Elliott Sermons

Just last week, we heard Matthew’s story of Jesus’ teaching about the two sons, one obedient and one not, who were asked by their father to work in the vineyard.

This week, Matthew has us back in the vineyard again. This text has been called the parable of the “wicked tenants”! Wicked indeed! Recall that Jesus was in the temple and he was teaching. He was talking to the chief priests and the elders in the temple. He was talking to those same folks who were first among his enemies. He was teaching those who feared him most and who would ultimately find cause to have him killed.

So Jesus is in the temple teaching and the chief priests and elders are questioning his authority. And Jesus challenges them. He tells them this parable of the wicked tenants. He talks of the landowner planting a vineyard and leaving it in the care of the tenants. When harvest time comes the owner sends his servants to collect the fruits of the harvest.

But the tenants persecute the owner’s servants two times over to the point that the owner finally sends his son thinking the tenants will honor his son and honor their promise to him. But the tenants see the arrival of the son as an opportunity to take the son’s inheritance for their own. So they kill the son. They kill the son for his property – they kill the son for worldly gain.

So Jesus asks the chief priests and elders, “What do you think the owner will do when he gets back?” And they answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death!” He will punish them and he will find good tenants who will work the vineyard and honor their covenant with the owner.

We might just consider this story a lesson in good business. If you hire folks who aren’t doing a good job, you get rid of them and hire someone who will get the work done and get it done right. But clearly, the lesson goes much, much deeper than that.

When I was a young teenager, I was sold, albeit temporarily, into involuntary servitude. A good friend’s father had inherited some farm land and decided to plant it in pecan trees. I was informed, not asked, by my father that I would be spending my Christmas holidays that particular year helping my friend’s family with the work of planting pecan trees.

And so I was to begin my brief career in agriculture the day after Christmas that year. Early on the morning of December 26, well before dawn, I was collected from my home and driven, along with the other involuntary servants, to Ma Groover’s Restaurant for a wonderful breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon and biscuits. We finished breakfast and loaded into vehicles and headed for the would-be pecan orchard.

When we arrived in north Lowndes County early that winter morning, we found bundles of PVC water pipe laid on the ground and heard the diesel engines of tractors cutting trenches into which we would lay the water lines for the pecan orchard. We were given boxes of PVC joints and jars of cement and instructed in the finer points of connecting sections of water line between faucets which were intermittently spaced throughout the property.

We went about the business of cementing the joints connecting the sections of PVC water pipe – hundreds and hundreds of yards of PVC water pipe – and then connecting the now longer sections between the faucets which would be used to keep the orchard irrigated. After connecting the lines and faucets in the manner instructed, we laid the lines in the neatly dug trenches and filled the trenches with the dirt piled alongside each one. It took us the entire week to lay the water lines for the orchard and sometime after dark on Friday, we collected our wages amounting to $2.00 for every hour we had spent toiling in the orchard – less the cost of our daily Ma Groover’s breakfast – or course.

The following Monday, we would return to begin the planting. We arrived at first light to once again hear the diesel engines of tractors. But rather than cutting trenches for water lines, they were now drilling holes with augers three feet in diameter – hundreds of holes – three feet in diameter – in which we would plant hundreds of sapling pecan trees. As each hole was drilled, the auger would leave a perfectly neat rim of fresh earth around hole the likes of which any portly prairie dog would be proud. After receiving instruction for the planting of these sapling pecan trees, we were dispatched in teams of two, shovels in hand, to begin the work of planting the pecan trees – hundreds of pecan trees.

One member of the team would hold the tree in the center of the neatly dug hole, at just the proper depth and the other would circle the hole, shovel in hand, moving the fresh earth into the hole and securing the new pecan tree in its proper place. It took the entire week to plant the trees, but once again, on Friday at dusk, we collected our wages at the rate of $2.00 per hour – less the cost of our Ma Groover’s breakfasts – of course – and I went home with the fervent prayer that my career in agriculture was at its end.

Many years later, I would drive by that orchard from time to time and see the fully mature and productive pecan trees thriving there and would have a sense of having made a small but positive contribution to its very existence. The sweat and toil and work that I and the others there had contributed to a beautiful and fruitful part of God’s creation. We had been given everything we, as young teenagers, needed to do the work that had been given to us to do. We had been given the tools and the instruction and the land and the then young, strong backs to help bring forth fruit from a small part of God’s vineyard here on earth.

