Proclaiming Good News

During his lifetime Jesus spoke about a world in crisis.  Imagine Jesus speaking on the national media from Washington or New York about the issues that confront us today: peace in the Middle East, violence, inequality, those who are hungry and homeless.  Jesus’ message is that our security must be grounded in the reign of God where the promise and hope for peace and justice, for love and kindness, for mercy and faithfulness, is to be found.

           

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people."  He called for repentance as John the Baptist had done before him, and he proclaimed “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” His was a ministry of preaching Good News and healing diseases, both physical and social.  You and I are called to preach the good news of God's reign, and to heal every disease among the people as well as to minister to those who are sick and burdened with grief or despair.

Jesus appeared to Simon and Andrew, James and John, while they were at work casting their nets into the sea.  He called them to follow him as he carried out his ministry throughout Galilee.  His meeting with them, according to the Gospel account, was so brief that Jesus spoke only one sentence, and they said nothing.  Maybe they had heard him preach before, or maybe they heard John the Baptist who also said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."  This was nothing new.  So why are the words new when they come from Jesus?  Why does the appearance of Jesus by the sea cause four people to leave home and family, their work of fishing, and follow him?

Jesus' message is that God's reign is very near.  It may be as close as the people in our community who are poor and hungry and who cry out for a renewed sense of economic justice and adequate nutrition.  It may be as close as those who work for an end to bigotry, hate, and prejudice toward others who are different because of race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.  It may be as close as those places in which the sick are healed, captives are set free, and good news of compassion and hope is proclaimed.  It may be as close as a very sick patient who is asking for merciful relief from pain and incurable suffering.

Jesus identified the kingdom of heaven with righteousness, a biblical word for justice.  Matthew's central claim is that Jesus is the way to God.  The epiphany, the complete manifestation of Christ to us, is in the story of his birth when the wise men from the east declared him king; in his baptism in the Jordan River when the Spirit affirmed him as God's anointed; in his ministry when he healed the diseased and relieved the oppressed; in his crucifixion, the hour of his ultimate vulnerability; and finally, in the victory of his resurrection when the earth quaked and the angels appeared.  God's reign breaks in among us through the wholeness and the entirety of Jesus' life.

The two brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew, and two other brothers, James and John, saw God's approach in Jesus by the sea.  They had known the haunting pull of death's shadow in the deep regions of the expansive lake where they fished, but with Jesus, the light broke across the waves.  "Follow me," he said, and they left to go with him to bring others into the presence and power of God's reign.

That is what we are called to do, to bring others into God's reign.  We are to preach the Gospel of Christ and heal the diseased people in our world by relieving suffering and working to end violence so they, too, can hear the Word of God and live faithfully with hopeful expectation for new life as members of our common humanity.

Christ calls us to follow him as the way to God.  As Paul appealed to the Corinthian Christians, there can be no discrimination and no division.  In our worship of praise and thanksgiving, in nurturing our spiritual growth and development, in providing pastoral care for one another, in reaching out to the wider community, and in celebrating and caring for all that God provides, we dedicate ourselves to God through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Keeping the Covenant

Our relationship with God and the desire for the blessing of peace, justice and righteousness throughout the world is the central subject of our Scripture lessons this morning.  The focus is on our relationship with God through the baptism of Jesus.  Our baptism as ministers of the Gospel and followers of Christ is to carry on the work of forgiveness, peace and justice.

As we reflect on these passages and our relationship with God we should understand that our baptism awakens us to the realization that in our covenant relationship with God we are called to carry out a daunting task.  Our baptism into the Christian faith is an urgent and compelling ministry, one that requires a commitment “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

We prayed near the beginning of our service that God would “Grant that all who are baptized into [Jesus’] Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior.”  This prayer is for each one of us, it is for you and me.  We are to keep the covenant of loving God with our heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Following our prayer to keep the covenant we heard a passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah about God’s chosen servant: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

The theme of justice is repeated not once but twice in this passage: “he will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.”  Bringing justice to the nations, establishing justice in the earth, is what God commands.

The passage continues,  “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.… See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”

Jesus responded to God’s call when he quoted Isaiah and said his mission was to “bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Today, we who are the followers of Christ are called to carry on his mission.

Jesus, through his baptism, is the Beloved Son with whom God is well pleased.  He and his followers are “to fulfill all righteousness.”  In the Acts of the Apostles Peter continued God’s work of preaching forgiveness, “doing good and healing all who were oppressed.”

It is now the second week of this new year.  There remain many issues in need of action if there is to be justice and peace for all people.  Some of these are beyond our immediate control, but others are right here in our own communities. 

Last week there was a lot of media coverage about the 50^th anniversary of the war on poverty.  One of the articles published in the New York Times (Anne Lowery, January 4, 2014) was titled, “50 years later – War on Poverty is a Mixed Bag.”  The article stated, “high rates of poverty — measured by both the official government yardstick and the alternatives that many economists prefer — have remained a remarkably persistent feature of American society. About four in 10 black children live in poverty; for Hispanic children, that figure is about three in 10.  According to one recent study as of mid-2011, in any given month, 1.7 million households were living on cash income of less than $2 a person a day, with the prevalence of the kind of deep poverty commonly associated with developing nations increasing since the mid-1990s.

“Both economic and sociological trends help explain why so many children and adults remain poor, even putting the effects of the recession aside.  More parents are raising a child alone, with more infants born out of wedlock.  High incarceration rates, especially among black men, keep many families apart.  About 30 percent of single mothers live in poverty.

“If Congress approved a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from its current level of $7.25, it would reduce the poverty rate of working-age Americans by 1.7 percentage points, lifting about five million people out of poverty.

“But in the meantime, the greatest hope for poorer Americans would be a stronger economic recovery that brought the unemployment rate down from its current level of 7 percent and drew more people into the work force.  The poverty rate for full-time workers is just 3 percent.  For those not working, it is 33 percent.”

Our economy is an important issue.  The minimum wage in Rhode Island was increased to $8.00 an hour on January 1st, but it is not enough.  At both state and national levels we need to improve the economy by creating jobs and providing adequate compensation.  We also need to improve our education system, and make sure there is adequate health care coverage for everyone.  Given all this, what steps can you and I take to fulfill our covenant relationship with God and bring good news to the poor?

My response is twofold: first, we can give thanks to God for what we have been able to accomplish here at All Saints.  Our outreach programs to Crossroads and to the hungry and homeless people of our community through the City Meal Site have been impressive.  One of the purposes of the meal site is to help lift people out of poverty.  By providing a nutritious meal each week we contribute to that effort.

Second, we can dedicate our efforts in this new year of 2014 to strengthen our outreach efforts.  We can do this by writing letters, sending emails, and making phone calls to our legislators encouraging them to raise the minimum wage and continue creating jobs for the unemployed.  We know that our infrastructure is in need of repair – roads, bridges, transportation, utilities – these are all areas that require government support and can be used to employ more people.

If we do these things, and if we work together to live by our covenant relationship with God, we will be able to rejoice with the psalmist who said, “the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor [for] the Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.”  Amen. 

An Epiphany of Light

This is the final day of the 12 days of Christmas.  It is the eve of a new season of Epiphany, a time during which we observe the Wise Men coming from the East to search for and see the child who has been born king of the Jews.  They asked, "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."

The Rev. Herbert O'Driscoll, wrote about the Wise Men in the Christian Century Magazine several years ago.  “Because we know almost nothing about the wise men, our imaginations take wing.  If we were brought up in the Christian faith, these characters have ridden across our minds and hearts ever since we were taken to our first Sunday school pageant.  Even the most sophisticated children secretly envy those who have been selected to play the wise men.  Parents will ransack attics for pieces of fabric -- the more brilliant and exotic the better -- and someone in the family will create a costume that will be linked to no particular age or time or culture but will somehow speak of far-off places, distant shores, desert sands and starry skies -- all at the same time.”

Think about the Christmas pageant we enjoyed on Christmas Eve.  The costumes were amazing, the children moved about adorned with the clothing of their character.  Narrators told the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, and we all sang carols in both English and Spanish.  It was a remarkable and wonderful event.

Herbert O’Driscoll tells us, “the Magi represent forever and for all of us the wisdom that recognizes human life to be a journey taken in search of One who calls us beyond ourselves into faithful service -- One before whom we are prepared to kneel, and to whom we offer the best of our gifts, flawed and unworthy though they be.”

“We watch these visitors to Bethlehem, as they kneel with supreme grace and dignity before what is to them simplicity, vulnerability and poverty.  They are prepared to kneel, for in their wisdom -- and this is the heart of what makes them truly wise -- they discern the glory that is hidden in this place and in this child.  And so we too, daily engaged in our own all too human journey, searching for that which would have us be so much more than we are, and bearing our unworthy gifts, kneel on the stable floor beside these royal ones, worshiping with them the child who is most royal.”

This coming season of Epiphany is a time to celebrate God’s gift of new life for all the world.  Jesus, the Son of God, was born as a poor baby and laid in a manger full of hay and straw.  Then, somehow, a star in the East captured the curiosity of some Magi and they followed it.  When they saw the child Jesus they were overwhelmed and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The presentation of gifts, however, is not the end of the story.  There is a more troubling part to it.   King Herod heard about the birth of Jesus and, upon hearing it. “was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”  So he called together the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them about where the Messiah was to be born.  He was terrified and motivated because of his fear.  Herod felt threatened and was moved to respond defensively.  The authorities told him what had been foretold by the prophet, "In 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.'"

King Herod, a ruler overseeing Jerusalem and all of Judah on behalf of the Roman Empire, being told that a new ruler was born to lead the people.  It was a threat to his ruling power.  However, what gave wisdom to the Magi was a shared dream.  “They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they left for their own country by another road.”

Nancy Rockwell, a writer and teacher of Christianity and literature who lives in New Hampshire, said that Herod, “devoid of talent, ignorant of his own traditions, and without God’s anointing… uses dark arts to keep his throne: terror; savagery and secrets; the murder of children, for which he is remembered still. This birth story is grisly, shocking.

“Matthew does not shrink from telling us that the coming as well as the going of God from this world are shrouded in violence, intrigue and destruction, and require our courage, risk, and following of small and unexpected lights to guide our way.”

What is the meaning of the story of the Wise Men?  Nancy Rockwell applies it to a present-day situation. “A colleague two towns away has written that the little girl who was the Star in her church pageant, who led the Wise Men down the aisle, whose mother then lifted her up so she could shine above the manger, has been deported by the INS (the Immigration and Naturalization Service).  Herod is still sending centurions to trample through small towns in the name of the public good.  The sleeping populace yawns in unconcern, buys dark weapons for itself in epic numbers and delusions of similar proportion, and goes to church on Christmas Eve, believing this story is safe for children, a comfort on a starry winter night.”

“The story, though, has the true power of sacred tales: it is Eternal.  It is, and always will be happening now.  And the children who live it, who live through it, who are lifted up within it and see its light, are the ones whose lives are anointed by it, who will become its light.  When grown, it is they who will speak to us about God and Herod, they who will know whose throne is real and whose is to be torn down, they who have heard what the Wise Men knew and what they really gave, and where in the world they went, after Bethlehem.”

What all this suggests to me is how important it is for us to provide the quality of education and spiritual formation our children need so they can truly gain the wisdom to see the light.  It is the light of our human relationships that separates the rays of hope for equality and opportunity from the darkness of injustice and discrimination.  Amen.