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—Liza Neal

Exodus 17:1-7
“All the congregations of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped out Rephidhim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people found fault with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the Lord to proof?” But the people murmured against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” So Moses said to the Lord, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah, Proof and Contention, because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because the put the Lord to the proof saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
John 4:5-42
“So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and whom it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “”Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I many not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “you are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” the woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do no know; we worship what we know, for salvation is come from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Jesus, “I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar, an went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city and were coming to him.
Meanwhile the disciples besought him saying. “Rabbi, eat.” But he aid to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to accomplish that work. Do you no say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did no labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

“The Thirst of our Age”
Village Church
February 24, 2008

The story of Jesus talking to the woman at the well is the longest story in any of the four gospels. It is also the one time that Jesus says outright that he is the Messiah. Yet no one is around and the only person he is talking to is a woman who has had five husbands and is currently with someone she’s not even married to. Jesus really has a thing for disreputable women.
She must have jumped a little when he first spoke to her. After all she probably came to the well at 12n, the hottest time of the day, because no one else would be there. Then not only does he speak to her, something no self-respecting man particularly one who was a Rabbi would do, but he demands water. Give me something to drink. This is exactly the way Isaac met his wife Rebecca in Genesis. It is a gesture of familiarity. She is so shocked in fact that she doesn’t answer yes or no, but asks, “how is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me a woman of Samaria?” Not even someone dying of thirst would do such a thing clearly.
The Jews for ethnic and religious reasons considered Samaritans abominations. The Jews were purists. They liked to keep every thing in its correct place, with no mixing. There were strict rules against marrying outside of the Jewish race. They were afraid this would dilute the people, their culture, and threaten their religious beliefs. The Samaritans were Jewish as well. However, they married with other peoples, mixing their races and religious practices. So that even though they were still ethnically Jewish, it was not pure enough for their half-brothers. Even though they worshipped the same God, the way in which they did it was considered heretical.
The major sticking point was that the Samaritans believed they could worship God and perform holy rituals and have priests in the very places where they lived instead of traveling to Jerusalem. This is particularly ironic considering in just 40 years the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed forever and the Jews would have to reinterpret God’s commandments in such a way that they too could worship God from wherever they were.
Does it seem silly to you? Does it seem like a meaningless point? Or something important perhaps, but not so important that it should divide people? Well, then, consider for a moment whatever it is that you place the crux of your religious practice on. What is the one thing that is the major point at which everything in your belief revolves? Is it the church? Is it Jesus? Is it salvation? Is it being a good person? Have you found that one thing? All right. Now hear this, that only matters for you.
You see, when people truly worship God, they worship God in spirit and in truth. That is the gift. That is the gift of the Messiah, to the entire world. An entirely free and unconditional gift given out of love. The Samaritan woman knows that he is the Messiah because he reveals knowledge to her, not judgment. She is not convicted by what he says about her. It is just knowledge. And he not only has knowledge about her but about God that he offers to the entire world, free of charge.
Spirit is not bound by form. It escapes it. Spirit can only be felt, experienced. Spirit is like smoke. It can move into any form, but it is not the form itself that makes up its substance, but rather the Spirit. We need our forms in order to experience it. But when we get caught up in the idea that the form itself IS the Spirit, than we lose entirely the Spirit and Truth within. We find ourselves standing around the well, clutching our differently shaped water jars, arguing over the water which has long since dried up.
We have inherited many thousands and thousands of years of civilizations that have confused the living water with the water jars that it has been held in. We ourselves hold the living water within our very own particular water jar. The water jar of Christianity. The water jar of the United Church of Christ. The water jar of the Village Congregational Church. The water jar of our very bodies.
We have broken so many of our water jars in the process of fighting over which one best hold the living water that most of us our gasping in dehydration. We are standing around clutching water jars that are empty. Or picking up water jar after water jar, trying to find the true one, the right one. Or we have just tossed out the water jars all together insisting we do not need. Yet still we are here by the well, gasping with a thirst we only recognize as we begin to get feverish. We live in an age desperate with its spiritual thirst. Yet we turn away from one another and ourselves in fear, just as the woman of Samaria ran when the other disciples showed up.
Still, water is natural. It is pure. It is life-giving. It is life itself. It is what we ourselves are made up of. Each one of its molecules renews and revives us. It rains down from heaven for us all, and it is up to us to manage it, to keep it clean, to share it, both the physical water that we have been given and the living water that we have experienced. It is a free gift offered to us from God, illustrated within our very humanity in the Messiah, a gift which can flow into as many shapes as we can dream to put it in but which is and always will be something beyond all of that.
A scientist recently proved that each one of the molecules within water respond to our thoughts creating either structures of immense beauty if we dwell on peace, blessing, joy, happiness, or clash about becoming jangled and polluted as we dwell on violence and hatred.
I would like to ask to close your eyes for a moment and lay your hands on your chest. You are made up of 70% water, every molecule of which is waiting to respond to your thoughts with beauty. And the rest of you? There may be bones and muscle, yes, but there is also living water, the Spirit and Truth, that is also waiting to respond to your thoughts, waiting to quench your thirst.
Let us meditate in silence that we might be a body of living water, of truth and beauty.
Amen.