But the vineyard in Matthew’s lesson for us today is not about pecans, or grapes or even wine. The vineyard in Jesus’ story is God’s kingdom on earth. The vineyard is the world in which we live and the landlord is the Lord God himself. The tenants in the story are the chief priests and elders in the temple but they may just as well be me and you.

We are the tenants, the occupants, the inhabitants of God’s vineyard, God’s garden, God’s kingdom in this life and in this place. Jesus warns the chief priests and the elders to listen to the servants of God, to listen to the prophets and to listen to him as God’s only Son come into the world. The warning is stark and the consequences of failing to heed it are grave indeed.

Jesus has given us everything we need to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom. He has given us the instruction, he has given us the tools of discerning hearts and minds and most of all he has given us his infinite love.

Jesus is inviting us as his servants, as tenants in his father’s kingdom to hear his call, and to be good stewards of all of the gifts he has given us. He is challenging us as ministers in his name to not let our desires for temporal things blind us from knowing him as the author of our salvation.

The message is clear – the kingdom of God belongs to those that produce the fruits of the kingdom. The kingdom belongs to those who go into the world in the name of our Lord and savior rejoicing in the power of the spirit. The kingdom belongs to those who know Jesus as their Lord and savior and who faithfully do the work he has given us to do – to spread the good news of the Gospel.

What a wonderful, beautiful, fruitful vineyard God has given us. He has given us everything we need to be fruitful in his kingdom here on earth. God has made a promise to us. God has made a contract with us – he has made a covenant with us! For our part, we must go into the world, into God’s vineyard, and do his work by loving and serving him as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. In so doing, we produce the fruits of the vineyard, the wonderful fruits of the kingdom and in return, we inherit the kingdom!

As many of you know, I’ve recently returned from The University of the South – Sewanee - after three weeks of study as part of my work as a postulant for Holy Orders. Some of you know Sewanee and know it well. For those of you unfamiliar with “the Mountain” as it is called by some, Sewanee is an idyllic setting for a small university and seminary which is nestled along the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee on something in excess of 13,000 acres of unspoiled creation far from the distractions of much of our world.

There is adjacent to one edge of the campus a wonderful walking trail called Abbo’s Alley. The trail is named for long time Sewanee English professor Abbot Martin who labored for years with Sewanee undergraduates to build the trail and to transplant the beautiful flowers, trees and shrubs which now adorn the trail and the babbling brook along which it runs.

I discovered this trail last summer and looked forward to sharing it with [my wife] Susan and [our son] Carter when they came to visit me over the July 4^th weekend this year. As Susan and I walked along the trail and caught up with one another after having been apart for a couple of weeks, Carter was busy exploring the trail and all that it had to offer.

As we walked and talked, Carter took a detour from the main part of the trail and disappeared from sight only to call out, “Look what I found!” Susan and I made our way toward the sound of Carter’s voice off the edge of the trail and there he was and there it was. There on a grassy plateau, tucked away from view of anyone except the inquisitive and inquiring mind of a twelve year old who wandered off the beaten path, was a wonderful outdoor labyrinth.

There it was all but hidden from anyone who would walk by without leaving the charted course. There in this pristine place was this sanctuary, this place to be quiet and still and to know that you are in the presence of God.

As I read the parables in Matthew’s gospel lesson for today, I couldn’t help but think about Carter’s discovery of that labyrinth, hidden from plain view, and wonder what might be hidden from our plain view of these teachings of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is like . . . . The kingdom of heaven is like what? A mustard seed! I don’t know about you but I have a bit of a hard time getting my head around that one. I would venture a guess that most of us have a jar or bottle of mustard in our kitchen at home. I expect that some of us even have ground mustard or mustard seed in a spice cabinet or rack. But how in the world is the kingdom of heaven like a mustard seed?

Jesus talks about the mustard seed growing into a great tree which provides shelter and haven for the birds of the air but even this is hard to understand. I’m no expert in horticulture, but by all accounts, mustard seeds grow into small garden herbs or bushes, hardly the sort of tree described as providing safe nesting places for the birds of the air.

But there’s more. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast mixed with three measures of flour until all of it is leavened.

We might be tempted to think of this as a parable about the natural development of Christianity as the good news of the gospel is spread throughout the world. Some might see it as a sort of precursor to the great commission but I think that misses the point.

In Jewish tradition, the positive use of yeast, that is, the intentional mixing of leavening with flour was almost always used as a symbol for corruption or contamination. Paul uses this negative yeast imagery in 1 Corinthians and tells the Church at Corinth that it is to be unleavened and in his letter to the Galatians he uses the same sort of imagery. So Jesus’ use of yeast in this parable about the kingdom of heaven is quite perplexing to me.

But what did the woman in the parable do with the yeast? Our translation of the text tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that was “mixed in with” the flour. But both the Revised Standard Version and the King James Version of the Bible translate this Greek verb more accurately as “hid” so that we read that the woman “hid” the yeast in the flour.

But how much flour are we talking about here? Three measures. So what does that tell us? Well it doesn’t tell me much of anything but as it turns out, three measures is about ten gallons! Three measures of flour would make enough bread to feed 150 people, an extravagant, banquet-sized portion of bread.

But what of the field hand who finds the hidden treasure and the merchant who locates the long sought after pearl of great value. The man in the field is going about his business and discovers, much to his great surprise, treasure hidden in the field. The merchant is actually searching for a valuable pearl and discovers one that exceeds his greatest expectations. But both respond to their discovery by trading all that they have for their new found fortune.

So what do these parables mean for us? I think Jesus is asking us to look past the obvious. He is calling us to stretch our minds and our imaginations just as he has stretched the mustard seed into a tree. He is telling us to look for the kingdom in everything from the lowly garden herb to the majestic oak and the towering pine. He is asking us to put aside convention and look for the hidden kingdom that will be revealed to us in the heavenly banquet. He promises us that the kingdom of heaven is there for us to find whether we’re looking for it or not and that it will be worth our very all to us when we find it. Perhaps Jesus is telling us, as one biblical commentator puts it, to look for a king who comes riding a donkey rather than a war horse.

I walked that trail along the brook in Abbo’s Alley and visited that labyrinth several more times in the days after Susan and Carter left the Mountain. And I’ve since reflected on the wonder of God’s creation in that particular sanctuary that Carter discovered for us where it is so easy to be quiet and still and to know that you are in the presence of God. And I am reminded not only by that wonderful trail and labyrinth but also by the parables of Jesus that the kingdom of heaven is all around us, just off the trail, just off the beaten path, just at odds with convention, waiting to be discovered by all of us!

It seems somehow appropriate that we begin our visit this morning with the invocation of the name and the presence of the Triune God on this particular Sunday. After all this is Trinity Sunday. This is the Sunday in our liturgical year on which we are called to focus on the Trinity and what our Trinitarian theology means to us as we live out our lives in Christ Jesus.

As the summer approaches and the end of the school year draws near, I dare say that most of us are planning or have already planned what we will be doing over the summer for some sort of vacation. Most of us, regardless of how busy our lives might be, usually try to find some time over the summer to be away from the rigors of school and work and to escape from the routine responsibilities that go with our busy lives during most of the rest of the year.

I’ve heard it said all of my life that most if not all of us fall in to one of two categories when it comes to the venue in which we prefer to spend our vacation time. Most of us gravitate toward one of two particular sorts of vacation spots. Let’s face it, most of us are either “beach people” or we are “mountain people”.

I confess to being a mountain person. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean and the sun and the spray, and I marvel at the wonder of God’s creation in the swarms of living creatures brought forth by the waters of the sea. But the beach of summer vacation is a busy place teeming with activity. There are children, both young and old splashing in the surf and building sand castles. There are folks of every age jogging and bicycling and playing ball. There are families large and small in salty and sandy reunion with one another. And there is my dear wife, absorbing every ray of sunshine available, seemingly oblivious to the hustle and bustle going on around her.

But I am a mountain man, exiled to the flat woods of South Georgia. I find my rest and recreation in the solitude of towering evergreens and the shade of hardwood hammocks. Mountain meadows with drumming Ruffed Grouse, mountain trails with busy chipmunks and mountain streams with trout and salamanders and singing frogs are the sorts of places that give me refreshment.

But whether we are mountain people or beach people, we all have something in common in our search for vacation. We all have something in common in our need to escape the trials and travails of our regular everyday existence. We all share in the need to be refreshed and recreated whether we find that refreshment or recreation at the beach or in the mountains or in some other venue.

Regardless of where we go, we all need to get away. We all need to leave our homes and our jobs and our school work and we all need to focus on something other than those things that we seem to do almost every day of every week of every month of every year. We all need to get away if for no other reason so that we may come back to our homes and our jobs and our school work refreshed and renewed and begin anew to do all of those things that we do day after day in our ordinary, routine and everyday lives.

At this point, some of you are probably thinking, it’s the third week of May, it’s Trinity Sunday, I haven’t even gone on vacation and he’s already talking about coming home from vacation.

But if you think about our year in the life of the church, that really is the point of all of this. We began our year in the life of the church in Advent and moved through Christmas, Epiphany and Lent and the Passion of our Lord.

And then comes Easter, glorious Easter. Then comes the feast, the celebration of the resurrection of the Christ. Then comes the recreation of the world in the risen Lord. And then we have the miraculous Ascension of Jesus to the Father in Heaven. And just last Sunday, we celebrated the birthday of the Christian Church. We celebrated Pentecost and we rejoiced in the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples. We heard Peter’s proclamation that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we learned from John’s Gospel that Jesus breathed the very breath of God into his disciples giving to them the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Think about it! We all have been on vacation since the Great Vigil of Easter. Since our celebration of the resurrection, we have been on the mountaintop experiencing the recreation and renewal of the world through the risen Lord and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And here we are! Trinity Sunday! And we are still on the Mountain. And we find the disciples; we find the eleven on the Mountain. We find them on the Mountain where Jesus taught them the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. We find them on that very Mountain where Jesus was transfigured before God in the presence of Peter and James and John. We find them and we find ourselves on the Mountain in the presence of the risen Christ.

We are about to begin what we in our Anglo-Catholic tradition call “Ordinary Time”. We are about to begin that long time of the year in the life of the Church when all things return to “business as usual” until we begin again in Advent. The vacation and the celebration are about to end and it is time for us to return to work.

Trinity Sunday signals something very important to us. This Trinity Sunday we receive our instructions about our return to work. Jesus gives to the disciples and he gives to us “The Great Commission”. He tells them and he tells us that the vacation is over. Jesus tells the eleven and he tells us that it is time to come down from the mountain and go to work. He tells us that it is time to go into the world to do the work that he has given us to do … to make disciples of all nations. To make disciples of all sorts and conditions of folk. To go forth in the name of the Triune God respecting the dignity of all God’s children and to bring to everyone the Good News of the Gospel.

And as we, you and I, come down from the Mountain, refreshed and recreated and go back to work to make disciples of all of God’s children, I leave you with Paul’s benediction that “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” AMEN!

The Gospel reading for this fifth Sunday in Easter is the beginning of three chapters of John’s Gospel commonly referred to as “The Farewell Discourse”. In this Farewell Discourse, Jesus interprets for his disciples, and for us, his death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus interprets these events before they occur and points his disciples toward the life they will lead after he has been glorified.

Let’s take a moment to examine the context in which Jesus begins his explanation or interpretation of what is to come. If we read the preceding chapter in John we see that Jesus has revealed some very disturbing things to his disciples. He has told them that one among them will betray their Lord. Jesus has told Peter that he will deny him three times. And to top it all off, he has told them, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Jesus has said to his closest followers that he will be betrayed by one of them, he will be denied to be known by one of them and that he will leave them and that they cannot follow, at least for now!

So, it is against this backdrop that Jesus begins his farewell discourse. I suppose it isn’t any wonder that Jesus begins what is to be an interpretation of what is to come with words of assurance. He tells them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” But Jesus isn’t telling the twelve not to be sad. The Greek verb used here for “troubled” – tarasso – is more properly understood as an exhortation – as an admonition – to be strong – even in the face of things to come.

Jesus charges the twelve to be strong! He tells them to believe! He tells them to have faith! He tells them that he is going to prepare a place for them and reassures them in saying, “I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

And almost as if to remind the disciples of what they already know, Jesus says, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Jesus seems to be punctuating his charge to them by telling them “You know the way!”

But I can’t help but think that Thomas and Philip didn’t hear it quite that way. It seems as though Thomas and Philip didn’t hear an admonition. They didn’t hear a charge. They didn’t hear an exhortation! They didn’t hear, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.” I think Thomas and Philip heard it this way: “And you know the way to the place where I am going???”

And Thomas confesses: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going so how could we possibly know the way!” Thomas doesn’t understand that “the way” is not a path. He doesn’t understand that “the way” is not a route. He doesn’t understand that “the way” is not a geographical means of getting from one place to another.

