messiah, a Kinsman-Redeemer Who can do something about our human condition as described today by the psalmist: “Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; in the balance scales they go up; they are together lighter than breath.”

That’s intentionally a comprehensive assessment of all humankind. For those who find the concepts of original sin and personal sin distasteful, the psalmist opts for different categories: the vanity of those of low degree and the lying ways of those who have scrambled their way to the higher ranks. It matters not in the least where we would place ourselves on that continuum; the point is that at both ends and therefore in the middle where most of us would put ourselves, there’s a serious need to acknowledge our flaws and to seek a remedy. And step one is always the same: an accurate self-assessment in the spiritual realm calls for repentance. Then belief follows.

In what or in Whom should we believe? In the world in which we live, the one that Paul says is “passing away,” it’s popular to hope that any path of faith is as good as any other. That’s an interesting and gracious perspective, but it definitely is not a Biblical one. The Creator God of the Old Testament is the One of Whom the psalmist wrote, “Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God; lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, for You recompense a man according to his work.”

And this same Creator God is the Redeemer God of the New Testament Who sent His Son to be the object of our faith. It was Jesus Who said, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” There is but one God, and He’s a God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of His glory. He’s a God Whose lovingkindness is on all who fear Him throughout all generations. He’s a God Who saves His people by His own strong arm, even at the cost of the death of His only Son Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Each of us may find Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God in our own way and in our own time. Some are born into a family where this faith is so strongly held that we almost unconsciously appropriate it as our own. Others have a life-changing conversion experience that remains a reference point for their entrance into the household of faith. But for every one of us, the discoveries continue, the comings of Christ into our lives are multiform, sometimes frequent and sometimes only sporadic.

For some of us, the fullness of God’s grace seems to come all at once and we feel led through life, every step of the way; for others, the comings are progressive and our spiritual journey goes one step at a time. Sometimes we offer fierce resistance. Other times we feel ready to receive Him and embrace Him, particularly in times of deepest need. Some of us respond at once, as did those early disciples who immediately left their fishing nets, while others of us are slow to respond to the call of Christ.

No matter in what category we find ourselves, He stands ever ready, patiently desiring that we should come to repentance and to faith in Him as the Light, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Way to the Father, the One Who came to be the Savior of the world. He stands here this morning, with outstretched arms, saying in every possible way, “Come, follow Me.” “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Is this the day for you to bend to His persistent call? Perhaps you’ve done that before, yet you find yourself needing a refreshed experience, a deepened reality, and a renewed awareness of what it means to embrace Him as Savior and Lord, to follow Him more faithfully and consistently, to hear and obey His voice. If that’s you, renew your faith today and recover what you once knew but may have been neglecting for some time.
Perhaps you’ve heard this message again and again but always have postponed making the decision to follow Jesus, to respond to His call. He’s here, and He’s waiting for you. He’s longing for you, as a parent longs for the return of a prodigal son or daughter. If you come to Him today, He’ll prepare a feast for you. Jesus said that “there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke15:7). That’s how important you are to God, to Jesus and to the hosts of heaven who surround God’s throne. Just come. Just receive the Son of God. Yield to His call and be held in His arms of love. It’s never too late. Remember: “We have today.” Make this day yours to become His.

I’ve asked Gayle to sing a song that was written some years ago at the request of Billy Graham. It expresses today’s message beautifully, and extends the invitation to you to declare your faith in Jesus and your commitment to follow Him. If God puts it on your heart this morning to come forward for a brief word of prayer, I will stand here to welcome you, while He stands here to receive you.

Listen to the words of this song and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Do whatever He tells you to do. But remember the words of Jesus that “the kingdom of God is at hand” and of Paul that “the time has been shortened.” Don’t delay, whether you’re making your first profession of faith or you’re coming home to Him after wandering too long on your own. He’s calling you, and your response must be to let Him in: to say, “Jesus, I come to You.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen
Come.

Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139; I Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptance in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer

Sometimes it’s the pithiest phrases in Scripture that are the most powerful, the most memorable and the most quotable. When I was a child we placed great emphasis on Scripture memorization. We had Bible drills, contests, memorization requirements for Sunday School classes and we earned badges in our Christian equivalents of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts just for memorizing verses. Among the first verses we learned was Psalm 119:11, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” We were raised to believe that this verse was absolutely true, that the best safeguard against sin was to be fortified by the Word of God, having it embedded in our hearts and brought to our minds in time of need, simply because we had memorized it as children.

All four of today’s Scriptures contain such pithy phrases that I learned as a child. In my childhood circles, every young boy was taught the story of the young Samuel, who first mistook the voice of God for that of his priest and mentor, Eli. But the wise Eli told Samuel to respond, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” We memorized that verse so that if and when God should ever choose to speak directly to one of us, that would be our response, too.

Then there’s Psalm 139:1: “O Lord, You have searched me and known me.” We memorized that verse so that we would be ever aware that God knows the very thoughts of our hearts, and therefore they had better be pure thoughts! That was one of the harder ones for young boys to accept gladly. But we discovered that many other Scripture verses taught the same thing, and that we were in regular need of the confession we say every Sunday, “We confess that have sinned against You in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” Those few words are frighteningly comprehensive!

And then we learned Paul’s statements in I Corinthians 6, “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him;” and “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price.” Those are seriously challenging concepts! If we’ve joined ourselves to the Lord, as most of us would claim to have done, then we’re “one spirit with Him” and we’re temples of the Holy Spirit. How aware are we of that fact? How might our lives be different if we lived every moment of every day in the awareness that we’re irrevocably joined to the very spirit of God? I think every single one of us would live differently, without exception.

Finally, there’s the pithiest statement of all in today’s readings, and it may in fact be the most important one. It’s what Philip said to Nathaniel after he had encountered Jesus for the very first time. No doubt Philip was far too young in his understanding of Jesus to launch into any profoundly theological statement about Him. And yet he did manage to tell Nathaniel, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And then, when Nathaniel expressed His skepticism that any good thing could come out of Nazareth, Philip spoke just three more words, the most significant three words he could have said: “Come and see.”
 
Do those words sound familiar to some of you? They should, because “Come and see” is the theme statement in the Alpha program that we will begin this evening at 6:00. “Come and see” is the simplest evangelistic invitation we can offer to anyone. It stops far short of arm-twisting or trying to win an argument or trying to be a valiant apologist or pretending to be Billy Graham. It’s a pure and simple invitation. But it’s also profound and powerful. It’s precisely what Alpha is all about. It gives all of us the opportunity to be modern-day Philips, persons who are just doing what Philip did, because that’s what it means to have discovered Jesus Christ for ourselves. Our very first impulse should be to go find someone else to whom we can say, “Come and see.”

That’s what Andrew did, as recorded in the verses that immediately precede today’s Gospel. When Andrew encountered Jesus, we’re told by John that the very first thing he did was to go find his brother Peter, saying “We have found the Messiah.” And then John writes, “He brought him to Jesus.” That was Andrew’s version of “Come and see.”

Can we find ourselves in these stories? Should we? Absolutely! There’s no sense at all in which our having discovered the Person of Jesus Christ is something we should keep to ourselves. To do that is to suppress the voice of God to which we should be responding, “Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” God spoke repeatedly to the people of Israel, saying, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). They were not to keep God’s truth to themselves, and neither are we.

God has made His truth even more evident and more accessible by sending His only Son (Hebrews 1:1, 2). And what are we to do with this treasure that’s ours? We’re to go out into the highways and byways and compel others to come in, to “come and see” Jesus. In our Collect this morning we prayed, “Almighty God, Whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the Light of the world: Grant that Your people, illumined by Your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that He may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.” That’s the same commission God issued for His people Israel, and now the responsibility has become ours to fulfill it.

The Incarnation was not just a Christmas story that was nearly lost in a blip of time ultimately lasting only 33 years. The Epiphany was not just the discovery of a King of the Jews by three Wise Men from the East. The Cross of Christ on which He gave Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world was not just a one-off, something trapped in a fleeting moment on one Friday afternoon. God’s Son, our Messiah, was sent by the Father to redeem us from our sin and to prepare us for eternity in His presence. How can we hold this inside ourselves, or limit our response to stopping by on Sunday morning to say a brief, “Thank you?”

