GONE FISHING

 

GONE FISHING

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

January 24, 2021

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10, Mark 1:14-20

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The events of recent weeks in the nation’s capital, including this past Wednesday’s inauguration, have prompted me to wonder what is really going on, and how can Christians of good faith who may disagree on political matters, respond effectively to all that they are experiencing.

We beginning today with a passage with political implications.  I have not preached about Jonah from that perspective in the past.  Usually it is about how reluctant he was to do God’s will.  But seldom was it from the perspective of those to whom he was sent.  The Ninevites.  This time, we are going to look at the scene from their eyes.

It is hard to put ourselves in the Ninevites’ shoes, or maybe I had best say sandals.  They were not the kind of people you wanted to spend time with.  They were the people in the capital city of the nation that was known for being aggressive, warlike, and merciless.  They were perfectly content with that approach to life.  It had gotten them and their people a lot, more territory, more power, a thriving economy, and a leadership base that was firmly in control of matters.

If you agreed with that perspective, then you were happy as a clam at high tide.  And if you did not, then, as long as you didn’t fall afoul of them you were getting along pretty well.

The perspective of most Ninevites was: “Don’t mess with success.”  It could have been the motto that they had on their bumper stickers.  If they had bumpers.

Contrast that with the people who had been beaten by their nation, (which was Assyria by the way).  The Assyrians were not benevolent dictators.  They were anything but benevolent.  They were expedient.  They had strong views about how to govern, and anyone who got in their way was considered an enemy, or a threat.

I am glad I did not live in those days…

And then along came Jonah the reluctant prophet.  Who eventually went to Nineveh as God had commanded, and told the people to repent, or else.

“Or else what?” They may have asked.  “You are a pretty innocuous person to say such a thing.  We have chariots and bows and arrows, and soldiers galore, and we have prisons and torture chambers and places where, if we wish, they take people like you and they are never, ever, heard from again.  So, babble on as you wish with your news – which we are sure is fake news by the way.  It will get you nowhere.”

And Jonah thought, “I have bene in the belly of the whale!   If you want to see nowhere, I have been there and back!  As sorry a place as your city is, it is somewhere.  This is somewhere where real men, and women, and children live, where they have the same hopes and dreams as people who live down the road, and beyond.  I fact, the same hopes and dreams as the people who are under your thumb.  I did not choose to come to speak God’s word to you.  It was God’s idea.  I did not want to warn you.  I was hoping that God would just wipe you off the face of the earth by surprise, treating you the same way you treat others.  I can quote that ancient code of conduct: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Prepare to be eyeless, and toothless, and worse, you Ninevites!”

Not the sort of talk that is designed to win friends and influence people.

However, lo and behold, it did influence them, and they did what Jonah said that God said they should do.  They repented! 

That is possibly more surprising that that whole story about the giant fish that swallowed up Jonah.  That people actually changed.

Because you have said it yourselves, “People never change” A leopard doesn’t change it spots”

Now, I will not say that there are any number of people of an aggressively assertive type who have decided that living pragmatically and without regard for others - in our world today.  But you might just happen to draw your own comparisons between the Assyrians of Nineveh, and people in our present day.  And if you were to draw that conclusion, I would not argue with you.

Jonah was not amused that they repented.  He wanted them to get what was coming to them.  I can understand that sentiment.  So, Jonah pouted; because he was successful. 

I wonder what the Ninevites did?  Did they pout too?  Or did they live in a new way?

Scripture says they were forever changed for the better.

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We could leave the matter there and find that there are conclusions to be drawn.

Such as

1.   God is not pleased when people act like the Ninevites

2.   God does something about it.

3.   What God does is rather unexpected.

4.   God sends a special massager to such warlike, riotous troublemakers.

5.   God gives them a chance to change their ways

6.   If they do that, God does not annihilate them as God could very well do.

7.   God must have a measure of mercy; God sees something good, even in people that we dislike and fear.

8.   There are probably more points to make, but this is a sermon, not a book.

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So then, we move ahead to the New Testament and we find a very different story.  Or do we?  The thing that it has in common seems to be FISH.  Jonah and his one big fish.  And the disciples and their nets full of fish.

But does the New Testament message have something more to do with the OT message?

You decide.  Here are the facts:

If Jonah is God’s massager and word in the OT lesson.

Who is God’s messenger and word in the NT lesson?

Jesus right?

Yes, that was an easy question.

And who was Jonah speaking to?

        Difficult and dangerous people who were not inclined to hear him.

And how does that compare with who Jesus was speaking to?

Hmm.  Also difficult and dangerous people – many of whom were not included to hear him.

We get the sense that Jesus has a job to do, that is pretty similar to the one Jonah did.  Jesus did something we don’t see Jonah doing, though.  Jesus called upon others to share in his work.

We call them the disciples.  And we name them James and John, Andrew and Peter, and the rest.

However, in all that I say from here on in when I mention disciples, I mean us.  The followers of Jesus today.  So please insert your name when I mention the disciples.

Jesus calls the disciples. (Insert: Jesus calls us)

Jesus calls them to what seems like an impossible task.

Changing people’s hearts and minds.

Jesus hand-picks his disciples.  Who before that time do not have any notion or inclination to do the hard work of reaching people for God.  In fact if you had asked the disciples when they wakened that morning, “Do you know that you are going to start changing the whole world, today?” They would have laughed you out of the room.  But that is what was happening, when Jesus asked for their help.

“Follow me”, Jesus said.  And they did.  It is always amazing to me that disciples with well-established lives and vocations, would have set all that aside without asking for any of the particulars.  Like: “Where?  For how long?  What should pack?  What should we wear?  What is our forwarding address?”  So many questions that went unasked.

All because Jesus followed-up his initiation with those other word, “And I will make you fish for people.”

Hmm tht is intriguing.  At the very least.  Jesus was asking the disciples to use their skills, talents, gifts, wisdom, words, that were as familiar to them as the back of their hands, for a new and different purpose. 

Fish for people.

That is the disciple’s calling.  If they were putting two and two together, they might have said back to Jesus, catching people! That is a whole lot harder than catching fish.  It is like you are asking us to walk into the homes and hearts of people who are not at al like us, who aren’t expecting us, who don’t even want us, and to Draw them into a net – a network – a framework ,- a new reality, in which your will prevails, and their old riotous freedoms are curtailed. 

Exactly.

And still Jesus asks.  And still disciples are called.  For the joy but also the cost of discipleship.

I know that there are places in your immediate world that need such disciples.  Meaning: you.  Remember whenever I say the word disciple, I mean you.

-        Disciples are needed to speak to frightening people.

-        Disciples are needed to reach frightened people.

-        Disciples are need to speak God’s truth.

-        Disciples are needed to prevail over wrongheaded notions and falsehood.

-        Disciples are needed to demonstrate God’s love as we find it in Jesus Christ.

-        Disciples are needed to end hatred,

-        Disciples are needed to help people find their way.

-        Especially people who wrongly believe they are not lost.

I am absolutely sure that you have found yourselves in some places, conversations, with people you know (since the assault on the Capitol two weeks ago),

-        where you have bit your tongue,

-        you have not spoken God’s truth,

-        you have not reached out,

-        you have allowed wrongheaded notions to go unchecked and uncorrected.

-        Where you have shirked of the work of a disciples. 

-        Because it was too hard

-        or too unlikely to succeed,

-        or if it did, you didn’t want those folks to not get what they deserved.

-        Here’s the thing:

-        Jesus is still saying to disciples, “Follow Me.”

-        “Follow me to these places.”

What would have happened to those NT disciples if they had not followed Jesus?

I can see it now.  So can you.

-         They would have labored and toiled in the sun and storms until they were too old and tired to do so.

-         They would have eked out a living, and fed their families, but had no lasting impact on their place and time,.

-         Their obituaries would have been brief.

-         Their impact would have been slight.

-         No more than a pebble skipped across a lake…

-         Their names would have been long forgotten, as soon as the last living person who knew them had died.

And had they not followed Jesus, think of the people who would never even knew that God cared enough for them to send his “A Team” to help them.

If Jonah had not gone fishing in Nineveh, then those Ninevites would have been utterly destroyed.

And if disciples, from the day of Jesus down to today, had not gone fishing for people.  DITTO.

Disciples have a huge and sometimes onerous duty, to represent Christ wherever they are, and wherever Christ calls them.

When one is a Christian, when one is a Presbyterian, when one is a Shadyside Presbyterian, whether, member, visitor, or staff member, that is your calling too.

So make a new resolve.

, to represent Christ where you are.

And where Christ calls you to go.

Whether it is all the way to a warlike capitol city,

Or just the other side of your boat.  Amen.

ON TURNING OVER NEW LEAVES

 

ON TURNING OVER NEW LEAVES

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Sunday, January 10, 2021

First Sunday after Epiphany

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-10, Mark 1:4-11

Introduction

Recently I was looking at the towering oak trees in our front yard, twin trees that are 43 years old.  That made me wonder what the oldest tree in Allegheny County might be.  Therefore, I researched it.  You perhaps know about it already.  It is not on a piece of private property.  It is in a park.  It is not hard to get to. There are signs and a path.  It does not shout, it whispers, of more than 4 centuries of standing tall, growing and thriving.  The tree is a white oak.  There is a stone sign in front of that ancient tree, with an inscription that says it took root in 1598.

 

Over the course of one year, such a tree produces more than half a million leaves, annually.  Multiply that by 423 years, and you get 21,150,000 leaves.  Give or take a few.

I am just glad I do not have to rake them.  Nevertheless, it does tell me that something that starts out small can, over time, become gigantic, in terms of how far it reaches, who it nurtures, and what it provides.

 

It is like what happens in our New Testament Lesson, when one little moment of time, and a few drops of water, began a worldwide 2000-year Christian faith that has spread like the branches of a 400 year old oak tree, drawing people into its shelter.

 

Back in the day, which we read about in the very first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we could say that Jesus was turning over a new leaf, He was beginning something new, choosing a different focus for his life, changing his way of relating to others.  Out there, when he was baptized, we can learn from what he did.  In OUR baptism, things happen like what happened to Jesus:

 

1) We receive the Spirit of God who remains with us.

2) We are called children of God.

3) We hear God is “well pleased” with us.

 

One: We receive the Spirit of God who remains with us.  Baptism is the entry point of faith. Jesus, in his baptism, publically aligns himself with everything that God desires.  It is a moment of revelation. We look on, as if we were there on the Jordan’s banks, noticing something unique is going on.  In baptism, Jesus enacts, confirms, and shows us what is already true. He received the Spirit of God.

The Spirit is seen. The Spirit is heard. The dove descending.  The words from heaven saying:

 

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

 

At that moment, something about Jesus becomes new and different.  Jesu is set aside for God’s holy purpose.  Jesus will do things now, he had not done before.  We call it his “Galilean ministry”.  As he calls disciples, travels the countryside, and shares the good news.  Jesus teaches truth, and raises the dead.

Before his baptism, very little is recorded or remembered.  After his baptism, we savor every line the gospel writers recorded. Everything Jesus says and does, has lasting inspiration.

 

Baptism draws a line, between what was then, and what is now.  The leaf turns.  The curtain falls on whatever consumed Jesus days beforehand, and rises on this next chapter of Doing God’s Will.  Just as we see and hear the spirit of God descending upon and approving Jesus, so too, at our own baptism, we receive the spirit of God.  The leaf is turned.  We start over, we act in a different manner, we change our attitude.  We place ourselves in God’s hands.  We are made new.

 

Two:  We are called children of God.  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  It makes us pay riveted attention to Jesus, doesn’t it?  To have God speak and show this.  If there was any question about who Jesus is and how he related to the Almighty, God makes it absolutely clear.  Jesus is God’s son.

 

As God’s son, Jesus’ authority surpassed any prophet or angels.  As God's Son, Jesus knows God as no one else does and so is able to reveal God's purpose and will to his followers.  As God's Son, Jesus is our example of how to relate to God as Father.  As God's Son, Jesus invited human beings to know God fully.  As God's Son, Jesus clearly showed God's love to us.  As God's Son, Jesus taught his followers that they should address God as “Father.” As God's son, Jesus is God's appointed ruler and king.  As God's Son, Jesus is obedient to God.  As God's Son, Jesus becomes the medium through which humankind now comes to God and comes to know God.  As God's Son, Jesus has the authority to forgive sin.  As God's son, Jesus had a specific task: to fulfill the Jewish expectations of the Messiah by dying for the sins of the world.

 

When we align ourselves with Jesus who is God’s Son, then the meaning of Jesus’ baptism for us is that we are baptized into something. A change happens, at baptism, no matter what our age may be.  We enter into the joy of the Son who knows the God and makes God known.  And the leaf is turned.  We start over, we act in a different manner, we change our attitude.  We place ourselves in God’s hands.  We are made new.

 

Three:  We hear God is well pleased with us.  God’s Spirit speaks a few succinct words to define who the newly-baptized Jesus is.  Until then, people called him Mary and Joseph’s son.  That wise kid who taught the elders in the temple.  That carpenter whose workmanship was fine.  And then, baptism happens.  Jesus is defined anew.  As he places himself before god, relinquishes who he has been, becoming who he can be, in this expanded relationship with the Almighty.

 

        Describing Jesus, coming out of the water, Mark uses the word “Euthus” for the first of 41 times he will use it in his Gospel.  “Euthus” can mean a number of things.  In Mark’s Gospel, it is most often translated as, “Immediately”. 

 

If we are cautious people, then “Immediately” is not a word we are drawn to.  We like the word “Eventually” more.  However, there is a time for the immediate.  We put ourselves in God’s company, in the waters of baptism.  In the presence of God’s Spirit, things DO happen immediately.  God changes us: Immediately.

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As a congregation, Shadyside Presbyterian Church is turning over a new leaf this morning, because… this is the very first time that we have offered live streaming of our worship service directly from our sanctuary to you who may be joining us. Shadyside has a long history of doing innovative ministry. And of course most notably is. that this congregation was the very first to broadcast its worship services over the radio. There’s a plaque here in the sanctuary reminding us of that, as well as the first radio broadcast of worship to the North Pole and the South Pole.

It’s a remarkable part of our history.  And some thing that I was well aware of as I was growing up here in Pittsburgh.  And as I was serving for a decade at Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church.

Fast forward to the 23 years when I serve Wekiva Presbyterian Church in Florida. It was mid 2004 when I went to one of our charter members there whose expertise is in the area of sales and marketing , via computers and the Internet. I told David I had this idea.  We not in a position to afford a radio broadcast of worship.  And of course television broadcast of worship.  But I wondered if it might be possible for us to do a broadcast of worship over the Internet. David liked the idea and said he would look into it; and after he did he got back to me and said: ”John,  the technology just isn’t there. I thanked him and I just put the IDEA on the shelf.

So, about six months later.  When I got a phone call from Dave, and the first words out of his mouth were,” John we can do it I!”, said: “we can do what?’  He said , “I now think that we have the technology we need to do webcast of worship live from our SANCTUARY.” So we got busy; put everything in place; and in January 2005 Wekiva Presbyterian Church was the first church anywhere to offer live webcast of worship (which continue now 16 years later.)

For Shadyside PC, what we are doing today is like unto that.  I am deeply grateful to every one on our AV Task Force, and especially to our technical experts, Jesse Nauss and Stephen Donnelly, who are up in the Balcony this morning, making this first-ever Shadyside live worship webcast a reality…

 

It is the turning over a new leaf.  It’s beginning something we haven’t done before.  And the idea behind it is that there are  people who can’t get to worship, they are perhaps physically prevented, or they are out of town on business, or vacations; or they are just beyond our reach, geographically.  We are making it possible for them – and in this pandemic season – for you, to come to us and join us in worship.

I’m grateful to be here at Shadyside Presbyterian Church, as we as a congregation begin this same type of ministry this morning.

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        Turn to God immediately.  And the leaf is turned.  Start over.  Act differently.  Change your attitude.  Place yourself in God’s hands.  Be made new.  Continue to treasure your own baptism.  It is like basking in the shade of a 400-year old tree.

1) Remember you have received the Spirit of God, who remains with you.

2) Rejoice that you are a child of God.

3) And rely on this truth:

God is well pleased with you.  Amen

DIVINE BLESSINGS IN CHRIST

 

DIVINE BLESSINGS IN CHRIST

A Sermon by The Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

January 3, 2021

Communion – Epiphany – 2nd Sunday of Christmas

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-14

 

Diagram that sentence.  No really.  Now if you are over a certain age you will understand what I mean when I say, diagram that sentence.  But if you are younger than that you will scratch your heads.  And you will be even more surprised that in bygone days, students would be tested in their English grammar, by going to the board and then drawing lines that branch off here and there, like a roadmap of Allegheny County, along which you wrote the subject and the verb and the various clauses and other features, showing how they supported the subject and verb.

 

So you went to the blackboard, picked up some chalk, and visually arranged the components of sentence structure, and different parts of speech, in order to map out the best way to show the construction of the sentence.  Diagramming uses straight lines and slanted lines to help you separate, analyze, and organize the function of your words in a way that delivers the clearest picture.  Can we admit that it was a somewhat tedious exercise?  Fraught with as many pitfalls as a Pittsburgh street is fraught with potholes.  And yet in the end, you understood the makeup of the sentence much better than you did before.

 

Now here in the beginning of Ephesians we have this passage which in the original language, is one excessively long sentence. 

"The opening passage in Ephesians, 1:3-14, is virtually one long sentence made up of compound clauses, the principal clause being v3, “…who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.'"

 

And while our task may not be to diagram the entire sentence, today I am going to concentrate on that principal clause:  it has four parts:

 

God has blessed us

 

You understand that truth and you live it.  You don’t think your lives as they are, are happenstance.  Nor do you have the faulty notion that you somehow made it happen all on your own. You recognize that it is God’s doing and that it is marvelous in our eyes. Yes, whatever we count as a joy or gain or ability, it came from the Almighty.  What you take for granted; as well as what you gratefully acknowledge.

 

“God bless you”, is not just a phrase we say when someone sneezes.  God blesses you day in and day out, with sunshine and rain, with activity and rest, with food and water, with a roof over your head, with friends who love you, with people who need you.

 

How do you recapture that sense of blessing, if you have lost it?  It is up to you.  Some people keep a journal or diary.  If they have kept it faithfully, they can revisit what they wrote, and find scattered on those pages, many blessings.

 

Some people take photographs.  After a while, they manage to accumulate.  Especially, in these days when they live on their smart phones and don’t often get printed and framed.  If you do that, you can scroll back, over the year, for instance, and see throughout those photos, blessings visually represented.

 

Some folks miss their blessings most of the time.  They are so busy concentrating on their most onerous duties, or their saddest experiences, that they blot out their blessings. That is a shame.  Because life is not all shadows; into every life a little sunlight does fall.  Why not bask in the blessings?

 

God has blessed us. Where has God blessed us?  Our scripture passage says that God has blessed us…

 

In the heavenly realms

 

Now, so far I have been talking about blessings in the earthy realms, but the letter to the Ephesians makes it clear that the blessings are in the heavenly realms. I suppose someone would be able to argue that means that the blessings are on their way, rather than here.  Just like 2021 is on its way, but scarcely here, today.  If you said that, you might be correct.  But I suspect what the writher of Ephesians means is that the blessings have an eternal aspect to them.  Friends on earth, will become friends in eternity.  What we share here, will be a continual blessing. What we learn, here and now, will help us in our everlasting understanding.  Our lives shall become like a watered garden, and we shall never languish again.  It is as if the places we go, and the things that we do, here and throughout our lives, have another dimension, a heavily dimension, about them.  That means that no day is ordinary.  That nothing is wasted.  That the people who come into our lives do so as either a blessing or a learning experience - and they are often both at one and the same time.  That the music we enjoy now, we will thrill to long into the uncharted future.  Blessings here serve as a holy prelude, to blessings that are in the heavenly realm.

 

Now our scripture goes on to say…

 

With every spiritual blessing

 

So, once we have placed ourselves with one foot in this world, and one foot in the kingdom of God, we can look as trusting believers at what is yet to be. You know, like Robert Browning says: “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.”  Or as Isaiah says:  “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  ... I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age.”

 

What are spiritual blessings?  Blessings that transcend our senses.  Blessings that take us to a holy place.  Blessings that give us a sense of God’s presence.  Blessings that we can enjoy now and later.

 

Which of these spiritual blessings are your favorites?  God chose you, before the earth was formed.  You are holy and blameless, in Jesus Christ.  You have received Christ’s unconditional love.  God’s promises are for you.  You belong to God’s holy family.  You are accepted, redeemed, and forgiven in Christ.  The riches of Christ’s grace abound, in you.  The exceeding greatness of His power is toward you who believe.  The same power that brought the worlds into being and that raised Christ from the dead.  We have received the Holy Spirit as our comfort and advocate even as we have become God’s children.

 

When we begin to consider these and so many more spiritual blessings that God has given to us, we can rejoice and be glad.

 

Where are these spiritual blessings?  Our verse from Ephesians tells us the answer:

 

In Christ.  Our spiritual blessings are in Christ.  How do we compare it?  It is like what people keep in their safe or their safe deposit box, times a zillion-jillion-gazillion.  It is like a supply of goodness that is always increasing and never running out.  “Ever flowing stream” is one way that the Bible talks about it.  It is the cup of blessings that is always full and never empty.  It is the anticipated help and unanticipated unfolding of God’s will in our lives.  We may call it God’s providence, combined with God’s miraculous concern for us.  And still there is more.  But we begin to get the picture.  The picture of God’s wondrous grace, as found in Christ, and as given freely to all who will believe.

 

We began by talking about diagraming a sentence. I think we would be on safe ground to end that way as well.  But I would not ask to diagram a sentence as long as Ephesians 1:3-14.  So here is a shorter one:  “Jesus Christ opened Eternity, for [your name here].”  What's the noun in this sentence?  And of course the answer is there are three popper nouns in this sentence:  Jesus Christ, Eternity, and Your Name. 

There’s always more to know and understand.  But that is more than enough blessings, for now and forevermore. AMEN.

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

 

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles

Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Psalm 147:12-20; John 1:10-18

 

Before there was Disney.  Before there was the animated feature film, “Frozen”, there was a poem, with words that anticipated that film’s most famous song “Let it Go”.  It goes like this:

“Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow;

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

 

The stanza is from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892 - called

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells].  We are there aren’t we?  We are at the place where the year is going.  It is more than a quaint old sentiment.  It is a theological truth, that God is doing something new.  And so, what will we do about it?

 

Rick Whiting of CRN.com has written as an article called: Top 10 News Stories Of 2020 (So Far).  I like that “So Far” at the end, because it isn’t over until it’s over, and no matter who sings, or leaves the building, we have a little bit of time left before the stroke of midnight.  Can we all agree that the year 2020 (so far) has been like no other?  Can we say that 2020 got off to a promising start with a booming economy?  Can we say that 2020 brought us the COVID-19 pandemic which yielded, shuttered economy, a recession, a new work-from-home reality for millions?  Can we say that 2020 brought an already unsettled nation widespread protests against racial injustice after the death of George Floyd?  Can we say that 2020 brought about a presidential election that was particularly challenging?

 

Reflecting on the year as it is about to close, I wonder what will have lasting impact upon you? And whether you will want to sling along with Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The year is going, let him go.”

 

One year giving way to the next is a sort of hinge in the way we mark time. 

We are closing the door to 2020 and yet it is the same door that is to 2021. So if we seek to bring our faith to bear as fast away the old year passes, it may be worthwhile to remind ourselves that the event of Jesus coming into the world is what we call the Hinge of History.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the world has never changed as profoundly or as fast as in 2020.  The really is, 2000 and 20 years ago, give or take, it changed more profoundly, and just as quickly.  Because Jesus came. Jesus came info a world of darkness and became its light. Jesus came into a place of uncertainty and became its way. Jesus came into a place of desperation and became its salvation.  Jesus came into a world of despair and became its everlasting hope.  The transformational moment of all of history, happened, when Jesus was born.

In his prelude to his Gospel, John brings this almost indescribable moment into focus.

 

He was in the world!  How awesome is that.  God was not far off, aloof, and distant; God was near at hand, engaged, up close and personal.

 

The world did not know him.  It was as if he was a royal personage, traveling incognito.  The prince who had exchanged his place with the pauper.  Like a celebrity who puts on a ball cap and sunglasses and thereby mingles with others without being recognized.  In order to be among us and know us, and become known. But the world knew him not.

 

He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  We know John means he came to his own people, the Jews, and they missed out in knowing he was the Messiah.  But then again, people have been missing that truth ever since.  And the reality is, all people are His people.  All people are the focus of his love.  All people are the subject of his efforts.  All people are the recipients of his grace, if they but choose to accept it.

 

“God so loved the world…that He gave His only begotten son.” (John would say – two chapters later in his Gospel)

 

But his own people did not accept him.  Maybe it is human nature that people don’t accept what is good and right and true.  What is good for them.  And the world around them.  What is right – when so many wrongheaded notions seem so compelling.  What is true – when any number of falsehoods masquerade as fact.

 

As much as we might hope for 2021 to be better than 2020, we know that the arrival of Jesus among us was more earth changing than any other reality.  The truth of Jesus is as old as his arrival.  And yet, the power of Jesus is as new as today, and as profound as the unwritten pages of tomorrow.  Jesus will be at work, where and how he determines is best, every moment of every day of 2021.  That makes me hopeful.  I hope it makes you hopeful as well.  That you can look forward in faith to the year before you, and you can find ways to look back in thankfulness to the year that is behind you.

 

It is more than a quaint old sentiment.  It is a theological truth:

God is doing something new.  What are we going to do about it?  It is possible that the opportunity before us, on this last Sunday of 2020 is to treat it to treat it as the first Sunday of a new year in which we emulate Christ’s love, and actualize God's activity.  So that we may come among others, as God comes among us in Jesus – in grace, in mercy, in love.  So that the Lord’s light may continue shining in even the darkest of places.

 

“The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.”  In Christ may it be so.  Amen.