John 3:1-8

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night saying to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, one cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Water and Spirit”
Village Church
February 17, 2008

  What does it mean to be born anew? Does it mean to kneel down on the ground and invite Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior? Then stand up and cry, “I’ve been born again.” I don’t think so. Jesus never uses the words personal Lord and Savior. Jesus never asks his disciples to kneel down and pray to him. He never asks his disciples to accept him. What he says to them is, “Follow me.” He invites them on a journey during which they will be born anew. This journey will cause them to change. It will cause them to begin again, new people with radically different priorities and goals then the ones they had before. It will cause nothing short of their total transformation.
  “Unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” What does this mean? We are all born of water. Life began in the ocean billions of years ago. We form in the womb resting in water. Our very bodies are 70 percent water. It is from earth and water that our flesh is made. We are the dust and water of the universe. When we need to cleanse ourselves, whether from the dirt of our bodies or from the dirt of our lives, we use water. We let it wash over us. We get baptized to remind ourselves that God washes us clean. We get baptized to remind ourselves that God gives birth to us both physically and spiritually.
  The waters of birth and the waters of baptism happen to us only one time. Our rebirth in the Spirit happens again and again. It happens when we are baptized. It happens when we commit ourselves to following Jesus. It happens when we are transformed from one who suffers into one who heals. It happens when we begin to understand what salvation means. It begins when we turn our lives from a desperate seeking after our own survival into a life seeking compassion and justice.
  Flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit. This is not to give one priority over the other but rather to emphasize the fact that they are different, and as such they must both be attended to. So often when we seek after healing, we focus on one and abandon the other. We go to a counselor sharing and exploring our mind and spirit to heal, and then we go home and proceed to torture our bodies, starving our selves to death in diet after diet or stuffing ourselves or drinking too much to dull all sensation. Or we go the other way. We treat our bodies with extra care, get exercise, eat organically, and then we allow our relationships to fall apart, we ignore the people around us in need, and we place our spirit in a dusty shelf in the basement.
  We are not bad. We did not come into the world with some invisible taint. We are not dirty or wrong. We are however in need. The world grinds you down. Others hurt us. We choose badly. We do things that aren’t right. We are touched by the violence around us, and the lifestyle we live supports the violence and poverty that others experience. We are in need of healing. We are in need of forgiveness. We are in need of hope.
  All of these things- hope, healing, forgiveness- exist -right now, all around us and within us, but we cannot see them. We have been blinded by the world and its darkness. We cannot enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit, not because there is some litmus test that you have to pass or some secret code you must know or ritual you must perform. We cannot enter the Kingdom of God because we cannot see it.
  When Nicodemus comes to Jesus, he sees Jesus. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs you do, unless God is with him.” He sees Jesus, but he does not see himself. Jesus, however, sees him clearly. He sees that Nicodemus is lost. He sees that Nicodemus has lost sight of what his faith means. He sees that Nicodemus, a powerful man in his society, has gotten lost in the political scrambling of the temple and forgotten what it means to be one of God’s people. Kindly, Jesus tries to save him, he tries to offer him healing, he tries to tell him you must begin again, and you can. Despite all the obstacles, you can begin again.
  Nicodemus does not understand. Nicodemus comes into the gospel story two more times after this. The second time a crowd surrounds Jesus. Half of them think he may be a prophet; the other half say no way could a prophet come from Galilee. The Pharisees want to arrest him. Nicodemus raises his voice. Here is this man who he has been moved by, who has seen him for who he is and still had compassion on him, who has shown him God. And yet, Nicodemus is afraid. So he does not declare Jesus innocent or defend him but rather uses a question about the laws of Moses to distract the other Pharisees. “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” It works. They are distracted, and Jesus leaves without being arrested. Once again, though, Nicodemus loses his chance to be born anew.
  The last time Nicodemus comes into the story is at the death of Jesus. He comes with Josepn of Arimathea,
another wealthy powerful man who followed Jesus but only in secret, and they take his body down from the cross. Joseph requests the body from Pilate and Nicodemus brings the myrrh and aloe to rub on him before they wrap him in linens and lay him in the tomb. Can you imagine the sorrow, and the shame? To have potentially had the power to stop the crucifixion of one’s friend and teacher, and instead have done nothing. To have sought out the words and healing of Jesus, but been too afraid to change. To come to Jesus openly but too late and only in death.
  The wind blows where it wills, and you hear it; but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes. That is how it is with the Spirit and those who are born of the Spirit. Anything may happen, at any time. We cannot always know what it means, or why it happens, or what transformation it will trigger.
  With God, it is never too late. Even in the midst of sorrow, shame, and death. It is never too late for change. Renewal, rebirth, transformation, healing can come no matter what the circumstances are. And when it does, then we too will blow with the Spirit that we might bring sight to the blind, light to those who sit in darkness, and life to those who are lost in death.
Let us pray.

Matthew 4: 1 -11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘We shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”’
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”’ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and God only shall you serve.”’
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

“Easy Temptation”’
Village Church
February 10, 2008

  Temptation is an invitation, a question not about who we are but about who we want to become. Temptation is a teacher, a difficult one perhaps, but a teacher all the same. It suits itself to whatever is farthest away from what will help us to grow and makes it look attractive and easy, or better.
  What tempts you? I have a great many temptations. One of my temptations is cynicism or despair. Ah, but you are such a positive person, people tell me. Exactly so, which is why it is such a great temptation for me to despair. Sometimes it seems like it would be so much easier in a world of such violence and trauma and difficulty. It would feel comforting just to allow it to be as it is, painful and dark. It would be a relief.
  But then it is not as it is. Because the world is also full of love and light, of spring coming and friendship, of people giving and helping. So I choose who I want to be.
  Jesus goes out into the wilderness to prepare for his ministry, to decide who he is and who he wants to become. He fasts in preparation.
  I read an article the other day written by an American woman with an Islamic husband. She talks about how much she hates Ramadan every year. During Ramadan, Muslims fast for the entire month from sun up to sun down. The writer talks about how her husband gets up early and hurriedly crams food into his mouth staring at the clock. How his breath gets the funny smell he cannot get rid of with mouthwash or toothpaste. How he gets irritable as sun down nears and the long hours of his fast are most difficult. She points out his irritability to him as evidence that this whole fasting business is a wasted exercise, as it is clearly not making him a more spiritual person. Her husband does not argue the fact but continues his fast anyway.
  In the midst of her disdain, she realizes that she has become petty. She has become judgmental; dismissive of his spirituality while her own was haphazard and uncommitted. His month of fasting becomes a spiritual discipline for her. I do not mean that she begins fasting but rather that she is presented with the choice of what kind of person and partner she wants to be and eventually, she begins to choose differently.
  In the Hebrew Scriptures, there are several different visions of what the Messiah will be. One is the great warrior king who will deliver the people of Israel from their many earthly oppressors and return to rule an age even greater than his ancestor King David. Another is the heavenly Son of Man who will be something more than human ushering in an age of lasting peace, both early and heavenly. Jesus is neither of these.
  Jesus is an entirely different kind of messiah. One echoed in the lovely passages of Isaiah 53 “Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground, he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” This is not the most common view of the Messiah though. Neither is it the most popular view of the Messiah. This is still the case today. We like our Jesus strong and mighty, judging the evil whom are not us and righting the wrongs, which are not ours, giving the good people who are us the good life.
  Yet Jesus’ first temptation is to turn stones into bread. This is not just an attempt to break his fast. It is more than that. “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” Prove yourself. If you are the Son of God, then you must have personal power. Start using it to live an easier life. Start using it to provide yourself with comfort. But Jesus is not going to live a life of ease. He is not going to choose the comforts of home, regular meals and rest, but rather a life of hardship traveling from place to place caring for others, depending on others, using his power for others.
  Jesus responds, “It is written, We shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” You can tell Jesus has a sense of humor. He is ironic, but he goes right to the heart of the matter. Whether we have a lot or a little, it is not our material possessions which determine how we live and who we are, but rather our relationship to the spirit within and the Spirit of God.
  I always enjoy reading the exchange between the devil and Jesus. It reminds me of arguing with modem-day fundamentalists, trading Bible verses to prove completely contradictory points. It reminds us that if the devil can use Scripture to prove a point, then drawing out bits and pieces from the Bible to prove points is not going to give us truth. It is the story as a whole, the entire exchange wherein truth lies.
  “Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. “’
  Again, prove yourself. Prove who you are. Show off. God will protect you from harm, and then everyone will see. This had to be a mighty temptation. After all, Jesus gets pretty frustrated with folks. They are so slow to believe. He even calls them names periodically, "you faithless generation," he says. So why not? People keep insisting to Jesus that if he would just do a miracle, they would believe in him. I always found that odd. After all, what about all the people he healed? What about all the people he fed? That is when it hit me. These were not the kinds of miracles they were expecting. The Messiah was not supposed to be concerned about whether or not they were hungry. The Messiah was not supposed to be concerned with their individual illnesses and sorrows. The Messiah was supposed to be big and grand, to part the Red Sea like Moses, to make the walls fall down like Joshua. The miracles were just too mundane. Even the calming of the sea, was really just an act of comforting the disciples’ fear.
  Jesus did not come to force belief. He came to heal, comfort, feed, to show people what it was like having God in their midst, and to transform. So as frustrated as he gets, he passes this temptation with ease. Instead of fancy irony, he admonishes, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”
   Finally the tempter pulls out the big gun: earthly power. He shows the candy before offering it too. Just to make it harder. You can have all this wealth—or, you can choose to be poverty-stricken, unappreciated, and killed in the end. It is obvious to us which is the right choice because we are hearing the story with the clear figure of the devil before us. But what if Jesus was on that mountain alone? What if that question was one that echoed inside his head? Its source unclear. Would we know immediately that of course despite the knowledge, charisma, and power within us, we should not choose to become a politician. Instead we should go person to person, find sick people and comfort them, find broken people and tell them God loves them, find whoever would listen and tell them God wants something different from you and it goes against what the Empire wants from you. Despite the power of the Empire, align yourselves with God. Even if it leads you to death, like it will with me.
  What a ridiculous choice. It is surprising that Jesus did not think that that was the voice of the devil. Yet, that is why he went into the desert. So he could hear clearly, so he could know what was the voice of God. So that he could choose.
  ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and God only shall you serve.”’ Now it is our turn to discern the voice of God. It is our turn to take the forty days of Lent to prepare, to listen to the voices within us, and seek discernment. How is God calling us to serve? Who would God have us become? It is our turn to choose.
  Let us pray.

Isaiah 9:1-4

“But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Napthali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shined. Thou has multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy; they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.”
Matthew 3:13-17
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

“Healing Waters”
Village Church
January 27, 2008

  Jesus’ ministry is the driving force of the canonical Gospels. A few of the Gnostic Gospels tell wild stories of Jesus’ misadventures as a young boy but the canonical gospels ignore his youth altogether. Mark and John both begin in adulthood. Matthew and Luke move from Jesus’ early childhood to his baptism in one jump. Jesus is all grown up and ready to begin his ministry.
  However, before he can begin his public ministry, he first goes to be baptized by John. Jesus has to prepare himself. He has to be ready, physically and spiritually, for all the lies ahead. He cannot do it alone. No one can do it alone. Jesus needs the hands and prayers of another human being. He needs John. John, humbly, feels he should not be the one doing the baptizing. Yet, even Jesus, needs someone else to help facilitate the union between himself and God.
  Some early followers of Jesus believed that it was during his baptism that Jesus became the incarnate son of God. This is why Mark begins with the baptism. Others, like the writer of Matthew, believed he was born that way. Either way, it is clear, that Jesus' baptism is a defining spiritual experience for him and his community. “The heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” It is not clear from Matthew’s story whether or not this voice was heard by Jesus alone or by others as well.
  Yet, as readers and hearers of the story, we are given special knowledge. We hear the voice of God in the story and we are meant to because this baptism is not only about Jesus’ baptism but about our baptism as well. Each one of us, whether as a child or as an adult, comes to the question of baptism. What does it mean to be baptized? If our parents chose it for us, why did they do so? If we chose it for ourselves, what was it for? If we have not, should we?
  We see in the story of Matthew that baptism is a uniting of Spirit and body. In this ritual act, the Spirit of God descends to bless the person who is being baptized. God celebrates and delights in the one coming to God in love and humility. Way back when in the early days of the church, baptisms would be done entirely naked to symbolize the total lack of separation, the vulnerability, and the openness with which we come to God. We are a bit more modest today but we come to God in the same way. God responds by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which comes to us just as It came to Jesus thousands of years ago.
  Because we are followers of Jesus, in baptism we participate in the dying and rising of Christ. We go down into the waters, as Jesus went down into death, and we rise from the water, as Jesus rose into new life. We are reborn. This rebirth means that we are a new creation. We are sanctified. It does not mean there was something wrong with us; any more than there was something wrong with Jesus during his lifetime. When Jesus is resurrected he is himself and yet becomes something more. He is transformed. When we are baptized, we are reborn in a spiritual transformation that speaks to our eventual spiritual transformation in the resurrection. In the way that the kingdom of God is both here and coming at the end of time, our baptism gives birth to the transformation which comes to us only at the end of time.
  We commit ourselves in baptism not only to God but also to one another. We commit ourselves to the way of Jesus. We become consciously a part of the family of God. We are all of us children of God but it is in baptism that we embrace our family and commit ourselves to it. We are reborn, becoming brothers and sisters to one another. For children, of course, this commitment is made for them by their parents, family, and community to raise them in such a way that they will know from the very beginning that they are loved by God, that they are children of God, that they are surrounded by a new reality, a reality which unites both spirit and body, which will guide them in a way of transformation throughout their lives. Confirmation is called confirmation because it is the moment when children are asked to confirm the commitments their elders have made for them.
  Baptism is also a cleansing. God says through the words of the prophet Ezekiel, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Whatever has gone wrong, whatever we have done, or has been done to us, all that will be washed away. Whatever things that have distracted us, whatever we have focused on instead of our well-being, the well-being of others, and God, all that will be washed away. We will be renewed. Our hurts will be healed. Our exhaustion will be refreshed. Our fear and cruelty and distrust will be transformed into compassion and kindness. These are healing waters.
  Babies have not had time yet to be hurt the way we have, or to hurt others. Yet there are born into a world which right away begins impressing upon them racism and sexism and homophobia, anger and desperation and consumerism. We surround them with the sins of our world, both personal and global. With baptism we remind ourselves that we also surround them with all the goodness of the world; with our love and tenderness and hope, with our promises and our community and our dedication; we surround them with our prayers and the Spirit of God surrounds them. That they might be brought safely through this world of both sorrow and joy.
  You see, it is both individual and communal healing that we enact when we baptize and are baptized. Like Jesus who needed John, we cannot do it alone. We need one another, we need one another to heal and be healed. We need one another to remind us that we have been healed. We need one another to invoke the healing waters of our baptism, to pray for us, to reach out and remind us of God’s loving touch on our fevered brows.
  I want to ask you to do something now for me. Please get in groups, of two or three. I want to ask you to pray for one another. The music will play. Ask each other what you need prays for. Then take hands and pray. It can be out loud or in silence. I am going to bring around a reminder of God’s healing waters and I will sprinkle it on your clasped hands, as we continue to pray together as a community.
Let us begin.

Matthew 2:13-23

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he- rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus reigned over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

“A Question of Innocence”
Village Church
January 13, 2008

  This year we will be hearing the Gospel of Matthew in our lectionary readings. During Lent we will have a Bible Study to look more closely at the Gospel of Matthew but I want to share some about the Gospel this morning in order to frame our scriptural journey for the next year.
  The Gospel of Matthew was written after Mark in the last third of the first century. The anonymous writer used the Gospel of Mark as well as either oral sources, and possibly other written sources that have been lost to us. Some of the identical stories and language in Matthew and Luke show us that the two writers were using the same sources.
  Even though they use the same sources and have some similar stories and language, Matthew and Luke are incredibly different. We only have to look at the Christmas story to see that. There are no shepherds in Matthew, and there are no wise men in Luke. The angels come to Mary in Luke, but to Joseph in Matthew. There is no Elizabeth in Matthew, and there is no flight to Egypt in Luke.
  The reason for this is because they have different aims. Matthew was written by a Jew for a Jewish Christian audience. Matthew is focused on showing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesy and the promise of God’s will disclosed. He wants to show the royalty of Jesus, both in his lineage and in those who come to honor him. Matthew is very concerned to illustrate every instance in which Jesus fulfills any messianic prophecy.
  Last week Matthew spoke of the wise men’s visit as a fulfillment of Isaiah along with the birth happening in Bethlehem to a young woman married to the house of David. This week we see in our reading this morning three instances where Matthew points to prophecy- the idea that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt, that there would be sorrow over children, and that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene.
  Prophecy is tricky of course. Not everyone who reads those prophetic words in the Old Testament would agree on their meaning, or even that they are necessarily referring to the Messiah. In fact the prophets’ words refer to many different contexts easily.
  Matthew has created a story that does more than just use prophecy to legitimize Jesus. Matthew has drawn a parallel between Jesus and the most important prophet of the Old Testament.
  The Hebrews have to flee Egypt because of the oppressive slavery they are forced into by the Pharaoh. Moses is destined to be their prophet and savior. His birth is foretold and so the Pharaoh orders the death by drowning of all Hebrew boys who are born. His mother hides him for three months until she cannot any longer. Then she fashions a canoe to place him safely in the water the other children were drowned in. His sister watches over him and when the wife of the Pharaoh finds Moses and decides to take him home, his sister offers to get their mother to be his nurse. And so, Moses is saved, that he may grow up to one day save his people.
  Coming full circle Jesus has to flee to Egypt. The oppressive government is not a foreign one but rather the government of Israel itself. Although Rome ruled Israel, it allowed Herod to govern Judea, a part of Israel, as their native king. However, Herod was Rome’s man and just as corrupt and oppressive and violent, if not worse for having less scope and power to focus his atrocities. Herod was hated by his people, as were his sons when they ruled.
  Jesus, like Moses, is destined to be their prophet and savior. Naturally his birth is foretold and so the ruler again orders the death of all Hebrew boys. However, Joseph is warned in a dream. Thus he takes his family to Egypt until it is safe enough to return. He does not return to Bethlehem, which, unlike Luke, Matthew writes that they were living in because Herod’s son is ruling now. Joseph does not want to take any chances. He settles outside of Herod’s jurisdiction in Galilee, a poorer area with a lot more revolutionary tendencies. And so, Jesus is saved, that he may grow up to one day save his people.
  Matthew is not attempting to put a fast one over on anyone. He is not attempting to be manipulative. Rather, Matthew is using the truths of the Old Testament to explain who Jesus is. Jesus is like Moses. Jesus is prophet, savior, and lawgiver. Jesus is like Moses. Jesus is fulfillment of the promises of God to deliver God’s people from oppression, slavery, and sin. Jesus is like Moses. Jesus leads his people through the wilderness of their lives into a promised land, the kingdom of God. This is what Matthew is telling us in this story. Jesus is the Messiah, like Moses, and yet more.
  Still. What are we to do with this story? It is a terrible one after all. Children being slaughtered only years after the hope of the world is born. One family being saved while so many others are left to their grief
  And yet, this is the truth of the world we live in, isn’t it?
  Tragedy, violence, murder. They are all around us and the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament, do not shy away from this fact. This is one of the things that I love about Christianity. It confronts head on the suffering and sin of the world that we live in. It does not try to explain it away, or pretend it does not exist, or insist that if we just thought differently about it then it would be different. It is honest. It recognizes that we hurt one another, that there is injustice and imbalance.
  God does not save us from our selves. As much as we would like God to swoop in like Superman and rescue us from our selves, God does not. We are all interconnected. We are connected to the consequences not only of our own actions but also the consequences of the actions of others. We cannot separate ourselves from the sins of others, from the prejudices of our neighbors, the cruelties of our families, the violence of the world.
  And yet, this is not the end of the story. God does not save us from our selves but rather through our selves. In Jesus God became human. St. Anthony, a fourth century Egyptian monk said, “He became as we are that we may become as He is.” Paul called it being sanctified. The end of the story is the beginning. The end of the story is salvation. The end of the story is that Jesus returns despite oppression, injustice, and violence to begin his ministry. We get caught up in the sorrow of the violence, understandably and as we should. But it is not the end of the story, just as the cross is not the end of the story. The cross is the tool of the world. The cross is the incarnate symbol of destruction and savagery and evil. The end of the story is the resurrection. The end of the story is the beginning. The end of the story is that Jesus returns to begin your ministry.
Let us pray.

Matthew 2:1-12
“In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.”’ Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.”
Ephesians 3: 1-12
“This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentilesfor surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.”

“The Rule of God”
Village Church
January 6, 2007

  The wise men in the Gospel of Matthew arrive to see Jesus considerably later than the shepherds, possibly even two years later. They are called Magi, a Latinization of the plural of the Greek word magos, which is a derivative from Old Persian Magupati. The term is a specific occupational title referring to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. The Map-i had an international mutation for astrology which was at that time a highly regarded science, only later giving rise to aspects of mathematics and astronomy. The Magi became elevated in tradition to kings as followers interpreted Matthew’s story through Old testament prophesies that the Messiah would be worshipped by kings. “Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
  The gifts themselves are symbolic. One view is that they are prophetic gifts of Jesus’ future and identity- myrrh to symbolize death, frankincense to symbolize priesthood and gold to symbolize kingship. Another view is that they all symbolize Jesus’ kingship because they would all be ordinary gifts for a king—myrrh for anointing, frankincense for perfume, and gold for value.
  What does it mean that Jesus is a king? After all, Jesus did not rule over anybody. He had no land to rule. He had no power. He was born poor and he died poor, ruling nobody, assassinated by the rulers of the day, condemned by king and emperor. It is a ridiculous claim. In fact it is one of the main reason that many Jews thought that the Jews who were claiming Jesus was the Messiah were touched in the head, just a bit crazy. It was irrelevant that he was in the right line family-wise, born in the right place prophecy-wise, fed the poor, healed the sick, forgave sins, and spoke with truth and righteousness. He was not a king. It is one of the main points that have been used to point out the absurdity of Christianity from the time of the disciples to today.
   So what are we talking about when we say this represents Jesus’ kingship? Are we just crazy?
  There’s a song I heard once called ‘How should a king come.’
“How should a king come?
He should dine upon summer strawberries and milk.
He should sleep upon bedclothes of satin and silk...
[But]
On a starry night into Bethlehem,
Rode a weary woman and worried man,
And the only sound on the cobblestone street
Was the trump and the clump of the donkey’s feet.
And the angels cried “Glory, glory to God.”
Earth was silent so heaven rang.”
  Earth was silent so heaven rang. Indeed, nothing special happened on the day that Jesus was born. The earth did not stand still. No one of importance took note. As he grew up, no one important paid attention to what he had to say. Women, slaves, lepers, epileptics, rebels, and the poor listened, but that’s about it, and then he died. Jesus did not re-take the kingdom of Israel. It was a different kind of kingdom that Jesus was interested in.
  Jesus did not come to set up the kingdom of Israel, or any other kingdom, but instead to talk about the kingdom of God. In fact, the kingdom of God is what Jesus spent most of his stories and sermons talking about. The kingdom of God is where the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The kingdom of God is where the poor and forgotten will be invited to the banquet instead of the rich and powerful. The kingdom of God is where the ruler will be a servant.
  Christianity is a religion of irony, a religion of metaphor, a religion where everything is turned upside down, and means more than just what lies on the surface.
  Those who were looking for a Savior wanted him to come and deliver them from the misery and oppression of their daily lives. There have been saviors to do that sort of thing, to change one government for another government, to take power for a while, until they themselves are overthrown. But Jesus was a different kind of Savior.
  Being delivered by Jesus was not something that could be enjoyed without active participation. You had to work at it. You had to feed people, heal people, listen to confusing stories and try to discern their meaning. You had to pray. You had to learn to love all the people you disliked most. Then you would find the kingdom of God, where Jesus was the ruler. Where was this kingdom? It was here and now. It was to come. It was within you.
  This is a mystery. Jesus is a mystery. We have been trying to puzzle him out for over 2000 years now. Paul tells us that he is entrusted with explaining a particular part of the mystery. His particular part to explain is that this kingdom has no boundaries. All have access to the boundless riches of Christ. And what are these riches? These riches are God’s love—God’s love which is poured out upon one and all. God’s love which comes first to those who are last, and then, comes at last, to all. God's love which invites you on a journey of transformation that invites you, in the words of Paul, to put on the likeness of Christ. To become both servant and master. To be able to see truly what is most important, what is most valuable, to be able to choose wisely, to live your life dwelling always within the kingdom of God because God’s love is not defined by a place or a person or a religion or a creed but rather by what is in your heart.
Let us pray.