We’re persons entrusted with the extraordinary message of salvation, the most monumental truth known to humankind. We have the word of reconciliation, of abundant and eternal life, of emancipation from the clutches of sin, and of certainty with regard to our eternal destiny. How can we keep all that to ourselves? Why would we not be eager to do more, to share our faith with the people we meet on Monday morning, many of whom may never have had the opportunity to hear about our faith, much less to have heard from our own mouths Philip’s invitation, “Come and see?”
 
What does it mean to be a Christian, to name ourselves after the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? We have a glimpse of what it meant to Philip and Andrew. Their immediate response to Jesus was recorded in John’s Gospel for our benefit as examples of how we, too, should be actively sharing our discovery of Jesus with others. The Christian faith is not a philosophical system to which we’re adhering. It’s a life-transforming, experiential reality that gives profound meaning to this life, however long or short it may be for any of us.

The longer our lives may be, the more opportunities God provides for us to share the Gospel. What we’ve found in Jesus is meant to rearrange our priorities, to govern our use of time, to strengthen our commitments more to things eternal and much less to things temporal. If we sing “Turn your eyes upon Jesus... and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace,” then we need to be willing to surrender some of those “things of earth,” things that sap our time and energy, and replace them with living out our faith and sharing it in every way that we can.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, said, “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel!” That became his consuming passion, his entire commitment, because it came with the realization that he had been bought with a price. All that he had was owed back to the One Who died for Him. We’re living in a time of dark desperation, a time of fierce division, a time when the search for lasting values is being abandoned in favor of instant gratification. But as Christians we’re called to be different: to have a different focus, to live according to a different set of values that we should be eager to share with others.

The other day we met with the Outreach Pastor of an area church who also has taught a plethora of courses at Trinity on outreach to various non-Christian cultures. He has a broad range of experiences, a deep commitment to challenging ministries, a strong personal faith, a comprehensive knowledge of his field and an engaging, charismatic personality. And yet he said that the entire key to the church’s successful outreach resides not in him but in a single resource: the people themselves!

When we returned home from that meeting I read an article by Fr. Phil Ashey, President and CEO of the American Anglican Council, in which he was reporting the results of a survey he had taken among Anglican clergy (ACNA) regarding obstacles to church growth. The largest percentage of clergy responded that the most significant obstacle was their congregations’ attitude or actions. But the specific comments revealed that it was not a matter of what their congregations were doing wrong as much as what they were not doing at all. One pastor wrote that his congregation suffered from an inward focus, not being willing or even desiring to reach outside the church’s walls, but believing that outreach was the job of the church staff. Another pastor cited “busyness among parishioners with a lack of urgency for sharing the Gospel.” Others offered similar observations.

Not all of us are called to be missionaries, or evangelists, or pastors or teachers or theologians. But every one of us is called to be a faithful witness to the truth of God in Jesus Christ, to share that truth with our friends and with members of our own families who may have wandered off in quest of some other way. The absolute minimum that this requires is a willingness to be like Philip, to say to others, “Come and see,” and to “shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that He may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.”
 
When God does call us, we’re to say with young Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.” We’re to live in obedience to a God Who has searched us and known us, as David wrote in our psalm. We’re to live as those who are temples of the indwelling Holy Spirit Whom we have from God, recognizing with Paul that we’re not our own, but are those who have been bought with a price and have been made “one spirit with Him.” And if we live in that light, then we’ll be eager to say to all those who cross our paths, “Come and see.” Their eternal fate depends on it, and it may also depend on us, our witness, and our personal invitation to see Jesus.

