Fear For

Here is my message from yesterday. The text was Matthew 2:13-18:

So far we have heard several angelic pronouncements about the coming birth of Jesus, or of John who will prepare the way. We had the announcement to Zechariah, and we were told he was terrified. We heard the announcement to the shepherds as we set the nativity today, and we are told they are terrified. And the angel’s response to them? Do not be afraid. We also have the announcement to Mary in Luke, and to her betrothed Joseph in Matthew, and although we are not told that they are afraid, which I think is significant, they too are told not to be afraid. But there is one another person who plays a crucial role that we are told is frightened when he hears word of Jesus’ birth, and that is Herod, whose official title is King of the Jews, although his announcement is not from an angelic messenger,. And so I have been using a quote from Max Lucado who says that “fear, at its center, is about a perceived loss of control.” And so, if that is true that it would make perfect sense that Herod is frightened because what the wise men do when they arrive, and please note that it doesn’t actually say how many there are there, is that they ask is where they can find the child who is born king of the Jews? And so that begins the trouble.

Herod sends the wise men on their way and tells them to come back and tell him where the child is so he can go and pay homage, which we can guess is probably not true, and as it turns out we know is not what he wants. But the wise men are warned not to go back to Herod and so go a different way, and Joseph too is warned to flee Egypt. And so Joseph takes Jesus and Mary and they flee during the night making their way to Egypt in order to protect themselves from Herod. And because he appears to be thwarted by the wise men, we are told that Herod is furious or extremely angry. And out of his anger he strikes out at Bethlehem. Fear and anger, although different emotions, are not unrelated to each other.

By A Different Road

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 2:1-12:

Most of us have particular roads on which we like to travel.  For the most part, we always go to and from work the same way, we go to the grocery store the same way, and we go to church the same way. We do this so much that there are times when we totally disengage while driving and we end up, usually at home, and we don’t remember doing the drive at all.  We know the route so well that we don’t even really have to be involved in doing it any more.  Now this does not mean that this route is necessarily the best route to take, the easiest or the quickest, although we would probably argue that it is, but it is the route that we are most used to and so it’s what we do.  And we stay on that route unless something pushes us off of it, construction, and accident or perhaps a major snow storm.  While I know that sometimes here there might not be a lot of different ways, there are still multiple ways to do something, different roads to take, but we don’t take them because it’s not how we normally go and we don’t really want to change anything.  We like our particular road just fine, thank you very much.  Even if it’s not really working for us anymore, we’re going to stick to it, because gosh darn it we’re not quitters.  Finding a different road isn’t really all that hard, most of the time, but it’s making the decision to go home by a different road that’s the tough part.

Of course the church is not necessarily the best place to be talking about trying new things, not just because new things tend to be resisted by many people, but even more because the church itself likes to keep things the same.  As Tevye says, it’s that whole tradition thing, although we should celebrate that we definitely changed up our routines and the way we do things this year. But, the fact that we celebrate the same things every year, the fact that there are traditions we do hold onto, can make change hard. And so we find ourselves today, just like this time last year, celebrating Epiphany which is the arrival of the wise men who come to see and worship Jesus.  The actual celebration of Epiphany is January 6, as today is only the tenth day of Christmas, but we celebrate epiphany today since I don’t figure most of you would be here for worship on the 6th, plus the fact that the 6th is the anniversary of Linda and my first date and so she wouldn’t be really happy with me if I was to be here.

By A Different Road

Here is my sermon from Sunday.  The text was Matthew 2:1-12:

Most of us have particular roads on which we like to travel.  For the most part, we always go to and from work the same way, we go to the grocery store the same way, we go to church the same way.  We do this so much that there are times when we totally disengage while driving and we end up, usually at home, and we don’t remember doing the drive at all.  We know the route so well that we don’t even really have to be involved in doing it any more.  Now this does not mean that this route is necessarily the best route to take, the easiest or the quickest, although we would probably argue that it is, but it is the route that we are most used to and so it’s what we do.  And we stay on that route unless something pushes us off of it, construction, and accident or perhaps a major snow storm.  Normally, there are multiple ways to do something, multiple routes to take, but we don’t take them because it’s not how we normally go and we don’t really want to change anything.  We like our particular road just fine, thank you very much.  Even if it’s not really working for us anymore, we’re going to stick to it, because gosh darn it we’re not quitters.  Finding a different road isn’t really all that hard, most of the time, but it’s making the decision to go home by a different road that’s the tough part.

Of course the church is not necessarily the best place to be talking about trying new things, not just because new things tend to be resisted by many people, although I haven’t yet heard any complaints about the new seating arrangements, but even more because the church itself likes to keep things the same.  It’s part of that whole tradition thing, and we could sing right along with Tevye, and the fact that we celebrate the same things every year, and so we find ourselves today, just like this time last year, celebrating Epiphany which is the arrival of the wise men who come to see and worship Jesus.  The actual celebration of Epiphany is January 6, as today is only the tenth day of Christmas, and I hope to find my ten lords a leaping wrapped in my office after worship, but we celebrate epiphany today since I don’t figure most of you would be here for worship on the 6^th, plus the fact that the 6^th is the anniversary of Linda and my first date and so she wouldn’t be really happy with me if I was to be here.

Three People from Somewhere

Here is my sermon from Sunday.  The text was Matthew 2:1-12:

Today represents the last vestiges of Christmas.  Kids go back to school tomorrow, and adults who have been off for the holidays return to work.  People have taken down their trees and the ornaments and decorations have been packed up and returned to storage, or maybe like me everything has been piled in one location waiting to be packed up.  The surprises and the excitement of the season are gone, along with the songs and the decorations, and yet today we celebrate epiphany, which represents the official end of the Christmas season, this is another one of those times in which the church is out of sync with culture.

Some of you have heard me say this before, as much as Fox News might like to talk about a war on Christmas, I have to be in agreement with Diana Butler Bass that it’s not a war on Christmas, it’s a war on Advent, because Christmas doesn’t end on December 25, Christmas begins in December 25, and it officially ends tomorrow with Epiphany.  Epiphany, means appearance or manifestation, and it commemorates the arrival of the wisemen as the manifestation of Jesus to the gentiles.  In many cultures, especially in Latin countries, Epiphany is more important of a Holiday than is Christmas and is celebrated through gift-giving and parties.  In the Orthodox church, it is the third most important day of the year following only Easter and Pentecost, and for many years the Orthodox church celebrated Christmas not on December 25, but instead on January 6 and there are still some churches which follow that tradition.