So Jesus says to Thomas: “I am the way! I am the way to the Father. If you know me, you will know my Father. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him!” Jesus says to Thomas “the way” is ME!

But Philip still doesn’t quite understand. Philip still doesn’t quite get it. Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied – show us the Father so we can understand.” Jesus has been with Philip all this time and he still doesn’t understand so Jesus tells him again, “I am in the Father and he is in me.” Jesus tells Philip and he tells us today that if we know Jesus then we know the Father. Jesus tells us, he calls us, he charges us and he exhorts us to know him so that we may know the Father!

But I don’t think that is the end of the lesson for today. It seems to me Jesus is urging us to examine how we know him. Jesus is asking us to look deep inside and ask ourselves, “How do we know Jesus?”

Of course, we know Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist. We know him in the breaking of the bread and in the sacraments and in the prayers we lift up to him for ourselves and for others.

We know Jesus when we thank him for a meal that we are about to receive and we know him when we praise him in worship and in song.

But Jesus charges us to know him even when it is hard. He calls us to know him even when we struggle to see his face. He calls us to know him when we are doubtful and unsure and even when we don’t understand as Thomas and Philip didn’t understand. He charges us to go into the world and live and breathe his example by doing his works, works he tells us will be even greater than his because of his perfect sacrifice!

And Jesus assures us that if we truly know him, he is with us always, even in the hardest of times. He assures us that if we ask in his name, our prayers will be answered.

When I think about how I know Jesus, I often think of the many summers of my youth, from grade school to college, that I spent at a wonderful summer camp in the North Georgia Mountains near Tallulah Falls. I frequently reflect on my experiences at Athens Y Camp and realize how important those experiences are to the way in which I know Jesus.

There is a beautiful poem put to music that we know as “The Y Camp Hymn” and I want to share part of it with you:

I think this exemplifies Jesus’ call to us. Jesus calls us to know him as he knows us – to know that he is the way, and the truth and the life – and to live our lives in him and with him and for him. He calls us to love him perfectly as he loves us perfectly and he gives us the blessed assurance that he gave to Thomas and Philip that where he is, we may be also.

Jesus promises us that if we know him as he knows us, we will nevermore walk alone.

What do we know about Samaria and what do we know about the Samaritans about which we have just heard? I have heard the story of the Good Samaritan all of my life as I am sure all of you have. Luke’s story of the Good Samaritan is perhaps the best known example of Jesus’ teaching about who is “our neighbor” whom we are called to love as we love ourselves. But how does this Samaritan, this Samaritan woman figure into what John is trying to get across to us in today’s gospel lesson,

To say that Jews and Samaritans were not fond on one another would be an understatement. The Hatfields and the McCoys were not fond of one another. The Montagues and the Capulets were not fond of one another. The Jews and the Samaritans, on the other hand, had been literally feuding with one another for hundreds of years before the time of Christ. And what had they been fighting about? You guessed it, God! You see, Samaritans held that the first five books of our Bible, the so-called Pentateuch, were the only true scripture while all of Torah was the divinely inspired word of God for the Jews. As important, the Samaritans had built a shrine on Mt. Gerizim and asserted that their shrine was the only proper place to worship Yahweh while the Jews of course believed that the Temple in Jerusalem was the sacred House of God. While it sounds harsh, for the Jews, Samaritans were a heretical people who disavowed God’s law and blasphemously disregarded their sacred Temple in Jerusalem.

Now there is one more thing. This Samaritan in today’s gospel is not just a Samaritan but is a woman as well. It is important for us to remember that women in first century Judea, Samaria and Galilee hardly enjoyed the same status as men. On the contrary, women were regarded largely as property, as chattels, as mere possessions and servants of men. So when Jesus engages this Samaritan woman in conversation, he is in conversation with an anonymous subordinate member of a nation at war with his own people.

So, it is against this backdrop that we turn our attention to John’s message for us today. When I first read this lesson, I wondered what Jesus was doing in Samaria in the first place. So I read a few verses ahead of today’s lesson and learned that Jesus was on his way from Judea to Galilee. And in those verses, John tells us is that Jesus had to go through Samaria. Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. Does this mean that in order to get from Judea to Galilee, it is a geographical impossibility not to go through Samaria? Or does this mean something more theological? We’ll come back to that in a moment.

Jesus finds himself in Samaria and he comes to a well, to Jacob’s well. He comes to the well at midday and he is tired from his travels. He comes to the well tired and thirsty and in need of refreshment. And what does he do? He asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. And she is astonished! She is astonished that this Jew would behave in such a way. She is amazed that this Jew is violating not just one societal convention but two. No Jewish man would start idle conversation with a woman that was a stranger to him and certainly no rabbi, no teacher would engage in any public conversation with any woman.

But just as amazing, just as astonishing was that this Jewish teacher was actually talking to a Samaritan, a heretic, a centuries old enemy of all of Israel. He was asking for a drink from an anonymous Samaritan woman with whom no self respecting Jew would even associate, much less engage publicly in conversation.

The woman was so amazed that she basically says to Jesus, I can’t believe that YOU are asking ME for a drink! And what does Jesus do? He says, if you knew me, you would be asking me for “living water”. But she doesn’t understand him. She is unsure what he means when he says he can give her “living water”. She seems to think Jesus is talking of temporal things – she thinks he is speaking of the cool, clean water that quenches physical thirst. She doesn’t seem to understand what Jesus is offering her.

But regardless of her confusion, Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah. Jesus demonstrates to her that he knows her and everything about her. Jesus shows her that he knows her to the very core of her being. And though at first, she is unsure, this Samaritan woman comes to believe. She believes that Jesus is the Messiah and she goes into the community and tells all with ears to hear what has happened to her! She goes into the world in which she lives and calls everyone to come and see the Christ!

And they do come! They come to the well to see Jesus and they believe. They come to see Jesus because of the witness of the Samaritan woman and they believe because of her testimony. They come and they first believe because of her belief. And they mature and grow in there belief because of their own personal experience of Jesus as the Messiah. They come to believe because of the witness of the Samaritan woman but they come to know Jesus as the Savior of the world because they come to the well and they meet Jesus. They come to the well and meet Jesus face to face and hear the good news of the gospel and know for themselves that he is indeed the Christ.

So, what do we have to learn from John and Jesus and the Samaritan woman this third Sunday in Lent? For me, Lent is a time when God calls us to put aside the conventions of our lives. God calls us to strip away all of those things that get in the way of our being one with Christ. Lent is a time to focus on the Cross and to prepare for the passion of our Lord.

And I think that is exactly what John and Jesus and the Samaritan woman have to teach us today. They teach us that Jesus puts aside convention. Jesus puts aside bias and prejudice and culture and religious strife and he goes to the well in search of a witness. He goes to the well in search of the most unlikely of witnesses to the good news of the Gospel.

Jesus goes into the world and calls the marginalized, the despised, even the enemy to be His witness. And the Samaritan woman accepts the call of Christ and goes into the world and proclaims that she has seen the Messiah and because of her witness, many come to believe.

And so for me at least, Jesus didn’t go to Samaria because that was the only way for him to get from Jerusalem to Nazareth. I think Jesus went to Samaria because that is where he would find the marginalized. Jesus went to Samaria because that is where he would find the despised. Jesus went to Samaria because that is where he would find those with whom he disagreed. Jesus went to Samaria because that is where he would find the enemy.

Jesus went to Samaria because the good news of the gospel is for everyone, not just for you and for me, but for everyone, even the marginalized, even the despised, even the enemy. Jesus went to Samaria because he HAD to.

All of us here this morning travel to one degree or another. We go on trips and vacations. We go to places far and near to visit family and friends. We go on business trips and to church functions. Sometimes we go to other places to shop or just to see the sights. Even a Saturday afternoon jaunt to Wal-Mart can be an expedition of sorts for some of us. But regardless of the purpose of the trip or the ultimate destination, each excursion on which we embark calls for some sort of planning. I expect that most of us, to one degree or another, engage in some planning before we set out on any sort of trip to just about any destination. I would dare say that few if any of us just get in the car or head to the airport without planning the what’s, when’s, where’s, whys and how fars of any trip on which we might go.

Just this past weekend, Susan and I and our three sons went on a trip to Mobile, Alabama to visit dear friends who live there and to enjoy with them some of the annual Mardi Gras revelry for which that city is famous. In thinking about what I might say to you this morning, I began to ponder the planning that went into that trip to Mobile last weekend.

At the outset, we had to plan how to get there. I know, you’re probably thinking, you drive to Tallahassee and get on I-10 and go west until you get to Mobile. But for the Elliotts, it’s never quite that easy. You see, our son Gus had a high school basketball game in Damascus (Georgia, not the apostle Paul’s Damascus) on Friday night and I would venture a guess that not too many of you could give me driving directions to Damascus, Georgia. Next we had to figure out where we would stay on Friday night since the game would end too late for us to drive all the way to Mobile. Once we decided to spend Friday night in Dothan, Alabama, I made a hotel reservation there and then spent some time on the internet figuring out the best route to take from Dothan to Mobile on Saturday morning. We also had to plan how early to leave Dothan in order to arrive in Mobile for the first planned activity of the weekend, not to mention that we had to get directions to our friends’ new home as they had moved since our last visit with them. And I’ll spare you the details of the visits to weather.com to decide what to pack for rain and cold as well the plans for the trip home to insure our arrival in Valdosta in time for basketball practice on Monday afternoon.

I expect you’re wondering at this point, what in the world is the point of all this? Well, at least for me, thinking about all of the details and planning that we do just to get to and from Mobile for a weekend visit with friends brings into sharp focus the contrast of our lives to those of Jesus and his first disciples when he began his preaching ministry in Galilee.

Matthew begins today’s gospel lesson by telling us that Jesus travels to Galilee and then harkens back to Isaiah when he tells us that “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light” and that “light has dawned” for those who sat in the “shadow of death.”

Next, Jesus gives us the seminal proclamation of his preaching ministry. He tells everyone who is there to hear and he tells us to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

And then, Matthew recounts for us how Jesus encountered Simon Peter and his brother Andrew by the Sea of Galilee and Jesus said to them, “Follow me.” And he also sees James, the son of Zebedee and his brother John and he calls them as well.

Let’s go back for just a moment to what Jesus was preaching before he starts calling disciples to follow him. Jesus says “repent”. We are tempted to say we know what that means and go on to the next thing. I suspect that if I asked for a show of hands, many of you would agree that repent means something like saying you’re sorry or expressing remorse for something that you had done wrong. We tend to think of repentance as something we do to solicit God’s forgiveness for our sins.

But I don’t think that’s exactly what Matthew has in mind for us. The Greek word for repent in this context is metanoeo, which literally means “change one’s mind.” The idea of repentance for Israel was a turning or a returning to God. For Matthew, this Greek word for repent connotes a change of direction in one’s life. As one biblical commentator puts it, “Get yourself a new orientation for the way you live, then act on it.” This new orientation is the required response to the kingdom of God having “come near”.

Which brings us to the next question. What does Jesus mean when he tells us that the kingdom of heaven has “come near”? Some folks would suggest that Jesus was telling his listeners, and indeed us today, that the end is near. That he was foretelling the coming of the end of the age. But I’m not so sure that’s what he means at all.

The kingdom that Jesus is talking about is the active rule of God in the world in which we live. I think that Jesus is telling us that He is the kingdom. That He is God come into the world. He is telling us to turn, to return and to reconcile ourselves to God in Him. God has come near to us in Christ Jesus.

Now, let’s get back to Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John for just a moment. Jesus comes near to Peter and Andrew and says “follow me.” It is not a request. Jesus does not ask them a question. It is an imperative. It is a command. And how do they respond? Matthew tells us that they immediately left their nets and followed him. James and John respond likewise. Matthew does not tell us anything other than that Jesus “called them” and immediately, they followed Jesus.

So it is with us here today. God has come near to us in Christ Jesus. God has come into the world to save us from sin and death. Jesus’ call to discipleship was not just to Peter and Andrew and James and John and the others that followed them. Jesus calls us to discipleship here and now and in this place and in the world in which we live.

And what do we do when Jesus calls us to follow him? Do we ask where we are going? Do we ask for directions to Damascus or Dothan or Mobile? Do we make hotel reservations or schedule a time to leave or to return?

Indeed, the kingdom of heaven has come near to us in Christ Jesus. And He calls all of us, as the Body of Christ, to follow Him, immediately! AMEN!

ADVENT 3 YEAR A

December 16, 2007

Isaiah 35:1-10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
Psalm 146:4-9

I have a confession. I’m confused! Is anybody else confused or is it just me? Just last week, the second Sunday of Advent, we had lessons from Isaiah and Matthew. And again this week, the third Sunday of Advent, we have lessons from Isaiah and Matthew. And you might ask, what’s so confusing about that?

Well, this is why I’m confused. Last week, the lesson from Isaiah foretold the coming of the Messiah, a messiah who would strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and kill the wicked with the breath of his lips. But this week, Isaiah goes on to prophesy the one who is to come with wonderful poetry. The desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus, it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. . . . Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

With Isaiah, we’ve gone from Advent 2 and the promise of a vengeful Messiah to Advent 3 and the assurance of everlasting joy. But, that’s not all I’m confused about.

Last week, our gospel lesson from Matthew began with John the Baptist preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew tells us that John is the one of whom Isaiah spoke when he said “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Last week we heard John the Baptist call the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers! We heard him proclaim the coming of the Christ with his winnowing fork in his hand to clear the threshing floor and the promise that he would gather his wheat into the granary; and the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire!

But this week, Matthew tells us that John is in prison. He tells us that John has heard what Jesus was doing. John is in his prison cell and learns the news of the healing ministry of the Messiah.

John the Baptizer questions his faith. He questions his faith to the point that he sends his own disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one. He sends them to ask Jesus if he is the one who is to come. He sends them to ask whether they are to wait for another. John is in his prison cell questioning his own prophesy and wondering if he has been wrong about Jesus all this time.

In one short week, we’ve gone from a promise of the voice of one crying in the wilderness and the warning of a baptism by fire to the healing ministry of Jesus and the confused faith of the very prophet who foretold his coming. So maybe I’m confused because John the Baptist is confused. But it is that very confusion that leads us to try to sort out God’s message to us during this season of Advent.

I think we tend to fall into thinking about Advent as just that time in the church year before Christmas. I think we all tend to experience Advent as just the four weeks before we finally get to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord. And I think we tend to experience Advent as a time of preparation for the arrival the Christ child.

But perhaps we can learn something from the changes that we see in the prophesy of Isaiah and the confusion of John the Baptist as to whether Jesus is the one who is to come or whether we are to wait for another.

The word Advent, from the Latin, actually means “coming”.

But what’s coming? Who’s coming? What are we waiting for? Or perhaps we should ask what or who were Isaiah and John the Baptist waiting for? Who did they believe was coming?

God, for Isaiah and for John the Baptist, was the God of Israel. Their God was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God, for all of Israel, was the God that led them out of bondage in Egypt and would lead them into the land of milk and honey.

So who would be their Messiah? Their Messiah would be their king because they were, after all, God’s chosen people. Their Messiah would be a warrior king, mighty in battle, who would vanquish their enemies and free them from the persecution they had suffered in generations past. Their Messiah would come with vengeance and terrible recompense to burn the chaff of humanity with unquenchable fire.

For John the Baptist, and indeed for all of Israel, the hope was for the one who would come to save them from their enemies and from all of the ills and evils of the world. I don’t think it ever crossed their minds that they needed to be saved from themselves. It never occurred to them that they needed to be saved, as do all of us, from their own sinful nature.

So maybe John’s doubt about Jesus isn’t so confusing. After all, Isaiah tells us that the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; that the lame shall leap like a deer and that the tongue of the speechless shall sing for joy!

And what does John hear from his prison cell? He hears of the compassionate Messiah that was foretold by Isaiah. He hears of the loving, caring deeds of the Christ rather than those of a vengeful warrior king. So John has to ask, “Are you the one who is to come? Or, do we wait for another?”

But Jesus sends John’s disciples to him with the Good News of the Gospel. Jesus gives to John the Good News that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. But Jesus gives to John, and to us, even more Good News. He adds that the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them.

But who are the poor who receive the good news? Is Jesus telling us that the good news of the Gospel is only for the impoverished? And if so, who are the poor and impoverished?

I don’t think Jesus is talking about material wealth or a lack of it. In this season of Advent when the world around us is consumed with consuming, Jesus tells John the Baptist and he tells us that the poor in heart have the good news brought to them. He tells John the Baptist, confused about the very nature of the one who is to come, that He is the Messiah, come into the world to save us from ourselves and to give us the assurance of eternal life.

And Jesus tells us the Good News of the Gospel. He tells me and he tells you, when we are weak in our faith, when we are distracted by what the world has done to the feast of the Nativity of our Lord. He tells all of us when we are poor of heart. And he tells us when we are confused, that we need not wait for another. Jesus tells us that He is indeed the one who is to come. He is the one to come into the world as the Christ child and He is the one who will come again in glory to redeem us.

For me the blessing of Advent can be found in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come and save you.”

Thanks be to God! AMEN.