If you happen to be here this morning without Him, this now becomes your personal invitation: “Come and see” this Jesus, the Savior Who’s waiting for you to answer His call, “Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth,” “the Messiah,” “the Son of God, the King of Israel.” “Come and see,” and be blessed.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen

Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer
 
Today is yet another very special day on the Church calendar. Officially it’s the day set aside to remember the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, an event that clearly was of far greater significance than we generally grant to it. The Gospel of Mark, widely thought to have been the first of the 4 Gospels to have been written, does not even have a birth narrative or any mention of the known events from Jesus’ childhood. It starts right out with the words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” immediately moving on to John the Baptist as a messenger preparing the way, and then to the Baptism of Jesus by John. For Mark, this was the beginning of the Gospel.

Matthew gives us a more complete account of the baptism, with details that the other Gospels omit. The most important of these is the explanation for why Jesus chose to be baptized by John.  In our reading today from Acts, we find Paul explaining to the Ephesians the difference between John’s baptism for repentance and the baptism of Jesus that is Trinitarian and therefore includes the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus, as the perfect God-Man, had nothing from which He needed to repent. But in Matthew we read that when John the Baptist asked Jesus, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”, Jesus responds, “Let it be so now, for so it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (see Mt. 3:13-15). It was then that the voice from heaven was heard, declaring Jesus to be the Son of God.

The baptism and the voice from heaven were not minor events in the earthly life of Jesus. Even the heavenly voice is included in 3 of the 4 Gospels. It’s important to note that the voice did not say, “This day have I begotten You,” as is sometimes said. The voice is uniformly reported to have said essentially the same thing: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well-pleased.” And it seems perfectly clear that the voice was not for the benefit of Jesus Himself, but for John the Baptist and any others standing by who may have heard and understood it. It was a witness to Who Jesus really was.

Jesus was not changed by His baptism; rather He was affirmed by it. He did not become God’s Son, but He was declared already to have been so. To suggest anything else is to veer into one of the various Christological heresies against which the early Church Fathers had to fight so valiantly in order to preserve the true orthodox faith. Jesus is eternally the Son of God, yet He took on human flesh, becoming incarnate as the Servant Savior of the world. It was as this humble Servant that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness by being baptized by John.
 
Notice again that the Baptism of Jesus was a Trinitarian event involving all three Persons of the Godhead: God the Son was being baptized, God the Father spoke from heaven affirming His sonship, and God the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a confirming sign that had been foretold to John the Baptist. Seeing this enables us to understand why in the Great Commission Jesus commanded that we make disciples and baptize them “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And it also explains why in the New Testament itself, as in today’s reading from Acts, anyone whose baptism had not been done in the name of the Trinity had to have it repeated.

The most important thing that we take away from all this is that our Baptism as Christians is inextricably linked to the Baptism of Jesus. For even though He was baptized by John, the presence of the entire Holy Trinity raised the Baptism of Jesus to a level not experienced by anyone else who was ever baptized by John. Then we, in turn through our baptism, become joined in the fullness of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We’re baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, as Paul teaches us in Romans 6, and in our baptism we are one with Him in His.

John the evangelist expands on this in his first letter, where he asks, “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Then he continues by affirming that “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement” (I Jn. 5:5-8). In these few words John is teaching us that the witness of the Holy Spirit, which is always true, is confirmed by the water of Baptism, ours and His, and by His shed Blood which we share in the Eucharist. Ours is a sacramental faith that unites us with Christ through these two pillars of His finished work on our behalf.

There’s also another reason why today is a special Sunday on the Church calendar. Yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany, one of the Principal Feasts of the year. Since the day fell on a Saturday this year and this is a year when last Sunday was the only Sunday in Christmastide, many churches are celebrating Epiphany today. Originally January 6 was called the Theophany, the appearing of God, and it celebrated both the birth of Christ as well as His baptism. It was not until as late as the early 5th century that Christmas was separated from January 6 and given its own date, December 25, while at about the same time the appearing of the Wise Men was added to January 6 and the word Epiphany replaced the word Theophany.
Now you may think that an Epiphany is something you have rather than a Feast you observe. Both are true, though the Greek word that lies behind our English word means an “appearance” or a “coming” of someone or something, and was never used in the modern sense of some revelatory thought or insight. When we think of Epiphany as celebrating an appearance or a coming, we think primarily and properly of the appearing of the Wise Men who had followed the star to Bethlehem. But in the broader sense there are at least four “comings” that we should celebrate in Epiphany:

1. the coming of Jesus,
2. the coming of the “Wise Men,”
3. the “coming out” of the Lamb of God at the Jordan, and
4. the coming of redemption to the Gentiles.

Every one of these “comings” is something incredibly important, a cause for our rejoicing in God our Savior and for praising His Holy Name. Jesus came in the miracle of the Incarnation. Without the Incarnation there would be no Resurrection, yet without the Resurrection there would be only the Cross. And we must never sell short the Ascension, without which the resurrected Christ would have died again just as did Lazarus and others in Scripture who were raised from the dead.

Now we’re nearing the end of our celebratory seasons when, throughout Advent, we looked forward to the coming of Jesus, throughout the 12 days of Christmas we celebrated the fact that He came, and throughout Epiphany we celebrate His appearing as Savior of the world. We include the Baptism of Jesus as a “coming” because in a deeply spiritual sense it was His “coming out” party at the age of 30, an age that seems to us to be fairly well into young adulthood but that in Biblical times was the official age of a Jewish boy’s emancipation from parental control. The Baptism marked the beginning of Jesus’ all too brief public ministry, by which He gave us the perfect example of how to live in humility, in ministry and in expectancy. He showed us again and again what it means to “fulfill all righteousness.” And this was the moment for John the Baptist to proclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

Then there’s the coming of the Wise Men, the significance of which goes far beyond the bare fact of their making a long and arduous journey from the East, following their star and finding the incarnate God. It goes beyond the offering of their richly symbolic gifts: gold for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, frankincense for the Holy and Righteous Savior, and myrrh for the Suffering Servant and His burial. It also has to do with the fourth of the “comings” that I mentioned: the coming of redemption to the Gentiles. Jesus came as a Jew among Jews. He went into the temple in Jerusalem and the synagogues in Galilee to worship and to teach, places that were His spiritual homes during His Incarnation, another way that He fulfilled all righteousness. He sent out His disciples to preach and to heal, telling them: “go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans  but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”  (Matthew 10:5-7).

But later, when Gentiles came seeking Jesus and asked Philip to tell Him of their inquiry, Jesus recognized this as a moment of monumental importance, saying for the first time, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). It would seem that all that had been implied by the visit of the Wise Men to Bethlehem was now fulfilled more than 30 years later. It was then that Jesus recognized that His hour had come and that the hour included the extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles. But He also knew what that hour would cost Him. And to what end? It was for you and for me, for us and our salvation.
 
I want to conclude by sharing the words of an anthem by Ron Nelson that became the title of a Chicago Master Singers Christmas cd. Its message is timeless. It fits Christmas perfectly; but it also, and perhaps above all, is the message of Epiphany. In one anthem we have 3 of the 4 “comings” that Epiphany represents: the Incarnation, the Wise Men and the redemption of the Gentiles. Listen to this text:

Born in a stable, He came here for me.
Born of a virgin, He came here for me.
God’s only Son, come to set the world free
Born of God’s love, and He came here for me.
 
Savior of the world, I praise Thee,
Jesus, Lamb of God, I pray to Thee.
Hear me as I praise Thy birth.
Bend down Thine ear and hear my prayer.
 
Over the stable a star shone so bright,
Guiding three wise men who rode through the night.
He was called baby Jesus, He came here for me.
Born to this world, then He died here for me.
 
What’s truly special about this text is that it makes everything completely personal. “He came here for me,” and not only that, but “then He died here for me.” This is the Epiphany. It’s His Epiphany, but it also is ours as we identify with Him. May we use these weeks to hold in the forefront of our minds what it truly might mean to bring Christmas and Epiphany back together again, as they were in the early Church: to recognize what they mean, not just in the sense of the Incarnation and the appearing of Jesus, but even more by what they mean to you personally: to remember that He came here and died here for you.

Hold this in your mind, and hold Him in your heart.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen